[MegaWhat]

Yesterday's session went on for 1.5 hours almost. It feels like the announcement of practical, actionable measures is inversely proportional to the time spent on the announcement.

My key takeaways after yesterday's session were this:
1. The government doesn't have any money.
2. They probably also aren't sure where all the otherwise available money is going.

Till they have some money, it's going to be empty words in hour long speeches to keep people "engaged". I am not holding my breath for any stimulus or relief package. It seems the government is the one who needs it the most. I'm just hoping the taxes don't increase further. Anyways I'm going to lose some money thanks to the PF measures.

Originally Posted by theMandarin

• India seeks local warplanes as $15 billion global order stalls
• IAF to buy 83 more Tejas fighters from HAL instead of foreign jets

Damn, that's a big decision.
Imagine this, you're out looking for a car for 4 years almost. You come up with a comprehensive list of requirements, test drive almost every car in the market and finally decide that the Duster (just as an example) meets your requirements. And finally, after everything is done, you realise there's no money and you buy the Nexon instead (again, just saying as an example).

Both are great cars in their own way! But just that they are good at slightly different things. Same is the case if you compare the Rafale with the LCA. Both are great, but at slightly different things. Here's a basic difference between the two aircraft (source: Wikipedia):

Maximum take off weight:
Rafale: 24,500 Kg
Tejas Mk.1: 13,500 Kg
Tejas Mk.2 (expected): 17,500 Kg

No. of engines:
Rafale: 2 engines with a total thrust of ~10,000 Kg
Tejas: single engine with a total thrust of ~5390 Kg

No. Of hardpoints (for attaching extra fuel or missiles):
Rafale: 14
Tejas Mk.1: 8
Tejas Mk.2: 11

These can vary depending on the version of the aircraft.

Based on publically available information, there's not much difference in range, service ceiling and speed.

These differences and similarities can vary depending on the deal that was cut out with Dassault and now with HAL. But in any case, it's a big change.

[ZenMaster]

It just seems they arrived at the 20 lakh crore figure by just adding together each and every number they saw in the report they based this on.

I think this entire stunt is to actually hoodwink international media and companies looking for a greener pasture outside China. Some international media have been praising the Indian government for their "Huge" economic package in the tune of 10% of the GDP and how the government is trying to "revive" the countries economy.

[werfish]

Originally Posted by bluevolt

IT crowd does have salary impact...

I too work in IT and am yet to hear most of the above. Assuming all the above are true we should be seeing large scale layoffs in IT sector leading to almost shutdown of entire IT sector.
If you were in Government how would you handle this.

[fiestarry]

It is very heartening to see the huge number of measures taken by the Govt. It shows that they have their ear to the ground.
There is no doubt that there will be detractors for everything. I was pleasantly surprised to see trucks laden with rations parked at two locations in Govandi and Chembur near the slums. People were queued up and several people were staggering away with big bags of rations. A casual enquiry revealed that the supplies were from the Govt. My maid servant states that she has received an abundance of rations over the last few weeks.
These are clear indicators of the intent and actions by the Govt. It is sad to see some migrants walking down the highways without paying heed to the PM's call for them to stay put. No doubt caused by fear mongering by people with vested interests.
The financial relief announced has also covered the large majority already. Further details of other measures will come out soon. The push for local manufacture will boost our MSME in the days to come.
It is unfortunate that we are unable to come out of the selfish mode wherein, if we haven't personally benefited, it is not a good effort by the Govt.

[lapis_lazuli]

Interesting piece of news, Gadkari vocal :

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/bu...i-5268121.html

5 lakh crores owed by government towards MSMEs!

[m8002?]

Originally Posted by werfish

I too work in IT and am yet to hear most of the above. Assuming all the above are true we should be seeing large scale layoffs in IT sector leading to almost shutdown of entire IT sector.

You can start with this:
https://news.rediff.com/commentary/2...a7cfe208e2ad3a

Apart from this, there have been many companies that have already frozen hikes and promotions for the entire year. All this is in the public domain. There are tons of companies which have just cancelled offers they had given out. Imagine the plight of those people. In the various covid threads, there are BHPians who themselves have been the let go or taken salary cuts. So I am a little surprised when you tell you are in IT and yet to hear about these.

What many believe is that the impact will now start going up the chain when the customers/clients of the IT companies start cancelling contracts.

[werfish]

Originally Posted by m8002?

You can start with this:
https://news.rediff.com/commentary/2...a7cfe208e2ad3a

Not sure Zomato is an IT company, sure there will be problems in future, but what are you expecting Government to do?

[srishiva]

I dont think IT companies have seen impact from their customers. Most of them are still expecting it will happen. Hence, not much of impact in IT yet. Regarding freezing of promotions, hikes companies keep adjusting dates of such things even when things are good. So people are not overly surprised.

There have been people let go citing performance issues and such. But yet to see any company doing a layoff with covid being the reason. Ultimately it depends on customers and if they are consumer facing, which country etc.

[onkar1710]

https://www.newsclick.in/Loan-Gurant...nomic-Stimulus

The analysis presented here helps in cutting through the clutter and understanding the real semblance of the economic relief measures being called "Economic Stimulus Package".

A glaring example of "repackaging" in this "package" is the "One Nation One Ration Card" scheme: Ram Vilas Paswan made an announcement on June 29 2019 for 'One Nation One Ration Card', Nirmala Sitharaman repeated the same announcement on 14 May 2020 while acknowledging that as per the last govt. estimates, there are 8 cr below-poverty-line-Indians not having any ration card at all.

Some "stimulus", some "package" !

[theMandarin]

Originally Posted by werfish

Not sure Zomato is an IT company, sure there will be problems in future, but what are you expecting Government to do?

Just thinking out loud here but one way which could've been helpful is to forego increasing the interest component when it was decided to offer a 3 month moratorium. That way, many of the IT employees (migrants) could have requested their landlords to waive off or reduce the rents for a while which would enable them to stay put until they are able to find a new job.

The problem is that this would make the stimulus quantifiable rather than provisional/"theoretical".

“If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed.”

[Thermodynamics]

Originally Posted by srishiva

yet to see any company doing a layoff with covid being the reason.

We won't see massive layoffs right now, Government advisory will be respected. We'll come to know the grim truth in a few months. However there have been silent layoffs, for example the contract jobs have taken a big hit.

There is another category which are not technically layoffs but are collaterals of Covid-19. In my opinion, these would be the most pathetic of all. These are cases serving notice period in process of switching jobs. The pandemic has forced a lot of companies to freeze hiring. Notice servers are now in jeopardy, neither the relieving company wants to take back, nor the hiring company is interested in adding a new expense.

[download2live]

I have been a silent observer here and I am struck with the amount of negativity here. The govt (BJP or Congress does not matter) is actually doing something !!! It did not sit on the reports like US did and our death figures are not yet in 50K+ category. It is so easy to criticise and we Indians seem to be at the top of this game in the world. India is huge and the variations in the demography is even bigger. It is not easy to be in the planning chair and actually look at every aspect and come up with something. Let us raise above BJP/Congress camp and appreciate the goverment for what it is doing. It might not be most effective but it is doing something. There can be improvements and will be improvements. But dismissing the whole exercise as a sham is not the way to go.

No goverment in the world was prepared to handle an event like this. Not a single country. Let us appreciate what work is getting done and stay positive.

There is going to be a lot of pain in the coming year and this is irrespective of the fact whether Congress or BJP is in power. Lockdowns were needed to avoid the wildfire of Coronavirus.
Lockdowns have a price and that price has to be paid. It is as simple as that. We will come out of this stronger.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by download2live

I have been a silent observer here and I am struck with the amount of negativity here. The govt (BJP or Congress does not matter) is actually doing something !!! It did not sit on the reports like US did and our death figures are not yet in 50K+ category.

Testing levels are abysmally low. OK, higher than the USA but that's a case of mismanagement that goes over and above common sense.

Right now, if a death can be counted as anything else at all (old age, cardiac arrest ..) it gets counted that way rather than as a covid death. Falling for creative accounting techniques isn't the way we are going to fight this.

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by hserus

Testing levels are abysmally low. OK, higher than the USA...

Wrong on both counts. India is averaging just above 90k tests per day. US is doing above 300k tests per day.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

Wrong on both counts. India is averaging just above 90k tests per day. US is doing above 300k tests per day.

And if you look at tests/1000 people, its even worse. And I don't really understand this whole concept of so much noise and no information.