Call of Duty: Warzone‘s map is pretty big. Massive enough that it’s fair to assume you’ll be spending a lot of time driving down its byways and highways between firefights. For one streamer, it only made sense to get behind the wheel himself for some Verdansk road trips. And if he should find himself needing to break out of prison from behind a steering wheel?
Well, then it’d just be a matter of creating some improvisational roadkill.
I might only have briefly dabbled in farm work while travelling, but Atomicrops sure ain’t how I remember it. I remember wellies and mud, yeah, but mutants? Shotguns? Seems suspect. With the turning of the seasons, Bird Bath Games’ farm-person-shooter is ready to bring home the harvest, as Atomicrops prepares to leave early access on May 28th.
Look, Valorant might be fun and aw, but what’s the point if you can’t make the numbers go higher? Right now, folk are just cycling in and out of wizard gunfights, learning the game and having fun, without the very important business of pushing an arbitrary rank higher and higher. Disgusting. From the sounds of it, though, that may change sooner than expected, with a Riot developer hinting at a ranked matchmaking system arriving in the next few weeks.
Poor Steam Controller. Hanging on long after Valve’s efforts to bring PCs into the living room fizzed out, the last batch of the gamepads finally sold out last November, bringing an end to the era of Steam Machines. And that was that, until curious eyes spotted a patent filing for a new Steam Controller – one that’s trying to one-up the Xbox One Elite Controller on customisability.
CLACK. CLACK. CLACK. We’ve all been in that call. Discord, Teamspeak, (god forbid) Skype, or whatever your voice channel of choice, there’s always someone hammering away on their mechanical keyboard. This week, Discord pushed a beta for Krisp.ai integration – a machine-learning powered tool for cutting unwanted background sounds out of your call, leaving your friends with only the crisp, clean sound of your sexy vocal chords.
If the sun suddenly shrunk threefold, there’d be consequences. In the real world, that’d be total extinction through global freezing. But in Sizeable, it’d probably just open a new opportunity to solve a clockwork puzzle-box. The work of Belgian student Sander Ambroos, Sizeable’s short demo offers four tiny worlds to poke and prod at, each with their own intricately-planned challenges to scale.
Pope Francis will break with centuries of tradition and livestream Easter Sunday mass to allow the world's 1.3 billion Catholics celebrate their holiest holiday under a #coronavirus lockdown https://t.co/g5XqCVI0WF
Denmark will reopen schools and day care centers on Wednesday as it relaxes lockdown after number of coronavirus cases stabilizes https://t.co/A9fA2IQVWn
North Korea calls for stronger measures against the rapidly spreading #coronavirus at a meeting presided by leader Kim Jong Un, state media reports, without acknowledging whether the country has reported any infections https://t.co/kgcymiqGw0
Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral's rector Patrick Chauvet repositions the holy crown of thorns, a relic of the passion of Christ, after a meditation ceremony to celebrate Good Friday in a secured part of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral in France April 10. Ludovic Marin/Pool via REUTERS
If the number of confirmed coronavirus cases continues to rise — prompting Moscow authorities to impose additional restrictions — the parade could be held without spectators. Andrei Nikerichev / Moskva News Agency
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKIY, Russia (Sputnik) - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday that the Victory Day parade in Moscow would take place for sure, however, there was a possibility of postponing it from 9 May to another date due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"No one should have any doubt that there would be the Victory Day parade and the celebrations. I don't know whether it will be on 9 May or later, but it will take place for sure," Peskov said in a televised interview.
According to the Kremlin spokesman, no decision to cancel the parade has been made by Russian President Vladimir Putin yet.
"So far, as of today, no decisions have been made to postpone the festivities, to postpone the Victory Day parade, or to postpone the Immortal Regiment [commemorative procession]. They [the decisions] will be made later, taking into consideration the development of the situation. Various options are being considered, which is understandable," Peskov said.
WNU Editor: No definite decision has been made yet, but I hope they do postpone it to a later date. The pandemic will be at its peak in Russia by May 9th, and I shudder on the number of people who will be exposed to this virus if they permit this parade and celebration to go through.
Long tailbacks of ambulances seen at a hospital in the capital as mayor warns the outbreak is only in the 'foothills'.
A "huge influx" of coronavirus patients has started to put a strain on hospitals in Moscow as Russia's death toll rose to more than 100.
Moscow and many other regions have been in lockdown for nearly two weeks to stem the contagion, but hospitals in the capital are still being pushed to their limit, the Kremlin said.
On Saturday, dozens of ambulances queued outside a hospital handling coronavirus cases in the region immediately outside Moscow, waiting to drop off patients.
One ambulance driver said he had been waiting 15 hours outside the hospital to drop off a patient suspected of having the virus.
"The situation in both Moscow and St Petersburg, but mostly in Moscow, is quite tense because the number of sick people is growing," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview on state television, news agencies reported.
"There is a huge influx of patients. We are seeing hospitals in Moscow working extremely intensely, in heroic, emergency mode."
WNU Editor: It is bad in Moscow right now. Saint Petersburg not so much, but the storm is coming. All my family members in Russia are now out of the cities (Moscow and Saint Petersburg). They have been preparing for this since the beginning of March, and will only return to the cities once a week to check out our homes and properties. Some of the readers of this blog know that the family business in Russia is real-estate management and development, and are wondering how is this crisis impacting business. I am happy to say that and we are fortunately well positioned to ride out this crisis, we have no debts and our cash position is secured. I am still sad to see all of our new projects put on hold, and our subcontractors sent home. But I am grateful that our own employees are regarded as essential and can still work, and those who rent commercial space from us are established companies or government institutions with long term leases that will still be around when this pandemic ends.
Covid-19 Coronavirus Pandemic In Russian -- News Updates April 11, 2020
WASHINGTON — "Any way you cut it, this is going to be bad," a senior medical adviser at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Dr. Carter Mecher, wrote on the night of Jan. 28, in an email to a group of public health experts scattered around the government and universities. "The projected size of the outbreak already seems hard to believe."
A week after the first coronavirus case had been identified in the United States, and six long weeks before President Trump finally took aggressive action to confront the danger the nation was facing — a pandemic that is now forecast to take tens of thousands of American lives — Dr. Mecher was urging the upper ranks of the nation's public health bureaucracy to wake up and prepare for the possibility of far more drastic action.
"You guys made fun of me screaming to close the schools," he wrote to the group, which called itself "Red Dawn," an inside joke based on the 1984 movie about a band of Americans trying to save the country after a foreign invasion. "Now I'm screaming, close the colleges and universities."
