Victoria Fox's Blog, page 177
November 29, 2023
When headhunters turned intelligence gatherers
The British had already expanded their tentacles over Myanmar and the South-East Asian region. Kohima was but a speck of dust compared to the Burma theatre. America and England had different agendas but faced a common threat in Japan. Britain had more to lose in this battle than America….
For a change, there were no attacks on the British colonial administration by the headhunters. Rather, there was active participation of the Nagas in the war, siding with the British forces in the unlikeliest of partnerships. Nagas were utilized effectively as porters, spies, stretcher-bearers and they even dug trenches for the British forces. This was singularly responsible not just for the victory but for the number of lives saved in the battle. Intelligence gathering is critical to winning wars.
It is a cliché to say that but it is still the main basis on which planning is done and decisions taken before and even during war. Both strategic intelligence and tactical intelligence enable leaders or nations to fight and win wars. For this, the source of information on the ground is the most vital agency. The British forces discovered that the Nagas could not only be used as interpreters (Dobashis) but as active spies and map-readers in the battlefield. They were able to locate places shown on the map with as much accuracy and enthusiasm as they carried the rations and arms and ammunition of the British soldiers on the battlefield. Not caring for their lives, they were as much fighters as the British soldiers. The glorification of the 2nd Division who fought against all odds is justified only in so much as the contributions of the Naga volunteers are recognized as equal partners.
There are accounts of the service rendered by the Nagas during the battle which are condescendingly described by some British and American authors, perhaps not intentionally, but it does a great disservice to the sacrifices made by the Nagas. In terms of grading the multiple services rendered by the Nagas, the comment made by Fergal Keane in his book Road of Bonesis an example of the relevance given by the British forces: ‘The most important function of the Naga tribes was the intelligence gatherers. With the European V Force operatives dead, captured or in hiding, the RAF’s aerial photography of limited value in the Jungle terrain, the Nagas provided the only reliable flow of intelligence to the 2nd Division on Japanese Movements around Kohima.’…
When the Japanese finally settled their contingent in Kigwema and started their offensives from there, it was a case of the enemy within. The Japanese soldiers moved early and only rested for a few hours, sometimes attacking the British bastions for days on end. In between, the negotiations for rations turned from trade to downright extortion. Within a short span of time and unbeknownst to them, the relations with their host village soured….
From different villages, the British officers organized porters for their soldiers. In this Battle of Kohima between two Imperial giants of the day, (District Commissioner) Charles Pawsey’s presence and authority was like a breeze for the British. When the refugees from Myanmar were coming in droves and crossing Kohima onwards to Dimapur in 1942, Charles Pawsey had mobilized thousands of Naga volunteers to cater to the sickly, tired, and hungry refugees.
(The refugee influx) was a consequence of the Japanese takeover of Burma, and it was a clear sign of what was to come. Till date, there is a locality in Dimapur called the Burma Camp, which is a name carried over from the colonial period when the refugees from Burma camped there waiting for transportation through the Dimapur Railway station. The experience that Pawsey gained during this harrowing period was priceless. The logistics of handling thousands of people in distress and organizing food and stay for the refugees and managing people who they had colonized was not an easy task…. As many scholars have mentioned, the soldiers of 1944 were better trained, better armed and better supplied than 1942. The British and the Allied forces were not going to allow the Japanese to repeat the Burma experience. [In 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army had occupied most of Burma, till then under the control of the British, after ousting the Allied forces].
The transportation of the 2nd Division and the two Indian brigades was a challenge for the British and yet with the support on the ground from the Nagas and in the air from the RAF was crucial for the victory against Sato’s forces. The handling of the refugees from Burma gave Pawsey the trained manpower that he needed. If Sato had someone like Pawsey already warming up to the Nagas, he would have smashed through with his forces to Assam via Dimapur and fulfiled the Japanese dream of replacing the British in India. However, it was not to be.
Cover of His ‘Majesty’s Headhunters: The Siege Of Kohima That Shaped World History’ by Mmhonlümo Kikon, published by Penguin Random House India.
The Japanese had two allies, one among them the Naga nationalist A.Z. Phizo who had worked with the 7,000 troops of the INA, led by the charismatic Subhas Chandra Bose. But they were not based in Kohima or the Naga Hills at the moment of the attack. Although A.Z. Phizo was an Angami Naga from the famed Khonoma village known by the British for the Anglo-Khonoma battles, he did not have enough people in place or he had not mobilised the people for this invasion and hence his efforts and support were insufficient to gather the Nagas in support of the Japanese forces.
The other was Subhas Chandra Bose who had assured them that the anti-colonial movement in India against the British would join the Japanese when they took over Assam and the north-eastern frontiers of the Indian sub-continent. The Japanese had met Phizo and his younger brother at Rangoon and assured them of ‘Independence of Nagaland’ in exchange for his support. This was before Phizo assumed the mantle of leadership of the Naga National Council (NNC) and much before his campaigns had real hold over the villages…. Ultimately, as has been attested to by the British themselves, it was down to the intelligence gathered on the ground and supplied by the Nagas that tilted the battle in favour of the British.
Despite the shortage of supplies and the ensuing starvation, dysentery, malaria and cholera, the Japanese had trudged on stubbornly. Only when Sato decided that the war was no longer tenable, and he had to take a conscience call for the sake of his remaining troops, did they retreat. The British troops chased the retreating forces till Maram and secured a decisive victory over the Japanese. Little did they think about the significance of this battle then. But it changed the course of world history.
