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Global brokerage firm <keyword id="19977638" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Morgan-Stanley" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Morgan Stanley" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Morgan Stanley">Morgan Stanley</keyword> expects <keyword id="19956758" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Finance-Minister" source="keywords">Finance Minister</keyword> <keyword id="19916618" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nirmala-Sitharaman" source="keywords">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword>'s upcoming <keyword id="19936553" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Budget" source="keywords">Budget</keyword> to focus on the government's <keyword id="20634687" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="road-map" source="keywords">road map</keyword> for '<keyword id="19916816" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Viksit-Bharat" source="keywords">Viksit Bharat</keyword>' by 2047 and spell out the <keyword id="22362494" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="medium-term-plan" source="keywords">medium-term plan</keyword> for <keyword id="20101140" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fiscal-consolidation" source="keywords">fiscal consolidation</keyword>. "With fiscal prudence guiding the overall fiscal policy stance, we expect the focus to remain on <keyword id="22362493" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="capex-expenditure" source="keywords">capex expenditure</keyword> over revenue expenditure and targeted social sector spending with a focus on improving access to physical, social and digital infrastructure," said Morgan Stanley's research report on Wednesday. Sitharaman is scheduled to present the full Budget for fiscal 2024-25 on July 23, which will be the first major policy document of the new government. The brokerage firm expects the central government's fiscal deficit target to be retained at 5.1 per cent of GDP in 2024-25 in line with the interim budget (against 5.6 per cent of GDP in 2023-24) and to be on track to attain the target of 4.5 per cent of GDP by the next financial year. "The fiscal headroom has improved with a larger-than-expected transfer of surplus from the RBI, which, in our view, will help to maintain the momentum on capex expenditure and increase targeted welfare spending. In this context, we see the possibility of a slightly lower fiscal deficit target (tad below 5.1 per cent of GDP), given the support from tax and non-tax revenues," it said. It also expects the Budget to provide focus on the government's road map for 'Viksit Bharat' (developed nation) by 2047. In addition, the budget could also give a road map for a medium-term plan for fiscal consolidation beyond 2025-26, it added. The report said the impact of the Budget on the stock market has been on a secular decline, albeit actual performance is a function of pre-budget expectations (as measured by market performance ahead of the budget). As of now, the market seems to be approaching the Budget with exuberance and could be dealing with both volatility and a correction post-budget, if history is a guide, it said.

Morgan Stanley expects Budget to focus on road map for 'Viksit Bharat'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>President-elect Donald Trump proposed an up-to 60% tariff on imports from China and 10-20% on goods from other countries.</li><li>Trade and industry experts said the proposals would likely increase costs in areas like apparel and technology.</li></ul>President-elect Donald Trump <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tariffs-higher-inflation-fed-interest-rates-taxes-mortgage-rates-2024-11">has big plans for tariffs</a>. If implemented, Americans could see prices rise across several product categories.Some companies that produce apparel and auto parts have <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/companies-raising-prices-trump-tariffs-inflation-goods-getting-more-expensive-2024-11">already started preparing to raise prices</a> if Trump enacts his plans, and some trade experts predicted that a range of industries, including electronics and appliances, would see higher prices.Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics, told Business Insider that Trump could implement his proposed tariff on China imports quickly — within the first half of 2025 — using an authority in the Trade Act, but she said it's a possibility that the president-elect will not follow through on the 60% tariff he proposed on the campaign trail. He also proposed a 10% to 20% tariff on goods imported from other countries."Nothing is taxed at 60% right now, so every sector is vulnerable to seeing higher tariffs," Lovely said, adding that she would expect a lower tariff, like 20% or 25%. There's also the question of how much of the tariff burden will fall on consumers, Lovely said, and a lot of it depends on the mechanisms Trump uses to implement the tariffs.Trump has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cost-expensive-goods-price-impact-presidential-election-scenarios-trump-harris-2024-10#imported-goods">said</a> that his tariff proposals would not impact consumer prices and would serve as a tax on other countries and boost American manufacturing. The impacts of his previous tariffs were mixed. In 2018, for example, tariffs on washing machines <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/21/business/trump-tariffs-washing-machines.html">caused</a> prices to rise on laundry items. The smaller 30% to 50% tariffs on imports from China that Trump implemented in his first term were not found to be inflationary, and President Joe Biden kept most of them in place."Consumers are going to be at a burden, but it may take some time for them to feel it, like a slow drip," Lovely said.Still, Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation, said it's reasonable for both companies and consumers to prepare for higher prices. He told BI that companies are already concerned."Whether it's a finished good or an input to production, anything that gets brought into the country from somewhere else is going to get hit with that tax," Gold said.When asked about tariffs' impacts on inflation, Trump's spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, "In his first term, President Trump instituted tariffs against China that created jobs, spurred investment, and resulted in no inflation."Based on analyses from economists and trade experts, here are the goods that could become more expensive for Americans under Trump's tariff proposals.<h2 id="6bd7d9e5-1349-490e-afe7-bfcfe6c706de">Apparel and shoes</h2>With Trump's proposals in place, the National Retail Federation <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://cdn.nrf.com/sites/default/files/2024-11/Estimated_Impacts_of_Proposed_Tariffs_on_Imports_11.24_0.pdf">estimated</a> that prices for apparel would increase by 12.5%, prices for footwear would increase by 18.1%, and travel goods — which include backpacks and wallets — would increase by 13%.Retailers that source more than 20% of their goods from China, including Crocs and American Eagle, are at higher risk from Trump's tariff proposals, a Bank of America research note <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/06/trump-proposed-tariffs-consumer-prices.html">said</a>. The two companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI on whether they are adjusting their business plans in anticipation of the tariffs.Some retailers have already announced preparations to increase prices should Trump's tariff plans go into effect. Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle said during an October earnings call that he is "very concerned about the imposition of tariffs." He later <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/30/companies-tariffs-trump-prices/">told</a> The Washington Post that the company is "set to raise prices" in response to Trump's plans.<h2 id="901a0f6a-c8c4-4040-adc4-f59680460559">Electronics</h2>An October <a target="_blank" href="https://shop.cta.tech/products/how-the-proposed-trump-tariffs-increase-prices-for-consumer-technology-products">report</a> from the Consumer Technology Association estimated that the proposed tariffs would increase laptop and tablet costs by 45%, smartphone costs by 25.8%, video game consoles by 39%, and televisions by 9%.China is a major supplier of electronic products, so everyday products that Americans use — like smartphones and laptops — would likely see price increases. The CTA report said that in 2023, China accounted for 87% of US video game console imports, 78% of smartphone imports, and 79% of laptop and tablet imports.While some companies could try to shift their production out of China, Gold said it's not an easy process."You can't change a supply chain overnight," Gold said. "It takes months, if not years, to be able to find a new vendor that you're comfortable with that can meet all of your different requirements, has the capacity, the skilled workforce, the infrastructure works within the country."<h2 id="4af3509a-5a51-43d4-a381-392f563c0881">Cars</h2>Major car companies import auto parts from China, Mexico, and Europe, and some executives have already warned that the industry would likely face higher prices under Trump's tariffs. Philip Daniele, CEO of auto-parts company AutoZone, said during a September earnings call that if Trump carries out his tariff plans, "we will pass those tariff costs back to the consumer.""We generally raise prices ahead of that," Daniele said, adding that prices would settle over time. "So, that's historically what we've done."Shinji Aoyama, Honda's executive vice president, said on a November earnings call that Trump's proposals will have a "big impact" not just on Honda but on other car companies like General Motors and Ford. Still, he said he thinks it would take some time for the tariffs to be imposed, and at that point, Honda might consider moving production to a country that is not subjected to US tariffs.Lovely said that auto parts are an area where a lot of production is coming from China, so it's "very reasonable" to prepare for price increases. But shifting production would present difficulties because if Trump implements his 10% to 20% universal tariff, "you don't really know if there's any safe place," she said.<h2 id="8651f485-c0c8-4b71-a554-448306a5b630">Furniture</h2>The National Retail Federation report estimated that a 10% universal tariff and a 60% tariff on imports from China would increase furniture costs by 6.4%. Specifically, the report said a $200 crib could end up costing $213 after tariffs, and a $2,000 mattress and box spring could rise to $2,128.The NRF added in its report that the higher costs would hit low-income households the hardest: "They spend twice as much of their after-tax income on furniture as high-income households."Additionally, Henrik Elm, the CFO for Inter Ikea — the group that connects Ikea stores with suppliers — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/ikea-ready-potential-tariffs-under-trump-cfo-says-2024-11-08/">told</a> Reuters that the company is preparing for higher tariffs under Trump, saying that Ikea has worked to make its supply chain more responsive to changes."I think we are better equipped than we have been ever before," Elm said, adding that "of course we are not immune to changes."<h2 id="4b90402b-7b3d-4fb9-b4c4-8ce9e4ee75d4">Appliances</h2>NPR <a target="_blank" href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/09/711001915/tariffs-complex-ripple-effects-hit-appliance-shoppers-and-makers">reported</a> in 2019 that Americans were seeing higher prices on appliances like washing machines after Trump implemented a 20% tariff on the product. The NRF report said it expects appliance pieces to rise again under Trump's higher tariff proposals with a 19.4% price increase on items including stoves, fridges, dishwashers, and blenders.Under the analysis, the price of a basic fridge would rise from about $650 to $776.Gold said it's unlikely Trump's tariffs would go into effect on day one or day two, and "it's tough to say right now at what point consumers would feel the impact.""It could also depend upon the individual companies and what their tariff mitigation plans are and how much they can try and lessen the impact on the consumers," Gold said. "Obviously, larger companies might have little more ability to do that than small, medium-sized folks who really can't absorb the impact of the tariff and would immediately have to pass on those costs."<h2 id="e555aa7a-b2a3-4f94-b3aa-dae3f12d768a">Groceries</h2>Trump vowed to lower grocery prices for Americans — during a town hall in September, he said he would lower grocery prices by restricting food imports to promote production in the US. However, his tariff plans could increase grocery prices.A <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.thirdway.org/report/what-trumps-tariffs-mean-for-your-trip-to-the-store">report</a> from centrist think tank ThirdWay said that Trump's tariff proposals analyzed eight common purchases that the US either heavily imports or is unable to produce domestically. Using data from the International Trade Commission, the report estimated that coffee costs would rise by $0.23, frozen beef prices would rise by $1.09, and olive oil prices would rise by $0.31.Taylor Rogers, the Republican National Committee spokesperson, previously told BI that "Trump will once again cut taxes and unleash American energy to lower prices on groceries and other goods when we send him back to the White House."

