TMS Ep208: Talent crunch, startup slowdown, Indian aviation, MPC of RBI

There’s a race for talent in the Indian IT sector, which is facing a talent crunch for niche digital skills. Services sectors like hospitality and travel and tourism are also dealing with manpower challenges. The services sector’s importance cannot be stressed enough because it contributes to more than 50% of the country’s GDP. Could the skill shortage run up against recovery in these sectors? 

While India Inc is focused on re-skilling and upskilling its workforce to deal with manpower challenges, the startup ecosystem is staring at a painful slowdown for a different reason - fundings have died down! Leading funds and venture capitalists are stepping up scrutiny. With global uncertainties in the backdrop, they are delaying funding rounds for several startups. How are Indian startups going to manoeuvre the slowdown? 

      

VC funds and tech investors are likely to be hawkish on Indian startups in the near term. Meanwhile, IndiGo airlines posted one of its worst on-time performance over the weekend. While 30% of its flights got delayed on Sunday, nearly 55% got delayed on Saturday due to the non-availability of cabin crew members.

Reports suggest, the missing cabin crew members had gone for interviews at rival airlines. So, is another storm set to hit the Indian aviation sector? Should investors be worried?
 

Last month, the Monetary Policy Committee of the RBI increased the repo rate by 50 basis points to 4.90% in an attempt to contain rising inflation. What are the tasks of this six-member monetary policy committee? Who are its members and what are the processes? Let’s introduce you to this high-level body of the central bank in this episode of the podcast.