TMS Ep613: Flipkart Valuation, ASER 2023 Survey, RIL Stocks, Poverty

The IPO of Walmart-owned Flipkart has been in the works for a while now. By 2022, the e-commerce company had internally raised its IPO valuation target to $60 billion to $70 billion. Previously it was $50 billion. Two years later – with an IPO still elusive – the company has now raised $600 million from Walmart. But the current valuation is still below the peak of $38 billion in 2021. Is a target of $60 billion realistic?

While Flipkart and Amazon are struggling to become profitable, there is no denying that consumers have gained a lot. They never had so many options. And such a wide price range to choose from. The digital revolution has taken the retail industry by storm. It also helped the students learn immensely. In cities, smart boards have replaced traditional blackboards. But in rural areas the digital divide seems large. The Annual Status of Education Report 2023 is released with a worrying report. It says that about 25% of rural youth in the age group of 14 to 18 years cannot read a text at Class 2 level “fluently”, or calculate basic mathematics.

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After educating the country, let us now turn our eyes to the financial markets. Shares of India’s most valuable company, Reliance Industries, are sluggish on the stock exchanges. The stock has performed in line with markets in 2023, but has gained momentum in recent weeks. Will the December quarter results help the stock maintain its upward trend going forward? Or will the stock become an underperformer again?

Rising indices are not the only indicators of India’s impressive economic growth. There are other statistics too. One of them is poverty. The number of people lifted out of poverty each year. A recent NITI Ayog report states that multi-dimensional poverty in India has declined from 29.17% in 2013-2014 to 11.28% in 2022-2023. But what is multidimensional poverty? Listen to this episode of the podcast for answers.