Memories, Medium, or Message? Art as mirror to a world in transition
The role of art institutions, how art must respond to a shifting socio-political landscape and its power to shape collective opinion were discussed
๐ฎ๐ณ ์ธ๋ ยท "MIRROR" ยท ์ด 17๊ฑด
ํํฐ ๋ณด๊ธฐํ์ฌ ์ง์
50.0
0 = ๋ถ์ ์ฐ์ธ
50 = ์ค๋ฆฝ
100 = ๊ธ์ ์ฐ์ธ
์ต๊ทผ 7์ผ ๊ธฐ์ค 6,188๊ฑด์ ๋ถ์ํ ๊ฒฐ๊ณผ, ๋ด์ค ์ฌ๋ฆฌ์ง์๋ 50.0(๊ท ํ)์ ๋๋ค. ๊ธ์ 0๊ฑด(0.0%)ยท์ค๋ฆฝ 6,188๊ฑด(100.0%)ยท๋ถ์ 0๊ฑด(0.0%)์ด๋ฉฐ, ์ค๋ฆฝ ๋น์ค์ด ๋๋ ทํ๊ฒ ๋์ต๋๋ค. ์ฑํฅ ์ง์๋ ์ข ํฉ 0.0(์ค๋ ๊ท ํ)์ ๋๋ค.
The role of art institutions, how art must respond to a shifting socio-political landscape and its power to shape collective opinion were discussed
Over 300 AIADMK members, including former ministers and MLAs, joined Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), citing inability to serve the public under AIADMK leadership. Senior leaders expressed belief in Chief Minister Joseph Vijay's ideals, mirroring MGR and Jayalalithaa, and pledged wholehearted support for TVK's future endeavors.
Congress spokesperson shared the clip too, writing, โThere was a king. He broke the mirror. But why did he break the mirror? Which king's story is this?โ
Google has recently laid off employees within its Cloud division, impacting its Threat Intelligence Group and Mandiant. This move, mirroring broader tech industry trends, sees the company reallocating resources towards artificial intelligence development. Google AI CEO Demis Hassabis, however, believes companies should leverage AI-driven productivity gains to expand, not reduce, their workforce.
Billionaire investor Ray Dalio warns US AI firms risk falling behind China due to their profit-driven approach. He contrasts this with China's view of AI as a public utility, aiming for widespread worker access to boost productivity. This mirrors China's successful strategy in the EV sector, prioritizing enablement over immediate profit.
Rahul Gandhi's politics mirrors Trump's: stay in headlines, provoke opponents, dominate the conversation and remain impossible to ignore - even at the risk of losing credibility.
The Indian rupee is trading around Rs. 95-96 to the dollar in late May 2026, setting fresh record lows. Markets are openly discussing the Rs. 100 threshold. The rupee has weakened in almost every year since 2014 and has lost approximately half its value against the dollar over that period. The end of this currency depreciation is not in sight. The factors that would stop it are not yet visible.The government is acting. State run oil companies have implemented four fuel price hikes in ten days as of May 25, taking petrol in Delhi past Rs. 102 per litre. This is the right and necessary response to the energy cost reality created by the Iran war. Crucially, the Modi government has also done its part on the macroeconomic front, consistently and aggressively reducing the fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP to maintain structural stability.Yet, the currency pressure persists. The energy price impact has not yet fully reached Indian consumers and supply chains. It is coming.Uday Kotak said it plainly at the CII Annual Business Summit on May 12: "Be ready for tough times rather than waiting for the shock to hit us." He was right.Also read | Manufactured monopoly: How industrial policy is structuring monopolies in IndiaThis is not a time to panic. But it is a time to act. The leaders who move now will have options. Those who wait will not.The Overriding Factor: The Psychology of the PlayersWhy is the currency declining despite strong domestic fiscal discipline? Because exchange rates are not driven by mathematical models alone. The currency decline is highly affectedโand acceleratedโby the psychology of all players engaged in this endeavor.Currency movements are deeply behavioral. When a currency visualizes a downward trend, psychology shifts from calculation to self-protection and speculation. Every player in the ecosystem operates under this psychological weight:Corporate CFOs and Treasurers: Instead of hedging normally, they rush to cover future dollar liabilities early, hoarding hard currency and inadvertently worsening the scarcity.Foreign Investors: They begin to judge their returns not by the quality of Indian business operations, but by the eroding value of the conversion rate.Importers and Exporters: Importers advance their payments to avoid paying more tomorrow; exporters delay converting their dollar earnings back into rupees, waiting for a "better" rate. This collective psychology creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.Investors, CFOs, and FDI decision makers extrapolate what is happening now into the future. When they see a currency that has lost