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Week 51
Health is Wealth 🌏
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 a dip in market performances, a big drop in crypto prices, a major rise in India's trade deficit, the introduction of the controversial Criminal Procedure Identification Bill, some hefty penalties, a new money withdrawal process, a Pat Cummins batting display and India's largest private merger!
On Thursday, the world also celebrated World Health Day (07/04/2022). Prioritise your health! This planet that we call home has a lot of things to offer, and you need to maximise your time on Earth to be able to enjoy them :)
"Are we able to reimagine a world where clean air, water, and food are available to all? Where economies are focused on health and well-being? Where cities are liveable and people have control over their health and the health of the planet?" - WHO (World Health Organisation)
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I hope you enjoy today's newsletter and have an amazing Sunday!
Now let’s get into the news.
Markets
Market News
rallied on Friday despite RBI's lower growth forecast and higher expected inflation. This positive market performance reduced the damage the market suffered in the last three sessions. Following on from last Friday, Reliance Industries was a significant contributor to the market's positive performance followed by a strong gain in ITC shares as well.
The RBI, in a recent monetary policy meeting, raised its retail inflation projection from 4.5% to 5.7%, and also suggested a dip in the GDP growth rate from 7.8% to 7.2%.
, ITC, M&M, Dr Reddy's, Titan and Asian Paints were the top gainers on Friday, rising as much as 4.36%. On the flip side, however, Tech Mahindra, Maruti, NTPC and HCL Tech were among the top losers falling up to 1.31%.
Trade Market
topped USD 1 trillion for the first time ever, as India's exports grew at the fastest pace since 1989 to a record USD 418 billion. India's imports also increased to an all-time high at USD 610 billion. As a result, the trade deficit sits at USD 192 billion, based on preliminary estimates. Despite India's trade deficit rising
from the previous year, the Government is not too worried as India is indicating strong economic growth, and strong demand for Indian goods means a reduced reliance on sourcing raw materials from India's competitor, China.
*Note: Are you happy with the market data given? Let me know if you would like something else added, or if you need something explained? (Reply to this email!)
Bills Passed
The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill
On Monday, the
was passed in the Lok Sabha (lower house of India's bicameral Parliament) by a voice vote, despite the entire opposition demanding that it be sent to the parliamentary Standing or Select committee for further scrutiny. The opposition's primary argument was the fear that the bill will lead to a great misuse of the law against individual citizens by police forces and other law enforcement agencies.
The Bill allows a head constable of a police station or a head warden of jail to take measurements, including personal biometric data, of convicts (including individuals detained under preventive laws or suspected of committing a crime) for the purposes of identification and investigation in criminal matters, and to preserve records of these convicts/individuals regardless of their innocence. This was argued to infringe Articles 14,19 and 21 of the Indian Constitution dealing with human rights and civil liberties.
Under the new Bill, a person arrested on suspicion of committing a crime would have to give their finger impressions, palm-print impressions, foot-print impressions, photographs, iris and retina scan, physical-biological samples, behavioural attributes including signatures, handwriting and any other examination necessary.
In addition, members of the opposition argued that due to a lack of data protection laws in India, the proposed Bill lacked safeguards to ensure that the information collected was protected well, and also ran the risk of an innocent individual's privacy being violated.
On one hand, the Government aims at improving security within the country by implementing measures to track and reduce crime, however, on the other the opposition argues that the methods through which the Government is trying to achieve this objective are totalitarian and a direct violation of fundamental human rights.
What do you think? (Reply to this email with your opinion)
Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill 2022
On Tuesday, the Indian Parliament passed
which aims to unify all three civic bodies in Delhi, the national capital of India. The Rajya Sabha (upper house of India's bicameral Parliament) gave its nod of approval after a voice vote in favour of the bill.
The unification of the municipal corporations will ensure synergy within the capital, and effective utilisation of resources. Opposition bodies, however, were not happy with the result, as they claimed the bill was merely introduced as a power move by the BJP Government due to fear of losing the Delhi elections. This claim was dismissed by Home Minister Amit Shah, who stated that the party had no such phobia, and is ready to compete in the polls.
Seeing these debates around the bills reminded me of an interesting quote by Thomas Sowell:
"No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems - of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and two. Whatever is number three is far behind."
Financial Penalty
Rigged Railway Tenders
A
was recently slapped on 24 entities, including individuals, for rigging bids and cartelization in tenders floated by the Indian Railways. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) also directed these entities and individuals to cease and desist from anti-competitive practices.
It was reported that these entities indulged in cartelization in the supply of High-Performance Polyamide Bushes and Self Lubricating Polyester Resin Bushes to the Indian Railways by directly or indirectly determining prices, allocating tenders, controlling supply and market, coordinating bid prices, and manipulating the bidding process.
A USD 43 million penalty
India, also, imposed penalties
against foreign vendors in 16 arms contracts for the delay in fulfilling their offsets commitments, as per the Defence Ministry of India. Last August, India put around a dozen USA, French, Russian and Israeli firms on a watch list due to a failure to fulfil their obligations.
