@rgumental @dvisor

One of the electives that I took while in IIMK was this less fancied course - Complementary Products & Competitive Advantage  . The fundamental message in that course was in applying 'Platform Thinking' concept into a lot of situations . A platform could be thought of as an area where two or more types of consumers / producers join for their mutual benefit.  And the value of the platform grows as more and more consumers / producers join it.  Typical example of this is Card Payment networks - Visa & Mastercard.  So, if you are a card network provider,  merchants are forced to give that as a payment mechanism because consumers want that. And, more consumers joining the platform results in more merchants adopting it.  Like a domino / network effect. If executed well, it soon reaches a tipping point from where more consumers & merchants just adopt it. This concept could be extended to a lot of situations - Currency is a platform  ( explai...

To Hedge or Not to Hedge - That's the billion dollar question puzzling everyone from industry heads to govt policy makers in the wake of crude oil collapse . Before even attempting to answer that, it may be prudent to to look at the way indices work - and the economics behind it. What should a market index reflect ?  It should be a consistent & fair representation of the underlying supply & demand. Is that the case behind petro price indices ? Lets look at a few data points first. Globally, there are two main crude indices  - Brent & WTI . Brent crude index is computed as a mathematical function of spot & future prices of North Sea oil ( Click for details ) . Similarly, WTI or West Texas Intermediate is function of primary crude contracts settled in Cushing, Oklahoma . Both have different Sulphur content, density etc - which means there are different costs to refiners, though the end - market - Consumers is largely the same For most part of the last 5...

Like most of the fellow Indians, till 10-Oct-2014, I've never heard of his name.  Nobel prizes are not announced out of thin air. Extensive evaluations are done on the nominations. Even the fact that an Indian was on the shortlist should have made the news, but our media was so bankrupt on information about this personality so that some of them even quoted the wikipedia articles blindly. This day kind of made me aware how hollow the Indian media system is.  The so called grass-root journalism - even if it is done - rarely gets the deserved attention. To a public which enjoys gossips & cleavage talk much more than anything like this, Indian news channels spit out a continuous stream of that. All that even the well networked channels like NDTV could do is to trace couple of children saved by him - tell them to narrate their stories. I took a look at Satyarthi's Wikipedia page as well.  There are 13 'awards & honours' including the Nobel 2014 listed there. Bu...

 Reserve Bank of India has kicked up a storm by preventing the use of foreign payment gatways in local transactions.. The first casuality of the move is Uber. Traditional media & social media is up in arms against RBI quickly for killing innovation with archaic laws. Even some of the most learned economists have written against RBI move (  http://ajayshahblog.blogspot.ae/2014/08/shutting-down-uber-in-india-was-unwise.html ) In reality, is the RBI really a regulatory villain in this case ? Here's the link to the original circular  http://rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=9183&Mode=0 There are three main things that are emphasized in this circular, directly or indirectly (1) Transctions between two residents of India should be in INR.  (2) The INR credit card transaction should be acquired by an Indian bank through an Indian payment gateway if the card is issued in India. .I.e, there should not be any forex flow in such transactions...

So, yet again Netherlands lost it near to the cup.  This time it was Semi-final..  It wasn't the most magnificent team.. Infact, it was a pale shadow of 2010 team which convincingly beat Brazil , Uruguay and many others before losing to Spain.. Yes Robben is a diver.. Yes RVP was largely absent minded..  But there is something special about the Dutch team that makes me sit glued to the TV every time they take the field.. And they have rarely disappointed me after I started following them from 1994 WC.     Maybe, its the ability put up a strong fight, maybe its pace of their players starting from Overmars to Robben.. Maybe the forwards like BergKamp to RVP,  or maybe it is the rock solid defensive players like Jap Stam to the unlucky Ron Vlaar..  Or maybe it is the ability to lineup young talents one after other from Ajax & Feynoord football schools... Or may be, even the legacy of Cruyff , Van Basten & Gullit.. Yet again, they will be a...

