Investments
Global VC Summit Highlights
Tuesday, 07 January 2020
Cate Ambrose talks about EMPEA and its functions, primarily that it is a membership organisation of investors, PE investors, VC investors and institutional investors. She also talks about the focus areas of the organisation, Asia being one of the main areas for 2020. She goes on to talking about her interest in India as a
- Published in Venture Capital
Discussing the early stage investing scene in India
Tuesday, 12 November 2019
Recent discussion amongst leading early stage VC investors on the Indian environment, including on ethics and corporate governance Speakers: Nishith Desai Founder, Nishith Desai Associates Harshita.Srivastava Leader, Nishith Desai Associates Priya Rajan Managing Director, Global Gateway, Silicon Valley Bank Sandeep Singhal Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners Ritu Verma Founder & Managing Partner, Ankur Capital Ashish
- Published in Private Equity
Data sovereignty in India
Monday, 15 July 2019
Vinit Goenka is an Author, Member-Governing Council-CRIS,Ministry of Railways; Fmr Member-IT Taskforce, Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways. Goenka is on of the co-authors of the book ‘Data Sovereignty-The Pursuit of Supremacy’ and in this video he talks about ‘Data Sovereignty’, why it is important and why there is an urgent need for data
- Published in Economy/Markets
India is open for business
Wednesday, 03 April 2019
Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary of Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) talks about the Indian government reforms to encourage industry and trade.
- Published in Alternatives
India story is not universally known
Tuesday, 02 April 2019
Anita George, Executive VP, Strategic Partnerships Growth Markets at the Canadian pension fund, CDPQ, shares why it is keen on India
- Published in Alternatives
IVCA Conclave 2019 Highlights
Saturday, 30 March 2019
Our editor, Hansi Mehrotra, interviewed a number of the speakers at the IVCA Conclave 2019.
- Published in Alternatives
Creating an early stage investing eco-system
Saturday, 30 March 2019
Sanjay Nath, Managing Partner at Blume Ventures talks about the early stage investing environment in India.
- Published in Alternatives
Indian alternatives getting organised
Friday, 29 March 2019
Padmanabh Sinha, Chairman of IVCA talks about the priorities for the Indian venture industry. Our editor, Hansi Mehrotra, interviewed a number of the speakers at the IVCA Conclave 2019.
- Published in Alternatives
Indian regulatory framework is encouraging institutional investors
Friday, 29 March 2019
Siddharth Shah, Partner at Khaitan & Co shares his views on the Indian regulatory framework in the venture and private equity eco-system.
- Published in Alternatives
Indian pension funds should invest in alternatives
Thursday, 28 March 2019
Gopal Srinivasan, ex Chairman of IVCA believes in convincing the Indian pension funds to invest in alternatives.
- Published in Alternatives, Investments
Indian alternatives need to sell investment philosophy better
Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Nupur Garg, Regional Lead South Asia PE & VC for the IFC shares her views on Indian alternatives sector.
- Published in Alternatives
VC industry needs to educate public markets to get better exits
Wednesday, 27 March 2019
Prashant Prakash, Partner at Accel talks about the firm’s investment philosophy in India, and also the need for the VC industry to educate public markets to get better exits.
- Published in Alternatives
Do you need an investment philosophy?
Sunday, 03 February 2019
Recently, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion on the ‘Art & Science of Stockpicking’. I was fascinated by the topic because I had studied both art and science (actually literature and biology) at undergraduate level and then had chosen finance as a career. I had researched investing somewhat (remember this was 25
- Published in Portfolio Construction
The drive towards a digital India
Wednesday, 21 March 2018
In this second part of a two-part series, Raoul Pal focuses on the growth of India’s digital infrastructure and the foreign direct investment that is driving this technological change. But is everyone going to be included in the revolution, or will rural regions remain marginalized? Change is happening and at a breakneck speed, but is
- Published in Economy/Markets
The India story
Thursday, 15 March 2018
In this first part of a two-part series on India, Raoul Pal examines whether India has the potential to become the best macro investment of the next 20 years. The country has a young and dynamic population, and a government that wants to tap into this demographic dividend with an ambitious plan to grow its
- Published in Economy/Markets
Fund categorisations: confusing segments and style
Tuesday, 07 November 2017
The Indian media has been discussing SEBI’s circular on categorisation and rationalisation of mutual funds ever since it came out in October 2017. I had written about the need for better fund classifications last year, so I didn’t comment further. But the news that AMFI has asked SEBI to reconsider has prompted me to share
- Published in Portfolio Construction
Can better fund research fix capitalism?
Saturday, 21 October 2017
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” — Walt Kelly We blame capitalism for most of our modern ills, from climate change to iPhones that die every two years. Yet we rarely bother to read the sales pitch our accountant, banker, or adviser gives us for the mutual funds to invest our hard-earned
- Published in Portfolio Construction
Has goal-based investing ruined Modern Portfolio Theory?
Friday, 18 November 2016
Modern or mean-variance portfolio theory (MPT) is an important financial concept. But it has little practical value for retail investors when it to comes to asset allocation. Recently, goals-based investing has grown popular with both financial advisers and robo-advice tools. Financial advisers continue to apply an ‘”asset allocation overlay” check to ensure goals-based portfolios are
- Published in Portfolio Construction
What can blow up in your portfolio?
