The BS Morning Show

Mirroring global trend, the Indian IT industry showed muted growth in 2023. The slowdown -- that set in somewhere in the midst of 2022 -- continues to haunt the sector. Offshores deals are being called off, and hiring has shrunk for the first time in the last 25 years. But experts see some silver linings as the global economy is recovering. So will Indian IT continue to face deal ramp downs in 2024?  Over-the-top platforms, meanwhile, continued to entertain viewers in 2023. An SBI report in August last year said that OTT platforms would soon dethrone multiplexes as India’s go-to entertainment option. So what is in the store for OTTs this year?  And it’s not just OTT media services, the march of Indian equities too continued last year. They gave stellar returns of up to 20% in 2023. And most of these gains came in November and December itself. This fast paced rally has also sent the India VIX or volatility index to multi month highs during this time. The rising gauge means markets expect high volatility ahead. So are equities ripe for a correction in the new month?  Like the financial markets, India’s space sector too has been scaling new heights. ISRO rang in the new year by launching the XPoSat mission. The aim is to study black holes and neutron stars. Listen to this episode of the podcast for more about this interesting project.

India Inc. showed remarkable resilience in 2023, despite global and domestic headwinds. Its net profit share in GDP is now just shy of 5%. And as we welcome the new year, what do the Indian CEOs think 2024 will be like for corporations. Here is the results of a Business Standard poll conducted for CEOs on their 2024 outlook. Clearly, industry leaders are upbeat about the Indian economy. And just like us, they are also eagerly waiting to know the outcome of upcoming General Elections. And before that, just a few days from now, the country will witness the inauguration of a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya. So what are the other important events that may shape 2024?  The year 2023, meanwhile, was the eighth straight year when the Indian stock markets hit record highs on the back of solid macroeconomic fundamentals and retail interest. As we kick start 2024, we take a deep dive into the top events that investors should watch out, and the key levels on the indices this year. Last year, we also saw Hamas fighters entering Israeli territory and killing at least 1,000 unarmed people. The Israeli response was fierce. At least 20,000 people have lost their lives in Palestine so far. The clash is finding echo in the Red Sea too, where Iran-aligned Houthi rebels are targeting cargo ships-- which they claim have some Israeli links. Now the US has formed a coalition to safeguard commerce in the region. Listen to this episode of the podcast for answers.

Glasses will finally clink in Gujarat’s GIFT City at the end of a hard week. The dry state has given the special economic zone freedom to serve alcohol to employees and authorized visitors. So will it lift the spirit of GIFT City, which some believe turns into a ghost town after working hours?  Some news reports, meanwhile, suggested that Tesla’s plan to set up a factory in India is likely to be announced during the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Summit. This brings us to the Tesla boss, Elon Musk. Musk hogged the limelight after his 2022 takeover of twitter, which was renamed as X this year. Apart from Musk, there are four other personalities which have kept newspersons busy, and people hooked in 2023.  Let us now turn our gaze to financial markets. Weaker-than-expected festive demand, rainfall deficit, unseasonal rains, and higher commodity prices cooked a difficult-to-digest market recipe this year for the FMCG sector. In fact, it posted less than 5% year-on-year growth in net sales in the September quarter of FY24, which was the slowest growth reported by them in the post-pandemic period. But, will the sector be able to turn the corner in 2024?  Experts anticipate that the last week of 2023 could be sluggish as many FIIs will be in a holiday mode. Meanwhile, the government is all set to handover a New Year’s gift to the country’s common man. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate Amrit Bharat Express on December 3o. Most likely from Ayodhya. But how is it a gift for the common man? And how different is this train from others? Listen to this episode of the podcast for answers.

Paytm’s parent company, One 97 Communications, has reportedly laid off over 1,000 employees over the last few days. It is realigning its various businesses to cut costs and turn profitable again. These layoffs also come on the heels of Paytm withdrawing from small-ticket consumer lending after RBI’s clampdown on unsecured loans. Find out why Paytm is pivoting away from lending. When asked about the recent lay-offs, Paytm said that it was aiming to save 10 to 15% in employee costs with Artificial Intelligence-led transformations. And that it would result in a slight reduction in the workforce. Well, 2023 will be remembered as a year when people and companies started taking AI seriously. Listen to the key milestones in the AI industry and finds out what it may reveals about AI’s future. This year also saw equity markets staging a handsome recovery with benchmarks eyeing to close the year with double-digit gains. But pockets like private banks, metals, and oil have lagged behind. Listen to the reasons and the 2024 outlook for these segments. After the financial markets, let us now turn our gaze to Europe -- which has recently agreed to a major overhaul of the bloc’s laws on handling asylum-seekers and migrants. This episode of the podcast explains more.