approximately half its value since 2014 with no clear floor in sight, their psychological pivot alters market realities.Also read | India tightens checks on overseas flows as currency pressure mounts, sources sayThe cascading timeline of Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI) equity behavior perfectly mirrors this psychological shift from rational evaluation to systemic risk aversion:2024 (The Calculation Phase): Rupee averages Rs. 83-84. FPI flows remain positive (+$12 billion) as investors trade on strong domestic corporate earnings.2025 (The Self-Protection Phase): Rupee slides past Rs. 89. Collective psychology shifts to risk mitigation. FPIs withdraw a record $18.4 billion from Indian equitiesโthe largest annual equity outflow on record.Early 2026 (The Capitulation Phase): Rupee breaks past Rs. 95. Sentiment turns into an outright exit strategy. In the first four months of 2026 alone, outflows have already reached $19.1 billion, completely bypassing the entire previous year's record loss in a fraction of the time.FDI agreements are being signed, but capital is delayed because players are psychologically hesitant to deploy funds into a depreciating asset.The Trap of Hard Currency Debt: A Broken Business Model There is a highly significant and dangerous phenomenon unfolding in India today that requires immediate exposure. For years, a specific class of Indian corporates adopted a regular strategy of borrowing heavily in hard currency (External Commercial Borrowings, or ECBs). Lured by low nominal global interest rates, several of these companies over borrowed, treating cheap dollar debt as a permanent structural advantage.Today, that strategy has become a trap. The compounding effect of a depreciating rupee, skyrocketing hedging costs, and brutal refinancing realities is fundamentally breaking their business models.Consider the mechanics of this crisis:The Hedging Penalty: Leaving dollar debt unhedged is now corporate roulette. However, buying hedges at current rupee levels has become structurally prohibitive. The cost of protection completely wipes out any interest rate advantage.The Refinancing Wall: Billions in foreign debt are coming due. These over-borrowed companies must now refinance their liabilities at a time when the rupee value has materially deteriorated. They are effectively forced to borrow far more rupees just to pay back the same amount of original dollars.The Crushing Cost of Rupee Capital: As these companies try to pivot back to domestic lenders, they face a severe escalation in their rupee cost of capital.The Growth Verdict: When your cost of capital spikes and your cash flows are consumed by servicing legacy dollar debt, future growth stops. Capital expenditure (CapEx) plans are being frozen. These companies can no longer invest in innovation, capacity, or market expansion. Their business model shifts overnight from aggressive value creation to basic survival. Boards must realize that this is not a temporary treasury headache; it is a structural threat to the companyโs future viability.India's forex reserves stand at approximately 10 to 11 months of import cover. Substantial, but being actively deployed to defend the currency. Some imports are non-negotiable: oil, critical inputs, components. These will now cost more. That cost passes through every supply chain.Six Actions for Business Leaders1. Protect your cash and liquidity first. This is the most immediate priority. Map your cash position today. Identify every source of liquidity across the next twelve months. Stress-test it at Rs. 100 and beyond. Which receivables are at risk? Which credit lines are rupee-denominated and which are not? Companies that run into a cash crisis during a currency depreciation cycle lose their options entirely. The CFO must own this analysis and present it to the board within days, not weeks.2. Act now on your foreign currency borrowings, hedging, and refinancing. Do not assume the rupee will recover to Rs. 80. Analyse your full foreign currency exposure across the next three years: every loan, every refinancing date, every hedging contract, every procurement price denominated in foreign currency. Hard currency loans now face refinancing at rupee values that have materially deteriorated. Model every scenario at Rs. 100 and beyond. Your CFO, treasury, and procurement team must be aligned on one instruction: do not run into a liquidity crisis. This analysis must happen now, not at the next quarterly review.3. Build a war room. Most companies have begun thinking about war rooms for supply chain disruptions. Expand the mandate. Currency exposure belongs in the same room. Which of your costs are dollar or euro