Podcasts about fy20

Apple's $500 Billion U.S. Investment Apple is making its largest financial commitment, pledging over $500 billion in the U.S. over four years to boost AI, silicon engineering, software, and R&D, creating 20,000 jobs. A key project is a Houston manufacturing facility assembling AI servers, set to open in 2026. Apple is also launching a Manufacturing Academy in Detroit to advance production techniques. This move follows Donald Trump's claim that Apple planned a major U.S. investment. With a supply chain spanning 24 silicon facilities across 12 states, Apple's investment solidifies its role in shaping American tech innovation. Mankind Pharma's Obesity Drug Bet Mankind Pharma is set to enter the $100 billion anti-obesity drug market, eyeing Semaglutide—the key ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy—whose patent expires in 2026. It joins Dr. Reddy's, Natco Pharma, and Sun Pharma in the race to launch generic GLP-1 drugs. Given the complexity of development, Indian firms, including Mankind, will likely rely on third-party collaborations while leveraging strong branding. Mankind is expanding into chronic and specialty therapies, growing its chronic segment from 20.4% in FY15 to 35.5% in FY24. As competition intensifies, the company aims to carve out a space in the lucrative weight-loss segment. Infosys-Daimler AI Deal Extension Infosys is advancing discussions to extend and expand its $3 billion contract with Daimler, originally signed in 2020, adding AI tools to enhance IT services. The deal, covering network, security, SAP, and data centers, currently generates $400 million annually for Infosys. The extension, from 2028 to 2029, aligns with Infosys CEO Salil Parekh's strategy of securing high-value, AI-driven contracts. The company's manufacturing sector revenue has surged from $1.3 billion in FY20 to $2.8 billion in FY24. With businesses prioritizing AI, Infosys's early renewal signals a broader shift toward AI-powered IT services. NTPC-EDF Green Energy Partnership State-run NTPC Ltd and EDF India, a subsidiary of France's EDF, have signed a non-binding agreement for a 50:50 joint venture in pumped storage, hydro, and renewable projects across India and neighboring countries. NTPC, India's largest power producer, is targeting 60GW renewable capacity by 2032. The company recently listed NTPC Green Energy Ltd (NGEL) to accelerate green hydrogen, methanol, and SAF investments. In January, PM Narendra Modi laid the foundation for India's first green hydrogen hub in Andhra Pradesh, part of a ₹1.85 trillion investment plan under the National Green Hydrogen Mission. RBI Eases Withdrawal Limits for New India Cooperative Bank The RBI has allowed depositors of New India Cooperative Bank to withdraw up to ₹25,000 per account after dissolving its board over supervisory concerns. More than 50% of depositors can now withdraw their full balances, while others can access up to ₹25,000 via branches and ATMs from February 27, 2025. The bank held ₹2,436.4 crore in deposits as of March 2024, with a declining loan book and capital adequacy ratio (9.1%) below the required 10% for two years. RBI assured depositors it is closely monitoring the situation and taking necessary measures.

Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Tuesday, December 17, 2024. This is Nelson John, let's get started. Sanjay Malhotra recently took charge as the 26th governor of the Reserve Bank of India, and he's facing some tricky challenges right off the bat. The Indian economy, which had been growing robustly at over 8% just last year, has now slowed to a growth rate of 5.4% in the second quarter of FY25. This slowdown is part of what's shaping up to be a period of stagflation —in which slow growth is coupled with high inflation, complicating policy decisions considerably. N Madhavan explains that if Malhotra decides to cut interest rates to spur growth, he risks increasing prices further, with inflation already above the RBI's target of 4%. On the flip side, maintaining the current interest rates could slow economic growth even more. Ustad Zakir Hussain is celebrated not just as a tabla virtuoso but as a magician of music. Hussain transformed every performance into a vibrant narrative, weaving stories through the rhythmic syllables of the tabla. Descended from the esteemed Ustad Alla Rakha, and known for his innovative collaborations across diverse genres and cultures, Hussain transcended musical boundaries. Beyond his global acclaim and numerous accolades, his true legacy lies in the joy and passion he brought to his art, making his music a universal language of emotion and storytelling. In this poignantly penned tribute, Raja Sen celebrates the maestro's legacy. As the year winds down, villa rental companies are gearing up for a busy season, thanks to Christmas and New Year's Eve landing smack in the middle of the week. Devendra Parulekar from SaffronStays told Varuni Khosla that because these holidays fall on weekdays this year, people are extending their stays. Instead of the typical two-night stay, many are making bookings for three or four nights, giving occupancy rates a nice bump. Ritwik Khare from Elivaas noticed that bookings really picked up after Diwali, especially from Gujarati travelers, which helped balance out a slower October. But in Goa, there's a bit of a squeeze on nightly rates because the villa supply has shot up by as much as 60-70% over the past year. That's a lot of new options for travelers!When Pune-based Persistent Systems crossed $1 billion in revenue in FY23, founder Anand Deshpande credited the achievement to CEO Sandeep Kalra and his team. Kalra, who joined in 2019, revamped the company's strategy, focusing on key sectors and partnerships with major vendors such as Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, and boosting revenue from $501 million in FY20 to $1.18 billion in FY24. Similarly, Coforge saw significant growth under CEO Sudhir Singh, increasing its CAGR to 16% by FY24. These examples highlight how strategic leadership changes at mid-tier tech firms such as Persistent and Coforge are driving rapid growth and helping these companies compete effectively in the IT services industry. Shelley Singh takes a deep dive into how strategic leadership changes at mid-tier tech companies are changing the game. Global investment firm Actis is considering selling its Indian renewable energy platform, BluePine Energy, due to increased investor interest in clean-energy assets. The company, part of a larger movement in the renewables sector, is potentially valued around $1 billion, Sneha Shah and Nehal Chaliawala report. BluePine, which boasts of about 2.6 gigawatts of solar and wind assets in India, could benefit from Actis's experience in acquiring significant renewable assets. This potential sale highlights the dynamic market activity, which includes other notable assets and acquisitions, reflecting a robust interest in sustainable investments amid India's push for clean energy. 

Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Thursday, June 27, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started: The equity markets rose on Wednesday. Nifty was up by 0.62 percent, while Sensex edged up by 0.80 percent.  It's been seven years since the central government imposed the Goods and Services Tax, commonly known as GST, on India. The aim was to create a common market where sellers and buyers didn't have to worry about a myriad of state and municipal taxes. However, the current slab structure has introduced a lot of complexities into the tax structure. The largest friction point has been over the funds that the states receive from the centre. How India Lives . com analyses these claims, and tries and figures out if the distribution of collected taxes is equitable for all the states. Central banks in the UK and Canada have cut their interest rates. The US Federal Reserve, which directly and indirectly controls the world economy to a large extent, has been mulling a rate cut for months as well. India's mutual fund industry is anticipating such a move from the Reserve Bank of India as well. If that happens, funds want to cash in. They're doing this via duration funds — a portfolio of bonds. Bond yields change according to current interest rates. As Anil Poste explains, a declining interest rate would provide higher returns via longer duration bonds. Mutual fund experts are bullish considering India's inflation and the relatively stable economic environment. Even just a 50 bonus point cut — that's half a percent over the next 12 months— would greatly improve the yields of this bond, Anil writes. Ask any lay person for categories of four-wheelers, and they would probably list out hatchbacks, sedans, and SUVs. But ask any sector expert, and they'd tell you CV and PV: commercial and passenger vehicles, respectively. Commercial vehicles are a category of vehicles that you wouldn't really buy: this includes trucks, buses, vans, and tempos. Tata Motors has now decided to split its two businesses in order to focus better on these respective segments. The combined entity had CVs as the cash cow, but was bankrolling Tata's PVs. Nehal Chaliawala writes that now that the PV segment has turned profitable on its own, Tata Motors' split between the two will help CVs power through on the back of its own revenue. Meanwhile PVs, which include the new successful upstart electric vehicles as well, will hope to achieve an Ebidta margin of 10%. Every year, the government boasts of lifting millions of people out of poverty. However, as N Madhavan writes, the way it goes about it isn't the most reliable. Poverty is measured by arriving at a poverty line. Those who fall under this line are considered poor by definition. The current achievements have been touted because we're still using the poverty line set in 2012. Experts are now calling for a new line that takes into account the inflation and living conditions. If you're looking to build a new factory, you might want to wait for just a bit more. In a bid to encourage India's lagging manufacturing sector, the government had put a 15 percent tax rate for new manufacturing facilities. This started in 2019, and led to over 23,000 factories opening in FY20. However, covid-induced lockdowns stalled progress. This scheme's validity expired on 31 March this year. Gireesh Chandra Prasad reports that the government is likely to restore this concessional rate in their next Budget. A lower tax rate is a great incentive for India's manufacturing sector to take off, and the new government is counting on it.  We'd love to hear your feedback on this podcast. Let us know by writing to us at feedback@livemint.com. You may send us feedback, tips or anything that you feel we should be covering from your vantage point in the world of business and finance. Show notes: Seven years on, GST still sparks Centre-state frictionWhy the mutual fund industry is betting on duration funds Tata Motors says demerger will allow all businesses to unlock potential Why India must count its poor accurately Building a new factory? Budget may extend concessional tax rate for a year

