Have A Balanced Outlook

(Published on 30 January 2012 on Value Research Online, direct link here.)

2011 was an unusual year for many reasons. The year kept investors on their toes for a major part of it. The past year was jittery for not only equity investors, but debt investors as well. With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on an interest rate hike spree, long-term debt investors were forced to move their investments to shorter-term debt. While Fixed Maturity Plans (FMP) and short-term debt funds found favour because of the rising interest rates, the hikes didn’t go down well with the equity markets. That, coupled with the generally pessimistic global economic scenario and the socio-political battles brewing back home meant that equity investors suffered losses and equity mutual funds struggled to stay above the waters.

The good news is that 2011 has come to an end. However, the not-so-good news is that 2012 might just be a mirror image of its preceding year. The economic problems prevailing around the world will not get rosy anytime soon. The troubles ailing our country will also take their own time to mend. So then, what should the common investor do? What should your investment strategy for 2012 be?

Our answer to these questions is the same thing what we have said all through 2011. If you are a long-term investor, you shouldn’t be fazed by what is happening around you. You should have your goals in place, and you should keep investing systematically to achieve them. We have said it time and again that this is the right time to invest in equity. Common sense says that one should buy low and sell high, and right now, there are numerous stocks that are available at cheap valuations.

For debt investors, investing systematically makes even more sense because the RBI has finally put a halt to interest rate hikes. The rates are expected to go on a downward trend in the coming years, and long-term debt investors will benefit greatly from this.

So, on the whole, even if things don’t look entirely positive, investors will do well if they keep investing regularly. That said, we wouldn’t blame investors for being skeptical about the current economic scenario. It’s your hard-earned money that is on the line, after all. No one likes to see their money go away, and especially in times like these, the feeling of hugging your money close to yourself can be extremely overwhelming. But at the same time, if you want to see your money grow, you must invest it somewhere. But where?

Well, one of the best investment avenues for an uncertain market is balanced funds. What you get here can literally be the best of both worlds. Balanced funds are the type of mutual funds that invest in equity as well as debt. There was a time when balanced funds generally had about half of equity and half of debt. However, once long-term equity gains became tax free, balanced funds started to increase their exposure to equity. Today, balanced funds have around 65 to 75 per cent of their assets invested in equities.

This higher exposure to equities is a good thing because it gives the fund’s performance a boost. And at the same time, the exposure to debt ensures that the fund doesn’t fall drastically during market upheavals. The equity-debt mix that balanced funds have ensures that they earn decent returns without taking indecent risks.

Another advantage of investing in a balanced fund is that you don’t have to worry about the tedious process of rebalancing your assets. That gets done automatically for you, and by an expert fund manager. Plus, since a majority of a balanced fund’s assets are invested in equities, they are treated as equity investments and long-term gains (gains on investments held for more than one year) become tax-free.

As you can see, the arguments in favour of balanced funds are plenty. We believe that they are the ideal investment for those who seek good long-term returns at relatively lower risks. So pick one or two well-performing balanced fund, invest in them systematically and see your money grow without being overly concerned about where the markets are going.

Some good balanced funds that you can choose from are Birla Sun Life 95, HDFC Prudence and Tata Balanced. All three funds have a proven track record and are part of the Value Research Fund Select family. Pick the ones you like and get started. 

Celebrate Akshay Tritiya With Gold ETFs

(Published on 4 May 2011 on Value Research Online, direct link here.)

Celebrate Akshay Tritiya With Gold ETFs

Akshay Tritiya is just around the corner. Considered one of the most auspicious days in the Hindu calendar, Akshay Tritiya this year falls on May 6, 2011. A Hindu and Jain festival, Akshay Tritiya is celebrated all over the country by offering prayers to god Vishnu. The commencement of new activities on this day, as well as the purchase of valuables is considered to bring prosperity. Akshay Tritiya is also widely known as an auspicious day to bestow luck and success on loved ones through the giving of gifts.

