Palm Oil: The Better Choice for Today’s Diet

~ Healthy Oil for a Healthy Heart ~

India, June XX 2021: Oil and Fats are used in daily cooking preparation to provide energy and to enhance the flavour of the food. Different oilseeds and vegetable oils as well as animal fats have served as a source for these fats. Among these, palm oil has historically been one of the most commonly used fats in the world.

Palm oil is one of the 17 edible oils cited by Codex Alimentarius, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) as an edible oil suitable for human consumption. Palm oil contains 50% saturated fatty acids (SFAs), 40% monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and 10% polyunsaturated fatty acids. (PUFAs). 

Many human studies have also reported that palm oil has a neutral effect on the total cholesterol level and is comparable to those of unsaturated oils. Palm oil can be safely used as a substitute for olive oil with the same heart health benefits. It has high oxidative stability compared to polyunsaturated rich oils and is naturally free of harmful trans–fatty acids.

Benefits of Palm Oil:

1. It is vegetable oil, therefore cholesterol-free

2. Palm oil is trans free as it does not require hydrogenation

3. Palm oil contains natural antioxidants vitamin E.

4. It helps in extending the shelf life of the fried food products.

5. Palm oil is the most cost-effective and competitively priced oil.

6. Palm oil is non-seasonal and is available all year round.

7. It also promotes sustainable farming practices.

Dato' Dr. Hj Wan Zawawi Wan Ismail, CEO, Malaysian Palm Oil Council added “Our main aim is to improve understanding of palm oil, enhancing its application, elucidating its numerous strengths and benefits. We want to create awareness about the role of Malaysian Palm Oil in the Indian Vegetable Oil sector through our partnerships in India. We desire to safeguard Malaysian Palm Oil as the most dominant vegetable oil in terms of market coverage, nutritional benefits, environmental sustainability, and commercial success. “

The Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) Certification Scheme is the national scheme in Malaysia for oil palm plantations, independent and organised smallholdings, and palm oil processing facilities to be certified against the requirements of the MSPO Standards. The mandatory implementation of MSPO certification demonstrates Malaysia’s commitment towards the production of sustainable Malaysian palm oil.

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About Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC): 

The Council's role is to promote the market expansion of Malaysian palm oil and its products by enhancing the image of palm oil and creating better acceptance of palm oil through awareness of various technological and economic advantages (techno-economic advantages) and environmental sustainability.

The Council has set up a network of offices all over the world, mainly in China (Shanghai), India (Mumbai), Pakistan (Lahore), Middle East (Istanbul and Cairo), Europe (Brussels and Russia), South Africa (Johannesburg) and Americas (Washington DC) to support, promote and venture into new areas for the industry. 

The plantation industry, particularly palm oil, is one of the main pillars of the Malaysian economy.  The palm oil sector has contributed significantly towards providing a continuous inflow of export earnings through the export of raw commodity and valued-added products to the global market. In 2020, palm oil contributed RM72.8 billion in export earnings for Malaysia and accounted for 26% of the world’s palm oil production and 34% of total palm oil exports.

The country today enjoys its economic prosperity and development through a strong foundation set by the industry and contribution in terms of export earnings and employment. It has long put into place guidelines, research, industrial and environmental standards that provide a safe, high quality Trans-free oil in a manner that supports the local economy, preserves the environmental resource base and is economically viable. Practices are constantly reviewed to ensure that best agricultural and management practices evolve in line with new research findings and international standards. 

GS1 India signs MOU with IIIT-Delhi’s MIDAS Research Lab to establish the DataKart Centre of Excellence

 June 30, 2021: GS1 India, a global supply chain standards organisation, and Midas Research Lab of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi, a leading research-oriented academic institute, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today to create the DataKart Centre of Excellence (DCoE). The aim is to apply Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and other futuristic technologies to develop tools for image compression, attribute extraction, and for improving quality of product data in the National Product Data Repository (DataKart).

 

Mr. S. Swaminathan, CEO, GS1 India, said, “This collaboration will give us the opportunity to leverage the expertise of IIIT-Delhi researchers to develop advanced tools for improving data accuracy and quality, and enable small and medium businesses share their product data with retailers and online marketplaces.”

 

The collaboration will bring together research professionals and academic scholars to develop cutting-edge technologies for making the National Product Data Repository more robust and dependable. The DCoE will ensure that data being published in the repository is of highest standards and is available for businesses and consumers for validation.

 

“Associating with GS1 India for the DataKart Centre of Excellence and working on the Data Quality project will provide industry exposure to our researchers on a topic that is relevant for multiple stakeholders ranging from manufacturers to end consumers. This partnership will enable IIIT-Delhi to solve real-world industry problems, which is great,” said Professor Mukesh Mohania, Dean IRD, IIIT-Delhi. 

 

Businesses (retailers, online marketplaces, point-of-sale providers and aggregators) and end consumers will benefit through the access to quality product data. They can use this data to validate and get more information about products. Businesses are expected to get global visibility as their product information, stored in DataKart, is also shared with global product data repositories.

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About GS1 India

GS1 India is a global supply chain standards organization, set up by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, along with CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, FIEO, IMC, BIS, Spices Board, APEDA, and IIP. GS1 standards provide unique and universal identification to a product with the use of barcodes and help in capturing and sharing information from point-of-origin to point-of-sale. GS1 India’s DataKart is the National Product Data Repository. It provides foundational data for several B2B, B2G, B2C requirements, which include faster product listing, optimised planogramming, efficient trucking and warehouse management, product recall alert, compliance with statutory labelling/marking guidelines, license/certificate validation, and additional product information to enable consumers (through Smart Consumer mobile app) make informed purchase decision.

