TMS Ep286: Atmanirbhar in defence, Nikhil Kamath, markets, Star Alliance

India is showcasing its metal at the ongoing Defence Expo in Gandhinagar. It is the first such event where only made-in-India equipment are on display. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the event by highlighting that India has achieved Rs 13,000 crore defence exports in FY22. While this is heartening, exactly how self-sufficient have we become in our defence production? For example, imported Bofors guns played a crucial role in India’s victory over Pakistan at Kargil about 23 years ago. Have we found an Indian replacement for such weapons? 

India’s growth story is also being written by individuals. Zerodha co-founders Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath increased their donation by 300% in FY 2021-2022 --becoming the ninth-largest individual givers in India. Business Standard’s Raghav Aggarwal caught up with one of the brothers, Nikhil Kamath, to talk about the future of fintech and funding in India.  interview

SEBI has indeed made the investment ecosystem much safer, as pointed out by Kamath. He also believes that the next few years may be difficult just like Samvat 2078 when equity markets battled a host of headwinds, like tighter monetary policy and Russia-Ukraine war. And, as we enter Samvat 2079, we take a step back to delve into what went wrong in Samvat 2078 since last Diwali.

The year gone by was not easy on the aviation sector either. It is slowly trying to recover from the pandemic turbulence now. And there is an alliance of airlines which has been trying to cut the hassle in air travel. Formed in 1997, Star Alliance has been providing seamless connectivity to fliers. It just celebrated its 25 years in existence. This episode of the podcast has more on it.