Arvind's Newsletter

1.Disney to enter into multibillion dollar India deal with Ambani's Reliance, reports Bloomberg

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd., is all set to finalise a multibillion dollar deal with Walt Disney Co. to by its India operations, reported Bloomberg.

After the deal, the RIL is expected to enjoy a controlling stake in the Disney Star business, which as an estimated valuation of $10 billion. The US entertainment giant will end up holding minority stake in the business. Reliance views the assets at between $7 billion to $8 billion, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The giant acqusition is expected to be declared by the companies next month. There is also a possibility of merger if a few Reliance's media units with Disney Star as per the deal.

2.Tata Motors’ plans to bifurcate the fossil-fuel based and EV biz take off as EV volumes expand reports Economic Times.

Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd (TPEML), the EV arm of Tata Motors, will start selling electric vehicles through dedicated sales channels in select cities over the next few months and have a shop-in-shop concept at its existing sales channels.
The company also plans to produce internal combustion engine (ICE) models and EVs at its Sanand plant in 2024. TPEML acquired Ford India's Sanand plant in August 2022 and aims to stabilize its operations before expanding further. Tata Motors sold 37,961 EVs in the first half of FY24 and aims to sell 100,000 units by the end of FY24.

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/auto/auto-news/tata-motors-plans-to-bifurcate-the-fossil-fuel-based-and-ev-biz-take-off-as-ev-volumes-expand/articleshow/104654970.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

3.Two opinion pieces by Israeli authors Yuval Noah Harari (author of “Sapiens,” “Homo Deus” and “Unstoppable Us” and a professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Gideon Levy, an Israeli author and journalist, are worth reading to get a different perspective of the Israel Hamas War. 

Some excerpts from Harari’s article:"Hamas launched this war with a specific political aim: to prevent peace ... Hamas slaughtered hundreds of Israeli civilians, in the most gruesome ways it could devise. The immediate aim was to derail the Israeli-Saudi peace deal. The long-term aim was to sow seeds of hatred in the minds of millions in Israel and across the Muslim world, thereby preventing peace with Israel for generations to come."

"Doesn’t Hamas care about the suffering this war inflicts on Palestinian civilians? While individual Hamas activists surely have different feelings and attitudes, the organization’s worldview discounts the misery of individuals. Hamas’s political aims are dictated by religious fantasies ... For Hamas, Palestinians killed by Israel are martyrs who enjoy everlasting bliss in heaven. The more killed, the more martyrs."

On the response of the far left in America, especially on college campuses: "They absolve Hamas of any responsibility for the atrocities committed in Be’eri, Kfar Azza and other Israeli villages, or for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Instead, these organizations place 100 percent of the blame on Israel. The link between the radical left and fundamentalist organizations such as Hamas is the belief in absolute justice, which leads to a refusal to acknowledge the complexity of realities in this world."

"For more than a decade, Israeli governments led by Netanyahu abandoned all serious attempts to make peace with more moderate Palestinian forces, adopted an increasingly hawkish policy regarding the occupation of disputed territory and even embraced the right-wing messianic ideas of Jewish supremacy."

4.Toyota said it was close to being able to mass-produce solid-state electric-vehicle batteries which would have double the range of existing cutting-edge batteries and could fully charge in 10 minutes, reported Financial Times. The company recently announced a breakthrough in the technology, seen as a “game-changer,” the Financial Times reported, which could lead to EVs capable of traveling 700 miles on a single charge. But scaling up production was expected to be slow and expensive. Now, though, Toyota says it will be able to produce solid-state batteries at the same rate as its existing ones by 2027. Some analysts are skeptical: Toyota has repeatedly pushed back timelines in the past.

5.Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Outcomes

Shane Parrish is an entrepreneur and host of the Knowledge Project podcast (and author of Farmer Street blog in which he shares insights on decision-making, mental models, and lifelong learning), which is one of my favourite podcasts. His work has been featured in major global publications, including the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times. He is also a former cybersecurity expert and intelligence officer.

Below, Shane shares five key insights from his new book, Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Outcomes. I am half way through reading this book and recommend it based on what I read so far.