The British themselves had not imagined that Kohima would be their Waterloo. And the headhunters, massacred in thousands to establish this city on a hill called Kohima, became their most important ally in the war. The Naga side of the story is one of unending misery and courage at the same time. While this is a biography of how Kohima came to symbolise a people’s history and identity from its inception till the present, it is also a story of how the hunted became the hunters’ best friend.
Excerpted with permission from His Majesty’s Headhunters: The Siege Of Kohima That Shaped World History by Mmhonlümo Kikon, published by Penguin Random House India, 256 pages, Rs. 599
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Remembering Chandrika Mago
Senior editor and a founding member of the Mint editorial team Chandrika Mago passed away in Delhi on Wednesday morning following a prolonged illness. She was 60.
Chandrika headed the desk at Lounge, working till the very last day. She joined Mint in December 2006, ahead of the newspaper’s launch the next year. During her 17 years at Mint, she created its editorial style guide and instituted its fact-checking processes and desk guidelines, contributing immensely to the quality of reportage.
A fine writer and editor, Chandrika was the rare journalist who could track and write stories as well as train and mentor young writers and editors. She had an eye for detail, a strong sense of integrity and a deep love for journalism. Chandrika graduated from Delhi University with an M.A. in History in 1985 and joined the Times of India, where she spent 20 years as a reporter and an assistant editor. Her interests spanned current affairs, business and economy, environmental policy, climate and agriculture, history, politics, and culture and the arts. She was always ready to share her expertise and trained young journalists, many of whom went on to become well-known reporters and editors at other newsrooms. Daughter of the eminent artist and art educator, the late Pran Nath Mago, Chandrika is survived by her sister Punam.
The Lounge team, past and present, remembers their beloved colleague
***A few months back she messaged, “Pls make me laugh, having a difficult week”. I joked, “Why on a Thursday?” We put the Lounge issue to bed on Thursday, and it can get chaotic at times. She replied, “Flurry of tests not showing great results. Thursday is the best day to laugh—hysterically if need be.” I could imagine her rolling her eyes and chuckling to herself. A close friend of hers mentioned that she would get annoyed when they dropped in on Thursday: “Don’t you know it’s my production day?” As if keeping that in mind, she decided to make her exit on Wednesday morning—ironically, she hated early mornings. The night before she had been listening to Dev Anand songs—hope you went with a song in your heart. You will be deeply missed. And sorry, you don’t get to ask the question this time: What’s the story? — Nipa Charagi
***A sly, dry sense of humour, a deep love for journalism and the work we did every day, and a true empathy for young journalists defined Chandrika. Despite her illness, she had always said she wanted to work “to the end”, and she did. Alternately berating and praising us, she brought depth, rigour, style and colour to our copies, and it would be fair to say that many of the awards Lounge won should have her name on them too. I joined the team in the midst of the pandemic; she was already unwell, and her humour and poise were an inspiration. Her knowledge was vast—she had worked as a reporter, covering various ministries and beats, under multiple editors in different newsrooms, and had wide-ranging interests. She drew from all this to form her opinions, to give advice—only when it was sought—that was always on point yet never didactic. And she would roll her eyes and sigh at the grammar as well as the excess of emotion on this page. — Shalini Umachandran
***Chandrika’s professionalism had always been the unflappable and dependable bulwark on which we all rested. One thing was always clear—her two allegiances were to the story she was editing, and to the editorial team. Watching her carefully and meticulously fashion award-worthy features from an inchoate jumble of words was an awe-inspiring experience. She would ask endless questions, and in answering them, our stories became better, deeper. Her poise, and a patient doggedness, was something we could all learn from. Chandrika was not the kind to suffer fools gladly, but if you’d want to argue—with civility and proof—her eyes would glint with interest—and a sense of mischief, it seemed—and an otherwise boring day would turn much more invigorating. I will miss her. Sail safe and true Chandrika! — Bibek Bhattacharya
***I doubt I will ever know anyone like Chandrika. From the time I first joined the Mint newsroom in 2009, she was a constant, steadfast, unwavering, a voice of reason. You could always count on her. When I returned close to a decade later, I had changed, Chandrika was the same. In a world of shifting truths and many masks, this quality of consistency in a person is so valuable. Someone had once told me she was a hard-nosed crime reporter before her time on the Mint copy desk. Another person told me they had called Chandrika in the middle of the night for help to bail someone out. I always thought of her as a quiet person with a deep interiority, but I wasn’t surprised. You could always, always count on her. It was never just about fixing the commas. — Anindita Ghose
***For the past five years, Chandrika had been the voice in my head. While writing, I could hear her asking for a fact to be verified, tense to be corrected, gaps to be filled. Under her watchful eye, copies didn’t just get better, they bloomed and how… Over time, one didn’t just benefit from her expertise on the desk, but also from conversations on a whole range of subjects, from education to politics… It seems unreal to be talking of Chandrika in the past tense; but I know for sure that she will continue to be the voice in my head, enriching my writing with the strong mentorship she has left behind. — Avantika Bhuyan
***
Chandrika Mago was Mint’s secret weapon in the run-up to the launch of the newspaper. She was responsible for the style book (Mint has a published stylebook, for those who didn’t know). And for the first few months after the launch, she was also the keeper of the news list as a young newsroom tried to get reporters and editors to work differently and get used to a publishing system that was new and complex (both of us had scars to show from this battle). She then moved to Lounge and continued to head its desk till the very end. More than anything else, though, she was a voice of reason and sanity, instituting a fact-checking protocol that led to the newsroom’s first mini-crisis—the indignant exit of a relatively famous food columnist who had cleverly plagiarised something, only for it to catch Chandrika’s eye. She brought to the newsroom her fine sense of balance and equanimity—both of which were also evident in how she dealt with her illness—and was an island of calm in a sea of restless and irritable journalists. And she trained a fine bunch of editors, many of whom have gone on to achieve success in other newsrooms, and who, more than anything else, are her real legacy. — R. Sukumar