 

About IIIT-Delhi and MIDAS

IIIT-Delhi is a State University, established by an act of Delhi Government empowering it to do research and development, and grant degrees. In a relatively short time, it has earned an excellent reputation in India and abroad for being a center of quality education and research in IT and interdisciplinary areas.

 

MIDAS is a group of researchers at IIIT-Delhi who study, analyze, and build different multimedia systems for society leveraging multimodal information. MIDAS stands for Multimodal Digital Media Analysis Lab and it is founded by Dr. Rajiv Ratn Shah. Dr. Shah is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (jointly appointed with the Department of Human-Centered Design) at IIIT-Delhi. The research work at MIDAS includes Machine Learning, Multimedia Content Processing, Natural Language Processing, Image Processing, Multimodal Computing, Data Science, and Social Media Computing towards AI for Social Good. Dr. Shah and his team believe in multidisciplinary collaborative research and work closely with eminent researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS), Georgia Institute of Technology, The University of Texas at Austin, National Institute of Informatics (NII), Bloomberg, SLTI, among others.

 

Sunteck Realty Limited announces financial results for Q4 & FY21

 Pre-sales grew by 6% Q-o-Q to Rs 371 cr in Q4 FY21

• Collections grew by 27% Q-o-Q and 83% Y-o-Y to Rs 321 cr in Q4 FY21
• Net debt to equity ratio strengthened to 0.18x in FY21 from 0.24x in FY20
Strong positive operating cash flow of Rs 286 cr generated in FY21

Mumbai, June 30, 2021: Sunteck Realty Limited, Mumbai’s luxury real estate developer, announced its Q4 and FY21 financial results.

							Rs cr
Pre-Sales	Segment	1QFY21	2QFY21	3QFY21	4QFY21	FY2020 (Full year)	FY2021 (Full year)
BKC Projects	Luxury	-	-	-	90	72	90
ODC Projects	Mid-income	41	53	189	201	273	484
Naigaon Projects	Affordable	48	32	62	75	763	217
Other Projects	Mixed	12	115	99	5	113	231
Total		101	200	349	371	1,221	1,022
							Rs cr
Collections	Segment	1QFY21	2QFY21	3QFY21	4QFY21	FY2020 (Full year)	FY2021 (Full year)
BKC Projects	Luxury	-	44	-	51	100	95
ODC Projects	Mid-income	29	31	114	104	269	278
Naigaon Projects	Affordable	35	41	65	89	278	230
Other Projects	Mixed	1	26	73	77	68	177
Total		65	141	252	321	715	780

                                                                                                                                                       Rs cr

P&L	Q4FY21	Q3FY21	QoQ %	Q4FY20	YoY %	FY2021	FY2020	YoY %
Revenue	191	217	-12%	87	120%	614	560	10%
EBITDA	39	49	-20%	4	956%	137	168	-19%
OPM %	20%	22%		4%		22%	30%
Net Profit	10	23	-55%	-13	NM	42	75	-44%
NPM %	5%	11%		-15%		7%	13%

                                                                                                                                                         Rs cr

Cash Flow Statement	FY2021	FY2020
Cash Flow - Operating Activities	286	-78
Cash Flow - Investing Activities	14	-18
Cash Flow - Financing  Activities	-332	88
Net increase/decrease in Cash & Cash Equivalents (C&CE)	-32	-8
C&CE at the beginning of the year	83	91
C&CE at the end of the year	52	83

Q4FY21 Highlights –

• Strong pre-sales witnessed during the quarter.
• Highest-ever collections achieved during the quarter.
• Acquisition of ~7 acre land parcel at Borivali (West), under the asset light JDA model. The residential project in the western suburbs of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) will have ~1 mn sq ft of development potential.
• Strong cash flows during the quarter resulting in further reduction of negligible net debt (excl. quasi-equity) to 0.18x from 0.24x in FY20. Our average cost of borrowing has further come down during the quarter.

FY21 Highlights –

• Strong positive operating cash flow of Rs 286 cr generated in FY21
• Highest-ever pre-sales achieved in the mid-income segment driven by residential projects at ODC, Goregaon West - a Y-o-Y growth of 77%.
• Strong pre-sales also witnessed in the ready to move in projects across segments.
• Highest-ever collections achieved in a financial year in FY21 at Rs 780 cr.
• Aggressive project acquisition done in FY21 within the industry - 3 new project acquisitions under the asset-light strategy totaling to approx. 8 mn sq ft. at Vasai, Vasind and Borivali. These projects will further strengthen the cash flows and balance sheet of the company.
• The consolidated net debt has been reduced to Rs 498 cr (excl. quasi-equity) improving the Net D/E to 0.18x from 0.24x in FY20.

Commenting on the Q4 and FY21 operational performance, Mr. Kamal Khetan, Chairman and Managing Director, Sunteck Realty Ltd. said: “Presently, we are witnessing strong consolidation across the industry and we will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of this trend. The industry consolidation has already resulted in 3 new project acquisitions for us at Vasai, Vasind and Borivali in MMR. Going forward, we expect to leverage our brand franchise and management expertise to continue to evaluate new growth opportunities and thereby increasing our overall market share.

During FY21, we have achieved strong pre-sales and highest-ever collections. Our collection efficiency was strong at approx.76%. This led to generation of strong positive operating cash flows of Rs 286 cr leading to reduction in our already negligible debt by Rs 233 cr. We are amongst the top quartile of the industry in terms of our leverage levels. 

A key to our strong operational performance is being a dominant developer in each of the micro-markets and housing segments we are operating.  Additionally, the focus on our core strength of sales & marketing and in-house construction capabilities will enable us to sustain this strong pre-sales and collections trend going forward.”