Ananth Naag

Was just watching CNBC TV18 as I am getting ready to come to work and one interesting discussion that came up on TV was about the reasons as to why the markets world over are falling and 3 main reasons being given are:

• China reducing its stimulus measures which were implemented as part of the recession curtailing measures and debates there on ending the entire stimulus package in China to curtail the excess lending and related concerns.

• Secondly, the macro economic indicators not showing very great signs in the US. (Jobs, industrial production and ?)

• Thirdly, the European crisis of Sovereign Ratings declines in economies like Greece and more concerns from other countries in the Euro zone like Spain, Portugal..

This is leading to US investors primarily moving funds out of the ETFs investing in developing countries like India and China as well, spreading around the global falls that we are currently seeing.

One more interesting observation, was about the second largest province in China in terms of exports, increasing the minimum wage and therefore, it seems “increasing concerns of Global Inflation”!! (I can’t believe this though!)

Anyways, will bring in more updates later..

There are only 1411 Tigers left in India and we all need to do our bit.. so please log on to http://www.saveourtigers.com/ and join in the campaign to save the few Tigers left in this huge country of ours..

Come on all.. lets log on..

A.R. Rahman does a Jai Ho at the Grammy’s too!! He manages to bag 2 for his music in Slumdog Millionaire again!

Though this is not the best of his performance that many in India might remember him for, this is definitely one more wonderful honour for the musical genius..

The variety of music he produces is definitely awe inspiring. Let it be his Sufiana music in films like Jodha Akbar or some of his wonderful songs from Bombay, or the classic Carnatic based film music he produced for many of the south Indian films or his wonderful fusion music he has produced for films like Roja using western instruments elegantly for Indian music is just amazing!

Many more to go for Rahman.. All the Best!

Happy Republic Day to India on the 60th Republic day of India!

Do you know how much money can a good Hindi film make with just box office collections?? Well you have the answer in the heading of this post — 200 Crores Plus Rupees. That’s almost 2 rupees plus for every Indian!

I was just amazed with an article in Business Standard which came up with the highest box office grossings till date for Hindi films. The topper is of course the latest Amir Khan movie – 3 Idiots! It grossed a whopping 240 Crore Rupees (2.4 Billion Rupees) in the first 10 days of the movie release itself the highest of any Bollywood (Hindi) movies..And this is just the box office collections, think of all the audio and video rights and the other merchandising and stuff..well don’t really know how much this film is going to make totally!

*** Latest Update ‘3 Idiots’ makes 315 Crores in 18-19 Days and is on its way to reach 400 Crore Rupees!

The next film to come closer was Ghajini (again an Amir Khan starrer.. and a remake of a Tamil film) making an overall 225 Crore Rupees! (Well you’ll see a lot more exclamation marks in this post!!!)

On the other side in Hollywood, the top grosser and a record $1.4 Billion being grossed by Avatar from James Cameroon in the first few days or weeks!

Looking at these mind boggling figures, it doesn’t seem to be a bad venture producing or distributing a good film. Now, thats a nice statement, just that there’s been no real formula to create that “Good” film.

But, on a different note, I was just thinking why all this money needs to be made by just a few individuals? Why can’t we have a way for common people to invest in films? Production and distribution..an IPO for film production and distribution? Ahh!! nice idea isn’t it? To an extent, nowadays a good number of movies are being produced by production houses in India as well and since these are owned by public companies, we can, in a roun-about way invest in films. But, I would probably look at a good direct way for people to invest in good films!

The second part of this thought process is that, what if..just what if ..Amir Khan and his team (who have already made a lot of money through many of his other films) say that their entire earnings from this film would go towards a social cause “or” towards a public initiative! I know..I know..a terribly optimistic idea..and I know you’d have a question.. would you do if you were Amir? I would, I guess! Maybe, nobody gave Amir this thought..Why so much of money made from common man cannot ultimately benefit the common man and go into Swiss bank lockers or something like that!

The other thought I had was,  can’t we create a co-operative to produce or distribute some good films? The worst probable difficulty with all this is what in case of losses?? People would have lost more number of crores of rupees with Flops?! But, my point is why not sign Amir khan who has given such massive hits..maybe he’ll be a lot more sensitive with responsibility with Public money.. make him do a film for benefit of a co-operative or IPO public investing in his films.

