Tag: second wave

Equity markets globally at elevated levels; volatility to continue: S Naren

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

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The coronavirus pandemic second wave has seen global markets, including the Sensex and the Nifty, witness volatility. Despite this, the Indian benchmarks have had a good run in the last six months clocking approximately 14 percent gains.

Speaking about the road ahead to CNBC-TV18, S Naren, ED & CIO of ICICI Prudential AMC, agreed that global markets across are at elevated levels but added that India is not a fragile economy.

“We are in a globally central bank-infused bull market. So as long as the central banks keep pumping, like the US central bank in a very buoyant economy keeps pumping USD 120 billion per month, this party will last. However, the day they say no, inflation is most important and we (the central bank) are going to tighten everything, at that point in time all the challenges will come,” he explained the bull run.

According to him, near-term economic revival will continue for some time but with volatility.

“We are basically believing that the next two years are going to be volatile because of US interest rates,” Naren said.

However, immediately there is nothing much to worry about. “Economies can operate differently from the markets. Markets at elevate levels globally and that’s the challenge currently and the global economy is booming at this point in time and that’s across sectors. Therefore, I don’t think there is any problem in the global economy in the near term,” said Naren.

According to the fund manager, the risks are going to come from the US and when it comes, there will be an impact all over the world.

“Unfortunately, we in India cannot predict and that’s the real problem at this point in time,” he said.

Naren is bullish on the pharma space and sees it having a bull run for a long time as a reduction in healthcare expenditure to gross domestic product (GDP) is unlikely over the next 10 years.

“I think it’s a secular space; who is going to be a gainer and who is going to be a loser, we can have these debates but I do not think healthcare as a percentage to GDP is going to go down in the next ten years. It’s going to go up substantially in the next 10-15 years,” Naren said.

For the entire interview, watch the video

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

COVID second wave ferocity will make investors more cautious: Geosphere’s Arvind Sanger

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

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“My suspicion is the ferocity of this second wave will cause people to be much more cautious,” said Arvind Sanger, Managing Partner of Geosphere Capital Management in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

“It is hard to say that we are going to magically be back on track in July. It depends on the pace with which things normalise and how quickly people get confidence back,” he stated.

“Markets can always change their mind in ways that are hard to tell but yes, India has been amazingly resilient,” he further shared.

He believes there is a certain amount of liquidity around and the market confuses us whether or not Fed is going to be forced to change its stance or not.

“A few months back the view was that the Fed will be forced to but between the last Fed meeting and the recent employment/unemployment data, the market is getting a little more sanguine. I must admit that these macro cues are confusing and we are just focusing on bottom-up and we have been quite bullish on things like metals. And those continue to be some of the leading force when I look at this cycle at this rally,” he mentioned.

“It is hard to tell whether it is a short-term correction or whether it is just a pause on the way up. My sense is the inflation scare that we got a few weeks ago, which seems to have subsided, is probably going to come back,” he said.

“There is a little bit of a fear factor that you could go wrong in two ways – one is inflation coming back and the other is COVID-19 cases maybe a third wave in the west,” he added.

For the full interview, watch the video…

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

COVID-19 chaos: How states got it all wrong about second wave

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

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Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi accounted for 72.19 percent of the total new COVID-19 cases in the country. They are among the top 10 most affected states and Union Territories during the second wave of the pandemic. This was revealed by Union Health Ministry data released on May 6.

According to scientists and public health experts, the alarming situation in many large states during the second surge could have been avoided. India has witnessed well over three lakh daily new cases of COVID-19 for many consecutive days, with numbers even going past the four lakh mark in the past few days.

Dr T. Jacob John, former professor and head of the department of clinical virology and microbiology at Chennai Christian College in Vellore, in an interview told India Today that the “so-called UK variant was detected in September 2020,” and “that was an alert for India to be on guard.”

The top virologist, in the interview, said the government and scientific community did not expect a second wave “or a wave of this magnitude” so soon as the first wave was a one-year affair.

Here’s a look at what went wrong for the governments of the three most badly-hit states, which failed to anticipate the intensity of the deadly second wave.

Maharashtra

Maharashtra has been India’s worst-affected state since the first wave. As of May 6, the state had 49.4 lakh cases, with 62,194 new infections added in the past 24 hours.

According to the Maharashtra Health Department, the second wave got underway from February 12. The Maharashtra government imposed a 15-day state-wide lockdown from April 12. Meanwhile, the hospitals were overwhelmed by the unprecedented number of cases.

In his speech on April 2, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had accepted that there might be a shortage of healthcare infrastructure if coronavirus cases continued to rise.

However, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope in early November 2020 had claimed that a second wave of COVID-19 was unlikely, and the state was ready to tackle any such situation.

Ironically, Maharashtra recorded 20,52,905 cases in 11 months between March 9, 2020 and February 11, 2021. But in the first 72 days of the second wave — between February 12 and April 25 — the state witnessed 21,74,654 cases. Nearly70 percent of these infections were reported from Tier II and Tier III cities as well as from villages.

Karnataka

Karnataka Health Minister Dr K. Sudhakar had on March 21 sought people’s cooperation. “We all will be responsible for the aftermath if the government and people do not respond to experts’ reports,” Sudhakar had said.

Around two months down the line, Karnataka has become the state with the fastest-growing rate of infections after Maharashtra. On May 6, the state reported a total of 17.9 lakh active COVID-19 cases. It added 49,058 new cases in the past 24 hours.

During the second wave of the pandemic, Karnataka also witnessed bypolls in two Assembly segments of Maski and Basavakalyan, besides the Belgaum Lok Sabha seat. Interestingly, Maski’s BJP candidate, Pratapgouda Patil — who had recently tested positive for the COVID-19 — exercised his franchise in a PPE at a polling booth in Killa.

Delhi

In October 2020, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had declared that Delhi had overcome the peak in its second wave of the COVID-19.

“Delhi hit the peak of the second wave of COVID-19 on September 17 when 4,500 cases were reported. The situation has been controlled to a large extent,” he had said.

Kejriwal was happy with the fact that 10,000 beds were vacant in Delhi in October last year, while now Delhi is struggling with the shortage of hospital beds and oxygen. There have been several reports of people dying or not getting admitted to hospitals due to lack of oxygen.

Delhi reported ups and downs in the number of COVID-19 cases, even before the double mutant coronavirus, which is considered to be one of the causes of the present surge, was detected.

After reporting its first case in March 2020, the daily infections continued to rise till July-August before coming down and rising again till September-October.

This government’s attention was diverted to other incidents like the farmers protest from the ongoing COVID crisis, despite the scientific community ringing alarm bells.

As of May 6, Delhi had 12.7 lakh active coronavirus cases with 19,133 new infections recorded in the last 24 hours.

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

Madras HC holds EC responsible for second COVID wave

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

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The Madras High Court in an oral observation has held the Election Commission of India (ECI) singularly responsible for the second COVID wave in the country.

Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee observed that public health is of paramount importance and only if a citizen survives, he can enjoy the rights of a democratic republic. He asked the ECI as to whether they were ‘on another planet’ when election rallies were held.

It has also instructed the ECI to put together an action plan by April 30th in terms of how it hopes to carry on counting with no further increase in COVID-19 cases.

Watch the accompanying video of CNBC-TV18’s Jude Sannith for more details.

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