Podcasts about fy17

A version of this essay was published by firstpost.com at https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/shadow-warrior-no-the-finance-mandarins-dont-always-screw-up-they-only-do-it-in-petty-ways-12678122.htmlThe Twitterverse and the media in general have been brutal on India's babu-log for several recent missteps. These, many fear, revive the ghosts of the late lamented License Raj: for instance the imposition of 20% Tax Collected at Source for overseas credit card transactions, the poorly-managed withdrawal of 2000-rupee notes, or the angel tax on domestic investments in startups (but not on investments from 21 specified countries).But let's be honest and give them credit where it's due: they shepherded India through the pandemic leaving the economy in pretty decent shape compared to the rest of the world. Even more importantly, the general handling of the economy has gone so well (of course thanks also to other tailwinds like the infrastructure push and the manufacturing thrust) that there is a genuine feeling among both locals and foreigners that India's time in the sun is finally here.This is no mean achievement, especially given the withering information warfare waged by the Deepstate. India's GDP grew in FY 2022-23 at 7.2%, pretty much the highest rate for any large economy, exceeding estimates even by the RBI. An optimistic report from Morgan Stanley, "How India Has Transformed in Less than a Decade" cites several reasons for such optimism: government reforms, demography, technology, strong economic fundamentals. “India is broken”, it ain't. And let's not go with services alone, Raghuram Rajan!And then the babus go and screw up on these relatively minor things, making everybody look bad!This is like I have always said, Indians thrive on complexity. We can do the Kumbh Mela in fine style (kudos to the much-maligned babus), but we can't queue up for an elevator to save our lives. Or desist from driving like maniacs, honking like mad and darting all over the place. Too simple, I guess. There are also habitual naysayers (some surely beholden to the Nehruvian Stalinist ecosystem or on the Deepstate/Soros payroll) who simply cannot believe that things are finally beginning to look up in and for India. There are those who are perennially on pet hobby-horses (one who gets all his wisdom from taxi-drivers, and another who thinks low-quality service jobs that add no lasting value are manna from heaven). Others are periodically astroturfed like mushrooms after rains, to mix American and Malayalam metaphors recklessly.What they fail to see (intentionally) is that the glass is half-full. Yes, there are major problems: India's education system is going from bad to worse; corruption is still a menace; the public sector continues to be an albatross around India's neck; the endless election cycle means that it is hard to think long-term (both for babus and for politicians); populist giveaways and special interest lobbies bankrupt the exchequer; the judicial system is in bad shape; and so on. On the other hand, there is proof of progress. Undeniable proof. Once the dirigiste state was partly dismantled under duress by Narasimha Rao, things improved notably, as the animal spirits of Indian entrepreneurs and traders apparently had a field day. Under Narendra Modi India's steady recent growth has been in nice contrast with tepid growth elsewhere. But the more intriguing tale is about poverty reduction on the one hand, and of the provision of services on the other. If the UN is to be believed, India has lifted 415 million people from poverty in 15 years. Furthermore, various infrastructure projects providing electricity, drinking water, roads and railways to even remote parts of the hinterland are quite likely increasing the quality of life as well as the per capita income. The other big deals, of course, are Demonetization and GST. Despite massive negative propaganda, I think the impartial observer today would be hard pressed to see these as net negatives. The giant strides made towards digitization, just by themselves, would justify the relatively minor inconvenience people went through at the time. UPI has made inroads into the remotest interior villages (Ecowrap from the SBI says that 60% of transactions by volume and value are now coming from rural and semi-urban areas). The same report says the value of UPI payments has gone up from Rs. 6947 crore in FY17 to Rs. 139,00,000 crore in FY23, a huge growth of 2004x. The use of the smartphone as a Point of Sale system has been a nice adaptation of technology, supported by Jio and inexpensive data.There is a video clip of P. Chidambaram, the former Finance Minister of India, mocking digital transactions. In the video, Chidambaram is speaking at an event and he says, "How can you expect a poor lady in a village to use digital transactions when there is no electricity and no POS devices?"Pretty bad look from the supercilious Chidambaram. It is the same attitude displayed by nay-sayers from Lutyens and Khan Market: they do not believe the average Indian can or will progress. Only the mai-baap sarkar of the Nehru Dynasty can save them, they claim. On the contrary, the Nehruvian Penalty has kept 500 million Indians poor, as I wrote on Rediff.com in 2004. The reality is that under the Nehruvian Stalinists, India kept falling behind the rest of the world. After 1991, India is slowly and painfully clawing its way back up the ranks of global wealth. The GST, despite many flaws, has also been a success in creating a single national marketplace, and in reducing logistics bottlenecks (remember those mile-long queues of trucks idling at state boundary checkpoints, and surely the enormous amounts changing hands?). As India ramps up manufacturing, the improvement in transportation efficiency will pay for itself.None of this happened just like that, it was willed into existence, says TheEmissary in a positive post https://theemissary.co/modinomics-why-india-is-rising/ and this is true, somebody imagined it, and somebody else, yes, the very same babus, put things into motion. Compared to all these pluses, surely the mandarins are entitled to screw up a little bit now and then. But the point is the mindset behind the TCS, and the poor communication strategy behind the Rs 2000 note withdrawal.At a time when India is attempting to offer the rupee as a global currency, and trying to make India a more attractive investment location, the TCS (Tax Collected at Source) surely feels like a retrograde step dating back to the days of worrying about foreign exchange reserves (unnecessarily, as India's current kitty is around $572 billion, which is close to an all-time high).The signal it sends out is that officious babus will make life difficult for average users in the pursuit of either minor increases in tax collections or an illusory improvement in forex reserves. Far more useful would be a deep analysis of what is causing the trade deficit with China to balloon (it is now bigger than India's entire defense budget), which sectors or products will have the greatest bang for the buck (eg. pharma APKs), and solid Production Linked Incentives to increase Indian production of the same. The withdrawal of the Rs. 2000 notes is probably a good idea, because by now the criminal ecosystem has figured out how to counterfeit them efficiently. As in years past, the ‘second-best' notes are likely being produced in Pakistan and shipped through the Middle East to India. So there's nothing wrong in removing them from circulation.Two caveats, though. It would have been a lot better to withdraw them before the BJP's debacle in Karnataka. It's sort of locking the barn door after the horse has bolted. As in years past, the vast bulk of corruption money intended for elections is quite likely stored in these larger notes, and removing them from circulation is a good idea. Well, fine, this will have an impact on the 2024 elections, I imagine. The second is the total cockup in the communication of the withdrawal. The first announcement said the notes could be deposited before a certain date, but that they would continue to be legal tender (which seems counter-intuitive). If you deposited more than Rs. 20,000 a day, though, the idea seemed to be that you would have to show some id, PAN/Aadhar. That would help identify anybody who had been hoarding large quantities of cash (usually for dubious purposes). But then the second announcement, from SBI, said that there would be no need for any paperwork. Meanwhile people were using 2000-rupee notes to buy luxury items, especially gold. So exactly what is going on? What is the point in this not-demonetization? Did the babus get cold feet and do U-turns?The angel tax on startups is itself a dubious idea, especially when India is attempting to increase the viability of its homegrown early-stage companies. The regulatory atmosphere and the relative paucity of local venture funding is anyway encouraging startups to register themselves abroad, say in Singapore or Dubai or Silicon Valley. By adding a tax you're making Indian startups less appealing to investors. Furthermore, by picking and choosing investment from certain countries to be exempt from the tax seems either capricious or over-reach/meddling. It simply isn't true that these Anglo and Nordic countries are all pure as the driven snow, as we have seen on numerous occasions.The bottom line, though, is that despite periodic missteps, India's finance folks and the central bank have done a stellar job, and it shows: India's banks are currently among the most profitable in the world, with no worrying bank failures (unlike, say, in the US and Europe); interest rates and inflation are modest (again, unlike the US and EU). So two cheers for the babus! 1538 words, May 27, 2023, updated 1626 words, June 1, 2023 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com

