Category: Links

India is not the only country with inflation problems; China has its own inflation problem as well, and much like India, it’s showing up in high food prices. However, unlike India, they are worried about high pork prices. Apparently, China is the biggest consumer of pork in the world, and pork prices have risen by 40% in this year. This has the Chinese government so concerned that pork prices are finding frequent mention in their Premier’s speeches. Beyond BRICS has an interesting story on this.

BBC reports that Aegis, the Indian offshoring arm of Essar will create 600 jobs by opening up a call center in Manchester. It will be interesting to see if this trend catches on.

WSJ on an interesting start up named Borrow it Bindaas. This start up offers saris for rentals in the US. The premise behind it is that there is a big enough market in US of people who are interested in wearing saris for special occasions, but not spending a lot of money buying them.  These people can rent out saris from the website at a lower cost, and return it after the occasion.

I’ve shared Paul Adams’ presentation on the blog before, and I was really looking forward to read what he said about Google Plus because Circles is exactly what he was talking about almost a year ago. Here is the post with his thoughts on Google Plus.

He also wrote an equally fascinating post on why he left Google to join Facebook.

Devangshu Dutta has a great article on the times when cell phone charges where Rs. 16.80 / minute. Liberalization and competition have improved the choices, options and employment opportunities for many Indians, and we need more liberalization to generate even more employment and opportunities in the country.

Finally, Hemant did a brilliant post on talking heads on TV who keep predicting market trends, keep getting wrong, and come back on TV to give some more crappy advice. It’s a great read.

That’s it for this week. Enjoy your weekend!

I first heard about the Stuxnet worm about a month ago, and it seemed like science fiction at the time, and I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.

This computer worm successfully sabotaged Iran’s nuclear program, and ups the ante on cyber warfare by a few dozen notches. It is the smartest computer worm ever discovered, and the story is fascinating.

Here is an excellent story on Vanity Fair about Stuxnet, and a fantastic TED video on the subject.

I’m embedding it here as well.

On to some money stuff.

IL&FS may well become to issue the first Dimsum bonds or bonds issued in RMB. There is a short story on Reuters about it.

Christine Lagard and the demand for Dollars at The Baseline Scenario.

Envisioning future scenarios for India and China at Ajay Shah

Groupon’s India breach alerts Netizens at WSJ Blogs

What is “Washington” at Baseline Scenario

Gold and silver fashion fabrics at Beyond BRICS

Gain financial freedom with these three concrete strategies at The Digerati Life

And finally, secret of achieving high returns at TFL Guide.

Enjoy your weekend!

Reader Namit emailed to let me know that there was an error in yesterday’s post about income tax filing exemption.

I had written that even if you had a fixed deposit you were exempt from filing income tax, but that’s not the case. Only if you earn interest from a savings account, and that’s less than Rs. 10,000 are you exempt from filing income tax (provided the other conditions are met).

I’ve updated the post, and thanks a lot to Namit for pointing out the error. Apologies to all readers for my error.

Now, some interesting links this week.

7 life lessons by the very wealthy by Barry Ritholtz

Dirty Business at The New Yorker (Raj Rajatnam’s story)

Trading at the speed of light at The Psy Fi Blog

China: Biggest Trade Power by 2015 at Beyond BRICS

When you’re not ready for retirement at The TFL Guide

Negative comments are good for your brand at Think Outside In

Sending internet banking passwords by mail by Prof Jayanth Varma

Finally, the Economist on the slight chance of America’s technical debt default.

That’s it for this week – enjoy your weekend!

I’ll start with this amazing Infographic from Trulia which shows the US cities that are popular among foreigners for home – buying. The data is based on search queries, and not strictly home buying but still makes for interesting reading. New York, San Francisco and Chicago are the top 3 cities for Indian Trulia users.

Next up, Technology Caves from the Dilbert Blog. Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert has these amazing posts where he discusses ideas (mostly impractical) that really stimulate the brain, and are fun to read. Technology caves describe houses of the future.

Fooled by Fluency at the Psy Fi Blog talks about a simple yet powerful concept – the ease of processing information distorts judgement. Great post!

This news is a little old, but Dhirendra Kumar offers good perspective on salary earners less than Rs. 5 lacs not needing to pay any taxes.