From clothes to computers, 6 things expected to get more expensive if Trump's trade plans are enacted

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A Chinese takeover of Taiwan risks investments there and far beyond.</li><li>A hedge fund turned to a tabletop wargame to see how the crisis could play out.</li></ul>As China's fleets and bombers stalk the narrow strait and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-showed-how-easily-no-notice-it-can-surround-taiwan-2024-6">threaten Taiwan's</a> seven decades of de facto self-rule, a British hedge fund commissioned a wargame to answer an increasingly pressing question: What is the optimum strategy for investors if China invades?Taiwan is the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/16/2-charts-show-how-much-the-world-depends-on-taiwan-for-semiconductors.html">world's leading supplier</a> of the semiconductor chips essential to electronics of all kinds, from fighter jets and supercomputers to dishwashers, and a Chinese takeover of Taiwan's industry would immediately buzzcut exposed investors. But the wargame makes clear that would be the first wave in an economic tsunami."The conclusion was that most investing entities would take a huge hit and keep being hit for months to follow, with many likely collapsing," Finley Grimble, president of Knightsbridge Strategic Group, the British consultancy that designed and ran the game, told Business Insider. "Opportunities could follow a bit later though for those who survive."Wargaming is a common technique in government and military circles to explore issues and assess potential responses. But it also is becoming popular in business as a way to prepare for crises like this that would send tremors through the world's economy and short-circuit tech stocks.In the case of the British hedge fund, which Knightsbridge did not identify, the tabletop game began with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-taiwan-china-chip-war-2024-6">China invading Taiwan</a> on May 2, 2025 — two years before a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-missing-how-china-could-seize-taiwan-without-invading-experts-2024-5">reported Chinese mandate</a> to be ready. The hedge fund players (played by actual officials of the hedge fund in question) responded by "liquidating as many of its investments as possible in all adjacent countries to the South China Sea, and rapidly reducing its exposure to investments reliant on South China Sea freedom of navigation," according to KSG's summary report.But this still left the fund with substantial exposure to its global investment, including those in the US and Europe. The next step was to shift investments toward US government bonds, buying US dollars, and investing in South America. "The major short- to medium-term decision taken was to pull out of high-tech companies given semiconductor chip shortages were likely on the horizon, which would harm the share price of tech giants," KSG noted.In the second phase of the game, soon after the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/red-flags-tell-us-when-chinas-ready-to-invade-taiwan-2024-4">Chinese invasion began</a>, US forces were said to have engaged and stopped the Chinese amphibious assault, though China continued to bombard Taiwan.In the economic sphere, the EU, as well as the US, Japan, South Korea and Australia imposed sanctions on China.<div type="image" title="Taiwanese soldiers fired artillery as part of August drills to defend their coast." height="1333" width="2000" msid="113147893" hostid="261" sizebytes="358550"></div>This caught the hedge fund players by surprise: they had assumed EU sanctions were unlikely because of the depth of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/xi-europe-tour-eu-companies-china-economy-investor-confidence-low-2024-5">China-Europe trade</a>, which reached $815 billion annually in 2023. The hedge fund "agreed that any room for avoiding a total divestment from China and the South China Sea was now completely lost, and market re-entry was probably many years away."The final phase of the wargame began a month into the war. Global trade was said to be in crisis, the US had imposed a blockade on goods headed toward China, and there was a global rush to buy gold as a safe haven, along with US Treasury bills and high-quality US dollar assets. There was also stress on the global financial systems, including more and larger stock margin calls, more hedging, stiffer demands for collateral, higher credit spreads and deteriorating credit quality."Experts in finance assessed that this scenario did not look so dissimilar to the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis, the impact of Covid-19, the First Gulf War, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine," KSG noted. To be sure, China's economy is nearly nine times the size of Russia's as estimated by GDP.The hedge fund responded by choosing to invest heavily in semiconductors manufactured in regions not affected by the war. The fund also boosted investments in the defense industry and, on the assumption that the war would drive up energy prices, also invested in oil and alternative energy.A post-game analysis by former British government economists and security experts, as well as a former investment banker, concluded that a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-taiwan-war-us-no-allies-2024-7">Chinese invasion of Taiwan</a> would devastate the world economy far more than even the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/investing/recession-vs-depression">2008 meltdown</a>.Governments would pump liquidity into their economies for years to come, including investing in semiconductor manufacturing. If an invasion of Taiwan resulted in sanctions on China, this might be a boon to Western manufacturers who would no longer have Chinese competition (though consumers might be unhappy as lack of competition drives up prices).An interesting side effect would be that Chinese investment in the so-called Global South — which includes Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia — would probably be slashed, leaving space for other lenders to step in. "This would provide potential opportunities for new players to emerge in the Global South, particularly if loans can be collateralized," Knightsbridge noted. "A major example of this would be mining in Zimbabwe."In the end, the value of business wargames is that they give companies and investors a chance to go beyond theory and explore the consequences of making various choices."It's easy to think about consequences in your own head, or in a regular meeting," Grimble said. "But a wargame allows for consequences to be examined, and that is vital for entities looking to invest enormous sums of money and compare options, or prepare mitigations and alternatives in a time of urgency."Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.twitter.com/@mipeck1">Twitter</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mipeck/">LinkedIn</a>.

