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- Bit by Bit 19th Dec. || India's e-bus ambitions encounter a funding roadblock ||The possibilities of Gmail eventually implementing end-to-end encryption & More
Bit by Bit 19th Dec. || India's e-bus ambitions encounter a funding roadblock ||The possibilities of Gmail eventually implementing end-to-end encryption & More
Good Afternoon Readers!
Here are:
"5 amazing stories in 5 minutes to make you future ready"
Happy reading!
MARKET UPDATE
(Markets were closed on 18/12/2022, Sunday)
Economy
The Story
The new North Star that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has chosen will place American salaries at the centre of monetary policy in 2019.
Powell claims to be examining a price range that includes everything from medical treatment and haircuts to a stay at a rest stop inn. In November, in his penultimate set-piece speech prior to the Fed's most recent interest-rate hike, Powell told the Brookings Institution that the labour market "holds the key to understanding inflation in this category" since wages are a particularly significant expense for those service industries.
In the first half of the year, price rises in that category were mostly fueled by increases in transportation and health care, but that trend has now reversed, he claims. Numerous factors contributed, including a sudden increase in travel demand and anomalies in the way health insurance payments are calculated.
According to Sharif, wages played a little role in the narrative. Everyone's perception of how things operate has been somehow entrenched.
FMCG
Key Facts:
Henkel has introduced hair colorant brand Schwarzkopf in the consumer segment
The company also plans to launch another brand TAFT in India in the near future
The Story:
German consumer goods firm Henkel, which has re-entered the consumer market in India after around a decade, is betting on the beauty segment in which it is working to build a holistic hair solutions portfolio, a company official said.
With the consolidation of its consumer business at the global level, led by a successful merger of beauty care, laundry and home divisions, Henkel foresees a powerhouse of international bestsellers hitting the Indian market, said Kartik Kaushik, Country Head-Henkel Consumer Brands, India and South Asia Export.
Henkel has introduced the hair colorant brand Schwarzkopf in the consumer segment and also plans to launch another brand TAFT in India in the near future.
The company is working on setting up the distribution network and getting more products in the portfolio, he said, adding the focus remains on both -- the professional segment, which is one of the fastest growing in the Indo-Pacific region, and the consumer business, where it intends to simulate similar success. Henkel introduced its hair color brand Schwarzkopf a couple of months back. It has launched two ranges -- Color Specialist and Simply Color.
Automotive
The Story:
According to banking, industry, and government sources, Indian banks are hesitant to lend to electric-bus manufacturers because to worries about recovering unpaid debts, which is hampering the nation's effort to reduce vehicle emissions.
According to the sources, the inability of e-bus manufacturers to participate in federal government procurements for supplies to states is threatening to hinder the electrification of important public transportation that is now dependent on fuel.
Over the next four to five years, India plans to gradually deploy 50,000 e-buses, at a projected cost of one trillion rupees ($12 billion). Currently, the federal government has approved 6,740 e-buses, of which about a third have been deployed in states as part of incentives for associated infrastructure. According to a senior bank official, it is dangerous to lend money to bus manufacturers to help them build vehicles for so-called state transport undertakings (STUs), as many of them are struggling financially because they are frequently compelled to keep their prices low.
TECH
The Story:
The long-awaited functionality for its email services from Google has now been revealed. Google is introducing end-to-end encryption for its Gmail on the web in order to improve privacy and increase the safety and security of email deliveries. Only Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Education Standard accounts—i.e., typical education accounts—can use the service, which is presently in beta.
Google just stated that through January 20th, 2023, all of its corporate users are eligible to join up for the Gmail client-side encryption beta. With the new client-side encryption for Gmail Web, user data and attachments will be secured and inaccessible to any other parties, including Google. As a result, the security of all sensitive user data in emails with attachments would be improved.
Notably, Google currently offers client-side encryption on Google Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and Drive (beta). Now that the function is accessible to Workspace users. However, individual users would need to wait a little while before they can utilize the function with their own Gmail accounts.
Anything Interesting
Key Facts:
At the end of the third quarter, Goldman Sachs had 49,100 workers, up significantly from the beginning of the pandemic.
In afternoon trading, the company’s stock dropped 1.3% alongside shares of Morgan Stanley (MS.N), which dropped 0.6%, and JPMorgan & Chase Co., which dropped 1.3%.
This year, Goldman's stock price has fallen by approximately 10%. However, they have outperformed the larger S&P 500 bank index (.SPXBK), which is down 24% for the year.
The Story:
According to a source familiar with the situation, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS.N) is preparing to lay off thousands of workers as it navigates a challenging economic environment.
The latest indication that cuts are accelerating on Wall Street as dealmaking slows is the layoffs. A slowdown in mergers and share offerings has resulted in a decline in investment banking revenues this year, indicating a sharp contrast to the spectacular 2021 period when bankers saw significant pay increases. According to a different source familiar with the situation, the bank is considering taking a significant cut to the yearly bonus pool this year. In contrast, top-performing investment bankers would have hikes of 40% to 50% in 2021, according to Reuters' January article, which was based on interviews with people who knew the situation firsthand.
Especially following a year in which it gave special prizes to top managers during the boom times, GS needs to demonstrate that its costs are as flexible as its revenues, according to Mike Mayo, a banking analyst at Wells Fargo.
