The Captain's Podcast

India imported $79.2 billion worth of goods from China between January and September this year. At least that’s what the official figures suggest.  But ask China and you’ll get a completely different answer. Our Neighbour believes that it shipped goods worth $89.7 billion.  Hmmm!  So where did the $10 billion go exactly?  Before we get there, you should know that the whole “India says this, China says that” conversation isn’t new. There have always been discrepancies. But the issue here is that the gap is growing. According to Livemint, the gap stood at $2.8 billion in 2018. In 2019, it jumped to $6.5 billion. And in 2022, it hit $10.5 billion.  Let's find out in this latest podcast, how Havala is helping these import exporters to do such practices.

e-RUPI is a digital solution launched by the Hon'ble PM via video conferencing to allow cashless payment solution for COVID-19 vaccination. The digital payment solution has been developed with the support of DFS (Department of Financial Services) and NHA (National Health Authority) and is powered by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).  

1. What is Digital Currency? 2. How is it different from Normal money? 3. e-RUPI vs UPI? 4. How will CBDC benefit the economy? 5. What are the MAJOR RISKS of this central digital currency?  digital rupee in india | central bank digital currency | cbdc  

Do follow Captain Cool for more of such insightful content.

Do follow Captain Cool for more of such insightful content.  

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, is reportedly eyeing up a bid to take over Liverpool after the club were put up for sale by their current owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG).  According to the Mirror, the FSG are willing to sell for £4bn, and there is a greater desire to buy the Merseyside club outright. Ambani, with a net worth of around £90billion and rated by Forbes as the eighth richest person in the world, has already enquired about the club.  FSG, who took charge of the Liverpool club in 2010, stunned the footballing world earlier this week when they said they would be open to listening to offers for the club.  But why do these Billionaires buy sports team? Does it make any business sense? What is the business model of football clubs or any sports league?  I discuss all of it in this latest podcast.  

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The Benefits and Risks of Investing in India The country has a longstanding parliamentary democracy and liberal economic policies that make it a safer place than many other rising markets. But the country's unstable geopolitical environment poses risks that you should think about before you invest.  The benefits of investing in India include:  Positive Demographics: The country has a youthful, educated, and growing workforce that should help support growth. This assumes that the country's educational system teaches how to advance its economy over time.  Strong Economic Growth: The country has a strong growth rate, particularly in the information technology and business process outsourcing sectors. These are still the largest sectors of the global economy as a whole.  Stable Government: It has kept a democracy since being released from British rule over 60 years ago. In 2014, Narendra Modi was elected prime minister. His government and policies have made good progress in recent years, although the country is still lagging in many ways.  The risks of investing in India include:  Geopolitical Instability: It is located in a somewhat shaky geopolitical region with many terrorist attacks on its soil. While these attacks haven't derailed its economy, they create short-term risks that you should consider.

Recently, Amazon announced that it would be planning on laying off around 10,000 employees, which would comprise of nearly 3 percent of its corporate workforce and less than 1 percent of its global workforce. Meta recently fired 11,000 employees, around 13 percent of its workforce. CEO Mark Zuckerberg had taken accountability for the layoffs and stated that he “got this wrong”. 

Twitter also laid off around 50 percent of its workforce, following Elon Musk’s takeover of the infamous bird app. 

So, What do you do in case you get laid off or better yet, how can you prepare for job loss while you still have one...I share all of it in this latest podcast. 

3.5 crore. That’s the big number Prime Minister Narendra Modi kept touting during a virtual event recently. He noted that the government had built 3.5 crore pukka houses in the past few years. And he credited the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana scheme for catalysing this change. But what is Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana exactly? 

I discuss all of it in my latest podcast.

There is an interesting trend emerging — Lab Grown Diamonds. And India is a major player here. Between FY20 and FY22 Indian exports of natural cut and polished diamonds witnessed a growth of 30%. But exports of polished Lab Grown Diamonds soared 211%.  

I discuss all of it in this latest podcast.

A few days ago, our Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a very interesting comment. She was responding to a question on the sidelines of the World Bank and IMF meetings and she said — “First of all I would look at it as not rupee sliding, I would look at it as dollar strengthening.” This statement riled up a lot of people. The rupee has already lost nearly 10% of its value compared to the dollar in the past year. On Wednesday it breached the ₹83 mark. And needless to say, this is deeply concerning. A weak rupee translates to a higher import bill and this is most obvious when you consider the price of oil. It’s already on the rise and you throw in a weak currency and it becomes even more expensive. This gives way to inflation and it hurts everyone. And so you could argue that Ms Sitharaman’s comments are deeply insensitive. I mean — What’s the difference eh? The rupee depreciates, the dollar strengthens — it’s all the same no? 

