How women in India can change the destiny of the country

Last few days I have had a writer’s block . Since my last blog, last weekend, I had been thinking on what should be my next topic but it just wasn’t getting structured

And then today I was listening to the podcast at the Tim Ferriss( tim.blog .) He was interviewing the author Daniel Pink.

There were many Aha moments…but this post is not about that podcast.During the interview Daniel mentioned that one of his professors once told him that sometimes you just need to start writing and things will get figured out.

That suddenly hit a chord with me. So here we go….

I was reading the Entrepreneur magazine’s India edition and here I saw couple of very interesting facts. One of them was an article by Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus. He is the man behind the concept of micro finance which has empowered so many women .

One of the things he mentioned in the article is that if illiterate and poor women can transform themselves into entrepreneurs imagine what would happen if millions of high school and University graduates are empowered.

This got me thinking. If we discount for about 30% of India’s population to be children and old people, then out of the remaining 1 billion people you have 50% of them as women. What would happen if these 50% women came into the workforce- either as entrepreneurs or as workers, what would happen to the GDP of our country. About 400-500million more people in the workforce, which is expected to be the youngest workforce by 2030.

Last year I was in Canada during their 150 year celebrations and I realised that its GDP is close to two and a half trillion dollars, while India’s GDP is also close to 2.5 trillion dollars. However Canada’s population is less than the population of one city in India -Delhi NCR, about 3 crores (30million). India’s population is more than 125 crores(more than 1.25 billion).

In the same issue of the Entrepreneur there is another report which says that if women’s participation in the Indian economy goes up the country’s GDP is likely to go up by 60% that is an amazing figure

If only our women believe in themselves and if we can give them a supporting hand there is massive prosperity which can be created in this country. Right now for a lot of families in India, buying 3 meals is the biggest outgo of money. Once each family has multiple earners and expenses on food become a minor part of the spend, then families will educate their kids, they will take better care of them. and people will spend more on non-food items. These are exciting times if we take our destiny in our own hands.

Capre Diem!!!

Investments and Bitcoins

Financial Independence, Uncategorized

I was recently listening to the Berkshire Hathaway annual conference addressed by Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger. This was being beamed live via Yahoo.

In this Yahoo presentation before the conference began they had some of their correspondents check out the people who had cone and then one of the correspondents also did a small interview with Warren Buffet. One of the questions he asked was – what Warren thought about Bitcoins and cryptocurrencies. This question kind of has stayed with me because this was something which I myself was not clear for a long time and then a lot of people have asked me.

As is usual of Warren Buffet he gave a very simple explanation for what is an investment and what is trading. This is something which I found very useful and I thought of sharing.

For him cryptocurrency is not a investment because the cryptocurrency has value only in the eyes of the next person who wants to buy it so it’s a commodity for trading and if someone is willing to pay higher price you gamble on that.

Unlike trading an investment is an instrument of some kind which earns on its own even if there is no one to come and buy it from you… so if you buy farmland in your village and even if the next person is not willing to buy it from you at a higher price, at the farm you can still grow crops and have cattle etc. …. Same would be the case in terms of investment in equity…or for that matter even buying a cow can be an investment and the milk can be sold

So if you are wanting to do an investment keep this fundamental concept in mind …..will this item earn for you irrespective of somebody wanting that item or not.….if you buy foodgrains with the thought that somebody will buy it from you at a higher price then that is trading. On its own foodgrains will not grow more foodgrains for you

So your house for your own living is not an investment – which is something I had written earlier also is a bad idea, but a house which you buy to rent out to generate passive income is an investment and therefore a good investment

Equity purchase of a company which manufacturers or makes something is an investment because the company will continue to produce its goods irrespective of whether someone else comes and buys that equity from us or not

People become financially free when they make investments. These investments earn for them and compounding grows the earnings multiple times over. The longer the runway – as Mohnish Pabrai puts it – for compounding to play its part the more wealth you create.

Till next time….when you are in a dilema…think very simply ….will it earn for me irrespective whether the other person wants it or not.

Carpe Diem!!!

Eating A Yellow Watermelon ….

Financial Independence, Uncategorized

Today is the first time in my life, which is now more than half a century, that I saw a yellow watermelon

My first impression was – this is a problem – do watermelons really come in yellow colour, hope this is not poisonous, hope it is not gone bad

I checked with one of my neighbour’s – who is our Grand old aunty, she had also never seen one. Then I called up one of our friends who has seen the world much more than me to check if they had seen a yellow watermelon, but even he was not able to comprehend a yellow watermelon

I was about to throw the whole watermelon even though it was testing sweet like a watermelon but the colour drove me crazy.

Just before throwing it, I thought of checking Google the ultimate knowledge base

And lo-behold right out there was a query on yellow watermelons and there were photographs of yellow watermelons which were exactly same as the watermelon which I had bought

Based on the input Google provided, my perception of the whole situation changed – where first I was about to throw the watermelon, I cut the whole watermelon and put it into the refrigerator.

Perceptions are such mind blocks.

I keep telling my team members about avoiding mind blocks and today I was myself in a mind block that watermelons are supposed to be red

Imagine I would have wasted such a sweet honey flavoured watermelon just because of my mind block

This same situation also happens, when it is hard earned money for service class people. Only because people say Bank fixed deposits are safe people don’t want to invest in anything else. They do not realise the risks that they take in the long-term with the bank deposits

So till next time look -for red colour muskmelons and blue colour grapes – you don’t know what life offers – but enjoy everything with an open mind

Carpe diem!

PS: If you have eaten a yellow watermelon do let me know….will like to know if I am the only person who thinks water melons can only be red.

Living carefree forever

Financial Independence, Uncategorized

Last week I saw this movie “102 Not Out”.

It stars 2 of the best actors in Indian cinema Mr Amitabh Bachchan and Mr Rishi Kapoor. It’s a very sweet story about a 102 year old father and his 75 year old son.
The son has lost his interest in doing anything in his life while the father is still active over the age of 100. It is an extremely sweet movie which I would recommend everyone to watch.

The movie got me thinking on how this person would have lived his life from retirement, which in India is typically at age 58, for another 40 + years.

For sure he must have had enough Investments that could last him for 40 years of zero regular income.

The average age that an Indian is approaching 70, what that means is for every 38 years of working life the average Indian will now have to survive without the facility of a regular income help him through those next 10-15 years

Given that medical expenses and medical inflation are at such high levels you really need to think how will you survive without asking for any assistance from your children

There are very few things which are inflation proof and especially for an economy which is growing so rapidly and looks to become the third largest economy in the next 15 to 20 years, inflation pressures will always be very high.

So you need to think in terms of what are your investments and what kind of returns will they give you for you to survive for those years when you don’t have a regular stream of income and still have the will to enjoy like Amitabh Bachchan in 102 not out. You need to celebrate life not live a life of drudgery.

Tell next time
Carpe diem!!