India Policy Watch #1: What Do Successive Defence Budgets Reveal?Insights on burning policy issues in India— Pranay Kotasthane(An edited version of this article was published in Hindustan Times on 13th Feb)Another defence budget zoomed past us on Feb 1. Since then, analyses have focused on how the defence spending for the coming year departs from the last year. Some have waved a red flag as defence spending has fallen below 2 per cent of GDP for the first time in many years. On the other hand, the defence ministry's post-budget press release emphasised a 44 per cent increase in operational spending, which is expected to “close critical gaps in the combat capabilities and equip the Forces in terms of ammunition, sustenance of weapons & assets, military reserves etc.” The ministry also highlighted that the capital outlay for modernisation and infrastructure development has risen by a seemingly handsome 57 per cent over the last five years. How, then, do we make sense of these conflicting narratives?Comparing allocations with those in the previous year gives us a confusing picture. Every interest group can pull up a number from the budget to suit their pre-formed narrative. Taking a step back from these narratives, this article will show that this was another run-of-the-mill defence budget, just like the previous one was. Nothing in it indicates any significant change in the defence posture. Unlike Japan, which has announced a doubling of its military spending in the next five years, India's approach is about gradually improving the operational efficiency of the armed forces.Looking under the hoodThis article looks at the defence expenditure over the last six budgets to make sense of the numbers. To put numbers into context, let's use an earlier year (FY16). FY16 is a useful reference point as it predates two major developments: China's visibly aggressive posture on the border and the budgetary commitments arising from the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme. Three observations follow from such an analysis.One, not only has defence spending fallen as a proportion of GDP, but it has also fallen as a percentage of government expenditure. In other words, defence has slipped in priority relative to non-defence functions (Figure 1). Two, the China challenge hasn't led to any spectacular change in the composition of defence expenditure. Defence spending can be divided into four major components: salaries, pensions, capital outlay, and others. As Figure 2 shows, capital outlay was being squeezed by rising pension expenditure over the last few years. For two consecutive years (FY19 and FY20), more money was spent on pensions than on capital acquisition and modernisation. The balance has now been marginally restored since FY21, after the Galwan crisis flared up.Crucially, the rises in pension and capital expenditures have come at the cost of operational and maintenance expenditures, including ammunition stores (under the Others category). It is hence not surprising that the latest budget is trying to arrest this decline in combat capabilities.Three, this period has been relatively better for the Indian Navy in terms of capital expenditure. Since the procurement of new platforms happens over multiple years, a temporal view is useful in analysing how capital outlay is split between the three armed forces. Figure 3 suggests that the big change in the last four years is in the capital outlay for the Indian Navy, with the FY24 figure having doubled in absolute terms since FY20.The Big PictureBy connecting these dots over the last five years, the picture that emerges is this: the government seems confident that China can be handled without a substantial rise in defence expenditure. The latest budget serves as a bellwether indicator for this claim. It was the first budget of the post-pandemic period, at a time when the economic prospects for India had improved considerably. The government achieved better-than-expected buoyancy in income taxes and GST in the current financial year, while the cooling of global fertilizer prices has led to a decline in the projected subsidy bill. Consequently, the government, for the first time in many years, had some fiscal room to play with. It has used that space to increase the overall capital outlay to Rs 10 lakh crore, almost three times the outlay in 2019-20. Despite this increase in the overall capital outlay, the defence budget resembles the middle overs of a one-day cricket match.From a financial savings perspective, there have been just two important changes over this period in the defence domain. The first was the announcement of the Agnipath scheme. It might reduce the pension burden, but these savings will reflect only after a decade-and-a-half. Other proposals, such as theatre commands, haven't come to fruition yet. The proposal to create a non-lapsable fund for modernisation — a proposal the union government gave an in-principle agreement way back in Feb 2021, still hasn't found a mention in the latest budget.Probably, the defence budget is the wrong place to infer India's strategic posture against China. Perhaps, the government considers other tools of statecraft—diplomatic, economic, or non-conventional—more suitable for the purpose. This point needs deeper reflection. The discussions over the roles of these tools of statecraft currently operate under mistaken assumptions. Attempts at getting India into an anti-China alliance are spurned at the altar of “strategic autonomy”. The opponents seem to assume that India only needs to equip its armed forces with greater firepower. For too long, many parliamentary standing committees and defence organisations have gone hoarse trying to convince the government that defence expenditure should be raised to 3 per cent of GDP. If anything, the change is in the opposite direction.The defence budget trends are a reminder that the government does not prefer using the military instrument to outflank China. At best, it wants to equip the armed forces such that China's incursions can be matched or repulsed. Given that there's no significant increase in allocations for the Navy and the Air Force, it also means that the government is not considering an increased presence in the South China Sea. So, the military is being equipped to plug a vulnerability and not to gain an asymmetric political advantage over China. This line of thinking probably makes sense. There's no point in matching China's defence spending dollar-for-dollar. After all, the Indian armed forces are more adept at fighting at high altitudes. But this line of thinking should also make it apparent that India must develop capabilities in domains other than those involving force to inflict pain on China. The government should build a political consensus that closer relations with China's adversaries are not a matter of choice but an imperative. That we need to double down on economic growth and technological upgrading if we are to constrain China's hand in other domains. It also means that we shouldn't be indiscriminately banning China's investments in India; a better approach would be to make their companies in non-strategic domains more dependent on the Indian market. We will then have more tools in our kit to deploy if the situation on the border worsens. Each of these posture changes needs an updating of our priors and payoffs. For that to happen, it is necessary that the government comes clean about China's incursions. Pretending that all's well might give us false comfort, but they will also dissuade the strategic establishment from confronting the tough trade-offs in non-military domains. Without this pivot, we would merely rely on hope as a strategy. India Policy Watch #2: Through The Looking GlassInsights on burning policy issues in India— RSJWe talk about the arbitrary powers of the state on these pages often. Now, we cannot grudge the state's sovereignty because we have voluntarily handed it that power. One argument that follows from this is that such power is often prone to be used arbitrarily. And that's a problem for the citizens. The typical solution we have offered on these pages over time is to restrict the domain of the state to a narrow set where it can make the maximum impact or to design its incentives in a way that makes the state act with accountability. Now, these are good design principles. We could use them to create structures and institutions that are strong and independent that could hold their own against any arbitrary use of power. But are these enough? A natural question that should follow is how do we know things are working in practice like they were meant to? How do we get authentic information about how the state is conducting itself? How do we confirm that it is not subverting the institutional design that is in place to control its powers? These questions lead us to the other pillar of a well-functioning democracy - transparency. It is a topic we haven't discussed enough on these pages. Transparency is a moral good, and it is vital for a healthy democracy. Darkness stunts democracy. It needs light to thrive. In the early part of the 20th century, the US Supreme Court judge Louis Brandeis famously remarked, “sunlight is the best disinfectant” while making a case for a transparency imperative. Or, if we were to go further back, Bentham, often credited to have done the most original thinking on transparency, summed it up with - the more strictly we are watched, the better we behave - a principle he put at the heart of his advocacy for an open government. So, what has triggered my early morning ruminations on transparency? Well, there are two reasons. Here's one. The Indian Express reports:“The Supreme Court said it did not want to accept in a “sealed cover” the Centre's suggestions on who could be the members of a committee the court had proposed to assess the market regulatory framework and recommend measures, if any, to strengthen it in the wake of the Adani-Hindenburg affair. It refused to accept any suggestions on names from the petitioners as well.Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, who headed a three-judge bench hearing a clutch of petitions on the Hindenburg Research report and its aftermath, told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the court wanted to maintain “full transparency”. The court would appoint a committee of its own that will promote a sense of confidence in the process, he said.”CJI Chandrachud said, “We would rather not accept the sealed cover suggestions from you for this reason; in constituting a committee which we want to do, we want to maintain full transparency. The moment we accept a set of suggestions from you in a sealed cover, it means the other side is not seeing them. Even if we don't accept your suggestions, they will not know which of your suggestions we have accepted and which we have not. Then there may be an impression that well, this is a government-appointed committee which the Supreme Court has accepted even if we have not accepted your suggestions. So, we want to maintain the fullest transparency in the interest of protecting the investors.”Bravo. The Chief Justice was almost channelling Bentham there, who famously wrote, “secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government.” I mean, what even is a sealed cover in a matter that concerns millions of ordinary investors? Why should there be secrecy in the name of experts and their recommendations? A sealed cover is a strange invention. It gives the sheen of a fair and independent process to what is essentially a subversion of a democratic principle. It ranks up there among one of the great Indian coinages. The top spot, of course, is forever occupied by ‘mild lathicharge'. And now, onto the other reason for all this talk on transparency. This was the headline-grabbing news of this week in India - “Weeks after its documentary taken off, BBC gets I-T knock”. Here's the Indian Express reporting on this with many quotes from “unnamed government sources”:“The Income-Tax Department surveys at the premises of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Delhi and Mumbai on Tuesday (February 14) were conducted in view of the BBC's “deliberate non-compliance with the transfer pricing rules” and its “vast diversion of profits”, government sources said.The surveys were looking into “manipulation of prices for unauthorized benefits, including tax advantages”, sources said.The BBC has been “persistently and deliberately violative of transfer pricing rules, it has “deliberately diverted a significant amount of the profits”, and has not followed the “arm's length arrangement” in the allocation of profit, the sources said.”A very garrulous source there with a lot of information. I don't want to ascribe motives to the tax raids yet. There's enough in the timing of these ‘surveys' to raise suspicions. The I-T department has been used to settle political and other scores for decades. It speaks poorly of our institutional strength and independence. But that's not the issue we are discussing today. The question is about transparency. Does anyone know why the surveys were carried out? The sources have cleverly given some reasons, but what stops the department from giving an official reason for them? Is it because it is likely that if they give the official reason, there will be further questions on the arbitrary nature of the actions? So, it is best to share nothing officially, selectively leak information to the media to paint the BBC in poor light and get away with harassment that then sends a message across to other foreign media outlets. Because even based on the merits of what the sources have said, it is difficult to justify a two-day survey. To quote the same news report:“Transfer pricing issues are very common for foreign companies but survey/search actions against them are not common. Assessment is usually opted for but is not the only route through which such cases can be approached. If tax officers want to do a survey/search, then transfer pricing issues can get covered.However, it is an approval-driven process with prior approvals required within the tax department before carrying out survey action. They would be having some information against the company and there might be a history of non-compliance too,” a Delhi-based tax expert said.  A notice preferably is issued to a company in an assessment exercise by the tax authorities flouting transfer pricing rules before undertaking any such action, experts said."It shouldn't surprise anyone that political actors don't like transparency. It adds to their burden of accountability and increases the political costs of any missteps, deliberate or otherwise. So, how should the citizens keep up the demand for transparency in a democratic setup? After all, for the citizens to be involved in the governance process, they must have access to the government's information, plans and intentions. Also, there is a line beyond which too much transparency could be counterproductive. Too much information, too early in the process, could mean stalling the plan as interest groups jump in and skew the decision-making process. I have outlined three frames that one could use to think about transparency in a democracy.First, it is in the long-term interest of political parties to seek transparency in a democratic setup. For those in the opposition, it is about making the incumbent party in power more accountable. For the incumbent, too, there's always the uncertainty about the future when they might not be in power. In such a scenario, it is better for them to have stronger laws on transparency for their own access to government information, which they can use to hold others accountable. A lack of certainty about future electoral prospects for any party is a feature of a good democracy. It is in this environment most transparency laws are made. In India, too, the RTI came about because of grassroots activism and a broad consensus among the political class led by the party in power then. However, it is important to note that the Overton window was right during that time when getting re-elected was an exception. It meant the political actors were keen to have access to information in future. In that sense, any period when transparency is suppressed in a democracy is a good surrogate for the power of the party in power. In India, the RTI laws allow for access to a significant amount of government information. The problem is that there is a gradual erosion of its ambit as the dominant political class comes to view it as an irritant. The only way to counter this is for the citizenry to continue using the RTI tool to its fullest extent. The more people know the tool's power, the harder it will be to blunt it. Second, it is important to devolve transparency to state and local governments. This is where the political uncertainty is still high in India, which means there's an incentive for political actors to support transparency moves to guarantee their own access to information in future. This is also the space where petty corruption is still rampant. One of the challenges of RTI in India is that most of the activism here is focused on big-ticket issues. The opportunity to bring sunlight as a disinfectant and its payoffs are the highest at the local level of governance. Separately, there are also specific areas in the private sector that could do with improved transparency. This is tricky territory, and let me be very specific about this. There's a significant amount of information that's collected, often without explicit consent, from the citizens by the private sector, which is then monetised in various ways. The mechanism by which their information is used and the extent to which the private sector, especially the social media platforms,  benefits from it are not transparent to the citizens who are the customers. If your attention is being monetised through multiple trackers and personalised ads, it is only fair you must know the rules of the game and agree to play it. This is still a white space of policymaking in India.   Lastly, the oft-cited risk of policy waters being muddied because of transparency, where various interest groups will lobby for their positions and slow down the decision-making process, is a bit misplaced. Those in favour of transparency do not argue for the innards of policymaking being put out for display. That process requires stakeholder mapping and seeking inputs in a way that's been documented by various policy thinkers. We have written about the eight-step process of policymaking on these pages on multiple occasions. The issue of transparency is important in two areas. First, the implementation and measurement of a policy proposal. How did a policy fare compared to its promise? Were the public resources and efforts prudently used? Was there a clear understanding of why something failed? Access to this information is important for the public and experts outside the government to hold the government accountable and improve future decisions. Second, the size of the state in India often means it is the biggest, often the sole, customer in multiple sectors and its decision on setting the rules of games in these sectors, awarding contracts and its performance in managing its budget should be available for public scrutiny. Again, this doesn't mean the government should vet its decisions at each stage with prevailing public opinion. Rather it must be able to explain its process and the rationale for decisions openly and transparently. The practice of sealed covers or I-T surveys and raids without a clear reason isn't new to India. What's new is the somewhat strange support for these actions by the mainstream media that are being fed by the ever-bizarre theories cooked by the partisans on social media. BBC isn't doing a documentary on Gujarat because China is now funding it. Nor is there a leftist cabal that's busy bringing Adani down one week and using BBC the next to show the government in a bad light. This playbook is reminiscent of the Indira era of the mid-70s, where in the name of national interest, we buried transparency and accountability. It took us decades to get out of that mire. Learning from history is free, but most of us fail the eventual test.PolicyWTF: Casually Banning Films Committee, RepriseThis section looks at egregious public policies. Policies that make you go: WTF, Did that really happen?— Pranay Kotasthane Last week, I came across an excellent report by Aroon Deep in The Hindu that explains how the Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) is going way beyond its usual stance of “demanding” cuts of scenes showing sexual content, violence, or abusive language. Instead, the CBFC now also has a perspective on dietary preferences (demanding that mention of “beef” be struck off), foreign policy (demanding that references to ex-KGB officers, China, and Pakistan be removed), and even corruption (how can a filmmaker dare depict a police officer accepting a bribe?). Seriously, what an omniscient body.Despite its activism, the Censor Board hasn't impressed the extremists. One Hindu group leader has called for creating a ‘Dharma Censor Board' “to review Bollywood films and keep a check on any anti-religious content or distortion of facts about Sanatan Dharma.” In his words:“Our experts will see a film when it is released and if we find it suitable for people belonging to Sanatan Dharma, we will issue a certificate. At present, films passed by the censor board set up by the government have been found carrying scenes that hurt the sentiments of people. We have repeatedly asked for a religious person to be included in the censor board but this demand has not been accepted. This is why we had to constitute our own board.”While it sounds absolutely absurd at face value, there is a liberal way out to assimilate this conservative critique. We covered it in edition #122, and I want to re-emphasise those points.In 2016, my former colleagues Madhav, Adhip, Shikha, Siddarth, Devika and Guru wrote an interesting paper in which they recommended that film certification should be privatised.Deploying the Banishing Bureaucracy framework, they wrote:The CBFC be renamed the Indian Movie Authority (IMA) and that the primary purpose of the IMA would be to license and regulate private organisations called Independent Certifying Authorities (ICAs) which will then certify films.So, the Hindu group can very well have its own ICA, which will rate the movie on its Sanatana Dharma compliance score. But…The certificate granted by ICA will only restrict what age groups the film is appropriate for. This is the only form of pre-censorship that is necessary in today's age as all other restrictions on film exhibition should be applied retrospectively. The choice of ICAs available for producers to approach will render the question of subjectivity moot as the producer can switch to another ICA if unsatisfied with the certificate. The IMA will set the guidelines for the ICAs to follow and will be the first point of appeal.In other words, this solution reimagines the CBFC as a body that grants licenses to independent and private certification organisations called ICAs. These ICAs must adhere to certain threshold criteria set by the CBFC. Beyond these criteria, some ICAs may specialise themselves as being the sanskaari ones trigger-happy to award an “A” certification, while others may adopt a more liberal approach. In the authors' words:This will allow the marketplace of ideas to draw the lines of what kind of content is fit for what kind of audience with the government still being capable of stepping in to curb prurient sensibilities.This solution has the added benefit of levelling the playing field between OTT content and films. Currently, the CBFC has no capacity to certify the content being churned out on tens of streaming services. By delegating this function to private ICAs, the government can ensure adherence to certification norms.In essence, just as governments can often plug market failures, markets too can sometimes plug government failures. Reforming our ‘Censor Board' requires giving markets a chance.There's much more detail in the paper about grievance redressal, certification guidelines, and appeals procedure. Read it here.HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters* [Podcast] Over at Puliyabaazi, we discuss technology geopolitics with Anirudh Suri, author of The Great Tech Game.* [Paper] Laxman Kumar Behera's take on the defence budget.* [Paper] This paper has a fantastic framework for understanding policy failures and successes. This is a public episode. 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As Senior Associate Dean of Development at UNC Kenan-Flager Business School, Shontel Grumhus leads a team of 27 development professionals and reports to the dean of the business school. Under her leadership, the UNC Kenan-Flager has exceeded a $400 million campaign goal for the School, overseen a successful new building campaign; and broke the record for best fundraising year ever at UNC Kenan-Flagler in '21 and '22. She has personally closed more than $33.3 million in gifts and commitments in FY21-22 and $50 million in FY20-21.