denominated? Which of your revenues are rupee denominated? Where is the mismatch? What is your break-even exchange rate? If you do not have clear answers today, you are exposed. The war room is not a committee. It is a real-time decision environment with live data, a clear owner, and the authority to act.4. Use the currency depreciation advantage: double your export salesforce. A weaker rupee makes Indian exports more competitive. This window will not stay open indefinitely. Double the salesforce in your export markets now. Use this period to upgrade quality, improve service delivery, and build customer relationships that will last beyond the currency advantage. Indian exporters who invest in capability during this period will emerge stronger regardless of what the rupee does next. Those who simply ride the price advantage without building the underlying business will lose when conditions change.5. Watch your stock and your sector. Banks and financial institutions should already be on high alert. Companies with large foreign currency exposure will see pressure on their financials. Some stock prices are already reflecting this. Go through your sector company by company. Identify who is most exposed. If you are an investor or a lender, this analysis is not optional. The combination of currency depreciation, rising oil prices, and FPI outflows creates a compounding pressure that will surface in earnings before it surfaces in headlines.6. Cut costs aggressively. AI will help. There has never been more urgency to reduce costs than now. And there has never been a better tool to do it. AI can cut most operational costs by as much as 30% across functions: procurement, finance, customer service, logistics, and compliance. McKinsey data confirms companies adopting AI and automation reduce operational costs by 20 to 30 percent. This is not a future opportunity. It is a present imperative. Every rupee of cost removed through AI is a rupee that does not need to be recovered through revenue in a deteriorating currency environment. Start now with your highest-cost functions.The CFO as CaptainCurrency risk is a cash flow risk. Every function that touches foreign currencyโprocurement, treasury, sales, capex planningโ must now report into a single coordinating authority. That authority is the CFO. This is not about hierarchy. It is about clarity. In a currency crisis, fragmented decision-making is as dangerous as wrong decision making. One captain. One consolidated view. Weekly reviews minimum.The Bigger PictureThis currency depreciation is a structural signal, not a cyclical one. India's economy must move from a cheap labour advantage to genuine global value creation.The companies that will survive and thrive are those building products and services that command premium prices in global markets. The rupee's weakness is a reminder that competing on cost alone has limits.The recently concluded trade agreements are a genuine opportunity. Execute them with full force. Build the export pipelines. Add the sales capacity.The businesses that move now, with discipline and clarity, will manage market psychology, navigate the debt trap, and define the next chapter of Indian industry.The shock is coming. Prepare before it arrives.Ram Charan is the author of Chinaโs 90% model. It is restricting Indiaโs industrial progress. Former Director of Hindalco and Muyuan (China).
To be moderated by Narayan Lakshman, Opinion Editor of The Hindu and Curator of The Hindu Huddle, the session will feature artists Seema Kohli, Shilo Shiv Suleman, and art collector and founder of Bengaluruโs Museum of Art and Photography Abhishek Poddar
A devastating fire at a Malviya Nagar B&B, claiming 21 lives, is prompting a criminal probe. The establishment, operating far beyond its permitted capacity and without a fire NOC, mirrors the 2022 Mundka fire. Authorities are investigating culpable homicide charges against the absconding owner, highlighting systemic failures in regulatory oversight.
A recent surge in gold import duty has fueled a wave of smuggling, with illicit gold now available at discounts of up to Rs 10 lakh per kilogram. This creates a significant price disparity with legally imported bullion, mirroring trends seen after a similar duty hike in 2013. Industry experts warn of escalating unofficial imports.
For three decades, the Suryakiran Aerobatic Team has showcased the Indian Air Force's precision and technological evolution. Completing 30 years, the team's journey mirrors the IAF's growth, inspiring billions and strengthening diplomatic ties globally. They stand among the world's elite nine-aircraft aerobatic teams, a testament to their unwavering pursuit of excellence.
