EP 152: Indian Army Chief visits Eastern Ladakh, US issues advisory for its citizens in India & more

Sree Iyer: Namaskar, welcome to episode 152 of Daily Global Insights with Sri and Sree. Today is Thursday, the 29th of April 2021. We have a lot to cover today but we start off with the United States state department advisory to all its citizens who are living in India to leave India because the covid situation is going out of control. From what little, we know I’m going to read the US Travel advisory verbatim; Access to Medical Care is severely limited due to covid-19 cases. The US citizens, wishing to see depart should use available commercial options now. Daily direct flights to the US and flights via Paris and Frankfurt are available. So a lot of people are asking questions. Now, how do I do this, how do I do that? And so on. Sir, your initial thoughts on this?

Sridhar Chityala: My initial thoughts are typically when you have a pandemic of this, the pandemic impact of this magnitude, United States is adopting a very similar policy which most of the Nations have adopted. I mean this is no different to what your Europe did. This is no different to was prevalent in many parts of Asia. This is no different to what the United States itself applied which is to say that there is a major spread of the covid wave two as a result of this new virus that is going around India, which seems to have the ability to spread rapidly. And the United States has also made its efforts to send what is called oxygen supplies which is the inadequate oxygen supplies which are warranted by people around. Most of the diplomatic enclave either it is in New Delhi or Bombay or Mumbai which is in Maharashtra. You know, both these places are quite adversely affected relative to the rest of the country. You have six states which make up or six or seven states, we have given all these data to you. When we talked about the 12 States and the 12 States and the other 15 Union Territories and States, we’re going all these data. So it is no surprise that they have issued a warning advisory, to work to US citizens.

Sree Iyer: Sir, to your point that in Maharashtra. It’s actually Pune, then Nagpur, then Mumbai in that order in terms of the severity of this second wave, but it’s all within the state of Maharashtra, Maharashtra has been badly affected by this double mutating virus. The good news is that the virus biotech vaccine appears to be effective, even Fauci has confirmed this. And in fact, he has gone ahead and said that this is the only vaccine that seems to be effective against the double mutant version of the virus. Some call it the 617, I don’t know, exactly the number, I don’t want to get it wrong but you all know what double mutant viruses are that is the cause for the recent uptick in cases in Maharashtra, in Delhi, it is rumoured that it is the UK strain that has found its way and this could be attributed to the Farmer Agitation some of whom are still lingering around some of whom are still blocking traffic, you know, preventing critical supplies from reaching hospitals. I think at some point, whoever is protesting needs to take a call about what is good for them, what is good for the country.

Sree Iyer: In other Indian news PM cares funds government to acquire 100,000 portable government concentrators and build 500 oxygen plants. Government Accords Organic certification to more than 14,000 hectares in, Andaman and Nicobar. Sir, you want to touch upon these. What is the reason for this?

Sridhar Chityala: I think they’re developing Andaman and Nicobar which was neglected and so they’re developing on three fronts. It used to be only the Naval Base. There used to be a very sporadic population. Never over a period of time, it just Leisure Island, barring, that nothing was done to develop the ecosystem within the country. So it’s a very rich fertile area. So it’s obvious that the organic certification makes it very compelling in terms of the utilization and the usability of the various products that come out of it, the recognition of allocation of this land also means that Agro farming is being developed in that part. There are also their building Logistics, storage is a fair amount of things that are being built to make sure. You remember that China has been also casting aspersions on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. So I think it’s all augurs well, as to why the Indian government has chosen both civil, as well as military approach in terms of addressing the specific part of the country.

Sree Iyer: And in other news, light combat aircraft Tejas adds Fifth-generation Israeli Air-to-Air Missile Python-5 to its weapon package. And the Indian Air Force is going to Mid-Air Refueling Aircraft from France to improve combat capabilities, range of fighter jets. Army Chief visits Eastern Ladakh, just days after China refuses to disengage at Gogra. I might as well add that there is a report that Chinese tanks are getting mobilized in the eastern Gosthana region also known as Aksai Chin, we will try to continue to refer to this as Gosthana, which is how it used to be called before the Chinese occupation. Sir, your thoughts.

