Urban Indians’ financial planning flawed

The recently released HDFC Life ValueNotes Life Freedom Index highlights several key lacunae in the way urban Indians plan their financial investments.

Even as we appear to be increasingly aware of the need for planning, our awareness or knowledge is limited. Many pundits have highlighted the lack >>read more…

The ONGC Fiasco – Investors are not fools

Much has been written and said about the bungled ONGC divestment. About the fact that LIC was forced to bail out the issue. About how the pricing left nothing on the table for investors. About how regulation was twisted to enable government divestment without the traditional public issue >>read more…

Private Banks in India: The technology advantage

challenges_faced_by_CTOs

Banks and financial institutions are not just users of technology. They have driven (and continue to drive) innovations in technology. ATMs were widespread before the PC revolution, the SWIFT network allowed global electronic money transfer before there was any Internet. Stock and commodity exchanges trade trillions electronically every day.

We tend >>read more…

INET Bangalore: The Future of the Internet in India

Some weeks back, at the INET conference in Bangalore, we were treated to a variety of “expert” opinions on the future of the Internet in India.

There was the usual tom-tomming about growth, and how with 100+ million users, India is now No. 3 in the global >>read more…

Doom and Gloom: A time to Buy Stocks?

Over the past few months, the news has been depressing for investors (and many others as well!).

Internationally:

The Greeks, Italians, and sundry other Europeans threaten to bring down the Euro

The US government does not know how to revive its listless economy

Even >>read more…

Urbanisation of India: Huge growth opportunities

urbanisation

An inescapable and only too visible trend is the rapid urbanisation of India. Existing cities are growing rapidly (and haphazardly) in all directions, those that cannot (like Mumbai) are growing vertically, and many villages now resemble towns. Current estimates of “urban” population are in excess of 300 million, and likely >>read more…

The Union Budget 2011-12: Do we expect too much from the Finance Minister?

Last week, I was at a conference where one of the speakers was a Commissioner of Customs. Inevitably, given that the Finance Minister’s budget speech was a few days away, many questions were focused on the budget. One of these was about how the budget was kept secret.

His response >>read more…

The Indian Defence Market: Is growth a good thing?

A couple of weeks back I was in Bangalore for the Aero India show. Never having attended this event, I was amazed at the scale. To begin with, there were the hundreds (thousands?) of spectators getting their thrills from somersaulting planes and models of missiles, guns and other military hardware. >>read more…

Air India more important than aviation industry: More government meddling

air6

Last week, the new Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr. Vyalar Ravi was widely quoted in the media as saying that his “top” priority was to ensure that Air India regains its “lost glory”. Anywhere else, such a statement would have drawn criticism for its partiality towards a single player. However, >>read more…

Caveat Emptor: The Citibank India scam: Beware of fraudulent wealth managers

The unfolding saga of the fraud by Citibank India employee, Shivraj Puri, is, like all such scams, both sordid and unbelievable. All frauds are sordid, so let’s focus on the unbelievable.

As expected, investor ire and media attention are being focused on the “big bad” Citi. “We cannot believe that Citibank >>read more…

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