Well no. I discuss all of it in deep in this latest podcast.

Often in life, we face the problem where we are unable to focus. Due to this inability, we are unable to give our 100% to the task at hand. This is also the ability that identifies successful individuals. So now let’s come to the main question is how to stay focused? Or even for that matter how to focus better? Through this podcast, I will share 10 ways that will help you to learn how to stay focused & achieve your goals.

Leaders never stop growing and developing. They have the capacity to keep themselves from falling into a comfort zone. They are lifelong students. All leadership qualities can be developed. The hard part is identifying the qualities that you must learn to succeed as an effective leader. I share the same in this latest podcast.

Do you struggle with Self-Discipline? Here are some insights on how to develop self-discipline with my example of how I transformed from a lazy college going kid to a Disciplined Army Officer.

Modern-day slavery can include debt bondage. It’s when someone is forced to work in perpetuity (or extended periods) to pay off their debt. It could include domestic servitude — a full-time live-in help who doesn’t have an avenue to quit. It could be forced marriage, where someone is married off to a family without consent. And there’s kidnapping and trafficking for the sole purpose of exploiting labour.

On 17th September, 2022, the prime minister of India made grand announcement of the national logistics policy and the unified logistics interface, and just like UPI revolutionized the payment industry in India, this policy is expected to revolutionize the entire logistics industry of India, including Road, Rail, Waterways and even air logistics! and more importantly, in this extremely competitive international market, it's expected to evolve India into a fierce competitor not just in ASIA but all across the world! So, in this case study, let's do a deep dive, and try to understand, What are the major hurdles in Indian logistics industry that is pulling India behind? How will the systems of National logistics policy and ULIP transform the logistics industry of India? What are the hurdles that can turn the same policy into a disaster? 

I discuss all of it in this latest podcast.

Have you ever used apps like Cred, PayTm or NoBroker to pay your rent? If you have, then you probably used your credit card to make the transaction. But here’s the thing — If you were using an ICICI Bank credit card, you might soon have to rethink your strategy. Because come 20th October they will ask you to pay a 1% fee on all rental payments. But why is this happening now? Doesn’t ICICI Bank already make money when you pay rent? We talk all about the business model of CRED, Paytm, No broker and all such app. We also cover the changes about to get implemented soon.

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Last week Byju’s put out the results for the financial year 2020–2021.  The company originally projected revenues worth ₹4,400 crores. But in reality, revenues remained flat at around ₹2,500 crores and losses surged to a whopping ₹4,500 crores — 20 times higher when compared to FY20. Is this a trend which is going to continue and eventually lead to its collapse...Let find out in this latest podcast.  

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Is every crypto enthusiast around you talking about the “ETHEREUM MERGE UPDATE”!! Well, it is one of the most anticipated events in the history of crypto space as a whole.  But what exactly is the Ethereum Merge and why is everyone talking about it? So, basically the Ethereum network is shifting from Proof of work to Proof of Stake consensus mechanism!

40% of the world’s population will need affordable homes by 2030. And we’d need to build 96,000 homes every day to house these people. It’s certainly a tall order. So why not use 3D printers instead to expedite matters?

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A few days ago, the government made a rather radical proposal. They wanted all public and private sector companies to sell subsidised fertilisers under a single brand name. For instance, BHARAT UREA or BHARAT DAP. The new brand name will cover two-thirds of the front of new fertiliser bags and the remaining space on the front will display information about the manufacturer, including name, logo, address and other statutory information "One Nation- One Fertilizer Scheme" Recently, the ministry of chemicals and fertilizer has issued directions to all companies to use the new brand name, Bharat, and logo of the subsidy scheme on the bags. The concept of One Nation-One Fertilizer (ONOF) will be implemented from October 2,2022.

According to the World Bank, close to 500 million women and girls lack basic access to menstrual products, sanitation facilities, and adequate education and collectively, this desperate situation is termed period poverty. In India alone, around 23 million girls drop out of school annually due to period poverty. Even others miss classes on a monthly basis because they don’t have access to menstrual products. Put these together and you can see how the numbers add up quickly. It excludes women from the workforce and puts a massive dent in our economic output.  

I talk about this in details in this latest podcast and what measures our governments around the world are taking to resolve this problem.

The Supertech twin towers in Noida, which were taller than the Qutub Minar, were razed to the ground at 2:30 pm on Sunday, nine years after residents went to court alleging violation of norms. 3,700 kg of explosives was used to destroy them. The demolition was ordered by the Supreme Court after the court found their construction on the Emerald Court society premises in violation of norms. The buildings will be demolished by the company at its own expense under the guidance of the Noida Authority. When the 'Supertech Emerald Court' housing society was originally sanctioned, the building plan showed 14 towers and nine floors. Later, the plan was revised, and the builder was allowed to construct 40 floors in each tower. The area where the towers were built was to be made into a garden as per the original plan. Following this, residents of Supertech Emerald Court society went to the Allahabad High Court in 2012 stating that the construction was illegal. The petitioners argued that the Supertech group violated norms to sell more flats and enhance their profit margins. Accordingly, in 2014, the court directed the authority to demolish the towers within four months (at its own expense) from the date the order was filed. The case then went to the Supreme Court. Last August, the court gave three months to demolish the towers, but it's taken a year due to technical difficulties. The Supreme Court observed that building norms were violated by the builder in collusion with Noida authorities.  A number of petitions were submitted in the Supreme Court by homebuyers in support of and opposition to the Allahabad High Court's ruling.

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Tencent is one of the largest companies in the world. The Chinese giant empire has stakes in the studios behind video games like League of Legends, Fortnite, World of Warcraft, and Call of Duty. At the same time, it has invested billions in Spotify, Snapchat and Tesla. Despite hundreds of investments outside of China, many have never heard of Tencent. Why is that, and what dangers lie behind the company's success? China’s Tencent is backing the developers of blockbuster videogames such as “Pokémon Unite,” “League of Legends" and “Fortnite.” But Beijing’s regulatory crackdown on its tech giants could affect the company’s global videogame empire. Last week, Tencent, the Chinese company behind the massively popular game PUBG, fired nearly 5,500 employees. It was its first layoff in nearly a decade. 

The reason? The tech company’s revenues fell for the first time since 2004. Its net profits collapsed by nearly 60%. Its share price is down by 40% over the past year. And its future rests on shaky ground. And if you’re wondering why I am talking about Tencent, well, the company has invested over $2 billion in Indian companies since 2016 — including names like ShareChat, Lokal, Udaan, Swiggy, and Ola. And since their misfortune may have a bearing on outcomes in India, we need to talk about it. 

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In this podcast I'll be going over each part of my investment journey, along with revealing a few lessons I've learned over the last few years of investing.  If you like the podcast do like, comment and share it others.

After reports circulated online that there may be the possibility of UPI transactions carrying a service charge, the finance ministry on Sunday denied the news. The RBI discussion paper issued earlier this month on charges in the payment system suggested that UPI payments might be subject to a tiered charge based on various amount brackets. The RBI discussion paper said, UPI as a fund transfer system is like IMPS and therefore, it could be argued that the charges in UPI need to be similar to charges in IMPS for fund transfer transactions. Currently, there are no charges levied on transactions done through UPI. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hailed the UPI transactions crossing 6 billion in July.

On 29 January 2019, Cobrapost, an Indian investigative journalist group, published an exposé of DHFL for using various shell corporations to siphon more than ₹ 31,000 crores of public money for the personal gains of the DHFL's primary stakeholders: Kapil Wadhawan, Aruna Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan.[10] In the same article, Cobrapost also raised allegations of political donations worth crores of rupees, in violation of Section 182 of the Companies Act, 2013 for political donations. DHFL filed a response with the Bombay Stock Exchange saying the allegations raised by Cobrapost were untrue. DHFL, also rebutted these allegations in a hosted investors/analysts conference and clarified that the ₹ 31,000 crore loans mentioned in the allegation consist of its project loan portfolio. Also, the company tried to clarify that the advances commented by Cobrapost should be ₹ 21,000 Crores and not ₹ 31,000 crores. Following the Cobrapost allegations, Indian credit rating agencies reaffirmed their high safety rating for the financial instruments issued by DHFL.

Explained: Why FIFA has banned India, and what happens to Indian football now 

Threats materialized into reality for Indian football as the apex body of the sport, FIFA, suspended the country’s top administrative organization, the All India Football Federation, for “undue influence from third parties”. The Bureau of the FIFA council, which passed the judgment, also took away the country’s rights to hold the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022, which was scheduled to be held from October 11-30.  In its statement, FIFA said that it was in touch with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in India. This suggested a glimmer of hope that the ban could be a short one, if certain conditions were met. But how did things come to this pass?

There was a mad rush outside liquor stores in Delhi on July 31 as stores offered hefty discounts to empty their stock after the city government announced an end to the Excise policy 2021-22. Booze lovers thronged the liquor stores, standing in line to get their hands on alcohol bottles before the prices soar. However, on August 1, the scene was just the opposite. 

People were forced to return empty-handed and there was no booze served in bars, restaurants, or pubs either.  What happened in one day that Delhi went from apparent abundance of booze to shortage of it everywhere? It was all because of rollback of Delhi’s new excise policy. 

I discuss all of it in this latest podcast.

Sometimes movies can predict the future of technology, and in today's case you can thank Harry Potter for the military's new toy! Check out the Quantum Stealth Camouflage the military is using to become invisible! How is this technology possible? Find out in this latest podcast  

Fake reviews are a big problem on ecommerce companies like Amazon, zomato, tripadviser etc, from Facebook groups where bad actors solicit paid positive reviews to bots and click farms that upvote negative reviews to take out the competition. Illegitimate reviews can boost sales of unsafe products and hurt business for legitimate sellers, causing brands like Nike and Birkenstock to sever ties with Amazon. Here are some ways to spot fake reviews and what Amazon and others are doing to try and stop them.

Over the past few weeks, a handful of insurance companies have started offering pay-as-you-drive insurance. For drivers who aren’t constantly on the road, these plans could offer an opportunity to reduce car insurance costs. How and how often you drive to determine your car insurance premium 

Facebook published an internal memo on February 2, and they revealed Women in India don’t like Facebook that much. There’s too much nudity. Too many unwanted advances by men. And they don’t just feel safe in general. Facebook’s own research reveals that 79% of female Facebook users were concerned about their photos being misused. And nearly 30% had seen nudity during the week of the research. 

It’s definitely not a great sign for Facebook. We discuss all of it in this podcast. If you like the podcast do like, comment and share it with others.

India is considered to be the diabetes capital of the world. Over 70 million Indians suffer from diabetes. It also incurs a huge cost as well on the patient.  

In this podcast, I talk about the same. If you like the podcast do like, comment and share it with others.

In India, it is estimated that 16,000 farmers die by suicide each year, a suicide rate that appears to be higher than that of the general population. What are the factors that forces our farmers to take this drastic step and who’s responsible for it? 

We discuss all of it in this latest podcast. If you like the podcast do like, comment and share it with others.

Nearly half of the Gen-Z population prefer TikTok and Instagram for online searches, over Google. Google’s Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan, who runs the company’s Knowledge & Information organization  said — “In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram.”  

So is this the end of google search engine or will it back to be the dominant player again. 

I discuss all of it in this podcast. If you like the podcast do like, comment and share it others.

In this podcast, I talk about Income streams. These are real ways to make money from home that I've personally done, and they can help you start creating passive income streams online.   

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The Uber Files, a cache of 124,000 internal emails, text messages and documents from inside Uber. A new leak of internal records exposes tactics employed by Uber between 2013 and 2017, as it fought to enter cities around the globe. Text messages and memos reveal how top executives from Uber held secretive meetings with powerful politicians and how Uber executives knew they were at times operating outside the law. Yet, Uber continued to defy local regulations and upend workers’ rights.   

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India has launched an account aggregator and eight Indian banks have announced that they will be rolling it out. In this podcast I explain what exactly is an account aggregator and why is it relevant. Can this replicate the success of UPIs?   I cover Account Aggregator System, benefits of Account Aggregator System, Account Aggregator companies in India, Account Aggregator participating banks, Account Aggregator participating NBFCs, Account Aggregator participating companies, account aggregator framework, account aggregator ecosystem, account aggregator banks, account aggregator (aa) framework, account aggregator meaning, bank account aggregator  

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These simple habits can really make your smarter! If you want to increase your IQ (a score that imperfectly measures intelligence), try out these simple habits and exercises. You don’t have to be “born smart” to become smart. Take up a growth mindset and see what it can do for you!  How often do you train your mind? Yes, you can and should stretch it, as well. Exercises, games and even meditation can help you with that. I discuss 7 such habits in this podcast that help you become smarter every day.  

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Singapore reversed the declining trend for manufacturing’s share in GDP (it fell from 27% in 2005 to 18% by 2013), raising that share to 21% in 2020 and 22% in 2022, essentially through high degrees of automation, employing very few, highly skilled workers.  What can India learn from this and how is the role of manufacturing turning out to be in 21st century...We discuss all of it in this latest podcast.  

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DeFi is becoming more and more popular as the main use case for cryptocurrencies. This video explains in detail what DeFi is and what you should know about before getting involved.  

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Vauld (Vault) crypto exchange crisis with withdrawals. Was Vauld a Crypto scam? What is Vauld? What happened with Vauld and what you should do about it? I talk about all of it in this podcast.

