Friday, December 25, 2015

Keynes Baba - What to do now?

John Maynard Keynes professed something 80 years ago that made government justification of spending hell to stave of the recession. This is exactly what the governments across the world did after 2009. 

But wait a minutes, these spending increased the government debt and then we had Greece, potugals.....PIGS.

Solution - Again give a shot -> Again increase spending -> Again defeat the recessionary forces

No, thats an idiotic solution as the world is at the highest leverage where it is too difficult for the government to increase it further.

One of the solution can be to increase the innovation and remove barriers in economy to increase the velocity of money instead of real money itself. But governments are bad at this. 

Friday, November 13, 2015

Exciting time for a derivatives trader in Indian market

"Ha!, this is the time, we had been waiting for long" - said one of my friend, who is a trader, trying to do a STRADDLE.

Lot of monkeys were jumping in the Indian stock market. These so called "Self proclaimed gurus" of Indian Stock market were with projections of 35k / 40k and some even 50k for census. Some of them are treated as gods or projected as gods by the media, such as Ashwani Gujaral, Jhunjunwala. All of them were proven wrong. They made lot of sound on CCD (Cafe Coffee Day) IPO, where I reiterated that the price is way higher than the inherent valuations and the assumptions are wrong. Anyway, the market is back to 25k.

This was bound to happen as the underlying health of companies have not improved. The  market pundits have again got it wrong and here is the myth v/s reality

Myth : Pundits say India withered the market storm due
Reality : India benefited from the EM flows which happened when job growth did not doomed in US as investors deemed it as confidence in "No increment scenario of US treasury rates"

Myth : Foreign Investors lost confidence in Modi Government
Reality : Investor never came due to Modi Government. They knew very well, system can not be corrected very soon. The real sell off has already started in May-June, when China showed early signals of a balloon, as things did not picked up after Chinese new year.

Myth : Indian Equities have moved into attractive state
Reality :  There is still lot of room to go down. There is still an inherent difference between the Equity and Debt market. The credit growth rate is less than 10%. Also, the debt market is showing lot of weakness, WHICH IS LOWEST IN 20 YEAR. Most of the Indian companies are highly leveraged. I have written about them in the past. "THE BIGGEST THREAT TO INDIAN ECONOMY IS THE HIGH LEVERAGE OF THE CONGLOMERATES IN INDIA." This implies that Indian companies dont have bankable projects. India seems to emulating the Indonesian model of cronyism led growth.

Myth : Lot of money is going in Startups and will increase exponentially
Reality : I would say these were the second set of the monkeys, who threw good money after bad. Just hold your breathe and you will see that investors will demand results and valuations will nose dive in some of these startups.
(Just a word of caveat/caution, some of the startups

Next Events to be watched

Myth : Fed rate decision
Reality : It will not have major impact as most of the equity will be battered down by that time. The real events to be watched are the yields on the debt of some of the conglomerates and companies, which are going to list their bonds. Airtel today announced they will raise in Pound for first time. These yields will decide fate of these big companies, who have lot of weightage on SENSEX.

The market has gone into a limbo, where it is "Party Time" for the Derivatives Traders and people who suffered the most are the

1. Retail Traders/Investors who followed the so called Gurus
2. SIP/MF Investors as most of funds flowed through these routes in past

I am personally very sorrow for the 2nd category as they were being misled into the rally by the reputed media/newspaper to invest into SIP/MF when market was on a high. 

Monday, November 02, 2015

Bunch of IAS opportunists

This is in reference to many media news articles and the letters of bunch of IAS cadre people, which has been floating in the social media.

Background
There are 10-15 odd Group A services such as IAS, IPS, IRS, IDAS, IRTS, ICLS.etc...Due to some urgency, some privileges were granted as temporary measures to IAS cadres

What is written in these letters
Some IAS people have declared that
"Privileges are our birth right and no one can part that away from us" in the same manner as Bal Gangadhar Tilak declared 100 years ago
"Freedom is my birth right and no one can part that away from me"

Words are similar but spirits are totally opposite - one is full of fear and the other is fearless declaration of the great freedom fighter.

