Iran says war games in Gulf were warning to Israel

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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War games conducted this week by Iran in the Gulf were intended to send a warning to Israel, the country’s top military commanders said Friday, amid concerns over possible Israeli plans to target Iranian nuclear sites.

The Revolutionary Guards’ war games included firing ballistic and cruise missiles. State television showed missiles flattening a target that resembled Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor at the conclusion of the exercises on Friday.

“Through a simulation of the Dimona atomic facilities, the Revolutionary Guards successfully practised attacking this critical centre of the Zionist regime in its missile exercise,” the semi-official news agency Tasnim said.

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“These exercises had a very clear message: a serious, real … warning to threats by the Zionist regime’s authorities to beware of their mistakes,” Guards chief General Hossein Salami said on state TV.

“We will cut off their hands if they make a wrong move. … The distance between actual operations and military exercises is only a change in the angles of launching the missiles,” Salami added.

Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri said 16 ballistic missiles of different classes had been fired simultaneously and had destroyed predetermined targets.

Britain condemned the launch of ballistic missiles during the war games.

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“These actions are a threat to regional and international security, and we call on Iran to immediately cease its activities,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, rejected the British statement as “meddling in Iran’s defensive capacity,” state media said.

Iran says its ballistic missiles have a range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles) and are capable of reaching arch-foe Israel and US bases in the region.

Iran has one of the biggest missile programmes in the Middle East, regarding such weapons as an important deterrent and retaliatory force against the US and other adversaries in the event of war.

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Israel, which opposes efforts by world powers to revive Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal, has long threatened military action if diplomacy fails. Iran says its nuclear ambitions are peaceful.

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz has called on world powers not to allow Iran to play for time at the nuclear negotiations, in recess at Iran’s request and scheduled to resume next Monday.

Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with a nuclear arsenal.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

8 new Omicron cases in Kerala, state’s first patient infected by new variant recovers

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Eight more cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus were detected in Kerala on Friday, taking the total number of infected people to 37, Health Minister Veena George said. One person each from Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam, two each from Alappuzha, Ernakulam and Thrissur districts have been detected with the new variant of the virus.

Meanwhile, the first Omicron positive patient aged 39 has been discharged from the hospital. The Health Department said a 48-year-old foreigner who reached Thiruvananthapuram from Russia, a Kollam native (40) who reached Ernakulam from Namibia, an Alappuzha native (28) who reached Ernakulam from Qatar were among those who were found infected with the new variant.

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Another Alappuzha native (40) who reached Ernakulam from Qatar, a three-year-old girl who reached Ernakulam from the United Kingdom, a 25-year-old Ernakulam native who came from UAE, a Thrissur native (48) from Kenya and another Thrissur native (71) who was in the primary contact list of a patient are among those who were confirmed with the new variant.

“The three-year-old came from the UK along with her parents. Her parents were tested negative on arrival at the airport. They were under home quarantine. The tests were done after the child started showing symptoms,” the health department said in a release.

The new variant was confirmed in the examination of their samples conducted at Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology here after they turned COVID positive. The state had detected its first Omicron case on December 12 in Ernakulam district when a person who had returned from the UK tested positive.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

NBFCs: Changes in the regulatory landscape

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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NBFCs were introduced and conceptualized with the objective of supplementing the credit intermediation function of the banks, diversifying the access to financial services, and promoting healthy competition in the financial services sector. In order to promote the growth of NBFCs in alignment with their objective, the regulatory framework for regulating the NBFCs has been designed on the fundamental principle of less rigorous regulations, as against the banking companies.

The regulatory design has been a conscious one intended to strike a balance between operational flexibility available with NBFCs to grow at a sustainable pace, and expand the outreach of the formal financial services sector in unbanked areas. Gradually with the growing nature of the NBFCs, a nuanced regulatory framework followed.

As per statistics of RBI, NBFCs were 12 percent of the balance sheet size of the banks in 2010. In 2020, this stands at 25 percent. In the last 5 years, the balance sheet size of NBFCs (including Housing Finance Companies) has doubled. It was Rs 20.72 lakh crores in the year 2015, which has increased to Rs 49.22 lakh crores in the year 2020. The other side of the phenomenal growth which NBFC sector has witnessed has been the failure of a few large NBFCs, resulting in insolvencies and liquidity stress in general in the sector.

