Things that matter

As per the Economic survey and other studies, if Debt's interest rate is less than the Country's growth rate (measured by GDP), Debt is sustainable. Currently, the interest rate on sovereign Bonds on average is about 5%. If we calculate future interest rates from the yield curve, it is still less than 6%. Assuming worst-case scenario, if the interest rate increased to about 8%, then required GDP growth in real terms needs to greater than 3% (assuming the average inflation rate to be 3%), which does not seem to be an issue of much concern. But the question that arises is how much Debt should Country take? The Country's current Debt to GDP ratio is 68%, which amounts to 1.9 trillion USD . Assuming an interest rate of about 5% on average, this amounts to an interest payment of 95 Billion USD. India's 2020 budget was 410 Billion USD (Rs 30 lakh Crores). Hence about 25% of the budget is spent on the interest payment. The study says that if Govt spends this loan which tran...

How it all started? Amidst many companies that come to campus for Internships and Placements, RBS is one such Bank that started recruiting from premium colleges for its R-ACE program from the last few years. Since this program was new, we had apprehension regarding the opportunities, type of work, and growth one can get in RBS. This program excited me for the first time in its preplacement talk when it talked about three stints in different functions for six months, each among Risk, Finance, Operations, and Technology. They had openings in all its five fields: i.e., Risk, Finance, HR, Technology, and Operations. Its recruitment process included PI, in which questions were mainly based on my CV and RBS. From the preparation point of view, panelists mostly look for work-experience and their fit in RBS culture. So, getting verse with CV and better communication skills can give one edge over others. & here it begins! Unlike other times, amidst Covid-19, internship experience...

Why do I want to write about it? Maybe I want to compare this experience in years to come. Perhaps I want to introspect about happening around day in a better way, or it might just be that I want to write about something. So the day started at midnight with a video call from the usual group of friends. One question which haunts me is that is it always so that every person has some group of friends with whom they are always in contact, who seems to do it for the sake of love, with no second thoughts attached. I do not know. Was I expecting a call from them? Yes. How would have I felt had they not called me? Sad possible. In childhood, I remember, it was not friends who used to wish me first but parents. So, when did this happen, that friends’ wishes became more important than parents’? Maybe college life changed the dynamics of relationships; I became closer to friends. I, too, remember that there were some groups of people in school also who used to make me feel special by wishin...

India has tried to revive the economy by giving a boost to the supply side. Many times when the problem of demand-side comes, the government attempts to resolve this by fixing the supply side, and this, in turn, sets things. But the current scenario is unique; usual methods might not work. To analyze this problem, we need to divide customers based on their disposable income and suppliers by their industry. For daily wage workers, laborers, vendors, workers on contract, and for some regular wages workers whose jobs got effected due to Covid-19, there will be a lack of demand. And, since in India the majority of the workforce is under an unorganized sector, this cohort may amount to more than 90% of the population and more than 50% of disposable income (rough idea). In the near future, too, it will be hard to come back on track, and even if they do, there will always be the apprehension of job loss, and hence disposable income will be hugely affected. For the rest of people, maj...

For Franklin Templeton Investors in winded up Credit Funds   Franklin Templeton   has a total of 1.16 lakh crores of AUM in various mutual fund schemes in India, out of which Rs 55,000 crores correspond to credit fund. The problem lies with this company because the majority of high exposure are non-AAA rated securities. Six credit funds which they have winded up includes Rs 30,000 crores of AUM. Investors who have invested in such securities might face low or negative yield as only 26% of these securities are maturing in next year, and owing to the current scenario, the market price of these securities can go low due to high risk of default. F or Mutual Fund Market as a whole In the last few years, total AUM under equity mutual fund schemes was on an increasing spree, while credit funds were already on the decline before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic as well. The secondary market for the bond is too not developed. This crisis only exacerbated the problem. The...

Recall the time of Anna Andolan, Nirbhaya's case, Ramdev Andolan. Could those movements have gain that significance had media polarized the issue and kept different intentions and didn’t give sufficient coverage? We never felt pride in our media houses, but we were too not ashamed of these at that time. We never blamed it for being pro-government or pro-corporate. At that time as well, many politicians owned some stakes in media houses but they didn’t dare to interfere with their working, or at least it was not apparent enough. There was a strong coherent voice against the government, raising questions on everything that matters. Media houses didn’t have notions of nationality, right conduct. Professionals, subject matter experts' views were respected. They intended to bring new perspectives into the country, not to streamline all ideologies in one direction. We need to check how this polarization of media started and where are we heading? Can we draw parallels with some...