Of course, the day is celebrated widely by buying gold. In India, gold has immense religious, social as well as investable significance. Through ages, people have considered Akshay Tritiya as the finest day to buy gold. This makes even more sense in unsteady economic conditions that we are seeing today. Today, gold is not only a sign of prosperity and upliftment, it is one of the soundest investment vehicles as well.

However, buying gold is not an easy proposition for most people. To buy physical gold, one needs cash in substantial amounts. Then, there is the assurance of quality that one needs to look at. Keeping physical gold safely and securely is a tough task in itself too. To overcome all of these problems and still invest in gold on the auspicious day of Akshay Tritiya, an investor can opt for Gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETF).

A Gold ETF is an electronic way of purchasing gold. When you look to invest in a Gold ETF, you don’t buy physical gold, you buy units of a mutual fund. A Gold ETF is a fund whose units are bought and sold on the stock exchanges, which in turn invests the investors’ money in physical gold. Investments in Gold ETFs have many advantages:

Freedom from the hassles of buying, carrying and safeguarding physical gold

Assurance of quality

No premium or making charges, as incurred in the purchase of gold jewellery

No need to pay wealth tax

Buy and sell easily on the exchange, even in small quantities

Assess the value of your holding on a real-time basis

To invest in a Gold ETF, an investor requires a demit account. Currently, there are 12 Gold ETFs available to the Indian investor. Since all Gold ETFs invest in physical gold, there won’t be a significant difference in their performance. Choose the one you are comfortable with and fulfill your dream of buying gold in celebration of Akshay Tritiya.

Book Compilation

I've compiled and edited The Way to Save & Prosper - Volume II.

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Spring Cleaning

(This humorous take on detoxification was published in the June 2009 issue of THE MAN.)

Spring Cleaning

Saurin Parikh goes in for a detox diet and learns a lot.

Hectic partying from New Year’s to spring left behind month’s binge drinking. Yes, the time was just right.

The furious drinking and eating that had started at Diwali in late-October had reached its zenith. The after-effects were now beginning to show. My body was starting to feel like both a barrel of arrack and a bin filled up with junk food at the same time. I was starting to feel lumpen and could feel the vigour running out of my workouts. I knew I had to do something; had to get my health back.

Detoxify.

Detoxification had been at the back of my mind for a long time. But it had always been one of those things that you feel you won’t need, something that’s some other guy’s requisite. I, after all, had been lean all my life. I didn’t have the tendency to put on weight, nor did I suffer from any bodily ailments. Detox diets are for fatter species; a leaner body like mine would be immune to problems, I opined. But of course, my body had an entirely different opinion, which it chose to share in its own quirky ways – irregular bowel movements being one of them. The other being sluggishness. And when a thin or lean person starts getting sluggish and bloated, the alarm bells start going off.

So, I google up detoxification and soaked up as much information as I could. Then, I started taking out printouts of detox eating plans. The first rude shock came in the form of the realization that a detox diet was devoid of dairy products. No sugar and no salt either came as the next shocks. But I was determined to go through with it, my body needed to get rid of all the toxins and wastes that had been accumulating over a long long period. To boost my confidence, I went over the benefits of detoxification once again and finally, narrowed down on a 7-day detox diet.

Once the shocks were over, the hurdles came. A guffawing wife was the first one. Long and loud fits of laughter greeted the announcement of my detox plan. I felt like I had emulated Paresh Rawal, Rowan Atkinson, Mathew Perry, Johnny Lever, Kader Khan, Jerry Seinfeld, Tom & Jerry and Calvin in one single attempt. No cheese, no sugar, no salt, no bread, no snacks, no tea... you won’t last for a single day, she said. In reply, I presented her with the list of things I could eat and walked off. I hoped my silence would translate into something like ‘I’ll prove you wrong’.

Now, let me tell you something, plain sprouts don't taste good. In fact, they don't have a taste at all. Drinking green tea reminded me of the archaic natural medicines my granny used to give me. And fresh vegetables and fruits did little to quench my hunger. I learned these things on the first morning itself. I had just finished my first detox lunch and was contemplating quitting. The only thing that kept me going was the beautiful smirk on my wife’s beautiful face.