***I joined the Lounge desk a little over 7 months ago and was nervous about working under the famed Chandrika. But, she was the first person who called me over the phone and welcomed me to the team, warmly and reassuringly. From the manner in which she worked, it was ages before I even knew she was unwell. Her precision, eye for detail, and the way she transformed copies astounded me, as much as it astounded the writers, too. … Aside from work, Chandrika was also one of the kindest people I’ve ever worked with. … In my mind, I referred to her as the OG of the desk, and I don’t think there will ever be another one like her. The hole she’s left behind will take a long time to fill. — Dakshayani Kumaramangalam
***‘Would Chandrika clear this?’ is a question I will carry in my head every day of my writing life…. We argued endlessly—over the use of italics for Indian words, over the necessity of this or that paragraph, over why I absolutely needed to standardise something. There were no cut corners with Chandrika; no loose ends, and it was never personal. She was patient and relentless, and taught us a valuable lesson—that creativity requires discipline. As we put this issue together, it felt bizarre to not get emails from Cmag, as we called her, asking us to check our stories, give them a final read, trim a few lines… Our newsroom and our lives will be so much poorer for her loss. — Shrabonti Bagchi
***There hasn’t been a week in my time in Mint that I didn’t dread receiving Chandrika’s edits and queries on a story… Only Chandrika could send me into an existential crisis over a sentence with an “ok so?”, or “meaning?”. But it was this level of matchless meticulousness that saved many stories. Her sharp eye meant that she had my, and more importantly my story’s back…. It wasn’t just the writer in me that Chandrika shaped, but she’d got me thinking like an editor, too…. Chandrika, for the warmth, the humour, the many bits of bolded text and question marks—thank you. — Vangmayi Parakala
***About 10 years ago, while Chandrika was interviewing me for a copy editor position at Mint, she asked, “Do you like going through the dictionary?” Why, in the age of Google Search, would anyone open a dictionary, I thought to myself. “Yes,” I replied, desperate to land the gig. In the following years, I realised the reason behind her insistence to go back to the basics, whether it was to check spellings and grammar, or to ask enough questions while reporting. From her I learnt how to narrate, or at least shape, the most complex stories with simple words. She was caring, but also a tough taskmaster. I always wanted to impress her, even outside work. Once I had made halwa at home and brought it to office, for the team to taste. Chandrika took a bite and said, “Bring more next time.” I had promised to make her taste my blueberry cheesecake the next time. I’m sorry Chandrika, I should have brought it sooner. — Pooja Singh
***
Being the most recent inductee to the team and working remotely from a city miles from Delhi means there’s very little I know about Chandrika Mago beyond her voice and a photo. Yet, while there may be little I know of Chandrika, the individual, there’s quite a bit I know of Chandrika, the editor… A question she didn’t hesitate to ask you also was ‘What’s the point of the story?’ As a journalist, it is a tough question to answer especially if it’s an idea you loved but… it’s an important question. Because it makes you dig deep, prod and arrive at the real reason why you want to write that 1000-word story. … So long, Chandrika. And thank you for the lessons. — Mahalakshmi Prabhakaran
***Chandrika was always warm and her attention to detail was unparalleled. She was crucial in my early years at Lounge, helping along the way as I settled into the team… Every sentence Chandrika rewrote was somehow simpler and made more sense. It was a gift very few possess. I’ll forever admire how she continued to work despite her diagnosis and the strenuous treatment sessions that followed… Chandrika, I’ll always hold onto our conversations on enjoying life, going out more often and what gadgets to buy. We will all miss you. — Nitin Sreedhar
***A question I dreaded from Chandrika was, “On what basis are you saying this?” Now, it has become second nature for me to use it as a filter for every passage in a story. She was the editor and grammar teacher I never had, but desperately needed. Punctuation is my nemesis, and I continue to struggle with semicolons and commas. Incidentally, my last message to her was a punctuation-related question: when and why is a comma added after the conjunction and? Her (unedited) response, “traditionally never. now, allow it if it’s a different point/thought and there is scope for the Americans to get confused. this is their virasat.” CMag always had the last word. — Jahnabee Borah
***When I first joined Mint as a slightly cocky reporter and book critic, it took one edit from Chandrika for me to come down to earth. I’ve seldom worked with an editor as careful and thoughtful as her. Sometimes we would nitpick and have arguments but as comrades who believed in the power of language and truth. I will miss her deeply, her warmth and good cheer even in the worst of times, and the integrity and quiet dignity with which she a benchmark. — Somak Ghoshal
***Chandrika Mago was a ruthless editor. She spared no typo, she trimmed all flab. You might not always agree with her but she’d always hear you out and explain why she felt compelled to wield an axe. Almost always, she’d win you over. Reporters and editors often have an adversarial relationship. But you knew Chandrika was firmly in your team. She was the unsung hero behind all our bylines; the reason why Lounge emerged as one of the most readable magazines in the country. Indian journalism has lost one of its finest. May you rest in peace, CMag. — Omkar Khandekar
***Everyone has a Chandrika Mago story. Reporters will tell you how she would call them at 9pm on the production day to ask about a small change—replace a word, change the flow of the sentence, break a sentence down because it wasn’t flowing well. … I had a love-hate relationship with her: right from the day I joined the Mint newsroom in July 2008, till I left in February 2019. To a rookie journalist, Cmag, as we knew her, was the quintessential headmaster boss: her voice soft, measured, her words few, but commanding… I have never heard her raise her voice and, yet, I don’t know of a time when she hadn’t got things done the way she wanted to. A diligent reporter in her time, she evolved into a superstar editor with remarkable patience, and grit to do the mundane, day after day, week after week. It helped Lounge and countless journalists like me become what we are today. I woke up this Wednesday with the news of her passing. And I got to know she was clearing pages and stories till Tuesday night. That’s Chandrika we all knew. — Pradeep Saha
***Chandrika Mago believed divinity is in details. I loved her for it. One of the finest, most assiduous copy editors I have worked with. We had many heated arguments about the Mint Style Book. She defended it with as much passion as she had while combing each copy that came to her with her acute, picky eyes. An old-world editor with rigour and patience. Chandrika is an inspiration in many ways, one being how much equanimity she had even while fighting a progressive cancer in the last few years of her decade-long cancer journey. She never stopped engaging with the world, she never stopped caring. Rest in peace, you will be missed. — Sanjukta Sharma
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It’s official: Evernote will restrict free users to 50 notes
Days after Evernote started testing a free plan with access to only one notebook and 50 notes with limited users, the company has now made this its new default free plan. The notetaking app said that this change will be applicable for all new and existing free users starting December 4.
