TMS Ep608: Foreign universities, non-leather footwear, IT stocks, Atal Setu

Come July and Australia’s Deakin University will start admitting students. This piece of news might not be of interest to many. But what if we tell you that these admissions will take place in India, and at the university’s local campus in Gujarat? Well, you heard it right. Foreign universities are finally coming to India. The National Education Policy, 2020 had laid down the framework. And UGC came out with a final set of regulations about two months ago. But will students warm up to foreign universities in India?
 
While foreign universities may take some time to gain a foothold in India, footwear made on foreign shores have already made inroads here. Leather shoes and sandals have almost become invisible, replaced by cheaper non-leather stuff.  The industry, it looks like, is on an inflection point as it is moving from the skill-based labour intensive leather footwear to scale-based machine-led non- leather footwear. Clearly it is a challenging time for Indian manufacturers. So, how can India scale up operations in non-leather footwear?
 
Let us now see what is happening in financial markets. IT stocks have been firing up recently on strong Q3 earnings, sparking a rally in the overall market as well. The Sensex index has surged nearly 1,800 points in just 4 sessions to cross a new peak of 73,000 on January 14. So, will the rally in IT stocks and the benchmark indices sustain?
 
Meanwhile, India’s financial capital got a big gift last week. Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the country’s largest bridge on the sea. This six-lane Mumbai Trans Harbour Link will reduce the travel time between South Mumbai to Navi Mumbai to just about 20 minutes, from the earlier over two hours. Listen to this episode of the podcast for more.