How will the consumer benefit in the long-run from GST? GST and the Consumer The GST has been in the headlines for a few weeks now. Many discussions centre around…
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Adani Ports and SEZ against JSW Infrastructure. Two Indian port companies, one common method, and a result neither presentation shows you. Data through FY26, the year ended 31 March 2026.…
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How a port earns its money, told through one ship, one cargo and one week on the quay. Company figures are for FY26, the year ended 31 March 2026, unless…
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One idea that runs through everything One tonne of iron ore sits on the quay at Tubarao in Brazil. A Chinese steel mill has bought it. The ore itself is…
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Does “just SIP the index” still work — and what happens when everyone does it? There is one piece of advice you hear everywhere now: stop picking stocks, stop picking…
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1. Executive Summary In July 1985, Warren Buffett shut down a textile business. It was the business that gave Berkshire Hathaway half its name, and he had owned it for…
Read Article →Introduction India’s farming story has changed a lot in the last 60 years. Fertilizers played a big role in that change. And Chambal Fertilizers, one of the country’s biggest fertilizer…
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Introduction VST Industries is one of India’s oldest cigarette makers. It sells well-known brands like Charms, Charminar, and Total. Though it’s not as big as ITC, VST still holds a…
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What is factor investing? Factor investing refers to an investment strategy that chooses stocks based on certain quantitative “factors”. These “factors” have historically demonstrated high returns. Unlike Fundamental analysis, which…
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What’s Draining Productivity? We’d all love to increase our productivity- to get more done in the same twenty four hour day. A trick to help eliminate waiting time at ATMs,…
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What’s Draining Productivity? – Part II Productivity increases are a key driver of growth. In developed economies, capitalism has channeled ‘risk-seeking’ behaviour to generate productivity and growth. This has resulted in better living…
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So Much Interest Our discussion on the Balance Sheet of Nations offered an alternate view of the country’s finances. The assets of a nation can be difficult to quantify. Liabilities, on…
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What Is the ‘Sharing Economy’? This new phenomenon has many names – peer-to-peer, access economy, collaborative economy – but ‘sharing economy’ remains the most popular. Now, let me ask you:…
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Why Isn’t My Home Loan Rate Falling? A recent gripe from a relative got me thinking… He says the RBI has cut the repo rate (the rate at which banks…
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Deglobalisation: The Answer to Inequality? We have already discussed the tell-tale signs of deglobalisation. The anti-free trade outlook in US politics, Brexit, the non-ratification of TPP – the barriers to trade…
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The Balance Sheets of Nations Many economic discussions focus on the ‘flow’ variables of a country – GDP, GNP, deficits, etc. These are important and useful; they’re like the income…
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My first impressions of China. Enter the Dragon It has been two months since I moved from India to China. As a child, I saw a photobook on China. It…
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The impact of robots on Jobs and the robotic revolution in China. Rising Entry Barriers for the Middle Class Globalization and free trade have added a large number of people…
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The impact of robots on Jobs and the robotic revolution in China. Will a Robot Replace Me? A machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially…
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The Impact of government debt in China Until Debt Do Us Part When national debts have once been accumulated to a certain degree, there is scarce, I believe, a single…
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Can we afford a Universal Basic Income for all? Can Income Be Universal and Basic? What would happen if the tax receipts of the government were used to provide a…
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How will Brexit affect the growth prospects of UK? Can Brexit Bring Back Growth? It is now more than a week since the shocking Brexit referendum. A lot is still…
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Financing scenario in India and characteristics of housing finance sector. Financing your dreams Lending is an ancient profession. Many business families have their roots in the business of lending. The…
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What is the Japanese Bond market telling us about the future? A Broken Bond Global yields lowest in 500 years of recorded history. $10 trillion of neg. rate bonds. This…
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Can there be a bubble in a deflationary scenario? Deflation and Bond Bubbles Developed nations today are struggling through a period of low to no growth. The reasons are deleveraging…
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What will be the long term impact from this move on black money and counterfeiting? Demonetisation – Long-Term Effects, Part I A medium of exchange. That’s the generally accepted definition…
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Has De-globalization started? What are the key areas that are being affected? History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. – Attributed to Mark Twain Globalisation refers to the economic, social, and political integration…
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Most Indian Households prefer bank deposits/cash to park their savings – 66% of household savings are sitting in deposits/ cash. What about the recent increase in demat accounts? As per recent reports, the number…
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In a previous article we discussed about the various biases that affect us – Me, Myself and Mind. This time we will isolate the channels through which biases can affect us.…
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“Man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal.” ― Robert A. Heinlein The mind can be brutally rational and sometimes hopelessly irrational. The Mind can almost be described…
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What are the next steps after demonetization to tackle black money? Corruption and Black Money: What Next?