In a post on its blog, Evernote specified that users can delete content from their notebooks to add other content within the limit.
“From December 4, the Evernote Free experience has changed. Going forward, new and existing Free users will have a maximum of fifty notes and one notebook per account. These limits refer to the number of notes and notebooks a user can have in their account at one time: you can always delete unwanted content to remain below the threshold,” the company, owned by Milan-based Bending Spoons, said.
Users with more than 50 notes in their existing free accounts will be able to export additional notes and notebooks. Evernote mentioned on its blog that these restrictions will reflect on its compare plans page on December 4, but didn’t specify if limits or pricing of other plans are also changing.
Earlier this week, Evernote confirmed to TechCrunch on its website that the new limited-free plan was part of a test with “less than 1% of its free users.” The test was trying to get people to pay the higher limit plans, which are priced at $14.99 and $17.99 per month.
The company said that most free users fall below the newly set limit. However, Evernote acknowledged that this change might push customers towards “reconsidering” their “relationship with Evernote.”
After Bending Spoons acquired Evernote in November 2022, the company laid off 129 people in February 2023. At that time, a spokesperson told TechCrunch that the notetaking app has “been unprofitable for years and the situation was unsustainable in the long term.”
While Ian Smalls, who was appointed Evernote CEO in 2018, managed to get the company to $100 million in recurring revenue, the app has fallen behind newer competitors like Notion.
For users who might want to look for alternatives, Notion, Microsoft OneOne, and Zoho Notebook offer generous free tiers.
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Mint Healthcare Summit: Specialty hospital chains can bridge demand-supply gap, says AHH’S Vishal Bali
Speciality hospital chains can bridge the demand-supply gap in healthcare, Vishal Bali, executive chairman, Asia Healthcare Holdings (AHH), said at the Mint Healthcare Summit 2023 in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The former Fortis Healthcare chief executive said speciality hospital chains could lure investors on the basis of faster infrastructure creation and accessibility, and could also meet new consumer demands in the healthcare space.
Bali said AHH’s business grew on the back of investments in single specialities such as oncology and neonatology. The use of technology to scale led to more neonatal intensive care beds that could address infant deaths, a problem he said AHH identified.
“When we invested in Motherhood, it was just three hospitals in 2016. We are in 2023, and Motherhood is going to touch around 30 hospitals,” said the former Wockhardt CEO.
Bali said the health-tech sector has not been able to grow rapidly because online pharmacies have had to build customer loyalty to ensure consistent footfalls. He said building trust would take time.
On the scope for made-in-India medical devices, Bali said India lacks precision engineering in the medical tech space and locally made MRIs and CT scan devices are no match for their international counterparts. He said this venture needed a lot more momentum.
The AHH executive said artificial intelligence (AI) was a “key driver for efficiency creation in healthcare”, adding that technology adoption was low in the healthcare sector due to the clinical staff’s lack of know-how. An AI engine inside a radiology department would increase productivity, he said.
Bali said there was a “reverse migration” of talent from tier-1 cities to tier-2 and tier-3 towns, fuelled by technology and brighter growth prospects. Clinicians were migrating to tier-2 cities because “they also see potential opportunities to become leading consultants in those cities rather than a number eight or a number ten in a large metro,” he added.
Hospitals would be equally profitable in tier-1 cities and tier-2 towns if the lower cost of execution in tier-2 towns offset their lower profit numbers compared with tier-1 cities, Bali said.
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Updated: 30 Nov 2023, 11:53 AM IST
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Robinhood brings its stock-trading platform to the U.K., its first international market
We knew it was coming, but stock-trading platform Robinhood is finally open for business in the U.K. — its first international market since debuting in the U.S. more than a decade ago.
Robinhood is granting early access to the app starting today for those who join the waitlist, with things gradually opening up to everyone across the U.K. some time in early 2024.
