Arvind's Newsletter

1.Dalal Street Rallies As India-Pakistan Ceasefire Boosts Investor Sentiment: NDTV Profit

Indian equity markets surged on Monday morning, buoyed by improved investor sentiment following a significant de-escalation in tensions between India and Pakistan. This development, combined with encouraging signals from the ongoing US-China trade negotiations, lifting the benchmark indices nearly 3%. 

The BSE Sensex jumped 3.73%, or nearly 2,900 points intraday to reach 82,419.17, and closed 2,923.39 points or 3.68% higher. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed 3.78% or 907.50 points higher at 24,915.50 after it climbed 3.84% intraday to touch 24.930, breaking out of the narrow trading range it had been confined to over the previous week.

Both the benchmarks touched their highest levels and their highest closing since October. The Nifty 50 recorded the best intraday gain since Feb. 2, 2021, while for Sensex it's the best intraday gain since June 5, 2024.

2.India fast-tracks $3-billion spy satellite scheme following Operation Sindoor: Mint

India is looking to give its satellite-based surveillance capabilities a rapid makeover, as the country navigates a tenuous ceasefire with neighbour Pakistan after the worst hostilities seen since a war between them in 1971.

The Centre has tasked three private firms–Ananth Technologies, Centum Electronics, and Alpha Design Technologies–to compress their satellite development timeline from four years to 12-18 months, according to three people aware of the matter. The satellites are now targeted to be ready by end-2026 or earlier instead of end-2028, the three people said, requesting anonymity due to the matter’s sensitivity.

The accelerated effort is part of the $3-billion Space-based Surveillance-3 (SBS-3) scheme, which was approved by the cabinet committee on security (CCS) last October with a net budgetary outlay of $3 billion subject to revisions.

In this scheme, a total of 52 surveillance satellites are being built. While the three private companies are building 31 of these, the remaining will be built and deployed gradually by India’s central space agency, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).

3.The making of India’s drone military-industrial complex: Moneycontrol Opinion

Operation Sindoor and its aftermath heralded the age of drone warfare in the Indian subcontinent. India’s drone manufacturing ecosystem proved its mettle last week. Populated by both startups and old industrial houses, the drone ecosystem now needs to add scale and quicken the pace of technological absorption. The government can help by compressing timelines in drone procurement.

4.Low-cost India seen as potential regional hub in data centre boom: Financial Times

Leading Indian conglomerates have been placing large bets on a domestic industry that recorded $1.2 bn in revenues in 2024 and has been growing at more than 20 per cent a year, as demand grows and international cloud service providers — such as Amazon’s AWS, Microsoft’s Azure and Google Cloud — increase their footprint.

India could become a regional data centre hub, with already cheap pricing being driven down further by increased competition, and the government pushing for almost all domestic data to be stored locally, say analysts. The industry can also draw on a vast talent pool, with India’s 375,000 tech workers proficient in AI being second in numbers only to the US, according to CBRE figures. But the projected growth in this power-hungry sector could also put a strain on already struggling state-owned grids.

In 2022, before the data centre boom, the Indian government projected a 6.4 per cent annual growth in energy consumption until 2030, but according to the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, usage is growing at 9 per cent annually.

“Existing planned capacities will be inadequate,” CEEW said, even if India meets its goal of creating 500 gigawatts of clean energy. That growth could lift data centres’ share of domestic electricity consumption to more than 3 per cent by the end of the decade from 0.5 per cent today, according to a November report by Nomura. 

In a report published in April, Anarock noted India’s average monthly data consumption per user had nearly doubled to 21.1 gigabytes in the five years to 2024. During the same period, India’s data centre capacity jumped to 1.4GW from 590MW and is expected to pass 9GW by 2030.

5.China and US agree to slash tariffs: Bloomberg

The US and China agreed to cool trade tensions by lowering tariffs on each other’s products, but only temporarily. US levies of 145% on most Chinese imports will be reduced to 30% by May 14, while the 125% Chinese duties on US goods will drop to 10%, , according to a joint statement. “We are in agreement that neither side wants to decouple,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said following weekend negotiations in Geneva.

