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Since Sanna Marin became Finland's youngest prime minister in December 2019, the "child from a poor family" has risen to become the Nordic country's most popular leader of government in the 21st century.

But the 36-year-old's reputation as a firm crisis leader -- deftly navigating her small nation through the Covid pandemic and a historic NATO membership application -- has been challenged in the last few days.

Marin has become entangled in controversies over her partying, earning her the nickname "Party Sanna" in Finland's tabloid press.

A poll published by leading newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Friday showed that 42 percent of Finns had a worse opinion of their prime minister due to the scandals.

A video leaked last week -- which made headlines around the world -- showed Marin dancing and partying with a group of friends and celebrities

That controversy was quickly followed by another, when Marin was forced to apologise for a photo taken at her official residence of two women lifting their tops to bare their torsos, as she hosted friends after attending a music festival.

In December 2021, Marin came under sustained criticism after it was revealed she stayed out dancing until the early hours despite having been exposed to Covid-19.

Humble origins

"Some of the general public consider that partying like that and appearing in such company does not fit the norm for a politician," professor Anu Koivunen told AFP.

Koivunen noted that while the leaks would likely have caused a stir with any prime minister, she believes that the fact that Marin is a young female politician played a role in the ensuing brouhaha.

"There's been a debate about her qualifications, whether she's up to the job," Koivunen said, suggesting that this probably would not have been the case with a male prime minister.

But for her, this "ignores Marin's history as a crisis leader and a competent actor."

"I am human. And I too sometimes long for joy, light and fun amidst these dark clouds", Marin said this week in an emotional speech where she appeared close to tears.

Battling controversies about her lifestyle or stereotypes is nothing new for Marin.

She was relatively unknown before she became prime minister, her rise to power a swift one.

The slender, dark-haired Marin grew up in the southern Finnish town of Pirkkala, in a "rainbow, low-income family, and lived in the municipality's rental housing", in her own words.

"My parents divorced because of my father's drinking problem when I was only a few years old," she wrote in her blog.

Although Marin's childhood with her mother and mother's female partner did not include "material abundance", it was full of "love and ordinary life," she described.

'Shop girl'

Marin was the first in her family to go to university, earning a Masters degree in Administrative Sciences.

She supported her studies by working as a cashier, something which her opponents have later used to discredit her.

When Marin became prime minister, Finnish daily newspaper Iltalehti called it "a remarkable rise from shop cashier to the top of Finland."

Even Estonia's then interior minister Mart Helme caused a row by labelling Finland's new prime minister a "shop girl".

The negative comments prompted many prominent Finns to reveal n social media their own "rise to the top" from humble beginnings as cashiers or cleaners.

The comments and frequent controversies about her lifestyle and looks are in stark contrast with how the young politician got noticed and how she is now perceived, analysts say.

"As a politician, she is well respected. She is both firm and also open to discussion," Emilia Palonen, a political scientist at Helsinki University, told AFP.

Her Social Democratic party, the SDP, "needed strong, responsible and charismatic people like her", she said.

Marin was first elected as an MP in 2015. But for many Finns, the first time she entered the spotlight was in 2016 when a Tampere city council debate she chaired went viral on social media.

On the video which has racked up nearly a million views, Marin keeps a marathon debate on Tampere's new tram lines on track, despite it dragging on for more than five hours as representatives came up with ever more hilarious and absurd arguments for and against the tram.

Many praised her professionalism in the face of bickering councilmen, earning her a reputation as "a fearless leader".

"Sanna Marin showed how to keep the hecklers in check", Helsingin Sanomat daily wrote.

Essar Group on Friday announced a USD 2.4 billion (Rs 19,000 crore) deal to sell its ports business to Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel Ltd.

In a statement, Essar said it has signed definitive agreements with ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel for certain ports and power infrastructure assets which are primarily captive to Hazira steel plant operations.

"The deal also envisages a 50-50 Joint Venture partnership, for building a 4 MTPA LNG terminal at Hazira, Gujarat, between Essar and ArcelorMittal," it added.

Keeping with the rising momentum in economic activity, the bank credit expansion was broad-based, posting double-digit annual growth in June 2022 in metropolitan, urban, semi-urban and rural areas in the country, showed Reserve Bank of India data.

RBI data showed the metropolitan regions saw maximum acceleration with year-on-year (YoY) credit growth vaulting from 2.7 per cent in June 2021 to 13.2 per cent in June 2022. It should be kept in mind that the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic hit the economic activity in April-June 2021 (Q1FY22).

The urban region saw the growth rising to 18.4 per cent in June 2022 from 10 per cent a year ago. The semi-urban areas showed an increase from 12.3 per cent in June 2021 to 15.3 per cent. In contrast, the pace of credit offtake in rural areas moderated to 11.6 per cent YoY in June 2022 from 12.8 per cent a year ago.

