DDA turned into Delhi Destruction Authority & why we applaud the market taking revenge
This piece by Shekhar Gupta is a story of change we can believe. Those of us in Marcellus who grew up in Delhi, grew up for the most part in the shabby gentile confines of DDA flats (DDA stands for Delhi Development Authority). As we grew up, we became acutely of whether lived in HIG […]
Marcellus Christmas Special: How India Changed Its Master Narrative
‘Master narratives’ are culturally shared stories that guide the thoughts and behaviours of the citizens of a country. After surviving the dark, desperate decades immediately following Independence, India has reinvented its master narrative over the past 20 years. The world-beating performance of the Nifty50 over the last 20 years, the widely hailed Mangalyaan mission that […]
Short read: Pro Kabaddi League at 10: The improbable league that captured hearts
The Indian cricket team has been consistently at the top of world rankings over the past decade or so and a lot of its success has been attributed to the Indian Premier League which allowed the professionalisation of the sport as well as for talent to be discovered and developed. On the back of the […]
Short read: Meet The Private Equity Investor at the Intersection of Finance and Self-Help
Every now and then we come across people who are very thoughtful about every aspect of their lives. A few of them are articulate enough to share their clarity of thought with us. One of them is Graham Weaver, a private equity investor as the subject says. A couple of months ago, we did feature […]
Short read: ‘Red gold’: Why saffron production is dwindling in India
Pampore in Kashmir is India’s centre of saffron production. Saffron costs $1500/kg and 90% of India’s saffron is grown in Kashmir. The problem is Kashmir’s saffron production is plummeting. Monis Mir, a local farmer interviewed by Priti Gupta of the BBC, explains what is happening. “Mr Mir says his fields have become less productive over the […]
Long read: Sorry you feel that way: why passive aggression took over the world
The professional workplace requires us to behave in a polite and civilised manner. There is nothing wrong with that but often that comes in the way of honest expressions of inevitable disagreements. We nonetheless end up demonstrating our displeasure through behaviours that is now come to be known as ‘passive aggression’. This is a brilliant […]
Long read: How Kerala’s Kozhikode became India’s first UNESCO City of Literature
When a Marcellus employee needs reinvigoration, they head to the cities of south India which have become India’s intellectual hubs with millions of people reading, thinking and discussing the ideas that will define India in the decades to come. Hence none of us were surprised to hear that Kozhikode has became India’s first UNESCO City […]
Long read: America’s undying empire: why the decline of US power has been greatly exaggerated
In this engrossing long read, Tom Stevenson – the author of the book, ‘Someone Else’s Empire: British Illusions and American Hegemony’ – argues that America is playing a double game wherein, prima facie, it is pretending that its power is on the wane. Underneath this façade says Mr Stevenson, America is more than ever asserting its […]
Portfolio Performance and Update on Fundamentals-November 2023
Consistent Compounders Portfolio (CCP) Companies in our Consistent Compounders Portfolio generated median PAT growth of 24% YoY in 2QFY24 and 27% YoY in 1HFY24. This acceleration in PAT growth is an outcome of both: a) accelerated market share gains and improved operating efficiencies as an outcome of capital allocation decisions taken over the last […]
Short read: The surprisingly subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed how we use language
The software which is helping compile this edition of the 3L&3S just turned 40. The ubiquitous Microsoft Word is the dominant word processing software globally. This article in the BBC looks at how this ubiquity with hundreds of millions if not over a billion users, might have influenced our use of language. The author shows […]
Short read: How AI will change investment, research and perhaps even your future portfolio
The author of this piece, Juan Perez, is “a former global head of research at Morgan Stanley and former group head of research, data and analytics at UBS.” Mr Perez begins with the piece with an analogy featuring Isaac Newton: “Sir Isaac Newton lost a fortune betting on the South Sea Co. Perhaps he did not take into […]
Short read: The Indian siblings taking the chess world by storm
The game of chess has been played for 1500 years. Therefore, it is fitting that the first country to give this game a family with multiple Grandmasters is the country where the game was born, India. As Susan Ninan explains in this article, “few have fit the chess prodigy descriptor as well as India’s Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. […]
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