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With an objective to revise and revisit the regulatory framework governing NBFCs, RBI in its Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies dated December 4, 2020, proposed a scale-based regulatory approach linked to the systemic risk contribution of NBFCs. It released a discussion paper for public consultation on January 22, 2021, and basis the inputs received, introduced “Scale Based Regulation (SBR): A Revised Regulatory Framework for NBFCs” in October 2021.

SBR regulatory framework categorizes NBFCs into 4 layers based on the size, activities, and perceived riskiness of the NBFCs. These 4 categories are (i) Base Layer – this will include non-deposit taking NBFCs below the size of Rs 1000 crores and NBFCs which are acting as only Peer to Peer Lending Platform, Account Aggregator, Non-Operative Financial Holding Company, or NBFCs which are not availing public funds and not having any customer interface; (ii) Middle Layer – this will consist of all deposit-taking NBFCs, all non-deposit taking NBFCs with an asset size of Rs 1000 crores and above, and NBFCs acting as Standalone Primary Dealer, Infrastructure Debt Fund, Core Investment Companies, Housing Finance Companies, and Infrastructure Finance Companies; (iii) Upper Layer – this will have NBFCs which are specifically identified by the RBI demanding increased regulatory supervision basis predetermined parameters and scoring methodology. In addition, this layer will always consist of the 10 largest NBFCs in terms of their asset size, irrespective of any other factor; and (iv) Top Layer – this layer will only consist of NBFC which in my opinion of RBI has turned into potential systemic risk.

In addition to the categorization of NBFCs into 4 different layers, basis size and the activities, SBR regulatory framework has also increased the quantum of net owned minimum fund for a few categories of NBFCs, and revised guidelines for NPA classification by NBFCs by replacing the erstwhile guidelines to an overdue period of 90 days for all categories of NBFCs. RBI has proposed a glide path for bringing aforesaid changes, in the net owned minimum fund, and NPA classification.

Guidelines have introduced several amendments in the corporate governance requirements for the NBFCs, and have also pressed for professional expertise on the board, by making it mandatory for boards of the NBFCs to have at least one member on their board with prior experience of having worked at a bank or an NBFC. Further, RBI has also introduced a ceiling of Rs 1 crore per borrower on financing for subscription to initial public offer and has also introduced a ceiling for exposure to sensitive sectors, which includes direct and indirect exposure to capital markets, and exposure to commercial real estate, including sublimit for financing the land acquisition.

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SBR Regulatory Framework will assist RBI in keeping a close watch on the NBFCs and will allow RBI to take corrective action and intervene at a right time before a particular NBFC becomes a systematic risk for the economy at large. Size and asset-based classification and regulations will also ensure that there is no chilling effect on all categories of NBFCs because of rigorous regulatory supervision on a particular category of NBFCs.

The SBR regulatory framework will also sensitize the public at large to identify the risk associated with the particular NBFCs. In addition, it will be interesting to see how RBI keeps stakeholders interest as paramount when a particular NBFC is moved from Upper-Layer to Top Layer.

While the SBR framework provides a holistic view, it is anticipated that the detailed regulatory guidelines to be introduced will cover the finer aspects recognizing the immense potential of NBFCs

– The author’s Veena Sivaramakrishnan is Partner and Yugal Jain is Senior Associate, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

What is vegetarian meat, the new alternative to regular chicken-mutton

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India is home to some of the world’s choicest chicken, mutton and fish dishes; it also happens to have one of the lowest rates of meat consumption, globally. Over the years, we have perfected the art of substituting meat with vegetarian options. But now, increasingly, Indians are not alone in seeking out vegetarian options.

The rise of alternative plant-based vegetarian meats has led to companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat being valued as multibillion-dollar businesses. The alternative protein sector raised $3.1 billion from investors in 2020, reported Vox.

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What is vegetarian meat?

While vegetarian burgers have existed for a long time, the new growth has been mostly driven by demand for plant-based meat. Also known as vegan meat, meat substitute, mock meat, meat alternative, imitation meat, or vegetarian meat, plant-based meat, instead of being harvested from real animals, are made from plant products like legumes and lentils. These products are designed and produced to imitate the texture, taste, colour, smell and mouthfeel of real meat.

