In the last article I had wrote, I had promised the next article on a different subject. Apologies if I disappointed anyone, but digressing for an article to discuss a key development which as usual, the mainstream media (even business) seems to have missed.

A couple of weeks back, there was a brief snippet on CNBC TV18 about the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) treating Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS) with fixed exit prices as debt. (I don’t know if this is correct or not; I have not been able to locate a RBI notification or a circular to that effect; in case anybody has seen one, please pass it on). Yesterday, the RBI prevented DE Shaw from selling its stake held through CCPS in DLF Assets Limited (DAL) through the exercise of a put option at a fixed return of 27%. Surprisingly, there haven’t been a lot of discussions on this. Surprising for the following reason; for the first time, there has been an attempt to define debt and equity in terms of economics rather than accounting; which in my opinion is an important distinction. continue

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All of us must have realized that twentieth century was a century of changes. This century did not just see immense technological progress; it also saw massive political changes. A person living in Jaffna in Sri Lanka has seen four distinct governments – British, French, LTTE and Sri Lankan. This century also saw a wide spread experiment in socialism. It did not work, but this experiment did fundamentally change the way free market democracies work. This century also saw massive strides in female emancipation. And of course, this century saw wars which were unparalleled in destruction. So, how will the new century look like? Here are a few pointers. continue

Given that I am not working these days, a lot of my time is spent on the internet. During my daily visit to seekingalpha.com, a question popped into my head – Has the historical preferential tax treatment for debt led (in part) to the mess we face today? continue

If you are not from United States then you probably don’t know much about Hulu, but if you are from United States then I am pretty sure that you would be knowing about Hulu. The reason behind this is that as soon as you open Hulu it tells you that you can view shows only in the United States of America! Why are they doing this? Because that is what most of the world and advertisers want to target. Here is an introduction of Hulu quoting from the NYTimes
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