TMS Ep523: Car airbags, Nirmala Sitharaman, Zomato stock, Google antitrust

The automotive industry can breathe easy now. The government has decided against making six airbags mandatory in passenger cars. Instead, Union minister Nitin Gadkari left it to people’s wisdom, saying they have become cautious. And that they will prefer vehicles with six airbags. But will that work? Or has cost trumped safety when it comes to airbags? 

With the airbag decision, the list of U-Turns that the government did in the last few months has swelled further. But some call it a trial and error approach. The government is trying to reach where others feared to tread. In a recent interview with Business Standard, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke at length about a host of economic issues ranging from inflation to growth. She also tried to dispel the opposition’s fear that the country was retreating to the Licence Raj era. We have three key takeaways from the interview.

India’s impressive growth is also finding echo in financial markets. Most benchmark indices are trading at record level. Net investment in equity mutual fund schemes hit a 5-month high in August, days ahead of record high levels in the markets. The total AUM of the industry and total investor folios, too, are at an all-time high. However, with macro headwinds rising and calls for caution growing, should mutual fund investors book profit? 

Let us now move on to a court case which is keeping experts across the world on the edge. The trial in the Google antitrust case kicked off last week on September 15. The US’s Justice Department has accused the tech giant of abusing its dominance in the search engine market to kill competition. Listen to this episode of the podcast for answers.