US generics revenues generated 0.3 per cent CAGR in FY17-22 compared to 11 per cent CAGR in India and emerging markets. As a result, Nifty Pharma index returned 3.3 per cent CAGR in the period underperforming Nifty-50 index by close to 800 bps. Sai Prabhakar and Parv Shah discuss the reasons why a tilt to Indian generics can be rewarding. The discussion centers on if the factors contributing to muted US growth are permanent and how should investors approach pharma stocks in this context. Listen in! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/business-line/message

India is the world's third largest oil importer. It imports 86% of its crude oil requirements to make the petrol and diesel that is sold by domestic companies like Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum. Iraq is the top oil supplier. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Nigeria and the US are other key sellers. Therefore, any geopolitical tension affecting the supply of crude oil does not bode well for Indian consumers as well as government finances. Crude oil prices have been on the boil for some time now, gaining around 60% over the past year because of tight supplies. The OPEC+, which includes the cartel's allies led by Russia, has been failing to meet its monthly production target since last August. Brent crude, the global benchmark, touched 90 dollars a barrel for the first time in seven years as rising political tensions between Ukraine and Russia added to concerns that supply could get even tighter. A potential invasion of the oil and gas transit hub of Ukraine by Russia, which is one of the world's largest oil exporters, could disrupt supplies of the key commodities. Analysts expect oil prices to hit 125 dollars a barrel if the situation escalates into a war. The dependence on overseas supplies in a high-priced oil market leaves India vulnerable to higher inflation and a weaker rupee. India's crude import bill is expected to touch a record $111 billion this fiscal, which will worsen the Current Account Deficit.  If the oil prices stay at higher levels, rate hikes from the RBI can be expected quicker, say experts. As oil prices fell dramatically from mid-2014, the government took advantage by steadily increasing excise duties on fuel. As a result, central excise collection on petrol and diesel increased very steeply. From 1.37 trillion rupees in FY15 to 2.42 trillion rupees in FY17 to 3.72 trillion rupees in FY21. This improved its finances and brought down the fiscal deficit gradually. However, due to increased government spending to arrest the pandemic-induced slowdown, the deficit worsened to 9.3% in FY21. This time, economists expect the government to meet its fiscal deficit target of 6.8% of GDP. While the Centre cut excise on petrol and diesel last November, if it is once again forced to reduce the levy to curb inflation, it will hit excise collections. A fall in revenue will harm the fiscal deficit numbers and also the government's fiscal consolidation plan of bringing the deficit down to 4.5% by 2025-26. The government therefore is in a precarious situation and must prepare the Budget based on a reasonable assumption of crude oil prices as inflation number will become the base on which fiscal deficit projections are made.  Watch video

India's pharma market, which comprises chronic and acute medication, is poised for growth. The domestic market grew from $17 billion in FY17 to $21 billion in FY21. In this edition of The Medicine Box Podcast season 5, CNBC-TV18's Ekta Batra speaks to Nikhil Chopra, the CEO of JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd, about how big the chronic and acute market is in India, the competition from generic medicines, and the pharma firm's plans for the near future. According to Chopra, consumer awareness about wellness and immunity has risen in the past 24 months, the majority of which includes the COVID-19 pandemic period, he said. Acute therapy, which includes anti-infectives, gastro, vitamins, etc, saw a decline during the period as more people were indoors and hence fewer caught infections. Now, given a gradual return to normalcy, besides recovery in acute therapy, Chopra believes chronic therapies, which include medication for cardiovascular, metabolic diseases, etc., could grow and beat the domestic market growth. JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd generates 49 percent of its revenue from the domestic market and has outperformed the industry growing 14 percent in FY21 against the industry growth of 4 percent. The CEO said the company is beating the industry due to strong brands in the Indian market. And, it is looking to improve its ranking from its current 27th position in the domestic market. Tune in to The Medicine Box Podcast for more 

Sahil (@sahil071) and Siddharth (@sidbetala) hang out and discuss various ideas on this episode of Business Munchies. We're now actively sharing interesting snippets on Twitter and reels on Instagram. Follow us there to stay updated!Click here to help TID part time with LinkedIn & TwitterJob Description for the Content Associate Job at Blume VenturesClick here to apply for the Content Associate Job at Blume VenturesTimeline(00:00) - Introduction with two Job Announcements(02:30) - Defence Indigenisation in India(24:00) - DAO to fund Scientific Research(36:00) - Teaching Taxation to FoundersBusiness IdeasDefence Indigenisation in IndiaHere's a link to our Notion Page with a bunch of research that we did about defence indigenisation.Defence manufacturing and anciallary services is a complete white ocean at the moment - there is huge growth potential for businesses that enter this market right now.The Indian government has done a great job over the past 20 years to shift procurement of defence from imports to domestic manufactuers and this trend is going to continue over the next decade as the government focuses even more on improving its domestic manufacturing.Part of this is exports, from FY17 to FY19, in just 2 years, India was able to increase its defence exports from just 1,500crores to 8,300crores. That is an insanely fast growth rate and the benchmark for FY24 is to reach 35,000crores of exports. India cannot reach these crazy numbers without some really good incentives by the government to first build a thriving domestic manufacturing base but also one that can stand against the international market. There are a bunch of schemes by the Indian government to promote defence manufacturing in India. MSME's also have a big part to play in this indigenisation. They can manufacture for the big PSU's like HAL, Bharat Forge and all the others. There is a lot of manufacturing capacity in India such as composites, precision manufacturing, sheet metal work, naval work and others that can be used by the armed forces.However, this is a complicated network to get into. You either need capital or contacts.DAO to fund Scientific ResearchDAO's are Decentralised Autonomous Organisations that are operated based on the votes of the members who own the tokens.A big problem in the scientific world is the funding of research by large companies that then biases the results that come out of that.DAO's could be a solution that help fund scientific research without any biases.Teaching Taxation to FoundersUnderstanding taxation is critical to a founder's success, especially in the complicated tax structures of India.However, there are few to no courses to help teach tax at a founder level - MBA's don't teach enough and founders can't become CA's - we need something in between.Social Media can be great to teach stuff like this - Miss Excel makes $100,000/day by teaching excel on TikTok.