WNU Editor: This is a debate that every responsible country is going to have when this is over. I know in the country that I live (Canada), it was slower than the U.S. in responding to this pandemic, and we are paying a dear price for it. Not surprising, some Canadians (including this blogger) are asking questions. The country that I am from, Russia, has been even slower, and they are now in a crisis situation .... Kremlin warns of huge influx of Moscow patients as coronavirus toll climbs (Reuters). As for the U.S., before drawing any conclusions one needs to first look at the measures enacted by the White House and their timeline .... The Real Coronavirus Chronology Shows Trump Was On Top Of It While Biden Was Mocking The Danger (The Federalist). So what is my take? With hindsight, I wish President Trump was quicker in closing the border. But he hesitated after he issued his travel ban on China. Why the hesitation? I am speculating now, but my guess is that he listened to the wrong people, and he ignored his original instincts that closing the border was the right thing to do. So who did he listen to? He listened to the experts at the CDC who were assuring everyone in late January and February that the risk was low. He listened to the World Health Organization's recommendations that closing the border was useless, and that it would not stop the spread of this outbreak .... WHO Director General Praises China's Response To The Wuhan Coronavirus. Blasts The World's Travel And Trade Restrictions On China Ban And Not Sharing Information (February 4, 2020). WHO was also telling everyone that the outbreak was under control .... WHO Says The Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak Is Not A Pandemic (February 4, 2020). President Trump also had trouble addressing the massive opposition to his China travel ban from the media (New York Times included) and from his political opponents who were using his restrictions to accuse him of xenophobia and racism. It should also be noted that President Trump received little if any support from fellow Republican during this time.
From mid-February to the second week of March more travel restrictions were implemented, as well as the establishment of a task-force lead by Vice-President Pence to address the coronavirus crisis. But if there is a date that I would say changed everything in the U.S., it would be March 11. The World Health Organization, after resisting for weeks the enormous pressure to call the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic, finally relented on March 11. The NBA had their first positive test for a player later in the evening, where the immediate decision was then made (to the shock of everyone) to cancel the season. The next day, on March 12, President Trump imposed travel restrictions on Europe and elsewhere. He was still heavily criticized for that decision. On March 13, President Trump declared a national emergency, and nothing has been the same since. For a person who is accused of not seeing the pandemic, when one looks at what he was actually doing, a different picture emerges. But like I said. When this is all over, the real debate will begin.
WNU Editor: Since January 20th this blog has made over 600 posts on the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak/Covid-19 Pandemic. If anyone wants to go down memory lane, those 600 posts are below. If I say so myself, some of it is fascinating reading.
KABUL (Reuters) - The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan met Taliban leadership in Doha to discuss the need to reduce violence in the war-torn country, spokesmen for both sides said on Saturday, as continued clashes threaten to derail a fragile peace process.
The meeting between Taliban leaders and General Scott Miller, commander of U.S. forces and the NATO-led non-combat Resolution Support mission in Afghanistan, took place on Friday night. It came as the insurgent group accuses U.S. forces of breaching an agreement signed between the two sides in February.
"General Miller met with Taliban leadership last night as part of the military channel established in the agreement," a spokesman for U.S. Forces in Afghanistan told Reuters. "The meeting was about the need to reduce the violence," he said.
Topline: East Africa is anticipating a second, larger wave of the worst locust outbreak seen in seven decades, as the swarms of billions of insects threaten food security in the already vulnerable region—and exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, as closed borders make supplies harder to access.
* The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said the swarm of locusts present "an extremely alarming and unprecedented threat" to food security and livelihoods—according to the UN, a locust swarm of just more than a third of a square mile can eat the same amount of food in a single day as 35,000 people. * A second wave is approaching, experts say, and may be 20 times larger than the initial locust attack. * Kenyan officials told AP that coronavirus crackdowns have slowed efforts to fight the infestation, as crossing borders has become more difficult and the delivery of necessary pesticides has been held up and aerial spraying is the only effective means of controlling locusts.
The OPEC+ alliance and Mexico made some progress in their discussions on oil-production cuts on Saturday, the third consecutive day of negotiations, but cautioned it was unclear whether the group would reach a final deal, delegates said.
OPEC+ has proposed curbing output by 10 million barrels a day as demand collapses due to the coronavirus. So far, Mexico is holding out, seeking fewer reductions than the proposal would require. Saudi Arabia insists Mexico should cut its production as much as everyone else in the group. U.S. President Donald Trump has stepped in to try to broker a truce.
The alliance initially met on Thursday via video conference, followed by a virtual gathering of energy ministers of the Group of 20.
WNU Editor: After three days of talks, OPEC+ oil producing nations have still not reached unanimous agreement on oil production cuts .... Global oil output cuts held hostage to standoff (Reuters). Adding more confusion are non-OPEC+ countries saying that they are not going to be a part of this agreement .... Canada did not agree to specific production cuts in G20 meeting - minister (Reuters). Bottom line. Even if an agreement is reached, the world is producing 15 million barrels more per day than what is being consumed.
The commander of the 7th Fleet Vice Admiral Bill Merz visited the USS Theodore Roosevelt this weekand has since revealed that its sailors are 'struggling'
* The commander of the 7th Fleet Vice Admiral Bill Merz visited the USS Theodore Roosevelt this week * He said sailors are 'struggling' and 'upset' after their captain was sacked * Merz also admitted that the crew should have been told sooner about the 'true dangers of coronavirus': 'I think we could have told them earlier what we knew' * Captain Brett Crozier was fired after his memo urging the Navy to respond more quickly to a coronavirus outbreak onboard was leaked * Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly was then forced to resign amid a backlash over Crozier's ousting * 447 of the 4,000 crew members are now infected with coronavirus
The top Navy admiral now overseeing the USS Theodore Roosevelt has revealed that its sailors are 'struggling' after their captain was controversially sacked, as he admitted that the crew should have been told sooner about the 'true dangers of coronavirus'.
The commander of the 7th Fleet Vice Admiral Bill Merz visited the Navy ship on Tuesday, following the saga of the last week which saw Captain Brett Crozier fired after his memo urging the Navy to respond more quickly to a coronavirus outbreak onboard was leaked and acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly was then forced to resign amid a backlash over Crozier's ousting.
Merz said that morale onboard the Navy ship had plummeted, as 447 of the 4,000 crew members are now infected with coronavirus.
'There was lots of anxiety about the virus,' Merz told CNN.
On my daily walk down a side street, I saw a restaurant with a diagonal cross made of adhesive tape on its sign. Gone was the notice that it would open for takeout; now it looked to be closed for good.
Although I'm aware that most restaurants go out of business within a few years or even months, I felt a certain sadness. The owners and staff lost their jobs and perhaps their dreams, through no fault of their own and for reasons they couldn't have anticipated just a few weeks ago.
I'm guessing that they'd like to go back to that time now, as most of us would. I have been thinking about this amid news reports that social isolation and other measures have made sufficient progress against the virus.
WNU Editor: Certain industries are definitely going to be experiencing hard times for a few years. The airline industry. Tourism. Sport franchises. Anything that will involve large gatherings of people. The hospitality/restaurant industry is facing a massive shake-up. Commercial real-estate is kaput. And then there is the politics and the policies that certain governments are going to pursue. I live in Canada, and I am confident that the policies that will be pushed by the government will benefit some industries, while harming other parts of the economy. The Canadian government's antipathy to the oil industry comes to mind. The same can be said about the U.S.. I am confident that President Trump will continue to pursue the same economic policies that helped the economy boom for the past three years. Will a President Biden pursue the same policies. Definitely not. Bottom line. We are in uncharted waters right now, and it is going to take more than a year to have a better understanding on where all of this is going.
