Deep Impressions

    Medicine, Money  & Morality : A Contrary View       There are two vociferous demand these days :   ·        a loud cry against the high prices of medicines and health essentials  ·        an appeal to make covid vaccines off-patent      The former complains against lawlessness ; the latter demands a temporary lawlessness.  The former is creating waves domestically and the latter internationally.  Strangely, the both have a common unanswered question.     Yes, we all agree that one should not be greedy, one should not be insensitive and one should not be adamant in these times. And therefore, there is a strong case for the covid vaccines to go off-patent. However, there is also a counter argument. It says that before giving the waiver, one should also consider the implications for the next pandemic.    Will during the next pandemic, investors put billions of dollars in inventing vaccine if they know that the vaccine they would fund could go off-patent within a year of invention

Knowledge Era : Version 3.0 After challenging many of the long standing facts, beliefs and theories, will Covid be opening  the flood gates for the next knowledge era after Religion and Science ?  ========= ============ ============ =========== ========== ========== ===== A typical heated debate between my CA and MBA friends would end up with the CA side saying that CAs talk about facts and MBAs only about perceptions. The MBAs side would argue that CAs are inward looking whereas MBAs have a broader outlook.  Debates do not end. And it is good that they don’t. Unfinished debates remain the seed for continued growth of knowledge. However, a recent zoom call between me, Chintan, Chirag (both CAs) , and Manav & Mihir (both MBAs) had a different flavour. Excerpts from the call :                 -------   x   -------   x  -------   x  -------   x  -------   x  -------   x  -------   x   Manav  :  While “new normal” is the latest buzzword b

Real Estate : Revival without Reliefs Fiscal reliefs for real estate are a must but they can only provide short term survival.  Demand revival without impacting govt revenues is the key to the long term health.     --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zooming through the various webinars on revival of real estate, one would have observed that the prominent suggestions were GST input credit, reduction in GST rates, reduction in municipal charges, limited period zero stamp duty etc for reviving real estate. There is no doubt that most of these are much needed measures should be implemented. However, there is a difference between survival of the supply side and revival of the demand side. The above measures will provide the much needed ventilator to developers but not a long term immunity. Time and again, it has been proven that the long term survival of the industry lies only in the vaccine

Life v/s Livelihood In the debate of Life of thousands v/s Livelihoods of millions, what if numbers are allowed to overrule emotions ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One of the very interesting tweets that I have see on lockdown is : “If you feel useless right now, think of Google Maps” Indeed, who could have imagined that a day will come when roads and traffic jams will never be part of our daily discussion.  However, a low traffic on googlemaps would not mean a difficult ride of Google Inc even during these difficult times. However, others are not so fortunate. Take the case of a travel portal or a ticketing site for entertainment. The core proposition of the former was that everyone needs to travel and the latter's core belief was that boredom will generate a continuous demand for out-of-the-home entertainment. Till a few weeks back, both these were axio

Let the virus not 'SIP' through middle class savings Let the virus not SIP through middle class savings India, as of now, remains amongst the less affected nations by Covid 19.    However, the heart breaking fall in sensex has ensured that Corona jitters reach larger number of middle class savings – enabled mainly through the exposure to SIP (Systematic Investment Plan). In 90s, only a small percentage of household savings were invested into stock market. To achieve government’s agenda of shifting larger share of household savings into financial instruments from hard assets like gold and real estate, the Mutual Fund    (MF) Industry undertook a major PR exercise and advertising campaign focussing on benefits of long term disciplined investing in equity MFs. And since every mass revolution requires an icon, SIP became the icon for this revolutionary shift in investment habit. As a result, majority of Indian middle class (from a travel agent to techie