India

[Xerxes]

10 minutes ago, Haryana said:

 

 

Not local, she is international with more than a million subscribers.

She talks based of facts and figures instead of bias and prejudice.

 

thanks. I ll try to listen to it in the coming days. 
 

understandably it is a YouTube channel and they get clicks by having outrageous video titles. 

[Spekulatius]

Seeing quite a few Indian tourists here in Thailand on my  vacation trip. According to our a Thai friends that's a new thing as they seem to partly replacing the Chinese tourists that are not traveling to Thailand that much any more after the shooting incidence in a Bangkok mall:

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/04/asia/thailand-shopping-mall-shooting-charges-intl-hnk/index.html
 

I think tourism from outbound India is going to explode as the country gets more wealthy.

[ICUMD]

China GDP per capita is 12,000 USD vs India 2,200 USD.  Basically India is where China was 15 yrs ago.

 

Will be interesting to see how the next decade goes for India.  A possible five fold increase in GDP per capita x 1 billion people =  tremendous improvement in quality of life and economic productivity.

[Hektor]

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/02/business/india-economy-foreign-direct-investment.html

 

https://archive.is/6sH1t

 

From the article:

 

"India’s economy is booming. Stock prices are through the roof, among the best performing in the world. The government’s investment in airports, bridges and roads, and clean-energy infrastructure is visible almost everywhere. India’s total output, or gross domestic product, is expected to increase 6 percent this year — faster than the United States or China. 

 

But there’s a hitch: Investment by Indian companies is not keeping pace. The money that companies put into the future of their businesses, for things like new machines and factories, is stagnant. As a fraction of India’s economy, it is shrinking. And while money is flying into India’s stock markets, long-term investment from overseas has been declining."

 

According to the article, money is pouring into the Indian stock market, and not necessarily into Indian businesses. Will the current infrastructure spend by the Government Of India translate into confidence for local and/or global investors to deploy capital in India for the long term? Is there a perception that the rule of law needs strengthening in India? How will these (particularly the latter) affect FIH?

 

[Haryana]

 

[adesigar]

32 minutes ago, Haryana said:

Hawaii of India that almost nobody knows about - 

 

 

I hope it stays that way. I would hate for it to go the way of Goa and Konkan beaches.

[Haryana]

 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-indian-navy-rescues-crew-of-us-owned-vessel-after-attack-on-ship-off/

 

 

 

[Spekulatius]

This perhaps could deserve its own thread but HDB (HDFC bank) looks interesting according to this writeup from valuepunks :

https://valuepunks.substack.com/p/hdfc-bank-an-update
 

I don’t know much about Indian banks, but HDB stock does look like a decent opportunity.

[Xerxes]

2 hours ago, Haryana said:

 

This is from your most trusted news agency = Al Jazeera.

 

"Qatar has released eight former Indian naval officers previously sentenced to death on charges of spying for Israel."

 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/12/qatar-releases-eight-ex-indian-navy-officers-after-commuting-death-sentence

 

My most trusted source … lol. 

you got to be kidding me. 
 

[Munger_Disciple]

From a slightly more trusted source (FT):

 

https://www.ft.com/content/18a264f6-2205-47fa-88f3-4f351edfc01e

 

[Xerxes]

30 minutes ago, Haryana said:

 

Of course, kidding but for some reason or maybe it was only the second paragraph that you loved so much.

 

 

 

 

I think we are talking pass each other. or I am not getting the subtle jabs. 
 

Like it or not, the media in India has tons of propaganda and biases, like everywhere else.
 

Qatar’ Al Jazzera has its own agenda: the soft power of Qatar making waves against its rivals. 
 

Where the difference is that WION (or whatever is called) and the likes of it are there to “influence” the thinking of the domestic audience. In contrast, Qatar is an absolute monarchy. So they are in little need of local domestic brainwashing. So the intended audience is outward and they are more subtle. And more factual given their fractured foreign audience. 
 

Have you noticed that all (or most) of the English speaking hosts/journalists in Al Jazeera speak with the English accent. To capture the BBC aura, which is a global outlet. 
 

By the way, Modi is not perfect. Perhaps he is the leader that India needs at the moment but he is not infallible. And I realize I cannot be saying these things. 

 

And since you asked: I enjoy brainwashing myself on a weekly basis with The Economist. I read and watch a lot, but the subtle but yet decisive influence in my thinking comes from The Economist. 

 

[Xerxes]

2 hours ago, Haryana said:

 

 

 

The two of them make a great couple !

[Haryana]

17 hours ago, Haryana said:

SO WHERE IS THE BEST PLACE TO START A BUSINESS IN 2023?

https://www.gemconsortium.org/file/open?fileId=51377

 

" Outside of the Gulf, India has a rapidly
improving environment for entrepreneurship,
as do Lithuania and China. Each may offer a
relatively low-cost supportive environment
in which to start a new business. "

 

"The United Arab Emirates retained (and
extended) its position at the top of the NECI
league table, ...