Companies have started offering alternative meats to replicate meat products like beef, poultry, and pork.

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Why are plant-based meats becoming popular?

The increasing number of people following veganism as a lifestyle, the practice of abstaining from animal products, is of course driving the growth of plant-based meat.

But one of the bigger drivers of growth is the decision of alternative meat companies to promote their products to not just vegans, vegetarians and others of a similar bent, but also to traditional meat-eaters.

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The unsustainable practices of traditional animal rearing to keep up with the global demand for meat has been identified as one of the major factors behind environmental problems like excessive emissions, deforestation, and shrinking wildlife spaces.

Alt ‘meat’ is also a big draw for those who are increasingly concerned about the climate meltdowns around us, which cannot be denied anymore.

And there’s also lab-grown meat

Continuing research into lab-grown meat, where animals cells are used to grow meat inside a laboratory so that meat can be harvested without needing to kill any living animal has also generated a lot of interest in alternative meats.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Movies and shows about the metaverse you can watch this Christmas 

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The metaverse may have caught the popular imagination of the broader public only recently, but if you haven’t noticed, it has existed in movies and TV shows for a long time. The metaverse is nothing but a digital reality that has been put together through a combination of technologies.

Without much ado, we present to you a list of the famous movies and TV shows that talk about the metaverse.

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Movies/series on metaverse

Black Mirror

This science-fiction anthology series highlights the potential dangers of technology only a few years or decades away, how it will change us and why it could be detrimental to our society if we don’t use it responsibly. If dystopian fantasies give you goosebumps and curl your toes (in a good way), this is the series for you.

It builds upon the seminal classic, Twilight Zone, to give you a different bone-chilling story every episode. It addresses a gambit of issues related to multiple aspects of metaverses. Be it addiction to social media, the dim prospects of constant surveillance or obsession with video games. The showrunners leave no stones unturned when it comes to exploring the future of technology.

Her

Her is a sombre story about love and loss that explores the relationship of a recently divorced writer, Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix), and a personalised Artificially Intelligent operating system, Samantha (Scarlett Johansson). This movie is an anomaly in this list as it is not a tale of a dystopic future. Instead, it’s about a character finding his way after his divorce.

The story also explores the development of Scarlett Johansson’s AI character, how she perceives herself in this world, and what she means to Phoenix’s character. The movie questions what it means to be a human and whether artificial intelligence could someday start behaving like humans.

Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex

This classic anime movie spawned the TV show that grappled with the idea of the nature of identity in a future where humans can transfer their consciousness into cyborg bodies. Major Motoko Kusanagi, the protagonist of this series, is a cyborg public security agent hunting a mysterious hacker called the puppet master.

This series deals with multiple facets of metaverse technology such as Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Realities, and the militarisation of technology.

Minority Report

Minority Report explores a future where law enforcement can predict crimes before they occur. In the story, Tom Cruise’s character is a law enforcement agent in the future-crimes division of the police who arrest people that will commit a crime in the future.

His world is turned upside down when pre-cogs — human telepaths that predict the future in the division — foresee that his character will murder someone in the future. This makes Cruise’s character question the motives of the division and the free will of an individual, making him see that the future actually is not pre-ordained.

Westworld

This HBO series created by Jonathan Nolan, brother of the famed director Cristopher Nolan, is about a futuristic western-themed amusement park where visitors can interact with androids designed to be at their disposal. People who come in this park live out their wildest fantasies, whether it be playing a part in a western storyline or indiscriminately killing human-like androids for pleasure.

In typical dystopian fashion, there is a master and slave relationship between the visitors and the androids in the park. And as the seasons go on, there is a question of whether the androids have true sentience and autonomy. It contemplates existential issues like the line between humans and androids, what makes humans more sentient than androids.

The Matrix

The Matrix is the story of a computer programmer, Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), who realises that he is living in a virtual world designed by an Artificial Intelligence that uses humanity as an energy source in the real world.

The Matrix trilogy is now seen as a pinnacle of science fiction storytelling in movies whose existential idea of the difference between the natural world and the virtual world is as impressive as the action displayed in the film. Many movies after the Matrix tried to capture the magic of the series but could not meet the lofty standards set by and the meticulously choreographed action scenes of the Matrix.

