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Ace investor Dolly Khanna added three new smallcap stocks to her portfolio in the quarter ended March 31, 2024, viz. Repco Home Finance, Som Distilleries & Breweries and Selan Exploration Technology. The inclusion comes on the back of a strong rally in these stocks over the last one-year. Khanna bought a 1.11% stake in Repco Home Finance in the January-March quarter. The Chennai-based housing finance company was incorporated in 2000. Its returns in the last 12 months stand at an impressive 157%, a significant outperformance over the 26% returns given by Nifty during this period. In 2024 so far, the stock has delivered returns of 15%. In Som Distilleries, Khanna purchased a 1.14% stake in the said quarter. The stock’s returns in the last 12 months stand at 101% and so far this year at 15%.The brand known for its 'Hunter' beer brand also produces Pentagon Gold Edition Whisky, Milestone Blue and Legend Premium Whisky, White Fox Vodka, Milestone Brandy, Pentagon Rum and Black Fort Rum. As for Selan Exploration, this investor bought a 1.03% stake in the reported quarter. The Gurugram-based company is involved in the business of oil & gas exploration. This smallcap counter has seen its rally extend up to 144% over a 1-year period. On a year-to-date basis, the stock has shot up 29%. Shareholding of individual investors is reflected in the ‘Shareholding Pattern’ of BSE-listed companies on reaching 1% stake or above in the company. Khanna, whose portfolio is managed by her husband Rajiv Khanna, held 19 stocks at the end of the March quarter and its net worth is over Rs 553 crore according to Trendlyne data.Other stocks in her portfolio include Talbros Automotive, Zuari Industries, Rajshree Sugars & Chemicals, Control Print, Salzer Electronics, Butterfly Gandhimathi, Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers, Deepak Spinners and Prakash Pipes. Also Read: Ashish Kacholia trims stake in multibagger Aditya Vision, 2 more smallcaps in March quarter(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

NEW DELHI: India, the world’s fastest-growing major economy in recent years, is struggling to find a consistent flow of foreign investment as investors are spooked by the lack of steady and sustainable policies by New Delhi, economists said.Raghuram Rajan, former Reserve Bank of India governor, and Surjit Bhalla, former part-time member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Economic Advisory Council told ET Online that uncertainty concerning policies has increased, which is disturbing the flow of foreign investments in India.“Businesses are worried about the government changing the terms on them, about them privileging the tax authority to raise demands all the time. Eventually, these demands get thrown out of courts, but it is five or ten years of uncertainty,” Rajan said.Click here to view Part 1 of Decoding Bharat's Economy (Discussion on GDP, Inflation & Wealth creators)Net FDI flow into India rose from $22 billion in FY14 to $31 billion in FY19. However, the figure has more than halved to $13 billion in April-September 2023, down from $38 billion in the same period the year before, HSBC wrote in a note earlier this year. Bhalla said that while he doesn't see any hesitation from the companies' end, a host of policy issues mean that uncertainty has gone up for foreign investors and has called for 'consistency' in tax reforms."I think our tax rates are too high. Be it income tax rates, or direct income tax rates, they are too high. We have got a real distortion in our investment tax rate which is now 25 per cent and 42 per cent. We 100 per cent need reforms in our direct tax code for it to be consistent with corporate taxes," Bhalla said.Tariffs subject to whims & fancies?Both economists expressed displeasure over tariff policies which are announced and then rolled back, spurring uncertainty for companies, both foreign and domestic.India in 2023 announced compulsory licensing requirements for tech importers to boost local production, to the shock of prominent companies like Apple, Samsung, HP, Dell Technologies and others. However, it later withdrew the stringent measures."Now, what is the trade-off? Do we want the Narayana Murthys of the future to keep making trips to New Delhi to allow for their laptops to be imported, to arrange for their laptops to be imported? Rightfully, the government has withdrawn this proposal. I hope it stays dead,” Rajan said.Click here to view Part 2 of Decoding Bharat's Economy (Discussion on India's manufacturing, Revdi culture and inequality)"One day I wake up and say this tariff is going to go up and then another day I say something else. That kind of change of terms on which