Tariff trailer

While there was no dearth of experts’ opinion and reaction on Trump tariff, Nilesh Shah, Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company, by far had the best cryptic comment.

“Picture Abhi Baki hai” (picture has not finished yet). Will the tariff impact the US more than the other countries? Only time will tell.

When greed rules

NPCI officials recently conducted an awareness session around digital financial frauds at Chennai, and the team shared a very interesting case that they encountered recently. A young lady along with her 60+ years old father visited the NPCI offices in Mumbai recently.

The lady requested the company officials to convince her father that the “attractive investment scheme” that he had been informed about on WhatsApp and was being asked to send money to, was too good to be true. But the father did not seem to even trust the officials who work on countering such UPI-related scams.

The man was convinced that his daughter was too naive and missing out on a chance for good returns. As they say, looks like greed is often the biggest cause of people getting scammed.

AI trouble for Cong govt

Of late, the Congress government is facing challenges from students, retired employees, farmers, and the Opposition parties. But the most unlikely challenge has come from Generative AI.

During the thick of protests against the controversial plan to auction the 400 acres at Kancha Gachibowli, abutting the IT hub, a photo with a flock of peacocks running for cover in the area as excavators ravage the vegetation in the background, started doing the rounds.

The image went viral, shaking the conscience of environment lovers in Telangana. Scores of social media handles shared it and blamed the Revanth Reddy government for destroying the ‘lung space’ of Hyderabad.

Even before Congress activists and the government realised that it’s generated by AI, the ‘damage’ had been done. No amount of explanation stopped people from sharing it. Even after the Supreme Court stepped in to stop all the land development there, the photo continues to be shared and reshared on social media. Do the ruling parties now have a brand new opponent to confront?

Who’s next?

Senior BJP leader Nainar Nagendran, an MLA from Tirunelveli, has emerged as the top contender for the post of Tamil Nadu BJP president. This comes after the current president K Annamalai stated that he was not in the race for the top post.

Hailing from the Thevar community, in 2017 Nagendran left the AIADMK to join the BJP. Since then, his rise in the party has been steep. Some of the other names doing the rounds for the top post include Vanathi Srinivasan, and former president L Murugan. A decision is likely to be taken next week on who will lead the BJP in Tamil Nadu.

Published on April 6, 2025