Is everyone writing this
Personally, I have deep respect for some of bureaucrats of all cadres. Many of them are IAS also such as T N Seshan, Ashok Khemka etc. They have exemplied "True service to the nation" without looking for personal benefits like promotions etc.

These set of people writing these letters are also from IAS cadre but with a different spirit "Incentives of faster promotion and higher salaries are needed for any service to the nation". I wonder if they declared the same in their interviews.

Flawed reasoning in letters

  1. Border/Naxal Areas - Armed forces/CISF/CRPF and yes, IDAS also do the same
  2. Multiple Responsibilities / Negotiations with MP/MLA's - Every Civil services has the same burden of responsibilities and in similar volume and intensity. IDAS also negotiates with a Lt. General, who has 1 lack people under him ready to kill and die themselves on his one order and the Lt. General has grown up 30 years gradually in a system which promotes seniority ethos. Imagine a 35 year old negotiating with him. MP/MLA's are far easier to handle. 
  3. Rank in UPSC - Come on, that is morons logic especially after 2013, in 1 optional and 4 GS scenario, UPSC has become a dart ball game. The difference between Rank 1 and 1000 is mostly luck and some rote learning. Also, there are many in IFS, IPS, IRS and even lesser known services, who dropped IAS in favor of other cadres.
Solution
  1. These people are opportunistic and there are high correlation between opportunism and corruption. So, these people should be put on "Vigilance alert" for their future actions. 
  2. System itself is flawed. Group A was designed for britishers and should be abolished
  3. Common training for all cadres and then service allocation on basis on performance in training, of 2 years, which gives higher chances of correct allocation, than existing "Rote and Quote" UPSC exams..   
















Thursday, October 29, 2015

Axis bank share price dropped, so will the rest

Last time, I wrote about Sindicate bank

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/syndicate-bank-scam-cbi-pawan-bansal/1/376615.html

Again, same thing happened, Axis tried to hide some details in a clandestine manner and market punished it for this.

But about the rest, most of the Indian banks are bankcrupt and the deposits of taxpayers are at risk. I have written extensively about this NPA fraud. Recent comments of Transport Secretary, Mr. Chibber proved the same

1. Most of the Indian infra companies work on negative equity
2. All the credit have been sapped out by the infra/real estate companies and little is left for manufacturing. This pushes up the interest rates.

I found a question on UPSC mains examination on why Indian could not have a booming secondary economy and why tertiary zoomed ahead.

One of the reason was the credit squeeze, most of the banking credit was siphoned off by nexus of politicians and businessman and little was left for capital intensive secondary economy.

Wait and Watch !  - Major bankruptcies will emerge in the following sectors

1. Infra
2. Real Estate
3. Banking

It is prudent for retail investors to stay away from such companies even on stock market. Stock market has already punished the like of JP, Unitech etc for multiple reasons and debt overhang is one of these.









Monday, October 12, 2015

Next Big Scam - Bank NPA Scam

This is going to be next big scam to be unearthed. This will open the eyes of common man of how the inequality is increasing in this country and how the rich are siphoning off the money of the poor by unfair means.

This is the ugly face of crony capitalism, unleased in mainly the UPA tenure, but even NDA is not doing anything worthwhile on this.

God save this country.


https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CBwQFjAAahUKEwjGgPazrr7IAhVHao4KHaPIABc&url=http%3A%2F%2Feconomictimes.indiatimes.com%2Fnews%2Feconomy%2Finfrastructure%2Fbanks-over-financed-road-projects-now-crying-foul-vijay-chhibber-transport-and-highways-secretary%2Farticleshow%2F49310166.cms&usg=AFQjCNHCWbb1FN3pKK9_R2DEA9aAczuFpA&sig2=DN4j3I8uEdwX1zF7rE6jow&bvm=bv.104819420,d.c2E


https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCMQFjABahUKEwjGgPazrr7IAhVHao4KHaPIABc&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehindu.com%2Fbusiness%2Fthe-banks-have-been-happily-overlending-to-the-sector-vijay-chhibber%2Farticle7735227.ece&usg=AFQjCNHuDxMcCkL_RDeIB56grAKloiF4Cw&sig2=2qlmWsgNWmUPN-9z5VjSew&bvm=bv.104819420,d.c2E


https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCkQFjACahUKEwjGgPazrr7IAhVHao4KHaPIABc&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.isnadvisory.co.in%2F2015%2F10%2Fbanks-over-financed-road-projects-now.html&usg=AFQjCNEOy62qbSvjysxaENXPJVfNJaDE2g&sig2=LyO1VADCpUi-kaDL2Jwu5w&bvm=bv.104819420,d.c2E

