In this week’s wrapup we discuss why EV subsidies are in a limbo in the US, Netflix’s move to broadcast WWE live shows, how MGNREGS is failing the rural poor, China’s DeepSeek blow to American AI giants and why you should care about Bitcoin or cryptos.

And in this week’s markets edition, we dive into how the sudden liquidity crunch in the banking system is affecting the markets and if the RBI is doing enough to fix it.

Click here to read the full markets story.

Now, let’s recap what we wrote over the week.

Are EV subsidies bad?

In 2021, the US seemed quite serious about cutting greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and fighting climate change.

It decided that by 2030, half of all the cars it sold should be “zero-emission vehicles” and even rolled out policies that incentivised people to buy EVs (electric vehicles).

But just recently, the new President Donald Trump sort of rolled back all of these rules. So his administration could just go ahead and pass laws that could undo the eco-friendly policies designed to push US manufacturers and consumers towards cleaner technologies.

So why did they do that?

Monday’s newsletter breaks it down and tells you why slowing down EV subsidies might actually come with benefits too. You can read it here.

Why is Netflix betting big on WWE LIVE events?

Netflix wants to bring the action-packed world of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) straight to your screens. And that’s a big deal! The OTT giant has shelled out over $5 billion for these rights and by April you could be watching Raw, WWE’s flagship show, exclusively on Netflix instead of TV.

But wait… Just a few years ago, Netflix’s co-CEO, Ted Sarandos believed that traditional sports were better suited for TV and that these deals didn’t fit into Netflix’s streaming model.

So why this sudden love for sports from Netflix now?

Find out in Tuesday’s newsletter where we explored this bit.

MGNREGS failing the rural poor?

In 2005 the government introduced MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), a scheme that promised rural folks one hundred days of guaranteed employment.

People ready to take up unskilled manual labour would get a job within 5 kilometers of their residence. And if that wasn’t possible, they’d be entitled to an unemployment allowance. Payments were also deposited directly into their bank accounts within a week of completing the job.

But what was created to ease the burden of the unemployed poor slowly started becoming a nightmare for those who once relied on it.

So, in Wednesday’s newsletter we explored what went wrong with one of the biggest employment schemes in the world and if there’s anything the government can do to fix it. Click here to read it.

DeepSeek — The Model that broke the market

DeepSeek, China’s budget-friendly AI (artificial intelligence) model, just dealt a blow to America’s AI giants. It broke a few deep rooted assumptions that you needed a lot of compute and money to build and train an AI model.

And that’s why the release of its latest version last week rattled US markets, wiping out billions of dollars in market value from US chip giants like Nvidia.

But this also begs the question “What’s preventing other more well funded players like OpenAI or Gemini from doing the same thing with lower costs?”

Curious? Find out in Thursday’s newsletter here.

Finshots Cracks Crypto #3: Bitcoin and cryptos beyond money

Bitcoin or crypto might seem like an alien concept if you’ve never used it. Or maybe you just think of it as digital money sitting in a wallet.

But what if we told you that it’s more than just a way to pay for things?

Bitcoin isn’t just a currency. It’s a technology that could tackle problems like inflation, financial exclusion and even corruption that traditional money has struggled with.

Want to know how? Dive into the third edition of our Finshots Cracks Crypto series, where we explore how Bitcoin is more than just money and why that may mean that you should care about crypto too.

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