TMS Ep267: IT's HR challenge, IndiGo, US Fed rate hike, PFI

Wipro’s executive chairman Rishad Premji recently said that talent, not market growth, was the challenge tech services companies were staring at. Struggling with a high attrition rate, the IT companies are reported to have hired 1.2 lakh freelancers between April 2020 and September 2022 to meet the shortage of talent. With recession looming large in its key markets, Indian IT majors are struggling to put their house in order. But, what is the root cause of these troubles? Is it, at the end of the day, an HR management challenge? 

Unlike the IT sector, the pandemic has been really hard on the aviation industry -- which is now gradually recovering from the turbulence. And for India’s largest airline, Indigo, it’s a clear sky. Its revenue has soared over four times in the June quarter and the losses have narrowed. But, at the same time, other airlines are posing a challenge to its dominance in the sky. Some of them have launched a new segment, called premium economy, to attract fliers. It is a category between the economy and the business class. So did Indigo miss the premium economy class flight? Or does it have other plans? 

Indigo recently added a UAE city as its 100th destination with a new direct daily flight. The budget carrier may certainly not fall behind the curve. Moving on, a slew of global central banks joined the rate-hiking bandwagon last week, after the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 75 basis points. As the global consensus towards aggressive monetary tightening gathers momentum, will the Reserve Bank of India also echo a similar tone this week? Besides, which sectors and stocks look attractive at this point in time as markets deal with rising rates, and economic pressures? 

Scores of people linked to Popular Front of India or PFI were taken into custody from various parts of the country during raids conducted by National Investigation Agency and Enforcement Directorate on Thursday. The outfit -- which has a chequered history of brushes with the law -- claims to be representing Muslim and other marginalised communities. This episode of the podcast tells about this outfit and more.