Sword Art Online 

This popular anime series explores a world where most of the population is immersed in a virtual reality MMO (massively multiplayer online) game. The in-universe game uses virtual headsets that allow players to not only see the virtual world of the game but also engage their other four senses. Players control their characters using their minds.

The inciting event that sets the series in motion is when 10,000 players log into the game and then are not able to log out of the game for mysterious reasons. And it only gets more interesting.

2001: A Space Odyssey

This 1968 classic, dubbed the grandfather of science fiction movies, tackles questions from human evolution to whether we are alone in this universe. The movie’s salient point is the confrontation of two species and the innate drive to destroy the inferior one. In the movie, this plays out as the confrontation between an Artificial Intelligence named HAL 9000 that controls the ship on which five scientists are going to Mars.

There is a conflict between the two species as both deem themselves superior. This relationship feels all too real as history has dictated in the real world that the superior species has always wiped out the inferior.

Love Death + Robots

Another anthology series on the list, this show discusses, as one can guess from the title, love, death, and robots. The episodes are based on short stories written by multiple prolific short story writers. The most prominent aspect the show deals with is artificial intelligence and how it will affect the evolution of humans in the near future.

It is an animated show with a different art style for every episode, remarkably displaying various animation styles that are a feast for the eyes.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Climate action: This ancient city in MP is reviving a 400-year-old traditional water structure

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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An ancient city in Madhya Pradesh has devised a plan to revive traditional water structures designed in the Mughal era to counter its rising water crisis, Mongabay reported.

Burhanpur, which was once the Deccan headquarters of the Mughal rulers, faced a modern-day water crisis owing to rapid urbanisation and climate change.

However, things changed for the better this year, with Burhanpur becoming the first district in Madhya Pradesh to achieve 99.95 percent functional tap water connection in every household. According to data from the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, out of 1,01,952 households in Burhanpur, 1,01,905 now have a water connection.

Authorities revived a unique 400-year-old underground water harvesting system to ensure continuous water supply to the households of Burhanpur.

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Historic structure

Burhanpur, which flourished between the 15th-17th centuries, had built an underground network to support the 2-lakh strong Mughal army and a civic population of about 35,000. Burhanpur’s traditional water harvesting system is called Kundi Bhandara or Qanats, which was built by Mughal Subedar Abdul Rahim Khan Khana in 1615 AD.

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The city also has other ancient water structures like Jali Karanj, Mul Bhandara and Shakar Talab, which are in a dilapidated condition now, Shalikram Chaudhary, member of the district archaeology committee, told Mongabay.

The network is built in a way that it does not require power to maintain the water flow but is done through gravity and air pressure. Rainwater from hills is collected and flows in underground channels, which are connected to 102 wells.

The traditional network has the potential to supply 15 percent of the total water requirement of Burhanpur city.

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Government’s restoration efforts

The state initiated a two-year project in March 2019, under the Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change, to conserve the traditional water systems of the city which would directly benefit 3,550 households and 10,000-15,000 households indirectly by climate-proofing urban water supply. The project was expected to be completed by February 2021.

“The project was delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic, but most of the work has already been done and locals are benefitting from this. Only two or three kundis are yet to be restored,” Saransh Bajpai, who documented the project, told Mongabay.

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As part of the project, the government is restoring 71 open and step wells of the city and the Kundi Bhandara network. The state is also installing 250 rainwater harvesting structures in the city’s government buildings.

The project will help the municipal corporation save Rs 17.23 lakh per annum by reducing pumping costs.

Other cities

A similar project is being implemented in Indore, another major city in Madhya Pradesh, where the government plans to restore around 300 traditional water sources with the help of community participation. The project will help reduce the burden on the existing water distribution system.

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How Maharashtra’s big switch to EVs will help India cut emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Marking a radical shift towards electric vehicles, the Maharashtra government is planning to register only EVs and vehicles that are powered by carbon emission-free next-generation fuels such as hydrogen from 2030. The state will soon start deregistering petrol and diesel vehicles and completely ban them from 2030, Mint reported, quoting people aware of the development.