Sridhar Chityala: My thoughts are that we have consistently maintained that the Himalayan region is going to spurt up and it’s not going to go away and they will use every available opportunity from the North to the South. You know, Aksai Chin to the Arunachal Pradesh region. They will try and use every single opportunity to see how they can leverage what has been the Chinese approach. What is most amazing that the world has not asked the question. This covid virus which has originated from Wuhan seems to have no mutations, no recursions have, there is seem to have absolutely, no variance, nothing. It all seems to be seamless in China, where, as you know, countries like India, countries like Japan, even in some of the Southeast Asian countries are seeing the spurred. We have seen the fourth wave in Europe, we have seen a mild second wave in the United States. And so, therefore, that the defence and the Strategic border areas of India, has always been under Chinese threat and they have been building infrastructure. Again, through our DGI, we have consistently reported, India has not taken an eye on their border situation, besides the negotiation and the disengagement process, it has continuously been building its capabilities to combat, any Chinese aspersions in this region, the fact that France is standing behind India. If you recall under President Trump and Mike Pompeo, you would have heard a lot of statements come out from the US in reinforcing and then making very prolific statements around the Chinese aspersions. And it was under Trump if you recall that Trump and Mike Pompeo, we signed the BRICS agreement which is Bilateral Exchange for Communication Services, which is effectively India has access to satellite imagery of the Chinese moments. So, there is a very profound change as we transition and the two countries which is standing with India around that region is Israel and France, France and Israel are standing shoulder by shoulder to provide any type of support that India requires besides the augmentation of Indian capabilities within its own manufacturing. I mean India is not standing still. It has built infrastructure. It has built roads. It is also manufacturing light tanks. It has ancillary supplies, it has got augmented now, a fleet of repeal planes, making rounds in those skies. So what you are, witnessing is both defensive and offensive type of capabilities. While the negotiation goes on, even the Chief of the Armed Services, Armed Forces also visited, I think three days ago, the army chief visited the Ladakh region, especially after the disengagement of the Chinese.

Sree Iyer: Sir, we have a few lightning difficulties on your end, it’s going off and on off and on gets dull and bright. So I would request you just to see if you can add any more lights to your side, sir. But I’ll continue with the US news, yesterday, Biden addressed Congress last night at 8 p.m. the focus was on his agenda, America, a family plan that follows the American jobs plan. Sir, the numbers that are being touted out America is trotting out plan after plan like there is no tomorrow. Now what was expected to be five trillion for recovering from covid-19 looks like it is going to go upwards of 10 trillion?  What is going on? This is uncontrolled expenditure. I did not have the chance to see the speech. What are your impressions about the speech, sir?

Sridhar Chityala: I think, my Impressions. I watched almost all of the speech barring the last three, four minutes. The speech was a speech, which reiterated the progressive agenda, and the rationale, for the progressive agenda, and all his accomplishments in the first 99 days, it was on the eve of the hundredth Day first 99 days. So he talked about the American, the latest being from rescue plan to jobs, plan to the American family plan, which is about 1.8 trillion dollars, which started from one trillion dollars to 1.8 trillion dollars. So he spoke about each of the specific plans. He really emphasized maybe this is political rhetoric, which just suits his progressives, which is to say, the United States needs to be built from the ground up, and it cannot be built from top-down. And even you took a swipe at Wall Street, which is to say, Wall Street, did not build America, it is basically a trickle effect. It is coming from the bottom segment of the population and so, therefore, I think whether you like it to accept it or not, that’s his policy, he is elected President, he outlined the policies and he also outlined what is to come, which is around climate Accord and so on and so forth. So it was very sparsely attended, it was not, you know, full, I saw definitely Mitt Romney. I don’t believe it. I saw much of the membership of the Republican Party. Perhaps they, where is the TV cameras were not focusing, clearly focused on Mr Romney who was present and of course, the vice president was present as well. So, Madam Harris has been given additional responsibilities besides the border, I think, which is around the climate side. you’re going to see more and more of these aspects of being coming out, the progressive agenda being coming out. With regard to this 10 trillion dollars, these numbers are astronomical and their only funding model seems to be, for example, these 1.8 trillion dollars Biden’s proposal is to fund by higher taxes from the wealthy, whether they really can find these numbers that they are looking for remains to be seen. He also announced a knot in his speech, but outside the speech, those who are in the $400,000 salary, category are exempted, the moment, you bring that cap above $400,000, the relative size of the universe that is talking about, you know, quite dramatically reduces. So, you can imagine how much of those people in the higher bracket need to pay their way up taxes to accommodate this.

