Hey Anand. Good overview I'd have liked to know more about the specifics of the challenges that await the new fintechs in the passive space. I do admit that it may be too early to say how they'll fare and if they'll be able to compete at all. Here are some questions that I would ask - 1) What is the strategy of the new fintechs going to be to sell their own mutual funds? 2) Will they continue selling other AMCs' MFs? 3) Are AMCs worried by a possible hit in the distribution channels? Right now, they have free online distribution because of platforms selling direct funds online. 4) I'm a little unsure about the salary that Nithin estimates for a fund manager. It's well reasonable that some really top fund managers with a brand make that much, but the CEO of Nippon AMC, going by their annual report, has an annual salary of <4 crores. Unlikely that 99.99% of the fund managers make anywhere close to the CEO of a large AMC. 4) The biggest question that I have is why go for passive mutual funds at all? Sure, the following for such funds is building but it's nowhere near significant still. And higher expenses by themselves aren't a factor (as the income from active funds would be higher as well)

Shreedhar Manek

Great story, Arundhati! I think the quote from the senior exec which calls Nazara a gaming VC is revealing. If Nazara is indeed seen through that lens, it makes the company an extremely risky bet. VC is, after all, a risky game to be in. In the long term, founders of the acquired companies are bound to move on for greener pastures. And the quick-style gaming that Nazara is in is a shaky ground to be in to begin with. Users can get bored with a game and move on before you know it. Unless Nazara builds something in-house, or converts an acquisition into an in-house product, their model is bound to break sooner or later. The only shining light I see is that being debt free the company itself won't immediately die. Maybe just slowly wither away. Also, there's a formatting error in this sentence - "Despite claiming to be the world’s largest cricket simulation game, " might want to fix.

Shreedhar Manek

"Typically, they will have a 90-100 hour work week to start with" How true would this be? Even if someone is forced to work the weekends, this would mean almost 13 to 14 hours a day. Is someone working this much the norm?

Shreedhar Manek

"In both cases—and they are just two of many—only two organisations were permitted to provide live video coverage. One was state-owned broadcaster Doordarshan and the other a small, family-run company known as ANI." What was the government's or the Election Commission's official justification for allowing access only two broadcasters?

Shreedhar Manek

Relevant article - https://aeon.co/ideas/true-generosity-involves-more-than-just-giving

Shreedhar Manek