Not-To-Miss Views Of 2017
By Ridham Desai, Morgan Stanley
“Timing may appear to be almost everything in the stock market, but we still believe in time. The top 100 performing days of the past two decades account for 60 percent of the market's total return over this period. Imagine if, in your timing wisdom, you missed those 100 trading days – or vice versa,” says Desai, emphasising that since we do not have a model to forecast the return clusters in stocks or the market, the only way to make money consistently in equities is to be in them for a long period.
By Rama Bijapurkar, Former Independent Director, Infosys
“Mixing up rational governance issues with emotional cultural norms makes for a blunted public debate on governance,” Bijapurkar wrote as two of India's most storied business houses - generally respected for their corporate governance - made their way through messy boardroom battles.
By Praveen Chakravarty, IDFC Institute
Did you know that four large states account for more than half of all tax collections of the Union government? As farmer protests and the call for loan waivers spread across India's states in 2017, Praveen Chakravarty warns that the skew in redistribution of tax revenues can potentially erupt into an emotive issue. “Economic, political, demographic and social disparity among India’s states is much starker today than in the early years of the republic,” he writes.
By Shankkar Aiyar, Political Economy Analyst
As ‘jobless growth’ gathers increasing political implications, Shankkar Aiyar writes of the absence of attention to the elephant in the room: government jobs. India has 5 lakh police posts vacant, another 5 lakh teachers not appointed, and needs 2 lakh more primary health workers. “Neither the parties in the ruling regime nor those in the Opposition have held the governments — whether at the centre or in the states — accountable for the persistence of these vacancies,” writes Aiyar.
By Aman Lekhi, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court
The Supreme Court spoke in one voice in recognising the right to privacy. “The unanimous decision of the Supreme Court is a momentous moment in India’s legal history decisively showing that existence of the right to privacy as an undisputed reality and vindicating India’s position as a confident, mature and vibrant liberal democratic state,” writes Lekhi.
By Michael Kugelman, Wilson Center
The international community has paid the simmering Kashmir dispute little to no mind. Can the relative silence be attributed to deft diplomacy by Delhi to secure the agreement of global actors not to speak up about the issue? Kugelman argues that “there are too many other crises convulsing the globe that are perceived by the West to be of more direct relevance.” The U.S. has spent 2017 confronting a dizzying array of foreign policy challenges, from Russia and Syria to China and North Korea.
By Raj Bhala, University of Kansas
A missile fired into Riyadh as retaliation to a war waged in Yemen, a dozen princes arrested, a prime minister resigning on foreign soil. All in a matter of 24 hours. How should one make sense of the tectonic shifts that the world’s youngest defence minister is bringing to the Middle-East - Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman?
By Sarbvir Singh, Venture Capital Investor
Pundits have questioned the price paid by Star for Indian Premier League rights as being too high. But history will show that this was the turning point when mobile became king and television lost its preeminence in India, argues Singh.
By Sanjoy Bhattacharyya, Fortuna Capital
Warren Buffett famously said that achieving investment greatness is “simple, but not easy”. Much the same can be said about Bridge, writes veteran investor Bhattacharyya.
By Rujuta Diwekar, Nutrition And Exercise Science Expert
“We are probably the only country with a high number of underweight children — at 43 percent, the highest amongst developing countries — and also the second highest number of obese children in the world.” On Children’s Day 2017, Diwekar listed the top six things we can adopt as a family/society to protect the interests of our future generations.