The MPC will meet today to decide on policy rates in Egypt. We think inflationary pressures accompanied by the weakening FX and general risk aversion attitude by investors towards the EMs in general, and, more importantly, commitments implied by the IMF loan might induce the CBE to respond by a potential considerable hike, maybe 200bps.According to the Minister of Planning, the government allocated EGP302.2 billion to social protection programs during FY22/23, an increase of 17.6% compared to EGP251 billion actually paid in FY20/21.Non-petroleum exports increased to USD30.4 billion during the first 10 months of 2022, growing 12% YoY. Building materials imports increased by 8% YoY to USD5.75 billion. Steel rebars are currently sold at EGP27.5-30k per ton, higher than ex-factory price by EGP3.5-6k per ton.Alexandria Mineral Oils Company (AMOC) and Paint and Chemical Industries (Pachin) have each decided to delist their global depository receipts (GDRs) from the London Stock Exchange.Paint and Chemical Industries (Pachin) will respond to the takeover offer from Dubai-based National Paints Holdings (NPH) as soon as early January.Egypt exported EUR 1.5billion worth of fertilizers across the Mediterranean during 10M2022, almost triple that of 2021, according to the Chemical and Fertilizers Export Council.Energy companies can bid for 12 new oil and gas exploration blocks in the Mediterranean and Nile Delta starting next week in an international tender set to be launched by state-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS).Oil prices increased by more than USD2/bbl on Wednesday after data showed a larger than expected draw in U.S. crude stockpiles. Brent crude is currently trading at USD82.62/bbl.FRA data revealed that insurance gross premiums increased to EGP42.24 billion (+12.4% YoY). The value of financial leasing activity amounted to EGP64.69 billion (+11.2% YoY), while consumer financing increased by 84.4% YoY to record EGP21.05 billion. Microfinance balances reached EGP35.48 billion (+45.3% YoY). Lastly, mortgage jumped to EGP11.45 billion by the end of September 2022 (+106.9% YoY), while securitization bond issuances also jumped 5 times to reach EGP34.8 billion.

Palo Alto Networks has earned a reputation as the leader in security. You can measure this in revenue, market cap, execution and, most importantly, conversations with CISOs. The company is on track to double its revenues to nearly $7B in FY23 from FY20. This despite macro headwinds which will likely continue through next year. Palo Alto owes its position to a clarity of vision and strong execution of a TAM expansion strategy bolstered by key acquisitions and integrations into its cloud & SaaS offerings.  In this Breaking Analysis, and ahead of Palo Alto Ignite, we bring you the next chapter on top of last week's cybersecurity update. We'll dig into the ETR spending data on Palo Alto Networks, provide a glimpse of what to look for at Ignite and posit what Palo Alto needs to do to stay on top of the hill.

Way2VAT Ltd (ASX:W2V) CEO Amos Simantov tells Proactive that the company is finishing the year strongly - recording an annualised gross transaction volume run rate of A$19.47 million, which includes transactions coming from its recent acquisition of DevoluIVA. The run rate is a 43% increase on the previous 12 months and up 169% on FY20. #ProactiveInvestors #asx #Way2VAT #invest #investing #investment #investor #stockmarket #stocks #stock #stockmarketnews

In this second episode of BWM Podcast, Caleb and Pankaj discuss current situation at BYJU's and their future plan of going global. BYJU's recently revealed their numbers for FY-21 and it's revenue from operations barely grew 4% to Rs 2280 crore in FY21 from Rs 2,189 crore in the previous fiscal year (FY20). However, the company's losses ballooned 14.9X to Rs 4,564 crore during the same period. After this announcement, BYJU's fired 2500 of it's employees and announced a plan to become profitable by March 2023. According to Divya Gokulnath, co-founder of Byju, the company will start concentrating on establishing brand awareness abroad through new collaborations and hire 10,000 teachers for both its Indian and international operations. "We have designed a path to profitability which we plan to achieve by March 2023. We have built significant brand awareness throughout India and there is scope to optimise marketing budget and prioritise the spends in a way that it creates a global footprint. Second is operational cost and the third is integration of multiple business units," Gokulnath said. Along with this, company is now looking at global markets like US, South America and Europe. In this direction, BYJU's has acquired rights to become principal sponsor of FIFA World Cup 2023.

Over 74% of Indian Railways revenue comes from its freight operations. It is the backbone of the railways, and also supports passenger operations. So the health of the railways depends a lot on how its freight service is performing. Report card of Railways' freight service And it is doing really well. In the last two years, railways freight loading has been impressive. Despite the pandemic, the freight loading in FY21 exceeded that of FY20. Indian railways ferried 1,418 million tonnes of freight in FY22, a jump of 15% over the previous fiscal's 1,233 mt. Railways had recorded 25 straight months of best-ever monthly freight loading till September this year. The cumulative freight loading by Indian railways during the April-September period of current fiscal stood at 736.68 million tonnes (MT) as against 668.86 MT achieved in the same period of FY22, representing a growth of 10.14%. And the cumulative earnings from freight stood at Rs 1.43 trillion during fiscal 2022. The annual increment of over 180 mt was also the highest recorded in a single year. The previous best incremental loading in absolute terms was 66.1 mt achieved more than a decade ago in the year 2005-06. Uptick in coal transportation -- the mainstay of Railways' freight service Coal accounts for the majority of freight basket, with iron ore being a distant second. In FY22, railways transported over 650 million tonnes of coal, as compared to 542 million tonnes in FY21 with a growth of 20%. The uptick in coal transport was mainly driven by increased power demand. After shortages were reported around last year and early this year, the railways had ramped up the transportation. Coal freight has increased over 32% between September 2021 and March 2022. Anil Kumar Lahoti, General Manager of Central Railway has said the freight increase seen this year is due to several business development initiatives, including the infrastructure upgrade on Central Railway. The pickup in automobile transportation One of the highlights of this year's freight business is the increase in automobile loading as 2,712 rakes have been loaded till September this year, higher by over 70% when compared with the same period of last year. Automobiles' share in railways' freight basket is very less when compared with the overall volumes. However, Railways has taken several initiatives to boost its share. It had liberalised its automobile freight train operator (AFTO) policy in 2018, with the aim of attracting more interest from automobile companies. Under the revised policy, registration fee for AFTO was reduced by 40% to Rs 3 crore, along with relaxations under the minimum procurement policy. In line with this, there has been a steady rise in automobile traffic in the past few years. Approximate estimates would put automobile freight at close to 4.6 lakh units so far this fiscal year. The government is devising more strategies to fuel auto traffic. To accommodate SUV cars, a new design of auto-carrier wagons is under finalisation. To facilitate loading /unloading of automobiles, design-modification to the existing NMG wagons is also under execution. Auto makers are now planning to increase the distribution of vehicles through rail transport by up to 30% by 2027. This share was 16% in FY22. With railways being a cleaner source of transport, higher freight through it contributes to overall reduction of carbon footprint. The speed The freight trains speeds have also increased over the years, thanks to a plan called “Mission Raftaar.” From FY17 to FY21, the average speed of freight trains has increased from 23.7 km per hr to 41.2 kms per hr. Indian Railway is constructing more than 3,000 km of Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), which would enable freight trains to run at speed of 100 kmph. Diversifying the freight basket Railways is also looking to diversify its freight basket to reduce dependence on coal. It is planning to ferry more automobiles, consumer g

Barring a few names such as Apollo Hospitals and Fortis Healthcare, most hospital stocks have firmly outperformed the market in the last six months.  Aster DM Healthcare, Shalby, Max Healthcare, and Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences have gained up to 23% during this period versus a 3% slide each in the BSE Sensex and BSE healthcare indices. Analysts, too, remain firmly upbeat on the sector, which is undergoing a healthy expansion cycle, and is seeing a recovery in its non-Covid business. Param Desai, Research Analyst, Prabhudas Lilladher says, the sector is reaping benefits of previous capex. Most companies are yet to reach optimum utilisation. Average revenue per operating bed remains healthy. Pricing, international patient inflow to drive near-term growth.  Analysts see strong growth visibility over the next 4-5 years as hospitals would add twice the current capacities by this time. Apollo Hospitals, for instance, recently, marked its entry into Haryana as it acquired a hospital asset in Gurugram for Rs 450 crore. Fortis Healthcare, too, has lined up a capex of Rs 400 crore for the current fiscal, while Max Healthcare is said to be in the race to acquire Care Hospitals. The companies are generating strong cash flows, and the debt leverage for major players has significantly improved vs pre-Covid year of FY20. According to Jefferies, in FY22, Max and Fortis' net debt to EBITDA came below 1x, while it was 1.2x for Apollo. This has slipped from over 3.5x levels over the last five years Besides, the sector's shift towards taking land-on-lease, instead of owning it, has allowed companies to use fewer funds to set up hospitals. Aditya Khemka - Fund Manager, InCred PMS says, hospitals have shifted to asset-light model. This allows higher return on equity, faster expansion. Expect FY23 sales to rise in the range of low-high teens. Turnaround in high margin non-Covid business to lift profits.  Khemka prefers companies that undertake mostly brownfield expansion as these players break-even quicker than the larger chains. He remains bullish on Aster DM Healthcare, and Healthcare Global Enterprises. Equity markets will be closed today on account of the Dussehra holiday. 

