Do it yourself

Thought for the day "Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be." -Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish, 1547-1616) Word for the day Pre-prandial (n) Before a meal, especially before dinner, e.g., pre-prandial prayer. (Source: Dictionary.com) Malice towards none The Allahabad High Court order regarding the education of children of government employees etc. is bound to ruffle many feathers. The moot point is whether the government should take this as an opportunity to reform government run education institutions or a challenge to their authority and freedom? Fix the priority first A recent CRISIL report on Indian power sector has highlighted many interesting facts, besides adequately flagging the distress and pain that the sector is facing. The intimidating data about the indebtedness of the sector and the consequent pressure on lender's asse...

Thought for the day "Thou hast seen nothing yet." -Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish, 1547-1616) Word for the day Brickbat (n) An unkind or unfavorable remark; caustic criticism (Source: Dictionary.com) Malice towards none PM Modi delivered yet another entertaining performance overseas. Hand on your heart & pinky swear - did you watch the show on TV, till the end? Growth on the fringes Driving through the famous Yamuna Expressway, I realized that unlike most older roads in Uttar Pradesh (and most other parts of the country), this one has no tree planted on the fringes. May be tree planting is part of a later schedule. May be it is not. I observed that this stretch of 145kms clean road could certainly be used for installing pillar mounted solar panels on both sides of the road without any botheration. The electricity thus generated could illuminate many villages alongside the road, a...

Thought for the day "Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory." -Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish, 1547-1616) Word for the day Auroral (adj) Of or like the dawn. (Source: Dictionary.com) Malice towards none Does Donald Trump reminds you of Ronald Regan? GST is not make or break In past couple of months various segments of the government have tried hard to sell GST as the panacea for faster economic growth. The sentiment has also been echoed in matching notes by the captains of Indian industry. Both the finance ministers have gone on record to say that GST will ensure double digit growth of India in immediate future. There can be hardly any doubt about the need for and importance of a unified market and simplified tax structure. GST certainly promises to fulfill this need. To that extent its desirability cannot be challenged. No one is actually doing this. The opposition is mostly to the te...

Thought for the day "There are only two families in the world, my old grandmother used to say, the Haves and the Have-nots." -Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish, 1547-1616) Word for the day Twittery (adj) Tremulous; shaky. (Source: Dictionary.com) Malice towards none Out of the two performances on Saturday - one at Red Fort, New Delhi and the other one near Galle Fort, Sri Lanka - which one was better? NIFTY: preparing for a rendezvous in 8620-8850 range On short term charts Nifty has successfully defended a triple bottom last week and recovered smartly, filling two material downside gaps created on 8th and 27th July 2015. With most short term momentum indicators supporting an up move, it is poised to test the right shoulder of a 3month H&S pattern at ~8600. A successful negotiation of this level (close above 8620) would establish Nifty in a tough resistance zone of 8620-8850. At this point...

Thought for the day "Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive." -Friedrich Nietzsche (German, 1844-1900) Word for the day Chiliad (n) A group of 1000. (Source: Dictionary.com) Malice towards none Raj Thackeray says "Salman is man without brains"! Hmmm....lets discuss something else.   China begins the endgame I am increasingly inclined to believe that perhaps the paradigm is shifting in global markets. I have written this thing earlier also, but considering the pertinence of the idea, I do not mind it repeating it - It is no different this time; in fact it is more likely to be the same as always. The global market paradigms have shifted every few decades. The shifts have been caused by a variety of factors. Sometimes it has been led by shift in strategic and geo-political power (spread of E...

Thought for the day "Every church is a stone on the grave of a god-man: it does not want him to rise up again under any circumstances." -Friedrich Nietzsche (German, 1844-1900) Word for the day Mondegreen (adj) A word or phrase resulting from a misinterpretation of a word or phrase that has been heard. (Source: Dictionary.com) Malice towards none It is a pity that AAP has adopted "lying" as the principal weapon in their fight against corruption. Do not they know the basic tenet of Satyagraha - "Goals are important, means are equally important". CNY devaluation to strengthen disinflationary forces USD bull have another reason to rejoice besides the prospects of Fed lifting rates from near zero level later this year - devaluation of CNY by the Chinese central bank. USD has already surged over 20% in past 12 months, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. Chinese aut...

Thought for the day "He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying." -Friedrich Nietzsche (German, 1844-1900) Word for the day Atrabilious (adj) Gloomy; morose; melancholy; morbid. (Source: Dictionary.com) Malice towards none The political narrative in Bihar is expectedly full of humor, satire and sarcasm. Some elite are taking it too seriously as reflection of the political standards in India. Better late than sorry! Every morning, newspaper report pouring of millions of dollars in Indian start ups - mostly ecommerce related. Valuation in all these cases is just a number "XYZ invested so much USD in ABC assigning it a valuation of so much US$" is the usual narrative. Reading all these astronomical numbers accompanied by numerous "rag to riches" stories, a common man like me does obviously feel exaspe...

Thought for the day "You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist." -Friedrich Nietzsche (German, 1844-1900) Word for the day Ballyhoo (n) A clamorous and vigorous attempt to win customers or advance any cause; blatant advertising or publicity. (Source: Dictionary.com) Malice towards none Now since the government has agreed to the Congress's land law, why not agree to their GST Bill also, so that at the least the ball is set rolling. Changes could be done later at a convenient point in time. NIFTY: good times ahead The Indian market is expectedly moving in a narrow range lacking momentum to break out on either direction. Last week also despite Nifty failed to break sustain any up move. The current level of momentum is indicating that the market may remain stuck in this range for few more trading sessions. A positive sign...

Thought for the day "Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like." - Lao Tzu (Chinese5th or 6th Century BC) Word for the day Twitterpated (adj) Excited or overcome by romantic feelings; smitten. (Source: Dictionary.com) Malice towards none Should the government call for a national referendum on the issue of a unified market for the country (GST)? Sad and scary Three news items in past one week have been disconcerting indeed. Though not surprised, I feel sad to see that my worst fears are coming out to be true. These three news items reflect a certain degree of incongruence, lack of cohesion, inconsistency and adhocism in functioning of the government of the day. The first news item relates to the proposal under consideration for making it compulsory for sugar mill...