In what was being seen as a turf battle between sebi and irda, the winner as of now seems to be Irda. It shows the power of the people in the life Insurance business. Now if you have LIC, SBI, Hdfc, Icici, …each with a few ‘000 crores of stake in the insurance business and […]

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It is very difficult to be in the PMS (Portfolio Management Services), Mutual fund business, Broking, Investment banking, …at some stage there is a conflict. There is a conflict between pricing an issue for the IPO and for the customer. What do you do when the promoter of a small company asks you to handle […]

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Are the Indian promoters who destroy shareholder  wealth the worst in the world? Or are there some who are worse than that? In the American context there were AIG, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Lehman, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae… or should we talk about the worst environmental disaster by BP? Well well, the list is long is […]

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For those who were born in the 1980s…and who take 8-9% growth for granted they should take a lesson in History! Just when I saw the rocking performance of Bajaj Auto – 80% y-o-y growth – and a net profit for the year Rs. 1700 crores! When Rajiv Gandhi came to power he allowed motorcycle […]

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This is an old idea – many people have said it. Particularly Peter Lynch has said this many times – buy things you are familiar with, what you cannot describe in a picture is not worth buying, etc. There is of course a lot of justification to own shares like Gillette, Colgate, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, […]

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Recently a friend of long standing (2nd standard if I am not wrong) commented that my column should be a part of a newspaper and titled ‘Malice towards one and all…” a column which only people born in the 1960s would remember I guess. When ITC (cancer), McDonalds (BP) and Pepsi foods (Diabetes) talk about […]

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This article appeared in the inaugural issue of Money Mantra a new Personal Finance Magazine from New Delhi…1st Nov. 2009. Have not reproduced the table in excel. FMCG is suddenly the favorite amongst everybody! Why is this so? Well any fund which clocks 67% return in one year is bound to suddenly attract interest, is […]

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