Arvind's Newsletter

1.IndiGo, India's largest airline, pipped US-based Southwest Airlines in terms of market capitalisation to become the world's third most valuable airline
IndiGo's share price jumped by 4.73 per cent to Rs 3,806 on Wednesday. Therefore, its market capitalisation jumped to $17.605 billion, which was ahead of Southwest's market capitalisation of $17.333 billion.

The world's top two airlines in terms of market cap are Delta Airlines ($30.442 billion) and Ryanair ($26.941 billion). IndiGo is the only Indian carrier among the world's top 10 airlines, as per the Bloomberg data. 

2.India-Pakistan battle for basmati rice turns acrimonious
The cross-border war over basmati rice, ongoing since 2018, is scaling new heights. As Pakistan contests India’s bid at the European Commission to grant basmati a geographical indication tag, scientists from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute are accusing the neighbour of “illegally growing copyrighted strains” of the prized rice.

The timing is sensitive. India accounts for 65% of the global basmati market, but exports have fallen since January mostly due the Centre’s imposition of a higher minimum export price. The pattern could continue due to higher freight costs and lower yields this year, and Pakistan is expected to capitalise on its lower basmati prices.

3.Ola Cabs to exit international markets

Ola Cabs is shutting operations in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Despite high profile hires, buzzy marketing and initial enthusiasm, Ola couldn’t make headway in ride sharing in these advanced markets. Shutting these down could save Ola as much as USD15 million annually.

4.Emerging markets hold greater sway

Large emerging markets like Brazil, India, and Indonesia are increasingly influencing the global economy, an International Monetary Fund analysis found, with the power to affect the economies of other countries. The G20’s 10 emerging economies have doubled their share of world trade since 2001 and now account for a third of global GDP. That has positive and negative ripple effects for the rest of the world: Economic slowdowns in those countries would lower global output three tiimes more than they would have in 2000, an IMF simulation found. The analysts called on policymakers to minimize such spillover effects by “strengthening the global financial safety net.”

5.Large tech firms are boosting their global AI ambitions. 

In the past 10 days, Microsoft revealed plans to launch an AI hub in London and make its largest-ever Japan investment; OpenAI announced the launch of its first Asia office in Tokyo; and Nvidia said it will build a $200 million AI center in Indonesia. Southeast Asia particularly has seen massive AI investment; Nvidia’s revenue from Singapore alone increased more than 400%, comprising 15% of the company’s total revenue, according to an earnings report late last year. The expansions come as AI grows more sophisticated: OpenAI, Amazon and Meta are readying new models that will be capable of reasoning and planning, the Financial Times reported.

6.Moderna and cancer vaccine

Moderna’s stock jumped on news that an early trial of a personalized cancer vaccine showed promise that it could work against several cancer types. 

Cancer vaccines, unlike vaccines for infectious diseases, are administered to patients who already have cancer: They tell the immune system what to attack on the tumor. In a personalized vaccine, researchers analyze the genes of a patient and tumor and design mRNA molecules specifically to those genes.

Moderna’s mRNA-4157 was safe and boosted immune responses in patients with head and vaccineneck cancers, having previously shown that it reduced recurrence in melanoma patients. Hopes of broadly effective treatment led Moderna shares to jump 6%.It is good news for the company, whose only product on the market — the COVID-19 vaccine — is seeing declining demand.

7.QS World University Rankings: IIM Ahmedabad among top 25 for business studies; JNU gets India's top varsity tag

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad has been ranked among the top 25 institutions globally for business and management studies, according to Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings by Subject. IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Calcutta have been ranked among the top 50.

The QS rankings, released on Wednesday, April 10, showed that Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi is the highest-ranked university in India. JNU is in the 20th position globally for development studies, according to the London-based higher education analytics company.

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