Hedge fund turned to a wargame to plan for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The marquee Senate race between Colin Allred and Ted Cruz could reveal a lot about Texas' identity.</li><li>The Lone Star State has been a GOP bastion for decades, but voting shifts are changing that dynamic.</li></ul>For decades, Democrats have sought to reclaim their former glory in Texas, but they've repeatedly come up short.The party hasn't won a statewide race in the Lone Star State since 1994, which has largely deprived it of the sort of bench that Republicans have cultivated for years through their dominance of state government.So when Rep. Colin Allred — a three-term lawmaker who represents the Dallas-area 32nd Congressional District — entered this year's Senate contest against two-term Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, many Democrats felt that his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://colinallred.com/news/in-houston-allred-earns-endorsement-of-congresswoman-fletcher-in-race-for-u-s-senate/">bipartisan credentials</a> would bolster his run.Allred, 41, believes that he can be a change agent for Texas. And with less than a week to go before the election, he remains locked in a competitive contest with the 53-year-old Cruz.A late October <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/28/us/elections/times-siena-texas-poll-crosstabs.html">New York Times/Siena College survey</a> showed Cruz with a four-point edge over Allred (50% to 46%) among likely voters, but in the same poll, former President Donald Trump led Vice President Kamala Harris by ten points (52% to 42%). And <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/senate/2024/texas/general/">other polls</a> of the race, including ones from Marist College, Morning Consult, and the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs, all showed Cruz with single-digit leads.The competitiveness of the race led the Senate Majority PAC — the Democratic political action committee tied to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York — to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-senate-allred-cruz-ad-campaign-abortion-69b5a7db65cd82d1bbe258d874ae6c6c#">pour $5 million into the contest</a> in recent days, as the Texas race is now widely viewed as the party's best opportunity to flip a red seat this year. In total, Allred has raised more than $80 million for the Senate race, according to his campaign.But one key fact remains: Allred will have to overcome the state's Republican lean in order to oust Cruz.<h2 id="d6679d62-bcb0-468d-971d-22ac5da907f8">Reproductive rights and the economy</h2>I sat down with Allred before a recent block walk kickoff event in Houston, where the former NFL player and civil rights attorney laid out his case against Cruz's reelection bid.But something significant stuck out during our conversation.In the past, red-state Democrats often shied away from speaking out too forcefully regarding reproductive rights. However, after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court, along with the passage of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-abortion-maternal-health-desert-2024-6">Texas' strict abortion ban</a>, Allred lambasted "extremism" that he argued would seriously affect the economy.In the Times/Siena poll, likely voters in Texas ranked the economy as their top issue, with 27% of respondents expressing this opinion. (The second-and- third ranked issues were immigration and abortion, with 15% support for each issue.)"The individual stories of people denied miscarriage care or denied care when pregnancies weren't viable and having to leave the state are horrific," Allred told me after he spoke at a reproductive rights-focused rally headlined by Harris, which also featured <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/harris-beyonce-abortion-reproductive-rights-trump-allred-2024-10">an appearance by Beyoncé</a>. "I know many of these women that have come forward. It's personal. It's also impacting every other aspect of Texas life, from our medical schools to our universities to our business climate."<h2 id="d605ce1a-811a-4765-b109-fcf121e7d70a">The electoral map</h2>In 2018, then-Rep. Beto O'Rourke traversed Texas during his Senate campaign and in the process visited all of the state's 254 counties.While Cruz eventually won, he bested O'Rourke by only <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-senate-race-results-ted-cruz-defeats-beto-orourke-2018-11">2.6 percentage points</a>, or by roughly 215,000 votes out of more than 8.3 million ballots cast.<div type="image" title="Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas speaks at a campaign rally." height="4579" width="6868" msid="114747150" hostid="261" sizebytes="825128"></div>O'Rourke's campaign that year worked to energize Democratic voters — with a focus on young and progressive voters — and his town hall events became a signature part of his campaign.Allred's campaign approach is a bit different than the one pursued by O'Rourke, who represented the El Paso area in Congress from 2013 until 2019. He's seeking to maximize Democratic turnout as well, but he's conducted serious outreach to independents and Republicans to be a part of his moderate-minded campaign."I have a record of being the most bipartisan Texan in Congress," he told me during our conversation.It's the sort of ethos that Allred takes with him on the campaign trail across Texas, a behemoth of a state that contains huge cities and scores of medium-sized and smaller cities and towns in between. It can take around thirteen hours to drive across Texas from the east to the west."This is a massive state, and what happens in one part of the state is not always known in the other part of the state," Allred told me, adding of his experience: "I don't come across any Texans who are looking for a handout, but I come across Texans who are looking for somebody who's going to be on their side."Democrats in Texas already perform strongly in cities like Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. But in the Trump era, Democrats have also <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-haley-suburbs-gop-problem-north-carolina-virginia-2024-3">increasingly won over more suburban voters</a>, a phenomenon that has helped the party immensely in other Sun Belt states like Arizona and Georgia. And if Allred is to defeat Cruz, he'll have to put up extremely strong numbers with suburban voters across the board.Mark P. Jones, a political science professor at Rice University, told me in a interview that Cruz is in a tougher spot compared to other Texas Republicans because he lacks substantial "crossover" support. Republicans for decades have flexed their political muscle in the state based on their strong support from the party faithful and conservative-leaning independents.But Cruz, a onetime GOP presidential candidate, has cut a polarizing profile both in Texas and on the national stage."He doesn't have much appeal to the sort of soft Republicans, independents, and moderate-to-conservative Democrats in the same way that Gov. Greg Abbott or Sen. John Cornyn do," Jones said. "And it's not a large amount, but he starts off at a disadvantage in that he needs to pretty much win all of the Republican vote and make sure that Republicans turn out."<h2 id="cb1e4296-476c-4197-8a8c-71b3d735e2a4">Cruz 'too small' for Texas</h2>On the campaign trail, Allred has targeted Cruz's infamous 2021 trip to Cancún, Mexico, which occurred while <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ted-cruz-cancun-trip-houston-police-security-detail-winter-storm-2021-2">many Texans were without power</a> due to a severe winter storm.During our conversation, Allred depicted Cruz as someone who doesn't have a broader vision for one of the fastest-growing states in the country, which now boasts over 30 million residents.Business Insider has reached out to the Cruz campaign for comment."Texas is incredibly diverse and dynamic, but we have been governed by extremists who I think have put at risk all of the positives about our state," Allred told me. "Ted Cruz, in particular, is someone who I think is just too small for Texas. His vision is too small for us. And to me, it's kind of the opposite of the Texas that I know."Allred, who would be the first Black senator from Texas should he defeat Cruz, also spoke about the difficulties of change in a state where Republicans have long held a firm grip on power."When you have a one-party rule state for so long, you can get an impression that there's no changing it," Allred told me. "There's always a sense that we should have change. But can we break through?"

