Do it yourself

It seems like billions of gallons of water have flown down the Ganga since the first page of a newspaper made some gratifying headlines. It’s mostly the same disappointing narrative every morning. The positive news, if any, comes mostly in the form of government claims, which I find hard to accept on their face value. Yesterday (Tuesday, 12 July 2023) was apparently one of the usual days. The newspapers were full of disappointing news relating to accidents, crimes, disasters, and platitudes. However, I found five headlines which appeared particularly alarming. These headlines highlight apathy, inconsistency, and incompetence of policymakers. While it may not be a revelation to anyone; what amazes me is the steadfast refusal of a majority of newspaper readers to question the otherwise claims of the government. As an investor, I find it critical to take note of these headlines, because these underline the risks to the India Story, which is gaining currency again. Hill states devast...

  Exploring India – Part 3 In the past couple of weeks, we travelled to the states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh (HP) and Haryana. In our nine days of travelling, we covered ten districts of Punjab spread across three divisions, viz., Jalandhar, Rupnagar and Patiala; six districts of HP spread across two divisions, viz., Mandi and Shimla; and eight districts of Haryana spread across five divisions, viz., Gurugram, Rohtak, Hissar, Karnal, and Ambala. It is pertinent to note that these three states in the present form came into existence in November 1966, after enactment of the Punjab Reorganization Act 1966. Through this act, the erstwhile province of East Punjab was divided into largely Punjabi speaking state of Punjab and largely non-Punjabi speaking state of Haryana. Some areas of East Punjab were transferred to the union territory of Himachal Pradesh, and it was granted a full state status. The city of Chandigarh also became a union territory, serving as temporary capital of P...