What will happen to the Madhya Pradesh Congress if Kamal Nath defects?
Many in the MP Congress blame Kamal Nath for the party’s spectacular failure in the 2023 assembly polls. Though his exit would mean the loss of the Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat and a handful of MLAs, the general mood among party workers suggest they are not likely to lament the veteran’s defection
Navalny Death: The poisoner’s recipe for making history
Throughout history, key actors from Augustus Caesar to Napoleon Bonaparte to Alexey Navalny have abruptly vanished from the scene. Many poisoners do get found out but, in its many variations, poison can provide ample room for alibi and denial for those wily enough to use it to manage politics and power
Are energy efficient appliances worth it?
The biggest gains will be made by adding insulation and switching to low-carbon heating, as these investments will have the largest impact on fossil-fuel demand (74% of UK homes are heated with gas). But energy efficiency is a no-brainer climate solution. Improving it not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions but also energy bills. Residential electricity consumption fell by 12% between 2008 and 2018, even as the UK population grew, thanks to improvements in lighting and appliances
There is magic in the discovery of a new type of magnetism
Altermagnets could help make computing more energy efficient
Meet the Delhi School of Economics alumna who's the only one making sense in BoE's MPC
Swati Dhingra, an external member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, is in a unique position as the only major central bank policymaker to publicly call for an interest rate cut in at least two years. Dhingra’s caution is proving increasingly prescient after the UK economy slipped into recession in the second half of 2023
Why the Novelis IPO news did little to lift investor sentiment for Hindalco
There are several questions about the public offer to which answers are not forthcoming as of now
Nickel and Copper: A tale of two metals will determine the future of energy
Slumping prices for nickel and lithium mean that electric vehicles have far better prospects than the current gloom in the market would suggest, as materials costs fall and encourage wider adoption. Copper has the opposite problem. Current prices are great for miners — but they make every product that will drive the decarbonization of our economy a little more expensive
Political Deepfakes will hijack your brain — if you let them
The way to fight so-called deepfakes isn’t to develop some rumour-busting form of AI or to train the public to spot fake images. A better tactic would be to encourage a few well-known critical thinking methods — refocusing our attention, reconsidering our sources, and questioning ourselves. Slow thinking instead of jumping to conclusions could help
Multi-Contributor Social Security: Time to reimagine social security contributions
Inadequate coverage and financing dogs our social security system. Imagine a person’s bank account designated as a multi-contributor social security (MCSS) account where multiple entities – Central and State governments, employers, employees, philanthropists, charities, companies invoking CSR, and other individuals can contribute directly. These contributions, in turn, could get tax benefits. Imagine you being able to tip your Swiggy delivery person directly into his MCSS account, towards his retirement corpus
Marketing Musings: What is the secret sauce of international brands in F&B and hospitality businesses?
Every consumer touch point is thought through from the point of view of experience. All this is reduced to standard operating processes - with almost military precision. All this is executed through rigorous training that ensures consistent delivery time after time
Chart of the Day | Mid and Small Cap funds: A crowded market
Given the increasing SIPs and monthly inflows into mutual funds, AUMs will rise, and more capital will flow towards smaller stocks, likely resulting in outperformance relative to broader indices despite receiving a slightly higher allocation of funds.
The curious case of India’s core inflation fall
An inflation targeting monetary policy and fall in global commodity prices explain the deceleration in core inflation in recent times. This fall in core inflation does not indicate a weakening of demand
The regulatory landscape for NBFCs is still a work-in-progress
The RBI has overhauled NBFC regulations by segregating them based on size and interconnectedness. The final guardrail of self-regulating organisations still remains to be implemented
Rate cuts unlikely until RBI sees inflation stable at 4 percent
Report by RBI researchers exhorts the corporate sector to get its act together to relieve the government of heavy lifting on capex and take advantage of lower borrowing costs to increase capital expenditure
Chandigarh Mayor Polls: Supreme Court ruling a rightful and timely exercise of inherent powers
The Supreme Court’s prompt intervention and its decision to exercise its inherent power ensured the protection of the democratic mandate. The three weeks that it would have taken the high court to hear the matter would have led to horse-trading, as was already happening
Can the upcoming WTO ministerial bust the myth of 'unlucky 13'?
The Abu Dhabi conference is likely to discuss issues on which it could be extremely difficult for WTO members to reach consensus
Does India need a ‘New Deal’ for her farmers?
Can a middle ground between farmers and the government on MSP be reached by reimagining a US ‘New Deal’ Farm programme? The US New Deal in the 1930s saved agriculture in the US from a multi-year slump. It involved production quotas, assured guaranteed incomes through price floors and non-recourse loans
Rs 1 lakh crore corpus to incentivise R&D amid India’s patent boom bodes well for innovation
India’s budding scientists and a variety of institutions are poised to benefit from the loosening of purse strings for R&D. More patents can be granted by increasing the number of examiners and other personnel in patent offices. At the current pace, expect the granting of one lakh patents by 2025-26
Moneycontrol Pro Panorama | Have hotels cracked the growth code?
In today's edition of Moneycontrol Pro Panorama: FMCG falls out of investor favour, IT continues to register weak earnings, market challenge for retail traders in 2025, job creation initiative gets major boost in state budgets, and more
Bond funds are not as safe as you thought
The low risk associated with investing in high-quality government debt only applies in the very specific circumstance of you holding your bonds to maturity. Only then do you benefit from their fixed value at redemption. If you sell before maturity, or worse still, if you’re a distressed seller, the losses can be huge
Softbank’s great semiconductor hope Arm isn’t the AI play you think it is
The British semiconductor designer isn’t directly involved in the hottest business in town unlike Nvidia’s GPUs, whose superior parallel processing capabilities made them perfect for training and maintaining AI models. Arm can still benefit from the AI boom thanks to its business designing chips for data centres, but its path to capitalising will take a longer time
Brain drain from Putin’s Russia is far from over
An estimated 11-28% of Russian techies have left since the outbreak of war. Yandex NV, once hailed as the country’s answer to Google and valued at $30 billion before the Ukraine invasion, is selling its domestic business for about $5.2 billion. The pressure is even more acute in scientific research. Russia has lost more than 50,000 researchers in the past five years
When will FMCG companies turn investor favourites again?
Eight-year financial data gives an idea of what may lead to FMCG firms’ profits returning to healthier growth levels
Chinese companies revive Mao Zedong-era militias
People’s Liberation Army mobilisation units reflect Xi Jinping’s focus on security as economy slows
Detroit makes the same mistake on Chinese EVs it did with Japan
Detroit can only really defend itself against Chinese EV-makers if it develops products that can compete and undercut them. That’s the lesson it failed to learn when confronted with Japanese rivals half a century ago. The only way to win this race will be to start competing with the next wave of Asian imports, rather than trying to disqualify it
