The year 2024 was full of surprises, and events that defined the business and economic landscape of India. While some of them turned out to be positive for the country, many others put the country’s economic resilience to test. We list out some of the defining events of the year:
Giant leap for semicon industry
The government approved India’s first semiconductor fabrication unit (fab) in Dholera, Gujarat. The project is a joint venture between Tata Electronics and Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp of TaiwanIt has approved two assembly, testing, marking, and packaging (ATMP) units — one in Assam and the other in Dholera.
An assembly and test (OSAT) facility is being set up by CG Power and Industrial Solutions. This JV with Japan’s Renesas Electronics Corporation and Thailand’s Stars Microelectronics is another major step forward for the sector. This includes the approval of Micron Technology’s packaging unit and Kaynes Semicon’s chip unit in Gujarat.
New capital gain tax
The government raised capital gains taxes — short-term capital gain (STCG) and long-term capital gain (LTCG) — on capital assets. The LTCG is now uniformly taxed at 12.5% for all classes of assets. Budget 2024 raised the STCG tax rate on sale of listed equity shares and equity-oriented mutual funds from 15% to 20%. The Budget 2024 rationalised holding periods of STCG and LTCG. Unlisted financial and non-financial assets now require a 24-month holding period to be considered long-term.
Listed assets must be held for 12 months to qualify as LTCG. The indexation benefit that investors used to get was removed in Budget. Earlier, some assets enjoyed LTCG tax of 20% with indexation and 10% without indexation. The LTCG tax without indexation was effective July 23, 2024. Facing backlash, the Centre moved an amendment to the Finance Bill, 2024, to let taxpayers select either 12.5% LTCG tax without indexation or 20% rate with indexation for assets purchased before July 23.
The downfall of Byju’s
Once valued at $22 billion, Byju’s’ worth became zero in 2024. The company, grappling with multiple issues, in 2024 faced insolvency proceedings following a dispute over Rs 158 crore settlement to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Its failure can be attributed to several reasons including overambitious acquisitions.
Byju’s acquired 17 firms in 5 years including Aakash Education Services for $950 million. It tried selling a few of its acquired firms but it didn’t fructify. Coupled with internal struggles, mismanagement and investor confidence, it tried to revive but went in vain. In 2024, it had been facing many setbacks including from its term lenders.
Ratan Tata walks into history
Ratan Tata, doyen of India Inc and the patriarch of Tata Group, died on Oct 9, leaving millions of common people teary eyed, because without his knowledge, the business empire he groomed since March 1991 as the chairman has not left any area of commonman’s life untouched — from salt to teas and coffees, to techs like chips to iPhone making to steel making, airlines, aircraft manufacturing, automobiles and air conditioner, hotels, you name it Tata has touched you one way or other.
No show by Elon Musk
Elon Musk made headlines in 2024 for his plans to bring Tesla and Starlink to India. However, neither Tesla nor Starlink has started operations in India yet.
In April, Musk announced his intention to visit India and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but he later canceled the trip. Later, in a social media post, Musk clarified his visit was postponed due to Tesla obligations. Musk was embroiled in controversy regarding satellite communication in India.
US Indicts Adani
After the Hindenburg Research allegations in early 2023, Adani Group faced another big blow this year. On November 21, the US Department of Justice announced the indictment of Group chairman Gautam Adani and 7 others on charges including bribery, involving $250 million in payments to Indian government officials to secure solar energy contracts.
Sebi chief under scrutiny
Madhabi Puri Buch’s reforms include making entering/exiting market easier, and so did ease of doing business. Her other achievements include protecting retail investors by curbing speculation in F&O space, disciplining SME IPOs and the over-greedy i-bankers, easing fund-raising process, a new mutual fund product for more risk-taking investors etc have all made the market much saner. However, the allegations of favouritism towards Adani group and the reports of non-disclosures of her income from investments made before her appointment to Sebi by Hindenburg have sullied these gains.
Foreign fund outflows
Since late September, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been offloading Indian equities at unprecedented levels. This selling player a major role in pulling down the market benchmarks - BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty - by 10% from record highs in no time. In October, FIIs pulled out record Rs 94,017 crore, followed by Rs 26,000 crore in November. This marked a stark contrast to September, which saw a nine-month high of Rs 57,724 crore in inflows.
Das exits Mint Street
Like his surprise appointment on Dec 11, 2018, as the 25th governor of the Reserve Bank, following the sudden resignation of Urjit Patel, his departure on Dec 10 was also equally surprising. Because everything was going good for this bureaucrat for a second extension after the six-year term, which has made him the second-longest serving governor after Benegal Rama Rau’s 7.5-year stint in the 1950s.
IPO rush in 2024
From launching the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in the capital market history to seeing record fundraising amounts, the primary market remained in a growth trajectory despite hiccups in the secondary market. As per data available, 91 initial public offer have raised a total of Rs 1,59,676 crore in 2024.
