☕ Forty basis points

Good morning, while insisting that it is necessary to be sensitive to new realities, the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has announced a repo rate hike of 40 bps with immediate effect. This takes the mission critical rate from 4.0% to 4.4%. 

Here are both sides of the hike story;

🔽 Raising rates will not get cheaper oil flowing into India, nor bring down global commodity prices. It is a blunt policy instrument that will cause widespread demand destruction. 

🔼 This is a very well applied global principle: 

High interest rate --> lesser disposable income --> lesser household spend --> reduction in demand --> reduction in prices --> reduced inflation. QED.

Which side should you choose? We recommend a good shower, a shot of protein for breakfast and a good day's work. 

There's much much more to life than an interest rate hike. 

🏃‍♀️🥝🍳 

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VIRTUAL REAL ESTATE

Dubai's VARA Sets Up Metaverse HQ

Dubai is a city of firsts and VARA (Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority) has now given it another crowning feather. 

How: By setting up its headquarters in the Metaverse, it has become the first such regulator/authority in the world to do so. Plus, because it achieved this great feat with just a few mouse clicks and screen taps, it has also won praise from Dubai’s Crown Prince, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed.

Zooming In

🧭 Borderless audiences, syncing with Dubai’s goals for a de-centralized prototype regulator system.

🧭 Higher accessibility for all service providers, authorities and the Government.

🧭 Primary MetaHQ channel for engaging virtual asset service providers. They will obtain licenses, share knowledge and drive new applications.

🧭 The Sandbox platform hosts the MetaHQ. 😭 - Decentraland folks, in the meantime.

Why it matters

🔖 Services for global audiences without any borders.

🔖 The first-mover advantage.

🔖 A new economic space and opportunities.

That’s not all folks; watch out for One Human Reality, Dubai Municipality’s upcoming digital twin city. 

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INFRASTRUCTURE

Assam Gets INR 7,876 Bonanza

Led by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Assam Cabinet has approved infrastructure projects worth INR 7,876.45 crore per reports. 

What’s included? 

• INR 3,107 crore for a four-lane bridge linking Sualkuchi and Palasbari. 

• Upgrades for 34 polytechnics and 43 Government ITIs in partnership with Tata Technologies Limited. 

• INR 2,390 crore project for up-skilling food processing, textiles, handicrafts and tea workers. 

• INR 2,000 crore for building four new medical colleges and hospitals at Golaghat, Bongaigaon, Morigaon, and Dhemaji. 

• INR 289.45 crore contract for Guwahati Gateway Ghat terminal and other Riverine infra. 

An Assam Complex in Maharashtra and higher state subsidies for PMAY housing are also on the cards. 

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Infra-Read Thursdays

Wait a sec, that's not the entrance to the bat cave. Instead, this is an under-construction portion of an elevated highway in Iran. 

How this works: The vertical parts add stiffness and strength to the structure so it can span longer distances, but because concrete costs and weighs a lot (in which case, needing a stronger support) a hollow structure makes elevated road and rail sections more efficient by using lesser materials. 

💡 Just think of it as a hollow steel tubing that makes up your mountain bike. Light, affordable and yet, sufficiently strong. 

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GLOBAL TRENDS

Is War Rattling The CRE Investor

The Ukraine War remains the elephant in the room for commercial real estate (CRE) investors globally. In some countries like Canada, however, things are playing out in both positive and negative ways, per this report.

What’s happening here?

On one hand, construction has commenced for 1166 West Pender St in Vancouver, the first such downtown office tower since the pandemic. 

On the other, inflation levels have rushed up to 6.7%, forcing the Bank of Canada to jack up interest rates to 1%.

Both borrowing and construction are costlier now, automatically making commercial Canadian real estate prohibitively costly, and when deals are struck, a chunk of this increased cost will be inevitably passed onto building tenants.

Who cares, because. . .

1️⃣ Strong job growth is expected to keep stimulating demand for office space.

2️⃣ Investors face higher rates of interest, but rentals are finally outstripping inflation for the first time in several years.

3️⃣ Vancouver’s office market is still showing growth signs.

4️⃣ Tenants are returning while U.S. tech majors and other firms are also choosing newer spaces.

But, but, but...

High interest rates aside, investors will have to face soaring costs of supplies owing to the Ukraine war.

Steel prices have gone up radically with Russian supplies being sanctioned, while glass, engineered white oak flooring and silicon are all costlier.

On the whole, there are both pros and cons. It’s a real estate investment after all. 

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Honestly, the last few months had been feeling like two decades and had all of us flummoxed and scurrying for answers. Then we found this:

A recent study examined 46 patients, 6 to 10 months after they were hospitalized with the Coronavirus, and all of them showed a marked decrease in their intellectual capabilities. 

For patients whose cases resulted in being on ventilators and other organ support devices, the researchers estimated their mental acuity dropped as if they had aged 20 years in just a few months.

We will be back in your mailbox way before that kind of time passes. TC. 💚

☕ The Crew@Ginger Chai

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