MS Swaminathan, architect of India’s green revolution, 1925-2023
Those of us who are fortunate enough to live in an era which celebrates teenagers who launch vegetable delivery apps looked back with pride at the life of one India’s biggest gamechangers, MS Swaminathan. As John Reed wrote on the FT last week, “MS Swaminathan, who has died aged 98, was a university student in Kerala […]
Claudia Goldin’s Nobel-Winning Research Shows ‘Why Women Won’
We have been featuring a slew of articles related to the rise of the Indian woman and its impact on the Indian economy and society. Amidst this, it was heartening to see this year’s Nobel Prize for Economics being awarded to a woman (the first solo in the field) – Claudia Goldin. Even better, the […]
The unlikely hero who crashed Wall Street and made millions – then vanished
This week saw the release of the movie ‘Dumb Money’, based on the meme stock mania of early 2021. The stimulus cheque induced stock market rally at a time when most people were home locked down sucked in many first-time investors. Social media where such rookie investors could share information and worse, make concerted bets […]
Deogarh dreams of next hockey star. No turf, no shoes but ‘every house has a player & fan’
For several decades now it has been well understood that a country’s sporting success is a lagging indicator of its progress on economic & social indicators. Hence there is a lot to be proud about when we see India raking in 100+ medals at the latest edition of the Asian Games. However, amidst the national […]
The insider: how Michael Lewis got a backstage pass for the fall of Sam Bankman-Fried
For the past three decades, Michael Lewis has been amongst the best non-fiction writers in the world. For the past few years, Samanth Subramanian has been amongst the best young journalists in the world. So, when Samanth Subramanian writes about Michael Lewis, you know that you are bound to get great copy. This long piece […]
Why Fundamentals and Valuations Matter
MeritorQ’s strategy of picking high-quality undervalued companies delivers better risk adjusted returns by taking advantage of mispricing associated with erroneous investor expectation. Such a strategy also delivers positive excess returns (i.e., returns in excess of the benchmark, in this case the BSE 500) around earnings dates further reaffirming the mispricing hypothesis. In fact, a significant […]
Hit the snooze button: it’s good for you
Contrary to what you might have heard about the merits of waking up at 5am, Ms Berwick of the FT says that as per the results arising from new scientific studies, you should take it easy in the morning: “….a new study suggests there are real health benefits to be gained from sleeping in until 7am […]
Why have big bank CEOs gone silent?
Dinesh Unnikrishnan’s brief article is interesting because what is left unsaid in this article is even more interest than the specific contents of this article. Mr Unnikrishnan notes that India’s private sector bank CEOs have chosen discretion over valour when it comes to opening their mouths in the public. Why so? ““It’s better to keep […]
China Is Flooding the World With Cars
The Chinese economic unravelling is creating other problems for the rest of the world. Falling domestic demand is forcing Chinese industries with unused capacity to turn to exports at scale. Automobiles is one such industry, especially gasoline powered cars. “Overall exports of Chinese goods, everything from furniture to consumer electronics, slumped 5.5 percent in the […]
The plastic-eating bacteria that could change the world
A few years ago, an image of a vast mass of plastic floating in the Pacific ocean went viral alarming us about the gravity of the plastic waste problem we humans were creating: To get the enormity of the situation, in the last 20yrs, “we have generated 2.5bn tonnes of plastic waste and each year we […]
Boredom: An Investor’s Last Remaining Edge?
In a world addicted to social media, our need to stimulate ourselves frequently has reduced our attention spans. It turns out, as per this piece that we are naturally wired to seek stimulus than sit still. The article talks about this inherent human need for activity in the context of investing and how it can […]
Ashwagandha is the new gold rush for Indian farmers. King of Ayurveda is on global wishlist
Amongst HNWs of Indian descent across the world, there is growing curiosity about Ashwagandha. Recently, we found ourselves sitting the in palace of Indian billionaire in Dubai discussing whether he should step up his investments related to this root crop which is the new King of Ayurveda. Ashwgandha is India’s version of ginseng and is […]
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