Maharashtra’s Electric Vehicle Policy 2021

Maharashtra introduced the revised Electric Vehicle Policy 2021 earlier this year with the aim to drive in at least 146,000 new battery-operated electric vehicles (BEVs) by 2025, which would make up 10 percent of all new vehicle registrations in the state by then, Hindustan Times had reported. The policy also aims to subsidise 100,000 electric two-wheelers, 10,000 cars, 20,000 goods carriers (both three and four-wheeler), 15,000 e-autos and 1,000 e-buses.

The state government has also entered into an agreement with the Indian arm of the USA-based Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) to provide technical support for faster adoption of EVs in the state.

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The new plan to fast-track electrification of vehicles by registering only EVs from 2030 is being led by Aaditya Thackeray, Maharashtra’s Tourism, Environment and Protocol Minister.

Impact of the move

The move will help bring down the country’s total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes in less than a decade and help achieve the reduced carbon intensity target promised at COP26.

India is aiming to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 45 percent, a cut of projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes by 2030.

“Considering the increasing vulnerabilities to climate change, Maharashtra wants to be at the forefront of green innovation and green economy,” Mint quoted a spokesperson for Maharashtra’s Environment Department as saying.

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The spokesperson added that the state cabinet has acknowledged the climate emergency elucidated in the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.

The IPCC has called for immediate steps to mitigate climate change that will result in extreme weather events in India and South Asia.

What is the state doing?

In the last 50 years, Maharashtra has witnessed a six-fold increase in the frequency of extreme floods and a seven-fold increase in drought events.

From 2022, the urban local bodies (ULBs) in Maharashtra will start buying only electric vehicles. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corp (BMC) has already started buying EVs. The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) is working on plans to run an all-electric bus fleet by 2027 and is targeting 2,100 electric buses by 2023.

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“Eighty percent of Fifteenth Finance Commission’s NCAP (national clean air programme) funds will be used to buy electric buses,” the spokesperson said told Mint, adding that over 5,000 buses have been bought across the state from this fund.

The state’s compensation for climate change disasters in the last 18 months has crossed $1 billion.

Other states

Apart from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Chandigarh are also trying to phase out fossil-fuelled commercial fleet by 2030. Chandigarh’s draft policy also states that only EVs will be registered in the city from 2030.

Also read: How Delhi is emerging as the EV capital of India

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Christmas stock picks: SBI, Kotak Bank, Bharti Airtel, Allcargo Logistics, Power Grid, Tejas Networks and more

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The fast-spreading Omicron has sparked concerns over economic recovery hitting a bump. Further, several states in India have imposed night curfews and restrictions in an attempt to contain the spread of the new variant of coronavirus, thereby fueling investor concerns. This has increased the nervousness and volatility in stock markets lately.

Both benchmark indices—Nifty50 and Sensex—have dropped more than 2 percent in the past one month and have fallen nearly 5 percent in the past three months.

The Christmas cheer faded away soon today with the key Indian indices slipping into the red. However, several market participants still believe that any dip should be bought into as the long-term story remains strong.

Several money managers have opined about buying stocks with strong fundamentals while avoiding momentum plays.

Here are the views of market experts and certain stocks they believe have the potential to do well in 2022 and generate decent returns:

Arun Malhotra, Founding Partner and Portfolio Manager, CapGrow Capital Advisors

“Investors should clearly invest at lower levels on every fall in good quality stocks. From here on, the stock selection will be the key,” said Arun Malhotra, Founding Partner and Portfolio Manager, CapGrow Capital Advisors.

Banking and mortgage financers, IT & telecom, real estate, and building materials are likely to do well, according to Malhotra.

“We prefer private banks ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, and SBI in the PSU space. The banking sector is coming out of a long down cycle and we believe we are at the start of an upcycle in credit growth, while the asset quality concerns have been addressed through adequate provisions. Rather, there might be some writebacks in a few cases,” he said.

Malhotra likes Bharti Airtel in the telecom space as the majority of the recent tariff hikes will flow into EBITDA as operating leverage kicks in. He also likes Housing Development Finance Corp as it is the leader in mortgage financing and the real estate sector has gathered momentum after 10 years of a lull period, he explained.

Suraj Nair, Chief Investment Officer, MoatPMS

The markets at this point in time are certainly slightly on the higher side. Although, occasional corrections are bound to happen since our market is a great ‘leveller’, said Suraj Nair CIO of MoatPMS.