Steven Cooklin, CEO, of Manolete Partners #MANO discusses the sharp increase in both case enquires and signed cases as they release their interim results, which despite lockdowns, demonstrated the strength of the business. Financial highlights: ·      Total revenues increased by 15% to £10.2m from H2 FY21 (£8.9m) and were 46% below H1 FY21 (£19.0m). H1 FY21 benefitted from an exceptionally large single case settlement of £9.3m (discounted gross revenue value) and was impacted to a much lower degree by the Covid-19 related Government Temporary Measures; ·      76% of revenues were from realised completed cases (H1 FY21: 71%) ·      Gross Profit increased by 38% to £5.4m from H2 FY21 (£3.9m) and was 43% below H1 FY21 (£9.5m). The decline compared to H1 FY21 was mainly due to reduced unrealised profits reflecting the decline in the number of new case investments which was suppressed due to the Covid-19 related Government Temporary Measures; ·      EBIT increased 273% to £3.2m from H2 FY21 and was 52% below H1 FY21 (£6.6m); ·      Cash generated from completed cases increased 3% to £4.3m (H1 FY21: £4.2m);  ·      Despite the temporarily challenging environment, cash generated from previously completed cases exceeded the cash costs of operating the business (before investment in new cases); ·      Investment in cases has grown by 5% to £41.4m (30 September 2020: £39.3m); ·      Net assets of £41.2m. Net Debt was £10.3m consisting of a drawn down loan of £11.0m, offset by cash balances of £0.7m as at 30 September 2021; ·      £14m of HSBC Revolving Credit Facility remains available for utilisation, as at 30 September 2021; ·      Basic earnings per share declined 59% to 4.8 pence (H1 FY21: 11.8 pence); and ·      Interim dividend proposed of 0.39 pence per share (H1 FY21: 1.17p). The interim dividend to Ordinary Shareholders will be payable on 6 January 2022 to those shareholders who are on the register of members at 17 December 2021. Operational and market highlights: ·      The interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2021 reflect the operations of the Company when the UK insolvency market was artificially suppressed by the unparalleled UK Government action to support business enacted in June 2020.  ·      These Temporary Measures were largely ended, effective from 1 October 2021, as did a number of other business support schemes, including furlough.  ·      Ongoing delivery of realised returns: 64 case realisations in H1 FY22 representing a 23% increase (52 case realisations in H1 FY21), generating gross proceeds of £7.9m, over an average duration of 11.5 months ·      Average money multiple of 2.6 times for the 64 cases completed in H1 FY22; ·      Average case duration across the full portfolio of 434 completed cases at 11.3 months; ·      New case investments declined by 39% to 78 (H1 FY21: 110) as a result of unprecedented Government support to the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic;  ·      10% increase in live cases: 240 in process as at 30 September 2021 (238 as at 30 September 2020) (all excluding Cartel cases);  ·      71% of live cases have been signed in the last 18 months. Only one case remains ongoing from the FY17 vintage and only two cases are outstanding from the FY18 vintage. 100% of earlier case vintages have been completed;  ·      Our KPIs for September and October 2021 show strong signs of recovery: ·      The number of new case enquiries were 50 and 55 for those two months respectively, compared to a low of 31 for the month of March 2021 while the Temporary Measures were in force.  ·      New signed cases for September and October were 15 and 18 respectively, compared to 10 in August 2021; ·      Cartel cases remain ongoing. In line with our strategy there has been little progress in the six months to 30 September 2021, however, we expect there will be considerable progress in the next six to twelve months. Management will reassess the investment fair value again at the year end. About Manolette Partners Manolete Partners Plc is the leading insolvency litigation financing company in the UK and was founded in 2009 by its CEO, Steven Cooklin. Manolete has invested in 618 UK insolvency litigation cases and completed 388 of them. Manolete works alongside Insolvency Practitioners (IPs) from all of the “Big Four” to smaller regional firms. Manolete has worked with over 180 IP firms and their chosen legal advisers, often on multiple cases. Manolete is different from other litigation funders because cases are completed very quickly – the average duration is less than 12 months. The large majority are settled long before trial - minimising costs and optimising returns.

On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced ‘demonetisation' to weed out black money from the country. The move, which saw the currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations getting banned, wiped out 86% of India's currency overnight.   The currency with the public, which stood at Rs 17.97 trillion at the time, declined sharply to Rs 7.8 trillion in January 2017, soon after demonetisation. A few months later, of the Rs 15.41 trillion which had been demonetised, Rs 15.31 trillion came back to the RBI. So, more than 99% of the demonetised currency notes were returned to the banking system.   Large cash deposits have given rise to inquiries from probe agencies like the I-T Department and the Enforcement Directorate against millions of account holders. The government's efforts on this front remains a work in progress. A few months ago, the RBI asked banks to not destroy the CCTV footage of their branches from the demonetisation period.   What is the status five years later?    THE FIVE KEY INDICATORS   1. Cash still rules: Circulation touched all-time high of Rs 28.3 trillion on October 8 2. Digital transactions: These, including UPI, have also touched an all-time high 3. No. of UPI transactions: Up from just 0.29 million in Nov 2016 to 4.2 billion now 4. Value of UPI transactions: A record high of $103 billion last month 5. Currency in circulation: Growing in line with nominal GDP growth   Reserve Bank of India data show that the cash in circulation as on October 8 this year reached an all-time high of Rs 28.3 trillion, proving that cash is still the king. This figure is 57% higher than the level seen right before demonetisation. The demand for cash also increased ahead of the festival season. The currency in circulation has been growing in line with nominal GDP growth.   As a percentage of GDP, too, the cash in circulation has jumped sharply from 8.7% in FY17 to 14.7% in FY21.   At the same time, the government's efforts to digitise the economy have also borne fruit. The number of transactions done through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has seen an exponential rise since demonetisation – from just 0.29 million in November 2016 to 4.2 billion now. The value of UPI transactions touched a record high of $103 billion last month.   Reducing India's dependence on high-value notes was another goal. But data from RBI's latest annual report show that the share of high-value currency notes like those of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 in terms of volume increased to 33.1% by the end of financial year 2021 from 9.2% in FY17. One in three notes in circulation as of March 2021 was of Rs 500 denomination. In FY16, the share of high-value notes like Rs 500 and Rs 1000 was at 24.4%.   One indisputable fact, however, is the formalisation of the economy in the past few years. A report by State Bank of India's economic research department last month said that India's informal economy shrank during the pandemic year. The research showed that the country's informal economy contracted from 52% of GDP three years ago to 15-20% in FY21. Although the pandemic caused most of this transformation as the informal economy was the worst hit, some of it has been due to demonetisation and the implementation of GST.   On the long-term changes that have happened since demonetisation, N R Bhanumurthy, economist and vice-chancellor of BR Ambedkar School of Economics, said:   Formalisation not just because of demonetisation Increase in online transactions, GST led to formalisation Formalisation came at the cost of informal sector ITRs, employees in formal sector rose after note ban Covid-19, lockdown increased cash in hands of people If informal economy shrank, black money would have come down too

Wepa! I'm Marina. I am a technologist, mom, podcast host, leadership coach, cruciverbalist and aquarian. ;) UNBOSSED is “Stories of Amazing Women in Chicago”. If you are a new listener to UNBOSSED, we would love to hear from you. Please visit our Contact Page and let us know how we can help you today! Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marina-malaguti In this episode: I interviewed Laurie M. Joyner, who began her service as the 20th president of Saint Xavier University in January 2017. Known as a “mission-driven, student-centered and accomplished administrator passionately committed to institutional success,” President Joyner has championed mission integration efforts, inclusive excellence initiatives and the alignment of organizational structure and resources to drive educational quality and improved institutional performance. During her presidency, SXU embarked on the STRIVE 2025: Pathways to Institutional Excellence, Accountability and Sustainability Strategic Plan (STRIVE 2025), enrolled its two largest and most diverse first-year classes in its 175-year history, increased first-to-second year retention for three consecutive years, expanded high-impact educational practices and institutionalized a service excellence initiative aligned with the core values of respect, collaboration, responsiveness and effectiveness. Under her leadership, SXU has also secured the largest federal grant in institutional history, established the first endowed professorship, and since FY17 has reduced long-term debt by 46.6%, increased cash on hand by 288%, increased total financial assets by more than 312%, increased its quasi-endowment tenfold and nearly tripled its total endowment (282%). President Joyner is passionate about improving diversity, equity and inclusion on campus and is a 2019 National Inclusive Excellence Leadership Academy (NIXLA) Fellow. During her tenure, SXU became one of 29 colleges across the state to form the Illinois Equity in Attainment (ILEA) initiative, a partnership geared toward eliminating racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps across student groups while increasing graduation rates by 2025. Key Highlights/Tools: Career Mapping your way to Presidency Don't internalize other people's stuff Don't get too sucked into the press about you-- “it's really none of your business What other people think of you is not your business The most important decision in your life is who you choose as your partner Education is helping us become more human Memorable Quotes: Don't feel like you have to be completely prepared to grab onto an opportunity For some women, we tend to get the more challenging leadership positions in some of the more challenging organizations Useful Links and Resources: Laurie's LinkedIn https://www.sxu.edu/index.aspx The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World Join the Conversation Our favorite part of recording a live podcast each week is participating in the great conversations that happen on our live chat, on social media, and in our comments section. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/marina-malaguti/support