The agreement is a step toward de-escalating a tariff war that has led to a slump in trade across the Pacific Ocean. It gives the world’s two largest economies three more months to find a permanent resolution to their differences.

Investors cheered the agreement. Equity markets across Asia and Europe rose after the announcement, and S&P 500 futures jumped 3%. Oil, base metals and crop commodities rallied while traditional haven assets, such as gold, fell.

Still, challenges remain: Beijing, for example, signalled it would likely maintain controls on the export of critical minerals. “This is the beginning of a long process,” a Hong Kong-based economist wrote.

6.Trump Is Poised to Accept a gift of a Luxury 747 From Qatar for Use as Air Force One: New York Times

The Trump administration is set to accept what may be the most valuable gift ever received from a foreign government: a luxury Boeing 747-8 Jumbo jet. The gift from Qatar’s royal family will be used as Air Force One and is expected to be announced this week, ABC News reported. The US Attorney General and Trump’s top White House lawyer have concluded the donation of the aircraft would be “legally permissible” as long as its ownership is transferred to Trump’s presidential library before the end of his term, according to ABC.

Trump’s presidential library would get the plane when he leaves office, which could mean he can keep using it. A Qatari official said the proposal was still being discussed, and Trump called Democrats “losers” for raising ethics questions.

7.The Chinese battery giant CATL will go public in Hong Kong, hoping to raise $4 billion: South China Post

CATL, the world’s biggest battery producer, has grown rapidly thanks to China’s domestic electric-vehicle boom, soaring global demand for battery storage, and its own relentless focus on research and development. The listing is expected to be Hong Kong’s biggest this year: Several mainland Chinese companies are applying for share offerings in the city thanks to its attractive valuation, the South China Morning Post reported. CATL is under scrutiny in Washington over national security fears, but has expanded rapidly in Europe and elsewhere.

8.A Decade-Long Search for a Battery That Can End the Gasoline Era: New York Times (gift article)

Can a small Massachusetts start-up perfect a battery that would make electric vehicles cheaper and more convenient than conventional cars?

Ms. Huang, her husband, Alex Yu, and their employees at Factorial had been working on a new kind of electric vehicle battery, known as solid state, that could turn the auto industry on its head in a few years — if a daunting number of technical challenges could be overcome.

9.Autism diagnoses are on the rise – but autism itself may not be: BBC

Autism is better known and diagnosed than ever before, leading to misconceptions that cases are skyrocketing.

When it came to her son's autism diagnosis, in some ways Shannon Des Roches Rosa feels she was lucky. What autism spectrum disorder (ASD) looks like can vary greatly between individuals, as well as between groups of people – girls' symptoms often differ from boys', for example. But as a young, white boy, her son, Leo, was part of a group with especially well-established diagnostic criteria.

And some of these criteria had been noticed by other people. As a toddler, Leo rarely made eye contact. In nursery school, he didn't respond to speech like the other kids. He frequently showed compulsive behaviours, like flapping his hands and chewing his clothes. He was easily stressed or overwhelmed. As a result, his diagnosis in 2003, at age two, was relatively straightforward.

10.Virat Kohli retires from Test cricket: ESPN Cricinfo

Virat Kohli has announced his retirement from Test cricket, bringing the curtain down on a career that spanned 14 years and included 123 Tests - 68 of them as captain - in which he scored 9230 runs at an average of 46.85.

"It's been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket. Honestly, I never imagined the journey this format would take me on. It's tested me, shaped me, and taught me lessons I'll carry for life," Kohli said in a social media statement on Monday morning. "There's something deeply personal about playing in whites. The quiet grind, the long days, the small moments that no one sees but that stay with you forever.

"As I step away from this format, it's not easy - but it feels right. I've given it everything I had, and it's given me back so much more than I could've hoped for. I'm walking away with a heart full of gratitude - for the game, for the people I shared the field with, and for every single person who made me feel seen along the way. I'll always look back at my Test career with a smile."