Somehow, I managed to get through the first two days on sprouts, vegetables, fruits, beans and soups, used in different ways. But the prospect of eating the same thing again, with lemon juice as the only garnish, was beginning to feel hellish. The nights were just as treacherous, filled with dreams of burgers and pizzas and chicken and even the plain simple bhindi ki sabzi. But I had to admit, I was feeling better. The sluggishness had disappeared. Having not eaten anything heavy, I felt lightened and agile. My skin had started to look brighter, or maybe I just thought it did, but I was rejuvenated. I patted myself on the back many times through days three and four.

But as day five was drawing to an end as well, my sister came home with tandoori chicken. My determination, which was at an all-time high, came crashing down to its nadir in one single moment. In front of me on the dining table was a bowl of spouts, a fruit platter and insipid tomato soup. And sitting across me was my sister with her lusciously brown and aromatic tandoori chicken. To say I was tempted would be a major understatement. I was ready to leap across the table and snatch away a piece from her. It was then that I realised that my entire family had caught be staring at the chicken. I looked at them and could sense them encouraging me to take the leap. Go on, we know you can’t resist, eat the chicken, is what their looks told me. But all I did was sigh, smile and ate a spoonful of sprouts. The moment had passed, and my will power had sufficed.

The pride of not succumbing to the temptations of one of my favourite foods pushed me through the next two days. My final detox meal on day seven was broccoli soup and porridge, with the ubiquitous bowl of fresh fruits. I ended the seven-day plan on a high of a kind I hadn’t experienced before. I was proud of the way I had willed myself through the week. In retrospect, the detox food wasn’t that bad. It was just the awareness of not eating what you like most that made things harder. But in the end, the advantages are myriad. My body was supposed to have gotten rid of all its toxins. My immune system was supposed to be functioning better now. But those were the things that I couldn't see happening. What I could see and feel was that I was feeling lighter and livelier, and that too without losing much weight. The odd-time bowel movements were gone and my mind seemed to be sharper as well. But the best thing about the whole detox diet was my wife’s changed attitude. While she hasn’t admitted that she was wrong to laugh at me, I know that she’s proud of me for pulling through. Worth the trouble, I say.

The Arranged Love

(This story was published in the March 2009 issue of The Writer's Eye, an American magazine.)

The Arranged Love

“What? Arranged marriage? Me? No way!”

From surprise and shock, my facial expressions made a sea change to you-gotta-be-kidding-me and forget-about-it.

“What do you mean by no way? You’re never going to marry?” My mother asked me.

“Of course I will marry,” I replied. “I’ll marry someone I love, not someone I am arranged to love.”

“You’re 25 and you still haven’t found a steady love, how much longer do you expect everyone to wait?”

Before I could say something intelligent and rebellious about this being my life and not having anything to do with everyone else, my mother had walked out of my room. But her sarcasm didn’t go unnoticed.

I could understand what my mother felt; in India, questions start getting raised when a 25 years old man is unmarried (for women, the age is 23). Getting their sons and daughters married is the one thing that most parents live for. A big burden gets lifted from their shoulders once their children are ‘settled’. Having seen this situation a number of times in a number of households, I could relate to my mother’s concerns. I myself wanted to marry, but was it my fault that I had been unlucky in love? Every time I went out, cuddling and romancing couples reminded me that I had no one to hold hands with. Heck, I wanted to settle down as well, but an arranged marriage, hell no! I was a copywriter; I was just too cool to get into something uncool like an arranged marriage.

My mother however, and obviously, didn’t feel the same way. Her logic was simple: if by the age of 25 I didn’t have a girlfriend I was going to marry, then I had to start looking at arranged matches. “Let’s at least go and see the girl, you can say no if you don’t like her. If you come to see this girl, I’ll even buy you a packet of Toblerone.” What could I say; I would have done anything for Toblerones. And so, my mother enticed me to see a girl for marriage with chocolates, an irony she didn’t seem to notice.

