2022 Biz highlights

Global gold prices lose sheen in 2022

Gold prices are set to end 2022 nearly 2 per cent lower for the year as prices remained under pressure in the second half of 2022 due to aggressive interest rate hikes and monetary tightening by central banks around the world, putting a lid on price gains.

Gold price in India surged above Rs 55,550 per 10 grams in March, taking cues from the international market and weaker rupee. March's high gold price corrected to Rs 48,951 per 10-gram level in the month of September. Still, in the domestic market, gold price, year-to-date is up by approximately 12 per cent due to import duty increase by Central Government and depreciation in rupee.Looking forward, gold has its share of unique qualities that make it an attractive buy-in for many people.

Elon Musk takes over Twitter for $44 bn

After several disputes and law suits, American business magnate Elon Musk had finally acquired social media platform Twitter Incfor $44 billion on April 14, 2022, and the deal was closed on October 27, 2022. However, the controversies continued till the end of this year. Within less than two months after he took over, there was severe criticism from the users, stakeholders and staff.

The chaos further extended at Twitter with the layoffs, resignations and lost ad revenues. In a Twitter poll on December 19, 2022 he asked whether he should stay as head of the company or not. He only revealed that more than half of 17.5 million users demanded him to step downas the CEO. Later, he announced that he will quit the top post as soon as he finds someone foolish enough to take the job.

AP gets mega clean energy project

One of the major investment projects launched in Andhra Pradesh was the clean energy project taken up by Greenko Group envisaging an investment of $3 billion in Kurnool. The project is expected to be a game-changer as it is considered the world's largest integrated renewable energy project. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, while launching the project by pouring the first concrete, said the 5230 MW integrated renewable energy storage project will be a game-changer. He had declared "what we are showcasing today will be triggering the future for our entire country. This will force fossil fuel to take the back seat and bring renewable energy to the front row seat."

The project is a first of its kind mega project aimed at revolutionising green energy production and storage with focus on green ammonia and green hydrogen to decarbonise the economy, which was highlighted at the last annual meeting of World Economic Forum held at Davos. As per the emission goals set at the Paris Climate Accord and 500 GW RE capacity targets by 2030, more clean energy projects are encouraged by the Government of India to achieve energy security and energy independence of the nation. The Greenko project aims to slash the import bill by $25 billion for LNG.

Bizz Buzz Business Conclave showcases Andhra Pradesh potential

The first Bizz Buzz Business Conclave (BBBC) organised here by the Hyderabad Media House Ltd, the publishers of The Hans India and business e-daily Bizz Buzz, was the biggest-ever business conference which saw participation by over 600 stakeholders from various fields creating the buzz for investment in Andhra Pradesh. Over 50 speakers from across India landed in Visakhapatnam and delivered inspirational speeches.

The conclave held on April 22,23 for two days at Hotel Novotel Varun Beach in association with World Trade Center-Visakhapatnam and the support of Andhra Pradesh Government, successfully showcased the business opportunities for the investors and discussed threadbare on how to improve the ecosystem to give a big push to the investment landscape.

The organisers came under praise by the participants and the sponsors for taking the initiative to hold the conclave by observing Covid-19 protocols on such a grand scale at a time when the pandemic forced many to conduct such conferences in virtual mode. The conclave saw discussions which were livestreamed, in various business-like sessions with question and answers by the participants after the speeches by the domain experts, on emerging technology, embedding Bharat's code in the global circuit, electronics and industries, how to improve business, financial literacy, tourism, logistics, shipping sector, food processing industry and agriculture sector.

Vizag finding a place in world cruise map

Visakhapatnam will find a place in world cruise map with the work being taken up on a fast-track on construction of an international marine cruise terminal by Visakhapatnam Port Authority. The work order for the prestigious project was issued February 2022 after which construction work was launched with a deadline to complete it by April 2023. The Government of India under the Sagarmala Mission sanctioned Rs 103 crore after initially estimating the cost at Rs 70 crore. Delay in grounding the project and the prolonged spell of the pandemic led to escalation of the cost.