And finally, my point is that he said, you know, the jobs plan, you know, created zillions can potentially get millions of jobs, you recall the guffy, and the flip-flop, that happened when I actually jobs are going to be lost and the independent tax funds or independent authorities have validated that, you know, they could be a net loss of 189,000 jobs rather than millions of jobs that Biden is talking. So, it was more like election rhetoric and these numbers that you are alluding to are astronomical. They just going to roll. It’s like what you call open-ended or a bottomless pit. You’re going to draw more and more and more. It’s like an addiction you borrow, then you borrow more and you borrow more and you borrow more. That’s where we are heading.

Sree Iyer: In related news, Steven Miller and top aides are suing the Biden Administration, claiming discrimination against the white Farmers. So can you expand on this a little bit who is Steven Miller? And what is his activism?

Sridhar Chityala: Stephen Miller is, is the former adviser to President Trump. So some of the ex-Trump administration officials and members of the GOP if you recall as part of the 1.9, which became a two trillion dollars, the rescue plan which came at the tail end in December as we transition from December to January that specific plan had components where there were loan waivers, granted to the farmers who are aggrieved as a result of the economic conditions and interest rates and so on. If you recall again there we had indicated, some of the white Farmers were neglected and this benefit was only given to non-white farmers and the benefits of these loans, either being waived or repackage range up to a 125%. We at that point in time reported that this is likely to come up sooner than later. It may be coming up in course, more than coming up in the House and the Senate Chambers, that’s what is happening. So they’re going to sue which is to say that you are applying a discriminatory practice between two specific segments of the community for the same issue.

Sree Iyer: Buttigieg says that Biden still prefers a bipartisan infrastructure plan. So I guess there is some rethink on part of the Democrats as to they wanted to take the Republicans along in the 1.8 trillion, infrastructure plan, sir.

Sridhar Chityala: Well I think Mnuchin has been one of the big bottlenecks and I think there are some people within Democratic Party who are going along with it. The Republican proposal ranges from 565 to 620 billion dollars being outlined the components of that proposal in one of the DGI shows which is very specifically around transportation, transit airports and the internet infrastructure, they cut out all the other Charge cast which is around you know doles and local Administration, etc, etc. So you find that Biden is trying to get this plan done and Buttigieg is reaching out to people to say, Hey, you know, can you guys work with us to make it happen, that’s what is going on. I don’t think it is sold as yet but they’re working their way through.

Sree Iyer: And, in other news GOP reps, pushback on the critical race theory proposal. Bill Banning critical race theory to IDAHO Governor’s desk and Biden racial Equity, agenda targets, exclusionary single-family zoning in suburbs, if I understand this correctly, what it means is that Biden intends to have new buildings constructed right in the middle of, you know, Burrows or that’s how I see, sir. What are your thoughts?

Sridhar Chityala: So, what the proposal envisions, which is come up, is there are certain neighbourhoods that have dominant exclusive or concentrated White communities. And his objective is to build these tall rise single-family buildings in the middle of those neighbourhoods. So that there is much more harmonious integration of various communities, is his theme. But if you are a politician, they saying communal Harmony comes from communities forming neighbourhoods and counties based on your profile based on your preferences choices and various other attributes but they want to force-fit and change the composition of the community structure. Whether this is rezoning for the purpose of politics or whether it genuinely achieve certain objectives, we don’t know, it seems to fit with this whole racial theory and racial equality theory agenda which is going into the schools. We talked about the 1619 project. You actually should read the document, we don’t have the time here to read the document, but you try to put up the document is quite astonishing what the components of what this racial theory proposal and the documentation is, which they going to expose to schoolchildren as part of the academic curriculum, whether you like it, accept it or not, this is some of the pushback that’s come back from the red states, which is to say the whole thing is being, you know, conducted to bring this communism’ or, you know, socialism into the school system and catch the children young in terms of advocating, the theory, whether the parents accept it or not.

