Week 39

Cyber! 🚩

April 17, 2021

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 I covered news surround the rapid rise in malware attacks on mobile devices across India, the rapid surge in COVID-19 cases, the intial bids for Air India and an update on the IPL fixtures! I hope you have an amazing Sunday! 

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Now let’s get into the news.

Markets

Markets

Green! That's what the

finished on at the end of the week, however, Friday was volatile with both markets ending marginally higher in after hour trading amid positive cues from global markets. In the after hours, the BSE Sensex ended at 48,832.03. Similarly, Nifty 50 ended at 14,617.85 in after hour trading. Asian Paints, UltraTech Cement, ONGC, Sun Pharma and Nestle India were among the top gainers with shares rising over 2%. On the contrary, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, L&T, Infosys and Reliance Industries were among the top losers at the end of the week. A rapid surge in COVID-19 cases in India, crossing over 2 lakh cases, has instilled a sense of fear across the market as investors question India's future economic recovery. Despite the rise in cases, however, the Indian Government has been reluctant to impose nation wide lockdowns shedding some hope on investor and business sentiment. Lastly, the price of gold remained fairly stagnant throughout the week, ending in the green. On the other hand, the price of crude oil dipped almost 1%. 

In other news, on Tuesday, the Government stated that it is prepared to implement the mandatory

jewellery and artefacts from the 1st of June. Gold hallmarking is a 'purity check' or 'purtiy certification' of gold to ensure it is legitimate. Hallmarking protects consumers from being cheated into buying illegitimate gold, or gold that is not of a certain standard. India is the largest importer of gold, importing over 700-800 tonnes of gold annually. 

Lastly, in the period between April 1st to April 14th,

increased to USD 13.72 billion due to healthy growth rates in the jewellery, gems and engineering sectors. Imports during the same period swelled to USD 19.93 billion. 

COVID-19 

On Monday, India granted the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) to the Russian-developed

COVID-19 vaccine, as the countries cases surged passed the 2 lakh daily mark. With this rapid rise in cases, India surpassed Brazil to become the second-most affected nation in the world, with the overall case tally crossing 14.5 million. The Russian vaccine has an effectiveness rate of 91.6%. 

In addition, on Friday, the Government announced that it will increase the production of the Indian-developed Covaxin vaccine to

per month by September. India's Covaxin has an efficacy rating of 81% as compared to Pfizer's 95% and Moderna's 94%. This scaling up in production will benefit a number of states such as Odisha and Andhra Pradesh that are currently running short on vaccine stock. 

Lastly, the Government also announced that it will supply 17,000 MT (megatonnes) of

to states worst-hit by COVID-19, including Maharasthra and the capital city of Delhi. The Government has exempted all interstate movement of oxygen tankers, and have also permitted cylinder filling plants to work 24 hours with the correct safety measures. 

As always, stay safe! 

Malware 😬

Cyber attacks! 

According to cybersecurity firm Check Point Technologies,

on mobile devices in India increased by more than nine times between the period October 2020 and March 2021. According to the report, 97% of all organizations in 2020 faced mobile threats that used multiple attack vectors. In numbers, the total number of malware attacks in October 2020 was 1,345. In comparison, the total number of mobile attacks in India in March 2021 was 12,179. Malware attacks on mobile devices usually involve attempts to trick users into installing malicious payloads via infected websites or web links or to steal user's credentials. With this rapid shift to digital technologies, malware attacks are a lot more common, and cybercriminals are continuing to evolve and adapt their techniques to exploit vulnerable users. As consumers, it is important to protect sensitive information at all times and to never disclose information to anyone irrespective of your relationship with them. Stay safe! Protect your data! 

Demand 

As mentioned earlier, digital technology is the new thing, and as a result, the

is skyrocketing, with companies seeking a shift in skillsets employees have to offer. According to specialist staffing company Xpheno, companies are offering a 20-30% pay rise to retain employees that specialize in tech-related roles. Individuals that are currently working in tech roles are likely to receive up to 4-5 job offers from various companies, with the added bonus of enjoying a much higher salary! For individuals that are just entering the space, the jobs are there as tech start-ups, large corporations, and even Government entities seeking tech-skilled employees. Enter the tech realm now, as the competition in the market is also on the rise - and jobs that exist today may be gone tomorrow! 