Annamalai's supporters believe that there is a political space for a new force
China is pitching itself as the global fulcrum for the next phase of artificial intelligence and a legion of robotics companies is lining up initial public offerings to test investor appetite.Unitree Robotics, one of the most recognizable names in the industry after its robots practicing martial arts made headlines, on Monday received approval for a listing in Shanghai. Its IPO will serve as an early test for what could be a broader wave of offerings. Hong Kong alone has at least 46 robotics-related companies in the pipeline, more than 10% of applicants, according to a report. Companies that have filed IPO applications include Leju Robotics and Deep Robotics. โChinese humanoids are one step closer to IPOs, igniting market interest on humanoids in the second half of 2026,โ Sheng Zhong, head of China industrials research at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a note. โFunds from most of the Chinese humanoidsโ IPOs will go toward R&D, especially robot models.โ The deep pipeline of robotics IPOs mirrors the fast rise of Chinaโs AI ecosystem, where an array of listings whipped up an investor frenzy in the past six months. It also aligns with Beijingโs push to shift high-tech industries from innovation to large-scale deployment. China is rushing to set the pace of funding, industrialization and ultimately leadership in what Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang calls โphysical AI.โ Shares of OneRobotics (Shenzhen) Co. jumped as much as 18% in Hong Kong on Tuesday, while component maker Leader Harmonious Drive Systems Co. gained as much as 11% on the mainland. 131456136โThis is the decade of the robot โ and it belongs to China,โ Barclays analysts, including Zornitsa Todorova, wrote in a note last month. โThis leadership reflects a decade-long, state-guided push.โThe firm says Chinaโs robotics roll-out is already unmatched, accounting for 50% of global industrial robots and 85% of humanoids in 2025. Backed by coordinated industrial policy and tight supply-chain control, humanoids could reach about 3.8% of the nationโs labor capacity by 2035, it estimates. Unitree got a nice shoutout from Nvidiaโs Huang on Monday, when he showcased his companyโs endeavors in robotic AI. The two companies have partnered to build humanoid โreferenceโ machines, featuring five-fingered hands and built-in chips to replace cumbersome โFrankenrobotsโ in research labs.Some investors remain more cautious, though, when looking at the companiesโ fundamentals. Many robotics firms are expected to burn cash for years and concerns are mounting that valuations could run ahead of earnings.A gauge of humanoid robot stocks has fallen about 13% this year, after registering a 47% gain in 2025. ChinaAMC CSI Robot ETF, a major exchange-traded fund tracking robot-related stocks, has seen net fund outflows for most of this year. Valuations were also elevated, with the sector trading at about 40 times forward earnings, compared with about 14 times for the CSI 300 Index, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.โInvestors trading at such elevated valuations are typically not driven by long-term fundamentals, but rather by the pursuit of short-term price gains,โ said Shen Meng, a director at Beijing-based investment bank Chanson & Co. โIt indicates that sentiment is driven more by market dynamics than by conviction or long-term vision.โThe state-run China Securities Journal also struck a cautious tone in an editorial published Tuesday, warning that pre-IPO valuations may outpace fundamentals, with many firms still unprofitable, raising the risk of a sharp correction if growth or commercialization disappoints. Still, prospective issuers can look at the performance of China tech IPOs this year, with many listings thousands of times oversubscribed and producing big gains on their debuts. Two of those companies, AI model developers Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock Co. and MiniMax Group Inc. last month gained inclusion in the Hang Seng Tech Index after massive rallies since their January listings. For investors, the robotics companies can also offer a way to benefit from the rapid expansion of a cutting edge industry, said Zhou Nan, founder and investment director of Shenzhen Long Hui Fund Management Co.โWith continued advances in AI, the robotics sector is poised for substantial long-term growth,โ Zhou said. โRobotics is expected to become a key driver of enterprise value, and progressively complement or replace human labor across a wide range of use cases.โ
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has announced a significant change to trading hours in the equity derivatives segment with the introduction of the Closing Auction Session (CAS) framework.Starting August 3, 2026, the normal market closing time for equity derivatives will be extended by 10 minutes to 3:40 pm from the current 3:30 pm. While the extension is noteworthy, the bigger change lies in how closing prices for eligible securities will be determined.The move aims to ensure a smoother transition between the cash and derivatives markets at the end of the trading day while maintaining consistency in the pricing framework across segments.What is the closing auction session?The CAS is a structured trading window held at the end of the trading day. During this period, market participants place buy and sell orders to determine a single closing price for a security through an auction-based mechanism.Unlike the current system where prices evolve through normal trading until market close, the auction process