Good Morning,
Welcome! I hope you have your “Subah Kee Chai” ready and you're excited to read your weekly 10-minute digest.
This week covered some of the exciting stories in the tech world, followed by a brief highlight of India's supply chains. Also, The National Sports Awards winners were released this week. I finished off the newsletter with a few personal book/movie/app recommendations, and I am excited to hear what you think!
I hope you enjoy today's newsletter,
Now let’s get into the news.
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Both domestic equity markets finished in the green this week as positive indices from Asian markets boosted Indian sentiment. NTPC was among the top gainer on Friday alongside Asian Paints, Axis Bank, Powergrid, and SBI. ONGC, Reliance Industries, and Tata Steel were among the top losers on the last day of the trading week. Domestic trader's morale was significantly boosted mid-week due to extremely positive gains in the Shangai, Hong Kong, and Seoul markets. Similarly, European markets were also performing in the green. The price of gold fell towards the latter half of the week. Lastly, following the global oil benchmark Brent crude the domestic oil price finished negatively.
A recent report this week highlighted the fear that the novel coronavirus can thrive on cold-food packaging and be transmitted as a result when exported to different countries. While no evidence shows the spread of the virus through food consumption, Benjamin Cowling, head of biostatistics at the University of Hong Kong claimed that the virus can survive being frozen. As a result, this theory raised major concerns for the cold-food storage industry as cold-storage facilities and meat processing plants are ideal environments for the virus to spread. WHO's regional director for the Western Pacific Takeshi Kasai ruled out the findings as merely a theory and stated that based on the evidence the spread of the virus through cold-food packaging is unlikely.
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Whatsapp
On Wednesday, India's antitrust watchdog pulled back on its antitrust complaint against Facebook's Whatsapp stating that the company did not abuse its dominant market position to enter into the digital payments market. The case, filed in March, claimed that Whatsapp was forcing its upcoming Whatsapp Pay feature onto its existing customers. However, Whatsapp defended their position by highlighting that the beta version of their new feature was only available to 1% of its users. The decision to throw out the antitrust complaint will be a huge relief for Whatsapp who are scheduled to launch their digital payment feature in a few months.
Data Risks
1. A very popular application Truecaller released a report earlier this week highlighting the number of spam calls/messages India experienced last year. In the year 2019, Truecaller flagged 29.7 billion spam calls and 8.5 billion spam messages for its users. India ranks 5th in the number of users that experience spam cases. Currently, Truecaller has 170 million active users in India and has rolled out plans to reduce the number of spam calls/messages its users face. The Spam Activity Indicator for Android and IOS users will allow users to flag spam activity, identify peak spam calling hours, and easily report spam behavior.
2. I am sure everyone by now has attended at least one virtual meeting, wedding, birthday party, games night, etc. and are familiar with the new norm of "going digital". However, while we are forced to adopt this new virtual world, a recent report by Barracuda Networks highlighted that 66% of Indian organizations have faced at least one data breach or cybersecurity incident due to shifting to a remote working space. A majority of complaints indicated that employees experienced a rise in email phishing attacks. Worryingly, the report also stated that 53% of Indian organizations do not have up-to-date cybersecurity measures or solutions that can safely manage any future vulnerabilities.
Zoom out: With companies rapidly transforming into the digital world, a key factor is ensuring data security for clients and employees. This rise in cybersecurity incidents is a major concern for India as a whole, and institutions need to quickly adapt and invest in the correct solutions to ensure their data is secure before conducting any online business.
Pixxel
Before you think of it, no this is not about the Google Pixel. Instead, it is about an 18-month old start-up called Pixxel which has raised USD 5 million dollars for its project to send satellites into space from India. Founders Awais Ahmed (22 years) and Kshitij Khandelwal (22 years) have attracted the likes of Lightspeed India and Blume ventures as key investors and hope to launch their first earth-mapping satellite in November.
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Foothold for IOC
India's top refiner India Oil Corp (IOC) is close to winning its first tender contract to annually supply 720,000 tonnes of clean products to Mauritius starting from November. Under the agreement, IOC will supply:
1. 205,000 tonnes of 95 RON Gasoline (used for car engines)
2. 235,000 tonnes of 10 ppm (parts per million) gas oil (used for commercial heating and non-road machinery)
3. 175,000 tonnes of Jetfuel (used for airlines)
4. 105,000 tonnes of marine gas oil (used for sea vessels)
IOC competed with a number of leading refiners including France's Total, Sahara Energy Resources Ltd, and Vitol, however, came out victorious.