A bit late, but nevertheless, the Austrian experience won't be complete without a post about this wonderful place - Hallstatt.  It is an Alpine lakeside village, about 3 hrs in train from Vienna , followed by a short ferry ride across lake Hallstatt .. Well, what makes Hallstatt special -  The place is so beautiful that the Chinese have created an artificial Hallstatt . The village is a UNESCO heritage site as well .. I would rather let the pics speak about the place than write about it :) For more information, you can visit   http://www.hallstatt.net/home-en-US/ Read my Travelogues Tashkent  ,   Sydney ,   Melbourne ,   Taipei ,  Doha ,  Ho Chi Minh City ,  Hanoi ,   Barcelona ,  Silicon Valley ,   Siem Reap ,  New York ,  Washington DC ,   Amsterdam ,  Brussels ,  Osaka ,   Hiroshima ,   Cyprus ,  Budapest...

I guess no other city in the world would be driven this much by a single person's legacy . Even after more than 200 years of his death, Salzburg lives & breathes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart everywhere.  From chocolates & T-shirts to an international foundation ,  Mozart's name and spirit is everywhere in Salzburg. It got me thinking -  What percentage of economy of Salzburg is directly or indirectly related to Mozart ? Historic Old town of Salzburg Salzach cutting across the old town of Salzburg Apart from the usual visiting places like Mirabell Gardens and Mozart's house, a short walk from the old town is Salzburg castle. Situated on top of a hill, the view of Salzach river cutting across Salzburg is really great. For fans of "sound of music", there is a sound of music tour that takes you various locations in the movie. A painter painting Salzach & Salzburg Salzburg markets itself as "Stage of the world" .. And i...

Vienna or 'Wien' as locals call, is a melting pot of cultures. I guess you won't see any other European city with these many people with different Ethnic origins. This is where many political & economic philosophies originated.. Apparently at one point in time Trotsky , Stalin , Tito & Hitle r lived in this city quite near to each other. Stephansdom A good starting point to explore this 'Old Vienna' is Stephansdom or Stephen's Cathedral.. The different streets that originate from this place now sell all the modern brands like Prada , Gucci etc. But perhaps, this is a place ( quite like the Istiklal street in Istanbul , if you have been ) where you should go to feel the heart of this city. There are a few palaces in this city, the most notable one being Schonbrunn.. A good visit.. but not very spectacular .. I tend to subconsciously benchmark any palace that I see now with Peterhoff &  Hermitage Schonbrunn Palace This was buil...

"Arbeit Macht Frei"  ( Work Sets You Free ) .. Dachau Camp Gate Engraved in metal on the gate.. You get an eerie feeling as you step inside this area. As you come across various visuals , that eerie feeling transcends into a chill down your spine.. As it dawns on you that you are walking on an area where unspeakable and unimaginable atrocities were committed to mankind, you suddenly realize how privileged you are... We were in Munich at the fag end of our trip through Austria .. Unlike the remaining attractions in / around Munich, it is a bit difficult to get details of this memorial. It is remarkably absent from the tourist brochures or hotel information booklets. Inside Museum Two subway rides & a short bus ride from Munich, you can get to Dachau ( pronounced as Da'hau ) concentration camp memorial. Next to the gate, a plaque in respect of US 42nd Rainbow Division which liberated this camp is put on a pillar. Barbed Wire & Courtyard ...

Last month,  I was in India for a week. One of the aspects that I couldn't look away from was inflation.. Maybe some of the figures that I quote may seem to be quite normal for resident Indians. However for someone like me, who has moved abroad from 2011 end, there was a marked difference in the level of prices.. Observation 1 - I picked up a tooth paste - some colgate variety - from a reliance fresh outlet. Normally when I pick up any house-hold item like that, I don't pay much attention to the prices individually.. When the bill came, this item had a price tag of 200/- .. Not really sure if Reliance was jacking up the price or Colgate. Observation 2 - Place : Guruvayur.. A roadside restaurant near the hotel where we stayed.. Price of few items - Masala Dosa (45/-) , Meals (105/-) ..  This is just a normal eatery with minimum facilities.. Inspite of the price range, this place is swarming with people - middle & lower middle class range. Observation 3 -  Railwa...