Arvind's Newsletter

1. Parle still rules: Parle, the biscuit brand owned by Parle Products, continues to be India's top FMCG brand, according to the latest edition of Brand Footprint, Kantar Worldpanel’s annual ranking of the most chosen consumer brands in India. Seven of the top 10 brands in the country are owned by homegrown companies.

The Brand Footprint study ranks brands based on their consumer reach points, or CRPs, a metric that combines how many households are buying a brand (penetration) and how often (frequency of purchase).

Out of nearly 400 brands, Parle with 7.4 billion CRP has been on the top since the launch of its brand footprint eleven years ago, followed by dairy brand Britannia with CRP of 6.6 billion. Both these brands gained 9% and 16% each. Hindustan Unilever's shampoo brand Clinic Plus was the only non-food exception in the top five brands.

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/epaper/delhicapital/2023/jul/28/companies/parle-remains-unbeaten-as-indias-top-fmcg-brand/articleshow/102182356.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

2.Humans are losing the race against heat. First came the hottest June in recorded history. Now it’s the hottest-ever July. This year is already highly likely to replace 2016 atop the heat rankings.
Scientists suspect the last several years have been warmer than any point in the 125,000 that came before. This acceleration of heat is the result of burning enough fossil fuels to raise global average temperatures about 1.2C since the Industrial Revolution. The bottom line is that heat is intensifying faster than attempts to counteract it, and it’s beginning to look like the time humanity has to change its ways is a lot shorter than previously thought.

According to the current projections from researchers at Climate Action Tracker, all the existing emissions-cutting policies by governments around the world would result in the global average temperature increasing about 2.7C by 2100. A separate team at the United Nations compiled an end-of-century estimate of 2.8C.

The problem is clear: Existing weather is visibly outrunning our combined efforts to stem global warming. “Climate policy is not keeping pace,” says Ann Mettler, vice president for Europe at Breakthrough Energy, a consortium of nonprofits and venture capital funds.

Shifting to clean energy, she says, “whatever that cost, would pale in comparison to what these extreme weather events cost.”

3.China’s push to expand BRICS membership falters reports Bloomberg.
India and Brazil are pushing back against a Chinese bid to rapidly expand the BRICS group of emerging markets to grow its political clout and counter the US, officials with knowledge of the matter said.

The countries have raised objections in preparatory talks for a summit in Johannesburg next month where Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will discuss potentially expanding the group to include Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. China has repeatedly lobbied for expansion during those meetings.

Brazil wants to avoid expansion partly because of these worries, while India wants strict rules on how and when other nations could move closer to the group, without formally expanding it.

4.Hong Kong will join Malaysia in developing an economic hub in southern Johor, near the Singapore border, as Malaysia looks to tap the land development potential near the site of an upcoming cross-border rail link.

The development, worth 3 billion ringgit (US$660 million), will come up less than one kilometer from the Malaysia-Singapore border. The location is also the site of the under-construction Bukit Chagar terminus station that’s part of the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System.

Construction of the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link has reached the halfway mark on the Singapore side, and the project remains on track to start operations by end-2026.

5.Phubbing: The Insidious Habit That Can Hurt Your Relationship, reports the New York Times.

As relationship transgressions go, “phubbing” — a portmanteau of “phone” and “snubbing” — is, on the surface, fairly benign. Yet research increasingly shows it can be insidious. A recent study linked higher levels of phubbing to marital dissatisfaction, and a 2022 study found it can lead to feelings of distrust and ostracism. One study found that those who phub a lot are more likely to be phubbed themselves, creating a kind of ripple effect.