Category: Links

Let’s start this week with Jason Zweig’s A ‘Bucket List’ for Better Diversification which is an article on diversification from an American perspective and while the zero percent interest rate scenario doesn’t prevail in India, after inflation the returns on fixed income is pretty much negative and the stock market hasn’t done too well in the last five years or so either so I think Indian investors will find this article useful as well.

I have no words to describe how amazed how I was to read that George Soros is said to have made a billion dollars since September of last year betting against the Yen.

A very very good article from Zen Habits on four habits that help form habits.

Today, an asteroid which is about 45 meters in diameter will swish past within 27,000 kms of Earth which is the closest any asteroid has come in recorded history.

Twitter was abuzz with Narendra Modi’s speech this week, and although this Business Standard article doesn’t add anything new to  what’s been written elsewhere, this is a big event keeping in mind that next year will be an election year.

Here’s something that everyone probably knows at the back of their minds but no one really talks about openly that much: Why faking enthusiasm is the latest job requirement. 

Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge has an interesting article about being more productive. These are not productivity tips but rather look at productivity from another angle in terms of how you structure your work, manage your relationship with your boss etc.

IRDA caps insurance company’s exposure to equity at 15%. The Finance Ministry wanted this to be 30% for LIC so it is interesting that IRDA maintained a lower cap and didn’t make an exception for LIC. I think this is a great move with all the upcoming PSU IPOs, OFSs etc.

A rare positive story on India’s SEZs. I didn’t know that Foxconn was manufacturing in India, and this is a good post that boosts your confidence about the potential success of manufacturing in India.

An amazing video of one National Geographic photographer’s encounter with a leopard seal.

Finally, if all your friends decide to jump off a bridge, you should too.

Enjoy your weekend!

Related articles

• Hidden Charges When Buying a Property in India
• SEBI wants to color code mutual fund products
• Insurance Profits from Surrenders, But Not *That* Much
• Insurance : Surrender or Make policy paid up or Continue
• The man who would rule India

Let’s start with something amazing that I learned this week – there is a type of jellyfish that seems to be immortal! It grows old and then after a certain time, starts getting younger!

The RBI has this page on Government securities market in India, and I tweeted this out earlier thinking no one would pay attention, but three people favorited that tweet which is three more than what most of my tweets get, and I thought that this will be useful to a larger audience as well.

I don’t know for how long this has been true but MProfit which is a software we have talked about here earlier is now available for free download. 

Livemint has a good article on the structural problems that the Indian economy faces and how monetary policy plays a limited role in dealing with these challenges.

Mashable has an amazing post on pictures taken by the Hubble telescope.

Finally, do you know why giant squids have eyes the size of footballs?  or how the owl turns its head the way it turns its head?

Enjoy your weekend!

A quick word about the CIBIL contest before we move on to the links, I have forwarded the participant list to CIBIL and we should be in a position to announce the winners by Wednesday next week.

On to the links now, CNBC US hit gold today when two billionaire hedge fund managers fought with each other on TV for about half an hour, and this is like no argument you have seen before.

If you haven’t already seen the video, here is a link to a NYT piece with the video embedded and a little background on the story about Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn.

Apple’s stock crash was another interesting thing that happened this week, and I felt Roger Nusbaum was the only person who said anything of value on this topic. It is relevant to investing from an Indian perspective as well, specially if you own individual stocks.

Rohan Doshi shared a story on last weekend’s links post about how the NYSE was bought in one shot, and I thought that was a good read as well.

Closer home, FIPB clears IKEA’s 10,000 crore investment proposal. 

Hemant and Anil Kapila write about the best tax saving mutual funds of 2013.

Shyamendra Solanki does a wonderful Hindi translation of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘If’.

Finally, the mathematically most efficient way to sort socks.

Enjoy your weekend!

A little short on time today so I will just post these seven great links without adding any comment. Have a good weekend.

Outsourced: Employee Sends Own Job To China; Surfs Web

Why We Blab Our Intimate Secrets on Facebook

Biggest Thing in Universe Found—Defies Scientific Theory

How to Write with Style: Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Keys to the Power of the Written Word

Andy Mukherjee: Why India needs corporate bonds

How High-Achieving Parents Raise Star Scions

Upgrading your health insurance coverage

Deepak Shenoy writes a great post on the recent ruckus over Vijay Mallya donating gold, and furthers the discussion in a way that no one else has done so far.

