Best of the Week | The curious case of the world’s largest bhindi

Dear reader,

Last week, I was in Bombay for a few days. My parents live there, so I visit pretty frequently. 

For some personal work, I accompanied my father to his clinic (he's an orthopaedic doctor). I got to meet some of the hospital staff, some of whom correctly guessed that I was his son. In many aspects, it felt like it was “bring your kids to work” day, except the kid in question was a man in his late-20s.

I attended one consultation with him — an aged woman who had problems with a frozen shoulder. It's not the first time I've observed my father at his work, but it was the first time a patient also spoke to me directly. 

She explained her troubles: she had travelled from a village four kilometres from Uran, a town in another district. She was happy that instead of having to change multiple forms of transport, she could take a direct bus to Bombay now; never mind that it took her more than two and a half hours to complete the journey. 

While her shoulder had bothered her for more than a couple of weeks, the straw that broke the camel's back was that she was now unable to cut fish. That prompted her to take a trek and find a solution.

At the end of the consult, she caught up with my father about her grandson, her town, and lamented the lack of a physiotherapist in the vicinity. She also handed him a bag full of vegetables she had grown: some bitterguord (karela), a huge cucumber that I mistook for bottle guord, and the biggest okra (bhindi) I have ever seen in my life.

On the way home, I stared at the bhindi. These weren't lady's fingers — these were Shrek's fingers.

That might be the case for city-dwellers, but for rural India, this was the norm. That made me think of how so much of our understanding is restricted to the city limits. Media, of course, is a big part of that: so much of our journalism is restricted to such boundaries. There's so much we're missing out on.

That said, at Mint, we often step out of our offices and venture into the real world, as it were, to cover stories. Here are some of the best stories from our newsroom from the week gone by:

🚺 As women's safety issues (rightfully) become more important, India Inc. is prioritising it too. Priyamvada C. and Devina Sengupta report on how Indian companies are trying to do their best to make half their workforce feel safer. Initiatives range from flexible timings, convenient transport options, and helplines. An increasing number of women have stated that disparity in pay and lack of an inclusive work culture are the reasons why they quit; these measures should at least help alleviate some of the concerns.

🦠 Another issue that took centrestage this week was the re-emergence of the monkeypox virus. After a new strain was discovered in Africa, more than 500 people have died worldwide of it. As covid remains fresh in everyone's memory, fears about the mpox are only valid. Priyanka Sharma explains the origins and precautions of the virus, and explains if India is equipped to deal with another outbreak (it is, kind of?).

📈 An update from last week: Hindenburg continued its presence in the Indian news cycle by accusing vested interests by the chairperson of the markets regulator. A week later, Ram Sahgal analysed the effects of the research group's scathing remarks. Despite the claims, Adani's dollar bonds fared well for their investors. Ram also reports that after Hindenburg 2.0, people were shorting Adani Group stocks, betting on them to fall. Market experts said that the claims were unlikely to affect the group's performance on the public markets significantly.

📊 Some more markets-related coverage for you: this time, on mutual funds. Dipti Sharma analysed which stocks have found favour among fund managers of late. Out: pricey, capex-driven stocks. In: private banks and pharma stocks. Dipti notes that fund managers are doing away with stocks in particular that have high valuations, despite the sectors themselves doing well.

⚠️ The markets regulator keeps hammering one point across to anyone who'd listen: nine out of 10 investors lose money in futures and options (F&O) trading. But such statistics don't really deter investors. Neil Borate brings you another cautionary tale of a man who lost his entire life's savings via this attractive yet extremely risky trading method. After making a neat profit of ₹800 on his first F&O trade. The person lost more than ₹60 lakh on subsequent transactions. He owes money to 11 lenders, apart from close friends and family. How did it get so bad?

🇮🇳 The world over, there are concerns of an economic slowdown that could result in recession. While the western world deals with concerns of diminishing growth, India seems to be chugging along just fine. Ranjani Raghavan and Sneha Shah report that foreign private equity players are betting on it. Multiple players like Korean KIC, Japan's Advantage Partners, Singapore's Growtheum Capital Partners and Mars Growth Capital Partners have set up offices in India. They hope to capitalise on India's public and private markets to find their next big exit. 

💹 However, they might struggle to find suitors in the private markets: Sneha teamed up with Mayur Bhalerao to report that companies are junking such deals and aiming for public listings at handsome valuations instead. These negotiations last months, but if the parent company doesn't like a deal, it opts to nix it for the next best thing: an IPO. An IPO bull run, as highlighted by the recent listing of Ola Electric, is tempting many companies. 

📲 One such company is Pine Labs. If you don't recollect the name, you might have used its point-of-sale terminal at some shop: it's a fintech that's valued at $5 billion. Amrish Rau is at the helm, and hopes to safely guide it to a public listing soon. But before Pine Labs, Rau founded another fintech company named PayU. He was instead offered the CEO position at Pine Labs in 2020, and has grown from strength to strength ever since. Samiksha Goel profiles Rau, his journey, and how he can learn a thing or two from fellow listed fintech Paytm to avoid their troubles.

✈️ IndiGo is the runaway leader in the Indian skies: it has more than 60% of the market share. This is primarly because IndiGo is a low-cost airline, and Indian flyers almost always go for the cheapest alternative. But recently, IndiGo decided it wanted to take on its pricier competitors by introducing Stretch. For the first time, IndiGo flights will have a business class. It's a small pie — only about 5% of Indian flyers take the more expensive seat options. Mihir Mishra and Anu Sharma dig deep into this interesting move by IndiGo, outlined by my favourite headline of the week: Class war: IndiGo shows Air India it means business.

🐍 When I first read the headline for Nitin Sreedhar's story, I had to do a double take. What the hell is “herping”? The only word I knew in my limited vocabulary that's close to it is a virus, and not a very pretty one. Turns out, ‘herps’ is the collective name given to reptiles and amphibians. ‘Herping’ is the act of observing these animals, which include snakes and frogs. If you've always found snakes cool and interesting, do read Nitin's primer published on Lounge on where to begin herping, and how to turn it into a full-fledged hobby.

That's all for this week. I hope you all have a pleasant weekend!

If you have any thoughts, ideas, or feedback, please feel free to write to me (shashwat.mohanty@htdigital.in) or reply to this mail. We are a constantly evolving news product, so any input is much appreciated!

Best,

Shashwat Mohanty

Assistant Editor

Subscriber Experience Team