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A detailed look at the demand supply dynamics of the Chinese real estate What Drives Chinese Real Estate? A great way to benchmark house prices is the house-price-to-per-capita-GDP ratio. This…
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What are the implications of negative interest rates on the global economy and individual investor? The Price of Time Would you ever pay your banker to store your savings?…
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Free cash flow of a business and its importance in valuations The Value of capital
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An economic viewpoint on the causes of pollution and possible solutions. Economics of Pollution
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A discussion on how capital is converted into profits and cash – Capital,Profits and Cash
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A trilogy of articles on the key components of growth, how it is channeled and the kind of growth we are witnessing in developing countries The Growth Puzzle Channeling growth…
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One of the central assumptions of the efficient market theory is the – “rational actor”. The market consists of rational individuals who factor in all available information to arrive at…
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“A man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.” – Oscar Wilde This was supposed to be the description of a “cynic”, however when it comes…
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I want start by saying that, I have recently been introduced to the Austrian school of economic thought through a lucid and easy to understand book – “Economics for real…
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There are many schools of thought related to investing in companies. I am delineating what I find most sensible and appealing. At the outset, I would like to say that…
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In a previous post, I discussed the fundamental qualities of a great business – Productivity & Uniqueness . However these qualities are internal to the business and can be driven/controlled by people…
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The most powerful value creation vehicles are businesses that provide products and services. The product has a value that is greater than the cost of putting it together. This value…
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A Brief primer The Definition of Economic Progress and how it is linked to productivity has been elucidated in previous posts. Fundamentals. Demand does not drive economic growth; Supply of cheaper/better goods drive growth. Productivity is…
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Anti-fragility (described by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book – Anti-fragile) is a property of gaining/ getting better with disorder. This is probably the most enduring form of longevity. In…
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Economic growth … Is not the same as jobs for everybody It is characterized by an improvement in the quality of life (Consumption/Work). This has already been elaborated in an…
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Far too many discourses equate inflation, money supply, stock market indicators, commodity ETFs etc to the growth of human civilization. These are man made complications that obfuscate reality. Economic progress is not…
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Keynes is the half brother of Marx. They both believe that the economy is a machine that can be described in equations and managed by a few intellectuals. Hayek believed…
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We live in an age where personal expression and individuality are considered to be important. In fact it is associated with coolness. We have ever increasing outlets for this expression…
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The Balance of Payments crisis is one of the most common crisis that nations have been facing in the last century. BOP crisis have a mechanism of adjusting themselves, however it involves…
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An Analogy Let us take an analogy of 2 people A and B (the only two people in the macro-universe). A has been buying an item from B and in…
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In my previous post I discussed why Inflation might be a stronger possibility than deflation Sophie’s Choice. The broad arguments I talked about were The over-whelming Government incentive to inflate away debt…
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There has been a lot of discussion regarding the probability of the possibilities of Inflation and Deflation. Before we dive into the evidence I would like to set the context…
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Alchemy is an ancient tradition with the objective of creating the fabled elixir – “The Philosophers Stone” which can turn any base metal into Gold. The paradox lies in the fact…
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These are a couple of articles written by me on a friends blog. Written a long time ago, reading them was like watching a photograph you had forgotten existed. They…
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A lot of post-mortem analysis of the 2008 Recession is pre-occupied with writing a script with definite villains. Based on what you have read, you will be lead to believe…
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Discussions on ‘proximate causes’ and the most visible ‘symptoms’ of a problem makes for great tea-time conversation. They however will remain the privelege of the masses. To discern trends that transcend…
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Historically most governments saddled with vast debt have removed them by default, devaluation or war. Some Examples Greece: 5 major defaults in less than 200 years Germany : sovereign default(1948)…
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“If the Western Governments Strengthen their FISCAL positions; the Western Markets Survive the CREDIT crunch; the Emerging Markets Shift from EXPORT dependence; Globalization has a fighting chance.”
