Monday, 29th June ’20
Good morning, we have lots to cover in today’s Monday edition of The Morning Tea for you which will bring you up to speed with everything that happened over the weekend. Read further to know more about how ITC did in its recent Q4 results, why Facebook lost $56 billion dollars worth in market value, your stress buster challenge for today, and the top universities in the world as per TIME magazine.
Also, on this day, in 1958, a rather unknown undersized guy named Edson Arantes do Nascimento, scored a stoppage time header in Brazil’s Football World Cup 5-2 win against Sweden. His mother, having watched his husband struggle to make ends meet by playing football, discouraged Edson to play football. But Edson did alright. You may actually know Edson by his nickname – Pelé! That World Cup was only the start and the rest, as we know, is history. So always remember – follow your dreams. Come what may!
MARKETS
- Morgan Stanley predicts Indian stocks to outperform emerging Markets. As per the analyst, despite volatility in the market, recovery will be strong at the back of greater liquidity and strong market sentiment. Sensex has rebounded by 24% from its March low and the volatility is also significantly lesser now. The broker favours a barbell portfolio with a mix of companies with strong fundamentals at reasonable prices, and stocks linked to macro-economical changes.
- ITC posts 9% Q4 profits, beats market expectations. The Cigarette-to-hotel conglomerate posted Q4 profits of Rs. 3797 crores YOY, despite the fact that revenue from Cigarette and non-Cigarette FMCG divisions went down by 6.5% & 2.5% YOY respectively. Its gross revenue also fell by 6.33% YOY and the main contributor to the profit was a 50% reduction in tax expenses YOY from Rs. 1742 crores in the previous year.
- Vedanta taking next steps in the delisting process. After getting approval from the board to delist the shares, Vedanta is in the process of arranging financing for the delisting. The shares of the mining company tanked from Rs. 345, two years ago, to Rs. 80 last month, at the back of weak global demand. In the midst of huge losses and abysmal performance by the stock, Vedanta took an opportunistic move and decided to delist the stock, with the aim of going from a publicly listed to a privately owned company. As a next step, the floor price for the share is set at Rs. 87.50, and the date of bidding process is to be announced soon. At the bidding process, shareholders will bid a premium price – above floor price – at which they will be willing to sell their shares.
- FPIs three month selling streak reversed, net investment of Rs. 21,235 crores in June. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) invested Rs. 22,893 crores in equity while taking out Rs.1658 from the debt segment in the June period. In the previous three months, FPIs had been net sellers due to Covid-19 and weak global cues. This change in trend also comes at the back of strong rebound by the Indian stock market in the past three months, as compared to global indices.
TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security urged chief executives of Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat to ensure social media platforms are not used to incite violence in the wake of nationwide protests. Concerns were raised about their misuse when info on how to break city curfews, which stores or neighborhoods to target for looting or destruction, and for the coordination of attacks against particular people were being widely shared.
Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani said the IT services company has pivoted its resources to the new needs of clients and strengthened its expertise in cloud, workplace transformation, and smart automation to be able to help them accelerate and scale their digital projects in the business environment impacted by Covid-19 pandemic. CEO Parekh said that uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and a possible second wave is a formidable threat to the IT industry.
Telegram to pay SEC fine of $18.5 Million and return $1.2 Billion to investors as it winds down its digital token TON. While the SEC claimed they were violating federal securities laws, Telegram released a statement citing its failure to achieve decentralisation and bringing equality to the world and wishing good luck to those striving for the cause.
PRODUCTS & STARTUPS
- Byju’s, an India based ed-tech startup has its valuation soared to $10.5 billion, after a recent round of funding from BOND, a global technology investment firm. Byju’s now becomes the third Indian startup to reach become a decacorn ( >$10 billion valuation) after Oyo and Paytm. The company had doubled its revenue to Rs. 2800 crore, in the year ending March ‘20. In March and April itself, the company added 13.5 million customers.
- Oscar, a direct to consumer health insurer has raised $225 million, in its late-stage round of funding for tech-enabled healthcare services to drive down consumer costs. New investors include Baillie Gifford and Coatue. They are offering virtual consultations in the wake of COVID-19 as more patients are embracing digital healthcare voluntarily.
- Airvet, a US-based telemedicine startup for pets has raised $14 million in its series A round of funding from Canvas Ventures. With a pet in 65% of the US homes, there are a number of companies venturing into tele-healthcare of pets. With a rise of COVID-19, such digital healthcare consultancy is on a boom in the United States. A projected $99 billion will be spent on pets in the US alone in 2020.
- In the last week across the world there were 23 rounds of investment in startups accounting for $50 Million (source: crunchbase). The rounds were worth a total of $3.72 Billion with a median value of $80 Million. While the value of SaaS platform investment rounds have decreases from last year (their revenues have increased), cybersecurity is still growing by leaps and bounds with Salesforce investing in the now $9 Billion worth company Tanium. The median valuation for Series C or later stage financing increases to an all time high of $120 Million.
WHAT ELSE IS COOKING
- Firms pull out from Facebook ads, thwarting the social media firm into a $7 billion loss. Facebook registered a $7.2 billion loss due to the major firms boycotting their advertising through the platform. Firms from Unilever, Verizon Communications to Hershey Co. have put a stop to their ads in response to the incapacity of Facebook to regiment hate speech and misinformation by its critics in the social media platform.
- Disney’s Splash Mountain is getting a new theme in a move to eliminate racist stereotypes. Disney’s Splash Mountain is signing on a new theme, “The Princess and the Frog” after the boiling global anti-racism movement condemns its link with the 1946 movie Song of the South. The entertainment giant’s thought of re-branding with the African-American female protagonist will start from Disneyland in California and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney. Following the death of George Floyd, many firms are re-thinking on the lines of racial justice as a core theme of their brand management.