Colin Allred is in a tight race with Ted Cruz. Here's how he's planning to become Texas' first Democratic senator in decades.

Leading multiplex operator <keyword id="19986619" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="PVR-INOX" source="keywords">PVR INOX</keyword> plans to close 70 <keyword id="22996404" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="non-performing-screens" source="Orion">non-performing screens</keyword> in FY25 and will go for potential <keyword id="20069509" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="monetisation" source="keywords">monetisation</keyword> of non-core <keyword id="20478737" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="real-estate-assets" source="keywords">real estate assets</keyword> in prime locations such as Mumbai, Pune, and Vadodara, according to its latest annual report. Though the company will add 120 new screens in FY25, it will also close almost 60-70 non-performing screens, as it chases for <keyword id="738150" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="profitable-growth" source="Orion">profitable growth</keyword>. About 40 per cent of new screens addition will come from South India, where it will have a "strategic focus" on this lesser penetrated region as per its medium to long-term strategy. Moreover, <keyword id="799" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="PVR" source="Orion">PVR</keyword> <keyword id="6407732" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="INOX" source="Orion">INOX</keyword> is redefining its growth strategy by transitioning towards a capital-light growth model to reduce its capex on new screens addition by 25 to 30 per cent in the current fiscal. Now, PVR INOX will partner with developers to jointly invest in new screen capex by shifting towards a franchise-owned and company-operated (FOCO) model. It is also evaluating monetisation of owned real estate assets, as the leading film exhibitor aims to become "net-debt free" company in the foreseeable future. "This involves a potential monetisation of our non-core real estate assets in prime locations such as Mumbai, Pune, and Vadodara," said Managing Director Ajay Kumar Bijli and Executive Director Sanjeev Kumar addressing the shareholders of the company. In terms of growth, they said the focus is to speed up expansion in underrepresented markets. "Our company's medium to long-term strategy will involve expanding the number of screens in South India due to the region's high demand for films and comparatively low number of multiplexes in comparison to other regions. We estimate that approximately 40 per cent of our total screen additions will come from South India," they said. During the year, PVR INOX opened 130 new screens across 25 cinemas and also shut down 85 under-performing screens across 24 cinemas in line with its strategy of profitable growth. "This rationalisation is part of our ongoing efforts to optimise our portfolio. The number of closures seems high because we are doing it for the first time as a combined entity," said Bijli. PVR INOX's net debt in FY24 was at Rs 1,294 crore. The company had reduced its net debt by Rs 136.4 crore last fiscal, said CFO Gaurav Sharma. "Even though we are cutting down on capital expenditure, we are not compromising on growth and will open almost 110-120 screens in FY25. At the same time, not wavering from our goal of profitable growth, we will exit almost 60-70 screens that are non-performing and a drag on our profitability," he said. In FY24, PVR's revenue was at Rs 6,203.7 crore and it reported a loss of Rs 114.3 crore. This was the first full year of operations of the merged entity PVR INOX. Over the progress on merger integration, Bijli said "80-90 per cent of the targeted synergies was achieved in 2023-24" In FY24, PVR INOX had a 10 per cent growth in ticket prices and 11 per cent in F&amp;B spend per head, which was "higher-than-normal". This was primarily on account of merger synergies on the integration of PVR and INOX, said Sharma. "Going forward, the increase in ticket prices and food and beverage spending per head will be more in line with the long-term historical growth rates," he said. PVR INOX aims to restore pre-pandemic operating margins, enhancing return on capital, and driving free cash flow generation. "We aim to boost revenue by increasing footfalls through innovative customer acquisition and retention," said Sharma adding "We are also driving cost efficiencies by renegotiating rental contracts, closing under-performing screens, adopting a leaner organisational structure, and controlling overhead costs."

PVR INOX to close 70 non-performing screens in FY25, plan monetisation of real estate assets

<ul class="summary-list"><li>European nations say they're planning a $4.3 billion joint air and missile defense system.</li><li>Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said creating an Iron Dome similar to Israel's was "necessary."</li></ul>European countries are preparing to disclose plans for a $4.3 billion Iron Dome-style air and missile defense system, Poland's prime minister has announced.Donald Tusk told the Polish broadcaster AVN that the proposal, which involves the cooperation of 21 nations, would be presented to the European Council in a matter of days, according to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kyivpost.com/post/33033">Kyiv Post</a>.The European Sky Shield Initiative is conceived as a means to jointly procure ground-based interoperable air-defense systems."The recent attack on Israel showed how essential such systems are. There is no reason for Europe not to have its missile-defense shield," Tusk said, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/21/poland-donald-tusk-europe-build-iron-dome/">The Telegraph</a>."Creating an Iron Dome against missiles and drones is necessary," he added.In a not-too-subtle reference to Russia, Tusk also said it didn't take much imagination to figure out where a potential attack on Europe might come from, the Telegraph reported.Israel's Iron Dome has long been seen as one of the world's most advanced air-defense systems, protecting the country's skies from rockets and other projectiles.In April, Iran launched a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel, which Israel's air defenses almost completely shot down, with the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-forces-destroyed-iran-missiles-drones-massive-air-defense-battle-2024-4">assistance of US and UK forces</a>.While a direct hot-war <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-war-nato-plans-destroy-within-putin-ukraine-hybrid-warfare-2024-5">attack by Russia on NATO Europe</a> isn't considered an immediate likelihood, many countries — particularly those that border Russia — are <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-better-positioned-attack-europe-before-ukraine-war-nato-lithuania-2024-2">deeply alarmed</a>. Many are also <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-ukraine-invasion-leads-europe-to-increase-defense-capability-2022-3">beefing up their defense spending</a> in ways that were <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-boosted-europe-defense-spending-unimaginable-before-ukraine-war-lithuania-2024-2">unimaginable before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine</a>.ESSI was first mooted by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_208103.htm">German Chancellor Olaf Scholz</a> in 2022, not long after Russia had begun pounding Ukraine's civilian infrastructure with rockets. It's been led by Germany ever since.In July last year, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66130857">Austria and Switzerland</a> — both traditionally neutral states — signed up to the initiative, and as of February this year, the number of countries had grown to 21, with the participation of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-15/germany-says-turkey-and-greece-to-join-missile-defense-project">Turkey and Greece</a>.The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.swp-berlin.org/publications/products/comments/2023C45_european_sky_shield_initiative.pdf">German Institute for International and Security Affairs</a>, or SWP, outlined in a report last year some of the systems the German government was seeking to buy or replenish as part of ESSI. These included US-made Patriots, the IRIS-T SLM — a short-to-medium-range system capable of targeting drones, aircraft, and cruise missiles — and the long-range Arrow system in use in Israel.SWP also said that although it considered a Russian attack on NATO countries unlikely in the immediate term, "improving air and missile defense in Europe could curb Russia's coercive power vis-à-vis NATO and thereby strengthen the cohesion of the alliance."Despite Tusk's championing of ESSI, it has faced challenges from Polish President Andrzej Duda, who has opposed joining it on the grounds that the country already has its own joint air-defense agreements with the US and the UK.