The Menlo Park, California-based company began its U.K. launch prep nearly five years ago starting with a local hiring spree, eventually launching a waitlist for users in late 2019 before abruptly pulling the plug in mid-2020. The company never really gave a full explanation for the decision, merely noting that “a lot has changed these past few months” and that it wanted to focus on its U.S. business.
In truth, the company was facing mounting pressure at home, including allegations that it was misleading customers and using cynical gamification strategies to entice inexperienced users to make risky trades. The company has also been hit with several multimillion-dollar fines over system outages and other misdemeanours.
And tragically, 20-year-old student Alex Kearns died by suicide after seemingly misinterpreting a negative balance of $730,000 in his Robinhood account, with the company eventually settling a private lawsuit brought by his family.
Despite all this, Robinhood became a publicly-traded entity in mid-2021. The company now claims 23 million users domestically, though much of this growth was spurred by early-lockdown boredom as people hunkered down at home, growing from 11.7 million monthly users in December 2020 to more than 21 million six months later. Remember meme stocks? Yup, Robinhood was a major protagonist in that whole affair.
So what does this all mean for Robinhood now, as it takes a second shot at international expansion?
“We’ve certainly learned from our previous launch attempt, and as a business we’ve grown and matured to a level where we’re 23 million customers, $87 billion in assets, and a listed business,” Robin Sinclair, Robinhood’s U.K. president, explained to TechCrunch. “We’ve also built technology that allows us to scale internationally.”
Robinhood app Image Credits: Robinhood
However, much has changed elsewhere since Robinhood’s last launch attempt. A number of local players have gained steam for starters, notably Richard Branson-backed Lightyear which started out by allowing U.K. consumers to trade U.S. stocks before expanding to support European users and stocks. And then there is Freetrade, where Sinclair previously served as European managing director before joining Robinhood this summer. Freetrade supports U.K.-based traders investing in U.S. and European stocks, and it’s gearing up to expand into Europe shortly.
It’s these younger upstarts that Robinhood will most likely be up against at first, rather than dusty old legacy financial services firms such as Hargreaves Lansdown.
“Robinhood’s appeal in the U.S. was to a younger tech-savvy audience looking to access the shares market,” David Brear, CEO at fintech consultancy 11FS and co-host of the Fintech Insider Podcast, told TechCrunch. “It’s likely they’ll appeal to a similar audience in the U.K. who have previously found the price and access barrier to the stock market too high. I can see them going head-to-head with Freetrade in terms of target market to start, and then moving on to target a more investment savvy audience such as Hargreaves Lansdown users, with bigger investment wallets.”
Robinhood, for its part, has been making noises about entering the U.K. for much of this year. At its Q3 earnings this month, the company confirmed it would launch brokerage operations in the U.K. imminently, with crypto trading to follow for European Union (EU) markets. The first of these pledges has now come to fruition, with U.K. consumers able to trade thousands of U.S. stocks, including those of all the major companies such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta.
Users can place trades during standard market hours, which is 9.30am Eastern Time (ET) until 4pm, which translates into 2.30pm-9pm UK time. Outside those hours, Robinhood’s 24 Hour Market enables users to place so-called limit orders on 150 different stocks 24 hours a day five days a week, running from 1am (UK time) on Monday through 1am on Saturday.
Additionally, the company also supports American Depository Receipts (ADRs), which allows customers to invest in some foreign companies that don’t trade on U.S. stock exchanges.
Lessons learnedDespite the minor neobroker boom since Robinhood’s aborted launch three years ago, Sinclair believes his company is in a strong position to capitalize on what is still a relatively nascent market, and can lean on the experience it has amassed from the U.S. over the past decade.
“I’d say the U.K. is a great opportunity, the market actually really hasn’t been disrupted yet,” Sinclair said. “It still looks and feels the same way it did, with traditional brokers dominating with high fees — and that hasn’t changed. So I’d say the opportunity still exists. We have the benefit of a 10-year-old platform in the U.S. that has developed and matured — we’ve added a lot of products and features, we’ve learned from 23 million customers.”
While the company has faced scrutiny over how it targets inexperienced traders in the U.S., Robinhood is taking those lessons into its U.K. foray with in-app guides, tips, tutorials, data, and market news, designed to arm fledgling traders with the tools to invest wisely — or, at least, not blow their entire savings — without having to context-switch between multiple information sources.
“This is all about putting it in one place for a customer, so they can facilitate all of that research and all that information before they make trades and to guide their investment strategy going forward,” Sinclair said.
Robinhood education: Image Credits: Robinhood
What’s clear from all this is that Robinhood is trying to start on the right-footing after missteps in its home-market — for instance, the company is introducing 24/7 chat, email, and phone support in the U.K. from the get go. But despite these recent efforts to improve its image domestically, the company might still be struggling to recover from recent controversies, according to Brear.
“Robinhood saw tremendous growth in the U.S. during the peak of Covid when everyone was spending a lot more time indoors and online,” Brear said. “They benefited from a wave in hype around the product and the brand which then suffered significantly after the suicide of a 20-year-old customer, and it hasn’t quite recovered since. Much has been written about Robinhood’s responsibility to educate their customers about their product and safely engaging their money in the stock market, and even though they’ve invested in more customer education in the product and through content, their reputation probably hasn’t quite recovered since.”
Two years after going public, though, the most obvious way for Robinhood to grow is through entering new markets, and as one of the world’s major financial centers, the U.K. makes a great deal of sense for its first move.
“The U.K. is a super appealing market for fintechs for a bunch of reasons — a strong and collaborative regulator, a significant affluent fintech-engaged population, lots of talent, and a whole landscape of other fintechs and banks available as potential partners or suppliers,” Brear said.