- India becomes the first country to control locusts using drones. This announcement comes from the Ministry of Agriculture, further adding that India nests the world’s oldest locust control programme which was first established in 1939 at Karachi and moved to Delhi in 1946. India has also transported 25 MT of Malathion insecticide to Iran to nip the locusts from the source, while Pakistan has refused to accept such help from India.
- Australia and NZ to host FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. FIFA’s announcement was taken over with craze and aplomb as on many terms this edition will be unique. Being the first to be held in the Southern Hemisphere, and the first to feature in Oceania Football Confederation and also the maiden one to consist of 32 teams, nearly doubled the previous number, this is going to be a highlight for football lovers for the next few years.
MORNING TEA LISTICLES
THE Top 10 World University Rankings – 2020 list
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020 includes almost 1,400 universities across 92 countries, labelled as the largest and most diverse university rankings. The evaluation was made on performance indicators like teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
Here we present the top 10 who made it to the list:-
- University of Oxford, the UK: Overall rating of 95.4. Oxford grabbed the best scores too for its international outlook harbouring 41% of its international students constitution.
- California Institute of Technology, the USA: Overall rating of 94.5. CalTech improved exponentially on industry income parameters bringing on to a score of 88.
- University of Cambridge, the UK: Overall rating of 94.4. Fairly a decimal behind CalTech, Cambridge scored the second best in its research facilities with a score of 98.7.
- Stanford University, the USA: Overall rating of 94.3. Very close enough to the second and third rankers, Stanford has given a tough fight this year on the grounds of teaching parameters bearing the highest score of 92.8.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the USA: Overall rating of 93.6. MIT has shown an acceptable improvement in its number of students per staff ratio which records to 8.6, better than most in top 5.
- Princeton University, the USA: Overall rating of 93.2. Princeton has jumped up a rank from 7, last year, on the ground of promoting more international outlook where it scores an 81.1.
- Harvard University, the USA: Overall rating of 93.0. Boosting a great research facilitation that scores 98.6, and citations scoring 99.1, Harvard would have scored pretty high. The industry income score of 47.3 demoted it by a rank from 6, last year.
- Yale University, the USA: Overall rating of 91.7. Yale records the third highest in the score of 92.0 in teaching parameters and maintained its position at 8.
- University of Chicago, the USA: Overall rating of 90.2. After a bumpy ranking experience UC has again soared to a rank high through a brilliant score of 96.7 in number of citations this year.
- Imperial College, the UK: Overall rating of 89.8. Imperial College, London has recorded the highest percentage of international students this year at 56%.
BOOKS AND MOVIES
Recommended Book:The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin: Tales from Indian History – Replete with feminist front-benching, this book entertains with anecdotes of a tri-breasted Goddess, a courtesan becoming a princess, an Italian monk adopting Brahmanism to preach his biblical knowledge and many more astounding facts to keep you gaping till the end. A history book which reads like a novel, Pillai’s account will challenge your perceptions about medieval India and turn the notion of gender inequality being a bequest from our past on its head.
Recommended Movie: Joe Rogan experience featuring Guy Ritchie. An episode highlighted by Guy Ritchie’s call for extreme ownership and being the master of your own Kingdom. Ritchie is a filmmaker par excellence and an entrepreneur in his own right. Dropping out of high school at the wee age of 15, he started working entry level jobs in the film industry until he got a break. His films have a distinctive style frequently portraying British ruffians thriving in the business of crime. This podcast with Joe Rogan unravels his brilliant mind and takes us through his spectacular journey so far.
Check out: New Cards Against Humanity – Our favourite black comedy fill in the blanks game, card against humanity, has released a family friendly version and we can’t think of a better way to start our Monday.
YOU SHOULD KNOW
- Coronavirus waste polluting the oceans and disturbing wildlife: It’s not surprising that trash eventually ends up in the ocean. Disposable Corona masks, PPE items, gloves, disinfectants, etc are flooding the ocean bed with plastic signaling an impending global problem. This mismanaged waste and sanitation should be put to check before this leads to another global environmental catastrophe.
- Arianna Huffington’s Microsteps: Mircrosteps is a brief self-care activity up to 3minutes long that keeps you healthier happier and more relaxed. Then stick to this activity for 32 days till we become comfortable doing it. This commitment is too small to fail yet highly effective for founders, and employees. It is no secret that a healthy mind would be much more productive and efficient in the workplace and in personal life.
- Machine Learning applications for finance people: Machine Learning gives the capability to handle interpret amounts of data, learn, and improve automatically. This makes it suitable for a variety of applications like Portfolio Management, Risk management, High-Frequency Trading, and Fraud Detection. These ML advisors automatically reinvest any dividends and rebalance a portfolio.
MORNING TEA CHALLENGES
- Drawing has therapeutic powers. When we were young, it was a source of visual communication, it laid out the foundations of creativity and free expression in us. It entices our feelings, constantly thinking and exploring, and translating that onto a piece of paper. It’s never too late to start drawing again as it’s scientifically proven to be a stress-reducing activity. A drawing that may come across as silly, can reveal a lot about you. So if you have a picture in mind, take a pencil, some colors, and draw it out. In case you want to take baby steps, why not buy a drawing book for adults and start from there. Draw your heart out and share it with us at team@productround.com. We will post the best ones on our social media handle.
- Being a good communicator is a two way street. If you often find yourself initiating questions on topics that you like talking about or talk more than 75% of the time in a conversation, you are more likely having a monologue rather than a conversation. What makes you a great communicator is equal parts speaking and listening (sometimes more listening than talking). Time to introspect – take the 75% test and see if you are a good communicator!
Written by Kumar Sourav Mohanty, Akansh Bhatt, Piyush Vijayan and Shashank Dobhal.