#10 Wakefit: Founded by Chaitanya Ramalingegowda and Ankit Garg in 2015, Wakefit started selling mattresses online and were already making a profit within six months of operations. Today, this D2C mattress startup is selling 1,500 mattresses to their 500,000 customers every day – raking in a revenue of $26.5 million and making a profit of $1.3 million in FY20. #9 Lenskart: Founded by Peyush Bansal in 2010, Lenskart offers an omnichannel platform for selling eyewear and lenses through their online platform and offline stores. The company has been investing heavily in setting up new physical stores – taking the number of offline stores to over 750. This is why the startup took a decade to reach profitability. In FY20, Lenskart made a revenue of $130 million with a profit of $2.4 million. #8 Cashfree: Cashfree is a digital payments gateway platform that offers more than 100 payment methods to over 50,000 businesses around the world with a team of just 130 employees. Their ability to stay lean has not only enabled them to scale but also remain profitable from the get-go. Their profit increased 14X from just $190,000 in FY18 to $2.6 million in FY20. #7 BrowserStack: India's most valuable SaaS startup BrowserStack enables developers to test their apps remotely using their cross-browser testing platform that has more than 2,000 devices and is being used by over 50,000 businesses across the world. The company has been profitable since day one. In FY20, BrowserStack raked in a profit of $3.8 million. #6 Aye Finance: SME lending startup Aye Finance has been profitable for the last three consecutive years and has disbursed loans worth more than $538 million to more than 200,000 small businesses. Aye Finance's profits have increased to $5.3 million in FY20. #5 Lendingkart: Founded in 2014, Lendingkart has disbursed loans worth $741 million to more than 100,000 small businesses. This fintech startup first achieved profitability in FY19 and their profits stand at $5.6 million in FY20. #4 OfBusiness: B2B e-commerce and lending startup OfBusiness uses purchase financing – providing businesses with a loan that they can use to purchase raw materials from their e-commerce platform. Once their profits from the interest started coming in, OfBusiness started making money and they are now on their way to becoming a unicorn. Their profits jumped 73X from just $150,000 in FY18 to a healthy $80 million in FY20. #3 CarTrade: Founded in 2009, CarTrade is the only profitable online used car marketplace. This decade-old startup has already filed for an IPO and is expected to hit the stock markets soon. The company significantly decreased its losses from $20 million in FY16 to just $2 million in FY17. They first turned profitable in FY18 and they did this through internal restructuring, key acquisitions and cost-cutting measures. Today (FY20), they are making a healthy profit of $11.5 million. #2 Boat Lifestyle: Indian consumer technology startup Boat started in 2016 by selling charging cables and were able to hit profitability within the first year. Next, they launched more products like earphones, headphones and smartwatches with quality and affordability in mind to target value-minded Indian consumers. This strategy only accelerated their growth. Boat's profit's increased by 30X from just $225,000 to $6.6 million in FY20. #1 Zerodha: India's largest stockbroking platform Zerodha has managed to change the entire stock trading industry single-handedly and they did it without even raising any external funding or marketing their product. Today, Zerodha charges just Rs 20 (or 0.03% as commission – whichever is lower) from their customer for every intraday trade. Thanks to that, Zerodha earned a solid $135 million in profits in FY21.