Sree Iyer: Viewers, I am struck by the methods that the Democrats are using here because I tell you what, I wrote a similar plan that was done by the Congress government UPA government about 12-13 years ago in India, they just tried a slightly different tack. They resettle the Rohingyas in strategic places where they could have a problem of demographic mismatch. I remember President Obama ranting about gerrymandering in one of his White House speeches. And I think a lot of this that you’re seeing now is another way of doing what I described in my fictional book, who painted my money white because there the then government tried to enrich one section of the community and now Kerala is sitting on a Tinderbox and you know what, America is a much larger country, but the plan the Playbook seems to be taken straight out of the script that the UPA had employed in India. You can distinctly see these parallels in India, the Congress-led Coalition, in the United Kingdom, the British Labour party and in the United States, the Democrats. They’re all different in name only.

The next Point Sir is Senate Democrats pressure Biden to lift the refugee admission limits to 125,000 and President Biden will nominate Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez as the Director of ICE and as sheriff in 2017 he ended the Texas county participation in the 287(G) program and deportation process with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sir, your thoughts on this selection? Also, I think it just reinforces what I just talked about in my book, Sir.

Sridhar Chityala: Exactly. I think that you couldn’t have said it better if you are an Indian National Congress member and if you also happen to be a Democrat, that there is a very close alignment on the two policies. One in one has seen India, the social policies of India did not work, has not worked. For the first $1 trillion of GDP, India took almost close to 60 years. Similarly, if you look at the per capita of the aggrieved communities, progressives to progressive agenda have only pushed them back in terms of the per capita. We will give the data in one of the DGI sessions. So what you are alluding to makes plausible sense in terms of the playbook that is being played out in the United States. With regard to this, the selection of the county sheriff is almost like, if you are a Republican and have a specific policy, you’re going to be thrown out and I’m going to have exactly the opposite guy. Ed Gonzalez stopped cooperating.  Where if you find an illegal alien then the program warranted the police to hand over to ICE, it’s the 287G program. Initially, he was cooperative, but subsequently, he did not. So many of these illegal migrants found in Texas County were let go and now he is going to be the head of ICE. So, therefore, you can imagine what the consequence of this particular decision is. They are going to make, just like defund police, it’s going to deactivate ICE. The deactivation of ICE has already started. If you remember they even issued a circular ‘You cannot call them aliens. You cannot call them illegal aliens. You should be compassionate. You should allow them to come in.’ So this is a formal official communication that has come from the government. So, I think as you said more and more decisions which basically shakes the foundation and the rules of law that prevail in this country.

Sree Iyer: In climate-change-related news, Senate by a vote of 52-42 reverses Trump’s climate-changing methane emission policies and restores it to Obama era policy. This is one of the more than 100 climate regulations, dismantled by Trump. Now, the Democrats are undoing that. So this flip-flop of policies where one party will do one thing and the other party will undo it. It is like you’re going forward and back, forward and back, forward and back. How does it affect the country, sir?

Sridhar Chityala: Yesterday in Biden said in his speech, ‘Our competition is with China. We got to compete with China. And the only way we compete with China is to trickle free effect from bottoms up’ and doing all these things that he is talking about. No sir, you go forward, you go backwards, you go forward, you go backwards in the process. China is advancing its journey while we are spending time dismantling the policies and allocating precious capital to activities, which is not not only advancing the welfare of the people in a sustainable manner, but it is also competitively disadvantaging us in the advancement of some of the main thematic items he alluded to like 5G, AI, Electronic Vehicles, etc. You are so distracted with your focus around company policy preferences, you are missing the bus on many elements including security.

