EP 142: More than 100 companies sign letter opposing Election integrity laws & more

Sree Iyer: Namaskar, good morning. Welcome to Episode 142 of Daily Global Insights with Sri and Sree. Today is Thursday, April 15, 2021, and here are the main points:

• More than 100 Corporations including Amazon, Apple, Ford Motor, Starbucks, Netflix sign a letter opposing election integrity laws.
• Police Officer Kim Potter arrested over the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, resigns and he is being charged.
• Biden announces Sep 11 Afghanistan withdrawals deadline and says it’s time for troops to come home.
• US Army prepares for possible Global Land Conflict with China over Taiwan
• There shall not be lockdown but there will be local level isolation that is going to India’s strategy

In United States News, the New York Times says Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss who emerged to say as the top bidder for the Tribune Media company has also created a group called The Hub project to influence the US elections through favourable media coverage for Democrats.

More than 100 corporations, including Amazon and Apple Ford Motors, Starbucks, Netflix, sign a letter opposing key election Integrity laws.

Ken Chenault former CEO of Amex and Ken Frazier, Merck and Company CEO responsible for the initiative that led to this statement.

New York City sees some of some dissolution Democrats switch to Republicans. So this thing about Stacey Abrams run thing in Georgia is now beginning to take a life of its own sir.

Sridhar Chityala: It is. I think it’s a very surprising development Ken Chenault is one of the most recruited officers former CEO of American Express, for him to have assembled together along with Ken Frazier, hundreds of CEOs to talk about the election Integrity laws.  It bothers on two fronts one is how deep and how far corporations are kind of prepare to validate that their perspective and second if this is the case, where does this begin and where does this end? So it does raise some questions around the integrity of the whole process and potential interprets.

Sree Iyer: And in other news, Nancy Pelosi says she would have fought Capitol rioters, I am tough. I am a street fighter if they had reached me. I will not be someone to mess around with.

60 were arrested in Minnesota on the third night of riots after the police shooting of Dante Wright and police officer Kim Potter has been arrested over the fatal shooting of Dante Wright.

Rioters in Portland burn police Union building after shooting of Dante Wright.

Jonathan Turley says Congress may have restrained Capitol Police to preserve false Lafayette Park narrative.

And Capitol police officer who killed a woman during the Jan 6th Capitol riots will not be charged says Department of Justice. So we have two different incidences of similar action, but opposite consequences, sir.

Sridhar Chityala: Indeed. The Capitol police officer who killed Ashley Babbitt, you know much well known the person from ex-Air Force lady who was in the Capitol Hill and she was shot, DOJ says that the police officer will not be charged. You know Kim Potter, she’s 26 years in the police and who used the shotguns that the taser she’s going to be charged with manslaughter. So as you rightly point out, we need to hear more about the reason and the rationale as to why two different interpretations have been made and one maybe I mean certainly the Capitol police decision may be preventive and potential damage. So that could be the rationale that they would present.

Nancy Pelosi getting into the action saying that she was prepared to get into a fistfight and you know let not somebody, it’s just is game. This is not something which is warranted in a potentially a charge the climate but who knows these are all politicians.

But what is also disconcerting is every time there’s something in somewhere in you know, Minnesota, Chicago, DC these fellows seem to wait for an opportunity to do something catastrophic. Well, they burn down a Police Union building sighting that as an excuse. As you know in Minnesota itself is riots continuing and arrests have been made but it doesn’t seem to have stopped. So this is notwithstanding the fact President Biden intervening in making a statement that arson and looting are not acceptable under any circumstances, let alone an incident of this nature.

Sree Iyer: And Kamala Harris plans a trip to Mexico and Guatemala but not to the southern border. Sir, finally she has surfaced but again this role of her overseeing this border, you know happening she is not clear yet isn’t it?

Sridhar Chityala: I think it’s a political curation. It is very clear that she doesn’t want to own up to this. Republican Senators including Democrats members have visited. Department of Homeland Security has visited. Biden has even asking the FED officials to go on paid leave to help in the border but his own vice president wants to go to Guatemala and Mexico but she doesn’t want to go to the border. This is besides her 15-16 days of absence ever since that was announced that she is tasked with overseeing it.

Sree Iyer: The House Democrats majority has shrunk Rep. Julia Letlow from Louisiana is slated to be sworn into office on Wednesday, yesterday. 218 to 212 is the majority that the Democrats have now and if three or four switched to Republican on voting it is game over isn’t it? There is no rule.

