Arvind's Newsletter

1.BYD plans EV manufacturing unit with Megha Engineering in Telangana: hopefully it will be second time lucky

With Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd (MEIL) expected to be its local partner and major shareholder, Chinese major BYD’s unit to manufacture electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries is likely to come up at a spot 60 km from Hyderabad.

The global major has had talks with the central government to get clearances in this regard and seems to have received an “informal go-ahead signal” to proceed with the project with a local partner, said a source privy to the development.

In 2023, BYD's plans to set up an EV and battery manufacturing plant in India at an investment of USD 1 billion Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Ltd was not approved by the Indian government. With better India-China relations will the project get the nod this time?

2.India's household gold holdings surpass reserves of top 10 central banks

India’s love affair with gold has reached new heights. According to a study by HSBC Global, Indian households now possess more gold than the collective reserves of the world’s top 10 central banks.

Currently, Indian household gold reserves stand at 25,000 tonnes. This is much larger than gold holdings with the central banks of the United States (which leads with 8,133 tonnes), Germany (approximately 3,300 tonnes), Italy, France, Russia, China, Switzerland, India, Japan, and Turkey. As of December 2024, India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, held 876.18 tonnes in gold reserves.

3.India Unveils $2.7 Billion Plan for Electronics Parts Production

India’s federal cabinet Friday approved 229.2 billion rupees ($2.7 billion) in state-backed subsidies for making electronics components as the world’s most populous nation seeks to bolster manufacturing and create jobs.

A similar program for smartphone manufacturing, called the production-linked incentives plan, led Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. to export billions of dollars in mobiles from India.

The latest plan will cover parts used in displays and camera modules, as well as enclosures of phones and laptops, and multi-layer printed circuit boards.

It will further help companies like Apple Inc. to quietly but steadily pivot away from China, where risks have grown along with Beijing’s tensions with the US.

“The plan will run over six years,” India’s technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters in New Delhi, adding it would help sectors like electronics, telecommunications, medical, consumer devices, automobiles and power.

4.Government’s capex focus shifts from roads to water, sanitation, and digital infra: Elara Report

The government is shifting its capital expenditure (capex) priorities from traditional sectors like roads to areas such as water supply, sanitation, digital infrastructure, urban development, and irrigation, according to a report by Elara Securities.

The report, which analyzed 18 state budgets announced so far, also indicated that the growth of capital outlay is expected to slow down to 15.9 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in the Budget Estimates (BE) for FY26. This is a moderation compared to the average growth of 23.4 per cent in the past two years. A similar trend was also observed in the Union Budget for FY26, which suggested a slower pace of capex growth.

It said, "Increased focus on sectors such as Water Supply and Irrigation away from Roads indicates a shift in government priority."

The report stated that the budget allocation for transport is projected to grow by just 3.2 per cent YoY in FY26BE, a sharp decline from the 18.3 per cent average growth recorded in the past four years.

5.Powerful earthquake strikes central Myanmar

A powerful earthquake struck Myanmar on Friday afternoon, causing at least 152 deaths and serious damage in the country’s central region and even hundreds of miles away in Bangkok, capital of neighbouring Thailand.

The epicentre of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake was just outside Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city with a population of 1.5mn. A second quake was registered 12 minutes later with a magnitude of 6.4, according to the US Geological Survey.

Videos and photographs showed buildings in Mandalay, the country’s historic capital, reduced to rubble, and damage to the former royal palace. A 90-year-old bridge collapsed, while sections of the highway connecting Mandalay with Yangon, the country’s most populous city, were damaged.

At least eight people died in Bangkok, according to the Associated Press. In the Thai capital, which is more than 600 miles away from the earthquake and home to 17mn people, high-rise buildings swayed and one 30-storey structure that was under construction collapse.

6.US pushes for expansive new deal to control Ukraine’s minerals and energy

The US is reportedly pushing for control of a huge chunk of the Ukrainian economy, seeking to expand the terms of a previously discussed peace deal. According to Bloomberg and the Financial Times, the revised plans would give Washington first refusal on future infrastructure and mineral investments, granting it significant power over the reconstruction program that will follow the war. Under the new US foreign policy it wants to extract maximum leverage over Ukraine (or should I say extract its pound of flesh over its defense funding of Ukraine).