Sree Iyer: President’s controversial choice of Colin Kahl for Pentagon Policy post has been confirmed with Republican absence. So the Republicans weren’t even present at the time the vote was taken, sir.

Sridhar Chityala: Well, because their filibustered rule is in place, and they recognize that, what’s the point? Remember that the senate committee initially declined and then his candidature was put up back again and he made his case. This is one of the Obama Administration officials, who is the author of the Iran policy. Coming to lifting the sanctions and forming the framework of the Iran nuclear policy, he’s going to be the front, centre and, the back of this and we will talk about it. I think now the US is contemplating reducing the constraints even further to make sure that Iran is brought back to the table on sanctions and lifting off sanctions.

Sree Iyer: In global news, I am actually going to refer to Iran related news. The United States warship fires warning shots on three Iranian vessels and they come within 68 yards. The United States eyes major role back in Iran sanctions to revive Iran Nuke Deal. The US and Israel form a joint group focused on Iranian missiles and UAV. Sir, all these things put together, I’m a little confused. The US is talking to Israel to try and limit Iran and on the other side, there are also watering down the sanctions. What is really going on, sir? Can you please some sense for us on this?

Sridhar Chityala: I don’t believe I can make any sense out of this. On one side, you have had leakages of information from John Kelly to the which he has denied, on the second side you have the skirmishes. This is the second skirmish that has happened which is, if you recall we talked about, and unwarranted manoeuvre done by an Iranian vessel despite warning shots. Now you have three Iranian vessels coming in within 68 yards. So on one side, they have this discussion going on to roll back Iranian sanctions to revive a new deal. And then you have another course set up with Israel which is focused on Iranian missiles and Unmanned Armed Vehicles which are flying in the sky, which keeps popping towards Israel. The last incident was the misfire from one of the Syrian locations by the Iranian Rebels or Iranian supporters or so. So you are beginning to find some anomalies in the policy. There seem to be two or three different groups within the Biden Administration focused on running the policies. Is Antony Blinken running one group? Is National Security running another group? One is foreign policy, which is under the Secretary of State, then you have National Security where you may be having special advisers who are promulgating the policy. So it looks like two or three different groups and that’s why you are seeing the confusion. Sir, one thing I apologise, Biden to name Rahm Emanuel as ambassador to Japan, not to Iran. My apologies.

Sree Iyer: So, viewers, we have been hinting for a while now that it is not Mr Biden who’s running the country right now. It is somebody else. This is going to become more and more apparent when you see appointments of this kind. You have to go back and see, who Mr Emanuel is associated with and that is the person who’s really running this country. God save America because I think that we have no right to call ourselves a democracy, when you have somebody else perpetuating the whole thing from outside the White House, this is really a disaster. This is a disgrace to democracy. I’m sorry, I have to go on a rant.

But, let’s go on to the next item, which is Hong Kong, sir. You can add your thoughts to this and then I’ll go to Hong Kong.

Sridhar Chityala: No, I think you have been very forthright in making the observation. All the anecdotal data seems to point, we have seen President Obama participating and ranting up the support as to why certain agenda needs to be pursued. When you look at the administration that is coming in, every member, every member is an ex. From Healthcare policy to foreign policy to climate accord to Iran nuclear deal, every one of them seems to be to somehow retrofit and rationalize that the Obama policies were right and so, therefore, you will follow. Be it on WHO, be it in United Nations be it in World Bank, any of these aspects, we are following blindly we’re going to now throw trillions of dollars of money. And as you rightly said, it’s it is not the right approach in terms of what an elected Administration should be doing in running a country.

Sree Iyer: Hong Kong passes immigration Bill, raising alarm over exit bans. Hong Kong and Taiwan commemorate peaceful protests, that led to the persecution of millions. Japan allows First Starts on nuclear reactors older than 40 years. Australia ups the defence spending Bill to 580 million. All these are related to one country, Australia Senate Uyghur inquiry crosses China’s red line. So all these things are associated with China. What I am amazed at is even the Biden Administration is amazingly silent about what is going on in Hong Kong.