India-Japan-Australia
In an attempt to reduce dependency on China; India, Japan, and Australia are discussing the potential launch of a trilateral Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI). One of the key themes in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech was India's emergence as the next hub for supply chains. This collaborative agreement is an attempt to shift global attention away from China and to collectively emerge as a dominant force in the supply market post-COVID-19. The SCRI is also a direct response to fearful companies and individuals who risk being affected by the recent Chinese political behavior and its possible consequences on the supply chains. Further details regarding the particulars of the initiative are to be discussed and released over the next few weeks.
Seafood
Narrowing down to the Indian seafood market which recently reported a 7% decrease in exports due to low demand as a result of COVID-19. In numbers, this year the seafood market supplied 12,89,651 tonnes of seafood worth INR 46,663 crore. In comparison, last year the same industry supplied 13,92,559 tonnes of seafood worth INR 46,589 crore, of the previous fiscal year.
Eye-opener: In light of the recent theories surrounding COVID-19 thriving on cold-food packages, it puts the seafood industry at an even bigger risk of declining as most of the seafood we consume is kept frozen on ice-sheets for prolonged periods of time. If you were the CEO of a seafood supplier, what would your next steps be? Let me know in your feedback!
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National Sports Awards 2020
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The Indian Sports Ministry on Friday announced the 5 sports athletes who won the Khel Ratna Award in 2020. The Khel Ratna Award is India's highest sporting honor. The awards ceremony will be held virtually on the 29th of August, the National Sports Day. Here is a list of the 5 winners:
1. Rohit Sharma: Indian cricketer
2. Vinesh Phogat: Indian wrestler
3. Mariyappan Thangavelu: Paralympic gold-medal winner
4. Manika Batra: Indian table tennis player
5. Rani Rampal: India's women hockey team captain
Major congratulations to all of them!
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The primary aim of this newsletter is to make the news enjoyable to read, and to remove the stigma of being "formal" when it comes to the news. Every month (every 3 weeks), in an attempt, to connect on a personal level with my readers I will share a round-up of the top book, movie, and app choices that you share with me! Throughout the month, you can connect with me through our Instagram or by replying to the weekly newsletter on your email with your amazing recommendations.
I would love to hear them!
Here are some of my top book/movie/app choices for the month:
Books:
1. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown: a lot of people might have heard of it. I recently started reading it and absolutely love it!
2. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell: Really interesting book, but maybe hold off it if you're a beginner reader. The book demands a lot of attention.
3. 5000 years of debt by David Graeber: A non-fiction choice discussing the relationship between debt and social institutions.
Movies:
1. Knives Out (Amazon Prime Video): A really good mystery film!
2. Nightcrawler (Netflix): A teeth-clenching thriller/crime movie
3. Elf (Netflix): I know it's not Christmas yet, but I love this family-friendly film!
Apps:
1. Forest: This productivity app helps you avoid getting distracted by your phone when working. Set a timer and plant a tree in your forest, if you close the app your tree dies. The more virtual trees you grow, the more points you collect which you can later donate towards planting actual trees!
2. Ecosia: Want an eco-friendly version of Google? Ecosia is a search engine that plants trees the more you use their platform to search. (www.ecosia.org)
3. Ancestry: Discover your ancient family history with this really cool app! I must say, however, that your parents and grandparents are probably a lot more accurate...
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1. Sale of cardiac drugs overtook anti-infectives for the first time ever in July holding a share of over 13% in the domestic pharmaceuticals markets.
2. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) is looking to invest USD 1 billion in Reliance Jio's fiber assets.
3. Following a suspected short-circuit, which led to an unfortunate fire at the Sirsailam Hydroelectricity power station in Telangana, 9 people died and 15 people were injured.
4. Due to forced downsizing as a result of the pandemic, companies gave up approximately 6 million square feet of commercial space in the first half of the year. In comparison, that's the size of 78 football fields!
5. The aviation security fee (ASF) is going to increase from INR 150 to INR 160 on September 1st, making air travel slightly more costlier for passengers.
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Quiz time!
What is the word that has 1 syllable but when you add 1 letter to the end, it becomes 3 syllables?
Get thinking!
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I hope you enjoyed reading your weekly Subah Kee Chai newsletter.
As always, please do share it with your friends and family so they can enjoy reading the news while sipping on their Subah Kee Chai.
Please do provide feedback by replying to the email to help me improve the newsletter in the best possible way.
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See you next week!
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Quiz Answer:
1. Initial word: "are"
2. Add the letter "A" to the end
3. Final word: "area"
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Written by: Adnan Bahrainwala (Founder of Subah Kee Chai)
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