🧑🍳 Now serving: Mint's best from the week gone by
3 min read 26 May 2023, 07:36 PM ISTBest of the Week, May 26: withdrawn notes, sugary drinks, AI celebrities.
PremiumDear Reader,
As always, selecting the best of the week gone by is a herculean task — mostly because of how newsy and exciting the week has been. Much good quality journalism has hit our pages with critical stories and analyses about business and financial developments.
We hope you enjoy this week's edition:
💷 The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) decision to withdraw ₹2,000 notes from circulation sparked all kinds of frenzy this week, harking back to the mayhem caused by demonitisation in 2016. Our teams found some unique behaviour. Consumer reporters Suneera Tandon and Varuni Kholsa reported on how rich people were making purchases of luxury goods with cash, specifically in an attempt to get rid of their ₹2,000 notes. Our editorial on this decision of the RBI provides much food for thought. As always, we weigh in in favour of prudence and conservatism when it comes to decisions of this nature, batting for the stability in the Indian economy.
🍨 Mint's consumer reporter Suneera Tandon began the week with an interesting piece on the reduction in prices of consumer products. Read the article to understand how FMCG companies are battling cooling consumer demand.
🛒 Trade policy reporter Rituraj Barua spoke exclusively to India's union minister for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). If you are interested in the future of e-commerce in one of the world's fastest growing markets, read this interview closely for signals from India's government.
👔 Mumbai-based Mint Money reporter Jash Kriplani wrote about the latest in fintech – specifically on how far India's nascent account aggregator (AA) framework has come. If you care about fintech or financial services, this is essential reading.
🇮🇳🇷🇺 Our foreign affairs reporter Shashank Mattoo spoke exclusively to Denis Alipov, Russia's ambassador to India. Their conversation covers Indo-Russia trade as well as petrochemicals, mining, heavy engineering, metallurgy and railways. And all this comes in the backdrop of India's growing influence with the West, while Russia continues to face sanctions for its military offensive in Ukraine.
🏦 Sticking to the connection of global and local financial markets, Mint's banking correspondent, Shayan Ghosh, has a report on how GIFT city in Gujarat is trying to get Indian banks to anchor their global operations back home. An important story for the global future of Indian banking.
🧃 As the Summer heat continues to surge in various parts of South Asia, Mint's data journalists Nandita Venkatesan and Payal Bhattacharya investigate the sugar content of fruit drinks. They ask an important question in this Plain Facts piece: How healthy is your favourite fruit drink?
💵 The US Dollar has arguably been the world's favourite currency for all our lifetimes. A new global order starts to emerge and the dollar approaches the end of a century of global dominance? Deepa Vasudevan brings you five data charts about the future of global currencies.
🥘 Sayantan Bera, Mint's agriculture and rural economy correspondent, has this vital explainer of what is happening with farmers due to rising cooking oil imports. This is a balancing act for the Indian government, which needs to make sure farmers can fetch minimum prices for their produce.
🏏🤖 Virat Kohli's heroics couldn't take the much-vaunted Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) into the playoffs of the Indian Premier League (IPL). But Kolhi has some other surprises to offer his fans. Mint's tech writer Leslie D'Monte unveils this in his exclusive conversation with Silicon Valley-based tech entrepreneur Pranav Mistry. An exciting article about how celebrities are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to connect with followers.
📊 Mint Money editor, Neil Borate, co-authored a book about the late Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, titled The Big Bull of Dalal Street. Here's a delicious extract about how one of India's most celebrated investors began and built one of the best performing portfolios in public markets investing history.
That's all for this week folks.
Please write to us with your thoughts, ideas and feedback. We would love to hear from you.
Thank you for your time and have a great weekend!
Nikhil Kanekal
Head of Subscriber Experience
nikhil.k@livemint.com