A 35% increase in the on-going fiscal year's capital budget outlay has been a catalyst for the capital goods companies this year.   On the bourses, Siemens, Thermax, Cummins India, BEL, and HAL have risen 25-100% so far in 2022 as compared to a 14% and 2.5% gain in the BSE Capital Goods and Sensex indices.  The government's capital expenditure push and the sustained demand momentum across industries continue to keep analysts upbeat on this space.  Rohit Khatri, Assistant Vice-President, Fundamental Research, Religare Broking says he's positive on capital goods over medium-to-long term. Increased govt spending key growth driver. Consumption picking up pace is another positive. All high-frequency indicators hint at robust economic growth A healthy revival in private sector spending is also taking place, which is leading to a higher intake in order inflows, analysts say.   According to HDFC Securities, private sector capex has lagged that of government's expenditure during FY20-22 but it will now outpace public capex due to increasing spending across sectors such as cement, metals, power, auto and others. Experts add that declining input costs are also lifting the prospects of companies, as margin pressures are likely to improve from the second half of FY23. Khadija Mantri, Assistant Vice-President, Research, Sharekhan by BPN Paribas say supply chain issues like chip shortage easing out. See FY23 sector earnings growth at 25-30% YoY. Multiple re-rating possible in L&T, KEC International, Va Tech Wabag and others. Sector to command higher valuation on multiple growth triggers That said, markets will react to the US Fed's rate hike decision and its commentary on the inflation trajectory today.  Monetary policy outcomes by England and Japan's central banks will also be tracked later today. 

Higher education represents more than half of the Indian education industry, which has been estimated at the US $135 billion in FY20. India has more than 50,000 colleges and students often find themselves in utter confusion while choosing the right course and college. Ruchir Arora was working in the education division of Hindustan Times where he hit upon the idea of building a digital-first, content-led platform that would make it easier for students to research, shortlist and apply to the right course and college for them. This idea grew into a full-stack business that today has an admissions division, a learning division, and a study abroad division.Know about:- Classifieds in education Buying the domain name Acquiring Scholarship Facilitation Services Revenue model

While working with US supermarket chain Safeway late in the first decade of this century, a young Prashant Parameswaran witnessed Peruvian ‘Quinoa' exploding in popularity to achieve superfood status in the country. Taking cue from this trend, Parameswaran asked himself if there was a way to make ancient millets like ragi, jowar and bajra relevant and popular in India again. Thus was born millet-based breakfast cereal and snack brand Soulfull, which Parameswaran started in 2011 upon returning to India.  Before being acquired by Tata Consumer Products in 2021, Soulfull had placed itself as a niche brand with a strong focus on reinventing millets in a modern format. With a turnover of 39 crore rupees in FY20, Soulfull was reaching over 12,000 outlets by establishing a strong presence in select urban markets.  Soulfull is among the several small brands with unique product propositions that have become targets for established FMCG companies.  These are largely digital-first D2C companies that bypass the conventional method of multi-tier distribution structure, enabling faster go-to-market speed and greater control over customer data and experience.  Over the past five years, legacy players have made a slew of investments in D2C startups.  Marico has acquired men's grooming brand Beardo, beauty brand Just Herbs and breakfast brand True Elements. Similarly, Emami acquired vegan cosmetics brand Brillare Science and grooming brand The Man Company. It recently picked up a minority stake in nutrition company TruNativ. Colgate-Palmolive and Reckitt both hold minority stakes in Bombay Shaving Company, whereas Wipro Consumer Care has invested in The Ayurveda Company. ITC has invested in baby and mother care brands Mother Sparsh and Mylo. [Byte of Devangshu Dutta, CEO, Third Eyesight] New brands struggle to find shelf-space in modern trade and traditional retail channels. For them the growth of digital customers has enabled targeting specific customer segments and needs which are ignored by the established FMCG companies as being too small. Once they achieve a certain visibility and scale they become interesting to the larger companies, since rolling out the brands over the larger, physical footprint becomes more feasible.  Incumbent players are either acquiring prominent D2C brands or choosing the organic route of launching their own brands online and building their own D2C platforms to reduce their reliance on marketplaces. Marico is working on a ‘house of brands' strategy by creating a portfolio of D2C companies through a mix of organic and inorganic routes. Meanwhile, Dabur estimates that its online-only D2C brands will cross 100 crore rupees in sales this fiscal. ITC currently sells over 700 products through its D2C store platform. D2C brands are estimated to become a $60 billion industry by FY27, growing at a CAGR of about 40%. At present D2C is a $12 billion market (above image). Institutional funding is helping D2C brands scale rapidly, with several of them crossing the 100-crore-rupee revenue mark within 3-5 years of launch. But what does this say about the ability of legacy FMCG companies to innovate? [Byte of Devangshu Dutta, CEO, Third Eyesight] Analysts say the strong background of founders of D2C companies, who are well-educated and armed with work experience in reputed firms, is an important factor in the success of such brands.  The boom of D2C brands was supported by the development of logistic partners and the adoption of online payments. Improving digital penetration and high growth in e-commerce will help going ahead.  D2C brands in the Beauty and Personal Care (BPC) and Food & Refreshments (F&R) space focus on niche ingredients and products, targeted at sub-categories ignored by established brands. Attractive packaging and strong digital marketing capabilities are key tailwinds for D2C brands. Such startups wanting to scale beyond a point will see their interest

Byju Raveendran, the founder and CEO of India's highest valued start-up Byju's, will be relieved that the past six months are behind him and his company. In an interview he gave to Business Standard after revealing his company's FY21 financials, Raveendran said that now, the company was prepared. Asserting that this kind of thing happens only once, he said the edtech giant was strengthening the finance function and would hire a global CFO soon.  Raveendran also said the company is now prepared not only for the next year but also to live the life of a public company, whenever it decides to cross that bridge.  However, the FY21 financials don't paint a pretty picture. The company's operational revenue on a consolidated basis grew just 4% year-on-year to Rs 2,280 crore. And the losses jumped 20 times, to Rs 4,589 crore. BYJU's FY20 loss was adjusted to Rs 232 crore. But why have the company's revenues remained flat despite Raveendran claiming significant business growth during the fiscal? This was due to a new revenue recognition practice adopted in FY21. This change was sought by its audit firm Deloitte Haskins and Sells.  BYJU's started recognising streaming revenue over the period of consumption, which was previously recognised fully on the commencement of the contract. Credit and EMI sales will also get recognised after complete collection. This meant that revenue from sales made under deferred payment terms totalling 1,156 crore rupees was not recognised because, according to the auditor, “BYJU's did not meet the criteria that it was probable it will collect the consideration to which it is entitled”.  Deloitte further highlighted difficulties in the auditing process. Under normal circumstances, the fee paid to Deloitte for statutory audit would have grown from 73 lakh rupees in FY20 to 1 crore rupees.  However, Deloitte said it charged Rs 3.5 crore extra as statutory audit fees because of “the additional effort incurred in the audit consequent to material weaknesses observed in internal controls”  Owing to the pandemic, the auditor said BYJU's faced hardships not only in terms of business operations but also in implementation and operating effectiveness of certain internal controls over financial reporting.  As BYJU's diverted its effort toward integrating and streamlining the operations of the various entities it acquired post the end of the financial year, it resulted in delays in the preparation of the financial statements for FY21.  As a consequence, BYJU's could not comply with certain provisions of the Companies Act. Ultimately though, it received a clean audit report from Deloitte, notwithstanding the complexities involved in reworking the numbers based on the new revenue recognition model. It's interesting to note that the share of India in BYJU's total revenue went down from 73% to 43%. Meanwhile, Middle East's share jumped from 11% to 22% and US's share increased from 16% to 35%.  WhiteHat Jr, which the startup acquired in August 2020, has played spoilsport in BYJU's financials. Raveendran said bringing down high customer acquisition costs at WhiteHat Jr is the only business challenge he has. From the date of acquisition, Whitehat Jr has contributed just Rs 326.66 crore to total revenue of BYJU's but Rs 1,548 crore to the loss before tax from operations. Shriram Subramanian, Founder and MD, InGovern Research Services says embedding of processes has not kept pace with BYJU's break-neck speed of growth. Evidence suggests that the worst is not behind for BYJU's. Reputational hit will make raising money more tough amid difficult funding environment. The string of bad news that has followed Byju's has also had an impact on the brand. Christopher Roberts, Founder & Managing Director, Engaged Strategy, says negative word of mouth from customers, employees damaging Byju's brand. The worst is not behind for BYJU's if it does not chan

At a time when foreign investors are showing confidence in India's growth story, what is holding back Indian firms from coming forward and making investments, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked on Tuesday. The answer, according to analysts, is that Indian businesses are not confident about the durability of the demand recovery. Add to that the prevailing external headwinds and one gets a clear picture of what's stopping firms from increasing investments. Investments by India Inc have slowed down with the growth rate of gross block formation of Indian companies falling to single digits in the last two years as the pandemic hit consumer demand. Private final consumption expenditure, or PFCE, rose 13.5 per cent in the first quarter of FY23. Also, it was almost 10 per cent higher than the corresponding pre-Covid period of FY20. PFCE denotes demand in the economy. However, India Inc is not certain that demand will continue to gather momentum because retail price inflation has remained above the Reserve Bank of India's tolerance level of six per cent for the eighth consecutive month in August. Ranen Banerjee, the leader for economic advisory services at PwC India, told Business Standard that there was lower appetite for investing to build capacity because economic headwinds had caused the private sector to have little confidence in the sustainability of demand. He also blamed the combination of the pre-Covid slowdown, the Covid shock, and the current global growth challenges emerging from the ultra-tough monetary stances adopted by central banks. Banerjee also said that the benefits of the cut in corporate tax rates were used by businesses to deleverage their balance sheets. ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said that high commodity prices, geopolitical uncertainties, and uneven consumer demand were likely to have prompted India Inc to defer their capital expenditure plans in spite of healthy capacity utilisation in the fourth quarter of FY22. According to the RBI's OBICUS Survey, capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector rose to 75.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of FY22 from 72.4 per cent in the third quarter of that year. In fact, capacity utilisation levels have improved consecutively for three quarters. In the first quarter of FY21, it had fallen sharply to 47.3 per cent due to the lockdown imposed after the Covid-19 outbreak. ICRA's Nayar said that capacity utilisation was likely to register a seasonal dip in the first quarter of FY23, exacerbated by geopolitical headwinds and uneven demand for goods. So, what can be done to get India Inc to turn on the investment tap? [Byte of Madan Sabnavis on solutions] While investments as a percentage of GDP rose year-on-year in the first quarter of FY23, they were still below the 30 per cent mark required to push the economy on to the path of sustained growth. Gross fixed capital formation, or GFCF, numbers showed that there was an improvement in investments in the first quarter compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. This improvement was probably aided by government capital expenditure. However, it was clear that investments have still not recovered to pre-Covid levels. While disaggregated data is unavailable, experts have said that the government continues to be the source for a large chunk of the GFCF. The hope has been that government capital expenditure would lead to the crowding in of private investments, which would give economic growth the push it needs. However, despite significant central outlays, the private sector has remained investment shy. It remains to be seen what more the government can do to induce a change in behaviour anytime soon.