TFL has an excellent post covering all aspects of LIC Jeevan Arogya policy. If you were looking for information on this product then this post is really very comprehensive, and well worth your time.

That’s it for this week, enjoy your weekend!

After last week, I feel we’ve had a good week in terms of covering a wide range of topics that included fixed income, personal technology, and economy.

I think I have some pretty good links to end the week too.

Let’s start with 3-D Printing is not exogenous from the Psy – Fi Blog. I’ve linked to a post about 3-D printing before, and if you don’t know what 3-D printing is, then read this Economist article first – it will blow your mind!

Every time I think about 3-D printing – it seems like magic to me, and when I tried to picture what a 7 layered tea would look like – that seemed like magic to me too. Check out this WSJ article about 7 Layered Tea from Dhaka.

Next up, this article from Roger Nusbaum about understanding risk. I particularly liked the following snippet:

Invariably, while things are going well, like now (on a price basis, things have been going well), no one says “oh yeah, the next time the market goes down a lot I am going to get caught with too much exposure to the wrong thing and I am going to panic sell big time.” No, when things are going well people say “of course markets correct, everyone knows that, I won’t panic.”

Ajay Shah on the Freedom of Speech in Pakistan and India.

Ajay Shah has also written about Rupee trade taking place outside India extensively, and this week I read an interesting article in BeyondBrics about Rupee / Dollar Futures trading growing in Dubai.

Great post from Barry Ritholtz – How to spot a bubble in real time?

Hemant has this section where you can ask questions and I see that he addresses taxation related questions as well. I’ve been getting a lot of those lately, and I simply don’t know the answer to any of them. You can try your luck there, and check out his latest financial planning post to get a feel of answers to past questions.

That’s it for this week – enjoy your weekend!

For the few of you who noticed – this was a rare week on OneMint, where there were no posts at all.

I was busy with other stuff, and a bit of blogging fatigue also set in. Just to be clear – I wasn’t tired of writing, and was certainly not short on ideas, but the other stuff that goes on behind the scenes got overwhelming.

This involves stuff like dealing with agents spreading misinformation, getting emails about infra bond refunds, comments from misinformed readers who accuse me of being an agent and other such nonsense.

A friend told me that these are good problems to have, and it’s much better to have to deal with this nonsense, than to have no readership at all. I totally agree with that, but sometimes you just need a break, and make little changes that help you deal better.  I’m over my fatigue now or so I hope, and we should get back to schedule in the days to come.

Here are some good reads from this week.

This week I’m going to start with these beautiful nature pictures from the Daily Mail, the first one and the one about the Aurora Lights are my favorites.

Next up, Shabbir writes about how to invest in mutual funds online.

A humorous account of Sarah Khan’s holiday to Jodhpur.

Barry Ritholtz writes this funny incident about how he threw his friend’s $1,000 in the trash.Gold bugs please read!

Deepak Shenoy on a new and easy way to make mobile payments.

The Indian media gave a lot of flak to Ratan Tata, but it looks like the Tata’s are in the clear. Did the Indian media misfire on Tatas by WSJ?

Roger Nusbaum on how it’s okay to not get some investment themes, and stay away from stuff that you don’t understand.

Enjoy your weekend!

I’ve always felt that the fear of looking stupid is a pretty big fear for most people, and that keeps us from asking many questions that we should.

I also feel that the most potent antidote for it is the knowledge that you’re not stupid, and the confidence that others will realize that sooner or later.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve asked a question knowing fully well it will sound silly. Once I was sweetly rewarded when someone followed my question by saying that she wanted to know that too, but was too scared to ask, and you could see most people in the room nod to that! It still scares me to ask questions in a room where there are more than 5 people but I’m working on it.

For this reason, I loved this incredibly simple and powerful graphic from Indexed, though from the headline, I feel that was not the original intent behind this.

Among other good stuff – Hemant has written a pretty comprehensive article on Sector Funds, and it covers a lot of aspects about them, definitely worth checking out.

I also felt really inspired by Kim’s post on how she balances freelancing with being a single mom, and thought it was a really good read.

