TMS Ep371: Trade deficit, Disney+ Hotstar, insurance stocks, Aadhaar Mitra

India’s goods exports fell by 6.6% year-on-year in January. It was the third decline in the past four months. But the country’s trade deficit touched a 12-month low of 17. 7 billion dollars in January -- which was a relief from last year’s July figure of 30 billion dollars. Imports also dipped and contributed to the narrowing of the trade gap. So is this fall in trade deficit a cause for cheer? 

It is not just cross-border trade that is taking a hit due to the global slowdown. World over, companies are also scrambling to maintain their profitability.

They are laying off employees to stay afloat. Last week, Disney announced its plan to fire 7,000 employees as the conglomerate restructured the organisation. In India, Disney+ Hotstar has lost the IPL digital rights along with 3.8 million subscribers. So, is Disney+ Hotstar in trouble here? If so, what is the way out? 

Moving on to the financial markets, the new budget proposal to tax income on high value insurance policies has raised concerns for insurers, evident from their weakness on the bourses. So, how long may the pain continue for the stocks and can they bear fruit in the long run? 

Meanwhile, on global indices, stocks of small artificial intelligence groups have soared in the last few months. Thanks to the hype surrounding Open AI’s ChatGPT. No one took artificial intelligence so seriously before the ChatGPT happened. It is now inspiring a host of other chatbot innovations. One such chatbot will now help Indians address their Aadhaar-related queries. This episode of the podcast explains how.