Transcription
Sree Iyer: Good Morning Viewers, It’s a bright and sunny morning in New York today and that’s what I’m assuming, Sridhar Ji can update us with the weather there. It is hot already in California and Welcome to our daily updates with Sridhar. Sridhar Chityala Ji Namaskar and welcome to PGurus Channel.
Sridhar Chityala: Namaskar Ji, I’m just trying to look at myself in the YouTube. Good morning to you. It’s not a bright and sunny morning from New York. It is cloudy, rainy morning, we have had partial drizzle, and it’s that time of the season so you can expect this, which is pretty good. It is not rainy, gloomy and doomy in the market side and the political Spectrum seems to be all very hunky-dory.
Sree Iyer: Yes, and I wanted to touch upon, one important thing to start with the growing importance of quad and then we will of course segue into the Markets. I think, yesterday there was a significant statement made by India’s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. What do you make of it? And then where is quad headed.
Sridhar Chityala: It’s a fascinating topic which probably warrants more extensive time. But, to put this in context, Jaishankar made the comment on the heels of the recently concluded meeting in Japan, where all the quad leaders met. India will be leading the Malabar exercise which began in somewhere in the 1990s. But today has taken a significant proportion within the context of the security dialogue. So four countries are involved, what used to be India- the United States, then, it became India US And Japan. Now, Australia has joined the league, so that forms the quad. It is important to put his statement in context because the reason is, there was the build-up in the south coast of China facing Taiwan potentially to create any disturbances in the intervening period leading up to the elections or post-elections. Should there be a change in the government?
There’s a perception that Biden is soft towards China, unlike Trump. So I think, India is dispelling the notion that India Australia and Japan will be leading this effort with support from the United States. So it is really telling within that context. The security dialogue is no longer in the United Nations, but security dialogue is neither in NATO. But, it is actually taking place in the Indo-Pacific region not only to protect the maritime boundaries because it has become the hotspot of dispute. It also because almost two-thirds of the global trade flows through those Maritime Waters. Whether it is the South China Sea or Malacca Straits. Whether it is the Indian Ocean or the indo-pacific. So, maritime corridors are significant areas of Commerce. So, it is very strategic the three things one, beware China that we are here and we are active. Two, beware China, we will protect maritime irrespective of what happens in a position of influence in the United States in terms of the power. Third, to tell the nation that quad is standing by, mind you there was also a change of leadership in Japan. So, it’s wonderful to see the Indian foreign minister making that statement. And that’s how I look at quad taking a very significant strategic position on a number of matters but most important on the security dialogue.
Sree Iyer: So a quick update to viewers on this exploding emails Scandal about Biden’s involvement in China. We have a very interesting situation developing. The Director of National Intelligence has come out and said that he sees no Russian hand in it. To counterbalance that we have a letter purportedly signed by 50 people who worked in various administrations in the intelligence saying, that they definitely see a hand of Russia here. So you have the same kind of thing that happens in India like the Gharvapsi things or Award Wapsi thing all this tamasha that we see in India, has now come over to the shores of the United States. So Sridharji, one problem that the Bidens are unable to shake away on this is that they are not able to say this is fake and that this was never sent. It is a real email that sent, all they are trying to say is someone is reconstructing it. Somehow, somewhere they’re trying to back construct the story. Quickly, maybe you can spend one minute on this and then we can go to the stimulus plan.
Sridhar Chityala: There was a lot of criticism over the weekend that post-discovery of this computer and announcement of what is called now as the Hunter Biden emails. There was null and no response from the party’s concerned which is namely Hunter Biden. Obviously, Andrew Bates from the Democratic side has given a statement denying everything else. So what you are now beginning to see is the narrative being developed to counter as much as a narrative being developed on the Republican side, to say, we told you so we were investigated and the investigative agency seems to be collusive in being silent on this case. I think that’s what you are saying, it’s information and disinformation kind of battle that’s going on. I believe social media tech platform seems to be in the thick of it, using the power vacuum that exists in terms of what content they can do, who can then block etc.,
Sree Iyer: Thank you, sir. And we have to see how this is going to play out. Certainly, social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are not getting covered in glory here. And I think Google also is facing some heat, they are going to be having some hearings very soon. So, we have to see how this is going to play out. Unfortunately, the last time we had hearings in the Senate or in the Congress, Mark Zuckerberg wove some sort of a magic wand around these people, nothing really happened. This was in regard to the Russian interference in the 2016 election and really they just got away. Now, all relying on is some sort of better censorship on these platforms. Don’t get me wrong, we are using these platforms to get the message across. They do a good job for the most part; however, it is what it is, that it has to be not only fair but appears to be fair, that is where the question is.
Sir, moving on, Economy, the markets are up 200 plus points even before the Stock Exchange is opened. So it appears like the markets are factoring in a stimulus deal. What are your thoughts on that? Where do you think it is going to come and stop? And perhaps you can give us some Oracle-like view of what is going to happen today.