But, more than that, the effects of this COVID pandemic will bring in a lot of uncertainties, so, “corrections are bound to happen here and there”, he added. Most of the promoters in the current bull market have, to a huge extent, deleveraged the balance sheet of their firms and have become much more efficient as well. “So corrections may happen based only on the valuations of the stock but we certainly do not expect a systematic collapse like back in 2008,” Nair believes.

He is of the view that in the next 10 years, the composition of Indian indices would change drastically and new businesses would feature in the indices. Nair sees stocks such as Mahindra Logistics, Tejas Networks, TARC, Heranba Industries and Mahindra Lifespace as good investment bets.

He highlighted that Mahindra Logistics, an end-to-end logistics player with its main line of business of mobility and logistics aims to grow over four times in the next 5 years, while Tejas Networks which is into global networks gear market operating under the Tata management sees a very large opportunity in the telecom sector both in India as well as the global markets, with a new cycle of investments in 5G and fiber-based broadband rollouts.

Meanwhile, TARC is a real-estate development company with sandbanks in New Delhi metropolitan area under able leadership, new business incentives, and deleveraging will drive the growth to a higher trajectory, Nair pointed out.

Heranba Industries, an agrochemical company, aims to grow revenue more than 3 times in the next 4 years and Mahindra Lifespace, the real estate arm of the Mahindra group division, is on a fast-track plan to triple their sales in the next 3 years, he reasoned.

Nirav Karkera, Head of Research, Fisdom

“Signs of fuller restoration of public health, easing supply-led challenges, improving demand and policy support are key factors that will contribute to continued robustness in corporate earning scorecards. In the near term, broader markets could witness sharp volatility on the back of adjusted economic policies, inflationary shocks, and possibilities of emerging risks to public health. However, in the longer term, the Indian economic and corporate resurrection story remains intact,” said Nirav Karkera, Head of Research at Fisdom.

Karkera expects sectors strongly associated with investment cycles to fare well in the near term. He believes infrastructure, capital goods, basic materials, utilities to benefit from the imminent offtake in public capital expenditure cycle.

Further, as demand regains health and supply responds, financial services will also benefit from the rejuvenated flow of money within the economy along with consumer cyclical, he added.

“Select private banks with strong technology suite, higher share of corporate borrowers and solid lending practices offer strong turnaround potential in the year to come,” Karkera said.

Additionally, manufacturing-heavy enterprises who have been able to successfully deleverage in the past year and have the ability to scale existing operations could do well as operating effciencies also contribute to the bottomline, he added.

Rohan Mehta, CEO and Fund Manager, Turtle Wealth

“Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) have been underperforming since the last decade and with government’s push, these can perform better. Infact, there are some businesses which are doing well and with government support, these companies will have better risk-reward ratio,” said Rohan Mehta, CEO and Fund Manager, Turtle Wealth.

Mehta likes Allcargo Logistics which has a strong structural story and is trading at an attractive valuation and also likes Power Grid Corporation of India that has about 75 percent market share in power transmission business and offers good dividend.

Polyplex Corporation is another stock that he believes will perform extremely well in the coming year. The company is a good play on Electric Vehicle (EV) story, valuations are reasonable, management is decent and dividend yield is also attractive which makes Mehta believe Polyplex is a good investment idea.

He believes State Bank of India will do better than peers which would make the stock a wise investment option.

Lastly, he believes Bigbloc Construction which is in the business of manufacturing of building blocks and Aerated Autoclave Concrete bricks, has the potential to grow tremendously.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Omicron scare: Seven-day home quarantine compulsory for flyers landing in Mumbai from Dubai

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Mumbai residents arriving from Dubai will have to undergo a seven-day home quarantine, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said on Friday. Travellers who live in other parts of Maharashtra will be able to leave Mumbai on arrival from Dubai, but their transport will be arranged by the collector, said the order issued by Mumbai municipal commissioner I S Chahal.

“Every resident of Mumbai, if coming from Dubai International Airport to Mumbai airport, will compulsorily undergo seven days of home quarantine after arriving in Mumbai,” the order said. The local ward officer will subject the person to an RT-PCR test after seven days; if it is negative, the person will monitor himself/herself for another seven days, the order added.

