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- Arvind's Newsletter-Weekend edition
1.RBI signals cautious optimism on growth-inflation balance
India’s central bank on Friday sharply cut its growth forecast for this year, confirming a slowing trend in what has been one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. But the Reserve Bank of India kept its benchmark policy interest rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent, citing an unexpected increase in inflation, and said the economy was showing signs of bottoming out.
The RBI said it now estimated growth for the 2024-25 financial year would be 6.6 per cent, compared with a previous estimate of 7.2 per cent.
2.LG Electronics India files DRHP with Sebi for Rs 15,000 crore public issue
Electronics giant LG Electronics India on Friday filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India and its parent, LG Electronics, is expected to walk away with Rs 15,000 crore because the initial public offering (IPO) is an offer for sale and is expected to offload up to 101.8 million equity shares.
The IPO filing comes on the heels of Hyundai Motor India’s (HMI’s) successful listing in October. HMI’s Rs 27,870 crore IPO, India’s largest, set a new benchmark.
This will make it India’s fifth-largest issue, ranking after Coal India’s Rs 15,200 crore in 2010.
3.Foreigners buy $1 bln of Indian bonds on bets of policy easing after GDP data
$1.06 billion is the total value of Indian government bonds bought by foreign investors in four sessions till Wednesday, reported Reuters. This was in anticipation of easing of monetary policy by India’s central bank, the RBI after data showed weaker than expected growth. These bonds were bought under the fully accessible route through which foreign investors are allowed to buy certain government securities without restrictions. While these investors had sold bonds throughout November, there was a slight change in tactic ahead of RBI’s Friday policy meet.
4.Syrian rebels advance and capture Hamas
A coalition of Syrian rebels captured the country's fourth-largest city of Hama yesterday, forcing the Syrian army further south. The conquest follows last week's takeover of the commercial capital, Aleppo, with the group reportedly continuing south toward Homs in the direction of the capital, Damascus .
The swift advance has surprised observers amid the fourth year of a relatively quiet ceasefire to the country's 13-year civil war. Before last week, the Russia- and Iran-backed Assad regime controlled roughly 70% of the country, with the rest divided among radical Islamists, Kurdish separatists, and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. Leading the well-armed advance is former al-Qaida affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, long in control of the northwestern Idlib province.
The Syrian Civil War is a long-running tragedy. Since 2011, more than 500,000 Syrians have died, including more than 200,000 civilians, according to human rights experts. Millions more Syrians have fled their homes. The flood of refugees into Europe has been large enough to help destabilise politics in France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere.
Until recently, Bashar al-Assad — Syria’s authoritarian president, who’s responsible for much of the carnage — seemed to be in a dominant position. His forces controlled about two-thirds of the country’s territory, including all the largest cities. The war seemed to have reached a stalemate till the recent swift advance by the rebels.
Some governments, including neighbour Israel, are preparing for the possible collapse of the Assad regime.
5. NASA’s Moon return has been delayed, again.
The Artemis mission planned to send astronauts to orbit the Moon next year, but that has been pushed to 2026, putting landing on the surface back to at least 2027.The dates had already slipped: The orbit flight was supposed to happen last month.
NASA blamed issues with the heat shield and said the astronauts’ safety was paramount. The European Space Agency, meanwhile, finally launched its much delayed Vega-C rocket, two years after a failed first attempt. The government-backed space agencies, with their traditional single-use rockets, are under pressure: SpaceX is racing ahead with its larger, more capable Starship, which is also reusable and will be much cheaper per flight.
6.Sundar Pichai Hits Back at Criticism of Company’s A.I. Leadership
Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, projected a rosy image of his company’s leadership in artificial intelligence, rejecting criticism from rivals and downplaying antitrust fights that could force the technology giant to split itself up.
Mr. Pichai said at The New York Times’s DealBook Summit that Google’s popular search engine would “change profoundly” in the next year, despite his expectation that the pace of A.I. development would slow in 2025.