European leaders are planning a $4.3 billion Iron Dome-style defense system

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The US Army's new structure responds to drones and guided missiles and artillery.</li><li>But the Army plans to stand up new units at a time its recruiting is struggling.</li></ul>The US Army is reorganizing to fight against major powers like Russia and China, but it lacks the troops and new recruits to carry it out, congressional analysts contend.The 2024 Army Force Structure Transformation would be the Army's fifth major reorganization since 2003. Judging by details laid out in an <a target="_blank" href="https://api.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/2024/02/27/091989c9/army-white-paper-army-force-structure-transformation.pdf">Army white paper</a>, the emphasis will be on responding to technological changes in warfare, such as the threat of drones and long-range guided munitions, while trying to economize on scarce manpower.But that may be easier said than done. "It is one thing to establish the authorizations for new and existing units discussed in the Army's white paper, yet another to fill those authorizations with qualified soldiers," warns a new <a target="_blank" href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47985">report</a> by the Congressional Research Service, which analyzes issues for Congress.The most striking aspect of the Army's plan is the large number of new units, for counter-drone protection as well as air and missile defense. These units, assigned to corps- and division-level formations, would include four more "indirect fire protection capability" battalions intended to shoot down cruise missiles, rockets, and artillery and mortar shells. In addition, there would be nine counter-small UAS batteries tasked with destroying small drones, and four more Maneuver Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) battalions to stop manned aircraft, helicopters and drones.These would help flesh out the Army's five Multi-Domain Task Forces, theater-level units with exotic capabilities such as hypersonic missiles, cyberwarfare, jamming, and integrating intelligence data. At the same time, the Army is trying to address a recruiting crisis that has left some units undermanned. The transformation plan would reduce authorized strength — the maximum number of soldiers allowed — from 494,000 to 470,000. The Army currently has about 450,000 active-duty troops. In contrast, the US Army had 770,000 soldiers in the latter stages of the Cold War, when it was structured to counter the Soviet Union."The Army will shrink excess, largely unmanned 'hollow' force structure and build new formations equipped with new capabilities needed for large scale combat operations," the Army white paper explained. This would include 3,000 fewer authorized special operations forces personnel. Some functions will also be consolidated, such as reassigning engineers from brigade combat teams to divisions, which would allow fewer engineer slots.But even with consolidation and a boost to recruitment — including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2024/01/02/army-to-open-applications-for-new-recruiting-warrant-officer-field/">new warrant officers</a> who specialize in recruiting — the Army may not be able to find enough personnel to fill out its existing units and create new air defense formations. In 2023, the Army came up 10,000 short in its quest for 65,000 new recruits."Given past recruiting shortfalls and preliminary FY2024 recruiting data, it is difficult to predict if the Army will be able rectify its recruiting challenges in the near and long term," CRS said.The Army may also be focusing too much on cutting-edge "soft" technologies rather than old-fashioned kinetic weapons that have proven quite relevant and lethal in the Ukraine war. "The Army white paper appears to address technology-based, non-kinetic space and cyber effects, long-range precision fires, and force protection more than it does conventional close-combat force capabilities, Army Special Operations Forces capabilities, and Security Force Assistance capabilities," said CRS.<div type="image" title="A 5-kilowatt laser sits on a Stryker armored vehicle in 2017." height="1343" width="2000" msid="110033334" hostid="261" sizebytes="209560"></div>The Army is also basing its plans on untried weapons, such as the Long-Range Hypersonic Missile and air defense lasers. "Some units, such as LRHW batteries and Directed Energy (DE) SHORAD units, do not have mature weapons and technologies," CRS warned. Nor does the Army — or Congress — have a good idea of how much the reorganization would cost.Inevitably, there will also be disruptions caused by yet another Army metamorphosis. In 2003, the Army switched from a Cold War force structure of heavy mechanized divisions, to smaller, lighter brigades more suitable for counterinsurgency. Now, the Army has gone full circle as it reconfigures for Cold War-style mechanized conflict against big opponents like Russia and China. At the same time, it must also incorporate new technologies such as drones and long-range artillery, which have demonstrated their power in the Ukraine war.The reorganization does address some of the Army's problems, Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider. "The new units are appropriate for a great power conflict. China and Russia have much stronger air and missile forces than the regional opponents the army has faced for the last generation."Creating units armed with hypersonic missiles also makes sense, especially since Russia and the US withdrew in 2019 from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, signed in 1987 to curb cruise missiles and other medium-range nuclear weapons."The long-range fires are an opportunity that has opened up with the end of the INF," Cancian said. Nonetheless, the reorganization doesn't address the real issue. "The Army's major problem is that it is too small overall to meet all of its likely peacetime and wartime commitments," said Cancian.Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.twitter.com/@mipeck1">Twitter</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mipeck/">LinkedIn</a>.