Show me the moneyRobinhood promises commission-free trades and no foreign exchange (FOREX) fees, while there are no account minimums either (i.e. users don’t have to deposit x amount to use the service). This all sounds great, but it begs one simple question: how will Robinhood make money?
In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) criticised Robinhood for misleading customers over how it makes money. Indeed, while Robinhood is commission-free, it essentially accepts the customer’s trade and sells it on to larger trading firms which executes the trade on behalf of the customer — this is a process known as “payment for order flow” (PFOF). Thus, critics argue, Robinhood customers receive inferior prices for their trades, making the “free-trading” mantra little more than a marketing illusion — the investor themselves essentially become the product.
All of this, though, is moot for Robinhood’s entry to the U.K. Indeed, PFOF has effectively been banned there since 2012, while the European Union (EU) is also introducing a ban on the practice which is set to come in by 2026. Elsewhere, Canada has also banned PFOF, as has Singapore, while Australia is moving in that direction.
The SEC had previously indicated that it might consider a PFOF ban, though it has retreated from that stance for now. But it’s clear that the global regulatory landscape is increasingly taking a dim view of PFOF, leading Robinhood to pursue different revenue streams.
Last year, Robinhood launched a new program that allows users to “lend” out their stocks to other users, with Robinhood taking a cut of the spoils, while it also introduced a new retirement product. Long before all that, the company rolled out a subscription-based Robinhood Gold product with premium features, while it had also been moving further into crypto territory, though it recently restricted some of the crypto it supports due to regulatory scrutiny in the U.S.
It’s worth noting that these moves are also designed to appease Wall Street. Since going public more than two years ago, the company’s market cap has fallen from a near-$60 billion peak in 2021 to a little over $7 billion today. Trading volume is also down overall on the Robinhood platform, while news emerged this month that Google’s parent Alphabet had ditched its remaining stake in the company, having initially invested when it was still a private startup.
All this points to a company that has not been faring particularly well, making revenue diversification and its impending U.K. launch all the more vital to its future. While there is no obvious moneymaking model in place for Robinhood’s U.K. launch, Sinclair said that it plans to “add products over time,” which might include introducing existing products such as Robinhood Retirement and Robinhood Gold to the market.
“We’re gonna build a diversified revenue stream, there’s products on our roadmap that we’ll deliver, and local products is an important component for us,” Sinclair said. “What we’ve delivered in the U.S. really shows how diversified we can be.”
What is also notable here is that while Robinhood is only bringing its stock-trading product to the U.K., the company is set to launch crypto trading in the European Union (EU). This is due to new EU rules coming into force next year focused on so-called “stablecoins” that are pegged to official currencies, bringing a clearer legal framework for crypto companies to work within.
No such legislation yet exists in the U.K., though there are signs it might fall into step with the EU at some point.
“For the U.K., we’re focused on launching brokerage, that’s our priority and we’re gonna get that right and then look to expand internationally with our brokerage business over time,” Sinclair said. “Our crypto business will be in the EU, and in time we’ll consider it in the U.K. — but for now, our focus is on brokerage.”
On a similar note, Robinhood’s U.K. launch is notable insofar as it the platform only supports U.S.-listed stocks — this does actually make sense for the most part, as it will appeal to a new generation of retail traders, ones well-versed in the fortunes of Apple, Amazon, Meta, Tesla, Spotify, et al.
However, Sinclair says it will look to open things up to additional stocks in the future.
“It’s absolutely on our plan — U.K. equities is something we hear from customers, that’s important to them,” Sinclair said. “We’re starting with U.S. stocks, as it leverages our platform and our technology in the U.S. But absolutely — U.K. is on our roadmap.”
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Israel and Hamas extend temporary truce until Friday
Minutes before the halt in fighting was due to expire at 0500GMT, Israel’s military said the “operational pause” would be extended, without specifying for how long.
“In light of the mediators’ efforts to continue the process of releasing the hostages and subject to the terms of the framework, the operational pause will continue,” it said.
Also Read: Israel under international pressure to extend ceasefire with Hamas
Hamas meanwhile said there was an agreement to “extend the truce for a seventh day,” without further details.
Qatar, which has led the truce negotiations, confirmed the pause had been extended until Friday.
Also Read: Israel-Palestine war Day 55: 10 updates to know; high death toll, hostage releases and more
There had been pressure to extend the pause to allow more hostage releases and additional aid into devastated Gaza, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arriving in Israel for talks Wednesday night.
The truce has brought a temporary halt to fighting that began on October 7 when Hamas militants poured over the border into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel’s subsequent air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 15,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to Hamas officials, and reduced large parts of the north of the territory to rubble.
The truce agreement allows for extensions if Hamas can release another 10 hostages a day, and a source close to the group said Wednesday that it was willing to prolong the pause by four days.
But with just an hour to go before the truce was due to expire, Hamas said its offer to free another seven hostages, and hand over the bodies of another three it said were killed in Israeli bombardment, had been refused.
Also Read: Israel-Hamas truce: Is this the end of the conflict?
Both sides had earlier said they were ready to return to fighting, with Hamas’s armed wing warning its fighters to “maintain high military readiness… in anticipation of a resumption of combat if it is not renewed,” according to a message posted on its Telegram channel.
IDF spokesman Doron Spielman said troops would “move into operational mode very quickly and continue with our targets in Gaza,” if the truce expired.
