Thinkpad: Reasons To Smize

The virus is still raging, economies are still shaken and that mask you carry around in your pocket is your new best friend. Not much we can do about all that. But we thought, this week, we’d look for some reasons to make you smile. Or ‘smize’. Read on and we’ll tell you what that’s about.

Reason 1: The number of active Covid-19 cases has been easing a touch and on Friday this number fell below the nine-lakh-mark for the first time in a month. Active cases, now stand for merely 13% of India’s Covid-19 cases pie. Recoveries make up for 86% and fatality rate stands at 1.5%.

In case you have lost track of the Covid numbers, you can follow them on this meticulously updated daily blog on BQ. Of course, all this can turn very quickly as countries like the United Kingdom, which tried to open up, have learnt. So what we have right now is short-term relief, until proven otherwise.

Reason 2: Along with the slight dip in active cases, high frequency indicators of economic activity have been picking up, as we had flagged off in a previous Thinkpad. That continued this week with even the services sector seeing some improvement in activity.

The improvement in indicators prompted Credit Suisse’s Neelkanth Mishra to say that FY21 GDP estimates could see upwards revisions. Just to be clear, upward revisions here just means a slightly smaller contraction than the 10%-odd GDP drop being forecast. So not exactly reason to smile, we admit. Maybe just reason to frown a little less.

Reason 3: More and more activities are opening up as we move into ‘Unlock 5’. Restaurants and bars are dusting off their counters and hoping to see people walk-in. So are cinema halls. But they are being realistic and preparing for a slow restart, as the management of PVR detailed in this conversation.

In the end, it will all boil down to how you, me and all of us feel. How ready are you to go back in to a restaurant or a bar or a movie hall? Maybe, you’ll take a calculated risk and go once because you are fed-up of being home. But how frequently are you willing to take that risk? More broadly, will you still spend less and save more? All questions that will determine how quickly and how well the economy recovers.

Reason 4: Meanwhile, life is changing in some interesting and amusing ways. Work-from-home has settled in to the point that return-to-work will probably be a slow (and painful) process. Online theatres are a trend now. Restaurants around the world are innovating, going by this fabulous picture of a Rio restaurant tweeted out by Ian Bremmer.

But Thinkpad’s favorite is this story from a few weeks ago. The smile is passé, the ‘smize’, or smiling with your eyes, is in. And luxury hotels are training their staff on how to ...well...smize. In case you didn’t know, it was model Tyra Banks who apparently came up with the idea of a smize a long time ago and she’s now pushing to get the word into dictionaries.

Finally, here’s the ultimate reason for cheer. You are not in the U.S. and you don’t have Donald Trump who took a Covid diagnosis and made it into a reality TV show. If you haven’t seen this video reel of his return to the White House, watch it now!

Hope we brightened up your Sunday just a little bit. Now smize. 😷