Just a few days of rain changed everything, exposing the crumbling infrastructure of crammed Bangalore and washing away the tall claims of authorities. Roads disappeared under muddy flood water and motorboats came roaring rescuing people from their own homes. Fish were spotted on highways and people were seen swimming in their living rooms in posh colonies of Bangalore -- the capital city of Karnataka and IT hub of India. Their luxury cars, from BMWs and Range Rovers to Bentleys, were left behind, half-submerged. The stark visuals of flooding inundated social media too.  Life came to a standstill in Bangalore's key Outer Ring Road area, which houses more than 700 companies, including offices of big ones like Microsoft, Intel, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Many of these companies have had to allow work from home or pass on important work to locations outside of the city. While companies usually have business continuity plans involving such steps, they have still paid a heavy price. The Outer Ring Road Companies Associations has reportedly claimed that the flood caused a loss of Rs 225 crore to the IT and banking companies it represents on the 30th of August alone. In a September 1st letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, the industry body asked the government to come up with short-term and medium-term plans to address the issue. Stating that concerns about Bengaluru's future growth were being raised across the world, the letter warned that companies may leave if the infrastructure issues were not addressed. IT and IT-enabled services remain one of the top services exports from India. Close to 50 per cent of the total services exports comprise IT exports. India's services exports set a new record of $254.4 billion in FY22, beating the previous high of $213.2 billion in FY20. According to the Karnataka economic survey, the state contributed an estimated 38 per cent to India's FY22 software exports, which were estimated to be worth $170 billion. According to a recent report by Inc42, Bangalore has clinched the title of India's 'top start-up hub'. It added that within India, Karnataka topped the list of states in terms of start-up ecosystem development with $62 billion in funding. Meanwhile, Delhi-NCR attracted $39 billion and Maharashtra 20. The stakes are high when it comes to brand Bengaluru's future. India's start-up success story has been touted across international forums by the government, which is also counting on the ecosystem to generate much-needed high-quality jobs. India also has an ambitious services export target of $1 trillion by 2030. The continued growth of the IT industry, and by extension that of Bengaluru, will be a necessary condition for achieving this goal. But now, there are fears that the city's technology capital image could be in deep water. And, the brand image has indeed been dented. Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education Services and Advisor at Manipal Education & Medical Group, says brand Bengaluru is hurt by flooding and bad governance. Authorities taking the city's IT ecosystem for granted. Illegal constructions blocking waterways needed to stop flooding. CM should set up a high-level panel to fix issues.  But, Bangalore can still salvage the situation. A senior IT services veteran based in Bengaluru told Business Standard that when he spoke to five large Fortune 500 firms, none said that the recent flood would make them move out of the state or the city. The National Association of Software and Service Companies also appeared to be committed to staying put. Last week, a Nasscom-led consortium of software companies met Karnataka IT and BT Minister C N Aswathanarayana to discuss the way forward. State officials have agreed to have IT sector participation in governance mechanisms planned for Bengaluru's tech corridors. The officials will also hold a meeting with the industry to discuss plans once every fortnight. Adv

India's Gross Domestic Product grew 13.5% in the first quarter of FY22-23 compared to a year ago helped by the base effect, thereby registering the fastest growth in four quarters.   But the numbers came in below the 15.2% forecast by economists, and much lower than the Monetary Policy Committee's projection of 16.2%. The last time India's economy grew faster was in Q1 FY21, when it gained 20.1% from the pandemic-depressed level a year earlier. With rising interest rates, uneven monsoon and slowing global demand, analysts fear the economy may fall short of the 7.2 per cent annual growth target for FY23 projected by the Reserve Bank of India.   The GDP during April-June 2022 stood at Rs 36.85 trillion, compared to Rs 35.49 lakh crore in the corresponding quarter of the pre-pandemic year 2019-20. This means, the country's economy has grown at an average of 1.26% a year in real terms over the past three years. On a sequential basis, GDP in the first quarter contracted 9.6% from the preceding three-month period. According to Sachchidanand Shukla, Group Chief Economist at Mahindra and Mahindra, this is three times the average sequential contraction of 3.2% witnessed in the first quarter of each of the last five years before the pandemic. But, the year-over-year growth in GDP was led by consumption and investments, which grew 25.9% and 20.1%, respectively. The growth in government expenditure was a weak 1.3%. Looking at the sectoral trends, the GVA growth in manufacturing was 6.5, while the construction sector grew 16.8%. The labour-intensive trade, hotels and transport segment showed a strong 25.7% growth. The data released by the National Statistical Office showed while the services sector lifted growth during the quarter, activity in the trade, hotels, and transport segment, despite heightened betterment in hospitality, was below the pre-pandemic level of the June quarter of FY20. Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist at ICRA however said that relative to the pre-Covid level, this stood out as the only sub-sector reporting a contraction in Q1, in line with the robust but incomplete recovery in contact-intensive sectors. Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist, Bank of Baroda says, coming off a low base, one shouldn't reach much in the 13.5% number. Agri, real estate, finance and govt sectors contributed to the growth. Pvt investment and consumption should sustain for 7.2% annual growth. Pent-up demand could get diluted due to high inflation.  Inflation remains one of the biggest risks as it impacts consumer spending, which accounts for about 60% of India's nominal GDP. There is also a possibility of slippages in terms of rice and pulses production if the area under cultivation is lower than normal. This can result in further price shocks if sowing doesn't see a recovery. On the fiscal side, buoyancy in tax collection will give enough comfort to the government in terms of budget management.  Aurodeep Nandi, India economist and vice president at Nomura said even if one were to discount the low base, this marks a stellar rise in sequential momentum with post pandemic tailwinds lifting GDP growth in June quarter.   As the year progresses, experts say that that slowing global growth, higher inflation, and tightening financial conditions will impact the pace of growth.

The National Statistical Office is going to come out with the April-June quarter gross domestic product data on the 31st of August. But, before the official numbers are made public, several projections have come out. The Finance Ministry estimates that the economy grew by around 15.6 per cent in that quarter. This is lower than the Reserve Bank of India's Q1FY23 projection. The RBI projects FY23 GDP growth at 7.2 per cent, with Q1 forecast at 16.2 per cent, Q2 at 6.2 per cent, Q3 at 4.1 per cent, and Q4 at 4 per cent. Most economists also believe that the economy grew at a slower pace than the RBI MPC's projection for the first quarter. Their projections range between 12.5 per cent and 17.8 per cent. Double-digit GDP growth in Q1FY23 over the 20.1 per cent growth clocked in Q1FY22 may appear to be quite high. But, that quarter was affected by the second Covid-19 wave. In fact, the economy shrank by 8.5 per cent in Q1FY22 when compared with the corresponding pre-Covid period of FY20.   Pronab Sen, Country Director for India Programme, International Growth Centre says the economy only grew 0.8-1.2% between FY20 and now. The economy stands where it did in FY20. Citing a senior official, the Business Standard report on Finance Ministry estimates said that GDP components like Private Final Consumption Expenditure, Gross Fixed Capital Formation, and Government Final Consumption Expenditure showed healthy improvement. But, the trade component was likely affected by high commodity prices and rupee depreciation. While private sector capex has started crowding back in and private consumption has improved despite inflationary pressures, trade has been affected by geopolitical headwinds. On a related note, with exports growing at a much slower pace compared to imports, the country's trade deficit widened to a record $30 billion in July. In fact, merchandise exports fell to a five-month low of $36.27 billion in the same month.   Sen of International Growth Centre says, not too much hope on external front for next 1.5 years. Domestic side is starting to pick up. Which of these two sides moves faster will decide final FY23 growth rate. Manufacturing, construction, mining, and agriculture, which are the sectors that make up Gross Value Added, are also expected to show healthy growth. Even touch services like tourism, hospitality, and leisure have bounced back from the effects of the pandemic due to pent-up demand. In FY22, all sectors, except trade, hotels and communication services, were above the pre-pandemic levels of FY20. During its latest rate action in early August, the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee retained the real GDP growth forecast of 7.2 per cent for the current financial year. Given the changing external and internal picture, there might be a doubt about whether this forecast can be retained going forward. So, what factors will determine the final print for the current financial year? Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist at Bank of Baroda says, the bank estimates 7.2% FY23 GDP growth rate. Bit this is not reflective of economic buoyancy. How consumption plays out in coming quarters will determine the final print. We are back where we stood right before the pandemic hit. The negative effects of the pandemic will continue to play out for years to come, especially for the most vulnerable sections. While India remains one of the fastest growing major economies, it remains to be seen if and when it will hit the sort of economic trajectory required to both heal these scars and meet the considerable challenges that pre-date Covid. 

In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for innovation in defence products. And just fortnight ago, Army Chief General MK Pande had said that the country's interests are best served by being self-reliant, especially in defence productions. And that the future wars cannot be fought and won on what he called "borrowed technology". India has come a long way since 1971, when the war with Pakistan saw the Indian Navy use its aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, and its Seahawk aircraft to blockade Bangladesh. INS Vikrant was previously known as HMS Hercules, before India acquired it from the United Kingdom. Fast-forward to 2022. In July, India's first indigenous aircraft carrier, also christened Vikrant, was handed over to the Navy. It will be commissioned later this month. It is not just INS Vikrant. The country has been making strides towards self-reliance. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is aiming to secure a deal for its Tejas Light Combat Aircraft in Malaysia.   In January, India had signed a 375-million-dollar contract for the supply of BrahMos cruise missiles to the Philippines. This constituted India's largest-ever weapons sale abroad. The government numbers show an encouraging trend. As a proportion of total procurement, capital expenditure on imported defence equipment declined from 41.89 per cent in FY20 to 35.28 per cent in FY22. But a closure look reveals another story. It remains unclear how these import numbers were arrived at. Under the Defence Procurement Procedure 2016, the extent of indigenous content in the procured equipment is calculated by excluding specific elements from its total cost at all stages of manufacturing, production, and assembly. These elements are the direct costs of all materials and products imported into India, along with the direct and indirect costs of all services obtained from foreign entities or citizens. All license fees, royalties, technical fees and other fees or payments paid out of India and statutory levies in India like taxes, duties, and cesses also have to be excluded. But, there is a question mark on whether or not this method has been adhered to in both letter and spirit.   [Byte of Amit Cowshish on lack of transparency on % of IC in defence items] If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it. But, how you measure also matters, especially if the goal is increasing defence indigenisation. And, DPP 2016's ‘monetary-value' calculation method might not be the most suitable one. [Byte of Amit Cowshish, Ex-Financial Advisor (Acquisition), Ministry of Defence, on problems with DPP 2016's IC calculation method and lack of focus on core technologies.] Becoming self-sufficient in core technologies remains the real challenge. At present, the Tejas is powered by an American engine. As will India's future stealth combat aircraft. Although India is exploring collaboration with foreign defence majors for co-producing engines for the latter. Meanwhile, the Navy's ships rely on power plants designed by foreign firms. And, India is again hunting for a foreign conventional submarine design, despite the Make in India Scorpène initiative.   The government might also have to set its sights higher. As of the 5th of August, three positive indigenisation lists comprising 310 items have been released. These lists clearly spell out the timelines beyond which these items must be compulsorily procured from Indian companies. Though laudable, this indigenisation initiative has its own limitations.   Ajai Shukla of Business Standard says these lists lack ambition. All of their items are  already indigenised. They don't present an accurate picture of indigenisation challenges. Shukla also argues that Make in India for defence products is handicapped by the absence of large orders. In the past, there have also been cases where products designed, developed and manufactured in India failed to qualify for indigenous status because

