Arvind's Newsletter

1.FDI inflows to India surpass $1 trillion, with overseas investment likely to gain momentum in FY25

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into India have crossed the USD one trillion milestone in the April 2000-September 2024 period, firmly establishing the country's reputation as a safe and key investment destination globally.

According to data from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the cumulative amount of FDI, including equity, reinvested earnings and other capital, stood at USD 1,033.40 billion during the said period. 

About 25 per cent of the FDI came through the Mauritius route. It was followed by Singapore (24 per cent), the US (10 per cent), the Netherlands (7 per cent), Japan (6 per cent), the UK (5 per cent), UAE (3 per cent) and Cayman Islands, Germany and Cyprus accounted for 2 per cent each.

2.FPIs return to Indian equities with Rs 24,454 cr inflow in Dec first week

After heavy selling in the past two months, foreign investors have staged a strong comeback to Indian equities with a net investment of Rs 24,454 crore in the first week of December amid stabilising global conditions and expectations of potential US Federal Reserve rate cuts.

This revival follows significant outflows in the preceding months, with foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pulling out a net Rs 21,612 crore in November and a massive Rs 94,017 crore in October - the worst monthly outflow on record.

Interestingly, September had marked a nine-month high for FPI inflows, with a net investment of Rs 57,724 crore, highlighting the volatility in foreign investment trends.

With the latest inflow, FPI investments have reached Rs 9,435 crore in 2024 so far, data with the depositories showed.

3.India’s media and entertainment industry poised to outpace global growth, hit ₹3.65 trillion by 2028

India’s media and entertainment sector is poised to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.3%, reaching ₹3.65 trillion ($19.2 billion) by 2028, far outpacing the global growth rate of 4.6%, according to PwC India’s report, Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2024–28: India Perspective. The surge is being driven by improved internet connectivity, rising advertising revenues, and favourable government policies around foreign direct investment (FDI).

Bolstered by India’s economic expansion and rising consumption, the advertising market is expected to grow at a 9.4% CAGR, from ₹1.01 trillion in 2023 to ₹1.58 trillion by 2028—1.4 times the global average. Digital advertising will be the primary driver, with internet advertising projected to grow at a staggering 15.6% CAGR, reaching ₹85,000 crore by 2028, up from ₹41,000 crore in 2023.

4.Syrian Government Falls

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad resigned and fled the country yesterday to Russia, ending the Assad regime's 50 years in power.

The announcement came a little over one week after rebels captured the country's commercial capital of Aleppo in a days-long assault. They then captured the cities of Hama and Homs before taking control of the capital, Damascus, yesterday. The stunning offensive ended four years of a relatively quiet ceasefire and 13 years of civil war, in which an estimated 500,000 Syrians have been killed.

The rebels are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, whose leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani established the group as an al-Qaida affiliate in 2012 under a different name. In 2016, the group severed ties with al-Qaida, rebranded, and sought to work closely alongside other rebel groups; it remains designated a terrorist organisation by the US and UN.

Yesterday, Golani spoke from the historic Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. He declared victory and suggested the current prime minister would stay on until a transition of power is complete.

5.The downfall of Assad’s regime heralds a reshuffling of global power dynamics. Russia and Iran have the most to lose: Tehran long used Syria as a key node in its Axis of Resistance, while Russia has military bases in Syria that provide strategic access to the Mediterranean. Both Tehran and Moscow backed Assad, but were too stretched by conflicts in Lebanon and Ukraine to do so this time. Turkey, meanwhile, is ascendant: Its support for the rebels could mean Ankara has the most influence over what the post-Assad Syria looks like, The Wall Street Journal wrote. Gulf nations were less sanguine: “There is a lot of trauma in the region. Good news transforms into bad news very quickly,” a Qatari official said.

6.Almost $10 billion has poured into US ETFs investing directly in Bitcoin since Trump won the US presidential election.

BlackRock and Fidelity are among a dozen funds that have attracted $9.9 billion of net inflows, lifting the group’s total assets to approximately $113 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

It’s a bet that Trump’s embrace of the crypto industry will herald a boom. His naming of David Sacks to the newly created role of crypto and AI czar last week preceded Bitcoin hitting $100,000 for the first time.

7.Texas is reviving uranium mining in a bid to become the “nuclear capital of the world.” 

Two companies have licences to mine uranium at sites across the US state, including some disused mines, The Texas Tribune reported. While some locals are concerned about pollution from the mines, the state’s government has overridden those concerns in favour of the firms.

Meanwhile, several major US tech firms have moved to Texas recently, and the sector wants to use nuclear reactors to power its energy-hungry data centres: Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have all announced plans to support nuclear plants. Several new reactors are planned in Texas, although none are likely to come online until near the end of the decade.

8.The Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD exceeded expectations, gaining market share and overtaking Ford and Honda in global sales.

BYD had already overtaken Tesla in revenue in a year of “extraordinary expansion,” Reuters reported, boosted by robust sales in China despite the country’s economic slowdown.

The company’s strong performance is not the only good news for the industry: Concerns over EV battery life may be overblown, WIRED reported. EVs lose value rapidly after purchase because their batteries are believed to need replacement after a few years, but analysts said that on average, batteries maintain 87% of their original capacity after 200,000 miles of driving, and are expected to remain usable more than 10 years after purchase.

9.India Could Be Apple and Samsung’s Solution to the Future of Phone

A quarter of all iPhones could be made outside China by 2025, most likely in India—a rapidly growing market with hundreds of millions of potential customers. And the race is on, as Samsung and Chinese brands are betting big there too.

Smartphone penetration percentages are already in the 90s in the West. They’re tapped out. Meanwhile, India is on track to become the world’s third-largest economy according to Morgan Stanley, and there are hundreds of millions of future customers to be converted.

“There's no other market of the size which still has about 50 percent penetration, about half a billion people without a smartphone. So there's a lot of room for growth,” says Navkendar Singh, IDC India’s associate vice president of devices research.

In one important sense, though, India is quite different from key Western markets, because the phone isn’t just a complement to other devices like a home PC or laptop. It’s often the only device a person uses day to day.

“India is not a multi-device market,” Singh adds. “People don't buy a laptop, a tablet, and a phone. A phone remains, for 700 million people, the first and the only device with which they access the internet, compared to about 220 million PC users in India, including corporate PCs.”

10.What is brain rot? Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year.

Are you spending hours scrolling mindlessly on Instagram reels and TikTok? If so, you might be suffering from brain rot, which Oxford University Press has named its phrase or word of the year.

It is a term that captures concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media. The usage saw an increase of 230% in its frequency from 2023 to 2024.

Psychologist and Oxford University Professor Andrew Przybylski says the popularity of the word is a "symptom of the time we're living in".