Also Read: Listed private non-finance companies log 41% sales growth in Q1FY23: RBI

The similar growth trend (double-digit YoY) was evident across all the bank groups — (public sector banks, private banks, foreign banks, Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Small Finance Banks (SFBs). The experience was no different for all the regions of the country (central, eastern, north-eastern, northern, southern and western), RBI said.

However, the story on fund raising by banks was different. The aggregate deposit growth (y-o-y) has remained in the range 9.5-10.2 per cent during the last five quarters.

The metropolitan branches continue to account for over half of the bank deposits and their share increased marginally over the last one year, RBI said.

The share of current account and savings account (CASA) deposits in total deposits has been increasing over the last three years. The share of CASA money which was 42 per cent in June 2020, rose to 43.8 per cent in June 2021 and further to 44.5 per cent in June 2022.

As credit growth is outpacing deposit growth in the recent period, credit-deposit (C-D) ratio has been on the rise in June 2022. The C-D ratio stood at 73.5 per cent at all-India level in June 2022 (70.5 per cent a year ago) and 86.2 per cent for metropolitan branches of banks (84.3 per cent a year ago), it added.

Keeping with the rising momentum in economic activity, the bank credit expansion was broad-based, posting double-digit annual growth in June 2022 in metropolitan, urban, semi-urban and rural areas in the country, showed Reserve Bank of India data.

RBI data showed the metropolitan regions saw maximum acceleration with year-on-year (YoY) credit growth vaulting from 2.7 per cent in June 2021 to 13.2 per cent in June 2022. It should be kept in mind that the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic hit the economic activity in April-June 2021 (Q1FY22).

The urban region saw the growth rising to 18.4 per cent in June 2022 from 10 per cent a year ago. The semi-urban areas showed an increase from 12.3 per cent in June 2021 to 15.3 per cent. In contrast, the pace of credit offtake in rural areas moderated to 11.6 per cent YoY in June 2022 from 12.8 per cent a year ago.

Also Read: Listed private non-finance companies log 41% sales growth in Q1FY23: RBI

The similar growth trend (double-digit YoY) was evident across all the bank groups — (public sector banks, private banks, foreign banks, Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Small Finance Banks (SFBs). The experience was no different for all the regions of the country (central, eastern, north-eastern, northern, southern and western), RBI said.

However, the story on fund raising by banks was different. The aggregate deposit growth (y-o-y) has remained in the range 9.5-10.2 per cent during the last five quarters.

The metropolitan branches continue to account for over half of the bank deposits and their share increased marginally over the last one year, RBI said.

The share of current account and savings account (CASA) deposits in total deposits has been increasing over the last three years. The share of CASA money which was 42 per cent in June 2020, rose to 43.8 per cent in June 2021 and further to 44.5 per cent in June 2022.

As credit growth is outpacing deposit growth in the recent period, credit-deposit (C-D) ratio has been on the rise in June 2022. The C-D ratio stood at 73.5 per cent at all-India level in June 2022 (70.5 per cent a year ago) and 86.2 per cent for metropolitan branches of banks (84.3 per cent a year ago), it added.

Refugees can be a source of prosperity in any nation where they take refuge. Illegal migrants can also bring prosperity to local communities in nations that they migrate to as well as to countries which they leave behind.

India knows this from its long experience throughout history. So does the United States, where millions of illegal immigrants do not live under the radar, or in squalid detention camps, but are productive contributors to economic activity in towns and cities from coast to coast. South Korea knows this only too well, and the Gulf countries acknowledge this as much. 

Therefore, last fortnight’s debate about the fate of a relatively small number — by global refugee standards — of Rohingya refugees in Delhi is in the realm of make-believe, unreal, and even delusional.

It is now forgotten in the wake of the first ‘oil shock’ which transformed Gulf countries beyond recognition into El Dorados in the 1970s, the flood of illegal migrants who flocked there, risking their lives in small boats across the ocean, were from India. They were needed in those desert kingdoms and the sultanates and the sheikhdoms to build those nations into prosperous, modern societies that they are today.

In turn, their remittances lifted millions of families from poverty in India, which was then under severe economic stagnation, and heavy joblessness. Through the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, the benevolent rulers in the Gulf repeatedly gave amnesty to these illegal migrants from India. They were not put in detention camps and very few of those who arrived illegally were shipped back to India. For the most part, they were Hindus. Historical memory of this Indian experience was completely missing from all the debates about Rohingyas in India.

