TMS Ep449: NEP, rising airfares, Jonathan Garner, spelling competition

The government came out with the National Electricity Plan last week. It says that India’s power generation capacity will touch 900 gigawatts by the end of this decade -- in line with the rising demand. But it also wants a rejig in the country’s energy mix. The plan is to cut the share of coal-based power and let renewable energy sources fill that gap. But, given that the base load might still depend on coal, is the goal too ambitious? 

Unseasonal rains, meanwhile, have kept a tab on electricity demand this summer. But, it seems, the airfares are on fire this season. On some routes, the fare is now 10 times higher than what it was a few days ago. So should the government intervene to bring down the prices of airline tickets? 

After the skyrocketing airfares, let us turn our gaze to markets. Indian equity markets are still not a top buy for Morgan Stanley, who prefer Japan, Korea and Taiwan more in the Asian region. Business Standard’s Puneet Wadhwa caught up with JONATHAN GARNER, Morgan Stanley’s Asia Equity Strategist on the sidelines of Morgan Stanley India Investment Forum in Mumbai to understand the rationale for this, and where does India exactly lie on their preference list.

In its recent June report too, Morgan Stanley retained the equal-weight stance on Indian equity markets. After the financial markets, let us now dive into the realms of the dictionary. How many of you know the spelling of ‘psammophile’ (pronounced Sam uh file)? Well, 14-year-old Dev Shah, who won the United States’ prestigious National Spelling Bee championship last week, knew it. It was the winning word for him. A host of Indian-origin students have won this award in the past too. Listen to this episode of the podcast to know more.