In the entire East Coast, this will be the first cruise terminal of global standards with multi-cuisine cafetaria, immigration, duty-free shopping and other facilities to cater to the needs of cruise vessels with a capacity of 2,000 to 2500 passengers.

Visakhapatnam, known as City of Destiny, is known for its panoramic beach and valley locales and Buddhist sites as well as the coffee valleys in the Eastern Ghats. The city already has a passenger vessel service to Port Blair. Earlier, a few cruise ships were brought to the city on an experimental basis. India's only cruise vessel Cordelia Empress was also operated from Visakhapatnam to Puducherry en route Chennai during the pandemic following cancellation of its service from Mumbai to Colombo.

Sensex misses double-digit growth in '22

The market bellwether Sensex recorded 2022 low of 51,360.42 on June 17 and record high of 63,284.19 on December 1.BSE Sensex closed at 60,566.42 points on December 26 registering year-to-date (YTD) gain of 2,312.60 points or 3.96 per cent from 58,253.82 points from December 31, 2021.The number of IPOs fell to 38 (Rs59,000cr) this year from 65 (Rs1.31 lakh cr) in 2021.

The year 2022 is significant for Indian markets on two aspects. With four per cent rise, it withstood a challenging global macro environment and also outperformed global indices as MSCI World down 18.6 per cent and MSCI EM Asia down 21.9 per cent. However, S&P BSE Sensex, couldn't grow in double-digit in 2022 as it recorded double-digit upward movement in previous three successive years.

Out of 4,822 listed companies, 4,143 scrips available for trading on BSE while its Mcap is Rs277,86,720.36 crore (Rs277.86 lakh cr).

However, fund mobilisationvia equity and debt routes was down by 20 per cent in 2022 to Rs11 lakh cr as against Rs13.6 lakh cr in 2021 as expensive credit avenues and volatility affected the market sentiment.

T-Hub 2.0 opens for more startups

T-Hub 2.0, world's largest innovation campus, in Hyderabad was opened on 28 June 2022. The state-of-art facility supports over 2,000 startups under one roof, with a total built-up area of 5.83 lakh sq ft. Over the past six years, T-Hub has pivoted around the 6Ms (Mentors, Market, Motivation, Manpower, Money& Methodologies) and 2Ps (Partnerships & Policy advisory) framework with a mission of driving results. The Hyderabad-based innovation hub and ecosystem enablerhas delivered 100+ innovation programmes so far, creating an impact for startups, corporations, and other innovation ecosystem stakeholders.  Since inception, it has been supporting the national and international startups with access to better technology, talent, mentors, customers, corporates, investors, and government agencies.

Over 3,000 attend TiE Global Summit

The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE), founded in 1992 in Silicon Valley by a group of entrepreneurs and corporate executives, has evolved into a go-to network for all things related to entrepreneurship. This year, it hosted TiE Global Summit in Hyderabad from December 12 to 14.TiE Global Vice Chairman Murali Bukkapatnam and TiEHyderabad PresidentSuresh Raju were Co-Chairs of the event. Adobe Chairman and CEOShantanu Narayen was given CEO of the Year award of TiE at the inaugural session of the summit. The four-day event has witnessed more than 3,000 visitors including delegates, entrepreneurs, diplomats and speakers from all over the world. The members from 48 chapters and cities participated in thissummit to foster entrepreneurship, networking and mentorship.

AWS' $4.4bn infra region in Hyd

Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched its second infrastructure region in the country – AWS Asia Pacific in Hyderabad Region. This is estimated to support more than 48,000 full-time jobs annually through a planned investment of over $4.4 billion (roughly Rs 36,300 crore) in India by 2030. It has strengthened Telangana's position as a progressive data centre hub in India.

The new Hyderabad Region gives AWS customers an additional option for running their applications and serving end users from data centers located in the country. The customers with data-residency requirements arising from statutes, regulations, and corporate policy can run workloads and securely store data while serving end users with even lower latency.