Go to Ontario or British Columbia today, and entire townships of Punjabis who arrived in Canada following Operation Bluestar as refugees have sprung up in and around Toronto or Vancouver. These one-time refugees have not only prospered as individuals and families, they continue to do so through successive generations. The industrious Sikhs among them, who fled India decades ago alleging persecution, have created thriving local economies in those towns. Canada’s famously liberal ethos has enabled them to be elected to Parliament and become federal ministers in Ottawa and in several Canadian provinces. This Indian experience was also missing from the recent debates about Rohingyas living in Delhi.

It is true that such refugee populations and illegal migrant and immigrant communities can be fertile recruiting grounds for countries which practice terror as State policy, and for non-State organisations which implement such policies through acts of terrorism. It is also part of South Asia’s historical experience that Khalistanis found willing perpetrators of heinous terror acts — including passenger aircraft bombings — among refugees in Canada who came from Punjab. When civil war was raging in Sri Lanka, overseas Tamil Tiger outfits in Greater Toronto resorted to extortion from both Sinhala and Tamil businesses in their strongholds in the Ontario province. These have been documented in Canada’s official evidentiary hearings.

Fortunately, this does not appear to have happened with Rohingyas in Delhi, who were at the centre of the recent controversy. News reports from Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, and Kashmir have also discounted threats of terrorism from such people, who are fleeing persecution back in their home province of Rakhine in Myanmar. In Rajasthan, there is only one case against Rohingyas, which relates to a sexual assault on one of their own. In the hotbed of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, the Rohingyas are only minding their business of survival.

The reality is that illegal migration and refugee exodus the world over are there to stay. They cannot be wished away by speeches in parliaments or Houses of Congress, which are often laced with bravado — or by tweets in today’s digital environment. Otherwise, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the global refugee agency formed 72 years ago, would have been disbanded long ago.

India has reservations about the UNHCR, which have a historical context, reinforced by New Delhi’s refugee experience during the 1971 war for the creation of Bangladesh. If India becomes the $5-trillion economy, which it aspires to be, illegal migration inward is certain to increase. As the political and economic environment worsens all around in India’s neighbourhood — Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, and Maldives are apt examples — refugees can be expected to be a growing headache for the ministries of home and external affairs in New Delhi. The resources of intelligence and security agencies will be stretched.

Like the US, India has a long history of giving opportunities to refugees to prosper, and in assimilating illegal immigrants, who mostly improve their lot, having got a second chance in life, as it were, by moving to India. The demographic changes in the Northeast are proof of the latter.

Only five years ago, Hindus, Jews, and Christians came together at the Consulate General of India in New York to celebrate a moving cinematic tribute to the generosity of what is now Gujarat and Maharashtra in offering refuge to 1,000 Jewish and Christian children from Poland. At the National Day reception at the residence of the South Korean Ambassador in New Delhi, one frequently encountered Koreans who spoke fluent Hindi. These were prisoners of war from the Korean conflict in the 1950s, and their children. They opted to move to India permanently when the armistice talks stalemated in 1953. Their stories of how Jawaharlal Nehru took a personal interest in their welfare for years after they made this country their home tell of an India which welcomed outsiders in need of succour.

According to a study by EY and CII titled “India: The next global SaaS capital”, India is poised to become the next SaaS capital over the next few years, mainly driven by small and medium businesses with a focus on large enterprises.

The report also stated that according to industry estimates, the market is expected to reach $20-25 billion by 2025 from $4-7 billion in 2020.

“Macro-economic environment notwithstanding, the funding activity in the first two quarters of this year surpassed the funding activity in 2021 – which was a breakout year with over $4.3 bn in funding for SaaS start-ups”, said Nitin Bhatt, Technology Sector Leader at EY.

Almost 50% of SaaS providers interviewed in the study stated that driving higher awareness for SaaS products continues to be a prerequisite for customer acquisition, EY said in a statement.

“As entrepreneurs double down on scaling their ventures, they would do well to sharpen the focus on account centricity, customer success and partner with educational institutions and the government to build a SaaS talent pipeline and continue investing in product functionality and innovation”, added Bhatt.

Compared to only 1 SaaS unicorn in 2018, India now has a total of 18, taking the third spot among the largest SaaS ecosystems in the world. The study also highlights that India more than doubled the number of its SaaS companies in 2021 in contrast to 2019. Further, funding has increased from $2.6 billion to $6 billion in the span of these two years, stated EY.

In 1994, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon, a virtual bookstore that would grow to become the world's biggest e-retailer. When he set out to realise his vision, who are the first people he looked for?

On August 22 that year, Jeff Bezos, who is now the world's second-richest person, posted a job advertisement for "extremely talented C/C++/Unix developers" to help pioneer commerce on the Internet.

Considering what Bezos was building, the job demands were high.

"You must have experience designing and building large and complex (yet maintainable) systems,and you should be able to do so in about one-third the time that most competent people think possible,"the posting said.