Anyways, I know this is far fetched, but the whole point which comes to my mind, is that when collectively we can generate so much money for a film, why not for bigger causes? If the administration and governments cannot do or take up a lot of public welfare initiatives, can we m=not as citizens mobilize and generate the money and get our own things done, than wait for these lazy and self-fulfilling politicians? Maybe worth a thought..The obvious question then would be why should we do so, when the most corrupt politicians are stashing away Thousands of Crores of Rupees – Millions or Billions of Dollars in Swiss bank and other non-disclosing bank accounts in Europe! ( and a few other Asian countries – Hong Kong, Macau..). Well, corruption in public offices is such a sinister thing will need a few blog posts from me to talk about…

Anyways, I am overall happy that our films can make such big monies in India and around the world and developing the movies industry and people depending on it..Enjoy the weekend and watch a good film

This is an interesting email forward, read and enjoy!

A young and pretty lady posted this on a popular forum:

Title: What should I do to marry a rich guy?

I’m going to be honest of what I’m going to say here. I’m 25 this year. I’m very pretty, have style and good taste. I wish to marry a guy with $500k annual salary or above. You might say that I’m greedy, but an annual salary of $1M is considered only as middle class in New York . My requirement is not high. Is there anyone in this forum who has an income of $500k annual salary? Are you all married? I wanted to ask: what should I do to marry rich persons like you? Among those I’ve dated, the richest is $250k annual income, and it seems that this is my upper limit. If someone is going to move into high cost residential area on the west of New York City Garden ( ? ) , $250k annual income is not enough.

I’m here humbly to ask a few questions:

1) Where do most rich bachelors hang out? (Please list down the names and addresses of bars, restaurant, gym)

2) Which age group should I target?

3) Why most wives of the riches is only average-looking? I’ve met a few girls who doesn’t have looks and are not interesting, but they are able to marry rich guys

4) How do you decide who can be your wife, and who can only be your girlfriend? (my target now is to get married) 

Ms. Pretty

Awesome reply!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Ms. Pretty,

I have read your post with great interest. Guess there are lots of girls out there who have similar questions like yours. Please allow me to analyse your situation as a professional investor. My annual income is more than $500k, which meets your requirement, so I hope everyone believes that I’m not wasting time here. From the standpoint of a business person, it is a bad decision to marry you.. The answer is very simple, so let me explain.

Put the details aside, what you’re trying to do is an exchange of ‘beauty’ and ‘money’: Person A provides beauty, and Person B pays for it, fair and square. However, there’s a deadly problem here, your beauty will fade, but my money will not be gone without any good reason. The fact is, my income might increase from year to year, but you can’t be prettier year after year. Hence from the viewpoint of economics, I am an appreciation asset, and you are a depreciation asset. It’s not just normal depreciation, but exponential depreciation. If that is your only asset, your value will be much worried 10 years later.

By the terms we use in Wall Street, every trading has a position, dating with you is also a ‘trading position’. If the trade value dropped we will sell it and it is not a good idea to keep it for long term – same goes with the marriage that you wanted. It might be cruel to say this, but in order to make a wiser decision any assets with great depreciation value will be sold or ‘leased’. Anyone with over $500k annual income is not a fool; we would only date you, but will not marry you. I would advice that you forget looking for any clues to marry a rich guy. And by the way, you could make yourself to become a rich person with $500k annual income. This has better chance than finding a rich fool..

Hope this reply helps. If you are interested in ‘leasing’ services, do contact me….

Signed,
CEO
Top Wall St. firm

Here it is in India..as per IST ..A very New Year 2010.

A new decade to start and hopefully starting off with a much better year than the last one..

Wish you all across the world, a very Happy New Year, a prosperous one and one you may remember later for much good happenings..

Enjoy the day…

Have you heard of Wangari Mathai? Well I have not till today until I was watching this program on CNN called Revealed!

Well, it did manage to reveal a new person for me today, that of a Nobel Laureate for Peace, the first woman from Africa winning a Nobel.