The draft agreement will likely fuel Ukraine’s concerns over American mediation efforts: Kyiv is frustrated over Washington offering sanctions relief to Moscow, and potential truces over the Black Sea and energy infrastructure are seen to favour Russia. 

7.Why You Should Get Lost More Often: David Epstein

“Is the drive to explore new places and ideas embedded in human biology? In a rapidly changing work world, should we all be exploring a little more? Can trying new things actually be good for your health?

These are the kinds of questions at the heart of a new book, The Explorer’s Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map, out today.

The author, Alex Hutchinson, is one of the best science writers working today. In past lives Alex has been a physicist and a miler on the Canadian national team. As a writer, I think the highest compliment I can give is this: Alex previously wrote a book about the role of the brain in endurance — a topic I had also been thinking about taking on. But I read his version and thought: Well, that’s covered.” Read further on David’s chat with Alex.

8.ChatGPT is turning everything into Studio Ghibli art — and it got weird fast

The fervour around ChatGPT’s more accessible (and more advanced) image generation capabilities has forced OpenAI to “temporarily” put a rate limit on image generation requests, according to CEO Sam Altman. “It’s super fun seeing people love images in ChatGPT, but our GPUs are melting,” he posted on X today. Altman didn’t specify what the rate limit is, but said the safeguard “hopefully” won’t need to be in place for very long as OpenAI tries to increase its efficiency in handling the avalanche of requests.

9.Female-first travel: The ultimate guide

With their growing financial resources, 82% of women control travel decisions, and from solo adventure holidays to multi-generational trips, female-first travel is on the rise.

Women today are on the move. More than 64% of the world's travellers are women, with 82% responsible for making a family's travel decisions, according to Skift Research's 2024 The Woman Traveler report. Not only that, but women are also travelling in more ways and to more places than ever before.

Solo female travel is particularly on the rise, with nearly 40% of women travellers planning a solo trip in 2025, according to Skift. This trend also increases with age, as 21% of female travellers aged 55 and up prefer solo travel versus travelling with a spouse or children.

10.The Billion-User Bet:Nandan Nilekani’s Great Unlock

Team Founding Fuel’s NS Ramnath, who co-authored The Aadhaar Effect, a book that chronicled the journey of India’s digital identity project, lays out some of the key ideas from Nandan Nilekani’s latest speech on making India a $8 trillion economy.

He writes:

First, he held a strong belief that truly beneficial technology would generate organic demand from people. (When facing opposition to Aadhaar within the Congress Party, he convinced Sonia Gandhi by showing photographs of long queues of people waiting to get registered in small towns and villages.)

His "unlock" strategy is grounded in this belief. Listening to his speech, one could sense his conviction that the startup revolution would not just create wealth but also address deep-rooted social and economic challenges. He believes that it could 

• Address spatial inequality: Only 13 districts out of 788 currently contribute to half of India's GDP. Startups are spreading economic opportunity more evenly across the country.

• Formalize the economy: Only 15% of Indians are currently in the formal economy (compared to 60% in Brazil). Startups are creating pathways to formalization through digital platforms.

• Improve Productivity: India's productivity ($7/hour) lags significantly behind China ($28/hour) and the US ($82/hour). Tech-enabled startups are helping to close this gap.

• Create jobs: New work models through platforms like Urban Company (service providers), Rapido (9 million drivers), and Zetwork (factory aggregation) are generating millions of formal and gig economy jobs.

• Democratize access: Startups are making services accessible to previously underserved populations, from education (PhysicsWallah) to financial services (Credit B reaching 18,000 pincodes).

The second distinguishing factor is that Nilekani actively rolls up his sleeves to create change. He didn't just discuss the "WhatsApp moment" for banking; he was instrumental in creating UPI. Similarly, through Ek Step Foundation, which he co-founded with Shankar Maruwada, he is working to unlock technological potential.

As he seems to believe: the best way to predict the future is to help create it.”