The US Army's new plan to counter Russia and China has a glaring problem, experts say 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Politicians say Russia poses the gravest threat to European security since World War II. </li><li>But Russia is weakened by the Ukraine war and is in no position to attack NATO, experts say.</li></ul>The era of relative peace and prosperity the West has enjoyed since the end of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-5-most-bizarre-weapons-of-world-war-ii-2015-7">World War II</a> may fast be coming to an end.In March, Poland's Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, said Europe was in a "pre-war" era and that Russia must not defeat Ukraine for the security of the continent."I don't want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a concept from the past," Tusk said in an interview with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2024/03/29/news/interview_donald_tusk_poland_war_europe-422389656/">several European media outlets</a>. "It is real. In fact, it already started more than two years ago," referencing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.It's one of a series of increasingly stark warnings that the war in Ukraine could be a prelude to a much bigger conflict.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-military-docs-envision-russia-war-nato-in-2024-2024-1">German military planning documents leaked in January</a> imagined Russia launching a massive 2024 offensive to take advantage of waning Western support in Ukraine.The documents, obtained by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bild.de/bild-plus/politik/ausland/politik-ausland/exklusives-geheim-papier-bundeswehr-bereitet-sich-auf-putin-angriff-vor-86752990.bild.html">Bild</a>, then envisage Russia turning its sights on NATO members in Eastern Europe, with it seeking to destabilize its enemies through cyberattacks and internal chaos in the <a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/finland-joining-nato-means-russia-baltic-kaliningrad-more-isolated-2023-4">Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia</a>.Germany isn't the only one. Late last year, Poland's national security agency estimated that <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1731892289927262332">Russia could attack NATO within three years.</a>The members of the 32-member NATO alliance are each sworn to protect each other from attack under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. That means a Russian attack on one member could spark a war involving several nuclear-armed states.But whether Putin really does intend to attack NATO and what an attack might look like remains unclear.In March, Putin denied having any<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-doesnt-want-nato-war-russia-would-lose-quickly-uk-2024-2"> plans to attack NATO members, </a>describing such claims as "complete nonsense."Western military chiefs are not convinced, however. A month earlier, Putin menaced the West with the prospect of a nuclear attack over its support for Ukraine.He alluded to a recent suggestion by French President Emmanuel Macron that NATO could send troops to Ukraine to support its fight against the Russian invasion.Analysts told Business Insider that Russia is weakened by the toll of the Ukraine war and in no position to attack the alliance.But Putin is playing a long game, and the outcome of the Ukraine war and Russia's long-standing bid to undermine and corrode NATO will be key factors in deciding whether Russia strikes.<h2>Putin plots to corrode NATO</h2>Putin has a key advantage over the West, Philip Ingram, a former UK military intelligence officer, told BI.While Western leaders plan within election cycles of around four years, Putin is an authoritarian leader with no serious challengers to his power. That means he can look decades ahead."He does not want, at this moment, a direct confrontation with NATO," said Ingram. "But he thinks in a different way and plans in a different way to we do in the West, and therefore the way NATO countries do.""So, his ambition in growing is not going to be that he will attack NATO and NATO countries next year. But he will set the conditions to be able to, " Ingram said.Analysts like Ingram believe that Putin realizes attacking NATO now would exact a vast and punishing cost on Russia. Instead, Putin will seek to weaken NATO from within to create soft spots he can strike in the future if he chooses.To do this, Putin will likely intensify Russia's so-called "hybrid warfare" against NATO countries.As <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2024/04/26/russias-hybrid-war-against-the-west/index.html">NATO</a> puts it, hybrid warfare "often plays out in gray zones below the threshold of a conventional war.""The instruments or tools employed and fused together to unleash hybrid warfare are often difficult to discern, attribute, and corroborate."They can include spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation, boosting extremist parties in certain countries, stoking terror threats, and launching cyber attacks to undermine the foundation of Western societies."The threat posed by Russia to NATO is unlikely to be an invasion, it's more likely to come from a range of other military and non-military threats - what are often called hybrid threats," Ruth Deyermond, an expert on the Russian military at King's College London told BI.A core aim is to prise away the US from its commitment to defend its European allies, either by hoping it gets embroiled in another costly military campaign elsewhere, or tires of the NATO project."For this reason, I expect we'll see Russia using all of the tricks and capabilities in its cupboard to undermine Western unity over the years to come," Bryden Spurling, an analyst with the RAND Corporation, told BI.<h2>A covert war is already underway</h2>Russia, some point out, is already engaged in a war with NATO, albeit covertly.Only days ago, a group of men in the UK were accused of conducting arson attacks on a Ukraine-linked business on behalf of Russian intelligence. This is just one example of "hybrid warfare" tactics.In recent months, Russia has also been accused of being behind the scrambling of GPS plane navigation systems in northern Europe and the Baltics, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-electronic-warfare-messing-gps-nearby-countries-isw-ukraine-poland-2024-1">in what some claim</a> could be part of a "hybrid warfare" attack.Robert Dover, a professor of international security at the University of Hull in the UK, said the question of whether Russia will attack NATO is already redundant. "Russia is already engaged in a meaningful conflict with NATO countries and their allies," he pointed out.The Ukraine war exposed serious limits to NATO's military power. The alliance has struggled to produce enough artillery shells and ammunition for Ukraine.During the recent block in US aid, European NATO countries were unable to make up the shortfall, and Ukraine's forces were being outfired at a rate of 10-one on parts of the front line, which were close to collapse.The US recently released the aid, but the problems the situation exposed run deep, said Spurling, the RAND analyst. This, he said, is a weakness Russia could seek to exploit if not remedied."This conflict has exposed how underprepared Western militaries are for war that's not on their terms," he added. "While we maintain that fragility, there is a greater risk that Russia thinks it could chance its arm," he said.<h2>Russia is weakened by the Ukraine war</h2><div type="image" title="Russian military Ukraine" height="654" width="1024" msid="109758254" hostid="261" sizebytes="102238"></div>But Russia also faces massive problems of its own. Its military has been devasted by the Ukraine invasion. According to US estimates, its entire pre-war invasion force of around 300,000 men has been killed or injured (though it has replenished those numbers), its stock of armored vehicles has been devastated, and its commanders have made consistently bad decisions."It's hard to imagine a near- or medium-term scenario in which the Russian government has the resources to engage in another war on anything like the scale of Ukraine," Deyermond, the expert on the Russian military at King's College London, told BI.Any potential attack on NATO would come at such a devastating cost it could imperil Putin's grip on power."War with NATO would destroy Russia, as Putin will know very well, and even if he thinks there's a possibility that the US might not step up to defend a fellow NATO member from a Russian invasion, he shows no sign of wanting to find out by playing nuclear Russian roulette," said Deyermond.But however long it takes, Putin is determined to achieve some form of victory in Ukraine so that he can use it as a platform to plan Russia's next campaign, said Ingram.After Ukraine, Putin will survey the field and be keen to exploit further opportunities to expand Russian power.As Ingram puts it: "He wants the Soviet Union back in the hands of a Russian leader, and that's his ultimate goal."

Russia may not start an all-out war with NATO, but already has plans to destroy it from within

The <keyword id="698382" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Commercial-vehicle-industry" source="Orion">commercial vehicle industry</keyword> volume is expected to grow in the range of 7-10 per cent in the next financial year, rating agency <keyword id="6354972" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Icra" source="Orion">Icra</keyword> said on Tuesday. The volume growth would be on account of government infrastructure spending, replacement demand, back-to-school and office scenarios and e-commerce expansion, it noted. The growth will, however, moderate from 24-26 per cent in the current financial year, it added. Icra noted that the growth trends were visible in third quarter of the current fiscal, with wholesale dispatches reporting a growth of 16 per cent on a year-on-year basis, supported by replacement demand, improvement in the macroeconomic environment, and healthy traction in the underlying industries such as steel, cement, mining, automobiles, and e-commerce. Freight rates continued to hold up, which, coupled with healthy freight availability, is supporting fleet operator viability, it noted. The growth trends continued to be broad-based across all the three sub-segments -- <keyword id="3393306" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="medium-heavy-commercial-vehicles" source="Orion">medium &amp; heavy commercial vehicles</keyword> (M&amp;HCV), <keyword id="163353" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="light-commercial-vehicles" source="Orion">light commercial vehicles</keyword> (LCV), and buses, in the third quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2022, Icra said. "Sales in the domestic CV industry continue to be propelled by multiple tailwinds including replacement of ageing vehicles, pick-up in mining, infrastructure and construction activities, improvement in the overall macroeconomic environment and healthy fleet utilisation levels resulting in improved fleet operator viability," Icra Assistant Vice President &amp; Sector Head - Corporate Ratings Sruthi Thomas. Furthermore, the continued thrust of the government on infrastructure development, as evidenced in the increased capex outlay of ₹10 trillion in the Union Budget for 2023-24, would augur well for sustained growth, especially in the heavy truck segment over the near-term, she added. Icra also expects an improvement in the financial performance of the CV OEMs, led by the benefit of operating leverage and the easing commodity prices; accordingly, aggregate operating profit margin of CV OEMs is expected to revive to 6-7 per cent in FY2023 and improve further in the next fiscal. "This in turn, will support the gradual improvement in their credit metrics as well. In terms of the investment outlay, while CV OEMs have limited plans for capacity expansion over the near term, investments in new product development, electric and other alternative fuel vehicles, and tightening emission norms, etc. would continue," Thomas said. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/digiqure-the-latest-startup-to-appear-on-shark-tank-india-s2-aims-to-tackle-healthcare-services-in-rural-area/articleshow/97911962.cms">The untimely death of 7-year-old girl inspired this startup to start e-clinics in villages</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/real-estate-financial-services-top-pesky-callers-list-localcircles-survey/articleshow/97910227.cms">Real estate, financial services top pesky callers list: LocalCircles survey</a>