Sridhar Chityala: Well, I think the two things are going to happen today, one, is that what is giving the prophecy to this theory or the markets going up, when the markets actually went down yesterday and then today it is going up. They went down between 0.6 – 1% depending on whether it is Dow or whether it is SNP or NASDAQ. Today the markets are up because their continued discussions occurred yesterday between Steve Mnuchin and of course Nancy Pelosi. Today morning’s reports are that they’re converging on the discussion because the sore point is around the verbiage on the testing plan that needs to happen. The nationwide testing and the amount to be allocated against. It seems to be a convergence and there seems to be pressure from the President also to say get a deal done because today is the deadline. The republicans in the Senate who have the sway don’t want to have any part of it because they don’t want to yield to this unwarranted kind of allocation of capital, which they don’t believe is going to produce the desired outcomes. So they believe that they should pass a frugally fiscal 500 billion dollars package, which is targeted at the agreeing sectors. So all those sectors which are impacted small businesses, individuals, unemployed, hospitals, schools, local administration, government, airlines etc., to be funded with a smaller austerity program and then to see how that gets sorted out. So where do I see this? I see is a situation where I believe there would be some kind of settlement that would happen. I will be very very surprised if a 1.8 trillion dollar package is going to be announced. I believe that probably the chances of the Senate being persuaded and the 500 billion getting passed by Trump seems pretty high related to 1.8.
Sree Iyer: So sometimes what happens is, this is the Optics part, so whatever number wins out at the end, one party is going to claim victory and that will become a new story and who knows maybe the Democrats want this because they want to take the heat off of the Biden controversy. You never know in politics, but I can tell you in my experience of seven or eight presidential elections that I have witnessed from up close and centre, this is one of the most rancorous, most divisive, most debated. I might tell viewers when the 2000 election results were playing out, I was there actually in Florida in Miami-Dade County, that’s exactly where I was and I was seeing all this activity going on when they were doing all this chad counting, chad-less counting, all sorts of things that happened so really interesting times ahead. We don’t know if America will know who their next president is going to be on November 3rd. In fact, in 2000, it took all the waiting up to January before they knew who was their president. So a very very long-drawn-out bitter battle and a lot of finger-pointing. So we have to see how it plays out this time. Coronavirus has again reared its ugly head not only in Europe but also in the United States. How do you see things play out? Because most of the United States is going to be cold, barring a few Southern States.
Sridhar Chityala: I think, Europe witnessed quite an alarming spike. I think across Europe there’s been a 40% spike in terms of the number of cases. I mean this 40%, 30% is relative to the previous number rather than anything that you would consider pretty alarming likes if it was yesterday a 100 today is 140. Well, that is certainly alarming if you use 100 as a number. If you use 10,000 as a number and you have 4,000 that’s quite significant, you know, 14,000, but Europe is large. There has been a progressive increase in the United States and those numbers are said to be around 5% day to day overtake. When you talk to doctors and when you speak with other people in the knowhow of this pandemic, the general tendency is, ‘we had told so, that there would be a second wave. We had also told you that the onset of the winter which is the flu season, you will see a spurt in cases and this is especially vulnerable to those people who have prior ailments such as lung and respiratory disorders.’ Therefore, as they predicted you’re beginning to see the numbers, of course, it’s not good. But that was kind of expected given there’s no vaccine. It’s really interesting that Britain has made a statement today, which is to say people must accept this is an epidemic like the flu rather than a pandemic. It is going to exist and it is going to be with us for the foreseeable future that seems to be the general sentiment that is coming out of the UK.
Sree Iyer: So, we are heading towards a new normal, a new normal where you will have to practice some safe health measures like wearing a mask, cleaning your hands often, be careful of how much distance you maintain between people. So this is going to become the new normal until a clear sign emerges that this virus has completely gone away. So we don’t know the timeline. But in the meantime, there is an important role that India as a country as a pharma provider for the world is playing. India has a chance to become the pharma capital of the world because the country that can provide inexpensive affordable medicine for every situation and India has made a name for itself in the Pharma industry. Sridharji, this is the last topic for the day. How do you see India’s emergence in the Pharma World? And how do you see this thing going forward?
Sridhar Chityala: Well, I think yesterday Prime Minister Modi had a detailed discussion or briefing on this topic. The way he has listed Pharma and treatment of covid as one of the Strategic priorities. In fact, the government is putting apparently a setup program that is looking at, he laid down the attributes. India’s access to scientists, India’s access to labs, India’s access to large manufacturing capabilities. India may not have had formulations, API formulations where they can cooperate with countries like Japan, Israel, and Taiwan to secure as a counterbalance to China because nobody wants to have anything to do with China. And he’s also stating that for it to be effective for them for India to be effective, they need to have a lot of cold storage, distribution, transportation all these types of facilities, which make it into a very powerful mechanism not just to serve India, but also to serve the world. And his example was that when specific medications were needed India rose to the occasion and supplied medicines to 130 countries. So I think that India will build an ecosystem and India has the capability and many of the multinationals are located in India. So it probably augurs well for the world that India has put this as a strategic priority to take this forward, Taiwan is very important in this category. I’ve slipped Taiwan from the first topic to the last topic, India has formally recognized Taiwan and firmly established a big footprint in Taiwan and India-Taiwan cooperation and one of the first areas that are mentioned is medicine. So, Taiwan has large know-how, therefore they say we don’t need China will go to Taiwan and you bring the know-how, in addition to the other industries like hardware and logistics and so on. So I think that there is a very profound attempt counterbalance China both in a strategic context, but also augmenting the capabilities.
Sree Iyer: Thank you very much, sir, and that brings us to the end of our ‘Daily update’ do watch us, please subscribe to our Channel. Please donate to our Channel. We need all your support. And once again, thanks Sridharji and we’ll be back tomorrow.
Sridhar Chityala: Thank you Sree Iyerji. Have a wonderful day folks for those in the United States and have a great evening wherever you are.
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