Sridhar Chityala: Well, I think you know, Julia Letlow as you probably know her husband passed away due to covid and she contested the same seat and she’s re-elected. To your point in the house, there is no filibuster. They have to have an absolute majority. So if few people flip over and join, then it’s a no-show in terms of the outcome of any major initiative. So interesting times and interesting days ahead. There is a tie in the Senate with the vice president to break. There is a razor-thin majority in the House as you rightly point out a few people flipping be over is all that takes to put things into the back bottle.

Sree Iyer: IRS is on track to send $300 child tax credit payments in July. Republicans to offer 650 billion infrastructure plan to counter Biden’s 2.2 trillion spending plan and the Republicans will also not support the roll back up of Trump’s tax cuts to fund Biden infrastructure plan, this is what Mitch McConnell has said. And Biden infrastructure plan aims to promote affordable housing in cities and to add to all this, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy wants to give 40 million dollars worth of stimulus payments to illegal immigrants. Biden rushes to protect power grids as hacking threats grow. We had covered this thing about what happened in India on October 11, 2020, and sir, your thoughts

Sridhar Chityala: First and foremost, the IRS issuing checks and they’re ready. They’re organized for $3,600. Now, this is the additional payment for the child tax credits. It’s 3,000 for those who are in the 6 to 16 and 3,600 those who are below 6 that’s good news, the children need protection and the children needs supports, which I think it’s a good program which is directed towards the benefits. So, those checks are now going to go out. If you remember this Universal basic income, so there’s a number of basic components that seems to be lining up and I think we are beginning to see the first cab off the rank, which is the child credit. So which is good, they are ready.

Now, Republicans have three or two or three of them been opposing this infrastructure plan right from day one. They’ve always felt that this is a huge number the 2.2 trillion, so they have proposed a 650 billion, which is effectively focused around this small business, some covid support and of course direct payments to unemployed and extending the unemployment insurance those are all as it relates to the cashing up the people. They are not supportive of money going to all these overseas countries. They’re neither supportive of the illegal immigrants being funded. So it’s a good counter-proposal. I doubt whether they’re going to accept it because we covered it a couple of days ago Democrats have out writely rejected it.

Sree Iyer: In Global News, Biden announces September 11th as the date Afghanistan withdrawal deadline will be completed and says it’s time for the troops to come home and Senator Lindsey Graham rips Biden for reckless plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan says he has extended war and there is a significant risk that once US troops pull out of Afghanistan says Biden CIA director William Burns and NATO allies also will be leaving at the same time from Afghanistan. So this is being set up for Anarchy if you ask me.

Sridhar Chityala: It is being set up for failure. The two prominent things here, one is this date September 11th sits stock in front of your eyes. The second is Mr William Burns the CIA director making the statement, there are two issues one, we will lose intelligence as to what’s happening and third all the money that we have spent thus far, you know can go astray, of course, the Republicans are steadfastly against it and there is no mechanism in the place as if you want can give one observes in Afghanistan for the present government to defend itself. The question, therefore is how long and how far you no one can continue to police and look after Afghanistan. So, much should have been done but Progressive governments both in the EU as well as in the United States have failed to develop an alternative and we could be again facing a crisis emanating from there.

Sree Iyer: Sir, one thing that strikes me again and again, so it’s now close to two and a half months or actually posted two and a half months since the Biden Administration assumed controlled I have not heard a single statement from the chief of staff and it’s almost like, you know, there’s a laundry list that somebody’s maintaining, oh this constituency done a check, this constituency check done. Check, check, check, check there are just going down this list of items. It is as if all these guys are now seated in Congress and Republicans as well as Democrats are getting their breath back before they actually get up their head and look at what’s going on. We’re going to pass all these things. It’s that’s how it looks to me.

Sridhar Chityala: Your assessment is spot on. Your observations are absolutely correct with regard to the question that you have raised. They have made the press secretary, White House Press Secretary to be the front end. And she goes flip-flop every day. Given that we are inundated and flooded with the liberal media in the mainstream media. Well anchored and supported by the tech platforms. And of course, the narrative is being spun around by the left-wing broadcast channels anything works. So therefore there’s no mechanism for any of these things to come out in terms of your observations. So, they come up with a strategy with less exposure, less visibility less talk means no damage. That seems to be the strategy while this checklist that you referring to seems to be the modus operandi of the Biden Administration.