While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways.Audio narration by Ad-Auris.  India Policy Watch: Road Ahead  Insights on burning policy issues in India- RSJWhat’s next for the Indian economy? Here’s a quick 8-point view on where things are at today.Clearly, the speed of vaccination will be the single biggest driver of how quickly the economy recovers this year. The daily vaccine rate has inched up to over 3 million a day after a poor May. While this isn’t adequate, there’s greater intent in procuring and debottlenecking the vaccine delivery process that’s evident. India has only vaccinated about 50 million with both the doses as we write this. It will need tremendous effort to get this number to over 600 million before December but it looks in the realm of possibility. That number will get us close to herd immunity. There’s a skew in vaccinations rates with the top 20 cities getting disproportionate supply of them. Considering these are economic hubs and drivers of consumption, this is acceptable for some time. But this skew has to reduce and the vaccines must reach the rest of India soon to reduce the probability of a third wave. There’s a danger of lapsing into complacency on speed of vaccination seeing the reduction in cases and resumption of economic activities in the big cities. We cannot afford it. The rural economy has taken a hit in the second wave going by the case count and deaths. The rural demand had held up during Wave 1 last year but it was already tapering before the start of Wave 2. The high auto-debit bounce rate data emerging from NPCI suggest greater stress in the SME sector in this wave than the previous one. The consumer sentiment surveys show the perception about current state of the economy and about the future are worse today than during the first wave. Considering the sentiment will remain muted till September when most of urban consumers would be vaccinated, this suggests we will need a magical H2 for the overall consumption to be better than FY 21. That’s unlikely to happen. IMD has predicted a normal monsoon in 2021 which is a positive though the correlation between monsoon, agriculture production and inflation has grown weaker over the years. On the balance, the real GDP for FY 22 will struggle to be at the pre-pandemic levels of FY 20. I think we will come below it. That’s two years lost because of the virus. The human impact of this loss is not widely understood or appreciated yet. On the other hand, the headline inflation might grow (CAGR) at about 6 per cent during the same two year period. This is stagflation territory. The usual problems that have plagued the economy over the last “lost decade” will continue if there isn’t serious problem solving skills brought to the table by the economic team of this government. The banking (esp PSU banks) and the financial services ecosystem will remain in stress following the pandemic. The unwillingness to lend despite huge liquidity in the system will persist. And the sectors that have been under chronic stress like infrastructure, power, telecom and SMEs will continue the same way. Barring few announcements and repackaging of old ideas, there’s no real plan that’s emerged for these issues. Instead there’s hope and optimism of some kind of magical robust recovery of the economy that’s served as a solution. Hope cannot be the strategy. The big difference in FY 22 will be the robust recovery and growth that will be seen in OECD economies. This bodes well for Indian exports. The Wuhan Lab virus origination theory and the more direct approach of Biden administration in competing with China on technology and science (US Innovation and Competition Act that was brought in this week) will make the ‘China plus 1’ model more mainstream for many companies who use it as their manufacturing base. India will have to double down on PLI schemes, ease of doing investment initiatives and woo these companies with intent. This will require bringing policy reforms, reducing state control, deft diplomacy and avoiding dysfunctional political moves that seems to have become the calling card of this government in its second term. The biggest issue that should worry the government on both economic and political fronts is jobs. Youth (15-24 age group) unemployment has gone from about 17 per cent in FY17 to over 40 per cent in FY 21 according to CMIE. The trolls can shoot the messenger (CMIE) calling it a private company. But CMIE has a track record for providing unbiased data over the years. It is easy to call it names now when the data looks inconvenient. But it won’t help India. It is important to look at the trends and think of policy actions rather than burying our collective heads in sand and listening only to the vacuous paeans of friendly trolls. The real picture isn’t pretty. The service sector jobs have been impacted because of the multiple lockdowns. About 80 per cent of service sector jobs that were lost in Wave 1 were regained by Feb 2021. That meant a 20 per cent permanent loss of jobs in the sector. But, more importantly, the corresponding percentage of jobs regained in manufacturing (excluding construction) was only 45 per cent. The cost cutting initiatives the industry did during Wave 1 have become permanent. This was evident in the FY 21 earnings growth of the listed companies that came in around 25 per cent (y-o-y). So, while the service sector has struggled to create jobs, the manufacturing has shed flab and is in no mood to bring it back. This has meant a reverse migration of labour to agriculture from industry. This is upending the gains made over the last two decades in moving labour out of farming. The K-shaped recovery was clear after Wave 1. It will turn more pronounced after this wave. This is clear from multiple data points - earnings growth of BSE 100 or NSE 50 companies that’s driving the stock markets to record highs, the GST monthly collections data that suggests more formalisation of the economy but, possibly, hides the decimation of the informal sector. The wage bill for large companies grew by over 5 per cent in FY 21 in contrast to the almost 10 per cent contraction seen among MSMEs. The high liquidity in the system has allowed the large companies to deleverage over the past five years without any growth in capital investment despite the hollow public commitments made by industry captains. The economy has taken a sharp oligopolistic turn over the last two years across the sectors. Considering the higher health and economic impact in rural areas in this Wave, there will only be exacerbation of the K-shaped recovery this time. This will have political and social repercussions too in future. The current account balance is at a surplus of over USD 25 bn driven by weak domestic consumption last year and FDI and FPI inflows into Indian equity markets and a select set of companies. Contrary to the celebratory tweets of the partisans, a surplus current account isn’t necessarily good news for this stage of Indian economy. The Indian forex reserves are also at their record high at over USD 600 bn (add another USD 75-80 bn of outstanding forward dollar purchases). FY 22 will not see any significant change in these. The current account balance will see net inflows given the outlook on domestic consumption. This gives RBI significant opportunity to keep interest rates low (real interest rates are in negative zone already), take measures to spur growth and monetise deficit without the risk of currency instability. This window must be used by the government.In summary, there are three policy moves to make - a) address the old, chronic twin balance sheet issue (multiple recommendations already in the policy sphere). Else it will get worse after Wave 2 and continue to be a drag; b) continued focus on exports and Make in India measures to take advantage of the recovery in OECD and possible isolation of China; c) Start the capex cycle, spend on healthcare and spur consumption through direct transfers in H2 FY 22 when sentiments will be better. The current account surplus and record forex reserves give us a window to do targeted spending to revive demand. This isn’t the time for austerity and tightening of the belts. Spend. Then spend some more. Else, stagflation will be a reality. Matsyanyaaya: Aussie Rules DiplomacyBig fish eating small fish = Foreign Policy in action— Pranay KotasthaneDiscussions on India’s diplomacy often hit a wall called ‘lack of capacity’. The conversation-ender is often the small size of India’s diplomatic corps. To take this conversation over the wall, I’ve been on the lookout for diplomatic institutions that can serve as reference points for India in terms of getting more done with less resources. And Australia fits the bill. Despite a small corps — just 833 Australian staff serving overseas — Australia’s diplomatic outreach has several innovations to its name. I will discuss three recent ones here.Paradiplomacy. Australia gets around its low diplomatic corps strength (to some extent) by allowing its states to have their own trade and investment offices in other countries. In Bengaluru alone for example, at least two states — Victoria and Queensland — have trade offices while the Australian consulate for southern India is located in Chennai. Victoria has a total of 23 such offices in important cities across the globe, New South Wales has 11, and Queensland has 16.I couldn’t locate any recent papers that evaluate the successes and failures of the Australian Paradiplomacy model but this is one area where Australian experiences can be of help to India. Instead of waiting for the Union government’s diplomatic intake to rise, let states take a lead on the trade and investment fronts.An India Economic Strategy to 2035. It’s somewhat amusing that the Australian government has an India Economic Strategy to 2035 document even though India itself doesn’t have an official economic strategy that looks 15 years ahead. Be that as it may, this document is far-sighted. It begins by saying that ‘There's no single major market out to 2035 with more growth opportunities for Australian business than India.’ Apart from identifying key sectors, it also identifies ten priority states in India where Australia should focus leading up to 2035. Under resource constraints, prioritise. This is another lesson worth emulating.Focusing on forward-looking global themes. I found out only a couple of weeks ago that Australia has ambassadorships and strategies for Cyber Affairs and Critical Technology, and Gender Equality. Its International Cyber and Critical Technology Engagement Strategy is an interesting document listing out Australia’s vision, goals, and values in the realm of high tech geopolitics. Having ambassadors focusing on horizontal global themes along with the traditional geographic verticals is another innovation that’s worth thinking about.In short, a small diplomatic corps cannot be used as an evergreen excuse for India’s underdeveloped global outreach. As Australia’s example shows, there is scope to do more with less.PolicyWTF (revisited): China’s demographic flip-flopsThis section looks at egregious public policies. Policies that make you go: WTF, Did that really happen? — Pranay KotasthaneOn May 31st, the Politburo of the Communist Party of China decreed that parents can now have three kids. Too little, too late.In edition #4, I had discussed how China’s one-child policy had accelerated the decline in fertility rates. Changing the upper limit to two in 2016 and to three in 2021 is the closest that an authoritarian regime can come to accepting failure. This is of course quite relevant for India since population, for many, is the root cause of all that’s wrong here. Even if it were a problem, the society has solved it on its own. From a fertility rate of 5.9 in 1960, it has come down to near replacement level — 2.2 in 2018. In any case, India’s problem is undergovernance and not overpopulation, as my colleague Nitin Pai has written before. We have written about this in our edition #49 here. To all those who still curse India’s population, learn from China’s policyWTF.To know more about China’s one-child policy, tune in to our Dec 2019 All Things Policy episode.India Policy Watch: The Fable of the Monkey and the two Cats Insights on burning policy issues in India- Pranay KotasthaneLast week saw an ugly spat between the finance ministers of Tamil Nadu and Goa on the sidelines of a GST meeting. Partisans from both sides predictably quarrelled and moved on. Nevertheless, this kerfuffle is useful for making an important point that often gets missed. The central issue is that the states’ focus on horizontal devolution is misplaced. Horizontal devolution refers to the formula used for sharing resources between states. All federalism debates almost exclusively focus on just this one issue. It also gets inaccurately framed as a ‘north vs south’ debate — how the taxes collected from the south are frittered away in the northern wastelands. But the problem really lies in vertical devolution i.e. how the tax resources are split between the Union government and all states as a whole. If the Union government keeps less money to itself, all states stand to gain together. People do not raise this issue because they falsely believe that the Union government increased the devolution substantially from 32 percent to 42 percent following the 14th Finance Commission recommendations. As the 14th FC covered the requirements of both plan and non-plan expenditure, in reality, the increase was from 39 per cent to 42 per cent. Even this modest 3 per cent increase was sabotaged by the Union government by increasing cess and surcharges, which are not shared with states. That’s why I say that India’s fiscal federalism resembles the monkey and the two cats fable. While states fight amongst each other, the Union government is happy appropriating 59 percent of the divisible pool resources, raising new cesses, and using a part of these funds to run centrally sponsored schemes that fall squarely in the states’ constitutional domain. I will raise a toast to federalism when I see at least a few states cooperating to addressing this imbalance in the vertical devolution. Until then, Union governments will be happy to play one state against the other.HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters[Article] Sajjid Chinoy’s two-part series in Business Standard on the economic impact of the second wave [Video] Prof Ananth Narayan in conversation with Mitali Mukherjee for The Wire on the way ahead for the economy.[Article] A cruel reminder of Goodhart’s law. To meet the 50,000 per day COVID-19 testing target for the Kumbh Mela, private labs forged the results. Get on the email list at publicpolicy.substack.com