However, a handful of well-developed, high-income economies in
Europe and North America saw their NECI scores
slip from sufficient to less than sufficient in 2023,
including Canada, the United States, Sweden,
Norway and Germany."

 

99.pdf 78.97 kB · 2 downloads

 

As seen in the above attachment, India and Qatar are among Top Five of National Entrepreneurship Context Index, or NECI.

 

[Hektor]

https://fortune.com/asia/2024/03/01/byju-raveendran-byjus-downfall-valuation-shareholders-ceo/

 

 

Quote

He was the billionaire founder of India’s most valuable startup. Now that his firm has lost 95% of its value, shareholders of Byju’s, the edtech firm that was once India’s most valuable startup, did what once would have been unthinkable: They voted to oust founder and one-time billionaire Byju Raveendran as CEO, accusing him of mismanaging the online tutoring company into a downward spiral that has nearly stripped it of its unicorn status and made it India’s quintessential pandemic-era flameout. 

 

Audited financials by Deloitte cast doubt on its past claims of supersonic growth. It clashed with lenders who, in September 2023, claimed that Byju’s had hid half a billion dollars in a hedge fund that was once registered at a Miami IHOP. Its auditor quit last summer, as did three board members representing Byju’s investors Sequoia Capital India, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, and Prosus. And Byju’s first-ever CFO, who was supposed to steer the startup through financial tumult, resigned in October after six months on the job.

 

 

[ICUMD]

12 minutes ago, Hektor said:

https://fortune.com/asia/2024/03/01/byju-raveendran-byjus-downfall-valuation-shareholders-ceo/

 

 

 

 

Sounds like the  WeWork fiasco.

[Hektor]

This seems to have a cascading effect 

 

Quote

Byju’s financial and regulatory woes have spooked foreign investors who are the primary source of funding for India’s startup ecosystem, the third-largest behind China and the U.S. Last year, funding for Indian startups reached its lowest level in five years, according to Tracxn, an intelligence provider. As of Dec. 6, Indian tech startups had received $7 billion in funding for 2023, a 72% drop from 2022. Investing in startups is down globally, but not as sharply; U.S. startups garnered 30% less funding in 2023 from the year prior. Byju’s distress has weighed on India’s edtech industry in particular. The sector received $712 million in funding in 2023, down from $2.9 billion in 2022 and $5.3 billion in 2021. Since schools reopened in 2021, demand has plummeted, causing startups to lay off workers or shut down completely.

 

[Spekulatius]

4 minutes ago, Haryana said:

 

They let the failing companies fail in their version of capitalism.

No ZIRPing or bailouts.

 

Startups fail in the US as well without much fuss. It’s the legacy companies with a vast economic infrastructure around them that tends to get help.

[Haryana]

41 minutes ago, Spekulatius said:

Startups fail in the US as well without much fuss. It’s the legacy companies with a vast

economic infrastructure around them that tends to get help.

 

Western colonial media will go crazy if that happened in India, will call them cronies and oligarchs.

 

[Haryana]

RBI action against financial entities, and the bigger picture

 https://www.cnbctv18.com/finance/rbi-action-against-financial-entities-and-the-bigger-picture-19210821.htm

 

“RBI has been pretty active..and what we are generally seeing is that strong and effective regulatory framework is actually a long-term positive for the financial sector, and for the financial entities- one, from an investor-confidence point of view, and second, for their ability to generate revenues and profits in a risk-controlled manner,” Saswata Guha, Senior Director & Team Head - Financial Institutions, India at Fitch Ratings said.

 

 

Edited March 19, 2024 by Haryana

[Haryana]

 

 

[Hektor]

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/air-india-and-bial-sign-agreement-to-make-bengaluru-premier-aviation-hub-of-south-india/article68042257.ece

 

Air India and BIAL sign agreement to make Bengaluru premier aviation hub of south India. 
 

This includes strengthening the group’s presence at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) through an enhanced network and establishing a dedicated domestic lounge for premium and frequent travellers of Tata Group airlines Air India and Vistara.

 

 

[Haryana]

In this video, 7.5 years ago, she concluded with:

 

[So no matter where you are in the world, whatever country you may belong to,

whether you are a young boy or a girl in a primary school or a college, you must know

that sooner or later you will have to have something to do with India and it is inevitable

because India is fast establishing itself as a Top 3 Economy of the world

and its true potential is even bigger than that.

So its better that you start educating yourself about the rising economic powerhouse that we know as India.

Because your future belongs here too.

And as I have said earlier,

India is not just developing,

India is reclaiming.

See you again.]

Edited April 23, 2024 by Haryana

[Haryana]

 

[Haryana]

 

[Spekulatius]

Noticed that a couple of documentaries about Modi dropped. I found this one from Bloomberg quite good. In a nutshell, it seems to me that Modi is a Hindu populist who actually delivers for most of his constituents and that’s why he is so popular:

He is probably the most important politician in India after Gandhi.

Edited May 18, 2024 by Spekulatius