Pilots say Tata to Vistara

Good morning! The moon’s gonna get its own clock. Reuters reports that the White House has called upon NASA to develop a unified standard of time for the moon by the end of 2026. Cool idea, but why do we need moon time? Well, with around 250 moon missions planned for the next decade, having one moon time should make communications between astronauts, satellites and people on Earth smoother. We bet Mars could be next in line.

Soumya Gupta, Anup Semwal, and Roshni Nair also contributed to today’s edition.

The Market Signal*

Stocks & Economy: US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell reiterated that there was no change in the overall picture of the economy despite the resilience inflation has shown. The Fed remains on track to cut rates this year, although it will wait for clearer data before taking a final call. 

Powell’s remarks pushed gold prices to record highs. Asian shares, except Japanese stocks, were largely subdued. 

Meanwhile, an all too familiar concern is rearing its head again in India. Oil prices are now in that territory that begins to strain the country’s current account and hurts economic prospects. The Indian crude basket cost $89.28 per barrel on April 2, Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell data showed. This despite imports from Russia rising 6% in March over February. The government immediately hit refiners with a hike in windfall tax.

AVIATION

This Is Your Pilot Speaking Quitting

Turbulence has hit Vistara. This week, the airline delayed or cancelled several flights as pilots called in sick en-masse. Is some pilot-specific virus doing the rounds? Sort of. 

Part of the mass absence is because pilots are protesting a change in their contracts as the Tata Group merges Vistara with Air India. Vistara’s pilots are unhappy because the airline has slashed their fixed pay and threatened to hold back a one-time payout if pilots do not accept the new terms of employment. 

Besides, Vistara has been struggling with a shortage of pilots due to an inadequate training programme, The Morning Context reports. 

Damage control: On Tuesday, 15 senior pilots quit the airline and joined a rival. Yesterday, Vistara’s CEO Vinod Kannan held a virtual meeting with pilots, asking them to call off the strike and offering to pay for extra working hours after the airline merges with Air India.

🎧 Vistara's rough patch. Also in today's episode: why does the moon need a standard time zone? Tune in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

PODCAST

Tune in every Monday to Friday as financial journalist and host Govindraj Ethiraj gives you the most important take on the latest in business and economy.

Today, he speaks to Prathamesh Mallya, DyVP Research, Non Agri Commodities at Angel One Broking, on why gold prices are being pulled upwards. Also in today’s episode: stock markets are in striking distance of $5 trillion in market cap. In conversation with G Chokkalingam, founder, Equinomics Research.

ECONOMY

Arrested Development

India’s ambition to dethrone China as the factory of the world looks increasingly unachievable. Instead, it should double down on higher value-add services and high-end manufacturing—something former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had iterated in January. China’s decades-long playbook of low-skilled manufacturing is wearing out as countries move away from a global integrated economy.

This analysis in The New York Times belabours the point. The China Plus One strategy is everyone’s to capitalise on, which is precisely the problem. More countries are competing for a smaller share of the global manufacturing pie while China still accounts for a third of industrial output. Automation is displacing cheap labour, and investments are drying up.

The catch is that India, though well-positioned to exploit its services strength, is still vulnerable. There’s a mismatch in demand for, and supply of, advanced skills, and service sector growth has decelerated due to a hiring slowdown.

GEOPOLITICS

Sparring Is On, So Is Business

The US and Chinese heads of state spoke on the phone for 105 minutes on Tuesday and the conversation had all the cuts and thrusts of a typical big power rivalry. 

While US President Joe Biden raised concerns about Chinese short video platform TikTok and China’s support to Russia, President Xi Jinping said his country would react to attempts to shackle its technological progress. Xi warned that Taiwan was an uncrossable red line. 

Biden’s treasury secretary Janet Yellen, who will travel to China later this week, has said that the US will never again allow itself to be dependent on Chinese imports. Yellen told The Wall Street Journal that China wants to dominate the US market and “we’re not going to let that happen”.

FYI

Driving in: US electric carmaker Tesla is scouting for locations in India to build a vehicle factory at an investment of $2 billion-$3 billion. 

Pay to search: Google may put AI-powered search features behind a paywall in a big shake-up of its ad-powered business model. 

Distinguished service: Former Prime Minister and architect of India’s economic liberalisation, Manmohan Singh, has retired from the Rajya Sabha or Upper House of the Parliament after three decades.

Deadly blast: An explosion at a Telengana chemical factory run by drugmaker SB Organics killed four people, including perhaps a senior executive, and injured 16. 

Going strong: Deloitte has forecast that driven by generative AI and multinational Global Capability Centres, Indian tech sector revenue will grow 3.8% to $254 billion in 2024-25.

THE DAILY DIGIT

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Billionaire edtech startup founder Byju Raveendran’s current net worth, according to Forbes Billionaire Index 2024. (The Economic Times)

FWIW

Reaching for the clouds: The desperate times are knocking. Last Tuesday, according to The New York Times, a bunch of scientists in California tested tech to make clouds brighter and bounce some sun rays back into space. We don't know if they succeeded, but if it works out, the big plan is to brighten ocean clouds to cool off the planet. They’re calling it the marine cloud brightening project. Not everyone's a fan, though. Critics say it might mess with climate in ways we can't foresee. Others say trying to deflect solar radiation is just “an extraordinarily dangerous distraction.” Honestly, hard to disagree. Maybe try cutting back on fossil fuels the next time.