Zarin Daruwala, Cluster, CEO - India & South Asia, Standard Chartered Bank, said that an initial estimate suggests registration of over 1,000 FPIs with this bond inclusion, which is a positive development. She suggested this number could be higher as well.
"We have to see how this plays out on the forex and interest rates. So, we saw two times, where we saw very large flows, in FY15 and FY18. In FY15, we saw FPIs putting more than $20 billion out of which $10 billion went to G-secs (government securities). And at the time, interest rates actually dropped by 60-100 basis points," she said while speaking during a panel discussion following a high-level CNBC-TV18 India Business Leadership Awards (IBLA) 2023 jury meeting.
The IBLA Jury also included Mahindra Group's Anish Shah, Federal Bank's Shyam Srinivasan, HUL's Rohit Jawa, CaratLane's Mithun Sacheti, Olympian Abhinav Bindra, Meta India's Sandhya Devanathan and Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath.
Daruwala added that the other big capex India is witnessing is in transition finance. "We are seeing a lot of clients looking at alternate ways to sort of decarbonise and then the whole ecosystem around EVs, the electronics space, we are seeing a lot of that play out also. So, I think it is inching up."
Shyam Srinivasan, MD & CEO, Federal Bank, added that private capex is picking up at a moderate pace with visible credit demand.
"I am not sure entirely that it is not picking up, maybe the rate of pickup is probably moderate, but I think there are signs (as) I have mentioned on a couple of other occasions."
He added that if credit growth in the banking sector in the last four to six quarters is to be seen, it's in the high teens. This indicates that there is demand and if there's demand & utilisation is 70-75%, the inflow of capex will be seen.
"Probably the expectation is that it will also come in one gush all in one day. The outlook for the coming quarters looks like it will be picking up. So, if credit is growing at 15-16%, in the mid to high teens, and the bigger banks are seeing that it's sustained, you are going to see capex picking up. Infra, alternate energy, roads, healthcare, hospitals, hotels, and tourism are all fuelling this at scale. We have just heard about consumption. If people are buying TVs and refrigerators, somebody has to manufacture it right?"
Also Read:IBLA Jury Panel Discussion | Nikhil Kamath on India's consumption story and investment strategies
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