Saturday, 30 July 2016
That’s the question investors should ask when assessing portfolio risk, rather than focusing on volatility. Speaking at a speaker event organised by Indian Association of Investment Professionals (IAIP), Raj Manghani, the Managing Director – Financial Analytics for MSCI, explained scenario analysis and stress testing. Testing the ability of a portfolio to withstand shocks in liquidity, markets and
- Published in Portfolio Construction
Classifying funds
Sunday, 24 April 2016
Investment decisions rely on performance of funds universe including that of the median and various quartiles. Hence, the universe category definitions and classifications are very important. Unfortunately, AMCs have multiple funds in the same category with significant dispersion in returns. To make it worse, leading rating houses have different classification methodologies resulting in different classifications.
- Published in Portfolio Construction
Funds research…deconstructed
Thursday, 18 February 2016
I love watching cooking shows. It doesn’t matter that I don’t cook. I watch for enjoyment sake, and perhaps for the comfort of knowing that in a cooking emergency, I will be able to put something together. One concept that I always get fascinated by is that of ‘deconstructed’. Chefs separate or deconstruct the ingredients
- Published in Portfolio Construction
Why we need active funds
Wednesday, 03 February 2016
The active versus passive debate rages on. The passive camp points out that active funds, in general, don’t do what they are supposed to do – outperform the passive benchmark. They charge high annual management fees, even in the years they underperform. They encourage intermediaries to charge fees or commissions to select amongst them (or
- Published in Portfolio Construction
Why good mutual fund research is hard to find
Tuesday, 12 January 2016
There are many brilliant books on stock picking, from simple beginners’ guides to classic textbooks like Ben Graham’s Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor. I could find only one credible book on mutual funds: John Bogle’s Common Sense on Mutual Funds. Bogle’s advice? Investors should put their money in index funds. A number of finance luminaries — Warren Buffett,
- Published in Portfolio Construction
Why you shouldn’t invest in 5-star rated mutual funds
Friday, 18 December 2015
Ask any investor how they select mutual funds (MF) – the most common answer tends to be on the basis of star ratings. Such is the allure of stars that it doesn’t appear to matter whose stars. I know so, because I spent my career in fund research. And no matter how different my firm’s
- Published in Portfolio Construction
Role of financial ratings
Friday, 30 October 2015
When people hear the leader of a country comment on how a credit rating agency should rate its debt, they realise credit ratings are important. When they read about the role of credit ratings in the global financial crisis, they get angry about the finance industry being responsible for their misery, but figure they must
- Published in Portfolio Construction, Traditional
How Nobel prize winners invest
Friday, 30 October 2015
Everyone in finance would know about the efficient frontier… it’s a concept from Modern Portfolio Theory put forward by Harry Markowitz in the 1950s. So Markowitz is like God in the world of portfolio management. I was always curious about how Markowitz invests his own portfolio. Imagine my delight when I found the answer in
- Published in Portfolio Construction
Making sense of too many products
Saturday, 03 October 2015
Like in many other markets, the mutual fund industry the world over seems to have a dazzling choice of products, but with the top few dominating assets under management and inflows. In the US, there are more funds than stocks. Even in a nascent market like India, there are more than 1,000 choices, and that’s
- Published in Portfolio Construction
Fund managers need the right temperament
Tuesday, 09 June 2015
What kind of people make good fund managers? While everyone should be interested in this question, there is surprisingly little research on this topic. Dr Jack Gray talks to Hansi Mehrotra about his efforts and findings. While the general perception may be that investments is about numbers, investment professionals everywhere agree that money management is
- Published in Business Issues, Portfolio Construction
Valuing real estate
Thursday, 24 July 2014
Subhankar Mitra of Jones Lang LaSalle explains the basic methodologies used for real estate valuations in India. Valuations are very important in any private equity/real estate investing not only while buying and selling but also for ongoing reporting. Hence, it’s important to understand how valuations work in India. 1. What qualifications does one need to
- Published in Alternatives
Intro to Modern Monetary Theory
Friday, 06 June 2014
Being a professor in risk management, Professor Frank Ashe had to explain the biggest risk event in recent history – the global financial crisis. He went back to basics to understand the genesis of the credit bubble, in the process discovering Modern Monetary Theory and how government deficits are not as bad as people think.
- Published in Economy/Markets
Role of credit rating agencies
Tuesday, 15 April 2014
Credit rating agencies have been criticized for their role in the 2007 sub-prime crisis, which led to the global financial crisis, but it wasn’t until a recent lawsuit exposed their internal emails that it became clear to what extent they were responsible. While the global financial crisis can’t be blamed on any one in particular,
- Published in Business Issues, Economy/Markets
Forget track records for responsible investing
Wednesday, 09 December 2009
The United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment now claims over 550 signatories with more than USD 18 trillion in assets. UNPRI provides a framework for institutional investors to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investment processes. Also, the International Finance Corporation has sponsored a study on the prevalence of RI in emerging markets.
- Published in Traditional