Time to let go of the election symbol
The Election Commission playing judge and assigning the symbol in times of party splits should give way to a more fundamental question. From the times of 18 percent literacy in 1952, literacy is very possibly over 80 percent now. it is time to junk symbols and ask people to vote by pressing the button against the name of the candidate and the party he or she represents
The stock market is loving private equity’s new normal
The stunning change in sentiment around private capital managers is driven by confidence that interest rates have peaked, bringing some predictability to the cost of capital. Spreads – the extra cost to reflect the risk of the borrower – have fallen. Buyout firms should find it easier to refinance existing investments and initiate new transactions
We need to know how AI firms fight deepfakes
AI companies have unparalleled freedom to conduct their work in secret. But if they want to ensure the trust of the public, regulators and civil society, hiring more humans like Facebook's content moderators, wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Too much focus on racing to make AI “smarter” so that fake photos look more realistic, or text more fluent, or cloned voices more convincing, threatens to drive us deeper into a hazardous, confusing world
Ashok Chavan's Exit: Congress fails to arrest plummeting morale of both leaders and rank-and-file
Ashok Chavan will take away with him a big chunk of his loyalists from the Marathwada region. Facing repeated setbacks, the Congress high command has run out of ideas on how to stem this outflow of leaders
Moneycontrol Pro Panorama | Is rural FMCG demand on the cusp of a revival?
In today's Moneycontrol Pro Panorama: Market weakness likely to persist, sugar mills exhibit signs of being stuck, Pakistani voters spoil military’s game plan, should you invest in products of daily use, and more
Demystifying Concepts: Should you invest in the brands you use?
Just because a brand is popular or that you use it in your daily life doesn’t mean that it will make you a profit on your investments. It’s called familiarity bias. Here’s how one can tackle this trap
America now has a high-pressure economy
It’s good for the time being, but you have to wonder what will happen when the valves are released
Chart of the Day | Sugar mills find themselves in a sticky spot
Global sugar prices have swung in tune with a change in the industry’s outlook. Domestic mills face a tough time as higher than expected output is likely at a time of lower prices
Mark Zuckerberg’s 20-year formula for success has expired
Despite being seen as the big tech “comeback kid” after recovering from 2022’s dwindling share price, Zuckerberg may no longer be able to continue to copy and paste his way out of trouble. The next threat to Meta doesn’t come from easily duplicated up-and-coming social apps but new paradigms in computing altogether
Democrats can no longer ignore Biden's age
Democrats must hear voter concerns about Biden's failing memory and try to ease their discomfort. They should be constantly hammering Biden’s many successes and Trump’s litany of failures. Ignoring the issue will only allow voters’ doubts to fester and help pave the way for a Trump victory in November
In a rare defiance, Pakistani voters have rejected the military’s power game
Though Imran Khan’s supporters have won the election, Pakistan’s military is looking for ways to keep them out of power and hoist Nawaz Sharif as prime minister. The army is taking a huge risk
Asset attachment under PMLA – What is the right approach?
While confiscation of property derived from or involved in money-laundering is an important objective to give effect to the PMLA, an unclear interpretation could strip a person of his legally acquired assets
Rise in climate financing underscores need for green taxonomy
Harmonising taxonomy with global frameworks will ensure interoperability across markets, facilitating seamless cross-border investment flows
Max Healthcare sets the bar high for Apollo Hospitals, Fortis Healthcare
Max’s operating metrics are superior chiefly due to its hospitals being concentrated in the Delhi NCR region and focus on higher margin-yielding specialities
Bharat Ratna MS Swaminathan had backed 'Swadeshi' stand on GM crops
Sanghnomics: The Bharat Ratna honour to the late agriculture scientist is also a tribute to his opposition to introduction of GM crops in India. It might have come as a surprise to many but the fact is that Swaminathan, and the RSS-inspired organisations Swadeshi Jagaran Manch and Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, were on the same page on the issue of GM crops
Why laws on independent directors need to be tailored to suit Indian conditions
The CII Guidelines on independent directors fail to deal with two elephants in the room, as they are modelled on western principles
Stockology: Avoid contrarian ideas & remain a good trend follower in markets this week
The current phase of the market is like a slow poison, it will keep sucking the earned profits from the investor’s existing portfolio
Bharat Ratna: Honour for champions of economic reforms and farmers but Modi's political message is clear
Bharat Ratna to PV Narasimha Rao, Chaudhary Charan Singh and MS Swaminathan connects with Indians at multiple levels. Rao is a darling of the middle classes, is adored in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and was out of sync with a Sonia Gandhi-obsessed Congress. Charan Singh was among the first farmer leaders and struck crucial blows to the Congress edifice. Without Swaminathan, India’s achievements in agricultural self-sufficiency are unimaginable
The four tenets of investing – the philosophy, the art, the craft and the graft
An investor needs all four of these in various degrees to emerge as a worthy contender in the market. In the absence of these concepts, one may be weighed and measured and still found wanting
Wall Street job cuts show the future has finally arrived
In January, Citigroup announced plans to eliminate 20,000 positions from its global workforce of around 200,000. This month, Deutsche Bank revealed plans to cut 3,500 jobs to reduce costs by $2.7 billion by 2025. Machine learning is now poised to take down many more jobs
Germany makes a risky bet on Hydrogen energy
Hydrogen is expensive and the cost of building, and then later upgrading, power plants to burn a fuel which isn’t yet widely available is also high. Hydrogen’s potential has been downgraded in recent years after being initially touted as the fuel of the future, powering planes, trains and automobiles and heating homes
End of Free Movement Regime: GoI loses a crucial element in its Act East policy
There was considerable pressure from the Manipur government to scrap the FMR. The task of fencing the 1,643 km India-Myanmar border with its hilly, forested terrain could be as difficult as the still unfinished India-Bangladesh border fencing
China to export deflation to the world as economy stumbles
Prices of products shipped overseas have been falling at the fastest rate since 2008 crisis
Pakistan Elections: Will the delay in counting pave the way for Army’s favourites?
Imran Khan’s PTI-backed Independents have done much better than expected. Could that explain the delay in results? Is General Asim Munir setting the stage for a PML(N)-PPP coalition to take office? At this stage there are more questions than answers coming from Pakistan
The Grammys aside, music is still a man’s world
Women made up only 34.8% of the 164 artists who appeared in Billboard’s Hot 100 year-end chart for 2023. This is an increase from 30.2% in 2022. But of the 441 songwriters credited on that list, only 19.5% were women. And of 217 producers, the proportion of women is smaller still: 6.5%