Sree Iyer: And again, you know, if somebody is a press statement it can always be walked back. Whereas if the chief of staff were to say something then you know it he can be held to account for what he said, so I guess you’re absolutely right there.

And ahead of the Suga-Biden meeting Japan briefs the United States on Tencent-Rakuten Ties. The security the dominant topic 27 years later at the summit, this is the Suga-Biden. Sir, what is this Tencent-Rakuten tie? Tencent is a Chinese company, I know that.

Sridhar Chityala:  2.2 billion dollars of capital was raised by Rakuten most recently, there were three lead investors Japan post, Walmart and Tencent, they were the investors and the Rakuten strategy is to broadly develop its mobile carrier business, Logistics as well as replicate the cash payment service that Tencent has in China. So they want to learn best practices etc., of course, they’re looking for Capital if you take away the issues most recently controversial issues from the South China Sea right up to Biden takeover and the new Administration while there has been occasional scaling down and then, of course, the confrontation occurred, you know in the last 12 months of Trump Administration and Chinese companies, where a Japanese and Korean companies started to move to migrate out of China but having said that prior to that for leading up to that there have been significant investments on either side. So, he is going to explain to him that any of the stuff that is being done will not go into the wrong hands of Chinese companies or Chinese corporations because especially if it is around the development of the carrier business you have chips and so on. He wants to make sure that he gets the message that Japan will play by the rules of the United States. It is an investment decision.

Sree Iyer: I beg your pardon in China news. China threat an “Unparalleled Priority” for US intelligence Community says spy Chiefs. The CCP is using political Warfare to fight the unseen war on Taiwan. Taiwan says its Chip firms will adhere to the US rules banning chip availability to Chinese supercomputing entities and Unofficial US delegation lands in Taiwan amidst tension with China. So, now it looks like the US Army is preparing for a possible Global land conflict with China, sir.

Sridhar Chityala: We covered that two days ago that Mike Pompeo is likely to visit, that there is a US Army Personnel on the ground looking at the logistics and the state of preparedness. Also, the maintenance of some of their tanks on the ground. So it’s very clear that the US Generals have been saying that the Taiwan war will be on land not just purely on air, so, the United States must be prepared to combat. The fact that there is an unofficial delegation going to Taiwan for discussions Etc., And there is also this proxy war that China has launched is a reflection of almost an imminent threat and something can flip in the Taiwan situation. China is as emotive about Taiwan as much as United States, Taiwan and Japan. In fact, Japan was the first one which raised the flag that any invasion of Taiwan is a red flag can have major consequences in the region.

Sree Iyer: And Australia has rejected a Chinese funded research program that runs into millions of dollars in the interest of the nation. Your thought, sir.

Sridhar Chityala: I think it’s commendable that they have refused to take funding recognizing that it can put them potentially into a conflict course. And I think we mentioned this before Scott Morrison has taken a very effective leadership role in positioning and making the stands of the Australian and the Australian people very clear. Until recently there was considerable integration and sympathy. I’m not suggesting. It’s not the case People to People in Australia. There’s a lot of Mainland Chinese people, who are married well settled integrated into the Australian ecosystem, but the covid has flipped the whole thing topsy-turvy, that’s one. There is also being security concerns and issues because sometimes these loose statements coming from the CCP leadership are certainly stirred the Hornet’s Nest in the minds of the Australian people that Australians not the same.

Sree Iyer: Vietnam’s mediation diplomacy faces a key test in Myanmar and Myanmar is collapsing into a crisis. Sir, this is now into its sixth or seventh week or probably even longer. Where do you think things are headed, sir?

Sridhar Chityala: Well, I think Myanmar Army will win, there will be a brutal put down of the rebels. This is not a strategic priority for the world Community. They are giving lip service in terms of dealing with it. Into the potpourri are China and Russia. The latest breaking news is Russian planes and helicopters being used by the Junta to bomb some of these rebelled territories. So when you have Russia and China deep into managing Myanmar and ASEAN using diplomacy to resolve it. They’re going to allow it to run its course the winner takes it all and that’s going to be the Junta and they will be a Junta appointed democratically elected government. And I think the plan to conduct an election again in Myanmar and the Junta plan to conduct elections at some appropriate time, and they don’t believe that the previous election, which was Aung San Suu Kyi one, don’t believe that to be legitimate and which is where we are today. So I think how they’re going to do all this. We don’t know certainly Indonesia, Malaysia to some extent Thailand is leading the diplomatic efforts to see whether there’s some kind of an impasse and a resolution rather than these brutal force without upsetting any applecart by way of saying okay, you know, we’re not going to interfere in what you do, but you know, let’s just put calm things down because it’s not putting up a good face for ASEAN.

