'Retail investors have been selling since the Budget and Foreign Portfolio Investors started selling.' 'Thus far, domestic institutions have picked up the slack, buying enough to keep the major indices from falling off a cliff.' 'However, there has been carnage in smaller stocks and the financial sector has been hit much harder than the major market indices,' points out Devangshu Datta.
'The financial sector will be hit even harder than the overall market.' 'The banking sector will eventually be rescued.' 'But it may go into a long downwards spiral before things turn around.' 'Threat or buying opportunity?' asks Devangshu Datta.
'One problem with machine learning is that extensive human inputs are required.' 'This is both an expense and time consuming.' 'If AIs can do this on their own, the process may become more efficient,' says Devangshu Datta.
'... because their parents wanted a boy.' 'But over 2 million women go every year due to sex-selective abortion, disease, neglect or inadequate nutrition,' says Devangshu Datta.
It is too early to judge if the fall in Nifty from an all-time high of 11,170 to February 12 closing of 10,539 is a big trend reversal or merely a short-term correction, says Devangshu Datta.
Bubbles can inflate indefinitely and also burst, with deep corrections, warns Devangshu Datta.
Indian indices have hit all-time highs in the New Year and the sentiment remains strong. All valuations are also at extremely high levels, cautions Devangshu Datta
'Apparently the entire biometric database's demographic data is available, which means that every Aadhaar signup is wide open to identity theft.' 'The commoditisation of the method -- selling the log-in for Rs 500 -- indicates that scammers have already harvested whatever they wanted,' points out Devangshu Datta.
Valuations are much higher than the consensus earnings expectations warrant and also much too high in historical terms, says Devangshu Datta.
Earnings growth is expected to accelerate as lingering toxic effects of note ban ease off and GST settles down. However, stock valuations are high and that means market is also overdue for correction, says Devangshu Datta.
'Could robots vote for effective political leadership?' 'Arguably they could do this better than humans.' 'They are far better at fact-checking for obvious lies, and far better at gauging the sincerity of statements by analysing body language, facial movements and vocal tonality of speakers,' says Devangshu Datta.
The dollar-rupee rate could move in the opposite direction if dollar policy rates rise and the FPIs sell in December, says Devangshu Datta.
The LIGO announcement -- which confirmed, among other things, that gold, platinum and other heavy metals were products of neutron star collisions -- came just before Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar's 107th birthday.
The DoT estimates that it will receive Rs 29,524 cr in revenue from the telecom industry in FY18, which is 38% less than the Budget revenue target of Rs 47,300 cr for FY18
Cash flow-based analysis should throw up businesses better able to survive the transient effects of a working capital crunch, says Devangshu Datta.
'Any 21st-century political campaign will involve a lot of jockeying for social media territory.' The higher the profile of the campaign, the more likely it is to draw freelancers. Devangshu Datta surveys the Battle of the Bots.
'The 2019 election and the run-up to it will certainly see bots being deployed in large numbers on all sides.'
'These problems teach us to think and assess information in a rational way.' 'That's all important at a time when a minister for education crudely humiliates a schoolteacher for giving the right answers,' says Devangshu Datta.
Sticking to smaller and mid-cap companies can be more fruitful, suggests Devangshu Datta.
Inflation is down, growth is headed for recovery. RIL and subsidiary Jio are on an upswing. However, stressed loans and impending job losses are the dark clouds, says Devangshu Datta.