Commercial vehicle industry volumes to see 7-10 pc growth in FY24: Icra

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Parth Raval is chief growth officer for PepsiCo Foods North America.</li><li>The changes of the past few years are a chance "for us to build muscle in how we plan," he said.</li></ul>Parth Raval is a big fan of planning, especially at a company like PepsiCo.Pepsi created the growth office about three years ago as the organization got bigger and more complex. As chief growth officer for PepsiCo Foods North America, Raval has to balance the short term with the long term. He's responsible for brands including Quaker and Frito-Lay, and he says his favorite Pepsi product is nacho-cheese Doritos ("It's a classic item!").Because of factors like high interest rates, higher-than-normal inflation, and the resumption of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/student-loan-payments-debt-service-cost-consumer-spending-economic-outlook-2023-9">student-loan repayment</a>, "how we spend and use our money is changing," Raval told Business Insider. "Everything costs more, and all organizations have been struggling with trying to get it exactly right."While everyone wants lower prices and high-quality items, Raval said he'd noticed some differences across generations. Older generations, particularly boomers, want foods that are lower in sodium and healthier. Millennials and Gen Zers are looking for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/food-trends-spicy-food-pickles-cold-coffee-buffalo-wings-grubhub-2023-12">a lot more flavor, from different parts of the world</a>.Raval's insights are part of Business Insider's year-end leadership package, "Looking Ahead 2024," digging into vision, strategy, and challenges across corporate America.The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.What are you looking forward to the most for 2024?Continuing to build out and accelerate agendas around longer-range planning across supply and demand, and using technology to help us be more granular. This is easier said than done.We're looking to leverage some technology vendor partners to start to build a much more sophisticated medium- and long-term forecasting engine. The fluctuations between supply and demand are part of the new normal, and we have to get much more deliberate and more sophisticated with our medium- and long-term planning.Another area that I'm pretty excited about is thinking about our innovation and what matters most to our consumers. The key difference here is that we're not siloed. Even in the design of different products, we think about the implications across the chain in a much more deliberate way, but keep the consumer at the center.The pandemic pulled the future forward by three to four years <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/post-coronavirus-more-americans-will-shop-online-for-groceries-2020-4">with respect to where shoppers purchase their products</a>. So now we're focused on building what I call "new pipes" to get our products to market, whether it's our traditional sales operations in stores or a lot more online or a combination of the two.We're focusing a lot more of our energy as we build out these new routes to market, because that's where the consumer is going.What are you most worried about for 2024?The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2024-economic-outlook-forecast-state-of-the-economy-recession-inflation-2023-12">macro outlook for 2024</a> — there's going to be a potentially wide range of outcomes.While there's never any certainty, we do know that we need to start thinking about leading indicators almost quarterly. I see this as an opportunity for us to build muscle in how we plan.Historically, you'd have this deterministic plan that comes together in October and November — we'd say, "This is the plan for next year." But I think we need to shift how we think about this and move from a deterministic view of the year coming down the pike to something that's a lot more probabilistic, saying: "Hey, these are the set of inputs. These are our assumptions and the scenarios that could pan out." And then get comfortable with planning and/or replanning and redeploying resources and investments accordingly.What's one thing you got right in 2023?Our innovation cycle and our innovation performance this year were very good. We introduced a lot of new innovative items to the market — things like mini canisters. You might have seen some of our really big brands like Doritos and Cheetos in a canister at retail. It's a new packaging format. It's portable. It's miniature. It's more on the go. We drove some really good innovation around meats and snacks.The team accomplished this by connecting. The need for connection across our teams and across industries is so important. I know that sounds really basic, but it's in an organization that's pretty large. Things can get siloed at times, right? So we're ensuring we're threading that needle across functions.What's one thing you got wrong in 2023?A lot of companies have experienced some level of right-sizing post-pandemic. I think this was manifested in longer-range planning across supply and demand, as macroeconomic factors created an imbalance at times.This created challenges in planning with precision. I'd say there were definitely opportunities where we got it pretty close, and then in other periods it was, "What happened that supply was lower than we expected or demand was lower than we expected?" It's actually something we're going to turn to in 2024 to do better, longer-range planning.

Pepsi's Parth Raval on 2024: We have to get better and more sophisticated at planning

Mumbai, Jan 30 () Large investments, including a corporate office in Munich, have dented profitability for KPIT Technologies and the target is to get operating margin up to 18 per cent in the medium term, its management said on Thursday.
 To boost employee morale, the company is planning to allocate shares to 70 per cent of its over 7,000 employees by March as against only 20 per cent who own the company at present.
 The company, which had merged with Birlasoft in 2018 before splitting into two publicly listed companies in ealry 2019, has invested in hiring over 700 people at the Munich office, which is one of the most expensive locations in the world, its co-founder and chief executive Kishor Patil said.
 In results announced on Wednesday, it reported a post tax net of Rs 40.93 crore in the December quarter, up from Rs 36.73 crore in the year-ago quarter.
 The Pune-headquartered company which provides software solutions mainly to auto and mobility companies worldwide reported operating margins at 13.4 per cent in the December quarter, which was flat as the quarter ago period.
 "Most of the investments that we have to do are over now and we will be restricting the investments to 3-4 per cent of our revenues from here on. The target is to take the EBITDA to 18 per cent in the next few years," Patil told .
 The company, which added 1,000 people in calendar 2019, is also finalising a location to have an development centre in India but it may not impact margins, he said.
 It sees a healthy demand and deal flow, and will continue hiring in the new year as well, he said.
 The attrition was at "early double digits" as of December and the company is targeting to get it down to single digits in March quarter, he said.
 As a token for completing one year as a standalone entity, the company is targeting to give shares to over half its employees or over 3,500 people in the March quarter, Patil said, clearing that these are not ESOPs.
 Indian automakers are investing in technologies despite the reverses in demand, Patil said, adding that companies globally ought to invest for holding on to market shares in the competitive segment.
 The company scrip gained 0.46 per cent to close at Rs 99.35 apiece on the BSE on Thursday as against a 0.69 per cent correction on the benchmark. AA MR
MR

