Financial Post And Essays

The halo of ‘invincibility’ that the virus has achieved has made us realise that this is the right occasion to juxtapose a virus with the world’s stockpile of weapons. This is the stark reminder that the most important thing to humans are life, mental health and reintegration with nature. As the local government and authorities cannot turn a blind eye to the pandemic, to curb the spread of it more and more people are being told to stay home and practice self-isolation. While these measures can help you to improve your physical health but can also have an adverse effect on your mental health. The news of getting sacked out of jobs and emotional email all around the corner can trigger anxiety, loneliness and even depression. Time is even tougher for those having the pre-existing condition of OCD(Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). Albeit, the time is tough but there is a silver lining to it, you can make your mind stronger and restrain your anxiety by realising that your sacrific...

The pandemic COVID-19 started in China, while the rest of the world remained oblivious to the crises ahead which could change the course of history. Neither world wars nor 9/11 have impacted the world economy to this extent, but a virus brought the whole world to its knees. Now is the perfect occasion to juxtapose a virus to the world’s stockpile of weapons. In India, the news of job cuts and slowing down of the economy were all around the corner especially in the automobile sector before the pandemic was even started. But it exacerbated this and took other sectors to its control. As the government had only one arsenal of lockdown to stop this virus from spreading, it resulted in zero demand and break-in consumption cycle which affected most of the manufacturing, IT, travel and hospitality sectors. Further, with no generation of wealth, the only options for the big firms were to shoulder the burden with its employees. This led to emotional and distress emails of job cuts, s...

In the recent study conducted, by Comparisun, of 25 individuals company analysed, only eleven have the chance to become a trillionaire during their lifetime. According to the study, Jeff Bezos is most likely to become the first trillionaire by 2026  when he will be aged 62. Despite losing an estimated $38 billion in divorce and even more in the pandemic, Jeff is still the richest persons and his net worth growing at a rate of 34% on average to past five years. With a current net worth of 142.8 billion and if the arithmetic goes right he would easily become a trillionaire($1000 billion) by 2026. There are many other names to this list, India richest Mukesh Ambani could become a trillionaire by 2033 at age 75. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg could gain this title after 2036 with his current growth rate. Alibaba’s Jack Ma could become a trillionaire in 2030 when he will be aged 65. For the study, Comparisun analysed the market capitalisation of the highest value com...

We often get confused between a smartphone and a mobile phone. A smartphone is a mini-computer which has its own operating software(OS) and is capable of performing intelligent tasks like gaming, Internet of things and calling with the help of an application, whereas mobile phones were made to perform a unique task of calling wirelessly. When Martin Cooper developed this technology in 1973, no one knew that it could be reiterated to such an extent and will affect all walks of life and become all-pervasive. The moot question here is that do smartphones or mobile phone have impacted human life. The stark reality is that whether we want it or not life is now incomplete without a smartphone. The amount of time an individual invests in a smartphone on various activities such as social media, gaming, and connecting with different people has made it an integral part of his life. It has become a Hamletian dilemma for humans to decide whether to give up the usage of a smartphone w...

The world travel industry has hit a cul de sac as the foundation of the economic edifice has been hit by coronavirus pandemic. As the planes remain grounded for more than two months, it has shredded the stock price of airline companies more the 60% across the globe. This phase of uncertainty has transmitted a shockwave to the investor as the prediction is that the recovery will be slow and demand will be suppressed, there is no hope of getting the airline industry back on track. This led the billionaire investor Warren Buffet company, Berkshire Hathway to sell all of their airline shares. The conglomerate had an 11% stake in Delta Airlines, 10% in American Airlines, 10% in Southeast Airlines and 9% of United Airline. This announcement was taken after the company lost $50 billion in first-quarter. Further, to this report say that American Airlines has been working on negative free cash for almost three years. Now after this pandemic, American Airlines net debt stands at $2...

With 21 holidays a year, India tops in the world with the countries having the most number of public holidays. The number goes even bigger when weekend holidays are taken into consideration. Arithmetic of these holidays, when compared to its neighbouring countries, has raised a serious concern as India is a developing nation and this leisure to the proletariat affect it in terms of output and efficiency. India is a diverse nation, with different religions flourishing together. So, most of these public holidays are of religious observance in nature and have respect among their followers. This constitution of India has its commitment towards secularism and gives equality to all religions to celebrate their important occasions with full freedom. As the private sector and the public sector work abreast of the development of the country so these holidays affect the overall efficiency and output of the nation. The holidays in such a large number can create an adverse effect o...

Will the flight from economic distress beats the fight against COVID-19 virus? The economy of India is going to face an output loss of $190 bn(according to Nilesh Shah, MD, Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company) as the wheels of commerce have been ground to halt. The arithmetic of the GDP of India is about $3 trillion, if it remains shut down for a month with a 100% drop inactivity it will create an output loss of $250 bn but as it is likely to be shut for 47 days it will create an output loss of $190 bn assuming that it will open on May 17.  Albeit, there could be a beacon of hope as the oil price has seen a significant reduction due to less demand in the world, it will provide $40-45 bn of benefit in terms of trade deficit this year. Another way to decrease this is to replace China-made goods with India made products, it will create $20 bn benefit in trade deficit. But still willy-nilly it will create $100 billion or thereabouts of output loss which is a signifi...

If you give a man a fish , he eats for a day; If you teach a man to fish , he eats for a lifetime. This should be the motto of our government but unfortunately, the government always gives a temporary solution to a permanent problem as in the case of farm loan waiver. Small or big farmers in India are completely dependent on monsoons for the productivity of crops. They take loans either from institutional bodies like commercial banks or from illicit local moneylenders at high-interest rates. If the monsoons are good they yield their crops and return the money, but if it goes bad they come in the vicious circle of moneylenders and are never able to repay their debt obligations. When the elections are near, the farm loan waiver is the mega talkathon for the political parties as it is the only arsenal they possess in their manifesto to gain the maximum number of votes. Prima facie this looks to be the best solution for the kibbutz. But the reality does not seem to hold wa...