“I think you’ll be surprised even early in ’25 the kind of newer things search can do compared to where it is today,” he said.
Google is seen as facing an innovator’s dilemma in generative A.I., since its search dominance could be displaced by chatbots, such as ChatGPT and other apps. Mr. Pichai acknowledged the challenge, but he said Google could innovate quickly enough to overcome it.
Mr. Pichai also took a rare shot at Microsoft, whose chief executive, Satya Nadella, has lambasted Google for not having built an insurmountable lead in generative A.I., despite making strides in the technology long before its rivals.
“I would love to do a side-by-side comparison of Microsoft’s own models and our models any day, any time,” he said. “They’re using someone else’s models,” he added, referring to Microsoft’s use of OpenAI’s technology.
7.OpenAI confirms new $200 monthly subscription, ChatGPT Pro, which includes its o1 reasoning model
OpenAI has launched a new subscription plan for ChatGPT, its AI-powered chatbot platform — and it’s very, very expensive.
Confirming leaks this morning, OpenAI announced ChatGPT Pro, a new $200-per-month subscription tier that provides unlimited access to all of OpenAI’s models, including the full version of its o1 “reasoning” model.
“We think the audience for ChatGPT Pro will be the power users of ChatGPT — those who are already pushing the models to the limits of their capabilities on tasks like math, programming, and writing,” Jason Wei, a member of OpenAI’s technical staff, said during a livestreamed press conference on Thursday.
Unlike most AI, o1 and other reasoning models attempt to check their own work as they do it. This helps them avoid some of the pitfalls that normally trip up models, with the downside being that they often take longer to arrive at solutions. O1 reasons through tasks, planning ahead and performing a series of actions that help the model tease out answers.
According to OpenAI’s internal testing, o1 reduces “major errors” on “difficult real-world questions” by 34% compared to the preview version.
8.Average snowfall in the Alps fell 34% between 1920 and 2020.
Precipitation data from 46 sites, including modern weather stations and historical handwritten records, showed that northern parts of the European mountain range had 23% less snow by depth, while the southwestern slopes saw a drop of almost 50%. The snow feeds into glaciers and melts into mountain streams, one researcher said, and is a vital water reservoir for much of Europe.
The decrease has been notable since 1980, especially on lower slopes where snow is increasingly turning to rain. Europe is warming faster than any other continent.
9.Paris tops the world’s 100 best destinations list for 2024
Paris for the fourth consecutive year has secured its position as the world’s most attractive urban destination, according to the Top 100 City Destinations Index 2024 by Euromonitor International. The rankings evaluate 100 global cities across six key pillars, including tourism performance, infrastructure, health and safety, and sustainability.
This year’s rankings highlight the dominance of European destinations, a surge in Asian city representation, and evolving global tourism trends driven by sustainability, personalised travel, and cultural experiences.
Top 10 rankings
The top 10 cities in the 2024 Index reflect a mix of European, Asian, and American destinations, showcasing diverse strengths:
Paris: Retained the top position, excelling in Tourism Infrastructure and Health and Safety.
Madrid: Noted for its cultural appeal and infrastructure investments.
Tokyo: Asia’s highest-ranked city, driven by strong tourism performance.
Rome: Highlighted for its cultural heritage and visitor engagement.
Milan: Recognized for business tourism and sustainability efforts.
New York City: The leading US city, known for its global connectivity and economic clout.
7–10. The rest of the top 10 included Bangkok, Dubai, Barcelona, and London, reflecting a balance of established and emerging destinations.
10.Stress levels in dogs are affected by how much stress their owners are feeling, according to a study from researchers at Queen's University, Belfast (QUB).
"The experience of stress, particularly chronic stress, can have deleterious effects on canine behaviour and welfare," the study said.
It investigated whether changes in owner stress levels influenced dog stress, for example, on a visit to the vet.
And while visits to the vets are an important part of keeping a dog healthy, the study said they can also "result in acute stress as a result of confinement, uncertainty, pain, and loss of autonomy".