If you were feeling outraged at Mallya’s donation, then you should definitely read this piece to get a grip on what the current situation is and I feel that this will also help you outrage at the right thing, if outrage you must.

Next up, the New Yorker has an excellent profile on Apollo Robbins who is what they term as a ‘theatrical pickpocket’, which is someone who picks pockets for show and you can liken it to a magician’s tricks. The profile is very well written, and to really get a feel of a what he does, watch this video where he demonstrates some of his tricks.

The Financial Times has a good article on seven great travel locations that have not been explored as much.

The Guardian has some superb pictures of Obama from the last year. I can’t help but think how no Indian politician can ever be featured like this – when it comes to Indian politicians – candid moments just don’t exist.

Alpha Ideas has a post on Goldman Sachs’ Indian portfolio. 

I didn’t know that Mexico was the richest country among the BRICS.

Finally, did you know that the Milky Way was home to 17 billion planets the same size as earth?

Let’s start this year with a thought on resolutions, good post on HBR titled Dream Instead of Making Resolutions which talks about an interesting idea of looking beyond your resolutions and into your inner dreams to look at what you should change in your life this new year.

The new year also started with LIC launching two new products – LIC Flex Plus ULIP which as Manikaran tells us may not be all that flexible after all, and LIC Jeevan Nidhi that Ranjan takes a look at.

On the similar topic, Srikanth Meenakshi who is the founder of Funds India writes about why ULIPs are a bad choice against mutual funds.

I’m not sure how serious they are about this, and I can’t see how they can implement it but ET reports that SEBI is thinking about an idea where promoters will have to repay investors if IPOs go down below a certain price within a few months of their listing.   

Chirag writes about the top 10 performing IPOs of 2012.

Finally, do humans have a stopwatch built inside their head?

Enjoy your weekend!

Sandipan Deb writes a thoughtful piece on the government response to the Delhi rape case.

Ajay Shah writes about how we must go from outrage to action, and though I don’t agree with some points (especially that nothing got done in terms of corruption) – I think this is a very important piece for everyone to read and think about. The comments, specially the one that disagrees with the author are very good as well.

Unfortunately, several rape cases have been reported since the Delhi incident, and they are all so gruesome they give you the chills. Hindu has an article on the incidents, and also what various states are doing to combat them. West Bengal will set up 65 all women police stations, of which 10 have already been set up.

I think we have reached a certain point where change is bound to happen, and I feel that this will be change for the good. For far too long we were suffering from a strange kind of apathy which we’re breaking free from today. Not all change is radical, and not all change needs to be radical, any improvement is welcome, and these protests will ensure that there are some improvements in the way the country works.

On to other subjects, Prof. Jayanth Varma writes how bigger mutual funds from the same family sometimes bail out smaller funds by buying their illiquid shares.

Mahavir Chopra has a post on the room rates of hospitals in big cities.

Hemant has a great post on 7 habits for financial success.

Finally, does the Universe have a purpose?

Enjoy your weekend!

I wasn’t about to do a links post today because I’m short on time, but when I browsed through the links I had saved for this week, I thought I would do a quick post anyway because of the great range I have this week.

The best 7 things I read this week:

Tim Cook’s Interview: The Apple CEO Speaks

FinMin Pressures RBI to Prolong Housing Bubble?

Fortune Exclusive: Larry Page’s Interview

How Outlook handles time zones for meeting requests

Orange used cars break down less than others

Lion Numbers Plunge as African Wilderness Succumbs to Human Pressure

Should I buy or rent a house?

Let’s start this week with a pressing issue of our time viz. Section 66A of the IT Act that’s being used to detain people for posts on Facebook or Twitter, and the language of the act really lends itself it these type of actions.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a PIL seeking scrapping of 66A, and I’ll be watching this with keen interest as it is a really important cause in my mind.

This week was a good one for Indian investors as a Goldman Sachs upgrade of Indian equities helped fuel a small market rally.

Investment Yogi compares the RGESS with ELSS.

MediManage reviews HDFC Ergo Super Top Up Health Insurance.

A fascinating piece about growing food in the desert.

Some great lessons from a successful start-up founder.

Finally, Chris Anderson has some great productivity tips.

Enjoy your weekend!