Sridhar Chityala: Well, let us all hope that they don’t become silent on Taiwan. They’ve completely ignored the Himalayan region. They have gone silent on the one-Tibet policy, which makes you feel that in some manner they are yielding to the aspirations of China. So somehow, the whole foreign policy seems to be around the Iran Nuclear deal rather than on the ecosystem and the Tibet policy around the Himalayan Kingdom, which has a significant impact on the world, the policies around East South Asia and the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific and suddenly they shifted their idea to take on Russians in the Baltic and now President Biden is saying, ‘I don’t want to stir up things and I want to go back and negotiate with Putin. So the point that you’re making is very valid.

When you look at the list of things that are going on, Hong Kong has completely eliminated its Democratic rights, it has moved into this exit ban so they can stop anybody at their whim from leaving the country if they find that they were anti-Administration. Hong Kong and Taiwan’s peaceful Falun Gong communities were all leading and billions of them were persecuted in Hong Kong and Taiwan. So you are beginning to see a set of actions where countries are taking up the ante by themselves in dealing with the issue rather than being reliant on the United States.

Sree Iyer: I might want to add one little thing to what you just said, viewers, Falun Gong sect are Buddhists and they predominately tend to be vegetarians and their organs are harvested because their accepters believe that these people lead healthy lives. China has objectified and exploited its own population like Uyghur, Falun Gong, anywhere, any which way they can and this is a disgrace, that they are doing all this in plain sight and they are incomplete disregard of the international norm. Only now, we are seeing some small noises being created and they are coming and swatting it down like you would a mosquito. It’s really, really sad. I don’t know where their priorities are. I think this country’s government is just as blind to some of these things as other governments. Very regrettable.

Anyway, let’s move on to Nigeria. Nigeria is urging the United States to move Africa headquarters to the continent. Which continent are they referring to, sir?

Sridhar Chityala:  African continent.

Sree Iyer: Where is it located now?

Sridhar Chityala: It’s located in the Middle East.

Sree Iyer: I see, I see. This is significant news, India’s neighbour, Sri Lanka bands all forms of the face veil citing National Security concerns. Now, this is something that has been happening since those 4 church blasts that took place a couple of years ago, right?

Sridhar Chityala: Yeah I think that the present Sri Lankan Administration, very similar to France, is taking a very strong view, which is, there has to be a homogenous mechanism prevalent in the country in terms of social community entanglement and engagement and so on. Otherwise, it makes the Law and Order situation potentially cumbersome.

Sree Iyer: In the Global Covid update,  Dr Anthony Fauci says that India’s Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin found to be neutralizing the 617 variant of the covid-19 virus. You will remember that 617 is the one that is causing this havoc right now in parts of Maharashtra, and it’s also called a double mutant virus.

A nasal spray developed by Canadian SaNOtize could be a game-changer and is looking for Indian distribution partners.

The CDC says that fully vaccinated people can exercise and hold small gatherings without masks. This is the first time, the CDC has come out with this. Sir, your thoughts.

Sridhar Chityala: I think that it is very refreshing to see three things. One is, Covaxin gets the endorsement. So, it’s likely to spurt up interest and it’s very good for India which is combating this new virus, the double mutant virus. As far as the nasal spray and the Pfizer announcement of the pill, that augurs extremely well, it brings it down to localization of the treatment and addressing the issue of the virus and spreading. As far as the gathering is concerned, the red States had already proven that, if you follow the social principles you don’t need to shut people down and you don’t need to wear masks if you follow the basic sanity and hygiene especially if you’re vaccinated. Even after vaccination, double vaccination, if 6 in 6 million are affected or if 10 in 1 million are affected, you cannot have 999 thousand people being subjected to a set of rules.

Sree Iyer: In Markets, Fed holds interest rates near zero, just like you predicted sir, and sees faster growth at higher inflation. When do you think these two will become a concern?

Sridhar Chityala: It’s coming by end of the year, we can see. We are on faster growth. This year the United States is expected to grow around, the number can be north of 6%. We started with 4.3, went past five, we are soon going past 6. We have already seen the inflation numbers. The only reason why the inflation numbers are not up is that food and energy prices are not included in inflation. So, therefore, I think we are beginning to see, the 10-year rate is a good indication. When will we see some of these changes? We again, talked about it yesterday, I think they plan to reduce this bond purchase program which is originally 120 billion per month is already scaled down to 80. As they begin to tailor that program down you can say yes, I think the economy is beginning to now, cool down.