Air India 💰 

Bids

The Indian Government has initiated the process to accept the initial bids to sell

, India's oldest and largest airline company. The sale of the national carrier was initially proposed earlier last year, and the Government hopes to finalize a deal by the end of September. Indian conglomerate Tata Group was among the multiple companies to place preliminary bids to buy the unfortunately loss-making Air India in December last year. The Government is selling its entire 100% stake in Air India, as the airline has been struggling financially ever since its merger with Indian Airlines in 2007. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed Air India's losses further down as international and domestic air travel came to a halt. Air India, a company that initially started as a mail carrier in 1932, will give the winning bid access and control to 4,400 domestic and 1,800 international landing and parking slots. The winning bidder will also gain 100% ownership of Air India Express and 50% of AISATS, a company that provides cargo and ground handling services at major airports across India. As time passes, let's hope India's national airline carrier revolutionizes and rebrands to make a strong comeback in the airline industry.

Breaching the fare band! 

The CEO of Indian carriers voiced his concerns to the Indian Government over the risk of private airline companies selling domestic airline tickets for below the

and called for the Government to ensure this does not take place alongside implementing an 80% cap on the number of pre-COVID flights for now. Due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, a few struggling private airlines were seeking a price drop in domestic flight tickets to ensure demand is maintained, and have also further sought financial assistance to survive this second wave of cases. Last May, the Government had placed a fare band for domestic flights to protect passengers from paying very high fares, and to protect vulnerable airlines from fare wars by dominant airline companies to protect competition within the market.   

Sports

IPL 2020/21 - Week 1 

A week in to the new IPL season and the Royal Challengers Bangalore look comfortable at the top having won both of their two opening games to the IPL 2020/21 campaign. In the first game of the season, Royal Challengers Bangalore fought a tough battle to beat reigning champions Mumbai India by two wickets. On the bottom half of the table, the Sunrisers Hyderabad have not quite found their form yet being the only team to have lost both their opening games. 

A stand-out batsmen this week has been Kolkata Knight Riders star Nitish Rana who currently sits at the top of the 'most runs' list having scored 137 runs in two games (batting average: 68.50). Rajasthan Royals batsmen Sanju Samson was also impressive scoring 123 runs in the opening two games (batting average: 61.50). Sanju Samson has been the only player to score a century so far this IPL Season. 

On the bowling front, Royal Challengers Bangalore's Harshal Patel has taken the spotlight having picked up 7 wickets in 2 games! Just behind him, Andre Russell sits with 6 wickets over the two games, hosting a bowling economy of 9.40. 

This week is hosting a number of exciting matches with the Royal Challengers Bangalore taking on the Kolkata Knight Riders tomorrow (Sunday)! Hope you are enjoying this IPL Season - it is my favourite cricket tournament! 

Other News

1. Under a tariff-rate quota, the Indian Government has approved the export of an additional 3,675 tonnes of raw/refined

to the United Kingdom. 

2. In the 6th edition of the Raisina Dialogue, PM Modi highlighted the efforts India has taken to not only protect the 1.3 billion Indians, but also to help

by supplying vaccines. 

3. Walmart-owned Flipkart recently signed a deal with billionaire Gautam Adani to build a

in India to further increase output and resources. 

4. According to Government data, India's

(based on Consumer Price Index) increased to 5.52% in March from 5.03% in February. 

5. According to an official report,

in the first quarter grew over 76% highlighting the growing shift towards digitial payments. 

Quiz

Quiz time! 

I have T at my start,

I have T at my end.

I have T in my middle,

And it comes through my bend.

What am I? Get thinking...!

See you next week!

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Quiz Answer: a teapot!  

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Written by: Adnan Bahrainwala (Founder of Subah Kee Chai)