Atma Godara

Do a kickflip!

JUST IN: Elon Musk unveils the Tesla Roadster by launching it off a ramp before the car flipped in midair and safely landed on the ground. The car is a collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX. One of the most insane things I've ever seen.

Two years ago, there was a lot of noise around index investing—especially in #LargeCap. Active Large Cap funds were heavily criticised for underperforming the #Benchmark, and the narrative was simple: “Why pay for active management when the index is doing better?” But markets move in cycles. When I look at the last 1 & 2 year performance of 10 actively managed large-cap funds, a 90% them have outperformed the Index (#nifty or #sensex) by a meaningful margin. The lesson? Don’t judge an #investment approach based on one phase of the #market. Their relative performance will keep changing with market cycles, valuations, leadership and opportunities. The important thing is to understand the cycle—not blindly follow the narrative of the moment. Sharing my analysis below:

Today read about a very famous brand (not naming it) that was selling products with poor hygiene and low-quality ingredients. After an FDA raid, its license was suspended. Let me tell you a dark secret of the consumer industry. Consumer products work on very thin margins. When the volume is huge, even ₹0.10 saved per unit can make a big difference to the overall margin. Like any other ingredient, there are low, mid and high-quality options. Some brands choose cheaper ingredients and then put a much bigger budget into marketing to shape the narrative around the product. People trust the brand, pay a premium and feel happy about the product, while the actual quality may be much lower than what they expect. This is far more common than people realise. Don't trust a product because of the brand name. Look for brands that do independent third-party lab testing, test every batch and publish the results transparently. I am a co-founder of a small D2C brand, and for us, taking this route is not cheap. But we decided to go for it anyway. We can cut our marketing budget. We can cut other expenses. We can even cut from our own salaries. But we don't want to cut corners when it comes to transparency and what's inside the product.

Tomorrow, 4th July, is a very special day for the people of Jodhpur. The New Terminal Building of Jodhpur Airport will be inaugurated. Jodhpur has a very important place as far as tourism in India is concerned. This upgraded infrastructure will encourage more tourists to come to Jodhpur. It will boost commerce as well.

A friend from London came to Mumbai & asked me, “What should I do the whole day?” And all I could come up with was: Eat here. Eat there. Sit by Marine Drive. Suddenly I realised , for a city with so much energy, we really haven’t built enough things for people to do.