Best of the Week: Viewing history through the front page
- Best of the Week, 9 November: Trumping ahead, Adani's electricity deals, and 10 minute medicines.
Dear reader,
This week, we had one major news cycle dwarf every other development: Donald Trump's second chance at playing the most powerful person in the world.
Thanks to his larger-than-life personality and reality TV background, Trump truly lives his life as if the rules don't apply to him. That bode well for his political aspirations, as he had shifted the narrative far too much for normal discrepancies to apply to him.
Nevertheless, he won—and won the majority vote as well. You could blame the internal American politics, or the race divide, but two factors clearly stand out: America isn't ready for a woman to rule it, and Trump appealed much more to the so-called “middle class” of the American population and pushed his message.
It was an important week for journalism in particular. If you read any foreign publications, you'd note that these elections were divisive for a variety of reasons. Indian newsrooms too paid a lot of attention, and changed their front pages to show the results — like we do for Budget day, or for the announcement of General Elections.
If you read Mint, you probably have aspirations to visit or work in the US. An outsized interest in the most powerful soft power in the world is warranted. That's why our front page looked like this on Thursday:
🍊 Mint had a pretty exhaustive coverage of the election. I'd recommend you to go through our collection of stories. We cover the implications of Trump's victory from all angles, including the economy, manufacturing, trade, and political implications.
Our newsroom was busy apart from covering Trump's victory. Here's Mint's Best of the Week:
📉 Trump's win was supposed to give the struggling markets a shot in the arm. It worked for a day. However, markets continued to fall on Thursday and Friday. Ram Sahgal writes that bearish foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are to blame for that. In addition to widespread selling, FIIs are also shorting Nifty and Nifty Bank futures. The rupee hit a record low against the dollar this week, prompting such actions. The beatdown might continue for a while more, analysts told Ram.
🛬 One of India's marquee airlines finally ended its journey this week. The Supreme Court ordered the liquidation of Jet Airways, ending a long quest for survival. Krishna Yadav writes that the Jalan-Kalrock consortium had failed to meet obligations such as infusing ₹350 crore and settling worker dues, leading to this decision. Jet Airways has been bankrupt since April 2019. Krishna adds that this case has raised concerns about the effectiveness of India’s Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, particularly regarding airline insolvencies.
📃 In a surprise decision, the government announced that it will stop paying interest on National Savings Scheme accounts from 1 October. This means that both principal and interest will be taxable on withdrawal. Aprajita Sharma spoke to NSS holders who expressed concerns about the negative impact on their tax liabilities as senior citizens. The sudden change has also prompted calls for the government to reconsider its decision, and offer tax relief or alternative investment options. This move undermines trust in small savings schemes, and it also triggers fears about the stability of other savings products like the Public Provident Fund.
🧮 One story in particular caught my eye this week: how would you budget to run the entire country of India? Our friends at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) have been doing some research around that. In their survey, they asked Indians on how they would divide a ₹100 budget on making India work. There were some policy standoffs: welfare versus lower taxes, private versus public jobs. Rahul Verma and Melvin Kunjumon do a great job in breaking down the responses with their words, as well as some insightful charts.
🛌 India's mattress market has long had stalwarts like Kurlon and Sleepwell. A few years ago, some startups came and disrupted this space. One of them was Wakefit. Fuelled by a steady stream of venture capital funding, Wakefit has increased its revenue by 12x over the last five years. This revenue in excess of ₹1,000 crore has already exceeded that of Kurlon. Samiksha Goel writes about Wakefit's journey and strategy to set itself apart in India's mattress market by using cheaper pricing and strategies such as a 100-day trial period.
⚡️ The Adani group is a major power supplier to Bangladesh. Our populous and industrial neighbour to the east has an intense thirst for electricity, but very few resources to generate its own. Last year, Adani Power started supplying some electricity to Bangladesh from its thermal power plant in Jharkhand, marking India's first transnational power supply project. But the country defaulted on payments regularly, resulting in Adani threatening to cut its supply. Anirudh Laskar reports that with a fresh line of credit, Adani won't cut out its supply to Bangladesh. But it has a backup plan in mind in case the defaults continue—read his story to find out the company's plans.
🚪 For most, homes are private spaces. It's where you come to relax, take a breather, and sometimes escape from the outside world. Not for influencers, though: Pratishtha Bagai writes about content creators who share tours of their homes on social media. House tours have become a major "self-expression trend", as Pratishtha writes. Experts suggest this fascination reflects aspirational consumer behaviour. Viewers seem to be actually influenced and inspired to recreate the aesthetics of their favourite influencers in their own homes, irrespective of the high costs involved in such a practice.
🥡 Swiggy headed to the public markets this week. It hopes to raise more than ₹11,000 crore. Despite boasting a strong brand and a range of services, investors didn't take to the IPO too well. While it was subscribed fully, it did face some hiccups. Prior to the listing, Mayur Bhalerao analysed the IPO. He pointed out that despite there being very few players in the food delivery and quick commerce space, Swiggy has persistently shown losses on its ledger, despite lowering marketing costs. So post-facto it's not a big surprise that Swiggy wasn't met with the fanfare of other tech IPOs.
🛵 Have you ever thought why we get pizzas and groceries in 10 minutes but not life-saving medicines? That might change soon. Jessica Jani writes that companies like Tata 1mg, PharmEasy, and Apollo 24/7 are piloting ultra-fast medicine delivery services. 1mg is collaborating with fellow Tata brand BigBasket for quick delivery in select cities, while Apollo 24/7 has launched a 19-minute delivery in major markets. Swiggy is also partnering with PharmEasy for under-10-minute deliveries in Bengaluru. However, inventory management, medicine storage, and regulatory compliance are big challenges.
🪀 Last week, I'd mentioned that I'll be writing a shorter BOTW due to some family commitments. My brother, who visited me for Diwali, is a huge Lego fanatic. While the idea of an adult playing with toys might sound strange to some, it's a fascinating hobby that goes beyond your common demographics. Shouvik Das explores this hobby for Mint Lounge, which can be time and money-consuming. Like other hobbies, Shouvik writes that the pandemic played a big part in encouraging toy collection as a hobby. It's a fun, interesting read that piqued my interest beyond my own predispositions.
That's all I have for you this week. If you have any feedback, please write to shashwat.mohanty@htdigital.in.
Best,
Shashwat Mohanty
Assistant Editor
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First Published:9 Nov 2024, 06:00 AM IST
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