they came in is something that foreign investors worry about as it can make their economics unpredictable," he said."Apart from making it easier to do business, you have to make government policy more predictable. It should be less subject to whims & fancies," Rajan added.Another policy that the government rolled back was the plan to tax credit card spending overseas."Thankfully, it never got implemented. But the government came up with this bright idea that your credit card spending abroad will be effectively taxed,” Bhalla recalled. “Yes, no government is perfect. Thankfully, that policy did not get implemented and the can has been kicked down the road,” Bhalla said.Rajan added that the government must make it easy for businesses to set up in India. "Don't keep changing the rules every month. It will be helpful for Indian companies and foreign businesses both," Rajan added.India, resolved to be an attractive investment destinationIndia under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party has been able to attract the attention of global bigwigs like Apple and Tesla, supported by a focus on boosting manufacturing prowess.This comes at a time when companies are looking to reduce their exposure to China.Giving further fillip to India's prospects to attract foreign investments, Indian debt will be included in global bond indices led by JPMorgan Chase & Co in June and Bloomberg Emerging Market Local Currency Government Index from January 2025.ALSO READ: India's dire employment scenario visible in long queues for govt jobs The government has been on a drive to reduce the culture of red-tapism that existed for decades and created impediments to foreign investments.The growth rate of the Indian economy and its potential makes it an attractive destination. Drawing comparisons with the 8.4 per cent Q3FY24 GDP growth rate reading of India, former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian noted the dip in foreign investment in recent years. "You can see foreign direct investment actually collapsed quite a bit," he said, while wondering if India is such an attractive place, and why their FDI flows are not higher.RBI data showed that net FDI inflows fell from $4.8 billion in H1FY24 to $19.6 billion in H1FY23. HSBC economists in their note attributed this fall to a shift in investor appetite rather than a loss of interest in India’s economic prospects.(This discussion is a part of ET Online's Election Special Decoding Bharat & Its Economy with Raghuram Rajan and Surjit Bhalla. Readers can catch the video series on Economic Times' YT Channel)

Shares of Nestle India on Thursday fell up to 5.4% to the day's low at Rs 2,409.55 on BSE after the multinational FMCG major was found adding sugar to baby food products sold in India but not in Europe and UK. Following the revelation, the health ministry was also said to be concerned about the issue.Today's fall in shares of Nestle, regarded as a long-term compounding machine, was the worst single-day drop in the last 3 years.According to reports, the government has taken suo-motu cognisance of a report in today's ToI which said Nestle adds sugar to infant milk sold in less affluent nations including India but not in its primary markets like Europe or the UK.The revelation came to light when "Public Eye," a Swiss investigative organization, and IBFAN (International Baby Food Action Network) dispatched samples of the company's baby food items marketed in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to a Belgian laboratory for examination."A double standard exists here that cannot be rationalized," Nigel Rollins, a scientist at WHO, said adding that the scenario where Nestle refrains from incorporating sugar into these commodities in Switzerland but readily embraces it in economically disadvantaged environments 'poses challenges both in terms of public health & ethics'.Also read | Nestle adds sugar to baby cereal sold in India but not in Europe & UK, study revealsAccording to the report, every Cerelac baby cereal variant contains supplementary sugar, averaging nearly 3 grams per portion, in India. At the same time, Cerelac wheat-based cereals tailored for six-month-old infants retailed by Nestle in Germany, France, and the UK are devoid of additional sugar. Conversely, the identical product harbors more than 5 grams per serving in Ethiopia and 6 grams in Thailand.As the controversy erupted with health experts calling out the "double-standards", Nestle said it has reduced sugar up to 30% in the past 5 years depending on variant in infant cereals."We regularly review and reformulate portfolio to further reduce levels of added sugar," a company spokesperson told ET Now.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)