Thoughts and Learnings

I was talking to a friend of mine whose cousin's kid was supposed to join classes in India but was stuck abroad due to the present pandemic. As they were wondering how to enroll and whether they will lose an year, the school announced online interviews and admissions. Now the classes are also going on online for the past couple of months. This has made me wonder whether this will really change schooling in a way not imagined before. Kids are attending schools from 3000 kilometres away. The impact of distance has been reduced to nothing. If we had trouble of children being able to reach the school before, now it is no longer true. Schools have reached the children. I see the following things unfolding in the near future: People can study in any school of their choice irrespective of the location There is going to be a big change in curriculum Curriculum and content are going to decide where a student is going to learn The importance of schools will come down and more importance will...

Lock-downs are imposed by many countries. International borders are sealed and trade has a hit a low. Manufacturing plants are closed due to lack of labour. Daily wagerers are out of jobs. There is less money with people to spend even for food. All this has led to a reduced economic activity. Market indices have fallen and even long term mutual fund returns are in the lower single digits.  So, is there a recession that is looming ? Or are we already in a recession? There are enough evidence to suggest that this dip in the economic activity is not due to any structural deficiencies. It is expected that the economic activity will pick up post lifting of the lock-downs. But, when will this lifting happen and when will international trade resume normally. My thoughts from Indian standpoint As India opens its economic activity there is going to be a shortage of labour supply due to the reverse migration that has happened. Migration happened due to the lack of opportunities in one p...