This week, Frankie and Fran say goodbye. Thank you to our incredible podcast producers, Laura Mills, Paige Hanley & Lindsey Thompson! Black Lives Matter. These are some resources Fran & Frankie have found online that have been helpful to them & may be helpful to you: Mental health resources for the Black community: Therapy for Black girls: https://therapyforblackgirls.com The Loveland Foundation: https://thelovelandfoundation.org Ethel's club: https://www.ethelsclub.com Inclusive therapists: https://www.inclusivetherapists.com Places to donate if you are able: Black Lives Matter: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019 Innocence project: https://www.innocenceproject.org/donate/?f_src=FY20_web_x_gen_nmat_campTop000Button_Main Black Trans Travel Fund: https://devinmichaellowe.com/black-trans-travel-fund National Bail Fund Network: https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/nbfn-directory Jacob Blake's Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/justiceforjacobblake Andre Hill Memorial fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/andre-hill-memorial-fund A list of black-owned bookstores: https://lithub.com/you-can-order-today-from-these-black-owned-independent-bookstores/ (Also always remember that if you cannot afford to purchase any of these books, you can also support your local library! They need you too.) Petitions to sign: Justice for Breonna: https://justiceforbreonna.org and https://www.change.org/p/andy-beshear-justice-for-breonna-taylor?source_location=discover_feed Justice for Ahmaud: https://www.runwithmaud.com and https://www.change.org/p/district-attorney-tom-durden-justice-for-ahmaud-arbery-i-run-with-maud?source_location=discover_feed Defund the Police: https://blacklivesmatter.com/defundthepolice/ Get access to our exclusive content (like motivational videos, poetry & our exclusive Self-Care miniseries) on our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/crazyaf Hang out with us on Instagram @crazyafpod Join us on twitter @crazyafpodcast Frankie frankie.masi on Instagram frankiemasi1 on Twitter insteadofgold on YouTube Fran frandalfthegrey on Instagram frandalfthegrey on Twitter frandalfthegrey on YouTube Our logo was created by Carlos Garcia @cg19362 on Instagram Our music was created by Matt Adams @lvl1mattata on Twitter

Founders Unfiltered Ep-55: Brought to you by the Founders Unfiltered podcast by A Junior VC - Unscripted conversations with Indian founders about their story and the process of building a company. Hosted by Aviral and Mazin. Join us as we talk to Prashant Pitti, the Co-Founder of EaseMyTrip about their story. About Prashant Pitti: Prashant Pitti is the co-founder of EaseMyTrip. After graduating from IIT Madras, he worked at Capital One as a business analyst and later as an assistant vice president in the Risk Department of HSBC, Chicago. He also served as CEO and founder of Profoundly & NearGroup, which is a social/dating app. About EaseMyTrip: In 2008, Nishant Pitti, Rikant Pitti, and Prashant Pitti founded an Indian online travel company called EasyMyTrip. The company, based in New Delhi, offers hotel bookings, air tickets, travel packages, bus bookings, and white-label services. With overseas offices in Singapore, Dubai, Maldives, and Bangkok, EaseMyTrip can help you plan your trip. EaseMyTrip is one of the world's few consumer startups that bootstrapped its way to an IPO and later became a unicorn. Without any outside financial infusion, EMT has grown to become the second-largest and has been profitable for the past 13 years. EMT is also the most rapidly expanding travel company. From FY16 to FY20, EMT grew at a CAGR of 47 percent. EMT has grown through word of mouth thanks to its no-convenience-fees philosophy.

Reliance Industries on Friday reported a 22.5 per cent year-on-year growth in its consolidated net profit to Rs 16,203 crore for the quarter ended March. In the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year, it had reported a net profit of Rs 13,227 crore. RIL's consolidated revenue from operations jumped 36.8 per cent YoY to Rs 211,887 crore for the reported quarter. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate also reported a record annual consolidated net profit of Rs 67,845 crore for the financial year. There have been more instances of corporate results beating estimates than missing them during the Q4FY22 earnings season so far. This was the finding of a recent ICICI Securities Limited report. Thus far, the bulk of the results declared in Q4FY22 have been from commodity consumers, such as industrials, auto, and consumption, along with services, such as financials and information technology. According to the report, while the impact of commodity prices was relatively less on the services sector, it has its own cost challenges, such as the high attrition rates at IT companies. The report highlighted that instances of corporate results beating estimates have exceeded the misses within the NSE200 universe and particularly so in the mid-cap space. As on 4th May, most commodity producers were yet to announce results, especially from the oil and gas sector. The report said that they could likely tilt the scale further in favour of more beats than misses going ahead. It indicates that commodity consumers would continue to feel the pressure of rising input costs in subsequent quarters. A variable to watch would be the continued ability to pass on the inflation, which in turn would be a function of the demand environment. So far, the Q4FY22 results have indicated that the mean reversion of aggregate corporate profits, which began from the decadal low point of FY20, was intact. The ICICI Securities report expects corporate earnings growth to beat nominal GDP and act as an inflation hedge. On average, corporate profits are expected to grow in the range of 15%-30% over FY22-FY24E. The NIFTY50 is likely to grow  The report said that the higher growth would be attributable to the larger impact of Covid on the mid- and small-cap space and the rapid reopening up of the economy, which was likely to show higher growth on a depressed base. Jyotivardhan Jaipuria, founder and managing director at Valentis Advisors, said that near-term earnings could see some margin pressure and some downgrades as high commodity prices cannot be passed on immediately. However, he added, this would benefit commodity producers, which have an equally large weight in the index. Hence, overall earnings downgrades might not be high.   Jaipuria said, for sectors like cement and other home building sectors, where near-term earnings would be under pressure due to the spike in commodity prices, the fall in share prices offered investors an attractive entry price. The financial sector, where Valentis was under-weight during the Covid crisis, was headed for better days as the economy was recovering and a lot of the NPL provisioning was behind us. Jaipuria also said that while auto was an under-weight sector too. Things stood close to the bottom of the cycle and the sector could see sharp earnings growth over the next few years, especially as the chip shortage eases. According to Vishal Periwal, Head Research for Institutional Equities & Cement / Construction Analyst, IDBI Capital, India is not seeing inflation-led demand destruction. Its 15% FY23 earnings growth depends on how inflation pans out. "We are hopeful of double-digit earnings growth for Nifty50," he says. India Inc is confident of sustainable growth in corporate profits due to low leverage effects, the earnings beating estimates, and the nascent signs of an improving investment cycle.   

On today's episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the Department of Veterans Affairs receives $10.5 million from the Technology Modernization Fund to support the agency's transition to Login.gov. The Air Force will look at restructuring the 16 software factories it has now. Lt. Gen. Bill Bender (USAF, ret.), senior vice president for strategic accounts and government relations at Leidos and former chief information officer at the Air Force, explains what the collaboration across the organization should look like to sort out what's next. Dave Wennergren, CEO at ACT-IAC and former chief information officer at the Navy, discusses what else could be on the way from the TMF Board as the Biden administration requests an additional $300 million for the fund in fiscal year 2023. Less than a third of CFO Act agencies have effective security programs as of FY20. Jennifer Franks, director of information technology and cybersecurity issues at the Government Accountability Office, breaks down agencies struggles with implementing required safety programs. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.

Programming Note: It’s just me this time. RSJ will be back next week. - PranayIndia Policy Watch #1: The Indefensibility of India’s Defence FinancingInsights on burning policy issues in India— Pranay KotasthaneGovernment budgets should be seen in the context of on-ground realities and future targets. The immediate context of the latest defence budget is the continuing stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh. Since it began in May 2020, this stand-off has underlined the need to urgently equip India's defence forces to manage the strategic challenge posed by China. More firepower than Pakistan can no longer be the end goal of defence planning. Instead, India needs a decadal plan to effectively block and deter China's salami-slicing strategy.  The other important element underlying the defence budget is the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year's economic downturn further reduced the fiscal space and precluded a substantial rise in defence expenditure. Given that the government expects the economy to cross the pre-pandemic level in the upcoming financial year, it is worth comparing this year's defence budget with the pre-pandemic and pre-Ladakh stand-off year FY20. The traditional approach of comparing expenditures with the last year's budget is not as helpful because the previous year was an anomaly on many counts.First, the overall trend in defence spending is not encouraging. One way to measure the importance of a sector is to analyse the percentage of overall government expenditure it occupies. The Ministry of Defence's (MoD) relative importance has declined on this count. MoD expenditure now comprises 2.02 % of GDP (down from 2.22% in FY20) and 13.3% of central government expenditure (down from 16.7% in FY20). The more worrying part is that this decline is not recent. Since FY10, the MoD's expenditure has been steadily falling as a proportion of government expenditure. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence's 2017-18 exhortation that defence spending of 3% GDP is 'optimal and necessary for ensuring the operational preparedness of the Forces' hasn't had the desired effect.Next, the change in the composition of MoD expenditure reveals a lot about government priorities. There are some positive signs on this count. The spending on defence pensions has relatively declined. It now comprises 22% of the MoD expenditure, down from 26% in FY20. One reason for this decline is that previous years' pension payments included some arrears. While this is welcome news, the respite is temporary. The five-yearly revision of One Rank One Pension (OROP) is due, and when it gets approved, pension expenditure will swell once again. Effective lateral entry mechanisms and a customised national pension scheme for the armed forces are the only long-term solutions for controlling pension spending.Another vital component of the defence budget is the pay and allowances for the armed forces personnel and defence civilians. Expenditure on this component has increased relative to other items. While salaries made up 29.9% of MoD's allocation in FY20, they are budgeted to be at 31.1% of MoD expense in FY23.The relative decline in pension expenditure has allowed some fiscal space for more capital expenditure on arms, ammunition, and platforms. Capital outlay now makes up 29% of MoD expenditure compared to 24.5% in FY20. For the third straight year, the capital expenditure exceeds the expenditure on pensions, reversing a worrying trend that continued until FY20. However, this compositional improvement doesn’t translate much in absolute terms, despite the government congratulating itself for increasing the capital outlay. As defence analyst Ajai Shukla observes:“the MoD announced that military modernisation and border infrastructure development was at the centre stage of the national security and defence planning process. To support this, the MoD pointed to the steady rise in the defence capital outlay from Rs 86,740 crore in 2013-14 to 1.52 lakh crore in 2022-23 – an enhancement of 76 per cent over a period of nine years. While that sounds like a healthy growth rate, it actually amounts to less than 5 per cent, compounded annually – barely enough to cater for inflation and foreign exchange rate variation.”The Indian Navy's share of this capital expenditure has increased to 35%, up from the 27% range between FY16 and FY20. This increase is significant as the response to China's build-up in the mountains might well lie in building deterrence in the oceans. Budgetary allocations indicate that the government is trying to build up India's naval strength but at a slow pace. Ajai Shukla points out how the Navy plans to utilise this allocation:This increment will be needed to support the acquisition of new platforms, such as six air-independent propulsion (AIP) submarines being acquired under Project 75-I, a second indigenous aircraft carrier (IAC-2), 57 twin-engine deck-based fighters (TEDBFs) and four more P-8I Poseidon long-range maritime patrol aircraft to keep a watch over the Indian Ocean. The navy is also creating operational and strategic infrastructure that will be needed when the tri-service maritime command is operationalised in Karwar, near Goa.The other small bit of good news was a substantial increase in the capital expenditure budget got the Indian Coast Guard and the Border Roads Organisation. This will help accelerate the buildup of security infrastructure on India’s land and maritime borders in peacetime.While the capital outlay has increased in monetary terms, it might not immediately translate into better hardware. That's because the government has earmarked 68% of the procurement budget for domestic players through negative import lists. It will take a few years for Indian players to build local manufacturing expertise and meet quality standards. Moreover, an umbrella of protectionism often disincentivises companies from making world-beating products. Aatmanirbharta has its costs; at least in the short term, the armed forces will be bearing a significant chunk of this cost.A disappointing miss is the dedicated non-lapsable fund for modernisation, recommended by the Fifteenth Finance Commission and accepted in principle by the government in FY22. This fund has been a long-standing demand of the MoD to make multi-year payments of defence equipment easier. This fund was to be seeded by transfers from the government, monetisation of defence land, and disinvestment proceeds of defence public sector units. However, there is no indication in the budget about the progress of this critical reform.The Hour of ReckoningThese discussions on the defence budgets give us a rough idea about the priority that governments accord to defence. Beyond that purpose, these insights have limited value as they merely focus on the relative changes from past years. The most important question — how much should India really spend on defence given its economic situation and threat perceptions? — is never asked, and hence never answered. Year after year, the parliamentary standing committee on defence remarks that the MoD be allotted 3 per cent GDP. Although the basis of this 3 per cent anchor has never been explained, it has a debilitating effect on military reforms. Instead of confronting tough trade-offs, the military establishment finds it convenient to blame the government of the day for not raising the defence expenditure to 3 per cent GDP. The government for its part approves unsustainable personnel expenditures such as a One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme without assessing its long term economic impact on defence preparedness. The net effect is that around the defence budget every year, a “passing the blame” game ensues. The armed forces personnel blame defence civilians for eating into the defence expenditure. The military establishment blames the bureaucracy for financial delays. The government responds to the parliament that “all is well”, not to worry.In reality, India’s defence planning needs a strong dose of economic reasoning. The defence ministry needs economists and defence planners who can create expenditure plans based on domestic economic conditions, resource constraints, and future threat scenarios. A part of military modernisation has to be about building its financial planning and forecasting capability. Without building this capacity, we would be shooting in the dark against an adversary that’s richer and better equipped. (A condensed version of this article was published in Hindustan Times, 3rd Feb edition)India Policy Watch #2: Contextualising the FY23 Union BudgetInsights on burning policy issues in India— Pranay KotasthaneBy now, you would have already read tens of fine-grained budget analyses. So, here’s something different. Earlier this week, I spoke with Narayan Ramachandran for the Bangalore International Centre’s Podcast. Instead of focusing on sectoral spending, we zoomed out to locate this budget in the context of India’s economic trajectory over the last decade. Here’s the conversation (also available on all podcast apps).HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters[Podcast] On All Things Policy, I spoke with Aarushi about why many policies end up being less effective than hoped? [Article] Pramit Bhattacharya has an excellent take on how to make sense of the big, confusing, and often misleading numbers in the budget. This article should be a mandatory reading before you go through any budget analysis. [Article] Resolving municipal distress in India, by Adam Feibelman and Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah on The Leap Blog explore a promising source of municipal finances. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit publicpolicy.substack.com

We all remember the famous Micromax tagline ‘Nothing like Anything' and wondered what it meant. The company brought one smartphone after another a decade ago, capturing a healthy market share and becoming India's biggest mobile phone brand. Since then, it has been a downhill journey for not just Micromax but also other Indian mobile phone brands.  The entry of Chinese companies decimated Indian brands like Micromax, Lava, Karbonn and Intex. Techarc, which tracks the market share of Indian vs Chinese brands, has analysed the impact.  The share of Indian brands has now fallen from 68% in 2015 to a mere 1% in 2021 in terms of shipments, marking a complete reversal in the handset environment. In the same period, the Chinese brands' volume share rose from 32% to a staggering 99% in 2021. In terms of value too, the share of Indian brands has dropped to a mere 1.2% in January-October period of 2021 compared to 25.4% in the calendar year 2015. In the same period, the Chinese have established their domination, hitting a value share of 64.5%, up from 17.8%. India brands are, however, still commanding a decent presence in the feature phone space.  Even there, itel, a Chinese brand, leads the feature phone market with some 27% market share, followed by Lava. And the rapid switch from feature phones to smartphones doesn't bode well for Indian firms. Indian players say Chinese smartphones were able to pull off this feat by discounting, which is reflected in their financials. Vivo made losses of Rs 349 crore in FY20, although its revenues went up by 45% to Rs 25,124 crore. Oppo also hit losses of Rs 2,203 crore in FY20 on revenues of Rs 38,757 crore. To expand their market share, Chinese companies have been executing umbrella branding strategy. This allowed them to follow different approaches for different product lines.  Due to new government policies, they have localised their production. This has made India the second biggest mobile manufacturer after China. Nearly all the phones sold in India are manufactured here. A media report states that Apple and Samsung are set to locally manufacture smartphones worth around $5 billion in FY22 under the government's production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, exceeding the Centre's target by over 50% Although, five domestic companies are availing themselves of the PLI scheme, they have committed only 10% of the total incremental production value of Rs 11.75 lakh crore under the five-year scheme.   Lava and Micromax are plotting a comeback boosted by the PLI scheme. But given the dominance of Chinese brands and Samsung, your guess is as good as mine whether they succeed in their plans.  Experts, meanwhile, argue that the main reason behind this is the failure of the country to invest in research and development, keep pace with technological change, and build better products.    Watch video

The National Statistical Office (NSO) on Friday released the first advance estimates of National Income for 2021-22 to help the Union Finance Ministry in its annual budget making exercise. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will table the Union budget on February 1 at 11AM. The autonomous body in its estimates compiled using the Benchmark-Indicator method said that the GDP may grow at 9.2% in the financial year ending March 2022. It is a tad less than the RBI projection, which had pegged the GDP growth rate at 9.5% for the current financial year. Meanwhile, China is expected to grow at 8%. The estimates suggest that the Indian economy can come back to the level of FY20 in the absence of any strict lockdowns. However, the absolute growth in real GDP over FY20 would be a marginal 1.3%. This means that two years of growth had been lost to the pandemic.  Nominal GDP is estimated to grow at 17.6% compared to a fall of 3% in FY21. It is better than the 14.4% growth used for FY22 Budget calculations last February.  It means the government will have the benefit of a higher denominator as the annual fiscal deficit is looked at with respect to nominal GDP. A higher growth rate for nominal GDP than budgeted will have a dampening impact on the fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP.   Assuming that all revenues remain the same as estimated in the last Union Budget, the government can overshoot its absolute deficit number by some Rs 71,000 crore without any change to its fiscal deficit target of 6.8% of GDP. However, the government is spending Rs 3.28 lakh crore over the Budget Estimate this fiscal. But given the buoyant tax revenues and expected savings from various departments, the government is in a comfortable position to rein in its fiscal deficit at 6.8%. Ultimately, all of this hinges on the government garnering an estimated Rs 1 lakh crore with LIC's IPO.  Manufacturing is likely to expand at 12.5% while construction may rise to 10.7%. Trade, hotel, transport and communication, despite showing a high at 11.9% this year, have still not made up for output lost since FY20.  The bad news is in private consumption. Its share in GDP is still lower than what it was two years ago. The share of consumer spending in FY22 GDP is projected to be 54.8%, compared with 56% in FY21 and 57.1% in FY20. In absolute terms, it is estimated to rise 6.9% though it is still below pre-Covid levels seen in FY20. This indicates that in spite of strong recovery in 2021-22 from the contraction last fiscal year, consumption recovery is still not broad-based. Rising inflation does not bode well either.  Meanwhile, investments have begun to pick up. According to the estimates, gross fixed capital formation's contribution to real GDP is projected to be 32.9% in FY22, compared with 31.2% in FY21 and 32.5% in FY20. Madan Sabnavis, chief economist, Bank of Baroda says that this could be challenging as private sector investment is down and states have been cautious in their capex given the uncertainty on their fiscal balances. Sabnavis says that this number is susceptible to a major revision when the final estimates are released. Government expenditure is seen growing 7.6% this fiscal. While these numbers present an encouraging picture on the economic rebound, the effect of restrictions due to the increasing coronavirus caseload will be known better at the end of this month. That is when the first revised estimate of GDP for FY21 will be released. The release of second advance estimates of GDP for FY22 on February 28 may also lead to revision in growth rates.  Watch video

The Indian healthcare market is fragmented and has efficiency gaps. But, health technology is helping bridge this gap. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a fundamental behavioural change in India in terms of health technology, which means buying more medicines online, booking diagnostic tests, Teleconsultations, etc.  In this edition of the Medicine Box Podcast season 5, CNBC-TV18's Ekta Batra catches up with Prashant Tandon, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Tata 1MG to discuss the Indian health tech market and its potential growth.  ​Health tech also comprises new technologies such as the Internet of things (IOT), artificial intelligence (AI), and data sciences, Tandon said, adding that data will be a huge part of health tech in the future. Pointing to digitisation of the entire value chain such as pharma and diagnostics, Tata 1MG founder said, COVID-19 led to a 3x rise in people transacting on digital health platforms. Tata 1 MG's traffic has risen to 150 million unique users vs 90 million users in FY20, he said. According to him, healthcare, as an ecosystem, is very profitable and digital will make it more efficient Tune in to Medicine Box Podcast to know more about B2C health tech market and what the future holds for it 

We are excited to share today's episode, where we spoke with Stephanie Wu from City Year! Stephanie is City Year's Senior Vice President and Chief Impact Officer. City Year was established in Boston more than three decades ago as a youth service and leadership development organization. They employ AmeriCorps members, who serve full-time in 320 public schools across the country, partnering with classroom teachers. In today's discussion, we were able to discuss the recent change of the AmeriCorps members being referred to as success coaches, and the incredible impact that the success coaches at City Year have had on the students they serve. Mentioned Resources: City Year's website: https://www.cityyear.org/about/ Evidence of City Year's impact: https://www.cityyear.org/impact/evidence-of-impact/ Overview document of Everybody Graduates Center 2020 study: https://www.cityyear.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/EGC_overview_FY20_05.20.pdf  Blog that ties together the findings of two case studies conducted during COVID-19. Essay by Steph Wu and Gil Noam first published in Psychology Today about how to support the mental health and well-being of both students and adults in schools during and after the pandemic. Recent story about why our organization is avoiding the term “learning loss” as we support students during and after COVID-19--the essay underscores our asset-based approach. Info on City Year alumni, more than half of whom currently work in the education sector. More information on the Educating All Learners Alliance: Website: www.educatingalllearners.org Twitter: @educateall_org YouTube: Educating All Learners

Peloton (PTON) earnings are going to be released Thursdays, August 26th, postmarket. Ken Leon, Global Director of industry and Equity Research at CFRA, and John Staszak, Securities Analyst at Argus Research, discuss a preview of these earnings. CFRA has a buy rating and a $150 price target on Peloton. Argus also has a buy rating and $120 price target on Peloton. The CFRA Peloton Report projects that sales will grow at 50% CAGR between FY20 and FY24. Tune in to find out more.

On this episode of the RAISE podcast, Brent chats with Tim McMahon, Vice President for University Advancement at Marquette University. Tim and his stellar team decided they weren't willing to wait to see how the pandemic played out to launch their capital campaign. So, they decided that the Time to Rise is now. So far, they've had 50,000 donors to the campaign already; there was a 62% increase in giving in FY21 vs FY20; over 500 donors have given to the campaign at the $100k+ level; and 42% of donors to the campaign are first-time donors. And, it's all been done completely virtual. Brent invited Tim onto the podcast to talk about the future of work and advancement's risk of missing a huge opportunity to retain (and attract) talented employees, but they ended up covering lots of other subjects along the way. Brent and Tim talk about the perks and challenges of getting a part-time MBA, how a career in fundraising allows former athletes to live out their dreams and have a balanced life, and how leadership is action, not position. Now's your time, Tim - go, Golden Eagles!