‘Sustained humanitarian truce’Overnight, 10 more Israeli hostages were freed under the terms of the deal, with another four Thai hostages and two Israeli-Russian women released outside the framework of the arrangement.
Video released by Hamas showed masked gunmen handing hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Among those freed was Liat Beinin, who also holds American citizenship, and works as a guide at Israel’s Holocaust museum Yad Vashem.
US President Joe Biden said he was “deeply gratified” by the release.
“This deal has delivered meaningful results,” he said of the truce.
Shortly after the hostages arrived in Israel, the country’s prison service said 30 Palestinian prisoners had been released, including well-known activist Ahed Tamimi.
Also Read: Israel-Gaza War: Israel and Hamas to extend truce by 2 days, plan to release additional hostages and prisoners
Since the truce began on November 24, 70 Israeli hostages have been freed in return for 210 Palestinian prisoners.
Around 30 foreigners, most of them Thais living in Israel, have been freed outside the terms of the deal.
Israel has made clear it sees the truce as a temporary halt intended to free hostages, but there are growing calls for a more sustained pause in fighting.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded a “true humanitarian ceasefire”, warning Gazans are “in the midst of an epic humanitarian catastrophe.”
Also Read: Joe Biden backs extension of war pause after latest release by Hamas
And China, whose top diplomat Wang Yi was in New York for Security Council talks on the violence, urged an immediate “sustained humanitarian truce”, in a position paper released Thursday.
‘Everything is gone’The hostage releases have brought joy tinged with agony, with families anxiously waiting each night to learn if their loved ones will be freed, and learning harrowing details from those who return.
Four-year-old Abigail was captured after crawling out from under the body of her father, killed by militants, covered in his blood, her great aunt Liz Hirsh Naftali said.
Also Read: Joe Biden warns against fresh Palestinian casualties as Netanyahu vows to resume war with ‘full force’
“It’s a miracle,” she said of the little girl’s survival and release.
However, Israel’s army also said Wednesday it was investigating a claim by Hamas’s armed wing that a 10-month-old baby hostage, his four-year-old brother and their mother had all been killed in an Israeli bombing in Gaza.
Israel pounded the Gaza Strip relentlessly before the truce, forcing an estimated 1.7 million people to leave their homes and limiting the entry of food, water, medicine and fuel.
Conditions in the territory remain “catastrophic”, according to the World Food Programme, and the population faces a “high risk of famine.
Israeli forces targeted several hospitals in northern Gaza during the fighting, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes.
The spokesman for the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, Ashraf al-Qudra, told AFP Wednesday that doctors found five premature babies dead in Gaza City’s Al-Nasr hospital, which medical staff had been forced to abandon.
Also Read: 12 hostages released, 30 Palestinians freed on 5th day of ceasefire deal | Top 10 updates
The truce has allowed those displaced to return to their homes, but for many there is little left.
“I discovered that my house had been completely destroyed — 27 years of my life to build it and everything is gone,” said Taghrid al-Najjar, 46, after returning to her home in southeastern Gaza.
The violence in Gaza has also raised tensions in the West Bank, where nearly 240 Palestinians have been killed by either Israeli soldiers or settlers since October 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
An eight-year-old boy and a teenager were the latest deaths in the occupied territory, with Israel saying it “responded with live fire… and hits were identified” after suspects hurled explosive devices towards troops.
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Updated: 30 Nov 2023, 11:32 AM IST
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Mint Healthcare Summit: India better prepared to tackle future emergencies: Health secretary Sudhansh Pant
India saw its entire healthcare system, including both public and private sector, work together to tackle the covid pandemic and is better prepared to tackle any future health emergency, secretary of the union ministry of health and family welfare Sudhansh Pant said the Mint Healthcare Summit 2023 on Wednesday.
“If there is to be some zoonotic disease or some outbreak, we should be much better prepared in terms of infrastructure, in terms of human resources, to tackle any sort of health emergency,” Pant said. “This an occasion to remember how, in the last two years, the entire healthcare system worked [as one] to tackle the pandemic,” he added.
More than 4.7 million people in India are estimated to have died due to covid-19, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report – nearly 10 times more than official records suggest. However, India’s government has rejected the figure, saying the methodology is flawed.
Pant said a huge paradigm shift is taking place in the Indian healthcare system, especially in public healthcare in rural areas. “In 2018, the Ayushmann Bharat scheme was launched by the prime minister. And today we realise why it has been a game-changer,” Pant said.
“At that point in time, the scheme had two main pillars. The first was the Aayushman Bharat health and wellness centre, which has now been renamed the Ayushman Arogya Mandir. The second pillar was the PM Jan Arogya Yojana – the assurance scheme,” he said, adding the Indian medical system is moving from curative measures to preventive measures.
“For the first time, 12 basic screenings and diagnostic facilities were provided at that level including screening for NCD, screening for diabetes and hypertension, and even basic cancer screening. For the first time in the history of the country, these kinds of facilities were offered at the primary level”, Pant said.
“This is a huge number. Today there are more than 1.62 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs across the country. We have about 2.7 lakh gram panchayats. So on average, every 1.5-2 gram panchayats will have this primary-level care,” he added.
Pant said over 12 crore families or about 60 crore people are now covered by the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), making it the world’s largest health insurance scheme.
“Poor people who could never even dream of entering a good private-sector hospital can now go there and without spending a penny can get treated for all kinds of serious ailments,” he said.
