Wednesday, 16 June 2021
TOP OF THE MORNING
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When we buy a house, it shores up many industries. Cement and steel are just two of them. Importantly, housing sales are critical for jobs, particularly for those at the bottom of the pyramid. However, the June quarter has been a washout for real estate developers. They are now readying a slew of projects for the second half of the year. The big question: given the fears around a third covid wave, won’t we put off such big ticket purchases?

Meanwhile, investor sentiment in the Indian markets is climbing—the benchmark indices hit record highs on Tuesday. The receding second wave has meant an abundance of optimism. Scroll down for market numbers and two important stories around jabs.

 
What's up?
BSE SENSEX 52,773.05 0.42%
NIFTY 15,869.25 0.36%
Dollar/Rupee Rs73.34 0.22%
Gold Rs48700 0.36%
Crude oil Rs5264 1.56%
Bitcoin Rs29,54,442.20 0.62%

*As of 7.30 PM 15 June; MCX, Yahoo Finance

 
The main stuff

We didn’t back doubling of vaccine dosing gap: scientists

The Indian government doubled the gap between the two doses of the AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine without the agreement of the scientific group that it said recommended the increase, three members of the advisory body told Reuters. The ministry of health announced the decision to change the gap from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks on 13 May, at a time when the supplies of the shot were falling short of demand. The government said that the gap was recommended by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, based on real-life evidence mainly from Britain. Yet, the NTAGI scientists said the body did not have enough data to make such a recommendation. Read more.

Bharat Biotech defends dual pricing for covid-19 jab

Bharat Biotech, the maker of Covaxin, has come under fire for its dual pricing strategy. While the firm priced its covid-19 vaccine at ₹1,200 per dose in private hospitals, state governments were expected to pay ₹400 a dose. Bharat Biotech defended this strategy arguing that the higher price for private hospitals is aimed at recouping costs—and that private procurement of doses is discretionary. Leroy Leo reports. Read more.

NRIs are passé, meet the new NRUs (premium)

Of the total 496 global unicorns, at least 53 of them with headquarters outside India have a significant presence within the country through global innovation centres. Building on India’s rich legacy of information technology outsourcing and global captive centres, these NRUs or non-resident unicorns, are taking India a step forward in its technology landscape, writes Malini Goyal. Read more.

Inflation may obstruct RBI’s focus on growth

The surprise spike in retail inflation is expected to make it hard for the central bank to prioritize growth, putting its interest rate setting committee in a wait-and-watch mode. Economists believe that though the monetary policy committee would not increase rates or change its stance soon, it would raise an alert over rising inflation, writes Shayan Ghosh and Kalpana Pathak. Read more.

Affluent Indians take to domestic travel, again

As covid-19 cases decline across major Indian cities, expect a quick pick-up in travel in the coming weeks. The pandemic has changed the reasons for travel and preferences, but the broader picture of get-out-of-the-house remains true for affluent Indians, Rangoli Agrawal writes. Read more.

NCLT  questions  haircut taken by VIL creditors

The Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal has questioned the haircut that creditors have to take in the Videocon Industries Ltd’s resolution plan. The resolution applicant was paying close to the liquidation value to acquire the company, the tribunal noted in the order approving the resolution plan submitted by Anil Agarwal’s Twin Star Technologies. Gopika Gopakumar has the details. Read more.

India faces a tough test against New Zealand at the WTC final

The World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand starts on 18 June in Southampton, England. Bad news, New Zealand holds the aces. English conditions are typically similar to what touring sides encounter in New Zealand—the ball swings about in the cool air and seams off the grass on the pitch. While the Kiwis have the bowlers who can exploit these conditions, Indian batsmen have largely struggled to adapt to English wickets on recent tours, writes Sumit Chakraberty. Read more.

 
Elsewhere...