It required candidates to have a Bachelor's, Master's or doctorate degree in computer science.

"Top-notch communication skills are essential," Bezos wrote. "Familiarity with web servers and HTML would be helpful but is not necessary."

The posting said candidates should be willing to relocate to Seattle area, where Amazon was founded.

Bezos promised to cover moving costs of successful candidates and provide them equity ownership. "We are an equal opportunity employer," the posting said.

The job ad, shared on Twitter by TV personality Jon Erlichman, gathered over 9,000 likes.

"Nowadays all the stuff around the actual job description is longer than the job description itself," one user commented on his tweet.

Another wrote: "The meaningful equity ownership was probably indeed meaningful later on."

In the years since its foundation, Amazon grew tremendously, emerging as one of the five American tech giants alongside Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta.

But it has sparked criticism for its poor treatment of workers -- making them work in gruelling and unsafe conditions.

To bring about uniformity in fertiliser brands across the country, the government today issued an order directing all companies to sell their products under a single brand name of ‘Bharat’.

Following the order, all fertiliser bags, whether containing urea or di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) or muriate of ootash (MOP) or NPK will sport the brand name as ‘Bharat Urea’, ‘Bharat DAP’, ‘Bharat MOP’ and ‘Bharat NPK’ irrespective of the company that manufacturers it, whether in the public or the private sector.

The order has drawn adverse reactions from fertiliser companies, claiming it will ‘kill their brand value and market differentiation’

The order also stated that the single brand name and the logo of Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janurvarak Pariyojana (PMBJP), the scheme under which the Central government grants subsidy annually to the fertiliser, companies will have to be displayed on the bags.

“The company name can be mentioned in a very small portion of the total packaging,” a senior industry official said.

He said the move could harm the fertiliser companies as brands apart from being product differentiator also helps in building an image of the firm while going into the farmers’ fields.

“Fertiliser companies do a lot of extension activities such as field-level demonstrations, crop surveys etc, where their brands are displayed prominently and it also helps in reaching out to the farmers. All this will now stop,” the official said.

The order, meanwhile, said that fertiliser companies will not be allowed to procure old designed bags from September 15 and the new system will come into place from October 2, 2022. The companies have been given time till December 12 to exhaust all their old designed bags from the market.

India’s business and consumption activity showed conflicting signs of recovery in July as elevated inflation, rising borrowing costs and fears of a global slowdown weighed on Asia’s third-largest economy.

Demand for Indian goods and services softened, a cross-section of high-frequency indicators compiled by Bloomberg News showed. The needle on a dial measuring so-called animal spirits, however, remained steady at 5 last month as the gauge uses a three-month weighted average to smooth out volatility in the single month readings.

The Reserve Bank of India, which has raised interest rates by a total of 140 basis points in three moves this year, has signaled future tightening would be calibrated to ensure there isn’t a massive slowdown in the economy, and sees price pressures moderating from its recent peak. A pulse-check of the economy is due next week, with gross domestic product data for the April-June quarter likely to show a double-digit growth, reflecting demand thanks to a wider reopening from the pandemic.

Purchasing managers’ surveys showed India’s services activity in July falling to the lowest level in four months on weaker sales growth and elevated inflation. While domestic demand for Indian services remained steady, international demand worsened, offsetting gains in the manufacturing sector that expanded to the highest level in eight months.

Moderation in business outlook in services pulled down the S&P Global India Composite PMI Index to 56.6 in July, from 58.2 a month earlier.

Exports

Trade deficit widened to a fresh record of almost $30 billion as exports growth slowed to a 17-month low led by weak global demand and a levy on outbound shipments of fuel, which makes up more than 15% of India’s exports.

Imports stayed near the record-high levels due to a weaker rupee, which was one of the worst performing Asian currencies in the last three months. Crude, which comprises about one-third of India’s imports, and coal with an 8% share, primarily contributed to the rise in inbound shipments.

Consumer Activity

Passenger vehicle sales rose for a second-straight month helped by a broad-based recovery in all segments, including two-wheelers. While supply issues due to semiconductor shortage are easing, automakers cautioned that costlier loans could crimp demand for new vehicles.

Bank credit continued to grow despite higher interest rates, rising the most in more than three years to 14.5% at the end of July. Liquidity in the banking system continued to remain in surplus.ustrial Activity

Among signs of industrial activity, factory output as well as core sector signaled moderation in June as electricity consumption and coal production slowed down with the onset of monsoons. The year-on-year growth in Index of Industrial Production eased to 12.3% from a one-year high in May. The growth of eight key infrastructure industries also dropped to 12.8 from 19.3% in the previous month. Both the data are published with a one-month lag.