For the first episode of this new season on Microsoft, we invited Jason Tsao, AI and Area Transformation Lead of Microsoft Greater China Region. Jason received his Bachelor’s Degree from Duke University in Electrical Engineering and then went on to pursue a Masters in Engineering Management at University of Ottawa. He joined MSFT as a License Executive in Beijing responsible to establish business process for cloud in China and prior to his ATL role, Jason was the M&O lead in Taiwan since FY18 and Chief of Staff of GCR CVP since FY17. In this episode, Jason discussed with us what takes a company to bring AI in, the relationship between AI and human as well as the potential ethical challenges behind AI application. Today, with Jason Tsao, we learn about his past careers and the impact AI has brought to various industries and human life. Show Notes0:59 Personal experience 2:39 Day to day life surrounding the topic of AI 6:17 Case of a shipping company 7:36 You need a sharing culture to bring AI in 9:20 You need a culture that encourages failing 12:25 The need of cooperation with different teams 13:57 AI has transformed the OCR technology 15:01 Microsoft research Asia's investment in AI 18:12 Will AI replace human intelligence 23:50 AI and creativity 30:17 Will AI inhibit human interaction 31:35 Business opportunity behind understanding the user’s emotion sign 33:54 When will AI be able to represent full human intelligence 35:15 AI and ethics40:14 AI for good initiative 42:06 Advice for AI startups

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro together did a net addition of 64,805 (after taking into account the attrition) in the financial year ended March 31, 2019, when compared to an addition of 9,864 in FY18 and 48,350 in FY17.  Aggressive hiring is expected to continue in this financial year because these players are trying to cash in on the emerging demand in the market. This is expected to lift the employee hiring numbers, especially the fresher intake, by the top three players. For more, listen to this podcast.

Robert Dacey, chief accountant at the Government Accountability Office, outlines a new report on the government’s finances, and why they’re “unsustainable.” Deborah Lee James, former Secretary of the U.S. Air Force, discusses the branch’s request for funding to fix bases, and the news that Space Force won’t absorb non-Air Force space infrastructure. Aaron Boyd, senior editor of NextGov, details what’s new with the FBI’s Information Technology Enterprise Contract Support contract, and the growing use of general GSA schedules at agencies.

123 Download the audio file here Subscriber to our feed here Sign up for email alerts as a new show goes live Subscribe or review us in iTunes. Simon Shares Wildest story of the year. Imbalie (JSE code: ILE) is ditching beauty to become a miner via a reverse listing! Local GDP for Q1 2018 was a shocker at -2.2%. Expected was -0.5% and the number is usually shifted higher over time, but wowzer. That all said, this was mostly driven by agriculture and frankly turning a country around is a slow process. Delta Properties (JSE code: DLT) has me perplexed. On a dividend yield of around 15% and trading at around 30% discount to net asset value (NAV) it seems a screaming buy - but that assumes the market is wrong and I never want to be the one telling the market that. They mostly have government as a tenant and a lot of their leases are on a month-to-month basis. But government isn't going to suddenly move out but they may put pressure on rent increases. The company says there is a process recently put in place by government to start signing leases and this should reduce the month-to-month leases and lower lending costs. Am I missing a trick or is the market, as always, right? Anthony Clark was at the Curro (JSE code: COH) annual general meeting (AGM) and tweeted that the company said with utilisation of 90% from the current +/-53% HEPS would be around 201c. So we have a marker for future earnings albeit no time line. That said even at 201c HEPS and a current price of 3000c that would put the stock on a PE of around 15x which to my mind is a fair valuation. Curro AGM; titbit. At 53% current capacity utilisation COH made 49cps in FY17. With NO NEW SPEND CEO says if it was at 90% utilisation FY17 earnings would have been 201cps showing how growing into latent built capacity can now power Curro's earnings growth ahead — Small Talk Daily (@SmallTalkDaily) June 4, 2018   OUTstanding money: Choosing between saving and investing Upcoming events; JSE Power Hour: When to sell long-term investments  Stale bulls In a recent Fat Wallet podcast Kristia commented again how her investments have done pretty much nothing over the last few years. Now there is only one reason we buy any share, ETF or even derivative - too make money. But what happens if we don't make money or worse the price falls and we're losing money. Now it depends in part what we bought. A derivative trader will stop out and indidiual share buyer may hold as they consider it quality and in time it will start moving while an ETF should in theory not worry about the short term and just continue holding. That's the theory. But we get a phenomenon called stake bulls, especially with individual shares. Lets take Aspen (JSE code: APN) as an example. It hit a price of almost R450 in January 2015 after trading at R100 for the first time just three years earlier and 1000c was hit for the first time in 2003. If you missed the initial run from 2003 you'd have felt aggrieved at missing out and you may have jumped in at R100. But many would have said no they'll wait for the pull back, a pull back that never really happened. Then after a price of almost R450 there is a serious pull back to almost R250 and many jumped in during that pull back. That was followed by another rally but only to R350 and now we're back at R250. So having watched Aspen be one of the best stocks on the JSE you're now holding it and your price is under water. You're not happy and frankly you want shot of the share - but ideally at as small a loss as possible - you're a stale bull. So now every time it rallies the stale bulls are ready to sell essentially capping the price. We see this with a number of local shares and to a lesser degree with ETFs (lesser here as we're too small to really influence an entire index). So what do we do? Firstly, recognise yourself as a stale bull if you are one, set your exit price and act accordingly. The new bulls are not your problem. Secondly, understand that if you are a new bull to a stock there may well be a lot of stake bulls lurking and this will make the rise higher a slow drawn out affair. That's fine, investing is about the long-term and if you hold quality it will in time preform. If you're trading the share understand the going may be slow and sticky as stale bulls keep exiting. Lastly if you're holding ETFs don't stress it. Sure over the last 3-5 years money in the bank has potentially beaten your ETF return. But again this is a long-term game and given time you'll make handsome profits. JSE – The JSE is a registered trademark of the JSE Limited. JSEDirect is an independent broadcast and is not endorsed or affiliated with, nor has it been authorised, or otherwise approved by JSE Limited. The views expressed in this programme are solely those of the presenter, and do not necessarily reflect the views of JSE Limited.

"From Losing Your Co-Founder to 59% Growth The Next Year" On Episode 8 of the “Future of Australia” podcast, I speak with Daniel Christos, the Founder and CEO of Cypha Interactive, a multi-platform interactive studio that creates engaging content and digital solutions, which grew 59% in FY17.

"One Day Away From Shutting Down to 1000% Annual Growth" On Episode 7 of the “Future of Australia” podcast, I speak with Mandeep Sodhi, the Founder and CEO of HashChing, a mortgage broker marketplace, which grew 973% in FY17 to hit $769,000 in revenue, since starting trading in 2015.

"Engineering Entrepreneurship and Managing BILLION Dollar Assets" On Episode 6 of the “Future of Australia” podcast, I speak with Jason Ryan, an entrepreneur running an Engineering Consultancy [JJ Ryan Consulting] which grew 97% in FY17 to hit $897,000 in revenue, since starting trading in 2014.

