Letters to the editor dated August 2, 2021

There has been talk of the imminent jolt that the stock market is likely to get given its bubble. If there is a repetition of the 1992 and 2008 stock market debacle, it is going to be fatal for the economy already reeling from the pandemic.

As per the data available more than 30 companies are in the queue, for IPOs.

This market is being driven by sentiment and speculation and not on fundamentals. As the article “Getting into a pickle over Zomato valuation”, states the thumping success of Zomato’s IPO must ring a warning bell for the regulators.

A company which has been running losses for the last three financial years and whose last year’s loss was almost equal to their total 2020 earnings and without any tangible assets, and threat of competition from peer companies, its valuation is way too high. Recently China had scuttled the Ant Grupo’s IPO, which was touted to be the world’s biggest.

This should also make our regulators sit up and take notice.

Thiruvananthapuram

In the article “From Country to party to government” the writer has drawn some interesting parallels between the previous Prime Ministers and the present Prime Minister.

Charismatic leaders usually don't have an innings extending more than three terms. All the PMs may be gifted people, but at the end of the day they are human, and therefore likely to make mistakes or misread situations.

Coteries of yes men may reinforce the the infallibility of the leader until one day the masses show him the door. The TINA factor makes him feel more secure in his cocoon.

The people too are guilty of expecting too much from their leader. Until the candidates are able to get votes in the name of Modi, they will be grateful to him, but once that goes as it has in the case of the the Gandhi family, the Hosannas can quickly turn into brickbats and people will blame him for everything gone wrong, even if it isn't his fault!

Mumbai

PV Sindhu is a rare Indian athlete to win two Olympics medals; besides that she also has five World Championship medals, Asian Games and Asian Championship medals, and two Commonwealth games medals.

She has won or had a podium finish in every tournament in her sport. Without an iota of doubt she is the greatest badminton player India has ever produced and one of the biggest sporting legends of our country. We need to applaud her bronze medal in Tokyo, played under the backdrop of the pandemic, which would have certainly affected her preparation as many international tournaments were cancelled and Indians were barred from travelling to many countries.

She has shown great composure after her semi-final loss to come out triumphant in this bronze medal match. She will continue to inspire thousands of young kids who would now pick up a badminton racquet after her superb show in Tokyo.

Noida

This refers to the news report “MPC seen continuing status quo on repo” (August 2). Indeed the MPC ought to continue the status quo on the policy repo rate, thanks to the dismal state of demand and the inflation rate being high. The corporate sector is showing little enthusiasm in obtaining credit given the uncertainty over the recovery post-pandemic. The inflationary pressure is being caused by adverse supply shocks and mismatches in demand supply matrix.

Hence keeping the policy corridor unchanged in the upcoming review would be welcome since economic variables have changed little in recent times. The reading on high frequency activity indicators leaves little room for optimism. Hence the MPC ought to keep status quo with maintaining an accommodative policy stance to guard against the growth risks with the threat of the third wave looming large.

Sivakasi

COMMENT NOW