Also read | Omicron scare: Maha imposes Section 144 at night, curbs on large gatherings and more

Should the test come back positive for coronavirus, “laid-down procedure will be followed such as shifting the person to COVID-19 treatment ward”, the order said. The decision was taken because many passengers fly to Mumbai after switching flights at the Dubai airport, the order said.

Non-residents of Mumbai will be transferred by the collector, who shall arrange transport. “These travellers will not be allowed to take public transport,” the order said. Those who have connecting flight to other states or other parts of Maharashtra will be allowed to take the next flight,” the order added.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Books about metaverse to binge read over Christmas holidays

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Science fiction books can often leave readers in awe and disbelief. Books exploring futuristic concepts such as artificial intelligence (AI) or virtual reality (VR) a few years ago, for example, may have met with scepticism from some readers. But as we know now, many of these concepts have started taking shape.

The metaverse is one such concept. First described in 1992 by science fiction writer Neal Stephenson as a 3-D virtual space, this virtual universe is rapidly gaining popularity now. Although still in its infancy, it promises to bring together technologies like VR, AI, and simulation in a single package. For those who are yet to catch up on this latest technological innovation, here is a list of science fiction books with interesting thoughts on how the metaverse could evolve.

Also Read \\ Movies and shows about the metaverse you can watch this Christmas 

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Often hailed as the book that introduced the cyberpunk aesthetic to science fiction, the book explores a virtual world known as ‘Cyberspace’ where hackers or ‘console cowboys’ use a virtual world for corporate espionage and stealing private data.

Hackers in this world enter the virtual world using a device called a deck, which is hooked up to hardware mounted on the hacker’s head. When the hacker is in the virtual world, they can see the systems they are hacking into, represented as cityscapes of light or walls of green ice.

It is a riveting book that also explores artificial intelligence, cybernetic enhancements, and digital consciousness while having grounded characters you can relate to.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

In this universe, the virtual world known as the ‘Oasis’ is peddled to the masses by a single corporation with the ultimate goal of profiting (a theme science fiction often touches upon). The players in the game use headsets and even a custom-built bodysuit to experience every sensation their avatar would feel in the game.

The novel’s central premise is that the creator of the oasis has left easter eggs in the game, and the player who discovers them all would inherit his fortune and the virtual world. The novel explores virtual reality games and how people get obsessed with them in the novel. Plus, the book is a love letter to 1980s pop culture.

Also Read \\ Metaverse: A blessing or curse for environment?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick

To what lengths would you go to own a real live farm animal? If you ask this question to the protagonist of this novel, Rick Deckard, he will probably make you get an elaborate test done to check if you are an android.

This classic story from famed science fiction writer Philip K Dick explores a world where a disastrous war has left a substantial part of the earth uninhabitable. This has led to a large portion of humanity leaving earth for off-world colonies. When people move to a colony, they are given subservient androids who look indistinguishable from humans.

Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter hunting six androids that escaped from mars. Deckard only has one ambition in his life, and that is to buy a real live sheep from the bounties of those six androids.

The book explores the idea of artificial intelligence and its place in the world and whether they are created only to serve humanity or can have their own ambitions and dreams.

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash is a novel that weaves together concepts that would seem incompatible, like Sumerian myths and a virtual reality 3-D world. As mentioned above, Stephenson was the first to use the term metaverse that the world has now latched on to.

It is a cyberpunk story very much in the vein of Neuromancer, where the protagonist is a pizza delivery driver by day and a versatile hacker by night who roams the virtual world of metaverse as warrior prince trying to unravel the mystery of a mysterious virus that is taking down hackers in the metaverse.

Though the metaverse of snow crash is a satirical outlook of corporation-dominated future America, as opposed to the metaverse being worked in our world that is supposed to be decentralized and distributed. It is still a riveting look at the possibilities of a virtual world.

Also Read \\ How to buy real estate in metaverse: A step-by-step guide

Daemon by Daniel Suarez

Daemon is a harrowing and thrilling journey exploring the convergence of MMORPG (massively-multiplayer online role-playing game) BotNets, viral ecosystems, and corporate dominance.

The death of a renowned game designer who created one of the most popular games in the world resulted in the creation of a deadly swarm of artificially intelligent bots hellbent on destroying the world.

The novel explores concepts of AI, hacking and sentient computer programs.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow