The year 2021 is almost ending, and we will be entering 2022 in two days. This year also like the previous year was worrisome with the Covid pandemic, but side by side economy started opening up and by the end o the 3rd quarter it looks like the pandemic will ease out. But come November we were faced with the new variant of Corona virus called omicron. Today I am going to cover a few subjects which made top headlines yesterday.
1 Latest on Corona:
- Yesterday, ie on 29th December 2021 over 13,555 new cases of Covid 19 were reported, registering a sharp rise of 44% over the previous day’s tally
- In comparison, during the 2nd wave, the highest growth rates (over two successive days) were recorded on 31st March and 1st April 2021, when cases spiked by 35% respectively. Daily growth rates during the first wave were much lower
- State of States-Yesterday Maharashtra recorded the highest daily jump in cases, logging 3900 fresh infections, nearly double of the previous day. Mumbai accounted for as many as 2445 new infections-by far the highest daily number reported in any Indian city in the past several months.
- Other states where infections surged sharply are Delhi (923 cases up from 496 on the previous day), West Bengal (1089, up from 752) Karnataka (%66, up from 356), Gujarat (548, up from 394), and Jharkhand (344, up from 155).
- And Omicron- India recorded a dramatic surge in its Omicron tally as well, logging 215 cases on 29th December, and that is significantly higher than the previous single-day highest of 135, recorded just 2 days ago. While Maharashtra recorded 85 cases, taking its total to 252 (highest in the country). Delhi followed with 73 (total 238). Delhi & Maharashtra alone accounts for more than 52% of the total 932 infections in the country.
- The Big Worry- In what could possibly indicate the start of community transmission, 38 of the 85 fresh cases in Maharashtra neither have a recent travel history nor were in contact of Omicrons patients. As many as 50% of these cases are from Mumbai.
So, it looks like Omicron variant of Corona virus is going to remain a big worry in the early part of 2022
2 Now coming to the economic section-Is it going to b a bad year for Lenders?
- Gross bad loans of banks may rise from 6.9% in September 2021 to 8.1 to 9.5% by September 2022, if the Omicron variant strikes the economy hard, according to the financial stability report of RBI.
- The report also said that the rising stress level in the retail loan portfolio of banks, the mainstay of bank credit for many years, was led by home loans.
- While banks have improved their profitability, asset quality, and capital adequacy will be able to comply with minimum capital requirements in even in severe stress scenarios as per the macro stress tests, the same tests on non-banks credits indicate the significant number of them would be hit.
- The share of large borrowers in banks’ bad loans fell from 75.9% in March 2020 to 62.1% in September 2021.
So the economy which had started to recover may be affected if Omicron hits the country badly.
3 All Is Not Well With IITs: As per the latest findings-
The Good News:
- IIT Madras has been recognized as the most Innovative Educational Institute in India among centrally funded technical institutes in the Centre’s Atal Ranking Of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA).
- Seven IITs are on the top 10 list. IIT Madras is followed by IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, and IIT Roorkee. Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru bagged the 6th position in the category.
The Bad News
- The second- generation IITs, eight of them, after a decade of their formation, are yet to find their footing, literally in some cases for want of ‘promised land’ from their respective state govts.
IITs not getting required lands from state govts is really shocking.
Waiting, for your reviews on the blog
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
30th December 2021