With an aircraft carrier forced into port and nuclear missile crews hit by COVID-19, the US military wants rivals to understand: don't test us, we have not been weakened.
Statement after statement from the Pentagon has sought to deliver that message amid questions this week over whether the US fighting force can maintain full readiness, with cases among service members nearing 2,000.
"We're still capable and we're still ready no matter what the threat," Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley said Thursday.
"I wouldn't want any mixed messages going out there to any adversaries that they can take advantage of an opportunity, if you will, at a time of crisis," he added.
"That would be a terrible and tragic mistake if they thought that."
A street sign, Wall Street, is seen outside New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, New York, U.S., January 3, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo
A few weeks ago, there was blood on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks lost $10 trillion in value and earnings are expected to be in the toilet.
So why did stocks add $3 trillion in value just this week? Why a booming stock market in the midst of cratering economy?
Does it make any sense? To skeptical Wall Street veterans, the answer is obvious: no. While stimulus is flowing and the curve may be flattening, investors are bidding up stocks at a time unemployment may already be 15%, with economists forecasting one of the biggest contractions ever. Only a fool buys equities trading at 40 times the worst estimates for this year's profits.
To all that, a single rebuttal exists. That in the absence of clarity, investors have no choice but to write this year off entirely. No matter how bad the recession gets, markets look forward -- relentlessly. Whatever horrors the world is yet to endure investors will focus on the recovery.
WNU Editor: It is a sign of the times that the media does not even report on the biggest jump in the stock market for the past 46 year, albeit after a week when it registered one of its worst declines in history.
A flight attendant waits for the departure of a one-passenger flight between Washington and New Orleans in Washington, April 3, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
* Three reports from think tanks and academics lay out how lockdown ends * All agree that until a vaccine is available, US life will not be fully normal * Calls for national lockdown range from 14 days to as long as three months * Once lockdown ends, social distancing measures would relax but not disappear * Gatherings of a certain size would still be banned, and remote work encouraged * Two plans call for the construction of a vast digital surveillance system * Would track movements of all Americans to trace potential virus exposure * Plans call for daily testing capacity ranging from massive to impossible
When will it end?
For everyone under lockdown orders in the coronavirus pandemic, that is the key question. How long until American life can return to normal, without risking the disease reigniting out of control and overwhelming hospitals?
Examining the question are three new reports, from the American Enterprise Institute, the Center for American Progress, and Harvard's Safra Center for Ethics.
While they differ in their conclusions, all are three are bleak. Life in the U.S. will not fully return to normal until a vaccine is distributed widely, and drastic interventions will be needed until then once restrictions are relaxed, all three conclude.
WNU Editor: There are many opinions out there on when will this pandemic end, so this is what I am preparing myself for. This pandemic is going to be with us on-and-off until next year. As to what am I doing. Besides maintaining contacts with people to a minimum, I am also making sure that all bills are paid months in advance, and that I have enough to survive off the grid for a long time. My priority is my health and the health of those around me. As to work and business, I run a consultancy business with a few select clients who pay me to know what I see in the future, and I am telling them the same thing. Every crisis brings opportunities to make a lot of money, and this crisis is the "mother" of all crisis. The economic order that has existed since the end of the Cold War is now over, and something new is going to arise. What that new order will be is still too early to predict, but off-hand I would say that the countries who can best weather the massive debt loads that they have imposed on their economies will be the ones who will be crawling out of this crisis first. Bottom line. The geopolitical events that will happen in the next few years will determine the type of world that we will be living in for the next few decades. I will be posting more on this subject later.
As to my own personal business and investments. It has been years since I invested in the stock market, but I am looking at it now. My focus is on the pharmaceutical companies. Governments are now opening their check-books to big pharma and biotech companies, and there is going to be no limit on what will be given to them. I am also open to investing in big oil, but a few months from now. I can easily see the price of oil hitting $15/barrel, and share prices are going to be at levels that have not been since in 15 years or more. But this will be temporary. Worldwide demand is there, and it will return in a few years. You just have to be patient.
This pandemic is eventually going to end. The economic crisis that it has spawned is unfortunately going to take a longtime to recover, but with time everything will recover. The priority for everyone right now is to stay healthy and safe.
The blaze struck while the ship was tied up to the pier at Hudong–Zhonghua Shipbuilding in Shanghai.
China's first big-deck amphibious assault ship, a huge vessel that was built in a miraculously short amount of time, caught fire on Saturday, April 11th, 2020. Photos and video showing the ship billowing large clouds of black smoke hit Chinese social media earlier in the day. The warship, which is the first of the new Type 075 class, was resting alongside the pier at its birthplace, Hudong–Zhonghua Shipbuilding in Shanghai, when the blaze broke out.
You can and should read all about the Type 075 and why it is a major accomplishment for the rapidly expanding People's Liberation Army Navy in this past piece of ours.
Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis: 🇺🇸 More than 500,000 cases in US ⚰️ Mass graves 🌍 Toll tops 103,000 worldwide ⛪ Easter on screen ✈️ Flights postponed 🇾🇪 First case in war-torn Yemen 📱 Apple and Google join forceshttps://t.co/HRuwKQ9QzRpic.twitter.com/9Tletmq88Q
Thousands of people surge for food aid in a brief stampede in Kenya's capital, desperate for help as coronavirus restrictions stop them from making a living. https://t.co/Xm2M5QTwKr
Marine drill instructors and recruits now training with skivvy shirt face masks, confounding drill instructors everywhere who just want recruits to sound offhttps://t.co/cljXggtYlNpic.twitter.com/f9pUV8xtfq
WUHAN'S Institute of Virology carried out coronavirus experiments on bats which were captured in Yunnan, the same place where the deadly COVID-19 virus came from, sparking fresh theories that the laboratory is the epicentre of the virus and not the market.
WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: A DOG owner has been named and shamed for allegedly flouting a coronavirus lockdown and killing his pet after tying it to the back of his car to give it a run.
THE POPE presided at the Way of the Cross service at an empty Saint Peter's Square on Friday night due to the coronavirus lockdown. Pope Francis watched from under a canopy on the steps of the Vatican basilica as just 10 people carried a cross and flaming torches towards him.
KRAKATOA volcano in Indonesia has exploded, shooting an ash column some 13km high into the air in the shocking eruption. When was Krakatoa's last eruption? Is it still erupting now?
A GROWING row inside the European Union has led one member-state leader to question whether the Netherlands are "truly committed" to the Brussels-led project, hinting that the Dutch should "be left out" of EU deals.
