Re-view and Re-search

This week International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its bi-annual World Economic Outlook (WEO) and it forecasts that Indian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will grow at 7.2 per cent in the current financial year. This is certainly encouraging news, as amidst the rising global economic and political uncertainty, India continues to retain its tag of the fastest growing large economy. This will be music to the ruling government as year on year, the GDP continues to clock healthy numbers. But, do GDP numbers reveal the true picture? A few days ago, 17th April to be precise, World Bank released the " Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2017 ". According to the report, the primary focus of which is elimination of poverty in all its forms shows that India has the maximum number of poor living in extreme poverty. As of 2013, the latest period for which the data is available, India had a whopping 218 million people living below the poverty line of US$ 1.9 per day. This corres...

It was only last month when I was approached by a magazine for financial planners to write an article for them. One of the subjects that I proposed was writing a series of articles on Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) issues in financial investment decision making. They politely refused citing that their readers will not be interested in something like this as it doesn't concern their clients directly. While I completely respect their decision, but I personally feel it may be the right time that we start evaluating ESG implications of our financial decisions. The recent Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in the Bombay High Court brings out the ESG debate into mainstream. The PIL against the Union government, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and five public sector companies, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), General Insurance Corporation (GIC), New India Assurance, National Insurance Company and Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUT...