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Week 3
Mixed emotions 😬
Good Morning,
Welcome! I hope you have your “Subah Kee Chai” ready and you're excited to read your weekly 10-minute digest.
This week saw mixed feelings in the COVID-influenced employment world. It also saw a range of potential corporate deals being discussed and completed. Lastly, the stay-at-home section covered a few tips and recommendations from the team at Subah Kee Chai. I hope you enjoy today's newsletter!
Now let’s get into the news.
Markets
Markets performed extremely well this week, with both equity markets finishing in the green on Friday.
due to an influx of foreign investments and the hope of an incoming government stimulus package. In addition, Gold crossed the INR 52,000 mark jumping almost 4% from the start of the week. Lastly, crude oil finished in the red due to rising uncertainty in the oil & natural gas market.
Employment
As a result of the novel coronavirus, employment has experienced a mix of feelings with some sectors laying off workers due to low revenues, while other sectors hunting for new employees due to a rise in demand as a result of lockdown.
The positives
According to a report by
, India's hiring sentiment has picked up between April and September, as a number of technology companies are expanding their businesses to fit the needs of people struggling to stay occupied during the lockdown. On the contrary, as lockdown is slowly easing a number of firms are also looking to return to pre-COVID levels of output and as a result, are hiring. The report highlighted that the hiring intent for companies jumped to 18% in September from 11% in March. Some sectors that are currently in high demand are healthcare, online education services, e-commerce, tech startups, and delivery services.
Rising from the pack of top hiring firms
is a gold mine for newly graduating students as the company is seeking to hire 15,000 employees from campuses alone, up from 9000 in 2019. HCL Technologies recognized that a number of campuses had closed and graduations were postponed, however, the firm was swift to move their hiring procedure online and make interviews virtual.
Tagging along on this theme of future growth,
is also on a hiring spree with the company announcing it seeks to hire 200 employees by the end of the year. The software start-up has taken a different approach as they seek to expand while other companies are laying off their workers. This bold strategy is encouraged by the theme of future growth. While offices will remain shut for the foreseeable future, a number of hired employees at Icertis will be working from home.
The negatives
As mentioned earlier, every sector isn't experiencing a rise in employment prospects. One industry, in particular, which has been significantly impacted is...can you guess? Aviation!!
Remember Air India's decision to enforce the "Leave without pay" scheme on its employees, well it is back in the news and it's not pretty. A number of
regarding the scheme highlighting the potential psychological disasters it could have on some employees. The scheme can force Air India employees to leave without pay for up to 5 years potentially triggering employees to undertake desperate and extreme acts causing major concern. Apart from the scheme, Air India also cut the pay for its cockpit and cabin crew members. In numbers, a 10-year experienced pilot will now take home INR 2.1 lakh instead of INR 5.5 lakh.
Similarly,
of its employees as a result of reduced demand and high costs. However, IndiGo's large cash pool has not put the airline at grave risk and no pilots will be laid off.
Zoom out:
Ever since the pandemic hit, the aviation industry has been crumbling as airlines face high maintenance costs and employee wages with no passengers flying. While maintenance costs are never going to reduce, airlines are only left with the choice to lay-off their employees to reduce the burden of costs. As highlighted, however, these decisions can have a disastrous negative impact on the psychological health of the aviation workforce.
A lot of deals...
A range of potential corporate deals were in the news this week, here's a brief of a few top deals:
1. On Tuesday,
issued a statement saying they secured a license from the Saudi Arabian government to provide internet and related services in the country. This deal will allow Tata Communications to shift from a foreign carrier to a local licensed service provider. Tata Communication carries around 30% of the world's internet routes on its network, and the Indian Government owns a 26% share in the company. Despite reporting an 85 Crore loss in the fiscal year 2020, Tata Communications hopes to bounce back by expanding and improving its performance.
2. Highly popular video-conferencing company,
, stated that it is seeking to open a technology center in Bangalore to expand its presence in India. With over a million users in the country, the new technology center will also recruit Indian-based engineers and business operators, however the hiring intent has not yet been announced. The Banglore center will be an addition to Zoom's pre-existing centers in Mumbai and Hyderabad. Up until now, Zoom has seen a 6400% growth in Indian users.
3. Seeing Reliance Industries' recent success in attracting foreign investments for its online retail branch,
, the retail arm of Reliance Industries in an attempt to curb the potential competition Reliance will bring to the Indian market. JioMart will dominate the Indian market when it is launched due to the range of products and services it will provide. As a result, its competitors Amazon and Flipkart are simultaneously expanding to stay relevant.
4. Lastly, information and technology giant
for INR 588 Crore. The move comes as Wipro seeks to improve its salesforce solutions in Europe. Wipro is already well established in America, Japan, and Australia, however, this new acquisition will allow the company to place a foothold in Europe as well.
Sports
New Fantasy App!
CEO Teague Oregman's new fantasy league mobile application is hot in the market due to its unique features.
allows you to create your own fantasy team and make
live substitutions
during the game based on your team's performance. The CEO's vision is to expand to India due to the wide customer base and great potential. Expansion into the Indian market will make India surpass the USA as the leading country in Fantasy sports.
IPL IS BACK!
With final talks taking place next week between the UAE and Indian Cricket Boards, the
with the final being held on November 8th, 2020. While the atmosphere in the stadiums will be different from previous years, cricket is back!
Online Badminton Lessons
Due to the Tokyo Olympics being postponed till next year, a number of Olympic athletes have been forced to hold onto their excitement to participate in the Olympics. Indian Badminton athlete Gopichand, however, has undertaken an initiative to provide
to children in Mizoram. The Online Mizoram Badminton Initiative is a joint initiative between Tata Trusts and Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy.
The six-foot star
17 years-old,
became the third Indian woman to receive the NCAA Division 1 basketball scholarship at the University of San Diego. She hopes to commence next year with the aim of reaching the Women's NBA or the WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association).
Stay-at-Home Tips
This week’s stay at home tips is a culmination of my personal recommendations for books, recipes, things to do, and many more. Books that I have been reading:
The Wretched of the Earth by Franz Fanon
Black Skin White Masks by Franz Fanon
Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking
Humans: A brief history on how we messed it all up by Tom Phillips
Websites/Instagram pages I visit to find some unique recipes:
Gordon Ramsay's Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/gordonramsay
Tasty: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJFp8uSYCjXOMnkUyb3CQ3Q
@thegoldenbalance: Instagram
Top board/card games to play at home:
Classic Monopoly: I have probably played this game over 20 times in the past 2 weeks.
UNO: everyone’s go-to card game.
Monopoly Deal: Monopoly but as a card game
This isn’t a game, but learning card magic tricks are really interesting and highly recommended. I found this youtube video really helpful to learn basic tricks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjLLPe5ZhFo
Mobile Apps that have helped me survive lockdown:
ScrabbleGo: a great game to play with your friends and keep your brain active.
8 Ball Pool: classic multiplayer game and a lot of fun.
Psych: a hilarious game to play with your friends!
Other News
1. OnePlus launched its new
this week. It is the most affordable phone produced by the company starting at a price of INR 25,000 and has some pretty cool features.
2. Reliance Industries Limited broke into the
(Rank: 48), with CEO Mukesh Ambani climbing to become the 5th richest person in the world (net worth: 77 billion).
3. India SaaS (software as a service) reported a revenue of USD 3.5 billion and a
.
4. Under a special financing window, the Indian Government will provide
.
5. India proceeded to buy
from the USA for USD 1.8 billion to boost its defense mechanisms in response to the growing tensions with China.
Quiz
Gaze at this sentence for just about sixty seconds and then explain what makes it quite different from the average sentence. Quick!
What is it?
See you next week!
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See you next week!
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Quiz Answer: the sentence contains all the letters of the alphabet.
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Written by: Adnan Bahrainwala (Founder of Subah Kee Chai)