After months of build-up, Reliance Industries and Walt Disney have reportedly entered into a non-binding agreement. The plan is to merge Indian operations which will, in turn, create India’s largest media and entertainment empire -- challenging the might of Sony, Zee, Amazon Prime and Netflix. But this merger, in a way, also suggests that Disney failed to crack the Indian market. But why?  Both the firms are reportedly expecting to wrap-up the deal at the beginning of next year. Moving on, this year was good for Indian sports too. And we are not talking about cricket here. Other sports too had their day in the sun. With notable performances in the Asian Games, Fide Chess Championship and some other events, new talents continued to attract the attention of the country. And that of the brand too.  This year turned out to be good for the equity markets too. It delivered strong performance in 2023 as they recovered from the recession fears that fed into the October 2022 trough. This gave way for developed markets, such as the US, to deliver up to 43% returns this year! However, as we enter 2024, will developed markets continue to attract investors’ money? Or will emerging markets stage an outperformance?  OLA Electric IPO is also going to hit the primary market next year. Its CEO Bhavish Aggarwal is upbeat about it. Meanwhile, Ola is also excited about a new AI initiative called Krutrim. It is a home-grown large language model. Listen to this episode of the podcast for answers.

The domestic housing market in 2023 has seen one of the strongest performances in recent years. The robust growth in the segment is driven by strong demand in the residential market, complemented by supply of new inventories. The year is expected to see a 20 per cent rise in apartment sales in seven major Indian cities. That’s around 2.6 lakh units. But what’s behind this rush to own flats, and who are the buyers?   Industry analysts expect residential real estate sales in India to touch three lakh units in 2024, on the back of robust demand and quality launches. Meanwhile, the masala in Hindi film industry, which was missing for the past few years, is back in 2023 – minting big bucks for multiplexes nationwide. The resurgence of Bollywood movies is evident in this year’s box office collections that have surpassed pre-pandemic figures for the first time. What, then, were the key ingredients that contributed to this spectacular comeback?  Following a dream run in 2023, Bollywood’s prospects for the coming year depend on how the industry preps its scripts to outpace competition from OTTs and the appeal of world cinemas. Let us now turn to the outlook for oil markets in 2024. Can the geopolitical developments set the oil prices ablaze and take them past the 100 dollars a barrel mark in the year ahead? Or, will the slowdown in China keep the oil demand and prices in check? Pulkit Agarwal, head of India content, S&P Global Commodity Insights shares his interpretation of the current developments, and how he sees crude oil and gas prices play out in 2024. According to the Nasscom-Zinnov Report, 18 Global Capability Centres or GCCs were set up in India in the first half of 2023. As of June 2023, there are more than 1,580 in India and more than 1.6 million works in them. This number shows India’s position as a prime destination for setting up Global Capability Centres. So what are Global Capability Centers? Listen to this episode of the podcast for answers.

India never had so many vehicles with green number plates on its roads. Registration of electric vehicles crossed the one million mark in 2023. From .67% in 2020, the share of EVs in total vehicles sold rose to 6% this year. And Tata Motors last week said that the electric passenger cars segment is expected to grow at 30 to 40% in 2024. Find out what the road ahead looks like for EVs. Will 2024 be the year of EVs? Financial markets too had a good run this year. If someone had told you, the Sensex would rise over 10,000 points in a year, would you have believed it? But, this miraculous milestone was indeed achieved in 2023 despite the various challenges that markets faced. Taking ahead our year-ender series, find out the factors that led to the massive rise of stock markets in 2023. Staying with the financial markets theme, investors took home some gains last week as they decided to book profit in the markets post the Sensex and Nifty indices’ 13% surge in the past seven weeks. In fact, the indices are up 6% so far in December. So, what should be your trading strategy at this juncture?  Sceptics often ask if markets have run too far too fast. But backed by strong fundamentals and better global outlook, benchmark indices are routinely pulling up surprises. Moving on, one of the world’s wealthiest persons, Jeff Bezos, had also pulled up a surprise in 2021 by announcing his resignation as the CEO of Amazon. He had his eyes fixed on space tourism. His company Blue Origin successfully launched a rocket on an un-crewed mission last week. Listen to this episode of the podcast for answers.