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=7&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEIQFjAGahUKEwjGgPazrr7IAhVHao4KHaPIABc&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmedhajnews.in%2Fnews.php%2Fmultiprongedapproachisrequiredtotackletheissueofroadsafetynitisngadkari--24975--en&usg=AFQjCNGYbj1L0esRbAtYESepOh0T8W1BGg&sig2=EoFdWWoV7BVAdPYF0EwS4Q&bvm=bv.104819420,d.c2E

Monday, September 07, 2015

Hitler (aka Aurangzeb) Road, New Delhi

An year ago, I wrote about the Aurangzeb road.

http://luckylehana.blogspot.in/2014/09/hitler-road-new-delhi-change-in-address.html

and then after 1 year, finally sanity prevails. Surely, it was not due to my comment/blog post, it was the national outpouring after the demise of the great nationalist APJ Abdul Kalam

APJ was above religion and other none-sense, whatever way the Owaisi or Swami project it. I have heard that he is treated as god by some of the hindus, that is the spirit of Hinduism and Sufism which this country has forgotten for long and has to be revived.


(I don't claim to predict future, I only reflect on the opinion of the nationalists in our nation)

Note - There is non-secular, religious bias or any other kind of malicious intention behind this step. In fact, it is only those pseudo - secularists, who are showing crocodiles tears again. That politics of appeasement has been rejected by the electorates.

Monday, July 27, 2015

A P J No More

Rare breed of politician in Inida

Abdul kalam was a great source of inspiration

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Saturday, June 06, 2015

Restart - Blogothon

My near and dear ones have been complaining that my blog has died, so i have decided to include atleast some blog post as frequent as possible

Trending today are

  1. Shiela Dikshit might get into problem due to CNG scam
  2. OROP - one rank one pension, Modi Govt. might into problem
  3. Land Boundaries of WB, Meghalaya, Assam & Tripura might change on land accord with Bangladesh


what effects a common person like me the most

  1. ITO station to start from Monday, i can go to sales tax and other Govt. offices by metro now, else i have to get down at Pragati and then hire an auto, which is very tiring at times, forget taking own vehicle in ITO, it's a mess especially near that passport office
  2. Saudi-Yemen getting more entangled might effect Saudi in future as Iran hell bent on supporting the Houthi rebels -> might increase fuel prices in future
  3. Yahoo maps used to be only working english map website in China, then its a problem for english only people in China


Sunday, September 28, 2014

Hitler Road, New Delhi - Change in address of Culture Minister of India

Today the charismatic leader, Narender Modi delivered another excellent speech in Madison Square. It was magnificent and he completely mesmerized the crowd both in US and the TV viewers in India equally. I will not go into those details.

One thing, which I caught hold of from his speech was this sentence "Slavery of 1000-1200" years. I am not trained as historian but I just wanted to mark that date

1192 - Prithviraj was defeated and that marked the long period of slavery of India till 1947

So, 1947 - 1192 = 755 Years

So, as per this dateline, India was under slavery only for 755


Did Modi got his numbers wrong or was this just a slip of tongue or a gross overestimation. I think it was none. What perhaps Modi was referring to was

1. Attack on India (old upto Sindu / Indus river) by Afghan / Turks
2. Attack from north on Samarkand

Well the dates are right to mark 1000 years of slavery, but perhaps the reference suits more to
1. Afghanistan
2. Pakistan

India (as currently defined) was slave only for 750 years. Nothing wrong in mentioning 1000-1200 with a broader view, but consider the fact that - Pakistan considers start of those years of slavery as years of liberation from rule of "Idol Worshipers"

So, Pakistan will consider these years as years of glory. But what about India, we still have an "Aurangzeb Road, Babar Road...... and so many other roads in the names of people, who committed mass murders going by each and every historical record" Perhaps this was done around 1940's when Indian elite was trying to convince Muslims to stay with India. ............But do we still need to keep these road names same and remove the names of those mass murderers and looters.

