TMS, Ep 17: Air India sale, RBI report, Qualcomm's 5G play, PF, and markets

With the successful sale of Air India to the Tata group, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has restarted the country’s long-stalled privatisation programme, which had been kicked off by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in the late 1990s. With several high-profile privatisation deals lined up, including the sale of Bharat Petroleum, can Modi replicate Vajpayee’s success? 

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The monetary policy report of the Reserve Bank of India has pegged economic growth at 7.8% for the next financial year, assuming normal monsoon and full vaccination against the Covid-19 virus. What were the 10 most important takeaways from the report?

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How prepared is the mobile device ecosystem for the 5G technology, which is expected to be rolled out by next year? Will we again see the stutters that we had seen at the time of 4G? Will the prices come down in the sub-Rs 10,000 handset segment? When will India’s semiconductor chip shortage end? And is India ready to have its own fab ecosystem? Qualcomm VP and President for India and SAARC, Rajen Vagadia, answered all these questions in an exclusive interview with Business Standard’s Surajeet Das Gupta.

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With the RBI policy behind us, markets will shift their focus towards corporate earnings and macroeconomic data during this holiday truncated week. What are the key triggers for the week and what are tech charts suggesting for the markets? 

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The Employees’ Provident Fund, or EPF, has traditionally been the most common tool for most Indians, especially the salaried class, to save for their retirement corpus. But what is provident fund? 

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Listen to these and more in today’s Business Standard Morning Show podcast.