TMS Ep158: Future Group deal collapse, cinema, ICICI beats HDFC, UPI123Pay

The ongoing battle between Amazon and Reliance over Future Group took yet another interesting twist last week when the Indian giant backed off -- abandoning its plan to acquire the cash-strapped firm. Jeff Bezos has been looking to expand foothold in India’s nearly $900 billion retail market. And so is Mukesh Ambani. What would the fall of this deal mean for the retail ambitions of Amazon and Reliance? 

After the fall of Future Group’s deal with Reliance Industries, let us turn to the meteoritic rise of Southern cinema and its growing appeal among Hindi speaking audiences. In the past six months, movies such as Pushpa, RRR and KGF2 have shattered box office records. Is this a flash in the pan or a longer term trend? 

After the clash of Bollywood and southern cinema, let us move on to the race of two private lenders. ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have been vying for the top position in the country’s banking space for quite some time. While ICICI seems to be winning over the HDFC group company, there are certain trends that investors need to watch out. 

HDFC’s loss may well be ICICI’s gain. Meanwhile, transactions through UPI are registering a rapid growth. And RBI’s initiative to introduce it in feature phones is set to take it to another level. Listen to this episode of the podcast to know why and more. 

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