On this episode of the RAISE podcast, Brent breaks it down with Dan Allen, Senior Vice President of Advancement and External Relations at DePaul University in Chicago. Dan will be a Loras College Duhawk for life but is currently thriving as a DePaul Blue Demon after making a few pit stops on the journey in between. Dan and Brent dig into some really important questions during this conversation. Is higher education really leveling the playing field? Why do many talented, academically-prepared students not apply to institutions for which they're qualified and would likely do very well at? What is the relationship between preparation and privilege in college choice? (Dan completed his PhD on this topic, so he has lots of wisdom to share.) As soon as COVID hit last year, Dan and the leadership team at DePaul decided that if they didn't raise more money in FY21 than FY20, it sure as heck wouldn't be because they didn't try. Tune in to hear how Dan and his team are bucking national trends in donors in dollars through a proactive and hyper-focused commitment to DePaul's students.About DanDan Allen currently serves as the senior vice president for Advancement and External Relations at DePaul University. Since joining DePaul in August 2015, Allen has previously served as associate vice president for Principal Gifts and vice president for Development. In his capacity as senior vice president for Advancement and External Relations, Allen provides leadership and executive management for all fundraising, alumni relations, advancement communications, and community/government relations strategies. He also serves in a leadership capacity as an Administrative Officer of the university.Prior to joining DePaul, Allen served as senior associate dean for External Relations at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy. He also served as vice president of Institutional Advancement at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois and at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. Allen has worked in educational development roles for more than 25 years, and has been a frequent presenter at various educational and healthcare development conferences and seminars.Allen completed his PhD at Loyola University–Chicago and continues to pursue his interest in the area of postsecondary educational access for low-income students. His dissertation considered how academically talented, low-income students access highly selective postsecondary education. He has presented work on improving opportunity for academically qualified, low income students to the Association for Institutional Research and has had his research published in “Research in Higher Education.” Allen also has presented research on college choice and social reproduction to the American Educational Research Association, and the National Association for College Admission Counseling. His scholarship focuses on how various forms of human, cultural, social and economic capital influence the college choice behavior of low-income students.

According to a study by KPMG, the gross revenue of Indian fantasy sports operators stood at US$ 340.5 million for FY20 compared to US$ 131.64 million in FY19, a 2.6X increase. The industry is expected to be worth a whopping US$ 3.7 billion by 2024. Factors like the pandemic, lockdowns, and work from home have only further accelerated the growth of this industry. MyTeam11 is one of the most sought-after e-sport platforms in India with over 15 million users. Touted as the fastest-growing fantasy sports app, MyTeam11 offers 150+ exciting contests in games like cricket, football, kabaddi, rugby, volleyball, hockey, baseball, and basketball. Launched in 2016, the app offers an engaging gaming experience by allowing the participants to pick real-match players, build their fantasy team, and win unbelievable rewards. We caught up with Nitish Bugalia, Head of Product and Strategy at MyTeam11 to understand how the sports landscape of India has been transformed by fantasy sports and virtual gaming. Nitish shared exciting insights on: How the fantasy sports industry has triggered a massive interest in different sports in a cricket-crazy country like India The role fantasy sports has played in improving the viewership in the women's game in India How the industry is paving the way towards taking sports to the doorsteps of smaller towns across the country Target personas for fantasy sports brands and how they are widening the audience How the rising popularity in fantasy sports is having a knock-on effect in viewership and content consumption across various platforms The massive role the Indian Premier League plays in the Indian fantasy sports industry and how brands are kept on their toes for these two months every year Tune in to learn how fantasy sports gaming platforms are seeing a massive surge in user acquisition and how this is redefining the Indian sports industry.

Ryan is currently an Account Executive in LinkedIn Sales Solutions. For those of you who are not familiar, that is the Sales Navigator tool in the LinkedIn Suite of products. Ryan Johnson discusses his mindset, his work ethic, humility, and tips on how to be successful as a Sales and Relationship Building Professional.These are some of his accomplishments.FY20: 130%FY21 Q1: 131%FY21 Q2: 214%#1 in segment every quarter in roleHe was an associate in the Business Leadership Program at LinkedIn. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from California Polytechnic State University and has won DECA International Career Development Conference awards and was a lot of the DECA International Association of Marketing Students.Spotify for part 1 Episode 8https://open.spotify.com/episode/2XKeacQ6yi54rpcahRfAvs?si=3UNYrwrxQausQXmnyf14nw

This week in the markets – Cash cattle were slightly higher, there were limited feeder cattle markets due to weather. April live cattle futures were down $1.45 and March feeder cattle were down $1.40. Choice box beef was up $2.80 with strength across the board. We're $31 higher than where we were a year ago at this time. Cash hogs were up $3.75 this week and April lean hogs were down slightly on the week. The pork cutout value gained just over $4 this week, putting it nearly $27 above year-ago levels. Slaughter – Cattle slaughter for the week was 552,000, after starting the week with a 79,000 head run. Hog slaughter is 2.438 million, after starting the week with 412,000 head. Year-to-date we're down 5.5 percent and 4.6 percent on hog slaughter. Trade – USDA projected $7.4 billion for beef and veal trade for FY21, that's up $800 million for FY20. Pork came in at $6.8 billion, up slightly from FY20.Cattle on Feed – Cattle place in January came in at 103.2, that's outside the upper end of pre-report range. On Feed February 1 came in at 101.5, also outside the upper end of pre-report range. The report makes the supply side less optimistic in the second half of the year. Next week's reports – Cold Storage, Livestock Slaughter, Restaurant Performance IndexSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A look at Disney's FY20 financial results, particularly their early success in DTC, with Francisco Olivera. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-science-of-hitting/support

Former FAS Commissioner Julie Dunne talks about some of the big accomplishments of FY20.

A look at the railroad's third quarter financial results, along with my thoughts on why selling the stock may have been a mistake --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-science-of-hitting/support

One of the best things about working for LinkedIn is meeting one of my favorite people in the world- Ivana Pham. We discussed a bit about imposter syndrome, being our best selves, and having a growth mindset. It's funny how we both shared that some of our weaknesses became our biggest strengths. I'm so happy that you found a company that appreciates you so much. I'm super excited about your journey. Some of Ivana's extraordinary accomplishments are listed below. • Sourced $438K in revenue for Q4 of FY20, and tied in first place in terms of attainment (123% of quota) • Sourced $110K in revenue for Q3 of FY20 and hit 130% of quota • Successfully attained 100% of quota each quarter at the Santa Clara She was an SMB Account Manager Intern at Facebook President of Changing Communities, VP of Speech and Chair for Thematic Interpretation for Speech and Debate. She is such a pleasure to be around and excludes positive energy in all of her commitments and projects. Check out this episode of two friends having a good time and distilling the essence of a growth mindset. Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/episode/1oZoyVEKPXy9ljHlGV0k45iTunes:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-85-davidson-hang-podcast-w-ivana-pham-asana/id1323403814?i=1000494221201YouTube:https://youtu.be/cmgOnKLwvKcLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivana-pham/

An update on the retailer following 1H 2020 results --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-science-of-hitting/support

This week in the markets – Cash cattle are $1.50 lower this week. Feeder cattle auctions were $3 to $8 lower this week. October live cattle futures are down $4 and September feeder cattle futures were down $5 for the week. Choice box beef is nearly $8 higher this week. Cash barrow and gilts are $.50 higher this week. October lean hogs were down $.55 for the week. Pork cutout value was down $1.30. Slaughter – Cattle slaughter for the week was 654,000 head, that's up 0.3% from a week ago. Hog slaughter is at 2.664, that's a 1.8% increase from a week ago. Cold Storage – Beef ending stocks for July were down 15-million-pounds relative to a year ago – so basically unchanged. Pork ending stocks were down 153-million-pounds relative to a year ago. Bellies, hams, and loins all declined, but loins dropped the most. US/Canada All Cattle and Hogs Report – Total cattle and calves were unchanged. Beef cows were down 0.8% relative to a year ago. All hogs and pigs were 4.4% higher, the kept-for-breeding down 0.9%. Sow numbers in Canada are 1.5% higher. US Trade Data – ERS is now projecting FY21 US Ag exports to be valued at $140.5 billion, that's up $5.5 billion from their FY20 projections. China trade is projected to increase $4.5 billon.Next week's reports – Restaurant Performance Index, Monthly Trade Data, Jobs Report, Farm IncomeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A quick look at the leading OTA's Q2 results --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-science-of-hitting/support

An update on the House of Mouse. We discuss DTC sub growth, the future of ESPN, Mulan on Disney+, and more. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-science-of-hitting/support

A discussion on the company's recent results --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-science-of-hitting/support

Three takeaways from the quarter --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-science-of-hitting/support

PSA just wrapped up its fiscal year at the end of June. Candice sits down with our President, Ric McCullough to discuss how things at PSA look.

I'm pumped to bring you- 3 rock star Relationship Managers at LinkedIn. We talk about empowering yourself, finding mentorship, and how to improve your executive presence. Thank you for sharing your nuggets of wisdom for anyone who is interested in pursuing a career in Professional Sales. They all hit their annual quota despite selling in the world of COVID. That's really inspiring. There were many takeaways from this conversation. 1. Don't be afraid to challenge your clients to see a different perspective to help solve their problems.2. How do you show up in the room?3. Breaking the status quo4. Don't be afraid to ask the hard questions5. Never Apologize for taking space6. Practicing fearlessness7. Be intentional and take action for finding mentors8. Combine your hard skills with soft skills9. Taking Intelligent Risks10. Having a strong agenda to start the meetingAnu Jain is a Relationship Manager in LinkedIn Sales Solution. These are some of her achievements at LinkedIn.Achievements:- 2020 President's Club Award Winner - Top 5% Global Performers in Sales & Revenue Growth at Linkedin- 2019 President's Super Club Award Winner - Top 5% Global Performer in Revenue Growth at Linkedin.- Closed over $1.3M in annual recurring revenue- 121% of quota attainment in FY20- 156% of quota attainment in FY19If you would like to connect with Anu, please do so below. https://www.linkedin.com/in/anujain25/Isha is an Enterprise Relationship Manager in LinkedIn Talent SolutionsThese are some of Isha's accomplishments.I have the privilege of enabling my ~50 Strategic Enterprise clients to leverage LinkedIn insights and its 690M+ members to solve their pressing business goals.• Club Winner (Top Sales Performer) in a Global Pandemic• 2019 & 2020 – Highlighted as a top performer in North America segment• Received Leverage Award for packaging and presenting a playbook on how to collaborate across LinkedIn business lines, resulting in ~$1M of business for individual teamif you would like to connect with her, please do so below.https://www.linkedin.com/in/isha-sharma-20bb9415/Vishu is Strategic Relationship Manager at LinkedIn Talent SolutionsVishu is a presidents club winner and is consistently one of the top Relationship Managers at LinkedIn. if you would like to connect with her, please do so below. https://www.linkedin.com/in/vishu-patel-6101b428/Itunes:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-58-davidson-hang-podcast-w-anu-jain-isha-sharma/id1323403814?i=1000479332833Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2pO3VR1oCMEyb3eUMziJKu?si=nE5Ck3QNRSCMgisvMANvtQ

FY20 is the year of new for Absolut Elyx – new pack, new platform & claim, new market focus, new campaign, new price point, new programming Elyx has sharpened who they're for with a laser focused target audience Elyx's new claim and campaign is “Handmade for Real” which boldly showcases the brand's superior, handmade credentials Elyx is rolling out more consumer & shopper relevant programming Sip With Us:The Elyx Martini5 parts Absolut Elyx 1 part Lillet Blanc Aperitif Vessel: Elyx Copper Coupe Garnish: Lemon Zest Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass and stir over cubed ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail coupe and garnish. Follow Us On Social:@absolutelyx#CopperMakesItBetter

This week's guest on Open Mic is Georgia 2nd District Representative Sanford Bishop. As Agriculture, Rural Development and FDA Appropriations Subcommittee chair, Bishop is pleased with the full committee's work on the FY20 spending bills. Bishop admits the lack of progress in the Senate could delay timely approval of funds for the coming fiscal year and says it is highly likely that legislators will need to approve additional disaster funds for regions still attempting to recover from natural disasters.