Straddles and strangles are options strategies that take advantage of significant moves up or down in a stock's price. Learn the difference between them.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Understanding the differences between long- and short-term capital gains is crucial to ensuring that the benefits of your investment portfolio outweigh the tax costs.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
The Paycheck Protection Program Liquidity Facility (PPPLF) is designed to help small businesses maintain payrolls as the economy shrinks due to the coronavirus crisis.
While most people won't have to do anything to receive their stimulus payment, there are important steps to take to make sure there are no hangups or delays.
Discover what the 80% rule in homeowner's insurance is and what homeowners need to do so their insurance company covers the entire cost of an insured event.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Investors have many options for getting involved with oil. These methods come with varying degrees of risk and range from direct investment in oil as a commodity, to indirect exposure in oil through the ownership of energy-related equities.One direct method of owning oil is through the purchase of oil futures or oil futures options.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
These robo-advisors allow a sophisticated investor to fine-tune a portfolio, deleting individual stocks from the suggested portfolios, and possibly pick a replacement.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Medicare Advantage and Medigap are two options when Original Medicare doesn't provide the right amount of coverage. Find out about Medicare supplement plans.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
There are three ways in which to invest in United States debt: Treasury bonds, Treasury notes, and Treasury bills. The length of time when each matures differs, along with how interest is paid on them.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
The Federal Reserve announced a set of new programs Thursday that will provide $2.3 trillion in loans to reach small and midsize businesses, as well as U.S. cities and states.
Actual authority refers to specific powers, expressly conferred by a principal (often an insurance company) to an agent to act on the principal's behalf.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
The Greek debt crisis has its origins in the fiscal profligacy of previous governments, proving that nations cannot afford to live way beyond their means.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Simple interest is only based on the principal amount of a loan, while compound interest is based on the principal amount and the accumulated interest.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
The price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio is a company's stock price to earnings ratio divided by the growth rate of its earnings for a specified time period.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
A stop order is an order type that is triggered when the price of a security reaches the stop price level. It may then initiate a market or limit order.
A put option gives the holder the right to sell a certain amount of an underlying at a set price before the contract expires, but does not oblige him or her to do so.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Airbnb offers travelers relatively inexpensive accommodations while providing their hosts with an opportunity to earn some extra income from their property. But both parties should be aware of the risks.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Credit cards aren't always bad possessions to have. There are certain perks associated with using credit cards as we make routine or irregular purchases.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Tangible net worth is most commonly a calculation of the net worth of a company that excludes any value derived from intangible assets such as copyrights, patents, and intellectual property.
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now
Train No. 00609 is not a regular freight carrier of the Indian Railways. After loading nearly 2,500 packs of hatching eggs along with some other items in Bengaluru on April 7, the train chugged along to Guwahati located 3,100 km northeast.This seven-coach cargo express is only one third the length of the usual goods train. It also runs on a fixed timetable and loads parcels from stations in-between- a regular practice in freight movement in the 1970s which the railways gradually abandoned disparaging the service as piecemeal loadings.Now, the nationwide lockdown- enforced since March 25 to avoid a sudden spike in Covid-19 cases- has prompted the railways to restart parcel cargo trains.As on April 9, the national transporter had notified 62 parcel cargo routes with 167 such express trains already on the move. A parcel cargo express typically carries small quantities of parcels that are usually moved via the highways.With all passenger trains suspended and the demand for regular freight trains carrying bulk goods, like steel, cement and coal, slowing down due to closure of factories across India, this new flock of short parcel trains is ruling the roost on the railways' 68,000-km track network. 75100603After the lockdown, these trains have emerged as the nation's most trusted warhorses carrying dairy products, e-commerce consignments, packaged food, seeds, medicines and perishables. They have wooed large companies such as Nestle, Amul and Hindustan Unilever and small-ticket transport aggregators which, in normal circumstances, prefer roads to rail."We have introduced parcel trains with fixed timetables as a quick response to the lockdown. We are likely to continue some of those trains even after normalcy is restored," Vinod Kumar Yadav, chairman of the Railway Board, tells ET Magazine. He says more and more states are showing interest in these parcel trains.The railways, for example, has introduced five such trains in Madhya Pradesh as requested by the local administration.During the ongoing lockdown, railways' overall freight traffic has fallen but the quantity of food grain it is transporting has nearly doubled, according to railway data for the first 12 days of the lockdown.Clearly, the parcel trains have emerged as a viable alternative, particularly after thousands of truck drivers abandoned their vehicles on the first day of the lockdown due to police clampdown on state borders as well as due to the closure of roadside eateries. "Our 40-feet container was loaded with goods at Mundra port in Gujarat on March 24. 75100612But like thousands of other trucks, our truck also got stuck on the road. The police, both in Rajasthan and Haryana borders, harassed my driver. Finally, the truck reached Faridabad on April 7 after two weeks, when the journey, in normal times, would take just four days," says the owner of a transport company in Faridabad, not wanting to be named.So, it is natural that the bulk of road freight traffic has shifted to the railways overnight. In the first week of the lockdown, Nestle's Maggi packs were moved from Moga (Punjab) to Guwahati, Amul's milk products from Ahmedabad to Kanpur, agricultural seeds from Salem to Bathinda, dry grass from Dahanu (Maharashtra) to Jammu and medical goods and masks from Mumbai to Ludhiana."The demand for traffic is there. Our primary objective is to carry essential commodities, but we are receiving all sorts of queries for booking. For example, one company wanted to book live pigs from Bengaluru to Dimapur (Nagaland)," says Ashok Kumar Verma, the divisional railway manager in Bengaluru.Some long-distance parcel trains routes being notified include New Delhi-Chennai, Mumbai-Guwahati, Bengaluru-Howrah, Ahmedabad-Guwahati, Kanyakumari-Sankrail (West Bengal).In the past, the railways had tried out various modes to cater to the demand of piecemeal traffic. In 1969, it experimented with what it called freight forwarding trains to carry goods between specified pairs of stations at fixed lump sum rates. Then in 1972, parcel trains were first introduced on the Kolkata-Vijayawada and Kolkata-Chennai route. Railways then ran super-express goods trains and quick transit service (QTS) on important routes and on fixed schedules with an in-built provision of refund in case the delivery was behind schedule.However, since early 1980s, the transporter began to dissociate itself from such services, when the then chairman of the Railway Board, MS Gujral, emphasised on pointto-point delivery of only bulk commodities.Former Railway Board chairman Vivek Sahai argues that the transporter must work on a blueprint, once the virus turmoil is over, to get back its lost share in freight traffic.The railway's share has dropped to 33% from 66% in 1951, according to various government documents. The 2017-18 Economic Survey had squarely blamed this decline on the railways' non-competitive tariff structure."The one way railways can improve its freight share is to capitalise on parcel trains reclaiming the piecemeal traffic. There have been some experiments with Gati trains- a private venture. But that is not enough. The railways must fix timetables and assure part refund in case the delivery is not on time," says Sahai.The question remains: will the railways be able to keep up its parcel trains services even after passenger traffic returns?
