We are what we are !!

 "Negotiations over a shrinking pie are especially difficult, because they require an allocation of losses" The above is from Daniel Kahnemann's magnum opus "Thinking, Fast and Slow". India is facing a shrinking pie situation with steep GDP contraction. Fiscal stimulus is imperative and it is expected on a yesterday war footing. Early birds and head-starts enhance hope and confidence which feed favourably into demand and investment.They also act as countercyclical to shrinking pie despondency. Credit boost is a temporary remedy to manufacturing machinery to kick start and keep up the production capacity. But it can work only up to a point, where the productivity and earnings should become sufficient to keep up with the plan of repayment of loans and borrowings. If the people in general do not foresee sufficient future income and employment, they may not turn out to buy things and assets.They cannot evergreen their loans like some corporates feeding only on liqui...

  Central Govt has brought three PLI (Production Linked Incentives)schemes so far- for Electronics Manufacturing, Pharma APIs and Medical devices- in order to give a big push for Make in India as part of PM Modi's aspirational theme "Atmanirbhar India". Under PLI scheme for Electronics mfg. 4% to 6% is the incentive on incremental sales over the base year and the scheme has three sub-categories-Mobile phone (International Cos), Mobile Phones(Domestic cos) and Specified Electronic Components Mfg. The govt recently announced 16 companies under these categories which included the likes of Samsung, Apple's Contract manufacturers Foxconn Hon Hai, Wistron, Pegatron and also Rising Star. Under the Domestic companies, Lava, Micromax etc. and under Specified Electronics components, 6 companies have been approved.Over the next 5 years, this policy initiative is expected to lead to the production of over Rs.10.5 lac cr with a likely export of over Rs.6.5 lac cr out of this, as p...

  Three New Labour codes have been passed by the Indian parliament last week. Central Govt without wasting the crisis has pushed through these Industrial labour reforms. Industrial Relations Code Bill,2020; Code on Social Security Bill,2020 and Occupational Safety, Health and Working conditions Code Bill,2020. These three codes will have to be taken together with the Wages code passed in 2019 making together a grand four labour codes merging 29 Central Labour Acts. Some of these Acts like Payment of Wages Act ,Workers Compensation Act etc. belong to British times and finally, these vestiges of colonial legacy have been buried in the 21st century. This leads us to the question "Are we fully liberated from British rule?!!" In the first bill Industrial Relations Code Bill, the Central Govt. has proposed to introduce more conditions restricting the rights of the workers to strike work, and also to increase the threshold relating to layoffs and retrenchment in any industrial estab...

IPL has had so far 13 editions of experience- in India, South Africa, UAE once each and UAE again now.IPL  finals have been a brutally fought match till now. Mumbai Indians have emerged winners 4 times and Chennai Super kings thrice victorious. Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings have entered finals so far 9 times in 12 finals and that is phenomenal domination. Elections drove IPL out of India once in 2009 to South Africa and now the COVID pandemic has both delayed and moved the tournament to UAE in the current year. Wikipedia says that this is the most-watched Twenty 20 tournament in the world and the second-best paying sporting league globally.( link ) What are the specialties of the IPL tournament. It has had its share of scandals, scams, match-fixing cases, betting cases (betting in a game banned in India) and even Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings had to be suspended from the tournament for 2 consecutive years. One of the IPL heads who led IPL in its formative years is an alleged economic...

 Indian Central Govt. successfully pushed  3 Farm bills through both the Houses of Parliament last week. Since the ruling NDA led by BJP has a majority in the lower house i.e Lok Sabha the passage of these bills happened without any hiccup there. But when the same bills had to be passed by the higher house i.e Rajya Sabha, where NDA has a thin majority, pandemonium reigned and all hell broke loose. But the Chairman of the house went by voice vote amidst allegations that he chose to ignore the call for division of the house. Now the opposition is upset not by the farm bills per see but the way it was carried by the Chairman by the Upper house by not allowing them to stall this reform in the garb of discussions et al. Several Agricultural Commissions and Committees incl the Sen Committee and Dr.Swaminathan Comittee over the last 30 years, have strongly suggested on this unshackling of Agri markets across the country. This reform is long overdue. Even Congress Govt. wanted to imp...

  Comptroller and Auditor General of India(CAG) is the top Govt Auditor of India, who is a Constitutional authority. He Audits all the Central and State Govt related accounts and gives his report with his findings, lacunae observed in the system, along with necessary corrective measures as per the best practices around the world. In his latest report on the Income & Corporate  Tax department functioning under the Central Govt, he has given some damning statistics. People in the know feel vindicated with his report lashing at the ineptitude of the Dept in tackling the inefficiency of the tax bureaucracy. Let us look at some of his key observations:( link ) 1)Income tax arrears of demand has increased from Rs.11 lac cr.in 2017-18 to Rs.12.3 lac cr, in 2018-19. 2) Out of this Rs.12.3 lac cr. the Tax dept itself says 99% of it is non-collectible or in other words, would be difficult to recover. 3)At the CIT Appeals, which is the first forum of Appeals,the Auditor observed, the...

 Edward Altman published the Z score formula for predicting bankruptcy way back in 1968. He said this formula can be judiciously used to find whether any company may go into bankruptcy within the next two years. It is a quick find formula to gauge the financial health for publicly held companies by using the P&L values and Balance sheet values through a mix of business ratios. In simple terms Z =1.2X1+1.4X2+3.3X3+0.6X4+1.0X5, where X1= Working capital/Total assets.i.e the ratio of liquid assets in relation to the total assets or size of the Co. X2=Retained earnings/Total assets i.e the ratio of retained profit in relation to the total assets of the Co. X3=EBIT/Total Assets i.e the ratio of efficiency of the operations without the impact of leveraging, in relation to the assets deployed in the Co.also signifying the importance of operating earnings for the long term financial health of the Co. X4=market capitalisation/book value of total liabilities i.e the ratio of market price...