Micro Finance Institutions of India – Saviors or Rent Seekers?

The Microfinance (MFI) industry in India has grown rapidly over the last 3-4 years and as per latest estimates the total credit outstanding in this industry stands at Rs 12000 Crores and is growing at the rate of over 90% per annum. The repayment rate of MFI’s is an amazing 98%. Generally MFI’s are praised […]

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A very positive Budget

The Union Budget has finally come out on Friday after a long wait and this event was specially awaited to see the governments’ commitment towards economic reforms and fiscal consolidation. After the insipid Railway Budget and a dull economic survey it was important to see that the Budget has a focus and direction. The budget […]

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Markets shaping up for a sharp upmove

After a sharp correction in the month of January and the first week of February we have seen markets stabilize and have been trading in a narrow range over the last few days. There have been a number of news flows affecting the markets the prominent among which is the crisis in the PIGS countries […]

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Micro Finance Institutions of Inida – Saviours or Rent Seekers ?

The Microfinance (MFI) industry in India has grown rapidly over the last 3-4 years and as per latest estimates the total credit outstanding in this industry stands at Rs 12000 Crores and is growing at the rate of over 90% per annum. The repayment rate of MFI’s is an amazing 98%. Generally MFI’s are praised […]

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Blockbuster IPP numbers set the tone for 10% Q4 GDP growth

I will start with an interesting poll result I came across (unrelated to the headline of the post) – More than 60 percent of investors surveyed by Bloomberg on Jan. 19 said they viewed China as a bubble, and three in 10 said it posed the greatest downside risk. The quarterly poll interviewed a random […]

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Where the government went wrong in the NTPC sale

Disclaimer – The article is not a recommendation for the purchase or sale of any stock The NTPC sale was the first large scale disinvestment taken up by the government after it has come into power in May of last year. There was a tremendous euphoria build up for the issue with various news sources […]

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What it takes to be a top performing fund in the long run ?

And general thoughts I was generally interested to see what kind of outperformance in the Indian context is required on a consistent basis to outperform in the long run. The results will be surprising for most people as the magnitude of outperformance that is required is not so high as what is perceived. The reasons […]

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Credit Policy, Results season and Markets outlook

Over the last few days the stock markets in India and Globally have corrected sharply driven by various concerns on inflation, growth, roll back of stimulus measures, Chinese tightening and finally expectations from today’s RBI policy. There were also concerns on market valuations going on but these are not so relevant in my view as […]

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Chinese tightening is the best thing for equity markets

Over the last few days we have seen stock markets globally correct sharply. This fall started with news flow from China regarding monetary tightening and reining in of loan growth. This has been followed up by news flow from Europe regarding deteriorating position of guess who, off course countries like Greece and Spain. The top […]

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Is the US Dollar Index the right barometer to measure USD strength.

Contrary to most expectations the US Dollar Index has started to appreciate from the beginning of the current year and after moving down in the initial part of the current month has appreciated sharply. In general most people tend to track this index and form views on the direction of currencies other than those comprising […]

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