Sree Iyer: Guatemala says is that there is no deal with the United States on increased border security. This is significant. So whatever statements that the Biden government is making that they are going to try and halt the progress of these Caravans is just that empty talk.

Sridhar Chityala: This is yet another embarrassment to the Biden Administration. Biden Administration issues a statement and then immediately one day later. Then, you have a counter-statement from the respective country. So they’re much talked about funding some of the Central Asia Central American countries and talking to them in terms of security and then you have Guatemala coming out and making a statement. I just want to add one more, Iran situation and then we wrap up Global News, the Iranian religious leader right now as the discussions are going on. He has issued a statement that he doesn’t want to do anything with Biden, he feels that the Biden Administration is to lose talk. This is notwithstanding the fact Biden Administration imposed itself into the discussions and at the request of the EU, so, that’s another example of small Nations standing up and telling the present regime here in the US, we don’t care what you say. We don’t want to you. we don’t want to be talking to you.

Sree Iyer: Yeah, that was really strange how that has flip-flop back and forth. And in India related news, they shall not be locked down, but there will be local level isolation. This is the new strategy that India is adopting, sir.

Sridhar Chityala: Look, I think if I use the United States as an example where this nation lockdown was prevented in this whatever second, third, fourth wave that’s going on take the case of Texas, take the case of Florida, you know, take the case of what’s the other state even for that matter, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, you know some of those States they have tried to identify areas, where there is propensity propagation of covid and imposed additional measures like Red Zone, Yellow Zone, Green Zone. These zones are fine rather than a nation clampdown which is unilateral making other people, you know go through when they’re not impacted seems to have paid off. For example, Florida seems to be living back in normal. Texas seems to live back to normal until this crisis emerged more recently because of these illegal immigrants coming in. I hope that strategy will be executed appropriately and they can move forward.

Sree Iyer: In other news, Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek launches 7-nanometre Diamond City 70 5G chips has into India. Sir, are you sure it is a 7-nanometre process because that is like… I have worked in this technology, getting even to 10 nanometres was a big huff and puff.

Sridhar Chityala: It is 7- nanometre, sir. I will share the link with you I even went through the details. So my objective was to point out that semiconductor is coming to India. I think that’s the headline. They seem to be advancing rather than using old technology. Clearly, 5G is one of the domains that India is also focusing on and want to have an R&D and developmental capability.

Sree Iyer: Indicating the growing adoption of Ayurveda, a public sector manufacturer of Ayush medicines has posted a record turnover, sir. I use Ayurveda wherever I can, I don’t know about you, sir.

Sridhar Chityala: I use Ayurveda, it’s an endemic part of our live stream. It’s been very effective, very very effective in mitigating a number of things. It is a defensive as well as an effective antibody, immunity booster. It is not a cure, people have to be careful, it treats using your body. The good news is right through the covid crisis, I hear that some of the Kashayas and other kinds of potions have been used by even the traditional hospitals as augmentative to the conventional protocols additional medicinal protocols that have been used. So it’s good that whatever is the indigenous medicine that has worked for centuries is back on the horizon and being well accepted by the community.

Sree Iyer: In the pharma sector approvals accorded under PLI scheme for close to 348 crores of investment in drug intermediates and API – Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient. So this is very good news as far as the Pharma sector is concerned. India is trying to come back and do its own APIs.

Sridhar Chityala: They plan to do their own APIs. They probably have selected a couple of schemes. One of them is obviously the covid treatment protocol. They recognize that they cannot be reliant on foreign manufacturers or foreign biotech companies using India as a manufacturing hub. Now, Russia has subcontracted close to 850 million Sputnik-5 vaccines to be produced in India. But I’m not sure whether Pfizer, BioNTech as well as Moderna. I don’t even know whether Moderna is available only the AstraZeneca variant, which is Covishield is available in India. So the API investment is pretty good in terms of coming up with alternative covid protocols. Now, they have stopped exporting Remdesivir. With rising cases in India requires its in-house or internal capabilities to tackle its problems.

