- Newsletter Exclusive: ONDC – the next big thing in the E-Commerce space
- Geopolitics: Impact of Russia Ukraine war on India (detailed post)
- Markets Data: How stock markets actually perform during times of war & worry
- Psychology: How to think about the uncertainty of the markets?
- World Markets: Amazon’s $31 Billion ad revenue side hustle
- Pop Poll: If you had to build a corpus of 1 Crore in 5 years, how would you do it?
Open Network for Digital Commerce: An UPI movement in e-commerce ⭐️
In the last three months, all nationalized banks rushed to buy a stake in an upcoming e-commerce initiative called Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). State-owned & private banks like PNB, SBI, HDFC Bank, Kotak, Axis had invested around 50 Cr picking up 7.8% each.
- So, why are banks queued to get a stake in this?
- How is it going to change the retail sector?
What is ONDC?
ONDC is an open network that enables buyers and sellers to connect digitally across various platforms. It envisions to have interoperability across e-commerce applications.
For example, currently, the buyer and seller should be on the same application (let’s say on Amazon India) to be discovered and interact with each other. Now imagine you are a seller on Flipkart, and buyers from Amazon are able to see your products and transact with you. Basically, cross-platform interoperability.
That is exactly what ONDC aims to be. An open network that goes beyond the current platform-centric model where the buyer and seller must be part of the same platform to enable transactions between them. Instead, in an open network buyers and sellers can transact no matter what platform/application they use.
What ONDC is NOT?
- It is not a platform of platforms or a Super App of e-commerce. It’s certainly not another aggregator.
- It will not be an intermediary for the retailers.
- It is not a Government regulatory body.
What is in it for the players?
All the players in the ecosystem (Buyers, sellers, and platforms) will benefit in their own ways.
- Buyers:
- Access to more sellers and hence more choices
- Better price discovery
- Sellers:
- Access to more buyers and increased growth opportunities
- Higher discoverability across platforms
- Platforms:
- Focus on buyer/seller acquisition
- New opportunities for start-ups
ONDC will enable large-scale democratization of digital commerce by providing a level playing field for everyone. However, it is still in its early stage. It had incorporated as a private sector non-profit company just in Dec 2021. and is expected to have a beta launch in Apr 2022.
We have to wait and see how this evolves, gets adopted, and disrupts the e-commerce sector in the next decade.
Russia Ukraine War – Impact on India 📊 📈 📉
War is eternally bad, no matter what the motivation. And yet, here we are, with Russia invading Ukraine and a war that threatens to become WW3. There’s a bunch of things happening so this is a long and detailed post.
- The financial sanctions that hit Russia: why it’s a wake-up call for India
- Can India leverage the rupee for transactions outside India?
- India’s exposure to the war-torn countries
- Bracing for inevitable, massive defaults in the credit markets
Read – The opportunity for India in the changing world order
How do markets perform through a crisis? 🚨
There is something horrific happening in the world all the time. Sadly so. These major geopolitical events instill a lot of temporary fear when they happen. In this article the author analyses all the major wars (horrific events) starting from Pearl Harbour to determine its actual impact on the stock market returns.
Read – How Geopolitics Impacts Markets (1941-2021)
Zoom Out in Uncertain Times 🧘♂️
The cool thing about studying financial history is that no matter how crazy things feel today it probably pales in comparison to events that your parents and grandparents dealt with. And by understanding how certain portfolios handled those stress tests, we can choose one more likely to stand the test of time.
So if you’re watching the news and worried about what it means to your important financial goals, here are a few tips for setting your portfolio up for success no matter what happens.
Read – Safe Investing In Times of Uncertainty
Amazon’s $31 Billion side hustle 🎰
In 2009, Bezos famously said, “ads are the price you pay for an unremarkable product or service”. Between then and now, amazon makes $31 billion of revenue through advertisements. This revenue stream of amazon is 3X the combined revenue of Twitter, Pinterest, and Snap. This article covers –
- Amazon’s original position on ads
- The man running Amazon ads
- Why Amazon embraced ads
- What ads mean for the future of Amazon
Read – Amazon’s $31B ad business, explained
Pop Poll – Your way of getting rich? 💰
If you had to build a corpus of 1 Crore in 5 years, how would you do it?
(Both options will give ~1 Crore corpus at 5 years, Assume you can afford both the options)
- A: Invest ~1.2 lac per month in equities expecting a 12% return
- B: Invest ~1.5 lac per month in FD at 4.9% return
Click here to answer anonymously
Last week’s poll results💡
Total responses = 115 ( Aiyyo, why so less? Cover up today, please 🙂 )
- Most of us do gamble with high-risk instruments
- Most of us end up not making money with these high-risk trades.
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