MAM
Consumer sentiment up for jobs: LSEG-Ipsos PCSI August 2024
Mumbai: The August 2024 wave of the LSEG-Ipsos primary consumer sentiment index shows confidence around jobs has improved and India was placed second in the pecking order on the national index score across the 29 markets covered in the survey.
However, overall the sentiment was seen to be down -2.9 per cent points.
The LSEG-Ipsos PCSI maps consumer sentiment on four sub-indices and sentiment around the PCSI employment confidence (‘Jobs’) sub-index, has seen an uptick of +0.9 per cent points, the PCSI current personal financial conditions sub index (current conditions) was down -6.5 per cent points; the PCSI investment climate (‘Investment’) sub-index has lowered -6.5 perc ent points; and the PCSI economic expectations (‘Expectations’) sub-Index was down 2.0 per cent points.
Ipsos India CEO Amit Adarkar elucidating on the findings said: “The sentiment around jobs has improved with some sectors hiring in H2 and also with the government announcing new initiatives for job creation in the budget. Some consumers are feeling the pinch of high cost of living in terms of strain on personal finances for day-to-day running of households and lack of disposable incomes for savings and buying of big ticket items and discretionary spends. The sentiment is also down around the economy. Global factors continue to bog down our economy also with the rupee weakening against the dollar at Rs. 84/$, with the wars in Ukraine and Gaza continuing.”
Consumer sentiment in 29 countries
Among the 29 countries, India has now moved to the 2nd spot, preceded by Indonesia (63.6) which now holds the highest national index score. Indonesia and India (61.6) are the only countries with a national index score of 60 or higher.
Eleven other countries now show a national index above the 50-point mark: Sweden (57.3), the Netherlands (55.6), the U.S. (55.3), Malaysia (54.2), Great Britain (53.8), Brazil (53.1), Singapore (52.5), Mexico (52.0), Spain (50.2), Canada (50.1) and South Africa (50.1).
In contrast, just three countries show a National Index below the 40-point mark: Japan (38.0), Hungary (36.8), and Türkiye (36.4).
“India continues to be one of the most resilient markets despite all the global turbulence and tough macro conditions. We have good monsoons and that should bring down food inflation,” added Adarkar.
MAM
‘You packed my parachute’: Avinash Kaul’s farewell salutes Network18’s unsung thousands
The outgoing chief’s LinkedIn post skips the boardroom tributes and goes straight to the security guards, drivers and office boys who kept the machine running
MUMBAI: Most farewell posts by senior media executives follow a familiar script: gratitude to leadership, a nod to the team, a hint of what lies ahead. Avinash Kaul’s is not that post.
Writing on LinkedIn on his last day at Network18 Media & Investments, where he spent nearly 12 years rising to chief executive, Kaul bypassed the boardroom entirely and directed his most heartfelt words at the people furthest from it: the security guard who greeted him before the building was fully awake, the fleet staff who drove him to airports at ungodly hours, the office assistants, the housekeeping teams, and the administrators who, as he put it, “held ten thousand invisible threads so the rest of us could look organised.”
“You packed my parachute,” he wrote. “Every day. Without fanfare, recognition, or ever asking for it.”
It was a striking note from a man who leaves behind a considerable operational record. Kaul joined Network18 managing three channels and exits with responsibility for 20, alongside a publishing business, a growing connected television footprint, and what he says is the highest revenue and highest channel share in the group’s history. He was quick to deflect the credit. “Not because of me. Because of 4,000 people who showed up, every day, in every department, across the country.”
To content teams across India, he issued a reminder that carries some weight given the pressures Indian news media currently faces. “Keep being custodians of trust for 700 million people. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing.”
To colleagues in revenue and ratings who found him relentless and hard to satisfy, he was unapologetic but generous. “There was never a single moment of ill intent in my heart. Everything I pushed you towards came from one belief – that you were stronger than you knew, and I was not willing to let you settle for less than your real capability.” Those who believed him, he said, flew. Those who did not taught him to be a better communicator. He was grateful to both.
On what comes next, he offered a hint wrapped in metaphor. Something is being built, he said, prepared for “the way you pack a bag before a long climb. Not out of restlessness. Out of readiness.”
In a media landscape that rarely pauses to acknowledge the people who keep the lights on, it was, at the very least, a different kind of goodbye.