Wangari Mathai is an environmental activist and a social activist, now also the co-chair of the Congo Forest Fund, which is on a mission to reduce the de-forestation of the Congo Basin (which incidentally seems to be twice the size of France!).

Wangari was born at a time, when the girl child in the family would not study, but would help with the family work. But, she stuck to it, that she would study and also stood first at school! Not only that she managed to get a scholarship to study in the US and even managed to complete a Ph.D.

If we look at why shes got the Nobel and as to why she is such a revered person in the International Environmental arena, the reason is because she lead from her grassroots movement called the “Green Belt Movement” and others and where she has helped towards planting of more than 30 Million trees! Not only this, she had to go through tremendous difficulties and was abused,  ostracized  and  threatened,  yet she did not take a step back and revert from her resolve of planting of more trees and greening the world.

On her travels to various countries post her winning the Nobel prize 2004, when she traveled to Japan, she came across the term and concept – MOTTAINAI and she adopted that term to preech tothe world the importance of the ‘3R’s – Reduce, Reuse and  Recycle.

She is now a world respected leader championing the cause of increasing the green cover on Earth and the impact of Climate Change and environmental degradation.

She has also incidentally won the India’s –  Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development in 2006.

India also has its share of environmental activists like Baba Amte, Medha Patkar (known for her role in Narmada Bachao Andolan) , the Chipko Movement (”Chipko” in hindi means ” to stick to” ..this was a non-violent agitation where the tribals hugged the trees, so they were not cut down) and many such wonderful examples to peoples determination to stop the needless and reckless cutting down of the green cover on the earth..

To end, a song of the people bringing out the spirit:

“Maatu hamru, paani hamru, hamra hi chhan yi baun bhi… Pitron na lagai baun, hamunahi ta bachon bhi”
(Soil ours, water ours, ours are these forests. Our forefathers raised them, it’s we who must protect them.)
– Old Chipko Song

Today, while I was browsing through the Telugu channels for all the news on the Telangana happenings, I suddenly came over to a Telugu news channel broadcasting business news and I could see Dr.Y.V.Reddy, Governor RBI (Reserve Bank of India) talking something about the world economy and the recent financial crisis in Telugu!! (I said, good to see the economist talking in Telugu..my language)

BTW, some very pertinent and important comments were being made by Mr. Reddy on the recent (I hope its not current any longer!)  financial crisis which were very sensible and thought provoking! So, just wanted to share these with you guys..

1) Too much development of financial markets – In the boom times precipitating the financial crisis, financial markets became too complicated, with very complex financial instruments arriving in the markets at a very great pace.(I was in part a witness to the rapidity of the these instruments coming up while I worked for a short span at the NYSE in their listings department.) The issue was not with a lot of options to invest for the investors, but the pace at which they were being created, let to no time being given to properly evaluate the impacts of these instruments on the markets, by both the creator and the Regulators!

2) Transparency - Dr. Reddy, put this is a very apt way when he said that the objective of transparency regulations and measures in the financial markets, was outwitted, by the sellers of complex financial instruments (the Global Investment Banks, which are now busy giving out Billions $ bonuses to their employees!), because what these sellers did was to make the complications of their complex financial products transparent, instead of making the products themselves transparent!! (Bloody Rascals.. isn’t it!!)

3) Free Movement of Capital – Another very pertinent point made by the Governor, was about the movement of capital. The assumption with the internationalization of the markets, capital would freely move from the developed countries to the developing or under-developed economies. But, in reality what is happening is that the poorer countries are exporting capital to the wealthy countries and especially to the US, including developing economies like India and China! (buying the treasuries?.. At least now they think of Gold!) ..Haa..all the fruits seem to be in one basket and thats why, the global scare that when the US sneezes the World economy catches Cold!!

4) Markets Global – Regulation Local – Another superb point to understand and realize! Markets have become International, so the US people invest in Indian Markets, Chinese Markets etc. and we could invest now in International Markets, but regulation however is predominantly National/Local!  With the cross-border barriers of trade coming down, internationalization of trade has happened at a rapid pace..Now what is the Problem!? The problem is that with Regulation being local/national, they are not able to effectively regulate a lot of these financial transactions not happening on their shores – a lot of offshore financial transactions and hedge fund operations! Regulators are way behind in trying to make regulations as financial markets keep ever expanding off the country’s shores.

