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Showing posts from January, 2023

The Six Schools of the Vedas (The Indian Philosophy Darshanas) - Part I - Vaisheshika: (Distinction)

  1. Vaisheshika (Distinction) Founder: Kanada (Kashyapa) Other major contributors: Prashastapada, Udayanacharya, and Shridhara Main Philosophical Points: - The Vedas are the complete authority. - Offers insights into naturalism (something that rejects super natural and is near to science and natural world). Kind of atomism (a belief that the world is composed of the small particles called atoms. In the Indian philosophy, the atomic reality is composed of five elements: earth, fire, air, water, space) in natural philosophy -  After some time, this school merged with Nyaya (logic) School and later came to be known as Nyaya-Vaisheskhika - Focuses on metaphysics and naturalism. A bit similar to Buddhism in some regards. But unlike the Buddhism, which does not accept the authority of the Vedas, this school accepts the complete authority of the Vedas. - Perception  and Inference are two reliable means to knowledge. There are six pramanas (proofs) as epistemically (epistemology is the theory

Overcoming Home Country Bias - Diversification Beyond India

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  Hello all, We all know that diversification is a way to manage certain types of risks (not all types of risks can be diversified, but we will address that issue separately in future).  As an investor, we tend to invest in our home countries. And this is not limited to the investors from India. Indian markets (in terms of market capitalization) represent roughly 2% of the world (share) markets’ total capitalization. But still, on an average, all of us tend to limit our investment within India. While India is a great market to invest in (Even Investopedia agrees), it also means that by only investing in India, we are effectively ignoring 98% of the rest of the investable universe! This phenomenon is called Home Country Bias. It is understandable that people prefer to invest in their home countries as they are “aware of” or are “conversant with” the affairs of the home country and the companies of the same. One way to overcome this bias is to start investing outside India. When we look

Why One Should Not Invest In An IPO

  A lot of people debate about investing in IPOs. As a man, who is married to the school of behavioral finance, here are some reasons, why one can consider not investing in IPOs at all: 1. The company, that is looking to gather money from the market, has not got any track record to show, in terms of annual reports. All the information, that is available to the public, is only the disclosure by the company in the red herring prospectus. So, taking a call on its strategic business model is not going to be easy. Compared to that, there are hundreds of listed companies to choose from, with large amount of information available in the public domain. So, generally, it is a good idea to invest in a company by making an "informed choice", rather than trusting the self disclosures under red herring prospectus and the premium rate of the grey market. It is too risky to invest your hard earned money in that type of firm. 2. Some people argue that it is about making quick bucks by bookin

Listening - A psychological and philosophical tool to be happy

  [A] Introduction / Background:  90% of communication is listening. Not too wrong. Listening forms a formidable part of the process of communication. Listening, some say, is a skill of communication. While I cannot disagree with that at all, I’d like to add that listening is more like an attribute of personality. Or, to say the least, more of a habit and less of a skill. The good listeners are generally reasonably good communicators. Not implying that how you convey your thoughts is not important. But yes, good listeners shall always enjoy a special status in the area of communication! Please remember that listening is equally important in email writing and can make or break email communications as well. [B] Types/Levels/Classification of Listening: Listening works at many levels. These levels or types, are mere concepts. In reality, it is very difficult to brand anyone as belonging to a particular type of listener. It depends. One can be an active listener in some cases, and can be a