Long read: Made in Bihar: How superfood makhana works its magic
The strong growth in packaged foods and in particular snacks as a category, has been the saving grace in an otherwise slowing FMCG industry. Within that, thanks to rising health awareness and the resulting change in consumption habits, the health foods category, albeit small, is growing rapidly. Whilst millets have emerged as a healthy alternative […]
Long read: Modi Govt Doubled Spending On Insurance, Not Enough On Health Infrastructure
This being election season, we are treated to politicians engaged in heated debate on a daily basis. However, on critical issues like health, what’s at stake is much more than political careers. What’s at stake is the health of your & our relatives and friends. Hence you might want to read this piece in IndiaSpend […]
Long read: India’s difficult business environment is improving
A year ago The Economist noted that India is likely be the world’s fastest growing large economy for several years to come – see https://marcellus.in/story/the-economists-cover-story-india-is-likely-to-be-the-worlds-fastest-growing-big-economy-this-year/.This year The Economist’s special issue on India notes that “The difficulties of doing business in India and the lack of broadly available finance are two reasons why large conglomerates have dominated the […]
Short read: D Gukesh makes history: Viswanathan Anand’s successors are here
In our past editions of the 3L&3S, we have been featuring pieces on the rise of Indian chess. Last Sunday, that rise hit a crescendo of sorts as D Gukesh became the youngest to win the Fide Candidates tournament, beating the legendary Gary Kasparov’s record. Incidentally, Kasparov tweeted soon after the win: “Congratulations! The Indian earthquake […]
Short read: The surprising benefits of a traditional Japanese diet
Those of us who grew up in fish-eating families were often force-fed fish by our tiger mums or grandmums on the pretext that “eating fish makes you cleverer”. Whilst as children we used to think that this was gobbledygook, now as middle-aged professionals we are realising that our elders were on to something. As per […]
Water extraction and weight of buildings see half of China’s cities sink
A couple of years ago, a friend of ours published an outstanding book on the escalating water crisis in India. In “Watershed: How we destroyed India’s water….” , Mridula Ramesh describes amongst other things how cities like Delhi, Bangalore and several other high density urban centres in northern India, groundwater is being used both for washing, […]
Long read: Valuation Multiples – What They Miss, Why They Differ, and the Link to Fundamentals
Valuation multiples such as and specifically the Price to Earning or PE ratio are the most commonly used valuation approach by investors in India as well as globally. In our newsletters, we at Marcellus have highlighted the limitations of multiples as a valuation approach. As this piece shows, Prof Aswath Damodaran makes a further distinction […]
Long read: The irresistible mystery of the beautiful batsman
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal provided one of the greatest rivalries of sport, not just for the intensity with which they competed but also the mutual respect they showed for each other. It will be hard to choose one over the other. Whilst Rafa’s grit might appeal to some, for others the sheer elegance of […]
Long read: Explained: Tamil Nadu’s decentralised industrialisation model
The legendary journalist and author Harish Damodaran (he of ‘India’s New Capitalists’ fame), has written an outstanding piece that would be of interest to anyone who has been trying to understand why over the past two decades peninsular Indian has surged ahead of the rest of the country. In cities like Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, […]
Short read: Jung’s Five Pillars of a Good Life
Arthur Brooks, a Harvard Professor has been writing about the science of happiness for a while now. Late last year, he collaborated with Oprah Winfrey for his latest book ‘Build the Life you want’, in which they talk about ‘happierness’ where the objective is progress than an absolute state of bliss. In this article, he cites Carl […]
Short read: How Guwahati’s Air Became World’s 2nd Most Polluted
Most people believe that India’s megacities like Delhi and Bombay have the dubious honour of having the highest levels of particulate matter (PMI) in air. What few realise is that the mantle of “India’s most polluted city” is increasingly shifting to India’s Tier 2 & Tier 3 state capitals as our megacities slowly get some […]
Short read: AI-gorithm: GenAI promises a booster dose for Indian pharma to scale up the value game
Amidst all the doom & gloom about how AI will wipe out jobs in the fabled IT Services sector, here is a happier story related to AI. Anil Sasi focuses on how AI can help the sector which is India’s second largest export income after generator after IT Services: “The limitations faced by the Indian […]
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