The date was fixed, the time was decided upon and even before I had polished off the packet of Toblerones, I found myself driving to my prospective wife’s house. My mother was omnipresent by my side and this occasion was one of such high importance that my father had also accompanied us.

The minute we parked outside her building and go out of the car, I felt like a spotlight had been trained on me. Apparently, everyone in the building knew that some guy was coming to see one of their girls. And as that guy walked up to the building entrance, he was scrutinized by at least a couple of dozen heads peeking from balconies and windows.

We were greeted amiably. The girl’s parents and what seemed like her entire family encompassing brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and of course, the elderly, smiled at me in unison as I got (un)comfortable on the couch. The spotlight had just gotten brighter. Pleasantries were exchanged as the women made their way to the insides of the house and the men sat down with us. I tried my best to look unfazed by the sudden attention while my body started to perspire under everybody’s steady gaze.

“So, son, what do you do?” I realized with a jolt that the question was targeted at me. It had come from the girl’s father.

“Umm... I... I am a copywriter,” I managed to stutter.

“Hmm OK.” The girl’s father said. I assumed that like most people he didn’t have a clue as to what a copywriter did, and thankfully he let it past. Unfortunately, an uncle was more curious.

“Copywriter? What does that mean? Something to do with copyrights and patents and all that?”

In my career as a copywriter, I had found that the hardest thing about the work was explaining it to someone who didn’t belong to advertising. But fortunately, that day I was spared. Our conversation, what little there was of it, was suddenly halted by the presence of the girl I had come to see.

For a moment, the spotlight turned away from me and concentrated on her. But for a moment only. Her family had seen her since childhood; they were more interesting in seeing my reactions after I had seen her, as if I was going to open my mouth and gape or cringe in repulsion. I somehow managed to disappoint them by keeping a straight face with a neutral expression.

She was wearing a beautiful pink salwaar suit, the one Indian outfit that is both traditional and modern. She sat down across me and placed a tray of Cola and dry fruits on a table between us. Her smile was sweet and for the first time in my life I experienced eyes speaking more than words. I suddenly realized then that the room was unbelievably quiet. Everyone seemed to be waiting for someone else to say something.

Finally, the girl’s mother spoke. “Why don’t the two of you go to a room and talk.” In normal circumstances, no parent would have allowed a hot-blooded male to be alone with their daughter in her bedroom. But obviously, this was different. We were supposed to share a few minutes together, talk what little we could and somehow make a decision. As I followed her to her room, with what seemed like a million eyes on me, I was again reminded why arranged marriages are so stupid.

But then, I was wrong. We talked for about half an hour. “What were you talking for such a long time,” my mother asked me when we were driving back home. I didn’t have an answer for her. I didn’t remember what we had talked about. All I remembered was that I had loved talking to her and I knew that I was wrong about arranged marriages. It doesn’t really matter how you meet the person you love. Some meet through friends and some meet through parents. The important thing is that you have met.

And when you meet through parents, you get a packet of Toblerone as well. Not a bad deal, if you ask me.

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Game On!

(This article was published in the March, 2008 issue of Hi-flyers Diary, the in-flight magazine of MDLR Airlines.)

Game On!

“No Dad, not today. I can’t come to Satish uncle’s place today; I have a football match against Vishal.”

This coming from your teenaged son might sound familiar. It might even get you nostalgic. You remember how you used to hate the social visits your parents took you on when you would have rather played football or cricket with your friends. Ah, those good old childhood days! They make you smile just as your son makes you smile when he wants to go play with his friends, giving a visit to Satish uncle’s home a pass. The only difference being: you went out to play football in the open fields or grounds; your son plays football on his ultramodern video game.

From the days of Tetris, Packman, Mario Brothers and Contra to the high-definition simulation games like EA Football 2007, Grand Theft Auto and Max Payne of today, gaming has come a long way. And how! Gaming has evolved tremendously over the past decade with the many advances that we have seen in technology and communications. Today, gaming has become a life-like experience in itself that has gone to levels that were unimaginable a few years back.