The Lok Sabha passed Telecom Bill, 2023 on Wednesday, 20th of December, after a brief discussion. In our previous episode, we explored its likely implications on over-the-top platforms, like WhatsApp and Telegram. Today we will find out about another key aspect of the proposed bill. That is the proposal to assign spectrum for satellite internet services through administrative allocation … without an auction. So is allocation better than auction?    The world is better connected than ever today, thanks to evolving communication technology. It also helped us tide over the pandemic crisis as homes doubled up as offices. But as the travel restrictions eased and the world returned to normalcy, employers were forced to do a reality check. Most of them called employees back to the office. In our year-ender series, which starts today, Ayush Mishra looks if 2023 was the year work from home ended.  Let us now turn our gaze to financial markets. Shares of IndiGo and SpiceJet have been buzzing on the bourses amid a slew of positive news flow. While IndiGo achieved the milestone of carrying 100 million passengers in a year, SpiceJet has finalized its fundraising plans. Add to it, the industry dynamics are on a mend with travel demand holding up amid falling crude oil prices. Does this mean airline stocks are set to fly higher in the skies? Or are there potential turbulences that investors are ignoring?  Key benchmark indices recovered on Thursday after crashing a day earlier amid concerns of elevated valuation, and a surge in Covid cases. Over 600 fresh cases of Covid-19 were registered in the country on Thursday morning. Of them, 21 were of the new JN.1 sub-variant – which is fuelling the global uptick. Listen to this episode of the podcast for answers.

After over 138 years, the government is rewriting India’s telecommunication laws. Interestingly, the Bill text doesn’t have OTT in the definition of telecom services. But, the way it defines telecommunication opens the possibility of its later inclusion.  Telecom Bill will indeed be one of the hallmarks of this year. Well, this year also took India to the Moon. With the remarkable success of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, the country's capabilities in space exploration and technology shone bright this year. And with the introduction of the New Space Policy 2023, and an increase in public-private partnership in the space sector, India’s vision of dominating the higher orbits appears well set to take off.  Find out the country’s evolving landscape of space exploration. For India’s bond markets, 2023 was quite a bumpy year. Surging US yields and a volatile inflation trajectory kept investors on the edge. But the much-anticipated rate pauses have provided relief to investors. Find out the outlook for bonds next year and how investors should position themselves in fixed-income assets. Whether it is trading in financial markets or a banking transaction, artificial intelligence is soon going to make your experience even better and enjoyable. It is also helping us bridge the language barrier. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently used language AI tool ‘Bhashini’ to communicate with his Tamil audience. Listen to this episode of the podcast for answers.

Engine troubles and financial crisis have pushed Go First airline to a point-of-no-return. Its sole potential buyer, Jindal Powers Ltd, has backed out of bidding for the grounded airline. The budget carrier looks all set to follow 12 other airlines which have flown into obscurity in the last ten years. Foreign shores too are no less ominous for airlines. But why do so many promising airlines go bust?  Notwithstanding some airline busts, India has become the third-largest domestic aviation market in the world. Boeing recently announced that it will set up its largest facility outside the US in Bengaluru. Another US giant, Apple, too has emerged as the face for foreign manufacturing in India. Clearly, India is aggressively pitching itself as an Asian alternative to Chinese manufacturing. But while it has come a long way, India clearly has a long road to cover?  Let us now see what is happening in the world of digital currencies. Bitcoin has more-than-doubled investor money so far in 2023. However, it is expected to witness the famous ‘Halving Event’ in April 2024, where the value of the currency nearly halves but sees multi-fold rise in months ahead. So, will Bitcoin be able to hold on to its dream run in 2024?  After plowing billions of dollars into the cryptocurrency market, venture capitalists are believed to be sitting on dry powder, waiting for the right time. They have turned circumspect on startups too. But exactly what is dry powder? Listen to this episode of the podcast for more.