Some might agree they were rulers and aristocrat...blah blah.......then lets have a road by name of


  1. Yakubu, for their achievements in Nigeria
  2. Jamat-e-Eslami , Indian Govt. can request Bangladesh for special release for ingratiation 
  3. Turkey for their achievements in Greece, Antolia and Kurdistan
  4. Hitler, we all know
  5. Mugabe, still alive, can come to inauguration of road
  6. Khmer Rouge, some still alive


This will show India is recognize the roads by not only the suppressors and murderers on national level but on international level.





Monday, September 15, 2014

Where are the muslim girls ?

There has been 2 diktats much in news regarding Garbha


  1. BJP MLA in MP stating that entry by only ID
  2. Some association that Garbha only for Hindus

Now consider 2 contrasting issues


  1. Going by all the demographic nos. as discussed by me in  UCC and Ticking Time Bomb, it is quite clear that Muslims have better sex ratio than Hindus
  2. But still if you see the inter-religion marriage, in 99% of cases (as per survey and media reports) are cases of Muslim Boy - Hindu Girl. 

The above mentioned facts does not seem to reconcile with each other. The main issue, we are missing here are
1. Sex ration is for overall population
2. Marriages are mostly in the age group of 20-35.
3. Within this age group the sex-ratio of Hindus and Muslims are not very different form each other

So, it reconciles the above mentioned anomaly, but now it raises one more important question. If the sex ratio are same, then


  1. Why only Muslim men marry Hindu girl and not the reverse Muslim girl marry Hindu men ?
  2. Why only Muslim men are in Garba not muslim women


Well some might explain it as "Love Jihad", but I will not go in politics. I think the "Love Jihad" may be a reason, but there are other reasons also

  1. Islam (as far as I know) is like a cult and hence it is like a one way jail, you can enter on your will but can not exit as it is treated as treacherous 
  2. Islam welcomes someone coming to Islam (like a girl marrying)
  3. Islam consider marrying of Muslim girl to non-muslim as crime


If some proponents of these "Love Jihad" and other "Conspiracy theories" see in detail, there are some fundamental reasons and most of the so-branded "Love Jihad" may not be intentional. (though I  personally have no stand on this issue and see it purely from factual point of view)

Again, I will refrain myself from political angle to this sensitive issue, but it point out to a very pertinent question - "Where are those Muslim Girls?"

Unfortunately, I am not able to find any data on the percentage of girls based on religion in higher education. So, I am still exploring answers to this question.















Friday, August 01, 2014

Urgent Need of UCC (Uniform Civil Code) to prevent future tensions - “Ticking Demographic Bomb”

Urgent Need of UCC (Uniform Civil Code) to prevent future tensions - “Ticking Demographic Bomb”

(There are many gross overestimation done to make ease in analysis, but still trends will be similar)

Not going into the details and issues around "Love Jihad", I did some detailed analysis of the gender ratio's of Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs etc in India and came to following conclusions

1.        Muslims constitute around 15% of population officially (18% unofficially due to Bangladeshis and other illegal and ignored)
2.        Their (950) sex ratios are better than Hindus (931)
3.        All 5 major non-muslim communities such as Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains have lower percentage of percentage of population in 0-6 years age than national average
4.        Jains just have 10% in 0-6 age, while Hindus have 15% in 0-6 years
5.        Child sex ratio is all time low at 914 in 2011
6.        Christian (2.3%) is the only group with more men than women
7.        In addition to this Muslims (3.4) have a higher TFR (Total Fertility Rates) than all major communities such as Hindus (2), Christians (2.1), Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains (1.4), who interestingly have lower percentage of percentage of population in 0-6 years age than national average
8.         India is 18% of world population, with population growth rate of 1.41% ranking 102 in world. India is primarily young with 65% below 35 years. 50% is below 25 years. That mean this 50% is in the age around marriage
9.         The worst male/female ratio are in the age group 0-10 years (1.14)
10.     The second worst and of immediate concern is 15–24 years: 1.09 male(s)/female
11.     Previous generation was in comfortable range with 65 years and over: 0.908 male(s)/female and current generation is also not very bad

