Do it yourself

In my middle school Hindi book, there was a thought-provoking story titled Haar Ki Jeet (Victory in Defeat) written by Sudarshan. The story was about a compassionate priest, Baba Bharti , living in a village temple. Baba’s only worldly possession was his horse, named Sultan . A notorious dacoit, Khadag Singh , took fancy for Sultan and vowed to take it from Baba . He offered to buy Sultan from Baba . But Baba refused to part with Sultan , whom he had raised like his son. Overcome by desire, Khadag Singh deceitfully stole Sultan from Baba . Kind Baba , did not resist the treachery of Khadag Singh , letting him take Sultan. He, however, requested him not to reveal this incident to anyone. Khadag Singh was baffled by this unusual request of Baba. He asked Baba , “why would you request so?” Baba politely said, “if people come to know about this incident, they may hesitate in helping people in distress”. Moved by Baba’s words and overwhelmed by guilt, Khadag Singh quietly left ...

Before going on the Diwali break, I had mentioned some of the investment strategy challenges ( see here ) that a tiny investor like myself is facing due to sharp divergence in the macroeconomic evidence and market performance. Speaking specifically in the Indian context, the macroeconomic evidence is not particularly strong to support the investors’ enthusiasm. The market participants are spinning new stories to overcome every new challenge. For example, consider the following— Overheated consumer credit market Last month, the Reserve Bank of India expressed concerns about the overheating consumer finance market. His statement read,  “Certain components of personal loans are, however, recording very high growth. These are being closely monitored by the Reserve Bank for any signs of incipient stress. Banks and NBFCs would be well advised to strengthen their internal surveillance mechanisms, address the build-up of risks, if any, and institute suitable safeguards in their own interes...

It has been over five year since I visited a local garbage dump in West Delhi. The visit was a revelation in many respects. A casual discussion with the rag pickers exploring the heaps of stinking garbage to collect pieces of paper, plastic and metal, was quite enlightening. Out of seven people diligently scanning the dump, three were children under the age of 14, including one girl, and three were youth in the age bracket of 19-27. On being asked why they chose to do this menial, risky (health wise) and stinking job, when they have relatively decent options like pulling a cycle rickshaw or even driving an e-rickshaw, working at a nearby auto garage, cleaning cars in nearby housing societies etc., the youth politely answered, "We are doing this job for past 12-15yrs. How could we change it now." On prodding further, one of them admitted that many of their peers live on hope that "Someday they will find treasure in the garbage. More years you have put into the job, the gr...

In the past one century, Drug lords in the Latin America; Italian mafia in the USA; war lords of the Africa and Arab world; Russian oligarchs; Japanese Zaibatsu; Australian media moguls etc. have perhaps been as popular with the media and entertainment industry as the intelligence agencies like CIA, KGB, Mossad and MI6. It is widely acknowledged that they did exert influence over political establishments, judiciary and financial systems in their respective jurisdictions; and many a times even beyond that. In the post global financial crisis era, some entrepreneurs have emerged as the center of power. Historically, the large entrepreneurs have been influencing policy making, but their domain of influence was mostly limited to the policies relating to trade and finance. Geopolitics, for example, was usually not on their agenda. However, it seems to be the case, no longer. The corporate czars are now widely believed to be influencing politics, geopolitics, trade and finance, with impunity...