YouTube turned 6 this week, and I was amazed to learn that it gets 6 billion page views a day! Yes, that is a b, and a day.

Two good links from Economist:

One where it weighs on India’s diplomacy measures in Africa.

And the other where it discusses where will the next 10 trillion dollars for World GDP come from?

Enjoy your weekend!

 

This was a short week for me as I was out of town for a part of it, and hence didn’t get to read much. As part of my short vacation I met a cousin of mine, and he introduced me to a friend who had read OneMint.

She is a PhD from Stanford, so I was over the moon when she said she liked the site and enjoyed and appreciated the simplicity! It’s obvious to anyone who reads the comments that this site attracts quite an intelligent audience, so it’s always good to see some proof of that in real life! We spoke about the site for less than a minute, but that was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Now, on to a few links from this week.

First, a story about an Indian literacy program that may be fastest in the world from the WSJ. The program is called Tara Akshar and teaches to read and write in 35 days!

A backhoe operator looks at 80 @ Random Roger: Next up a very inspiring story about an 80 year old man which teaches the values of thrift, hard work, and doing the right things in life.

Indian investors seek Olympic gold @ Beyond Brics: Beyond BRICS on a group of private individuals coming together and pooling some funds to help athletes compete in Olympics and improve India’s chances of winning Olympic gold

First Day IPO Pops @ Big Picture: The Linked In IPO was big news this week as it scorched during listing. Here is a list of other IPOs that did great on listing.

How else are you supposed to take it? @ Seth Godin: A good post on getting people to not take things too much to heart, especially useful for people whose job exposes them to public criticism.

Bhutan’s King Jigme tells parliament he is to marry @ Riding the Elephant: Great post and excellent picture!

A few links that I shared on Twitter this week.

Eight out of China’s Top 9 Government Officials are Scientists

PlayBoy Archives coming to iPad tomorrow

Please wait 10 months for your aluminum

Market Research Agency Speak Asia’s shady ownership unearthed

Enjoy your weekend!

I’m going to be out of town for a few days, and there was quite a bit to do before I left, so haven’t been able to respond to your comments or emails of late.

I’ll be back next week and respond then. I have scheduled a few posts in advance so do expect to see more articles from next week.

I have quite a few links this week and since all of them have excellent titles I will take a shortcut and paste the links without describing them any more.

So you still think JP Morgan is short billions of ounces of silver? @ Kid Dynamite

Google Issues Statement on New Indian Web Rules @ WSJ

What happens when Sixth Sense meets an iPad @ Digital Inspiration

Withdrawal Rates @ Random Roger

Understanding investing risk is more than a qualitative assessment @ Tip Blog

Speak Asia Online – Too good to be true @ TFL

A few links that I re-tweeted on Twitter this week.

Anonymous: peering behind the mask @ Guardian (a good story on the hacktivist group)

This week’s best late night jokes @ About.com

Facebook-Google Privacy PR Smear Is A Campaign In An Epic, Escalating War @ Fast Company

ROI on homes is zilch in the past 35 years @ HBR

Enjoy your weekend!

It’s been quite an eventful week, and I don’t need to tell you what the biggest news this week was!

I’ve read several articles of the attack this week, and I’m highlighting a few that were really good, and some that even gave me goosebumps.

Behind the hunt for Bin Laden: This is a 4 page article by the NYT about how the hunt evolved and is by far the most fascinating account that I’ve read on this topic.

The stealth helicopter that no one knew about: This NYT story is about the stealth helicopter that was used in the mission. They say that if the chopper hadn’t crashed, people wouldn’t even have realized that such a thing exists.

Seal Team 6: This is a very interesting account of the Navy Seal 6 unit – which the article says is among the elite of the elite.

A Bin Laden Hunter on 4 Legs: This story draws a sketch of the attack dog that was part of the team.

Finally, for the skeptics – Al Qaeda has confirmed the death of Osama in their letter.

I think the other big news this week (though not nearly as big) has been the plunge that commodities took, especially silver.

Silver is down 27% this week in COMEX, and should serve as a good reminder to people who think precious metals can only go up, and there’s no way gold or silver can ever fall.

Here is a good Bloomberg story on how commodities behaved this week.

Enjoy your weekend!