Irrationality of global capital markets
May 11th, 2010; Source: The Economic Times
Global capital markets are not perfect. Nor are they rational, or even oftentimes effective. A quick look at the performance of the capital markets over the last 15 years just confirms this. In 1993, foreign investors pumped billions of dollars into short term, local currency, fixed income instrumen ...ReadMore
Apr 7th, 2010; Source: The Economic Times
India has an almost unique system of promoters who own and manage much of the corporate sector. There are the eponymous promoter groups that have been around for decades such as the Tatas, Birlas, Mahindras, Bajajs, Goenkas and Godrejs. Then there are the relative newcomers such as the Ambanis of Re ...ReadMore
Feb 8th, 2010; Source: The Economic Times
India is such a land of contrasts that sometimes one wonders how the different pieces form part of the same whole. How does the 8%-plus GDP growth economy coexist with one where little, unclothed children sleep in the freezing streets of our Capital? How do we have a world-beating IT sector living s ...ReadMore
Dec 7th, 2009; Source: The Economic Times
Imagine, as John Lennon said, if the country was managed like a company. There would be a chairman/CEO — the prime minister, a board of directors — the Cabinet perhaps — a set of shareholders — the people, regulators — the Parliament, employees — the bureaucrats, and so on. The key diffe ...ReadMore
ECONOMIC GRAVITY SWINGS TO THE EAST
Oct 27th, 2009; Source: The Economic Times
What is one to make of this global downturn — is it a prolonged recession, a mild depression or merely a correction? Is it likely to be V shaped, U shaped, a W or even (heaven forbid) an L? Is unbridled capitalism dead, consigned to the dustbin of history along with communism? Are regulated market ...ReadMore
Jul 7th, 2009; Source: Business Standard
The Budget presented by the finance minister today was a workman-like effort rather than an overarching one. At a broader level, it seeks to continue the UPA’s economic philosophy of generating growth by distributing funds at the grassroot levels and letting the demand filter up, rather than being ...ReadMore
Nov 20th, 2008; Source: The Financial Express
It is amazing how quickly the India forever bull story has got punctured. Of course, all this is happening on the back of an unprecedented downturn in the international economy and capital markets. Nevertheless, it is a jarring coming down to earth of all those who subscribed to the sustainability o ...ReadMore
INDIA: EMERGING MARKET CAUGHT IN EXTERNAL FACTORS
Jun 16th, 2006; Source: The Financial Express
Saying “I told you so” has a curiously unsatisfying quality to it. That the market was crazily overvalued was apparent to most, but when the Sensex was rising so much , it was hard not to lose one’s conviction. However, even during the Sensex’s upward march, a sequence of events was beginnin ...ReadMore
HANDLING THE LESS HOSPITABLE ENVIRONMENT
Jun 2nd, 2006; Source: The Financial Express
Prasanna, who helps with the housework at my parents’ home in Delhi, told me on my recent trip there that he had put a substantial part of his savings into the stock market. Not only that, he had also borrowed from a friendly bank to leverage his investment. The recent correction, needless to say, ...ReadMore
PLANNING AT A PREMIUM IN THE GOVERNMENT
Apr 21st, 2006; Source: The Financial Express
At some point, it gets totally beyond one’s comprehension. The municipal body resurfaces the roads in your neighbourhood just before the monsoons and just as you begin to applaud their effort, they dig them up again. There is this constant activity on the same roads. Workers busily lay tar, and th ...ReadMore
