The BS Morning Show

The IPO of Walmart-owned Flipkart has been in the works for a while now. In 2022, the e-commerce firm had internally raised its IPO valuation target to 60 to 70 billion dollars. Before that, it was 50 billion dollars. Two years on -- while the IPO is still elusive-- the company has now raised 600 million dollars from Walmart. But its current valuation is still below its 2021 peak of 38-billion-dollar. So is a 60-billion-dollar target realistic? While Flipkart and Amazon struggle to turn profitable, there is no denying that consumers have gained a lot. They never had so many options. And such a wide price range to pick from. The digital revolution has taken the retail sector by storm. It has tremendously helped students in learning too. In cities, smartboards have replaced the traditional blackboards. But in rural areas, the digital divide appears stark. The Annual Status of Education Report 2023 has come out with a worrying report. It says that about 25% of rural youth in the age group of 14-18 cannot read a Class 2 level text “fluently”, or calculate basic math.  After the country’s education, let us now turn our gaze to financial markets. Shares of India’s most valuable company, Reliance Industries, have been slow movers at the bourses. The stock performed in-line with the markets in 2023, but picked momentum over the last few weeks. Going ahead, will the December quarter results help the stock sustain its uptrend? Or will the stock turn an underperformer again?  Soaring indices are not the only indicators of India’s impressive economic growth. There are other metrics too. One of them is poverty. The number of people who are being pulled out of poverty every year. A recent NITI Ayog report said that India’s multidimensional poverty has decreased from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23.  But what is multidimensional poverty? Listen to this episode of the podcast for answers.