Investors desert equity hedge funds after years of poor returns
Clients pull nearly $150bn in assets from a strategy once known for its star stockpickers
Pakistan needs to get past 'Lock Him Up' politics
Pakistan cannot afford to let political jostling hold up essential economic reforms. The winners and losers should at least find tacit agreement on a minimum reform program which could be launched, perhaps, by an apolitical finance minister
China’s clean technology is made of dirty metals
Decarbonisation is fueling consumption of metals, chemicals and glass, which are in turn causing a lot of greenhouse pollution as they’re manufactured. Clean-energy products are much more efficient than the alternative once they’re being used — but producing them is causing a spike in carbon emissions
Made in America may be stamped on China stimulus
Beijing is showing every sign of watching the Federal Reserve chair closely. Prospects for a meaningful boost to the economy hinge to a significant degree on whether US Fed officials opt to cut interest rates and by how much
India's Young Workforce: Being bullish on Gen Z
Amidst these challenges, Gen Z grapples with an uncertain future shaped by rapidly changing technology and shifting job landscapes. Working collaboratively as a community to understand and tackle these challenges empowers Gen Z to navigate their journey with strength
Protests in Ladakh – The opening of a Pandora’s Box?
Centre’s commitment to restore statehood to Jammu & Kashmir has left Ladakh out in the cold. The demand for statehood for Ladakh and inclusion in the Sixth Schedule calls for a political review of the situation in Ladakh, and in Jammu and Kashmir, which can help towards making the necessary course correction
Eyeing alpha returns in stocks? Think of long term as a series of short terms
Whether a stock or a sector generates outperformance or not is a function of where it is in the cycle and other initial conditions like valuations
India must secure its nuclear energy supply chain
Like big countries globally, India, too, is quite heavily dependent upon Russia for much of its technologies, and enriched uranium. But India has domestically developed technologies which could help
Zuckerberg’s plan for AI hinges on your Facebook, Instagram data
If Zuckerberg wants to make a more powerful chatbot, the pile of data he’s sitting on is especially valuable because so much of it comes from comment threads. Any text that represents human dialogue is critical for training so-called conversational agents, which is why OpenAI heavily mined the internet forum Reddit Inc to build its own popular chatbot
Big oil’s boring quarter was great news for investors
ExxonMobil Corp, Chevron Corp and Shell Plc all did in the fourth quarter what they’d promised: Start new oil and gas projects; cut costs; reward shareholders. Together, the Big Three returned more than $80 billion to shareholders last year, up from $78 billion in 2022 despite lower oil and gas prices, lower refining margins and fewer trading opportunities
Truly, an interim Budget!
The interim pre-election budget document was not laced with populist dole outs; perhaps, the government has saved the best for the full budget speech
Punjab: AAP fancies a sweep, Congress in delusional mode, Akali Dal & BJP fear public memory
After its impressive Jalandhar victory, Aam Aadmi Party believes a four-cornered fight in Punjab may end up benefiting it. Congress fears that an alliance will reduce it to AAP’s junior partner in Punjab. Shiromani Akali Dal is still scarred by the sacrilege incidents, and BJP by the farm law protests
Moneycontrol Pro Panorama | Nifty’s missing earnings upgrades
In today's edition of Moneycontrol Pro Panorama: Commodity trading calls for new tricks, public healthcare delivery needs reformation, decoding the reason behind rally of PSU stocks, ‘Anusandhan’ scheme a revisit of 1991 AI development moment, and more
Indirect taxes in the journey of India’s economic growth
Indirect taxes have played an important role in contributing towards the economic development by replacing a fragmented indirect tax system
A nine-step guide for enterprise leaders to explore AI
A logistics company can use AI to optimise routes to insurance companies, an insurance company for automating claim assessment, or a retail chain for personalised customer recommendations. Here’s a simple guide for business leaders on how they can begin their organisation's journey into AI in a quick, straightforward, and low-risk manner
EV Technology: The US should copy China’s playbook
A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that Joint Ventures with foreign partners produced some of China’s biggest technological advancements, not just for the local partner but for others in the same industry. If Chinese battery companies like BYD and CATL want to sell into the US, they can be made to do so only through joint ventures
Climate Change: California atmospheric river and Chile fires are just the beginning
Earth so far has warmed by only about 1.2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial averages. Every tenth of a degree by which we crank up the global thermostat increases the atmospheric chaos and threatens tipping points that could fuel exponentially more warming and destruction
China’s growth enigma
Divergence between official data on the economy and other sources is rising as an issue for business
Rs 1 lakh crore ‘Anusandhan’ scheme’s offer of long-term capital is the 1991 moment for AI development in India
Investing in sunrise sectors like AI with higher margins of growth, using long term intent capital for the first time, is a strategic move by GoI. Currently the best AI startups and AI scientists in India are leaving Indian shores for want of enough capital
Do PLI schemes work best standalone or as part of a comprehensive manufacturing strategy?
The government needs to articulate its manufacturing strategy far more clearly than it has so far – and then the PLI schemes can be better designed
Why road construction firms are on a slippery terrain
Given the lacklustre order flows in the roads sector, diversified firms with exposure to railways, water and defence are better poised for the near term
What’s behind the rally in PSU stocks
Most of the government spending on infrastructure projects is managed by public-sector companies and financed by public-sector banks. Notably, sectors like railways and roadways have experienced substantial increases in their capital outlay, leading to positive outcomes for associated companies
The game-changing ambition of Pradhanmantri Suryodaya Yojana
India's residential sector, which has a potential of at least 637 GW for rooftop solar energy, has installed only a fraction of this capacity, indicating a significant opportunity for growth. Large-scale implementation of rooftop solar systems can create jobs in installation and maintenance of these systems, necessitating skilled labour such as technicians and engineers, and also jobs in domestic solar manufacturing industry, which will create jobs in production, supply chain, and logistics
RBI's Paytm freeze shows faulty understanding
The RBI’s press release detailed all the ways in which it was restricting Paytm Payments Bank. The statement didn’t have a word about what customers are supposed to do. This has caused unnecessary chaos for 50 million merchants, for whom online payments are synonymous with the Paytm app, connected to a Paytm Payments Bank account
Chart of the Day: Mankind Pharma’s focus on chronic therapy drugs is yielding growth benefits
The company’s domestic business continues to grow at a faster pace than the India pharmaceutical market