Sree Iyer: Employment in India has a long way to go but is on its way to recovery, according to Monster Employment Index Study, your thoughts, sir, because now again Mumbai is going through a lockdown, local lockdown.

Sridhar Chityala: Monster Employment Index Study has conducted a survey of not only the MSME companies but also across the broad Industries to see what the employment demand looks like in the outer months. The study points out, of course, nobody can predict the exact situation that’s going to come out of the covid, but based on the current data and current trends there is a demand for more employment, especially as the services sector comes out. The manufacturing sector perhaps automation, perhaps self-contained isolated whatever the reasons, we have reported already, the manufacturing sector seems to be well organized and well cleared and there is growth especially in the exports. But as far as the services and the MSME is concerned, they have suffered the brunt of it and which is where the unemployment has been very high. Even PGurus has reported the challenge of unemployment in India as a result of this unstable state that India is in, and these migrant temporary labour which forms the bulk of employment in several of the states moving forward backwards, forward backwards etc. But the study is very clear. Based on the study, talking to some of the vast numbers of people that demand recruiting is there and that augurs well for India, but there’s still a long way to go to come out of the mess that the world is left with as a result of covid.

Sree Iyer: Yes, and we segued agreed nicely into covid. That’s what we’re going to cover next. Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state says that he’s ecstatic that the world is beginning to see the role of China in the pandemic.

Sridhar Chityala: Well, I think this relentless pressures on Uyghurs and now, at last, the world is woken up and it should have been the other way. The first and topmost priority should be to make China accountable for the global health, financial, and economic mess as a result of this. Dr Sanjay Gupta, whom everybody knows, who comes on CNN, in less than a week ago has made a statement on CNN that there is enough indication that this thing has come out of Wuhan. That’s not a lie by one of these persons who go around the world dealing with a number of health issues. But the world has kept quiet, has been very passive and so Pompeo is saying at last and remember it was Trump who said it’s a China virus. It’s not covid, it is the China virus. So he was quite emphatic but it began to taper off once the new regime came in but now it’s back on the agenda. It’s important that there is some element of accountability or a statement of record or something in United Nations otherwise there is no purpose for existence recognizing and making it very clear. Even the WHO work that was done in Wuhan and other places was a complete wish wash and stage-managed by the Chinese.

Sree Iyer: Speaking of Trump and Mike Pompeo may I also remind viewers that there have been snippets of video doing the rounds of a CNN technical director laying out CNN strategy for the last few years that they wanted to ensure that Trump would not come back to the extent to which they went. This is just shocking watching it. When you see that CNN’s own technical director. I think this was some sort of a sting, I don’t know the origins, but I’ve seen enough times that thing to tell me that there was a clear-cut strategy, news has already taken a backseat. Viewers, please spread the word about what we are trying to do. Sridharji and I are committed to telling you news based on data. This data is something that government organizations put out or reliable organizations, private organizations put out, who have a track record of giving accurate data. Therefore we are not taking sides. But what we are telling you is exactly what is playing out in the world.

Moving on in covid news, Moderna eyes combo covid-19 flu vaccine for those of you who don’t live in the United States. There is a flu season that starts around the beginning of fall like August, September and by October it is expected that everybody gets their flu shots so that they can withstand any flu instances over the Christmas holidays and Thanksgiving holidays. Now Moderna is trying to combine the covid vaccine along with flu so that instead of getting two shots will get a single shot. That’s a good idea. Isn’t it sir?

Sridhar Chityala: It is a good idea. It delivers two messages to us, one is that covid is going to be here with us forever and it will become a seasonal ritual that we need to take a vaccine because these antibodies are not lifelong, they have a duration. Some people say six months some people say 12 months. Some people say you may need a booster dose etc. So that’s the first message. Second, we will integrate it probably with flu so you don’t need to take 2 vaccines, you take one vaccine. So that’s the take away from this that covid is not going to go away. This is a permanent Affair.

Sree Iyer: Pfizer BioNTech vaccine arrives in China as China makes available imported vaccine for the first time. Is this an admission on their part that now they are vaccine is going nowhere?

Sridhar Chityala: China never admits that it is wrong. So therefore it says, ‘we are also Global Citizens, we also globally integrated so we want to be a Good Samaritan, we have worked with Pfizer and we are bringing their vaccines. Whether they have any other agenda? We don’t know, but certainly, Pfizer BioNtech vaccines seem to have arrived and remember BioNtech is German and so they have a very good collaboration with Germany.