The above data clearly indicate a demographic socio-economic Reverse “Love Jihad” is bound to happen. Let us analyze what happened in Haryana
1.         What people in Haryana did when they found they don’t have brides, they went outside from UP / Himachal
2.         They did not went to Rajasthan at it was equally pathetic

Now let us imagine that Hindus, Muslims, Christians are tiny states like Haryana, UP, Himanchal. Let do some scenario analysis
Current Scenario
With m/f ratio close to 1.0, no major threat

Short Term Scenario (5-10 years)
15-25 reaches age of marriage, but we have 9% more men than women, means 9% men will not get bride. This is same as Haryana situation.
Solution - > Bride import will begin to start
Initially Muslims will be difficult to convince to marry to Hindus, so may be Christians will be the first exporter of brides to Hindus/Jains /Sikhs etc

Medium Term Scenario (10-15 years)
Now lets imagine this 0-10 years group with male to female ratio of 1.14 reaches the age of 20 after 20 years

Scenario 1 :- (Reverse Love Jihad) Indian muslims accepts export of brides to Hindus as Hindus lack them. Struggle for brides will intensify. If Muslims accepts UCC (Uniform Civil Code), there are high chances they will mingle themselves with mainstream.

Scenario 2:- Some ISIS like organization get upstart in India and ask Muslim to reject UCC and harden Muslim Extremism. Indian Muslims deny export of brides to Hindus. Hindus still need them then it is a dangerous situation which will either lead to forced conversion of either Hindus to Muslims to marry or will lead clashes.

Hence, UCC is immediate need of the hour to help bridge the divide between Hindus and Muslims so that there can be easy exchange of brides. Similar to case of Haryana, Bride exchange between territories (read here religion) is bound to happen. Else this is “Ticking Demographic Bomb”

Also, this also breaks apart a myth that Islam is anti-woman, yes it is indeed if you look the pity situation of women in Islam, but perhaps Hindus are more anti-women. This is because, even though Hindus have higher respect and stature of women in society than Islam, but the higher class hindus are simply preventing women birth in the first place.





Thursday, January 17, 2013

Digital Marketing




What do you think is the most effective way of using digital marketing?



Following is part of my comment on the above mentioned topic -

Though, the decision is subjective based on the product, competitors and buyers profile, but this is the most important question, which almost all marketing managers face. Though social media has zoomed ahead in recent years, most marketing people still put their budget on the SEO and Analytics. Based on my own consulting assignments in Digital Marketing domain in China, I believe there are 2 problems as to why Social Media coverage may not be effective.
1. Horizontal Issues - Most marketing managers have not been trained or are unaware of the techniques/tools which can be used for analysis of Social Media. When it comes to convincing team members, then probably social media fails.
2. Vertical Issues - Existing Technique/Tools are yet to prove themselves. Partly because Social Media is itself a recent event. When it comes to convincing Finance manager or Top Management, then Social Media investments mostly fails to convince.

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Why Taxing Rich is a stupid idea

There is an interesting discussion about taxing the rich and its pitfalls.

It is such a simple formula, which unfortunately Development economics fail to acknowledge with their blind follow up of the Differential taxing regime. I am not rich, but I am still not in support of taxing the rich excessively. Actually, rich are the one who facilitate capital formation and investment, which is necessary for economic growth. But at the same time, inheritance tax should be there as this leads to creation of inequality. 

Monday, January 07, 2013

REC Dilemma


The REC Dilemma (Extract from one of my post on another forum)

Govt. does not have money for a long term incentive /subsidy. I guess some state governments would come up with innovative mechanisms (remember it was Gujarat, who mobilized the whole solar sector in India through their INR15 PPA in 2010.

I agree there are legal instruments, which can be water tight, but Private off takers would shun from them. One more factor is that soon the supply is going to outstrip the demand. So, the Private off takers would have the lion share in negotiating terms of the PPA contract.