Will the novel Coronavirus infect millions in India? How many are likely to die? Does social distancing actually help save lives and how long should it last? These are some of the questions people are grappling with amid the Covid-19 pandemic.While it is impossible to get precise answers to these questions, epidemiologists and policymakers turn to mathematical models to navigate the pandemic and help take critical decisions. These models, which extrapolate from existing data to predict the progression of an infectious disease outbreak, have come to play an integral role in infectious disease epidemiology.Such modelling helps one understand the trajectory of a disease over time, how fast it is increasing and what might determine that increase, says Gautam Menon, professor of physics and biology at Ashoka University."They also help you understand what an intervention like physical distancing or a lockdown might do," says Menon, whose areas of expertise includes modelling infectious disease and its implication for public policy.These models also help experts understand if a health system is geared up in terms of medical personnel and equipment to tackle the infection, says Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy. For instance, in its model released on March 24, CDDEP said India would need 1 million ventilators when the infection peaked, during which 100 million individuals could be affected.The use of modelling to map an infectious disease goes back a couple of centuries.One of the first attempts was made by 18th century mathematician Daniel Bernoulli, who tried to map the spread of smallpox.A century later, John Snow, a doctor in England, used statistics and mapping to determine the mode of spread of cholera. 75101376Modelling has become considerably more sophisticated since then. "Work on epidemiology is now conducted by data scientists more than doctors," says Laxminarayan.Giridhar R Babu, who heads lifecourse epidemiology at Public Health Foundation of India, says models become more realistic when you combine the efforts of the best mathematical modellers with those of people who have worked on the ground. "If your assumptions are not based on pragmatic realities, you might end up with results that are blown out of proportion," he cautions.The success of a model depends on the data it uses. One of the challenges epidemiologists are grappling with now in India is the lack of data to track Covid-19's trajectory. "As the data we require lies primarily with the government, the only solution is for the government to be more forthcoming with it," says Menon.N Devadasan, cofounder of Institute of Public Health, says he is sceptical about modelling about Covid-19 in India because of the lack of reliable data. "At present, we are relying entirely on Italian and Chinese figures."The infection rate, says the public health veteran, has been taken from China and Italy to make a projection for India. The other obstacle, Devadasan says, is that people are not considering that most patients may not be transmitting. "We are assuming that all patients who are infected will transmit, which is not the case."Devadasan has taken a more conservative view of the progression of Covid-19 in India. In an article in Scroll earlier this month, he said that data available so far suggested that the novel coronavirus might not infect millions in India."I am hoping that with the lockdown, we have reduced the transmission rate at this point, at least to some extent. This doesn't mean that we will not get new infections. It is just that it will happen at a lower rate, not like what is happening in the US now or in Italy earlier," he tells ET Magazine.On the CDDEP model's projection that India might see millions of cases, Laxminarayan says most people will have to experience some form of the disease — at best a mild one or even one without symptoms. "But our focus should be on the peak severe-infections that will tax our health system. If we can 'push down' and 'push out' that peak by keeping distance, then we would have helped all other Indians."For the uninitiated, the differing projections of varying models can seem puzzling. All models make assumptions but how realistic a model is depends on the assumptions being used, says PHFI's Babu. "Your model is only as good as your assumptions. Depending on what you are comparing with, your scenarios change."The layperson trying to make sense of the many models might do well to be sceptical of hype and beware of apocalyptic scenarios, says Menon.In the current situation, Laxminarayan says the baseline scenario or benchmark has been similar across models, at a rough infection rate of 10-30%. The bigger challenge, he says, is the outcome of an event such as a lockdown because of the lack of data about how it has reduced transmission. "In reality, the biggest unknown in disease models is human behaviour and how people react to protect themselves."After all, Babu says, a basic lesson all epidemiologists are taught is, "All models are wrong but some are useful."
Deepak Parekh has dubbed the current crisis a human economic financial (HEF) crisis, completely different from the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, and said it would take at least nine months to recover fully from it.In a webinar on Friday, the chairman of HDFC recommended that India's financial sector should be strong or else economy will collapse, and he pushed for the NBFCs (non-banking finance companies) to be regulated.The coronavirus pandemic has rattled lives and economies across the world, and India has not been spared either. So far, India has 7,529 coronavirus cases, with a death toll of 242."The poor should be supported more and steps to be taken for them too brought out of poverty. In any crisis the they are the first affected and last to recover. They are the backbone of the nation," he said.He expects the government to come out with a stimulus scheme on Monday. Parekh also pushed for removal of complicated tax rules.He warned that banks would make drastic reductions in granting credit, if they see a credit risk involved.He said that in the new order post crisis, the billion dollar startup valuations would be challenged and burning cash would be frowned upon."It will be tough time for start-ups to raise cash," he said.He warned that leverage is double edged sword. "It can lift you or bring you down," he asserted.Parekh expressed concern that restarting manufacturing is going be difficult, as the labour force will be forced to choose between Fear of Life or Livelihood."To manage this, the labour has to be incentivised to return. Management has guarantee them security of life , food and stay if required. They should be your first priority," he recommended."Management has to become more prudent by Cutting Costs , downsizing , No increments /bonus. Getting cash flow back should be first priority," he said. He pointed out that public and private partnership can work, as in the case of YES Bank."Even though YES Bank was a competitor we didn't allow it fail and its repercussions would have been more damaging ," he said adding that it was not right of state-run banks to take over the problems of a Private banks."YES bank had foreign banks /Funds showing interest. But the government said it's an Indian problem ,let Indian banks solve it," he said."We should have stepped up did the the same for PMC Bank and IL&FS. Things would have different then," he added.He suggested that the Reserve Bank of India should come forward and purchase corporate debt papers , which is a common practice by the central banks across the world.He said that even as equity markets were badly hit, they will make a return. He expressed his concerns that there were only 2 per cent equity investors in India , compared to 40-60 per cent in some countries."Mutual fund (MF) penetration also very low at 12 per cent compared to 62 per cent global. If MF participation is doubled , it will make huge difference in markets. First time investors should be encouraged to invest in equity through MF as it is less risky ," he said.