“In these five years of its implementation, about six crore hospitalisations have taken place and the amount which has been reimbursed to the hospitals is nearly ₹75,000 crores,” he added. Pant said out-of-pocket expenditure for healthcare has declined from 69% in 2011-12 to 44% in 2021-22, and is expected to drop to 35% by 2025-26. “Government expenditure on healthcare has also increased from 22% in 2011-12 to 45% in 2021 and is projected to go past 55% in the next two to three years,” he said.
“Because of the all the interventions by the government – the increase in healthcare expenditure, in the number of schemes, and the impact of schemes like PMJAY – the people of this country have saved ₹5 lakh crore in the six year to 2021,” Pant added.
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Updated: 30 Nov 2023, 11:31 AM IST
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Government suspends 70 lakh mobile numbers. Here’s what you should know
Central government has suspended 70 lakh mobile linked to suspicious transactions in a bid to keep a check on the increasing number of digital frauds, Financial Services Secretary Vivek Joshi was quoted as saying by PTI.
Joshi who was coming right after attending a meeting called on discuss finacial cyber security and increasing digital payment fraud said that banks have been asked to strengthen their processes in order to keep financial frauds in check. Joshi while commenting on the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) fraud noted that state governments have been asked to look into the matter and ensure data protection.
The senior official also noted that discussions related to KYC standardization of merchants was also held while ensuring coordination between various government agencies in order to reduce cases of cyber fraud. He also stressed on the need to create awareness in the society regarding cyber fraud to ensure gullible customers are protected from being duped.
Focus on UCO Bank, Bank of Baroda fiasco:Notably, the issue of digital fraud faced in UCO Bank and Bank of Baroda recently was also a major focus point.
Last month, RBI had directed Bank of Baroda to suspend further customer onboarding on its ‘bob World’ mobile after reports of fraud being committed using the app came to light. Reportedly, bank accounts of many customers were linked to the mobile nubmer of strangers and in some cases these strangers also withdrew money from these accounts in cohorts with the bank employees.
Meanwhile, another state-owned lender, UCO Bank recently revealed that it crore erroneously credited ₹820 crore to some account holders of the bank via Immediate Payment Service (IMPS). The IMPS platform, a real-time inter-bank electronic funds transfer system, is operated by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
In a statement explaining the issue, UCO Bank noted, “During the period from 10.11.2023 to 13.11.2023, technical issue in Immediate Payment Service(IMPS), certain transaction(s) initiated by holders of other banks have resulted in credit to the account holders in our Bank without actual receipt of money from these banks,
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Updated: 29 Nov 2023, 01:56 PM IST
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November 28, 2023
Sustainability Landmark: Virgin Airlines takes off first SAF-based flight, Rishi Sunak calls it ‘very exciting’
Virgin Atlantic flew its landmark flight on November 28, 2023, based on 100 per cent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from Heathrow Airport in London to the John F Kennedy International Airport in New York, which landed today on November 29. The flight is being called Flight100, marking a significant milestone towards Net Zero by 2050.
UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, in an Instagram post, said, “Our Government has made up to £1 million of funding available to support the project. SAF is primarily made of waste oils and fats. Not only SAF will be key to decarbonizing aviation. But it could create a UK industry with an annual turnover of almost £2.5 billion, which could support over 5000 UK jobs.”
Shai Weiss, Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Atlantic, said, “Flight100 proves that Sustainable Aviation fuel can be used as a safe, drop-in replacement for fossil-derived jet fuel, and it’s the only viable solution to decarbonising long-haul aviation. It takes radical collaboration to get here, and we’re proud to have reached this important milestone, but we need to push further. There’s simply not enough SAF, and it’s clear that in order to reach production at scale, we need to see significantly more investment. This will only happen when regulatory certainty and price support mechanisms, backed by the Government, are in place. Flight100 proves that if you make it, we’ll fly it.”
What is SAF made of?The sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) used to power Flight100 is a blend of 88 per cent Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) supplied by AirBP and 12 per cent Synthetic Aromatic Kerosene (SAK) sourced from Virent, a subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum Corporation. HEFA comes from waste fats, while SAK is produced from plant sugars, using the by-product of plant proteins, oil, and fibres.
Why is SAF better?SAF is a biofuel used to run aircraft. It has properties similar to regular jet fuel but with much fewer carbon emissions. Additionally, SAF can also lower the life cycle of GHC emissions or may have a “net-negative GHG footprint,” according to Energy.gov.
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Updated: 29 Nov 2023, 01:26 PM IST
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Prosus slashes Indian edtech giant Byju’s valuation to ‘sub-$3 billion’
Prosus has marked down the valuation of Byju’s, India’s most valuable startup, to below $3 billion, the investment giant’s executives said on an earnings call Wednesday even as they asserted that they remain bullish on the opportunities in the South Asian market.
The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, which has raised over $5 billion in equity and debt over the years, was valued at $22 billion in its last financing round in early 2022. Prosus has been consistently adjusting the worth of its holding in Byju’s, in which it owns over 9% stake, for more than a year. At the end of March this year, Prosus valued Byju’s at $5.1 billion.
Executives at Prosus, which is also one of the earlier backers of Byju’s, said Wednesday that the edtech giant is scrambling through many “challenges,” and Prosus as well as some other investors are engaging with the startup to help it recover.
Prosus identified Byju and Pharmeasy, an online pharmacy startup that this year raised capital at a valuation about 90% below its 2021 highs, among the “large underperformers.”
But not everything is gloom for Prosus, which has deployed billions in India. The firm said its payments giant PayU will look to file for an initial public offering in the second half of 2024 and other portfolio startups including Swiggy are growing efficiently.
More to follow.
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