Sree Iyer: In other earnings information, Facebook Revenue rises 48% driven by ad revenues, the earnings per share $3.30, revenue was 26.17 billion. Ford revenues are up with chip shortages, manages EPS at 89 cents versus 2921 in the previous quarter and automotive revenue of 33.55 billion versus 32.23 billion, so you are going to have more computers on wheels, sir.

Sridhar Chityala: I think we are certainly going to have more computers on wheels. Ford has again, demonstrated, if you go back in time, one of the first companies that came out of the 2008-2009 crisis where the automotive industry was ravaged at that point of time producing 14 million cars to about less than 9 million cars. That was a significant climb down in terms of manufacturing. Ford has said that it has addressed the chip issue, it is back on managing it quite well very similar to Tesla. Tesla had record earnings. So to your point, yes, automobiles on computers.

Sree Iyer: Apple records another blow-out quarter with sales up 54%, earnings per share of dollar 40. Earnings are 89.58 billion, iPhone alone contributed to 47.94 billion to the gross margin of 42.5%. Qualcomm Revenue rises 52% on smartphone demand and earnings per share versus dollar 90. The revenue was 7.93 billion.

Sir, the other news is all the numbers that you can get, S&P was flagged, Dow fall 1260 points after Fed keeps the rates low. Now you can see that oil is again beginning to creep up, oil ended at $63.75, Brent at $67 and I’ll let you make a comment sir right after I cover the Bitcoin price. Bitcoin also creeping back up, 54,351, Coinbase at $298.27. Sir, your thoughts on the overall direction in which the market is headed.

Sridhar Chityala: The first is, I think the revenue numbers. I mean, I stand corrected computer on Wheels rather than an automobile on computers. Overall on the revenue, you can see that this is the new economy and this is the new world and all these companies which are reporting earnings, are reporting earnings based on the disruptive transformative change that has occurred as part of the pandemic. One would expect the sales to have come down. Everything has gone up. With regard to the markets, the markets are flat, the 30-year is still very, very attractive at 2.29%. But the 10-year has an indication that we are approaching towards the 2% and the inflation. As far as the Bitcoin is concerned, it went up by $2000 so we went from $52,000 yesterday to $54,000 and my observation around Bitcoin is that there is no scientific model, but, there is money and what could be the reason. Tesla reported $2.5 billion of its profits is still holding on Bitcoin. So all these big companies are reporting, the holdings in Bitcoin is doing a favourable augmentative effect on the revenues. So generally when you see such big names and big leaders, making them pronouncement, even in earning numbers, you got to have some tailwind effect. And what you’re seeing is some of the tailwind effects in the uptick of the numbers. In other words, emotion and sentiments are driving the valuation. Remember, we went to $48,000, we clawed our way back to 54 and we may continue to see little upward momentum as well.

If you are in India, some of these IPL cricketers have donated to the Prime Minister fund by selling one Bitcoin, ‘I sold my one Bitcoin and donated that money.’ So when you have a Bret Lee making a statement that I have given 74 lakhs by selling 1 Bitcoin then says ‘Ah maybe I need to have 1 or 2 Bitcoins. So these are all the sentimental effects that drive, there is no scientific rationale theory in the price determination. It’s not gold as yet. Gold has some intrinsic value. I’m not talking about the whole underlying technology which makes a blockchain. I’m just talking about Bitcoin as a commodity.

Sree Iyer: If Alan Greenspan would have been asked this question, ‘What are his thoughts about Bitcoin?’ He might have said this is irrational, exuberance.

With that, we conclude this edition of our Daily Global Insights. Namaskar. Thanks for watching. Do subscribe and Sridharji, we will be back tomorrow morning, bright and early, as usual.

Sridhar Chityala: Namaskar. Thank you so much. And have a wonderful Thursday.