After a reportedly 4-hour-long meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the chief ministers of various states, the broad consensus was that India will have to stay at home for two more weeks as the country tries to stem a coronavirus outbreak that has claimed over 200 lives and infected more than 7,000 people on last count. The lockdown, effective March 25, is supposed to end on April 14. The prime minister in his interaction stressed on the need to not only to save lives, but livelihoods too by underlining the motto of 'jaan hai to jahaan hai' [when you have life, you have the world]. A majority of the states at the meeting were for extending the lockdown . The final call now rests with the PM, who may consider the extension reportedly with some relaxations. He is likely to make an announcement soon.Here is what the states have done so far:Maharashtra (Total cases: 1574, Deaths: 110*): Has extended the ongoing lockdown till April 30. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said the lockdown can be relaxed in certain areas while on others it will become stricter. He also said that the decision on lifting the curbs completely after April 30 will be taken depending upon the prevailing situation.Andhra Pradesh (Total cases: 381, Deaths: 6): Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy wants lockdown extended, but limited only to identified red zones where Covid is prevalent.Karnataka (Total cases: 214, Deaths: 6): Lockdown will continue for another 15 days, but wants relaxations in a graded manner. Farm sector in the state may get some breather in this extension.Telangana (Total cases: 504, Deaths: 9): Telangana has extend the lockdown in the state till April 30. CM K. Chandrashekhar Rao said that after April 30, the government may consider lifting the lockdown in phases.Chhattisgarh (Total cases: 18, Deaths: 0): Chief minister Bhupesh Baghel is batting for limiting the lockdown, urging the Prime Minister to allow states to carry out economic activities within their borders while favouring continuation of inter-state travel ban.Odisha (Total cases: 48, Deaths: 1): Odisha is the first state to extend the lockdown till April 30. The chief minister said that it is a critical juncture where either we can protect the lives of the people or protect the economic activity. Odisha has seen 48 cases since the first case was reported on March 15.Punjab (Total cases: 132, Deaths: 11): Punjab was the second state to extend the lockdown/curfew in the entire state till May 1. The decision was taken to prevent the spread of the virus due to overcrowding in mandis post harvesting. Delhi (Total cases: 903, Deaths: 14): Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is for an extension of the lockdown. Delhi has seen the third highest number of cases owing to the outbreak reported from the Nizamuddin cluster, which is responsible for almost 30 per cent of the cases nationwide.West Bengal (Total cases: 126, Deaths: 5): Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is for an extension. Banerjee said she requested the central government to ensure strict vigil in the border areas, so that no one is able to sneak in during this period.Puducherry (Total cases: 7, Death: 0): Territorial Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said the Puducherry government would decide on extending the lockdown beyond April 14 only by taking into account the stand of the governments of neighbouring Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.Gujarat (Total cases: 308, Deaths: 19): Gujarat government said that it would follow the recommendations of the Centre on possible extension of ongoing lockdown.*Covid tally as per health ministry figures on April 11.
A round four years ago, Romesh Sobti, the then managing director of IndusInd Bank, had invited the lender's top management for an exercise to draw up a three-year plan. The leadership team at the Hinduja Group-promoted bank then was 40-people strong. When a similar exercise was done around two months ago, the number of executives who participated had more than doubled. In fact, a cutoff at 90 had to be imposed for the meeting.Sobti, who retired as MD of IndusInd Bank in March, sees this as a sign of a carefully cultivated management "bench strength playing out". It is probably the best thing — along with a strong track record of profitability — that Sobti has passed on to his successor. If not for these, Sobti would have handed over a bank in turmoil to Sumant Kathpalia, the head of the consumer and retail business, who took over as the MD and CEO of Indusind Bank in late March.The IndusInd Bank stock has had a tumultuous March and April. The trigger for the meltdown on the bourses was the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s moratorium on March 5 on withdrawals from another private sector lender, Yes Bank. That and the general negative sentiment due to the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the bank scrip on a downward spiral.75100057From Rs 1,074.70 on March 5, the IndusInd bank stock has lost 60% of its value, closing at Rs 395.45 on April 9. In the same period, the BSE banking index, Bankex, lost 33%.A Maharashtra government diktat to its own departments to move out deposits from private sector banks also hurt IndusInd as the lender saw a sudden 10% drop in deposits. The CASA ratio — the ratio of deposits in the current and savings accounts, essentially cheap funds for a bank — as a percentage of total deposits and borrowings also dropped from 42.4% in December 2019 to 40.5% in March 2020.The leadership transition happened in the middle of all this, on March 24. The promoters, the Hinduja family, also came under the scanner as it emerged that 23.8 million shares (3.43% of current paid-up capital) of the bank were pledged by the promoter firm, IndusInd Mauritius, with Citibank. Hindujas hold around 14.4% of the bank, a little less than the 15% cap on corporate holding in banks imposed by RBI.75100027In mid-March, the Hindujas sought RBI permission to raise their stake to 26%. The request made before Kathpalia took over was to reaffirm their commitment to the bank. By the end of March, they had also repaid Citibank to clear the pledge.The bank itself borrowed quickly to fill the hole left by the withdrawals of government deposits. The Economic Times reported in early April about efforts to raise "confidence capital" from private equity funds.IndusInd Bank has a solid track record of profitability. It reported Rs 3,301 crore in profit in 2018-19, and Rs 4,117 crore for the nine months ended December 31, 2019. And yet, the way it lost the confidence of investors in March 2020 poses the question whether there is something amiss in its business model.IndusInd Bank did not reply to queries emailed for this story. The Hinduja Group too did not respond to queries.75100103A Bank in TransitionWhile the bank was started in 1994, its journey as a consumer-focused lender really began when Sobti joined IndusInd from ABN Amro in 2008, with a large team in tow. "The real turnaround story of IndusInd Bank began when Sobti and his team moved in," says Vimal Bhandari, executive vice-chairman of Arka Fincap.A more retail and granular customer base not only gives a bank a source of cheap funds from CASA, but also provides a large base of borrowers and customers that will protect it against sudden large withdrawals or large loan defaults, which can happen with corporate loans and deposits.Even during the present meltdown in markets and withdrawal of deposits by the state government, very few retail depositors withdrew their money from IndusInd, Sobti told The Economic Times in an interview in mid-March.CASA and retail term deposits make up 65% of the bank's deposit base. Consumer banking loans comprise 54% of its total loans.The move towards a bigger retail base had started through acquisitions and mergers. In 2004, the vehicle finance business of Ashok Leyland, another Hinduja Group firm, was merged into the bank. Under Sobti, IndusInd acquired the credit cards business of Deutsche Bank in 2011. In 2015, it took on the diamond and jewellery financing business of Royal Bank of Scotland. In 2017, IndusInd Bank acquired India's second largest microfinance institution, Bharat Financial Inclusion, in a Rs 15,000 crore deal. This acquisition stressed on the strategy of the bank to become more consumer and retail focused. While the deal added Rs 10,000 crore worth of MFI loans to the bank, the real value it brought in were the 6.8 million more customers to the bank's customer base of 10 million.75100181Chairman of Inditrade Capital Sudip Bandyopadhyay says the acquisition of Bharat Financial Inclusion can define the future of IndusInd Bank as it gives the lender a huge customer base. Bandyopadhyay, who has the experience of running a microfinance business, says it is relatively easy to convert a microfinance customer into a depositor. "Acquiring a retail customer base comes at a huge cost. Banking relationships are usually sticky. The likes of Kotak or Yes Bank tried to do it by offering higher interest rates on savings accounts," he adds.The transition started by Sobti has not yet been completed and the recent events have shown that IndusInd is still open to shocks from its lumpy deposits and