Intuition. Perception. Perfection.

     Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. In India’s case, more often than not, Murphy’s Law does seem to ring true. And worryingly, it seems to be happening on quite a regular occasion in these times. No sooner than one crisis is seen off and the dust settled and the Indian markets ready themselves to resume on the path to growth, does another one rear its ugly head. Simply put, the long awaited Indian Bull Run may be quite some time away.      In the world of the bourses, the rear view mirror is always clearer than the windscreen. And while the markets have inched up and generated mediocre returns over the past few years, valuations have simply taken off and run far ahead of fundamentals. Needless to say, until the fundamentals do catch up and justify the valuations, a Bull Run won’t materialize anytime soon.       As the past has shown, whenever the markets seem ready to blast off, a black swan event hits and throws them off course. When th

     In the 1970s, when Boeing awed the world of aviation with its giant, the 747, it was the beginning of a revolution in the skies. The Boeing 747, billed the ‘Jumbo Jet’ with its swollen head design, became an instant celebrity and media darling and Boeing’s order book began to fill up. Despite its massive size, high operating cost and below average fuel efficiency, airlines lapped it up as it could carry as many as double the passengers as some of the smaller aircraft in their fleets. The 747, at that time, could access only a handful of airports around the globe but more and more airports were expanding their infrastructure, even as they recognized the aircraft’s popularity with airlines from different parts of the globe. In fact, one of the many reasons behind Singapore Airlines’ popularity was the large number of 747s or ‘Megatops’ in its fleet. Over the course of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, oil prices began an upward trend following the Yom Kippur War and with the Cold War an

     Yes, you’re right. The title does seem similar to that of one of Richard Gere’s finer movies, Hachiko: A Dog’s Story (or the subsequently abbreviated Hachi: A Dog’s Tale). The similarities, however, between the Akita and the Japanese giant, Ricoh end there. For, while Hachiko was loyal to his master until his last dying breath, Ricoh’s Indian subsidiary didn’t exactly share that trait. In fact, as the past few years have evidenced, Ricoh India has lost no occasion to rip off its shareholders and leave them high and dry.      When it comes to high standards of corporate governance and good management practices, Japanese companies have always been placed on a pedestal and managed to live up to their high standards. All that, however, has changed over the course of the past decade. Be it Toshiba’s overstated profits, Olympus’ fishy acquisitions to brush its investment losses under the carpet, Mitsubishi’s fuel economy scandal or even Takata’s widespread recalls following its f