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Bewildered or better yet befuddled or even better blown out of their minds, that was the reaction of people when they heard oil hit negative. One might wonder how can a commodity price go negative. How can the buyer be paid to purchase oil, I mean if someone paid me to shop, that would be amazing right? Well, let us try to understand a few things first.  I promise to super simplify it for you. This will be in 2 parts. 1st one is the Global oil scenario and the 2nd one is the negative oil price. Part 1 – Global Oil Scenario. What is OPEC? OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) is group of oil exporting countries who control the prices by regulating supply and demand. How can they do this? Because this group own’s the majority of world oil reserves and they are the top producers of oil.  OPEC was formed way back in 1960. OPEC currently has 13 member countries. What is OPEC +? In 2016, OPEC countries and Non-OPEC countries who produced oil joined ...

IBC is short for Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, a revolutionary law implemented by the government in 2016 for the resolution of corporate insolvency and bankruptcy. Insolvency is a situation that arises due to the inability to pay off debts. Under IBC, there is a shift of power from debtors to creditors who drive the resolution process. Now before we decide whether 180 days is too long or too short for insolvency resolution, let me tell you a story. Let us Imagine that in the coming years, you become an entrepreneur and you set up your own firm. You have a big team, your own cabin and a wonderful office.   Wonderful isn’t it? Everything was going good until you found out that your biggest client has kept the payment of your invoice pending for more than 6 months. Not just you, many other creditors too. Then you get a shock, as you come to know that the company has filed for insolvency. This company owes you 1 crore rupees, you are worried, will I get this money back, or wi...

This was a piece written by me back in December, 2018 which never saw the light of the day until today. I shall follow this up with a part-2 covering the events of the trade war which occurred in 2019. “It is the rise of Athens and the fear it instilled in Sparta, that made war inevitable”. These are the famous words of a Greece historian – Thucydides and it seems very apt in the current trade war between the two most powerful economies of the world – USA & China. Till January 2018, everything was going pretty fine for both parties, the Chinese grew due to exports, Americans could buy things cheap. But then one fine day, Mr. Trump decided to cite the reasons of a threat to National security, Trade deficit, injury to US Industries and lay tariffs on Chinese products. In the course of the trade war Mr. Trump justified his stance by quoting IPR Theft and Unfair trade practices of the Chinese i.e. by not allowing foreign companies to enter the market unless they partner with Chin...