advances."IndusInd Bank faces problems both on the asset as well as the liabilities side," says Nitin Aggarwal, an analyst at Motilal Oswal. "The liabilities side is facing headwinds due to the outflow of deposits. The asset-side stress is yet to come to the fore. But one needs to keep a close watch on the bank's exposure to the commercial vehicle, microfinance and gems and jewellery sectors, which could be hit due to the sharp slowdown we are seeing both domestically as well as internationally.The bank's corporate exposure to companies, like Vodafone, was already into question and this will add to that stress."Bandyopadhyay, too, says the lender may see some stress this time. "IndusInd was not hurt by the first phase of Indian corporate insolvencies that were in sectors like steel and infrastructure, as it did not have much exposure to these. However, we might see a second lot of insolvencies involving telecom, and this might hurt the bank. If IndusInd can survive the pandemic and the lockdown phase, its future looks good."A Banker's PivotOn March 30, the bank did a call with analysts. Earlier this week, it also released provisional numbers up to March 31, 2020.Analysts at brokerage Nirmal Bang, who had attended the call, wrote in a report on March 31 that they saw a strategy pivot at the bank due to which growth in advances (loans) would be much slower, possibly half of what they used to be in the past. Authors of the report Rahul Garg and Arjun Bagga wrote: "...a major overhaul may be underway at IndusInd Bank. This would include 'tweaks' at the management level and pivoting the business strategy in a direction such that asset growth is a function of liabilities (and not the other way). One of the elements of the overall plot includes de-focusing on bulk deposits."While slower growth is a given after the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, IndusInd Bank might not have had the option to take another route in any case.75100208A quick fund raise, unless the RBI allows the Hinduja's to raise stake, may be out of the question. A Mumbai-based investment banker pointed out that many banks would have to raise capital in the next 12 months, and deals would take time as there was too much ambiguity right now.And then there is the Yes Bank impact.HR Khan, former RBI deputy governor, says he has seen trust in private sector banks eroding in the last few months. It is mainly because in the past, these banks have relied heavily on bulk deposits and "sharp practices to garner government and corporate deposits."One of the issues that worries analysts and investors alike is the retirement of Sobti at this juncture, though he will be retained as a full-time advisor. The IndusInd bank has a fully professional board. But it has seen the retirement of some senior professionals like Ashok Leyland veteran R Seshasayee, who chaired the board for a long time.Of course, investors can breathe easy as Kathpalia is an IndusInd veteran, had led the key consumer business and was a part of the team that came with Sobti from ABN Amro. He took over as MD & CEO less than a month after the RBI approved his appointment. An independent director on the IndusInd board says the current board, chaired by veteran public sector banker Arun Tiwari, operates independently and there is little involvement of the Hinduja Group or the family at the board level.The bank could not have announced the CEO's name any sooner, he says. "It is not easy for a bank like IndusInd to find a CEO from outside. While choosing internally, you have to keep the balance." Sobti is likely to stay around as advisor for a year and mentor the new leadership. "Letting professionals run the bank has improved results compared to the earlier period," the director adds, comparing Sobti's tenure with the earlier period.Given that record, it is likely that the new CEO will get enough time and elbow room to execute his strategy. He will anyway have a strong bench strength to back him.
Train No. 00609 is not a regular freight carrier of the Indian Railways. After loading nearly 2,500 packs of hatching eggs along with some other items in Bengaluru on April 7, the train chugged along to Guwahati located 3,100 km northeast.This seven-coach cargo express is only one third the length of the usual goods train. It also runs on a fixed timetable and loads parcels from stations in-between- a regular practice in freight movement in the 1970s which the railways gradually abandoned disparaging the service as piecemeal loadings.Now, the nationwide lockdown- enforced since March 25 to avoid a sudden spike in Covid-19 cases- has prompted the railways to restart parcel cargo trains.As on April 9, the national transporter had notified 62 parcel cargo routes with 167 such express trains already on the move. A parcel cargo express typically carries small quantities of parcels that are usually moved via the highways.With all passenger trains suspended and the demand for regular freight trains carrying bulk goods, like steel, cement and coal, slowing down due to closure of factories across India, this new flock of short parcel trains is ruling the roost on the railways' 68,000-km track network. 75100603After the lockdown, these trains have emerged as the nation's most trusted warhorses carrying dairy products, e-commerce consignments, packaged food, seeds, medicines and perishables. They have wooed large companies such as Nestle, Amul and Hindustan Unilever and small-ticket transport aggregators which, in normal circumstances, prefer roads to rail."We have introduced parcel trains with fixed timetables as a quick response to the lockdown. We are likely to continue some of those trains even after normalcy is restored," Vinod Kumar Yadav, chairman of the Railway Board, tells ET Magazine. He says more and more states are showing interest in these parcel trains.The railways, for example, has introduced five such trains in Madhya Pradesh as requested by the local administration.During the ongoing lockdown, railways' overall freight traffic has fallen but the quantity of food grain it is transporting has nearly doubled, according to railway data for the first 12 days of the lockdown.Clearly, the parcel trains have emerged as a viable alternative, particularly after thousands of truck drivers abandoned their vehicles on the first day of the lockdown due to police clampdown on state borders as well as due to the closure of roadside eateries. "Our 40-feet container was loaded with goods at Mundra port in Gujarat on March 24. 75100612But like thousands of other trucks, our truck also got stuck on the road. The police, both in Rajasthan and Haryana borders, harassed my driver. Finally, the truck reached Faridabad on April 7 after two weeks, when the journey, in normal times, would take just four days," says the owner of a transport company in Faridabad, not wanting to be named.So, it is natural that the bulk of road freight traffic has shifted to the railways overnight. In the first week of the lockdown, Nestle's Maggi packs were moved from Moga (Punjab) to Guwahati, Amul's milk products from Ahmedabad to Kanpur, agricultural seeds from Salem to Bathinda, dry grass from Dahanu (Maharashtra) to Jammu and medical goods and masks from Mumbai to Ludhiana."The demand for traffic is there. Our primary objective is to carry essential commodities, but we are receiving all sorts of queries for booking. For example, one company wanted to book live pigs from Bengaluru to Dimapur (Nagaland)," says Ashok Kumar Verma, the divisional railway manager in Bengaluru.Some long-distance parcel trains routes being notified include New Delhi-Chennai, Mumbai-Guwahati, Bengaluru-Howrah, Ahmedabad-Guwahati, Kanyakumari-Sankrail (West Bengal).In the past, the railways had tried out various modes to cater to the demand of piecemeal traffic. In 1969, it experimented with what it called freight forwarding trains to carry goods between specified pairs of stations at fixed lump sum rates. Then in 1972, parcel trains were first introduced on the Kolkata-Vijayawada and Kolkata-Chennai route. Railways then ran super-express goods trains and quick transit service (QTS) on important routes and on fixed schedules with an in-built provision of refund in case the delivery was behind schedule.However, since early 1980s, the transporter began to dissociate itself from such services, when the then chairman of the Railway Board, MS Gujral, emphasised on pointto-point delivery of only bulk commodities.Former Railway Board chairman Vivek Sahai argues that the transporter must work on a blueprint, once the virus turmoil is over, to get back its lost share in freight traffic.The railway's share has dropped to 33% from 66% in 1951, according to various government documents. The 2017-18 Economic Survey had squarely blamed this decline on the railways' non-competitive tariff structure."The one way railways can improve its freight share is to capitalise on parcel trains reclaiming the piecemeal traffic. There have been some experiments with Gati trains- a private venture. But that is not enough. The railways must fix timetables and assure part refund in case the delivery is not on time," says Sahai.The question remains: will the railways be able to keep up its parcel trains services even after passenger traffic returns?
