Financial Sorcery

The Boom of EdTech in India  As a result of COVID-19, which wreaked havoc across the globe in the last two years, we witnessed a significant transformation in curriculum development and pedagogy. We have transitioned from thinking to actually being digital, which has resulted in the development of various EdTech products and services offering amenities such as one-on-one tutoring, mentoring, exam preparation, and so on. As a result, concerned students and their worried parents turned to online educational platforms. This led to significant growth for edtech firms such as Byju's, Vedantu, Toppr and Unacademy, which saw a significant increase in traffic share during the lockdown. However, with traditional education returning and campuses buzzing with activity, these EdTech platforms have seen a significant reduction in demand for online learning, forcing them to cut costs, lay off employees, and make changes such as establishing online physical tuition centers. Byju’s burns 2 ru...

A tale of disparities also emerged in the approaches taken by the richest and second-richest Indians. Mukesh Ambani, the second richest, engaged in a deleveraging (the reduction of debt) drive to safeguard his company’s zero debt status, which involved giving up holdings in the group's future-facing areas of technology and retail. In contrast, Gautam Adani, the richest, continued on an expansion spree powered by debt. Over the previous five years, debt held by the Gautam Adani-led Group has climbed from Rs. 1 trillion to Rs. 2.6 trillion, driven by the expansion of various ventures which include investments in renewable energy, procurement of transmission business, and venturing into more recent areas such as data centers, airports, and motorways (Adani Enterprises). Will it survive in the long run? Although the markets appear to be optimistic in the group, history, being the most effective teacher, declares that Reliance Power and Reliance Infra in 2015–16 had identical leverage m...

  According to IMF projections, India has overtaken the UK to become the fifth-largest economy in the world, trailing the US, China, Japan, and Germany. To evaluate India’s economic growth, over the past decade India acquired the 5th position from 11th, while the UK remained at the 5th position for the past decade. This has been expected for some time. Bloomberg came to this conclusion by using the dollar exchange rate on the last day of the relevant quarter. The UK's nominal GDP for the April-June quarter was $763 billion, much below India's $823 billion GDP for the same period. India's economy is growing by 7% while the rest of the world is heading into a recession. Over a significant period of time, the real and nominal growth rates of the Indian economy have outpaced those of the UK. India's economy has expanded nominally at a pace of 5.71% CAGR, compared to the UK's GDP, which grew at a meagre 1.76% over the last decade Inflation rates of 10% in the UK, 9% in t...

The free transactions offered by United Payments Interface, or UPI, systems are a major factor in why digital payment use has advanced in India. The UPI system allows users to send money to any bank account or pay bills through a single app without any hassle.  However, in its discussion paper dated August 17, the Reserve Bank of India requested feedback from stakeholders on the notion of implementing a charge for the system, if transactions surpassing a specified amount may be invoiced.  Furthermore, the ministry declared in a tweet that "UPI is a digital public benefit with enormous convenience for the public and productivity gains for the economy." and that it will remain a free service, and the government is not thinking about charging for UPI services.  Thus, the topic of how UPI service providers such as Google Pay, Paytm, and PhonePe generate revenue is raised. In the absence of revenue from charges on transactions, UPI service providers have additional ways to mon...

2,000 Rupee Note Observes Dramatic Decline in Circulation Over Past Six Years.                         Higher denomination bills are rarely seen at bank ATMs or other transactions. This is due to a discrepancy between the quantity of Rs. 2,000 notes in circulation, which was issued after demonetization, has dropped dramatically over time and now represents 13.8% of the total amount of notes in circulation, down from 50.2% in 2017. and the rate at which they are produced in daily transactions and suspected cash hoarding due to their great value. This has resulted in a drop in the overall quantity of notes in circulation during the past six years. A department official at the Telangana Secretariat named RR Murthy claims that the lack of bigger denomination bills also makes transporting cash difficult. For instance, if one had to take 20,000, at the very least, 40 notes of 500 would be needed instead of 10 notes of 2,000. For the ...

What has been happening in Sri Lanka?  Sri Lanka has declared a state of emergency after the crisis-hit nation's president fled to the Maldives, with protesters also demanding the prime minister quit. What led to the economic crisis? Sri Lanka's vital tourism sector was first hammered by extremist bomb attacks on churches and hotels    in 2019 and again the next year by the coronavirus pandemic. Its coffers were further depleted by government tax cuts, and Sri Lanka ran out of foreign currency needed to import everything from medicines to food and fuel. However, many experts blame President Rajapaksa's poor economic mismanagement. What went wrong? The country owes more than $51 billion to foreign lenders, its foreign debt pile and has been in bailout talks for months with the International Monetary Fund. The United Nations had warned that Sri Lanka is facing a dire humanitarian crisis, with millions already in need of aid. What happens when a country runs out of money? Mo...