Sree Iyer: Denmark drops AstraZeneca vaccine amidst the rising clots issue. And here’s the other interesting thing. I’ll give you a chance to respond, sir. CDC makes no decision on the J&J and the pause to hold. Before we continue, I just want to set the context. Viewers, there are six instances of things going all right with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in a set of six million people have been vaccinated. Of the six million, one person has died and others have recovered maybe one or two are critical. That is the reason why Florida’s Governor, Donald Trump have expressed this question. So what is a big hurry because if you look at the numbers it doesn’t seem to make sense? Sir, your thoughts.

Sridhar Chityala: My thoughts are it is just intriguing. Dr Fauci made a press statement about the decision behind the pause and hold of J&J is science and not anything else. If six in six million is reflective of a pause then none of the vaccines that are today in practice can be on the field because the data is infinitely small for it to be material. Now, what exactly are the reasons that made them hold? We don’t know. There could be other things, manufacturing issues or could be some of the vaccines that are there, remember the Maryland issue etc, etc. There could be other things but clearly, we don’t know the truth. But certainly, as you make the case and as we talked about it, six in six million and especially in Florida, they want the J&J vaccine. Texas also wants the J&J vaccine and to pause and deny one significant vaccine doesn’t sound right.

Sree Iyer: In other vaccine-related news, 142 fully vaccinated people test positive in Houston, and we have seen this thing. Our own Sridhar Chityalaji had an occurrence of covid after he took the vaccine.

Sridhar Chityala: Indeed sir, I think between the 12th and 14th day, I developed symptoms both me and my wife took on the same day. She had a milder version, I have some health complications that put me in a very complicated set of issues. But there’s enough data today to address the issues through hospitalization and IV protocols, one of those protocols that were used on me was Remedisivir besides blood thinners and antibiotics and steroids and so on and so forth and magnesium to protect the outer layer of the heart. So there is enough data and enough know-how to deal with this situation. The main message here is most of our urbane/city’s well-equipped hospitals are well organized to deal with this. The sad and unfortunate truth is most of the district level hospitals, local hospitals in remote areas don’t have the facilities nor they have that data available by way of research to deal with issues. That’s the reason why we have such high fatality in the United States. Clearly, this was the case in Europe, they had no beds. They couldn’t take the patients, they couldn’t even treat them. So that was the problem in Europe. I’m assuming something similar to that ilk in India as well, as the cases arise. Also, the other important factor is the oxygen dispensation by your lungs is very critical and as a first step, they give you augmented oxygen through nasal and notwithstanding the fact the clearance may be at the right level but they don’t take chance. So these are all the protocols that help to overcome and these 142 vaccinated people testing positive is no surprise at all because the antibodies as they that develop, I gather, can create some issues until it is fully integrated and that will take about six months

Sree Iyer: I might tell viewers that while he was going through this process Sridharji was extremely active. We were in correspondence almost every day. He would contribute to giving me news items. I was reading the news line items, but he was in the back end. I knew every day that there was something going on, there was progress and with all the best wishes from you viewers, I really really thank you from the bottom of my heart because Sridharji was also reading all the comments that were coming on the YouTube channel. So, thank you very much. We will continue to do this thing and it’s our pleasure to give you this news. Again, I have to emphasize this, we are just telling you as we see it as we get the data and our data is very accurate. If any of you think that we are getting something that is tilting towards one party or the other we certainly encourage someone to come and give us the opposite data. We will take a very careful look at it and if we find it right we’ll be talking about it.

Moving on, India is going to produce 850 million doses of Sputnik-5 vaccine annually. So, now, Russia is also looking to India to produce the vaccines for them.

Sridhar Chityala: Yes. I think this a historical association that India and Russia have had. Russia has no other place to go, it comes to India and that’s a significant amount of volume to come out. As part of the process that they have given the rights to use the Sputnik-5, so India will now have three vaccines, Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik-5 will be available for use for domestic consumption.

Sree Iyer: India’s Cipla is going to scale up Remdesivir production twofold by 100% to meet the unprecedented demand for the drug. Covid cases continue to rise in states like Rajasthan, Delhi, and Maharashtra with 200,000 cases reported yesterday. That was the first time that I think in India we had 2lakh cases reporting covid, sir.