discovers a fair closing price based on orders entered during the designated session.According to the exchange, CAS will initially apply only to securities in the cash segment that have derivative contracts available. The framework will roll out in phases, and any future expansion will be subject to SEBI guidance and separate operational instructions from the exchange.Why are derivatives trading hours being extended?Although CAS applies only to the equity segment, NSE decided to extend trading hours in the derivatives segment to ensure both markets remain aligned during the closing process.The exchange also clarified that the price bands and pre-trade risk control measures introduced as part of CAS in the cash market will be mirrored in the derivatives segment. This is intended to maintain consistency between the two segments during the closing phase of trading.How will the closing auction session work?The CAS will run for 20 minutes, from 3:15 pm to 3:35 pm. The process will begin with a transition phase between 3:15 pm and 3:20 pm, during which the reference price will be calculated using the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of trades executed between 3:00 pm and 3:15 pm.Between 3:20 pm and 3:25 pm, participants will be able to enter both market and limit orders. From 3:25 pm to 3:30 pm, only limit orders will be permitted. During this period, market orders cannot be modified or cancelled.The order entry session will close randomly at any point between 3:28 pm and 3:30 pm, after which the auction process will determine the final closing price.How will closing prices be calculated?One key point highlighted by NSE is that there will be no change in the methodology used to calculate closing prices of derivative contracts. The volume-weighted average price (VWAP) used for derivatives closing price calculation will continue to be based on trades executed during the final 30 minutes of trading. However, because market hours are being extended, that 30-minute window will now shift to 3:10 pm-3:40 pm instead of the current 3:00 pm-3:30 pm.For securities eligible for CAS, the closing price in the cash segment will be determined through the auction process.Ashish Nanda, President and Digital Business Head at Kotak Securities summed up the shift by noting that the market is moving from a "continuous trading close" to an "auction discovered close".Under the current framework, closing prices are derived from the VWAP of trades executed between 3:00 pm and 3:30 pm. Under the new framework, closing prices for F&O-eligible stocks will effectively be linked to a 20-minute auction process running from 3:15 pm to 3:35 pm.What happens if a stock is removed from F&O?NSE clarified that eligibility for CAS is linked to the presence of derivatives on the stock. If a security is excluded from the equity derivatives segment on both exchanges, it will no longer be eligible for the CAS.In such cases, the closing price will revert to the existing methodology and be determined using the VWAP of trades executed during the last 30 minutes of trading. However, if the security continues to be part of the derivatives segment on at least one exchange, it will remain eligible for CAS.What happens to pending orders?The exchange outlined operational changes relating to order management. All unexecuted special orders, including stop-loss orders and disclosed quantity orders, will be cancelled. Pending orders that fall outside the revised price band will also be cancelled automatically, and members will receive appropriate cancellation notifications.Why does this matter for traders?For many market participants, the biggest implication is that the final closing price may no longer mirror the last traded price visible on trading screens at 3:30 pm.According to Ashish Nanda, this could require adjustments to trading strategies, particularly for option writers and arbitrageurs who rely heavily on closing prices for valuation, settlement and hedging decisions.While the derivatives market will remain open until 3:40 pm, the broader shift is not simply about extending trading by 10 minutes. It marks a change in how closing prices for eligible securities are discovered, with the exchange moving toward an auction-based mechanism designed to determine a single closing price at the end of the trading day.What happens to existing market timings?Apart from the revised closing time, most trading schedules remain unchanged. The pre-open session in the derivatives segment will continue to begin at 9:00 am and the normal trading session will continue to start at 9:15 am. Similarly, the trade modification window will remain unchanged and continue until 4:15 pm.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
Royal Challengers Bengaluru's journey from perennial underachievers to champions is complete. With back-to-back IPL titles and two WPL crowns in three seasons, RCB have evolved from a star-driven franchise into a system-driven team. Their journey from one of the teams making up the numbers mirrors the transformation - and success - of Manchester City in England.
A third time try of this yearโs International Booker Prize winner holds up a mirror to my own history
Peter Thiel, billionaire Trump donor and Palantir co-founder, has quietly relocated to Argentina, eyeing it as a backup country. Thiel bought a Buenos Aires mansion, enrolled his kids in school, and bonded with President Javier Milei. His move mirrors Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin's California exit, all driven by a proposed 5 percent wealth tax targeting the state's billionaires. Here's what's happening.