How did Singapore's economy do in 2017? What kind of new policies are we expecting in the future? And how will the GST hike affect our lives? In today's episode, I invite special guest Wesley Goh of the Innovation Campaign to dissect last week's Budget 2018 and bring you the answers! From the carbon tax to the new GST increases, tune in if you want to find out what it could mean for you. In today's episode, you will learn about Who Wesley is and what his project, the Innovation Campaign, is all about Why Wesley is an ardent supporter of “permissionless innovation” How Singapore fared fiscally in FY17 against expectations The direction of Singapore's fiscal spending What the carbon tax is, and how it affects everyone The mechanism in which taxes on industry gets passed on to consumers Why top-down approaches may not always be ideal The upcoming GST hikes and the multitudes of spending projects behind it How our government spending keeps growing bigger and bigger Why Singapore's unique model of 50-50 welfare What the new GST on imported services tax is, and who it impacts How this new tax hurts SMEs and small business, whilst penalizing consumers How such a policy might be detrimental to Singapore's drive for innovation For more content, you can follow the Economical Rice Podcast at the following links below: Website: www.economicalricepodcast.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/economicalricepodcast Instagram: www.instagram.com/economicalricepodcast Twitter: www.twitter.com/econricepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/economicalricepodcast/message

"Expat Entrepreneurship & Maximising Your Marketing Dollars" On Episode 3 of the “Future of Australia” podcast, I speak with Tracy Fitzgerald, a Sydney entrepreneur running a boutique marketing agency [Brandalism] which grew 148% in FY17 to hit $1,250,000 in revenue, since starting three years ago.

APAC Explorer: Asia Loans Editor Reviews FY17 Primary Market, Discusses 2018 Outlook by Debtwire Radio

Senior Director of Postal Affairs, Bob Schimek elaborates on the latest developments with the United States Postal Service: 1.) PRC Approves Price Change 2.) USPS Publishes their FY2017 Results 3.) Results from USPS Independent Audit of New Service Performance Measurement System

Editor and publisher of voice technology / AI news and commentary website Voicebot.ai Bret Kinsella is the sole guest on this week of This Week In Voice, as he and host Bradley Metrock discuss the growth of smart speaker sales in FY17, Amazon's Echo hardware being sold in Kohl's retail stores, Samsung's Bixby and Alibaba's Tmall Genie, and even a discussion on whether Apple's HomePod can be competitive in the marketplace, and Bret Kinsella's favorite thing Amazon has done in voice technology so far this year. It's a can't-miss episode. This Week In Voice is hosted by Bradley Metrock (CEO, Score Publishing) and is part of the VoiceFirst.FM podcast network.

Stephen and Ivan talk about the 'terrible' August retail sales and the better than expected FY17 budget position.

The fiscal year for Cooperative Program giving has ended and the result is a good one. Also, we sit down and talk college ministry with Jeff Dodge of the Salt Network.

More than 5,500 artifacts have been forfeited by Hobby Lobby and they've been fined $3 million. We discuss this and update you on the FY17 cooperative program budget plus much more.

Every week we go county to county talking tourism. This week we were in the studio with our "Winchester Tourism Guy" - Justin Kerns from Winchester-Frederick County Convention & Visitors Bureau and his guest, Shawn Hershberger, Winchester's Community Services Director. We talked about Shawn's newly created role - the position of Development Services Director is new to the City and was created with the FY17 adopted budget. This position will oversee the City's Planning, Zoning and Inspections, Tourism, Economic Redevelopment, Workforce and Business Development and Old Town departments. The Development Services Director also replaces the City's Economic Redevelopment Director position which was eliminated in the FY17 budget. Justin talked about the important relationship between economic development & tourism and how his department serves as an amplification (marketing) tool for small businesses and organizations throughout our community. He also gave us a quick run-down on some upcoming events - the full list can be found on their website:  http://www.visitwinchesterva.com/events

For this second of two episodes focused on Federal emergency management and homeland security funding, we hear from another veteran of such matters. Josh Filler was a legislative affairs director and office chief of staff in the NYC Mayor Giuliani administration before becoming the Director of State and Local Programs at the brand new Department of Homeland Security under President Bush. He continues to monitor and assess federal fiscal policy changes and their programatic impacts as he works with a number of states and UASIs. For us, he shares his assessment of the FY17 and FY18 budgets.

Matthew Hawkins and Travis Wussow welcome Andrew Walker to analyze the religious liberty executive order and pro-life items in the House-passed health care reform bill and the FY17 federal budget. Religious Liberty Executive Order 5 Facts About President Trump's Executive Order on Religious Liberty – ERLC ADF Press Release Executive Order on Religious Freedom Is a Beginning, Not an End – ADF Religious Liberty Reincarnation – WSJ Trump's Executive Order on Religious Liberty Is Worse Than Useless – David French Trump's Johnson Amendment Executive Order Does Not Say What He Said it Said – The Surly Subgroup Ryan Anderson's take On signed EO On February leaked (unsigned) EO Congress must act to strengthen Trump's order on religious liberty – The Hill Johnson Amendment History of the Johnson Amendment – ADF The FAQs: The Johnson Amendment and Political Speech in Churches – Joe Carter Andrew Walker publications God and the Transgender Debate Gospel for Life Series AndrewTWalker.com Bonus: Mental Model: Hanlon's Razor – Farnam Street

EDITOR'S NOTE : On Thursday, February 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided not to reinstate Trump’s executive action on immigration and refugees while the policy works its way through the legal system. This occurred after this episode was recorded. In this edition of Vargas Speaks, Dr. Vargas discusses: • the impact of President Trump's executive order on Southeast's International students • the impact of budget cuts on the FY17 budget • the university's draft policy addressing tobacco use and smoking on campus and discusses his plans for 2017 • the university's plan for the solar eclipse in August and about the visit by Dr. Michio Kaku as the keynote speaker as part of the celebration

Simon Shares African Phoenix (JSE code: AXL) is back and trading around 55c after a trading update suggesting around 3c HEPS for the first half. With a potential for maybe 8c-10c HEPS for the FY17 that's a PE of around 5x. Local markets gained 4.8% in January, this time last year after a horrid January everybody was saying 'as goes January so goes the year". Well they was wrong and what January does is only what January does, not the rest of the year. Upcoming events JSE Power Hour: Tax-free investing Momentum portfolio stock picks for 2017/8 JSE Power Hour: Finding that perfect share JSE Power Hour: Anthony Clark 2017 small cap picks Investment clubs A few requests on investment clubs; how to set them up, manage them, regulations etc. So here's my views, ideas and suggestion for getting your own investment club off the ground. JSE – The JSE is a registered trademark of the JSE Limited. JSEDirect is an independent broadcast and is not endorsed or affiliated with, nor has it been authorised, or otherwise approved by JSE Limited. The views expressed in this programme are solely those of the presenter, and do not necessarily reflect the views of JSE Limited.