Global business news from WSJ

  • Major democracies rallied together this week to issue extraordinary back-to-back rebukes of Beijing, marking a shift toward collective action and pushing back against President Xi Jinping’s strategies to position China as a global leader.

  • China is repackaging its history in support of President Xi’s National Vision. A propaganda campaign to promote Communist Party history is now the largest mass-education drive since the Mao era.

  • Emirates Group posted a $6 billion annual loss and Deutsche Lufthansa AG said it was cutting another 10,000 jobs, as two of the world’s biggest international airlines braced for a slow resumption of long-haul travel. Global traffic—international and domestic—is at around half of its pre-pandemic levels.

  • The US and the European Union agreed to suspend their trade dispute over government subsidies to Boeing Co. and Airbus SE, significantly easing trade tensions amid a broader effort to improve trans-Atlantic relations.

  • AstraZeneca PLC’s coronavirus antibody treatment failed in late-stage clinical trials to achieve its primary goal of preventing symptomatic covid-19 in people recently exposed to the virus, the latest disappointment in a broader search for reliable post-infection therapies.

 
e-paper
News in numbers
5%
Coal India’s planned annual reduction in workforce over the next 5-10 years to reduce costs. Currently, the company employs 2,72,445.
79%
Drop in retail sales in May 2021 compared to May 2019, according to 76 retailers surveyed across India.
$1.2 million
Fine IKEA was ordered to pay by a French court over a campaign to spy on union representatives, employees and unhappy customers. Two former executives were convicted.
11%
Increase in financial wealth in India in 2020 despite the pandemic. Financial wealth grew to $3.4 trillion, according to a report by consultancy firm BCG.
3.4%
The weightage of public sector banks among mutual funds in May 2021, an increase of 120 basis points over the year-ago period.
HowIndiaLives.com
 
Chart of the day

With lockdowns easing and mobility rising, India’s economic activity is back on the recovery route. Three weeks ago, Nomura’s weekly business resumption index for India had slumped to its lowest level in almost a year. Now, a sharp rebound has taken the index to a level seen in August 2020. The index is based on multiple high-frequency indicators, and measures economic activity relative to pre-pandemic levels.

 
Meme watch

‘Deleting my dating apps’

The latest meme rocking the Internet is a lament about dating apps. On Twitter, the original post came from a handle by the name Trash Jones: “Deleting my dating apps because I want to meet someone the old-fashioned way (he sells me onions; I sell him jars of spiced peaches).” Amazon prime video chimed in, posting a meme that makes us a tad nostalgic—many of us did learn about romance from Shah Rukh Khan movies.

Meanwhile, folks have other innovative reasons to delete dating apps. Here are two more:

Sparks Notes: Deleting my dating apps because I want to meet someone the old-fashioned way (we make eye contact across a crowded room and die tragically as a result of our feuding families).

Doctor Who: Deleting my dating apps cos I want to meet someone the old-fashioned way (jumping universes through a dimension cannon).

Contributed by Nirmalya Dutta 
 
What the fact

Discovery of insulin

A commemorative stamp released by Canada Post in April 2021 to mark the 100th anniversary of University of Toronto’s discovery of insulin. (Photo: Canada Post Corporation).

In January 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson would have died of type 1 diabetes. But then, he received the first jab of insulin co-discovered by Frederick Banting (a surgeon), Charles Best (a scientist), John Macleod (a professor) and James Collip (a biochemist). The four collaborated at the University of Toronto to produce a pancreatic extract from cattle that prevented death from diabetes. The story goes that Banting, Best, and Collip took just $1 each in exchange for giving the patent rights to the University. In May 1922, Eli Lilly started mass producing insulin. A year later, Banting and Macleod were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology—they shared the prize money with Best and Collip—formally recognising an achievement that has saved millions of lives.

 

Written and edited by Goutam Das. Produced by Nirmalya Dutta.

Send in your feedback to goutam.das@htlive.com or nirmalya.dutta@htdigital.in.

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