The BS Morning Show

The rate setting panel of the Reserve Bank of India has kept lending rate unchanged at 6.5 percent, signalling that its battle against inflation is not over yet. This was the sixth consecutive time that the central bank has left the repo rate unchanged. The Monetary Policy Committee has also decided to stay focused on the “withdrawal of accommodation” stance.  After banking, let us now turn our gaze to the glamorous world of advertising. What is going on there? A recent attempt by a model-turned-actor to pull herself out of obscurity has shocked many. Poonam Pandey is once again in the news. But at what cost? Shockvertising, a marketing ploy that aims to grab attention through controversial or shocking ways, is not new. Some recent episodes have again triggered a debate around it. So how much shockvertising is too much?  In 2013, US carmaker Ford had apologised over a poster showing  three gagged and bound women in the boot of a car. It had come against the backdrop of the brutal Nirbhaya incident. Let us now move on to markets. Shares of public sector banks have delivered up to 3x returns over the past six months as investors increasingly turn bullish on government-backed lenders. Their private peers, on the other hand, have had mixed performances on the bourses during the period. In our next report, find out what is keeping the stocks in demand, and if this outperformance will continue. No indications of an interest rate cut by the RBI in the near future spooked the markets on Thursday. But it’s most likely a blip. The recent interim Budget has affirmed that India’s economy is on firm footing. One of the Budget announcements that was praised in several quarters was the government’s Rs 1 lakh crore corpus to boost private sector research in “sunrise domains” like biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and renewable energy. Listen to this episode of the podcast for answers.