If the Govt. is not able to enforce the RPO, then REC is dead before 2017. Guess - who will risk their investments in say 2014 onward, towards a mechanism, which has no visibility beyond next 3 years. If there is no strong step by the Govt., then I strongly believe that the last REC project would be commissioned in 2013 and there would be no project 2014 on-wards. Sometimes, I got perplexed to see the nos. regarding the pricing and volume on the exchanges. Is this scenario sustainable??

Way forward is for the Govt. to link financing of REC's (or any other new mechanisms) through some out of the box RPO implementation. One more thing, we are not paying attention to the RPO obligated entities. Step into their shoes and you would find RPO is not a fair game for them. How can you penalize them when they are struggling for their own survival. Industrial growth in last 6 months have been below 2% for 3 months.

Thursday, December 06, 2012

AFSPA


Someone said AFSPA should be repealed. I was also of the similar opinion till I devolved deep into AFSPA.

I fully sympathize and agree with what naysayers said. But my dear friends - consider the situation in which the militants are roaming around frequently. Would you prefer a Army personnel to stand on the road or the militant. I for sure would feel safer with presence of Army than presence of militant. There was a Bollywood movie in which a ATS (Anti Terror squad) has killed some terrorist preemptively. The lawyer of the policemen asked the same question to the judge - Who would you give gun to protect your house, a militant or a cop ?????

The response was -
...what if the army presumes you to be a terrorist?The army under AFSPA can arrest and detain anyone without warrant if they feel that the person might be a terrorist which is the deprivation of basic human right

Dear Lucky, It was but after many incidents that the cry for repealing this act has been raised by the masses in the north east. I think it was not advocated to remove it from anywhere else in India where it was needed. And please..don't refer bollywood movies to understand matters of such grave seriousness.. I can't comment on Kashmir. It is a sensitive issue. But I empathize with the innocent people who suffer because of Power Misuse...Its only the common folks who suffer. You have to be there to understand the real situation..

Yes, the issue is complex and I agree that you have to be there to feel it. I agree its easier to write while sitting in comfortable place in Delhi but the situation might have been different if I would have been in Manipur or Kashmir. The presumptions of army are really not the right thing. But still we need to find solution to improve the AFSPA like intense scrutiny of the case by other central agencies and solution deadline of say 1 month. I believe AFSPA is evil but their non presence is worse. It may lead to violation of human right of 1 out of 10000 individuals, but it is collectively good for rest all 9,999 people. But yes, the agony of that 1 individual is something which needs solution. 



Friday, November 16, 2012

The world is not flat - Google+

The world is not flat - Google+

Domestic Solar Panel Manufacturing Industry in India

There is surely something wrong.

Link to the Report on Domestic Content Requirement


Either everyone is wrong or India is only wrong. Whatever be the case, at the moment, you have to be Roman if you are in Rome. India should do something to protect the domestic solar Industry.

  1. If the domestic solar industry flourishes, then they would be able to reduce the cost in medium term and match the cost in long term. 
  2. There is interest of Solar developers but that is short term interest for the country.

Is solar going the same way the heavy industry for Thermal Power Production was going 10 years ago. There was a time when 40% of the Chinese Thermal Industry was based on demand from India.

Govt. need to put in substantial efforts to make India a manufacturing hub.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Economics blogging: Salute to the India of ideas | The Economist

Economics blogging: Salute to the India of ideas | The Economist

I really liked the statements
1. And perhaps the country’s brightest economists are simply rubbish at communicating sharp ideas to the policymakers, activists, media types, business leaders and members of the public who could make use of them.

2. The contributors, by and large, are Indians, or people of Indian origin based in America and elsewhere. Their challenge is to engage their countrymen. If they succeed, the rewards could be magnificent.

This means the solution is the Indian economist but not the one like Kaushik Basu, whom I once read told sarcastically, about beggars - "if he does not accept 10 paisa (or something really small) then you will say this as a result of inflation"

Economist like Kaushik Basu are the real perils of India as they know simple facts but are biased due to their positions and alienation. Such economist are dangerous for India's future. But you know what - Govt. has made him along with the legendary (sarcastically used) to be the "Top Economist of India" - Thats the peril of India.