TMSEp199: Economy's direction, hard times for fintechs, Airtel, Voda stocks

The finance ministry on Monday struck a note of caution about the re-emergence of the twin deficit problem. It was also the first time the government explicitly spoke about the possibility of a fiscal slippage in the current financial year. So have the amber lights started flashing? What is the ground situation like? 
 

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has, meanwhile, barred all non-bank prepaid payment instrument (PPI) issuers from loading credit lines-- a move which will impact fintech players. Of late, the central bank has been coming down heavily on fintechs. RBI’s 2025 vision document talks about the need to regulate fintechs in the payments space. So what is the road ahead for fintech firms?

After the fintech firms, let us move on to telcos. Shares of Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel have mostly been in the red for quite some time now. Despite news flow around 5G auction, and digital transformation, the shares have not generated expected returns. Lets delve into the issues denting the sector, and how investors can play the theme.

A brief respite from the spell of negative cues gave the markets a reason to cheer -- as Indian equities saw an upward march for the second day running on Tuesday. However, experts are seeing bad days ahead. In a Reserve Bank of India paper, writers allude to the risk of black swan event, saying that it may lead to outflows of Rs 7,80,000 crore from India. So what exactly is black swan event? Listen to this and more in this episode of the podcast.