Long read: IISc deep tech startups are pushing India into elite league. Baby firms with big ambitions
For several years now, there has been much angst in India that the venture capital ecosystem in the country does little more than finance pizza delivery apps. As entrepreneurial verve seeps deep into the pores of Indian society, that is changing and at the vanguard of change is India’s number 1 university, the Indian Institute […]
Rich rewards from Investing in Quality during the Toughest Phase
Long periods of outperformance by quality firms are often characterized by intermittent periods of severe underperformance – something that has been unavoidable by even the likes of Warren Buffet. Such underperformance was especially prominent during three instances (first half of 1970s, Mar’99-Aug’00 & Nov’04-Apr’06) wherein Berkshire Hathaway’s underperformance was in high double digits even as […]
Short read: How to benefit from the conversations you have at work
Communication skills is perhaps the most common feature in most job descriptions when firms recruit. However, there are nuances to effective communication beyond being a persuasive presenter that this article focuses on. “In a paper published in 2015, Kyle Brink of Western Michigan University and Robert Costigan of St John Fisher College found that 76% […]
Short read: Express Impact: Children swim across river to school, court asks Madhya Pradesh govt to finish bridge
In the drawing rooms of the affluent in urban India, we celebrate the heavy infra buildout which urban India has experienced over the past decade. And, when the mood takes us in Mumbai, we take our car for a spin on Atal Setu even as we look forward to using one of the many metro […]
Short read: Gigantic new snake species discovered in Amazon rainforest
Given all the talk of deforestation, you would imagine that, by and large, every species that exists on this planet has already been discovered. And then ever so often, scientists discover a new species which so monstrously big that you are left wondering “how something so big could have remained undiscovered for long?”. This article […]
Long read: Why the sands of the Maldives and Lakshadweep are white
A few weeks ago following the election of Maldives’ new leader whose anti-India, pro-China foreign policy stance triggered a bit of a hue and cry in India about boycotting Maldives for tourism and instead promoting our very own Lakshwadeep which is endowed with similar pristine beauty. This fascinating article in The Mint shares how the […]
Long read: Venture Capital & Free Lunch
After a pretty strong run in the latter half of the last decade, the venture capital (VC) industry has come in for some flak, even becoming the subject of plenty of memes of social media when a lot of bets especially those made during the go go days immediately following Covid went horribly wrong. Here’s […]
Long read: Ancient India’s battle of ideas: Yudhisthira & Arjuna are ideal kings. Don’t be like Ashoka
For several decades now, Patrick Olivelle of the University of Texas at Austin, has been one of the most lucid exponents of how Indian history and religion interplays with each other. In this deeply moving piece he explains how key figures in Indian history have taken opposing stances on the same subject, namely, the use […]
The Mega Opportunity in Indian Megacaps
Although India’s 20 most profitable listed companies (the ‘Megacaps’) account for around 50% of the profits generated by the BSE 500 companies, these Megacaps account for just 34% of the BSE500’s market cap (down from 41% a decade ago and 45% nearly two decades ago). Indian retail investors’ fascination with SmallCaps seems to be the […]
Spotlighting Rainbow Children’s Medicare
In this month’s Little Champs newsletter, we delve deeper into Rainbow Children’s Medicare (Rainbow), one of the new additions to the portfolio. Rainbow, founded in Hyderabad in 1999 by Dr Ramesh Kancharla, focusses only on pediatric and maternity care. The Company stands head & shoulders above its like-to-like peers on profitability and growth metrics and […]
Short read: Despite working so hard, why does free time remain elusive?
Gary Cross is the professor of Modern History at Penn State University. In this piece, he raises an intriguing question in the context of modern American life but the question is equally applicable to middle class Indian life: “Output per worker increased by almost 300% between 1950 and 2018 in the US. The standard American […]
Short read: Arwi: The lost language of the Arab-Tamils
India’s history is incredibly interesting and full of surprises. Did you know that there exists a language which is written in Arabic script but the words are from Tamil? This language, Arwi, was spoken in the coastal towns of Tamilnadu and in Sri Lanka: “Arwi dates to the 8th Century CE when travel and trade in […]
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