September 14, 2025

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TRADING PLACES

IT ALL BEGAN, at least in the cultural imagination, with a Christmas romcom. In The Holiday, Cameron Diaz leaves her gleaming Los Angeles mansion, trading places with Kate Winslet's picture-book Surrey cottage. Both women step into unfamiliar homes, and unfamiliar lives. What then seemed an irresistible Hollywood whim has since become realToday, Indian travellers can also swap their homes. With the arrival of HomeExchange, the world's largest home-swapping platform, the fantasy of trading one's home for another's-- be it a Parisian loft, a Swiss chalet, or a beachfront villa in Thailand--is now a practical and possible way to travelTHE CONCEPT For an annual fee of `7,500, members can access a global portfolio of over 360,000 homes in 155 countries. The exchange involves no financial trans- action between the guest and the host: you offer your home and stay in someone else's. The more you host, the more you can travel--making it especially attractive to value-conscious families, globe-trotting professionals, and those who prefer experiences over hotel loyalty pointsFor first-time users, the process resembles setting up a dating profile on the HomeExchange app or website. The members create listings with photographs, location details, and description of amenities. Emmanuel Arnaud, the platform's CEO and Co-founder, says, "Members must complete home profiles before initiating contact to eliminate `ghost homes'. Once the profile is live, you begin your search: filter by city, style, or dates, then reach out to other members. Exchanges may be direct (simultaneous swaps) or nonsimultaneous, using a system of points. Members earn points by hosting guests

THE 50­50 SPLIT

IF SOMEONE HAD told you that the list of top ten profitable companies would one day have five entries from the public sector, you might have laughed it off, right? Well, you can't be blamed as, for years, PSUs were branded as a den of inefficiency and political interference. Not anymore. In FY20, the BT500 profit-wise listing had three public sector undertakings (PSUs), State Bank of India (SBI), Coal India and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), in the top 10. In FY18, only ONGC and NTPC had made the cut. But the FY25 list has--apart from SBI, Coal India and ONGC--Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and Power Finance Corporation (PFC) as well. Of course, the big boys in the private sector--ranging from diversified conglomerates such as Reliance Industries or RIL (first position) to those in banking and financial services such as HDFC Bank (3rd rank)--also delivered a solid performance as India Inc's profit vanguards. As corporate India enters challenging times, thanks to geopolitical uncertainties and the US' tariff onslaught, it will be tested like never before. As the country faces these challenges with grit and will, can its most profitable companies, especially the PSUs, act as engines of a national revival?