Arvind's Newsletter

1.Reliance to Spin Off Consumer Goods Brands Ahead of Retail IPO: Economic Times

Reliance Industries Ltd. is transferring all its consumer goods brands to a new wholly-owned subsidiary as the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led oil-to-telecom conglomerate readies for an initial public offering for its retail business.

The brands — spanning apparel, fashion, food, personal care and beverages — currently housed under Reliance Retail Ltd., Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd., and Reliance Consumer Products Ltd. will be moved to the so-called New Reliance Consumer Products Ltd. or RCPL.

“This is a large business by itself requiring specialized and focused attention, expertise and different skill sets as compared to retail business,” the Reliance firms said.

2.India drops in latest FDI confidence ranking to No 5: Visual Capitalist

China, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia are the top three emerging markets by FDI confidence in 2025

Brazil overtook India to take the fourth spot, with both countries making the top five

Domestic economic performance and efficiency of legal and regulatory processes were the top two priorities for FDI investors

3.Massive Rent-Seeking in India’s Government Job Examination System: Alex Tabarrok, Marginal Revolution

While most Indians would be aware of the above fact, this post by Alex Taborrok in Marginal Revolution is still worth reading.

“In India, government jobs pay far more than equivalent jobs in the private sector–so much so that the entire labor market and educational system have become grossly distorted by rent seeking to obtain these jobs. Teachers in the public sector, for example, are paid at least five times more than in the private sector. It’s not just the salary. When accounting for lifetime tenure, generous perks, and potentially remunerative possibilities for corruption, a government job’s total value can be up to 10 times that of an equivalent private sector job. (See also here).

As a result, it’s not uncommon for thousands of people to apply for every government job–a ratio far higher than in the private sector.  In one famous example, 2.3 million people submitted applications for 368 “office boy” positions in Uttar Pradesh. 

The consequences of this intense competition for government jobs are severe. First, as Karthik Muralildharan argues, the Indian government can’t afford to pay for all the workers it needs. India has all the laws of say the United States but about 1/5 th the number of government workers per capita leading to low state capacity. But there is a second problem which may be even more serious. Competition to obtain government jobs wastes tremendous amounts of resources and distorts the labor and educational market.” Read on.

4.Why all Indians are rule-breakers: The Economist

Because the state makes it impossible not to be

“IF YOU HAVE ever relaxed with a cold Kingfisher beer at the end of a long, sweaty day in Mumbai, the party capital of India, you have almost certainly broken the law. Specifically, you violated section 40 of the Bombay Prohibition Act of 1949, under which you must hold a permit to drink booze. A first offence is punishable by a fine of 10,000 rupees ($115) and up to six months in prison.

Welcome to India, where everything is against the law. According to Vidhi, a legal think-tank in Delhi, India has 7,305 crimes at the national level, three-quarters of which attract imprisonment. India is hardly alone in over-criminalisation. But even America, not exactly known as soft on crime, had a more modest 5,199 federal crimes at last count in 2019. China imposes the death penalty for 46 crimes. In India the number is 301 (though rarely applied).”

The central government’s ardour for lawmaking and punishment is infectious. India’s 28 states, which control vast swathes of policy, are no less assiduous in regulating everyday life. The state of Uttarakhand, to pick one, requires couples in live-in relationships to register (and pay a fee) within 30 days of shacking up. Failure to comply attracts a fine and up to three months in prison. What of love lost? The unhappy couple must de-register (and pay another fee). Uttarakhand is particularly energetic but few states pass up the chance to make citizens visit the registrar.”

Read on (Gift article)

5.Pakistan pitches Nobel, crypto and rare earths to woo Donald Trump: Financial Times

Pakistan is pitching itself as a bitcoin mining hub, a source of rare earths and offering its support for a Nobel Peace prize for Donald Trump, as a cash-strapped Islamabad seeks to stave off hefty trade tariffs and deepen ties with the White House.

Its finance ministry is battling to secure a trade deal with the US, the country’s largest export partner, and hopes to avert tariffs, which could go as high as 29 per cent on July 9.

