Yes, of course. Honestly I have my doubts about how much value theses consultancies actually bring in and if they just get these guys on board for cosmetic reasons in front of the RBI. "Look we've paid big money to a Big 4. We're taking whatever you say very seriously."

Shreedhar Manek

Great findings! Paying off debt with debt doesn't sound sustainable and things might implode soon. I'd love to know if there are other examples of this happening and how it ended. The article could've been a tad bit shorter, by the way. The first half is the crux while the second half felt unnecessary and stretched.

Shreedhar Manek

They don't expect to have control though, do they? They don't have the bandwidth or expertise to run/guide a business. They just want to go in and out.

Shreedhar Manek

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