Brazilian President Bolsonaro calls for investments by Indian companies

Brazil is pushing India to expand its footprint in the country's mining, power and agri business sectors.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday called for greater investment by Indian conglomerates in the Latin American country's infrastructure, railways, mining and energy sectors.

Addressing senior captains of industry, Bolsonaro, along with senior minister's from the Brazilian government pitched for more investments from India. Brazil's economy is broadly expected to slowly regain health in 2020, with gross domestic product growth estimated at 2.3 per cent by the country's central bank.

Winning on a populist plank to eradicate poverty and clean up corruption, Bolsanaro has pushed for large scale foreign investment to tap the country's vast natural resources, especially in the Amazon rainforest in the scarcely populated hinterland. Indian companies have invested about $ 6 billion in the country, and has significant footprint in multiple sectors sectors.

This includes Information Technology giants such as Tech Mahindra and Tata Consultancy Services which has about 1400 employees. In the mining sector, Sterlite Power has won 10 power transmission projects across 11 Brazilian states totalling 29 transmission lines and 34 substations while Birla Carbon, the world's largest carbon black producer, completed 60 years of operations in Brazil in October 2018.

Pharmaceutical, Energy, engineering and automobile production were also sectors central to Indian business interests, sources said. Policymakers said that among that bilateral pacts to boost cooperation in oil and natural gas and bio-energy, that were signed over the weekend is expected to see significant Indian businesses entering Brazil.

Bolsanaro met with 23 Indian business leaders from companies including those from Sterlite Power, Apollo Hospital, Oyo Rooms, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Zydus Cadila, and Transport Corporation of India Limited, among others.

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SoftBank Group, Ant Financial likely to invest $2 billion in Paytm

Paytm has in a decade become India's biggest digital-payments brand.

Fintech major Paytm is close to scoring $2 billion of new financing from investors, including Jack Ma's Ant Financial and Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, to fend off an influx of new rivals, a person familiar with the matter said.

The funding will be split evenly between equity and debt and values the country’s top online financial services firm at $16 billion, the person said, asking not to be identified talking about a private deal. The talks are in their final stages but the terms could still change, the person added.

If a deal is finalised, Paytm could outstrip fellow high-profile Asian start-ups such as Grab and Gojek in valuation.

Billionaire Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma is raising capital to protect the start-up’s share of a potentially $1 trillion Indian payments market from new entrants, including Facebook, Alphabet's Google and Walmart-owned Flipkart's PhonePe. Over the past year, a string of new apps have made payments increasingly easy, bringing discounts and cash bonuses to young, smartphone-savvy users.

Credit Suisse Group AG now estimates that the Indian digital payments market will touch $1 trillion by 2023 from about $200 billion currently. It's a market with huge potential: Cash still accounts for 70 per cent of all Indian transactions by value, according to Credit Suisse, and neighboring China is far more advanced with a mobile payments market worth more than $5 trillion.

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Paytm, which is also backed by Alibaba Group Holding, declined to comment in response to emailed questions. SoftBank wasn't immediately available for comment during a Japanese national holiday. Ant had no immediate comment when contacted.

Paytm has in a decade become India's biggest digital-payments brand, attracting big names in investing from Ma and SoftBank Founder Masayoshi Son to Warren Buffett. Paytm's Sharma got a huge boost in 2016 after India's government moved to eliminate most of the nation's paper money in circulation in a bid to curb corruption. His start-up, a pioneer in the country's nascent field, saw tens of millions of consumers and hundreds of thousands of businesses sign up for digital services in a matter of months.

Indian economy to grow at slowest pace in 5 years in June quarter: Poll

The poll median showed the economy was expected to have grown at a year-on-year pace of 5.7 per cent in the June quarter, a touch slower than 5.8 per cent in the preceding three months.

The Indian economy likely expanded at its slowest pace in more than five years in the April-June quarter, driven by weak investment growth and sluggish demand, according to economists polled by Reuters.

That would reinforce concerns seen in the minutes from the central bank's August meeting, which showed policymakers were worried about weak growth and indicated further rate cuts in the next few months to boost the slowing economy.

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The poll median showed the economy was expected to have grown at a year-on-year pace of 5.7 per cent in the June quarter, a touch slower than 5.8 per cent in the preceding three months. But a large minority - about 40 per cent of nearly 65 economists - expect an expansion of 5.6 per cent or lower.

The GDP data is due to be released at 12:00 GMT on Friday.

If the forecast is realised, it would be the weakest start in the first three months of a fiscal year in seven years.

"The deceleration in growth that commenced in the second quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2019 is likely to have continued," said Rini Sen, India economist at ANZ.

"A host of high frequency indicators - consumption and investment - have continued to weaken. The most prominent ones include auto sales, output of consumer durables, cement and steel production."

Domestic passenger vehicle sales in July dived at the steepest pace in nearly two decades and declined for the ninth straight month in July, largely due to a liquidity crunch causing huge job cuts in the sector.

These measures, in addition to the risk of further escalation of the US and China trade war are weighing on demand and business confidence in India.

The median response to an extra question in the poll, which was taken Aug. 21-26, showed the average growth rate for the current fiscal year 2019-2020 is likely to be 6.5 per cent despite a weak start. But it is a downgrade from 6.8 per cent predicted just last month and well below the RBI's projection of 6.9 per cent.