Dear Policyholder,

During the month of June 2021, Indian equity markets witnessed a modest gain, Nifty 50 moved up by 0.9%. The month of June saw the dominance of two themes; vaccination and Central Bank policy responses due to inflation. The government of India rolled out a new vaccination policy on June 21, in which the Centre is procuring 75% of domestically available vaccines for free jabs to the 18-plus population. Post the new policy, the vaccination pace improved substantially. However, the urban-rural divide remains glaring, especially amid high vaccine hesitancy in rural India. On another positive note, the monsoon advanced earlier than normal and the cumulative rainfall during the monsoon season is higher than the Long Period Average.