KPIT Tech targets 18pc EBITDA margin in medium term, says official

<ul><li><keyword id="2778410" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="havas-media-group" source="Orion">Havas Media Group</keyword> India’s launches its research study on the effectiveness of print as a medium. </li><li>Although close to 40% of the readers discontinued newspaper subscriptions during the pandemic, mainly due to factors such as the risk of infection and change in media consumption patterns, the time spent in reading newspapers increased significantly, especially in the age group of 41-50 years.</li></ul> With the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns disrupting the production and distribution of newspapers and magazines across India, Covid-19 happened to be a game-changer for Print as a medium in the country. Despite the lack of readership data and interrupted circulations, Print emerged as one of the most credible sources of information for most consumers, brands, and marketers, during these volatile and catastrophic times. Bolstering its focus on investing in – Meaningful Media - 'Media That Matters' - Havas Media Group India has released its latest whitepaper that decodes the effectiveness of print as a medium and the shifts in readership behaviour during the pandemic. The research involved Stratified Random Sampling from YouGov’s proprietary panel which consists of 200,000 active panelists in India, aged between 21-50 years, male and female with a current subscription to at least one daily newspaper, spread across 14 key cities in India. Crouched but Credible: Although close to 40% of the readers discontinued newspaper subscriptions during the pandemic, mainly due to factors such as the risk of infection and change in media consumption patterns, the time spent in reading newspapers increased significantly, especially in the age group of 41-50 years. Print ranks third, after Television and Social Media as the most credible source of news. Approximately, 15% of readers shifted to regional or vernacular publications, on the heels of trust and tenability. This has also given way to some interesting trends. For instance, in the South, nearly 60% readers sought Print as a medium to gain more knowledge. While in the West, around 33% consumers read newspapers to find local news. The report also reveals that there was a huge uptake of news apps. Around 57% of the respondents of this study use news apps. Apart from being a daily habit, some of the top reasons for reading newspapers continues to be gaining more knowledge, staying updated about current affairs and improving language skills. Content related to science &amp; technology, global affairs &amp; health remained some of the preferred and most-read sections following general news. A category-wise deep dive on the effectiveness of the medium for advertisers and marketers revealed that Print plays a key role in influencing brand perception, from Quality to Price to Trust, especially within the Automobile category. Some of the findings specific to the auto category revealed that Print has the highest effectiveness in driving brand awareness, of nearly 55% for first car intenders. For repeat intenders, Print helps drive brand preference across the funnel. Car advertisements were the second most recalled after mobile phones (higher amongst repeat intenders). Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Motors ranked highest among the most recalled auto brands. Consumers paid higher attention to advertisements in newspapers, and only 10% skipped them. Apart from the auto industry, Print continues to be the preferred source of medium to drive efficacy for other categories like smartphones, finance, and education as well. And even though the print medium saw a dip in readership, owing to the pandemic, the consumer expectation continues to grow stronger in newspapers in terms of content and not just news. Sanchita Roy, Head of Strategy, Havas Media Group India said, “At Havas Media, our philosophy is to continuously study and monitor Brands and Media that Matters. In the Covid-19 wreaked marketplace that has led to dynamic consumer habits, this has become even more critical. Therefore, we have aligned ourselves with the Havas global network and its planning teams and tool suite to routinely map trends across sectors, industries, mediums, and evolving marketing technologies so that we can provide the best and most impactful media solutions to our marquee clients. Over the last two years, we have also beefed up our teams and talent pool in areas including data, convergence, automation and AI, strategy, e-comm and marketplace, and so on. Our endeavour is to become India’s biggest think tank and emerge as the most authentic and reliable voice for all stakeholders in the industry during such volatile times and lead the thought leadership conversations in the advertising and marketing space.” She further added, “To manifest this, we launched our sports research report a few months back. With the onset of the pandemic in 2020, the Print sector suffered a huge loss especially on the back of the cancellation of subscriptions and several other reasons. Hence, it became pertinent to understand not only the consumer shifts that was happening in the media ecosystem but also understand if Print continued to be as effective as before in impacting business outcomes. Needless to mention that despite the short-term de-growth, Print is back with a bang. It continues to be one of the most trusted and credible mediums that helps influence brand perceptions. And this is the resurgence story of Print in India.”

Print emerges as one of the credible mediums to influence brand perception: Report

New Delhi, May 31 () Leading brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev group has said recent duty hikes in form of COVID-19 cess by several state governments have resulted in a significant drop in beer demand, and the firm is reevaluating its short and mid-term plans, said a company official. The world's biggest beer maker said the lockdown and subsequent developments like imposition of additional tax by several state governments have affected its growth this year, and is now reevaluating product launches and capex plan, though its long-term plans are intact for the country. The company houses brands such as Budweiser, Corona and Hoegaarden "Due to the duty hike, early industry estimates show that most states are seeing a drastic decrease in the demand for beer to the tune of 60 to 70 per cent," AB InBev President – South Asia - Kartikeya Sharma told . It is nudging consumers towards harder forms of alcohol, lower price and low quality products as well as illicit alcohol, he added. The COVID cess has made beer expensive, in some states the price has gone up by Rs 100 and have dropped sales almost up to to 70 per cent for the beer industry in the first three weeks of May, compared to the corresponding period last year, as per industry estimates. Beer sales in states like Karnataka is down 65 per cent, Telangana by 80 per cent, West Bengal (95 per cent) and Rajasthan (65 per cent), while sales of spirits has grown by 45 per cent, he added. "We were hoping that some consumption will improve or purchase levels will improve. We have not seen those purchase levels. So for us, the misery carries on because two months of lockdown... so far three weeks of data is telling us that the industry is down almost 70 to 75 per cent versus last year," Sharma said. This has a disastrous effect on the industry and has also impacted the ancillary segments. "The farmers and the entire supply chain ecosystem with barley malt suppliers and logistics partners are also feeling the brunt of this hike," he added. "This will not only lead to loss in revenue opportunities and jobs, but will impact the overall economy. Therefore, we hope the law makers will reconsider this decision in the larger interest of the community," he noted. When asked if the development would affect the company's future plans in India, Sharma said, "Short term plans, where we were probably launching five innovations, maybe this is not the right time to launch. May be we select one. Automatically, that is a reduction in investment, because the launch of innovation comes with hiring more people". The investment would be reduced by 75 per cent, because the environment is not favorable for innovation. "We could have been enhancing capacity if we see greater demand. But now, what is the point of enhancing capacity if the demand is down by 70 per cent. So, then these plans are put off a little late till the situation gets better," he added. However, AB InBev's long term plans have not been changed as the company sees India to emerge as one of its biggest markets for beer. "Medium-term investments are rejigged but the long-term agenda which is India as a country where we want to bring the best people or make the best brands available, that commitment has not changed because that commitment has not been made for one year or two years. "And commitment has been made because we see India becoming one of the world's biggest bear markets in the next 10 years," he said. These 45 days or 60 days of a lockdown has come particularly for the bear category, which does not just affect Ab InBev but other beer companies as well, Sharma said, adding that growth was also affected by high COVID taxes. "Spirits tend to see the peak season in the winter, whereas summers between between March 15 and July 15, contributes close to 55 per cent of portfolio volume," he added. KRH RKL BAL

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