Sridhar Chityala: Indeed. The variants have come in. India is an unusual case. I go back to last year and in the middle when people were complaining, Trump made a statement that India as a large country with a huge population enough testing had not been done. Yes, they’ve done a good job, but that didn’t mean that they have done exhaustive testing for us to look at the real numbers. Some of these numbers could be a result of, I gather that the rate of testing in India today is much much much higher relative to what it was. So it is possible some of these latent cases are now beginning to emerge and once you have determined that is covid, it needs to be dispensed with. As far as some of these states, for example, Maharashtra and Delhi, Maharashtra is supposed to be either 40% to 60% of the cases are concentrated in one or two states. So these numbers seem to be emblematic of location. Whether it is to do with their habits, discipline, free movement, not being careful and cautious, don’t know. But India has rising cases and how it deals with it is something that we will know as time goes on. I’m sure that with vaccines and other data available they will combat it.

Sree Iyer: Viewers, in markets we had told you that Coinbase intends to price their offering to $250 per share. Yesterday, when it went public Coinbase closed at $328.8 per share in valuing the exchange at 85.8 billion. All this for a digit, sir.

Sridhar Chityala: Indeed, the reference price was $350. Sree Iyerji you ask me, what do I think it will be? I said the market will determine the price. The fact that the price range was 350 seems to be on the dot. It went up to 380-385 in the first opening moments of the trade taking the valuation too close to $100 billion dollars and it eventually settled at 328 making up this $85-$86 billion valuation. The Cryptos are here and they are weather it is like Antiques and artefacts and so on. It may have some trading value. It may have a limited purpose just as Tesla said if he’s going to buy and it may allow people to play with it. It may be much selected closed-loop usage as a commercial but much of its value seems to stem from as a commodity like gold and at least gold is used, there’s a lot of people who buy gold and keep it and you know as a place to go to in the event of monetary crisis.

Sree Iyer: Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan earnings are temporarily driving the markets and Powell suggest that it will follow the 2013-14 playbook when it starts to taper its asset purchases. This is basically what they’re saying is you’re going to repeat the same strategy that you use and treasury yields edge higher on the back of comments from Powell on fed purchases. So maybe you can wrap up what the strategies are here is, sir?

Sridhar Chityala: Sorry, I wanted to say that as the market begins to recover they will begin to hold and stop the purchases of releasing additional liquidity into the market. So they will taper it down. It’s already I think between 80-85 billion against the target of 120. The 120 billion was set up basically as a mechanism in the case Corporation acquired liquidity. So they’re going to use the same policy that basically implied they are watching inflation. So that’s the message Jerome Powell delivered to the markets.

Sree Iyer:  The markets a flat after a record uptick on record earnings day yesterday. And today, I think the Futures are slightly up. Maybe you can wrap up that and viewers always on the ticker, you can see the latest movements of price example, for example, the crude or the Bitcoin price and so on and so forth. Sridharji, perhaps you can wrap up how you see markets going today because now we are in the middle of earning season and then we can call it a wrap.

Sridhar Chityala:  The markets will continue to guide driven by the earning, few companies come up and say it was stellar, demand is picking up the forward forecast of pretty good. Then you see the markets, then you see the buoyancy in the markets. How do I see the markets today?

You know, you’re not going to see 300, 400, 500 point rise, but you will continue to see you know rises you know, less than 0.5 to 1% rises unless there is a blow. All these indices are already well on their way for pretty close to the end of your projection levels. So therefore we are already on the threshold on the back of very positive momentum that has occurred and there is also very positive momentum around Biden’s plan of putting cash into the pockets. There’s one number that I will give you, Jamie Diamond in his results. He made a very compelling revelation this close to two trillion dollars of money in the checking accounts of JPMorgan two trillion. That’s you know checking account is what you used to pay for all your bills and expenses. So he’s saying the consumers are waiting to you know, to push this money into the system. So hence, he thinks that the markets are well poised and economies are well-posed.

Sree Iyer: And that brings us to a close on today’s hangout, perhaps one of the longer ones. We had thought it would take us longer than it did, but I think Sridharji has very crisply detailed all the developments that have happened in the last 24 hours. As always it’s a pleasure to have you on our Channel, sir. Viewers, please spread the word subscribe to our Channel donate to our cause join our club and as always we’ll be back tomorrow bright and early. Namaskar.

Sridhar Chityala: Namaskar and thank you so much.