In India, the gaming industry was worth Rs. 192 crore in 2006. This figure is estimated to reach a whooping Rs. 1,700 crore by 2010. With 54% of the Indian population below the age of 25, this hardly comes as a surprise. The young Indian is extremely tech-savvy and the gaming industry is tapping in on it. Traditionally, the gaming industry consisted of video games and PC games. But now, it has expanded and encompasses various segments like console games, PC games, mobile gaming and internet gaming.

Of all of these segments, the biggest segment – which is also the latest trend in gaming – is the console games segment. And ruling to the roost in this segment is the Sony Playstation, which is closely followed by a relative newcomer: the Microsoft Xbox. The first Sony Playstation was launched in North America in 1995 and was an instant success. It took the gaming world by storm with over a million units sold in less than six months. In 2000, Sony created more records with the launch of Playstation 2, which has sold more units than any other console game in the world. Sony’s latest offerings, Playstation 3 and Playstation Portable, have been awaited eagerly by fans and are resounding successes as well. In India, these consoles, widely known as PS2, PS3 and PSP, have been widely accepted and have become every young Indian’s most desired gift.

However, close at the heels of PS3 is the new console game from Microsoft: Xbox 360. Xbox came to India in late 2006, a year after its global launch. Its new-age advertising campaign with Akshay Kumar and Yuvraj Singh allowed Xbox to instantly get into the minds of the Indian gamer. But, its relatively higher pricing has not enabled Xbox 360 to make the kind of inroads in the gaming market as it would have wanted to.

While 2007 saw the launch of Playstation Portable and Xbox 360 Elite, 2008 is set to be the year of gaming sequels. The gaming world is abuzz with news about the impending sequels of two of the world’s favourite games: Metal Gear Solid and Grand Theft Auto. The latter, which has a cult following, has become one of the most played and discussed game of this era. It doesn’t come as a surprise then that GTA 4 is expected to sell like hotcakes once it is launched.

Also expected in 2008 is the first ever Bollywood console game. Games based on hit Bollywood movies have been developed earlier for PCs and mobiles. The first ever Bollywood console game is being developed by FXLabs Studios in association with Yashraj Films. The game will be based on the Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan superhit Dhoom 2. The game will feature likeness of characters from the movie and will be coherent with the actual movie storyline.

All this is fine, you say, but gaming is still a highly expensive hobby. Well, there’s good news on this front as well. Reports have filtered in that game developers are cutting down on the prices to widen their market reach and tap different customer segments like female gamers as well. And along with this, 2008 well might see the first instance of console games being given out on rent as well. All this means is that gaming might finally get affordable, which in-turn will spell good news for both the game developers as well as the gamers.

However, all has not been rosy for the console games segment. In the past year, the segment has faced heavy competition from internet gaming portals like zapak.com. Zapak has also set up gamplexes (cyber cafes for online gaming) all over the country to attract online gamers. To counter this competition, the console games manufacturers have introduced the Xbox Live and Playstation Network. These new consoles will enable console gamers to play games online against opponents all over the world as well. All they would require is a broadband internet connection, a commonplace in most households these days.

But in what could be further bad news, this time for the entire gaming industry, the industry has encountered pitfalls from unexpected quarters. In a move that may well change gaming (maybe for the worse), the Indian Censor Board and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting have been reported to join hands in a bid to censor video games in India. A proposal for the same has been submitted to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting by the Censor Board. This development came in the wake of the increasing number of child and teenage violence cases. If this censorship comes into effect, then international video games will have to alter their storylines to meet the norms set by the Indian Censor Board. While this move may or may not help decrease child and teenage violence cases, it will surely adversely affect the gaming experience for Indian gaming community.

All said and done, the gaming industry might be facing problems (both internal and external), but the truth is that there has never been a more positive time for the industry then it is now. Things are definitely looking up for the industry and as far as the gamers are concerned, this seems like the best time to play the game.