Little Champs: Spotlighting Fine Organic Industries Limited
This month we place the spotlight on Fine Organic Industries Limited, by far the largest producer of oleo-chemical based food, polymer and certain special additives in India and amongst the leading players globally. Additives are ubiquitous and used in very small quantities (typically constitute <1% of the molecular weight of the end product) but lend […]
The Golden Age of Fraud is Upon Us
As the world’s largest economy enters a purple patch in terms of economic growth, corporate profits and financial markets and the rest of the world likely gets a slice of this prosperity, here’s a timely reminder from Ben Carlson about how these are exactly the sort of conditions for financial frauds to prevail. Ben studies […]
Flu Has Disappeared Wordlwide during the COVID Pandmic
Whilst the Covid pandemic rages on, data shows that the incidences of the common flu or influenza have dropped dramatically.“The U.S. saw about 600 deaths from influenza during the 2020-2021 flu season. In comparison, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated there were roughly 22,000 deaths in the prior season and 34,000 two seasons […]
Smells like team spirit: Getting ‘art’ out of artificial intelligence
In this piece for The Mint, Jaspreet Bindra invokes ‘the 27 club’ referring to a whole class of great musicians who coincidentally all died at the age of 27- the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and most recently Amy Winehouse, mostly to alcohol or drug overdose. But the piece is about the […]
In Praise of Bitcoin
Many of us who prefer to look at things from a fundamental perspective have been natural skeptics of Bitcoin or Cyrptocurrencies in general. We look for cashflows or utility value that can help guide a fundamental basis to value an asset and therefore struggle to come to grips with crypto. Here’s a piece from one […]
There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing
Have you felt mentally fatigued as India has battled with the monster second wave of Covid? Are you struggling to find energy to do the things you used to love to do even through last year’s lockdown? Are you watching movies or cricket matches that you actually don’t have any real interest in watching? Adam […]
Increasing returns and the new world of business
This piece was published in HBR 25 years ago and was referenced in Howards Marks’ famous January 2021 memo (where he explained why traditional value investing based on looking for low P/E, P/B stocks has lost its relevance). As Marks explained in January, even a quarter of a century on from its publication date this […]
Why is it rare to find a free-cashflow generative retailer in India?
Modern Retail in India has a huge opportunity to modernize and consolidate this millenniums old sector. However, building and growing a pan-India retail network of stores with high ROCE consistently has been difficult for most retailers. Challenges range from understanding consumer preferences, optimizing store location / size / format, optimizing merchandise selection / procurement / […]
Why we’re replacing ‘batsman’ with ‘batter’
For many of us cricket fans, ESPNcricinfo is right up there among bookmarks on our browser. Whether it is to catch a glimpse of the state of the match during a busy work day, thanks to the entertaining yet insightful commentary the writers dish out or run some stat analyses to see who was right […]
India’s Mini-Craze for Bicycling Around the World
Travelling the world to see and appreciate the myriad different experiences, cultures, vistas our planet has to offer itself is fascinating enough. To do it on a bicycle and almost a century ago seems like fiction. A new book called the “The Bicycle Diaries: Indian Cyclists and Their Incredible Journeys Around the World” chronicles exactly that – […]
Why GM crops are good for you
Genetically Modified or GM crops have faced significant opposition from farmers and activists alike. In this piece, Krish Ashok, a software engineer but better known as the author of the book Masala Lab: The Science of Indian Cooking, helps us debunk certain myths about GM crops. Much as in his book where he takes a […]
The Rage of Carson Block
The Reddit-Gamestop saga earlier this year reminded us how short sellers are often frowned upon as if they were up to something immoral if not illegal. But here’s a story about one short seller who on the contrary sees short selling as a way to change the world for the better. Carson Block may not […]
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