Cathay capital private equity

Ravi Gopalakrishnan, Head (Equities) at Canara Robeco Mutual Fund, has put in his papers. At Canara Robeco Mutual Fund, Gopalkrishnan led the fund management and equity research team for the last five and half years. Phone calls to Gopalkrishnan remained unanswered while an e-mail sent to Canara Robeco Mutual Fund did not get any response. It is not known as to where Gopalkrishnan is headed, but industry sources believe Gopalkrishnan is likely to join another firm in the asset management or private equity space. Prior to Canara Robeco, Gopalkrishnan worked with Pramerica Asset Management and Principal Asset Management. At Canara Robeco Gopalkrishnan managed Canara Robeco Emerging Equities Fund, Canara Robeco Force Fund, Canara Robeco Large Cap Plus Fund and the equity component of Canara Robeco Balanced Fund. Canara Robeco Emerging Equities, the largest equity fund in the stable with assets of Rs 3,559 crore, has been of the best performing equity funds in the small cap space with a … [Read more...] about Ravi Gopalakrishnan, head of equities at Canara Robeco Mutual Fund, steps down

        ​Does India really need a New Education Policy? Is our educational reform held back by the datedness of the 1986/1992 education policy which was written before the internet and mobile phones? On this question, I tend to agree with what the current Prime Minister said back in 2013 – “India needs Action, not Acts.” So I admittedly approach the draft National Education Policy 2019 with some scepticism.Further, in my opinion, a good policy should not be too long, should take stands on important issues, prioritize action items, readily provide evidences for the tenets it advances and draw extensively on the experience of people who have worked in the sector nationally and internationally. It should focus on the objectives that more of us can agree on, than on philosophies on which there will be more divergence. These points are important because in India we tend to write policies and Plan Documents in education that say the right … [Read more...] about Does India really need a New Education Policy to achieve educational equity?

Just outside Pune is Lavasa, an ambitious new city that started taking shape in the early 2000s. The planners hired a foreign architect to give it a Mediterranean look, complete with stucco buildings and seaside villas. Within a few years, the weathered facades and street grime has turned it into a ramshackle, sad affair. When plans were announced for Amravati, Andhra Pradesh’s new capital city, all the catchphrases of urban design were tossed about: smart city, IT city, sustainable habitat, green architecture, etc. Then, after an international competition, a foreign architect was selected. Soon, he was dropped. Others were shortlisted, including a famous Bollywood set designer. Finally, an Indian architect was selected. And eventually the entire project was dropped.Now, in Delhi, plans are afoot to challenge the century-old legacy of Edwin Lutyens and redesign the Central Vista, including Parliament house. The project is shrouded in the sort of secrecy accorded to military … [Read more...] about ‘The private home has done more harm to Indian urbanism than any other building’

The ailing travel group Thomas Cook was close to abandoning hope of a private sector rescue deal on Friday evening as a City blame game engulfed the UK's oldest travel agent.Sky News has learnt that a series of possible scenarios that were on the table in recent days have been ditched after it became clear that the company could become insolvent within hours.Sources said that Thomas Cook, its lenders and advisers had been working on a plan earlier on Friday to devise a way of keeping its airlines in the UK, Germany and northern Europe out of administration while letting its British tour operating arm fail.They said that plan had been discounted as being too complex.A separate proposal which would have involved CQS Management, the hedge fund run by the London Stock Exchange Group's former chief executive, Xavier Rolet, providing a big chunk of the £200m additional funding demanded by Thomas Cook's lenders, had also been aborted. Advertisement Insiders added that in … [Read more...] about Thomas Cook gives up hope of private rescue amid City blame game

'Historically, the lead-up to a general election tends to be excessively volatile and big losses are perfectly possible,' points out Devangshu Datta. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El-Ghany/Reuters The randomness of stock market returns can be illustrated by long time-series. In the 20 years since January 1999, the Nifty had seven years of net losses. It also had three big years when it gained over 50%. In 10 years, it gained, with annual returns somewhere between 1% and 15%. In January 1999, the Nifty was at trading around 900. It is now in the 10,750 range. This means the compounded return for this period is around 13.25%. The compounded annual rate of growth, or CAGR, is more than acceptable since the real returns would have exceeded inflation comfortably. It's unlike that any other asset-class would have fetched higher returns across that two-decade period.But the return is not consistent. Something like 40% of the time, the return is either negative, or lower than inflation. In 11 of … [Read more...] about Good time to take stock of your equity portfolio