Do it yourself

 The latest macro data indicates that the Indian economy may be standing at an inflection point. It may have survived a major accident in the form of Covid19 pandemic; luckily scraping through with couple of broken bones and some bruises. The economy is recuperating well and is perhaps ready for discharge from the hospital. Of course, for next few quarters the economy may still need to use the crutches of government spending, before it could walk on its own. The amount of bill for the recovery from pandemic would mostly be known in next six months. We would also know how the cost of pandemic would be shared between various stakeholders, i.e., government, citizens and businesses. Post pandemic, the challenges before the government are multifold; and so are the opportunities. A successful resolution of these challenges could trigger a virtuous cycle of growth and catapult the economy to the higher orbit. A failure may not be an option, as it could cause a disaster of unfathomable...

 Historic performance of a banker In the summer of 2007, at the peak of sub-prime bubble, a top executive at a global bank presented to the Board that the bank has expanded its footprints to 11 new frontier markets and materially augmented the operations in the 13 emerging markets by enhancing the workforce by 19% in the past one year, a record in the 90year history of the bank. The board applauded the presentation and approved the 100% hike in the annual bonus for the top executive. In the spring of 2009, the same manager made another enthusiastic presentation to the management. He said, “the management has been able to cut the cost by a whopping 28% to meet the challenges of global financial crisis. We have optimized our operations by exiting the non-profitable operations in 17 frontier market and 2 merging markets, and materially curtailing the operations in 9 emerging markets, to achieve 20% cut in the total workforce in the past one year; a record in the 92years history of...