00:45 - What deployments have we used? 3:22 - Heroku 5:10 - Dev/prod parity 10:30 - Deployment stories 11:50 - Continuous deployment CircleCI SnapCI 15:55 - Working with clients that are anti-testing and writing tests 28:50 - Server setup Docker Chef 34:05 - Nginx and Passenger 39:35 - Handling caching issues and increasing server space 44:25 - Methods for deploying 46:30 - Team size and deployment Capistrano 49:40 - Monitoring tools Code Climate Honey Badger Zabbix NewRelic TrackJS JSJ 138 with Todd Gardner Picks: Dinosaur Odyssey by Scott Sampson (Jason) Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan (Jason) Rails Solutions: Ruby on Rails Made Easy by Justin Williams (Jerome) Take My Money: Accepting Payments on the Web by Noel Rappin (Brian) Deploying with JRuby by Joe Kutner (Brian) RR Episode 281 with Noel Rappin RR 150 with Joe Kutner Echo Dot (Charles) The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (Brian) Getting Things Done by David Allen (Charles)

00:45 - What deployments have we used? 3:22 - Heroku 5:10 - Dev/prod parity 10:30 - Deployment stories 11:50 - Continuous deployment CircleCI SnapCI 15:55 - Working with clients that are anti-testing and writing tests 28:50 - Server setup Docker Chef 34:05 - Nginx and Passenger 39:35 - Handling caching issues and increasing server space 44:25 - Methods for deploying 46:30 - Team size and deployment Capistrano 49:40 - Monitoring tools Code Climate Honey Badger Zabbix NewRelic TrackJS JSJ 138 with Todd Gardner Picks: Dinosaur Odyssey by Scott Sampson (Jason) Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan (Jason) Rails Solutions: Ruby on Rails Made Easy by Justin Williams (Jerome) Take My Money: Accepting Payments on the Web by Noel Rappin (Brian) Deploying with JRuby by Joe Kutner (Brian) RR Episode 281 with Noel Rappin RR 150 with Joe Kutner Echo Dot (Charles) The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (Brian) Getting Things Done by David Allen (Charles)

00:45 - What deployments have we used? 3:22 - Heroku 5:10 - Dev/prod parity 10:30 - Deployment stories 11:50 - Continuous deployment CircleCI SnapCI 15:55 - Working with clients that are anti-testing and writing tests 28:50 - Server setup Docker Chef 34:05 - Nginx and Passenger 39:35 - Handling caching issues and increasing server space 44:25 - Methods for deploying 46:30 - Team size and deployment Capistrano 49:40 - Monitoring tools Code Climate Honey Badger Zabbix NewRelic TrackJS JSJ 138 with Todd Gardner Picks: Dinosaur Odyssey by Scott Sampson (Jason) Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan (Jason) Rails Solutions: Ruby on Rails Made Easy by Justin Williams (Jerome) Take My Money: Accepting Payments on the Web by Noel Rappin (Brian) Deploying with JRuby by Joe Kutner (Brian) RR Episode 281 with Noel Rappin RR 150 with Joe Kutner Echo Dot (Charles) The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (Brian) Getting Things Done by David Allen (Charles)

This webinar reviews the guidance for the Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant Program (SHIP) Fiscal Year 2017 Non-Competing Continuation (NCC) progress report, which is due on February 10, 2017. In addition, presenters will share information on how to complete the FY17 State Spreadsheet of SHIP Applicants and provide grant-writing resources.   Speakers: Federal Office of Rural Health Policy and National Rural Health Resource Center  

Topics include: Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick… • Only 4 days… This Thursday, Dec 8th is the last day for the final Board of Governor • James Bilbray will be officially done. • Likely the final board meeting being held with James Bilbray on Dec 5th and 6th. o Monday includes: Strategic Issues, Financial Matters, Pricing, and Personnel Matters and Compensation Issues o Tuesday include: Discussion of prior agenda items and Board Governance USPS starts FY 17 in the Black: • October is first month of the 2017 Fiscal Year • USPS Earned $504M (with a controllable operating net income of $400M) • Total Mail Volume was up 1.1% SPLY • Revenue was down 0.7% SPLY ($6.225B) (Exigency roll off) • Shipping Services Volume was up 9.0% SPLY and revenue up 11.4% SPLY • USPS received a Worker Comp Adjustment of $490M • USPS added several new lines to their income statement: o RHB Unfunded Liabilities Amortization: $245M o FERS UnFunded Liabilities Amortization: $21M o CSRS Unfunded Liabilities Amortization: $103M o These are all estimates, Actual bills will be received between June and October 2017) • Workhours were 0.3% below SPLY USPS Files Q4 2016 Service Performance Results with the PRC • Included both the new proposed internal system and the current external 3rd party system. • PRC is having the USPS run both for an unspecified period of time • USPS reported that the new systems still has some “hiccups” o System wide issues impacted two days of flat tracking across all classes of mail. o There were also some system issues where certain locations and dates had very little data. o Some year-to-date results are still being calculated manually (which will be automated by FY17 results) o Laundry list of other items. • USPS continues to stress that comparisons between the two systems may not be possible. • Q4 Results from the new system were based on $23.3 Billion Mail Pieces • Statistically Significant Differences were reported for o FC Overnight, FC Flats, All of PER, All of STD Mail (except HD & SAT Flats) PRC Elected Mark Acton to serve as Vice-Chair of the PRC for 2017 • Nanci Langley is currently serving as the Vice-Chair for 2016 USPS Provides PRC with more information on “Pinch Points”: • This all ties back to the USPS 2015 ACD • PRC asked the USPS to provide written method to measure, track and record the cost and service performance issues for each of the 6 “pinch points” that were identified related to flats mail stream (where products are not covering their costs). o In July 2016 the USPS submitted their response o In Sept the PRC advised the USPS response did not meet their expectation o So then a Technical Conference was held with PRC on October 21st o Now this past week the USPS filed an additional 100 page response • The response breaks out each pinch point and: o The process, its components, information currently available related to the pinch point o The cost to produce/aggregate data to quantify cost and service impacts o Additional information that could be developed and want would be needed to implement and monitor a comprehensive plan for flats

Here is a PDF of the FY17 Medical Corps LCDR promotion board statistics, summarized here: Above Zone – 3 of 7 eligible officers selected – 43% selection rate In Zone – 219 of 249 eligible officers selected – 88% selection rate Below Zone – 24 of 503 eligible officers selected – 5% OVERALL – 246 […]

Here are the promotion board statistics from the FY17 O5 board released yesterday: Below Zone – 0 officers selected/382 eligible – 0% selection rate In Zone – 85 officers selected/192 eligible – 44% selection rate Above Zone – 40 officers selected/129 eligible – 31% selection rate You can find an introduction to promotion board math […]

This week we are joined by Skip Martin of RoMa Craft Tobac and we smoke for the first time the CroMagnon Firecracker a limited edition release coming in late June. We will all bring you up to speed on FY17 and how Facebook tried to shut down some cigar groups…. All this and the usual madness known as The Cigar Authority

This week on The Cigar Authority we light up a cigar that received accolades many years ago, and we light up something that just hit the shelves this week. We will break down Agriculture Appropriations Bill FY17 and discuss what is new in the cigar world. All this and the usual Shenanigans known as The Cigar Authority

In this episode, we discuss gulp, twitter struggling to monetize, and the Salesforce live broadcast of their FY17 kickoff and product demos of new features for Sales and Service Lightning clouds.Gulp JSElectron IOCEO Jack Dorsey is trying to counter the company's flagging growth in user baseCamfed - Campaign for Female EducationFY17 Kickoff: First Look At Corporate And Product StrategyAutomatic

The FY17 Staff Corps O6 Board Convening Order was released after conclusion of the board.  The best news was that the promotion opportunity for Medical Corps was 70%, up from 50% last year, which was an all-time low.  Aside from that, though, if you read through the convening order, it basically tells you how to […]

The promotion boards for FY17 are rapidly approaching, so I wanted to briefly discuss who makes up the promotion boards and how to get on one. COMPOSITION OF THE BOARDS The promotion boards consist of five voting members, and at least three of them are required to have board experience. Someone is designated the senior […]