How much would giving up meat help the environment?
The Economist’s this week’s edition’s Daily Chart section carries a startling chart showing the average relative environmental impact of various foods on one axis and the relative risk of dying from their consumption on the other. It shows how food that isn’t good for your health isn’t good for the environment either. The article features […]
Engineering a season of floods
This monsoon, several Indian towns hitherto not known for flooding were submerged for days resulting in significant destruction of property and life. Amitangshu Acharya who is a Leverhulme Trust PhD scholar in human geography at the University of Edinburgh, takes a shot at explaining this increasing incidence of flooding by attributing it to the construction […]
How The Private Jet Became The Singular Fetish Object Of The Modern Billionaire
We live in the age of epic income inequality and in this era, private jets are the most sought after objects of the richest, most ambitious, most rapacious people on this planet. Interestingly, not all of these people are businessmen. Politicians – from the West and from the East – also have a thing private […]
Inside the Most Watched YouTube Channel in the World
T-Series is not just India’s largest record label, it is also the most watched YouTube channel. From its humble origins as record label flogging cheap music cassettes in the 1980s, it has risen to become a media powerhouse which also produces some of Bollywood’s most successful movies. T-Series YouTube ascendancy has no parallel: “The ascent of […]
Stop Trying to Raise Successful Kids
When children were asked what their parents want for them, 81% of American kids said that their parents value achievement and happiness over caring. Most of us who raise kids in India would probably be thinking that nearly 100% of Indian parents would want their kids to be high achievers with caring being a tertiary […]
Learning from Hermann Simon
‘Niche’ focused players have been the biggest wealth creators in India over the past decade thanks to superlative earnings growth and high return on capital. Given this background, it makes sense to identity & invest in such companies, more so when such companies are relatively ‘unknown’ in the stockmarket. We find German Management Guru Hermann […]
Bogle: Diving Deeper to Learn More from the Legend
As study after study shows that over 80% of large cap Indian mutual funds underperform their benchmark, the intellectual legacy that John Bogle left behind becomes ever more relevant for Indian investors. Beyond the idea of index funds, Bogle identified several deeper truths about our profession – the importance of minimising costs, of being sceptical […]
Tech enhances our lives — but is it a good investment?
In meetings with investors, we are often asked why we don’t have any tech companies in our portfolio and by that aren’t we missing out on the next big thing? We find this fascination for tech stocks quite interesting. It is understandable given the immense amount of wealth created by the likes of FANMAG (Facebook, […]
Why investors want to bet on humble CEOs?
Earlier this month, we featured a piece on how there is increasing research from psychologists on the trait of humility and how it can be potentially inculcated through training. It is often said intellectual humility is perhaps the most important personality trait for an investor. A new study shows how investing in companies run by humble CEOs […]
Google’s secret cache of medical data includes names and full details of millions – whistleblower
As the movement for data privacy gains momentum, yet another whistleblower complaint shows how big tech may be disregarding laws to gain access to personal data that can be used to further its business interests. Google’s parent Alphabet has been pursuing ways to use Artificial Intelligence to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes, including its acquisition […]
The Economist Who Wants to Ditch Math
In a world that increasingly believes data is the new oil, we have an economics Nobel laureate suggesting data is overrated, especially when it comes to economics. Robert Shiller, the Yale professor who won the 2013 Nobel and known for his contrarian calls warning of a crash ahead of both the dotcom and housing bubbles, […]
Rich Like Me: How Assortative Mating Is Driving Income Inequality Author: Branko Milanovic
Many “modern” Indians and several Westerners find the Indian concept of “arranged marriage” quaint. This fascinating piece by economist Branko Milanovic shows that increasingly marriages in the West are basically arranged – not by parents but by institutions like universities or workplaces. As a result, Western economies are increasingly going to resemble India’s – a […]
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