TMS Ep114: UAE trade deal, Monish Darda, markets, Spectrum Charge

India signed a comprehensive free trade agreement with UAE last Friday, over a decade after it inked such a deal with Japan in 2011. This agreement will not only shed the perception that India is becoming too circumspect in entering into such contracts, it will also help in its pursuit to boost  exports to 1 trillion dollars-- both in merchandise as well as in services by 2030. So what does this trade agreement mean for New Delhi and what the government is planning to achieve through this?

Just like India, a home-grown start-up is continuously expanding its footprints across the globe. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) start-up Icertis which helps giants like Google, Microsoft and Apple manage their contracts, has quietly come to dominate the contract life cycle management market. And it is now aiming even higher -- looking at a $50 billion valuation in the next five to seven years. In an interaction with Business Standard’s Surajeet Das Gupta, the company’s co-founder Monish Darda tells more about his plans and challenges posed by software bigwigs. 

But there is a development which is increasingly threatening to derail the world economy. Global stocks slumped yesterday as Europe’s eastern flank stood on the cusp of war between Russia and Ukraine. While benchmark indices in India have fallen about 2% so far this year, broader indices have tanked up to 13%, hurting retail investors the most. As markets brace for volatile days ahead amid the geo-political tensions, learn how retail investors can ride the tide.

After the markets, let us move on to legacy issues plaguing the telecom sector. For over a decade now, the government and telecom majors are locked in a battle over payment of one-time spectrum charge -- which is now in the Supreme Court. But, during the last hearing, the government told the court that it was reviewing whether or not to continue with its appeal. It has come as a big reprieve to the debt-saddled telecom operators. Our next report tells more about this charge, why it was levied and its current status in this episode of the podcast.