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I recently read a book called The Soros Lectures, which is a compilation of a series of lectures given by George Soros at the Central European University. In short –…
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The debt profile of countries can provide valuable insights into the risk that they face in terms of a Sovereign default. I have mapped the debt profile against 2 parameters…
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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/202ed286-6832-11df-a52f-00144feab49a.html “Give me a world where Capital flows towards real value and not imaginary bubbles; give me a world where Wealth is a symbol of potential to create and not…
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In many discussions and debates India is bandied as the x largest consumer market of the future. Different reports give you impressive figures that are designed to display the mammoth…
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The Problem: All the current brouhaha of Greek insolvency and the weakening condition of PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) is merely a symptom of an unsustainable growth model…
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The following table gives an idea of the factors affecting the value of an investment in commodities (metals, food, and textiles) The demand of the commodities remains the wild-card that…
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“Destruction is the Genesis of Creation” The Universe was formed from the ultimate symbol of destruction – The Big Bang. The birth of stars and planets are intricately linked to…
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“An empirically weak science carries the weight of a civilization” “Normative economics presupposes a focus on the long term..but in the long term we are all dead?” “Happiness is a…
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“Fooled by Randomness” a book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb talks about how we suffer from Randomitis… a disease that inclines us to underestimate the role of chance in life. As we…
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I have spent some time thinking about your question – “what is the difference between man and animal?”I have reached a surprising conclusion…we are not that remarkably different…except that we are…
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I recently went for a talk given by Dr Krishna Srinivasan from the IMF (profile given below). He was talking about the Global Economic Scenario. The highlights of the talk…
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Human beings are flawed creatures. We are susceptible to bottomless greed, extremes of anger, revenge, lust and other malaise that constitute the suffering of the world. It has also become…
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Capitalism, Socialism, Neo- capitalism etc.. have relegated us to business cycles where are lives are condemned to be manipulated by the men who handle ‘money’. All arguments are conveniently cloaked…
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Now that it is official – The heavily indebted americans can no longer consume the way they consumed till date… (unless the world continues to lend them money) – Who…
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The government is not above making mistakes. There can be instances where the government is inept at handling the failures of free market and only further compound the problem.This is…
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This is the flavour of the season considering the recession in the west (post sub-prime). Is it possible that the free-market operations are actually sub-optimal? Well …yes it can!!! lets…
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Dominant management logic: This is the way in which the top management of a firm conceptualizes its business. The DML influences critical operating and strategic decisions. The sources of this…
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There are some classes of products where uncertainty is desirable. For example the unpredictability of sports game is crucial to its mass appeal. A predictable match can never be a…
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One of the most seductive misperceptions about strategy is that it is interlinked with operational effectiveness. Companies believe strategizing is about pursuing better, efficient, cheaper ways of performing their existing…
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Risk – defines an event where the various outcomes are known probabilistically. The fact that a probability can be assigned to each outcome means that the event has moved out…
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They are 2 fundamentaly different line of actions by a company. In a stable envronment where the market boundary has been clearly defined, companies can apply the porter model to…
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There are many companies today that enjoy short term success but what many of them are probably missing out on are the fundamentals for sustaining their competitive advantage. There is…
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There is a lot of confusion and overlap regarding the two terms – Leadership and Management. More often than not we hear sweeping generalizations of Managers being Leaders and vice versa. The confusion…
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I cannot boast of being a frequent flyer ,but I get around. The ‘Kingfisher Experience‘ was one of the items on my ToDo list – they have positioned themselves as a luxury…
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