This article is a compilation of 10 mega trends for India in 2030.
By 2030, it is on course to witness a 4x growth in consumer spend. It will remain one of the youngest nations on the planet and will be home to more than one billion internet users. The new Indian consumer will be richer and more willing to spend, and unlike her predecessors, she will have very specific preferences.
Herb Wertheim may be the greatest individual investor the world has never heard of. He has accumulated over $2.3billion by buy-and-hold investing.
“My thing is,” Wertheim says as he reflects on his long career, “I wanted to be able to have free time. To me, having time is the most precious thing.”
A fascinating tale of putting chips inside our bodies. These chips then become our credit cards, electronic keys and possibly health monitors. This is not a sci-fi article, it is what is happening today in real life.
I have always followed the careers and lives of people. Chandra Kochhar’s life is an instructive one, the ride up from nameless corporate employee to a celebrated woman-leader and the flag-bearer of ICICI Bank, to the fall from grace. Here is a recent timeline of the events.
Food delivery apps have changed the way we eat. Here are two articles which give you two different perspectives on that space.
Uber is looking to sell its two-year-old UberEats business in India to cut down losses and Oyo Rooms is reportedly planning to buy FreshMenu to get into food delivery space!!
The interview with Buffett with Becky, is as always illuminating as any interview of his:
Buffett never fails to amaze me with his understanding of business, of brilliant and simple clarity to complex situations, and of extreme objectivity and honesty with oneself.
For instance, he always has all the numbers on his mind, on almost any business, so he can analyze them on the spot, like he does say on his investment in Kraft Heinz, or his capex on BNSF, or float with GEICO, or compensation to his new Vice Chairmen Ajit and Greg, or America’s balance sheet and deficit, or new household formation in the US or the history of interest rates in the US… no other CEO comes even remotely close.
I was also struck by his honesty on Kraft Heinz, he says he overpaid for Kraft (in the news for recent writedowns) and he made a mistake that has cost shareholders billions. He also (though not reported widely) said he bought Oracle, then he had some doubts about his understanding and he immediately sold it. Avery very rare Buffett mistake, but he admitted to it.
Finally, something that resonated with me very well, he said keep politics and investing separate and don’t bring politics into investing. In our current milieu I think it has great lessons for us.
There were many tidbits for me in the way he thinks about businesses and about investing.
One of the very good brands to come out of India in recent times is iD from iD fresh foods. In this video PC Mustafa of iD speaks about challenges and gives 3 messages (Use common sense, Dont compromise on your values and Trust your customer if you want them to trust you). These are good business lessons. Also his sheer passion comes through not only for his own business but for the country as well. When he says India is a great place to do business in and please come back - it tells me things are changing.
The highlight of the video for me is the subtle art of Brand Building with absolutely path breaking advertising both below and above the line undertaken by iD. The ad with the slogan - when a mother asks khana khaya she means i love you - demonstrates that in communication its not what you say that matters - its what you dont say but which is implied. What a superbly executed ad.
This was shared by Adam (Quora CEO) on his own timeline. The article talks about how Social Media have become an important part of our lives and why. An excellent article. If you are invested in Social Media companies abroad, this should be even more interesting to you.
“That many of the largest tech companies are, in part, status as a service businesses, is not often discussed. Most people don’t like to admit to being motivated by status, and few CEO’s are going to admit that the job to be done for their company is stroking people’s egos.”
To understand how inflation (hyperinflation in the present case) affects currency and day to day life, a must read about the situation in Venezuela,the country with largest reserve of oil in such a dire situation :
Few lessons:
Over 90% dependent on 1 commodity is very bad for economic health specially in bust cycle
Export and import need to be in balance
Nationalization cant solve capital issues
Price control cant solve inflation; price need to be market driven, Black market which is the only free market in Venezuela is serving the nation now
Corruption, self serving politician with economic meltdown lead to chaos and disaster
Thought provoking over the de/merits of Socialist vs capitalist; authoritarian vs democratic.