What could be in store for next week? In this truncated week, we had a couple of really good trading sessions. Is this a sign of better things to come or is it too early to tell?It is too early to say anything because the volatility in the market is unprecedented; things are evolving every single day. We have seen some sort of short covering led recovery rally but everybody knows that the economic impact of this pandemic will be far-reaching. Some countries have already announced significant measures to tackle the economic slowdown and India has yet to come out with that. We will have to wait and watch what kind of announcements and measures are being taken to arrest the economic impact, and this, in my opinion, will be very key. There is no doubt that the next two quarters will see a significant drop in economic activity, GDP and tax collections. It is going to be on a negative spiral but if good measures are taken, like the ones in the US, Japan and other parts of the world, we can see that getting arrested but the markets are not coming back in a hurry in my opinion. You will see these kinds of rallies and some kind of correction depending on the news flow. One should not start believing that we are back in the bull market. It will take a couple of quarters of reasonably good consolidation and recoveries from there. I would rather still be more cautious about believing that we are back to the good markets. Yes, there are lots of good quality companies to buy and opportunities; from a macro perspective, a lot of indicators are falling into place and where we are getting closer to the value zone. A lot of interesting franchises are available at very interesting prices. But one has to also keep in mind that risk could appear, you should not believe that risk has gone away and this risk would still be around and one has to come out well-managing risk.We are seeing a staggering rally within pharma and some of the healthcare names. Have the retail investors already missed the bus? Or do you think because this sector was so under-owned and undervalued, we have only seen a minuscule bit of gains and there is still an opportunity to buy into any of these names?Pharmaceutical sector has been facing a difficult time for the last five-six years and we have not seen any meaningful returns from that segment. This is predominantly because the international market was in difficulty and not growing. We are beginning to see two things: one is the domestic market have started growing which earlier was facing a little bit of a slowdown and there were pricing issues. So, now that is doing very well over the last couple of years and will continue to grow now. International or developed markets are getting better. There is a lot more hope that you will see pricing and volumes getting better there. There could be some relaxation on the regulatory side. That is the kind of hypothesis market is making and we also believe in that. Secondly, if you compare with anything else, the valuations are far more attractive. Most of the pharmaceutical companies are trading between 15 to 22 times kind of earnings. If you compare it with any other sector, you will see they are quite expensive. This segment still has a lot more steam left. We are just seeing the beginning of the cycle for pharma. It could last at least three-four years. On every dip, pharma should be bought.
The domestic equities market opened this past week with the bulls marching with all their might. The equity indices jumped significantly, taking cues from their global peers, mainly from the US bourses. Confidence returned on reduction in the number of daily Covid cases in some countries. Sentiments are changing from ultra-pessimistic to mildly pessimistic, which is what is driving the markets higher.Trillions of dollars of economic stimulus packages in the US, Japan and other economies that have also helped boost confidence to a large extent. Back home, Indian bourses have defied gravity by merely reacting to the global peers, as the Covid crisis is showing no signs of easing yet and the government is still working on the second tranche of economic package to combat the Covid-19 effects – the first being a $22.50 billion stimulus aimed at the bottom of the pyramid.It is also pertinent to note that despite a cautionary commentary from the management of one of the fastest-growing NBFCs on various scenarios arising out of the lockdown, markets still went higher implying that the worst has been discounted in current price.It seems once the lockdown is lifted, markets will start taking note of the ground reality and react accordingly as the aftereffects of the lockdown will start emerging. This may help the bears to take charge once again for the possible second round of fall in the market.Till then, emulating the global indices would be the general trend for our market.Event of the WeekThe pharma sector was trending this week as the government approved partial export of two key drugs to fight novel Coronavirus. Taking cues, the pharma index rose 35% during the week. As this sector has remained undervalued for the longest period, this week's rally has brought the index to comparatively fair valuations. However, investors should not jump the gun and stay away from this space for now, as pharma is a crowded trade and the situation can change very quickly depending on USFDA approvals or if a foreign player starts manufacturing the same drug.Due to the event-driven nature of the sector, investors should wait. However, traders, can place contrarian bets in this counter.Technical OutlookNifty formed bullish candlesticks during the week with broader market participation, positive market breadth and closed almost 20% off recent lows. However, we assume the ongoing surge is a bear market rally and is least likely to sustain. In fact, the market may witness strong resistance at a cluster of Fibonacci retracement of 38% at 9,300-9,400 Nifty levels. Going ahead, we have a mildly positive outlook for the next week with the support and resistance placed at 7,900 and 9,400, respectively.Expectation for the WeekThe Covid-19 situation remains fluid and uncertainty still looms on the possible economic impact of the outbreak. However, it is expected that the market will be guided by global sentiments in the coming week with sudden gap-ups or gap-downs. Any negative surprise with respect to the lockdown will also have an impact on the bourses.
Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google said on Friday that they will work together to create contact tracing technology that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus by allowing users to opt into a system that catalogs other phones they have been near. The two Silicon Valley companies make the world's dominant smartphone operating systems for iPhones and Android devices. They will work together on technology that will allow mobile devices to trade information via Bluetooth connections to alert people when they have been in close proximity with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, the sometimes deadly respiratory disease associated with the novel coronavirus. The technology will first be available in mid-May as software tools available to contact tracing apps endorsed by public health authorities. However, Apple and Google also plan to build the tracking technology directly into their underlying operating systems in the coming months so that users do not have to download any apps to begin logging nearby phones. The companies said the technology will not track the location or identity of users, but instead will only capture data about when users' phones have been near each other, with data being decrypted on the user's phone rather than the companies' servers. GPS location data is not part of the effort, the companies said. Governments worldwide have been scrambling to develop or evaluate software meant to improve the normally labor-intensive process of contact tracing, in which health officials go to recent contacts of an infected person and ask them to self-quarantine or get tested. Several health technology experts have said the involvement of Apple and Google would be a massive boost to their efforts, as contact tracing apps from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and others struggled to make their apps work across competing operating systems.
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana: 32 crore beneficiaries get Rs 28,256 crore The package was a mix of fresh sops, front-loading of some of the planned expenditures and utilisation some of the autonomous funds (no implication on the budget) at the state/district level.
Lessons from the wildlife Social distancing is not a novel concept in the natural world, as several species resort to such measures to avoid getting sick
Colonial hangover: The fragmented history of Myanmar is narrated under a veil of fiction Lawrence's fictitious Indian National Army captain Immanuel Stanley David is faced with a wave of events, mostly untoward circumstances, after his landing in Burma during World War II.
0 comments :
Post a Comment