As per Government data, India has signed around 60 offset contracts with over USD 13 billion to be discharged from 2008 to 2027. However, as per the recent Parliamentary report, only USD 3.7 billion was discharged by vendors till April 2021, of which USD 2.16 billion has been accepted and verified in an audit.
Card-less cash withdrawals?
UPI (Unified Payments Interface)
On Friday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that it will permit all banks to introduce
through ATMs across the nation. Currently, card-less cash withdrawals exist, however only a few banks over the service, and customers are only permitted to use their bank's ATMs to avail of said service.
Thie new announcement is proposed to make cash-less cash withdrawals available across all banks and ATM networks using the UPI. The ease of withdrawing cash without a card will prove extremely beneficial, especially as it will prevent frauds such as card skimming, card cloning etc.
*Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing and merchant payments into one hood.
India also has a Bharat Bill Payments System (BBPS), which is an interoperable platform for bill payments and has witnessed an increase in the volume of users in the last few years.
With greater adoption of digital payment methods, it is also important for India to ensure the digital payment systems introduced are efficient, effective and more importantly resilient to conventional and emerging cyber risks. The Reserve Bank of India stated that they will issue guidelines on Cyber Resilience and Payment Security Controls for Payment System Operations soon.
What do you think of this shift to card-less cash withdrawals, and a streamlined online bill payments system? If you could improve one aspect of Indian finance today, what would it be? And how would you improve it?
Share your thoughts by replying to the email!
IPL
KKR is flying...
The Kolkata Knight Riders continued their winning form, having won 3 games out of 4, and only losing one. The Gujarat Titans sit in second place with a game in hand over the table leaders and are currently on a 3 game winning streak. Lucknow Super Giants are also on a three-game winning streak after beating the Delhi Capitals on Thursday. At the bottom of the pack sit reigning champions Chennai Super Kings, the Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderbad, all of which have yet to win a game in this season's Tata IPL.
Kolkata Knight Rider's batsman Pat Cummins stole the show on Wednesday after he scored the fastest 50 recorded in IPL history. His tremendous 56 runs in 15 balls saw the Kolkata Knight Riders triumph over the IPL 2022 hosts, Mumbai Indians.
A rundown on the tournament statistics:
1. Rajhastan Royals batsman
Jos Buttler
currently holds the orange cap having scored 205 runs in 3 games, with a batting average of 102.50. The English batsman is the first and only player to have scored a century this IPL 2022 season.
2. Kolkata Knight Riders bowler
Umesh Yadav
retains the top spot on the bowling rankings. His impressive 9 wickets in 4 games make him the current purple cap holder. He has a bowling economy of 5.25.
3. If you are an IPL fan, and love seeing the ball fly into the stands you might want to buy some Rajhastan Royals tickets...Once again the man of the moment,
Jos Butler
has hit the most sixes this tournament (14 sixes in 4 games).
4. Lucknow Super Giants's
Quinton de Kock
has hit the most boundaries/fours (19 fours in 4 games).
Games to keep an eye on this week:
- Chennai Super Kings v Royal Challengers Bangalore (12th April 2022)
- Mumbai Indians v Punjab Kings (13th April 2022)
- Rajasthan Royals v Gujarat Titans (14th April 2022)
Other News
1.
, India's largest luxury carmaker, stated that it sold 4,022 units in the first quarter highlighting a 26% increase in sales compared to the same period last year.
2. Abu Dhabi's International Holding Company (IHC) will invest USD 2 billion as primary capital in three
, namely Adani Green Energy Ltd, Adani Transmission Ltd, and Adani Enterprises Ltd.
3. On Saturday,
signed an economic cooperation and trade agreement which is estimated to increase bilateral trade between the two countries from USD 27.5 billion to USD 45-50 billion in the next 5 years.
4. In the biggest merger in India's corporate history, India's largest housing finance company
will merge with India's largest private lender HDFC Bank to create an entity twice the size of ICICI Bank.
5. In the first quarter,
touched a 6-year high with approximately 99,550 units sold across the top 7 cities. This accounts for a 71% annual rise in the housing market.
Quiz
QUIZ TIME!
Four sisters, Sara, Ophelia, Nora, and Dawn, were each born in a different one of the months September, October, November, and December.
"This is terrible," said Ophelia one day. "None of us have an initial that matches the initial of her birth month."
"I don't mind at all," replied the girl who was born in September.
"That's easy for you to say," said Nora. "It would at least be cool if the initial of my birth month was a vowel, but no."
In which month was each girl born?
Think very carefully...🤔
See you next week!
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Quiz Answer:
Sara was born in October, Ophelia was born in November, Nora was born in December, and Dawn was born in September.
Explanation:
Nora's birth month obviously cannot be November. Since it doesn't start with a vowel, it cannot be October. Since she was talking to the girl who was born in September, it cannot be September. Therefore, it must be December.
The girl born in September obviously cannot be Sara. Since she was talking to both Ophelia and Nora, it cannot be either of them. Therefore, it must be Dawn.
This leaves the girls Sara and Ophelia and the months October and November. Ophelia cannot be born in October, so she must be born in November, and Sara was born in October.
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Written by: Adnan Bahrainwala