Arvind's Newsletter

1.Indian Public Sector banks are usually in the news for the wrong reasons- rising NPAs, some high profile fraudulent transactions, or having made poor investment or loan transactions under political pressure from its major shareholder(Government of India). Therefore it is welcome change to see a PSU bank in the news for the right reasons- strong financial performance and growth. And the bank in the news is Bank of Baroda (BoB) which has undergone what Mint has called a “silent transformation” over the last 8 years.
The article contends that BoB’s new avatar is broadly because of three changes in the last eight years. First, the bank prioritised investments in technology. Second, the bank’s merger with two public sector peers was used to cut costs and make the lender nimbler than before. Third, lateral hiring was encouraged and several people have been inducted at market salaries to lead specialised verticals. This resulted in new energy, ideas, better execution, and outcomes. Two CEOs P.S. Jayakumar (formerly a Citibanker) and Sanjiv Chadha (the current Chairman and MD of BoB and formerly from SBI ) effectively stewarded BoB through this transformation. And the results show.

2.One in every six people worldwide are affected by infertility, the World Health Organisation said. The WHO’s new report, which looked at 133 studies from 1990 to 2021, said 17.5% experience infertility at some point, defined as not having conceived after a year of unprotected sex. Interestingly there is no significant difference in infertility between rich and poor countries, suggesting that failure to conceive is not driving the difference in birth rates between the two groups. The report does not say whether infertility has become more common: Some researchers think that widely used “endocrine-disrupting” chemicals in plastics and cosmetics are behind a global collapse in fertility.

3.Paris Bans Cars.
An article in the Slate magazine by Henry Grabar looks at how Paris kicked out cars- a city once remade for voitures (cars) has transformed itself. A look at the cycling boom in Paris, a city that was once redesigned for cars but now boasts more than 150 miles of bike lanes and has become a surprising haven for bicyclists and walkers. What can this teach other metropolitan cities?

4.Toyota’s new chief executive took the helm vowing to “accelerate” the company’s languid development of electric vehicles. Koji Sato has a long history with the company, and helped design the suspension on the very first Prius — the hybrid that was once a path-breaker, but which now lags the competition when it comes to its green credentials. He faces a huge task: The world’s biggest automaker is an EV minnow. Once Toyota finally gets going — it is aiming for EVs to comprise about a third of total sales by 2030 — it will face fierce competition. A price war between electric Asian, American, and European carmakers is raging worldwide.

5.Economist Tyler Cowen in his blog, Marginal Revolution, discusses whether natural selection favours AI over humans ? Dan Hendrycks, who is Director at the Center for AI Safety ( and Phd in AI from UC Berkley) in a paper favours AI, with probability of doom of over 80%. Tyler is not yet convinced. To know more read his article.