Dr. Reddy gave a quotation from another great economist Mervyn King who said, “Banks are Global in life and Local in Death“. Now, all you guys should say, hahaha.. we’ve seen that happen!  I think that summaries the voes of the Financial Regulators.. at the end these large banks with global presence (including the Icelandic Ones;) ) end up at home on their dying beds, when the bad times come! So, better beware for the Regulators, who are being attacked from all sides…

Now, I think, the points we need to understand is to direct our Financial Managers/ Asset Managers, to invest in financial products which are really transparent (and then make them explain what it all means;) ) and are tried and tested. These other funky products are not for us, but for those big shots, who won’t have lost anything, even if they loose a million or two in a single gamble!!

Are we aware of climate change?  What it changes? And are we really doing anything?..

hmm..lets not say.. All is well .. Not all is well!

You can see the hectic parlaying happening across the world before the Copenhagen Climate Summit and the lot of protests going on everywhere, special programs on the impacts of climate change (though not many bring out any direct relation to our lives!) ..so all of it says that ..Not all is well and that if we don’t do anything soon it may all be very bad indeed.

The basic premise of all these climate change talks for us to understand is that the global temperatures are raising and causing what is called “global warming”. The temperatures have increased much faster over the last few decades due to faster industrialization and increase in consumption of various products  across the world.

So, the question maybe whats the big deal?? A few degrees hotter, maybe better for countries in the north..isn’t it? Wrong!! The increase in heat is causing changes to weather patterns, increase in sea levels (so some small islands are drowning!) and overall uncertain weather conditions. These lead to impact on food production with farmers, not knowing when it would rain and wouldn’t rain..

Not only that..another important thing for us to understand is that all major cities in the world, since the beginning of civilizations have been built beside rivers or seas all the way from New York, London to Kolkata (Calcutta), Mumbai and many other world famous cities. There would be a scenario of flooding and drowning of these great cities across the world in future if the sea levels increase or due to natural disasters like the Tsunamis caused due to un-forcastable events arising due to Global Warming!

So, there is a clear and present danger to all our countries and civilizations in the not so long term, maybe a few decades. (The impact is already felt by a lot of smaller Island countries!..Its only that we have been busy consuming all the new products from around the world and forgot to take a note of these )

So, I hope it is very clear what Climate change and Global Warming can do..and to all of us!

So, the next important focus then is for countries to take measures to decrease the global warming, one of teh main reasons for which is the CO2 emission (and other Green House Gas emissions..which heat up the world!)  from industries. The US has historically been the worst polluters of the world, recently overtaken by China with all the boom in industries there and India ranks 4 I believe. So, the hectic parlaying is interms of Growth of countries Vs. Pollution and Global Warming. Secondly, an issue which the devoloping countries strongly put forward is the subsidizing and sharing of technology to reduce these dangerous gas emissions, which the industrilized world, is not able to give up without much profits!

Now, what can each of us do to help ourselves and our futures generations (our immediate kids and their kids..):

1) Make our environments greener – Have more trees and help with any causes to grow more trees.

2) Lessen Air travel – Air Travel generates a lot more green house gasses and Global warming than trains or other means of transport..so go for train/bus journeys or reduce unnecessary travel.

3) Lessen Automobile Pollution – Share Cars (Car Pooling)  while going out for shopping/office etc. Use public transport like underground/Tubes when possible. Ensure there is more than one while taking a car out

4) Reduce Unnecessary Consumption – Don’t buy stuff you don’t need and just put in your wardrobe/refrigerator! (Factories cause pollution, spend electricity and generating electricity causes pollution of all kinds!)

5) Save Electricity and Water – Switch of lights, fans and otehr electric equipment when not used. Don’t waste water. (Generating electricty and purification and sourcing of water etc..all create pollution in one way or teh other)

6) Imbibe all the good learning to your children and people around/known – After reading this I am sure you’ll take some steps in the right direction.. please also guide others with the same and help them learn the cost of global warming and climate change!!

Thank you guys..