Islamabad hopes crypto and mining, as well as nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, will help it get on the president’s good side, according to officials in Islamabad and analysts.

“Pakistan has been quite smart about getting the administration’s attention, capitalising on its broader global interests in crypto and critical minerals and pitching its own offerings,” said Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

The US accounts for a fifth of exports from Pakistan, a big garments manufacturer.

6.US Reaches Vietnam Trade Deal With 20% Import Tariff, Trump Says: Bloomberg

The US and Vietnam clinched a trade deal that’ll slap a 20% tariff on the Southeast Asian nation’s exports to America and a 40% levy on goods deemed to be transshipped, Donald Trump claimed. In return for lower levies, Vietnam agreed to drop all tariffs on US imports, he said. The framework, which Hanoi hasn’t confirmed, would be the third reached before the US president’s July 9 deadline. Nike shares jumped 4.1%, while Lululemon and other apparel makers edged higher.

7.Sexism in Silicon Valley : The Silicon Ceiling: Quartz

Venture capital has always been a boys’ club, but lately, it’s starting to look more like a gated community. Just 0.7% of VC funding in the U.S. this year has gone to startups founded exclusively by women, according to new PitchBook data. That’s a freefall from last year’s 2% and is the lowest percentage since records began in 2013. And the total number of deals going to women-led startups is on track to hit its lowest level in over a decade.

But the female funding freeze isn’t for lack of ambition, product, or traction. What female founders are missing, apparently, is a Y chromosome. Investors — 93% of whom are men — still disproportionately ask women about risk while asking men about growth. And if a woman happens to be in her 30s, one perceived “risk” is whether she might go on maternity leave. (Never mind that some of tech’s most famous male founders launched their companies before they could rent a car.)

Some female VCs are blunt about what they’re facing. Women report being mistaken for assistants, asked who they’re sleeping with at pitch events, and advised to bring on a male co-founder to be taken seriously. Meanwhile, male founders still brag about raising millions on nothing but a whiteboard sketch and a good hoodie.

As one founder put it: “I know in my gut that the sexism is there.” The data says she’s right.

8.Gene therapy was used to restore hearing in deaf adults for the first time: Gizmodo

A mutation in the gene OTOF causes deafness from birth in about 200,000 people worldwide. Gene therapy to treat the issue — essentially inserting functional versions of the gene into all the relevant cells — has been shown to work in children.

The latest trial involved 10 people in China between the ages of one and 24, injecting them with a virus carrying the functional OTOF variant. While younger children showed the most improvement, all 10 gained some hearing, including the 2 oldest participants at 14 and 24 years.

More research is needed, but the study raises hopes of improving hearing in older people with the condition.

9.The Big 5 personality traits linked to lifelong singlehood: Big Think

Arthur Schopenhauer had a theory: People never really change. We are born with certain core characteristics or personality types, and everything that happens over 80 or so years is mostly window dressing. The job of life is to simply find a life that suits who we are.

Being a tenured philosopher, he didn’t feel the need to empirically verify this theory, but there is something to it, though only so far. As Ross Pomeroy points out, modern psychology says that while “core aspects of an individual’s personality tend to be stable, significant changes can occur over decades.”

Schopenhauer lived and died single. But, I’m sorry, Arthur, not everyone is preordained to be so. Yes, some personality traits incline you to singledom, but not only is it possible to buck the trend, but we can also grow in who we are. Read on to find out more.

10.He’s Ringo. And Nobody Else Is: New York Times

As he turns 85, one of the last surviving Beatles is still musically curious, dispensing his signature wisdom, and preaching the gospel of peace and love.

“Starr, who celebrates his birthday next week, will be the first Beatle to reach that milestone, and like his surviving bandmate Paul McCartney, he never retired. In the past seven months alone, Starr has released a country album he recorded in Nashville and toured with his All-Starr Band, a group with a rotating lineup of rock luminaries that currently features members of Men at Work and Toto. At a recent All-Starr Band performance at Radio City Music Hall, he bounded onstage with the springy energy of a man half his age and spent much of the show behind an elevated drum kit, bopping away.”

Read on (Gift article)