Long read: Humans Are Not Built For Investing
Yet another brilliant piece from the Ritholtz stable. Along with the blogs, Barry’s podcasts with its incredible line up of guests provide invaluable insights on personal finance among other things. This one is on behavioural aspects of investing with Dr. Daniel Crosby, who is Chief Behavioral Officer at Orion Advisor Solutions, where he helps financial advisors […]
Long read: No God in the machine: the Pitfalls of AI Worship
The chorus is building up about AI not living up to its hype – atleast the use cases not yet being commensurate to the hundreds of billions invested in GPU capacity by the hyperscalers – Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta. The comparison with the internet boom of the late 90s (and the eventual bust) seem […]
Long read: Coaching Centres are a sign of broken-window economics. See how China crushed it all overnight
Three needless deaths in an illegally constructed basement in Old Rajinder Nagar, Delhi, of aspiring civil servants who were studying for their UPSC exams has roused the editor of The Print. In this piece Shekhar Gupta highlights the inherent hypocrisy underlying India’s decades long public policy that schools & colleges should be ‘not for profit’. […]
Prudent Corporate: The tollbooth for Indian SIPs
Prudent Corporate, India’s third-largest mutual fund distributor, has grown revenues and EPS by 29% and 46% respectively over FY19-24. During this period, Prudent has risen from being the 7th largest distributor to being the 3rd largest in FY24, surpassing giants such as HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank in terms of mutual fund commissions earned. Prudent’s success can […]
Short read: “It’s a big push for employment-intensive growth”
The policy measures announced in the Union Budget to boost employment comes across as an acknowledgement of the dire need to create jobs and reap the demographic dividend that we have all known as the Indian economy’s biggest strength. In a candid interview with India Today, India’s finance secretary TV Somanathan articulates the problem statement […]
Short read: The internet is drowning in trendy suitcases, and millennials can’t stop buying them
This is a lovely piece on how online marketing via social media changes the basis for competition in an industry. Whilst Elizabeth Segran has written this piece in the global context, much of what she’s talking about is true for India as well. A decade ago most of us were using luggage made by global […]
Short read: Humayun pioneered architecture, art, and astronomy. Now he’s got his own museum
Courtesy our high school history lessons, most of us remember Humayun as the ruler who was trounced by Sher Shah Suri in 1539 in Bihar and then had to flee to Iran. However, a group of Humayun fans believe that Humayan was just as glorious a ruler as his son, Akbar. Turning their thoughts into […]
Long read: $800 -> $85k in 72 Hours: Reflections on Luck and Skill from the Part Time Poker Grind
The title as acknowledged by the author is intentionally clickbaity but the subject of the article is how process and not results are a better signal of skill in activities involving a significant amount of luck such as poker, investing or even business. The author who plays poker as a hobby talks about his recent […]
Long read: The World Is not Willing to Absorb the Overproduction Coming Out of China
The fortunes of the Chinese economy have implications for the rest of the world given its sheer size and share of the global economy. Given recent weakness driven by the collapse of its property sector, the world was hoping for some measures to turn around the economy at the recently concluded Third Plenum of the […]
Long read: How decline of Indian vultures led to 500,000 human deaths
Vultures have a bad rep in Indian mythology eg. a key villain in the ‘Mahabharata’ is called Shakuni Mama. However, as supreme scavengers, they have played a key role in cleaning up our country for free. ““Vultures are considered nature’s sanitation service because of the important role they play in removing dead animals that contain bacteria […]
Short read: Married woman flees with lover after getting PM housing scheme fund, 10 others missing
Over the past year, in our portfolios we have loaded up heavily on the rise of Indian women. This newsflash on India Today is symptomatic of who is wearing the trousers these days in marital relationships in small town India: “India Today News Desk Maharajganj, UPDATED: Jul 10, 2024 17:13 IST…. Around 11 married women […]
Short read: Puja Khedkar did what Indian society readily accepts—see corruption as aspirational
Over the past fortnight, trainee IAS office Puja Khedkar and her parents have made the headlines for the wrong reasons. Water cooler and tea stall chats across the nation about Ms Khedkar’s conduct has brought to the fore an even nastier problem which Amana Begum highlights in this article: “…Puja Khedkar’s case, involving selection through alleged […]
For more content on our strategy, visit the archives GO TO ARCHIVES