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At the end of each financial year, we juggle with tax-saving and search the internet for tax-saving tips. Government offers income tax deductions to a salaried employee as an income tax savings option. We all want to save tax but most people don’t know about tax-saving investments and income tax exemption. We either hire a tax expert for tax planning or do it ourselves. When your salary bracket increases over time, it becomes difficult to save tax. We invest in irrelevant investments here and there just to save tax without proper planning. There are tax deductions under various heads that include investment in NPS, ELSS, and EPF that one can deduct up to a certain limit to minimize the tax outgo.  

In this podcast, we have explained: 1. Tax planning guide for individuals. 2. Tax saving tips 3.How Income tax Returns work 4. What are tax-saving instruments? 5. How to save tax? 6. Tax saving options. 7. How to do tax planning for salaried people? 8. How to do tax planning for salary income? 9. Income tax exemption options. 10. What are tax slab. 11.  How to avail income tax deductions for salaried employees? 12.  What are income tax saving options? 13. Tax planning in hindi. 14.  How to do tax planning with a 10 lakhs salary? 15.  Do it yourself (DIY) income tax planning. 16.  Tax planning through tax-saving instruments. 17.  How to save tax?   

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नकली दवाइयों के कारोबारियों पर नकेल कसने के लिए सरकार ने ये अहम फैसला लिया है, जिसे अगले साल 1 जनवरी 2023 से लागू किया जाएगा। Identify fake medicines | How to identify fake medicines 

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Many of us interact every day with Siri, Apple's voice-activated digital personal assistant. Siri can find information, gives us directions, send messages, play music, one example of how AI is becoming a bigger part of everyday life.  Chances are it's on all your devices, can mimic areas of human behavior and could soon learn about our feelings and emotions. The key word there is mimic.  The machines are getting smarter, but experts are divided as to when we'll move from basic AI to the scary stuff of science fiction, if at all.  But there are real, and relatively immediate threats.  

Can an A.I. think and feel? The answer is no, but to two Google engineers think this isn't the case. We're at the point where the Turing test looks like it's been conquered.

A rule of thumb refers to something which can be easily learned and easily applied to a situation. These rules are mostly based on practical experience and are present everywhere .. including investing. In this video, I explain 10 popular thumb rules that you can use in growing, saving and managing your money. 

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THE 5 HOUR RULE. This rule was coined by Michael Simmons, who is the founder of Empact. Its concept is very simple: It doesn’t matter how busy successful people are, they always spend at least an hour a day, or five hours a week, learning and practicing. And they do this across their entire career.   

The 5 Hour Rule explained in Hindi, Why Constant Learners All Embrace the 5 Hour Rule | Secret Formula of Success People | Readers Books Club What is the 5-Hour Rule? How people have become Millionaire and Billionaires by following it? What are the buckets of 5-Hour Rule? Why knowledge is the new money? How to use 5-Hour Rule for career success?  

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In this video I discuss top ten supercomputers in the world. New Fastest Supercomputer in the World and the first official Exascale supercomputer - Frontier Supercomputer located at Oak Ridge Lab.   

Duniya ka sabse tez supercomputer | World's fastest supercomputer  Frontier naam ke supercomputer ko scientitsts ne duniya ke saamne pesh kiya. Yeh pehla exascale supercomputer hai. Yeh supercomputer 1sec mein 10^18 floating operations kar sakta hai. Humein itni zyada computation power weather modeling aur ML aur AI models ko train karne ke liye chahiye.  

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In September 2021, PepsiCo inaugurated its new plant in Uttar Pradesh. The American snack and beverage company spent over ₹1,000 crores in setting up the plant, making it Pepsi’s largest investment in India. A few days ago, Pepsi took it a step further and announced another round of investment totaling nearly ₹200 crores to ramp up production in the factory.  And it’s not just Pepsi, other multinational conglomerates have been making a beeline for the northern Indian state too. This includes the likes of Microsoft, Samsung, and MAQ Software. To give you some context, between 2017 and 2021, the state claims to have attracted foreign investment commitments to the tune of ₹1.88 lakh crores. And in its mega Investment Summit held last week, the state noted that it had received another ₹80,000 crores worth of investment commitments from both domestic and foreign companies. 

But it was not always like this. In 1991, India opened up its economy to the world and while it did propel growth, this growth wasn’t evenly distributed. For instance, a report published on the RBI’s website notes that from April 2000 to June 2012, Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh bagged 70% of foreign direct investments (FDI) inflows. And states like Uttar Pradesh lagged behind. 

The reason? We discuss all of it in this podcast and How UP is now transforming into an Investment hub. If you like the podcast do like, comment and share it others.