From being popularly known as the Indian Premier League to quickly becoming the Indian Problem League, the fall for the IPL has been rapid.

The money is something that cricket had not seen before. Money talks they say and so is it in this case!  From bringing in cricketers who the world thought was long gone back to stage, to helping another part of the world discover some amazing “young” talent, to entertaining all those cricket crazy fans every evening after work and last not least, giving kids around the country an extra reason to celebrate summer vacations, the IPL did it all in it’s inaugural edition. All good things come with controversies and IPL was not exception to this either. Accusing the league for pushing cricketers around the world into pre-mature retirement, choosing money over country and last but not least, not being inclusive, we saw it all.

I personally enjoyed season one. Choosing whom to support was an easy decision. Being a Bangalorean, I was disappointed to see a test team line up to play T20. My loyalty quickly swung to the best thing that’s happened to Indian cricket – MS Dhoni and his Chennai Super Kings. MSD played masterstroke with the team selection even before a ball was bowled. Getting a right mix of locals and expats, Dhoni ensured that he got along an uncut diamond, Raina along with him to stitch his team of the boys in yellow. The joker in the pack was of course the Rajasthan Royals. Acclaimed to have the greatest ever cricketing brain ever and blessed with exceptional skill to turn a cricket ball on glass, Shane Warne, up north, was putting together his team of underdogs. I wasn’t surprised to see these two teams do battle in the finals. I would have loved to see MSD and his boys win, but on a given day, the team that plays better cricket wins and right so, the Royals.

With time to kick start season 2 around the corner, the hype started as early as the New Year – the fallout of 26/11 meant that the Pakistani players didn’t want to come. For those that may argue this on who didn’t want who, the trading window and the money spent did its share to the share of ink. The nail in the coffin was the recent attack in neighboring Pakistan on a touring Sri Lankan team. While this was “outside” India, the event’s ripples traveled over 500 kms to the national capital for the administrators to sit up and take notice of potential security risks.

From an exchange of words to reading between lines, from the politics of power to the politics of money, in the name of democracy and elections, the home ministry showed who is the boss by having the IPL postpone it’s initial published schedule. Lalit Modi is a die hard and he went out saying this will happen with no change. Someone in the higher echelons of power asked him to backtrack and so he did, with a revised schedule – more cities and slightly different dates. This time around, the states came in to the party saying they were not staffed well enough to support security cover for these games and the proposed elections.

The issue of “security” in the sub-continent is being viewed at very differently by all the foreign players who were itching to come and get a game – life Vs money and we all know the obvious choice that these so called players from safe havens from around the world tend to make. With a couple of casualties in terms of big names dripping out for the fear of life, this storm is yet to blow over.

To me, the real issue on hand is the question of these two events co-existing. Elections are no doubt important and so too is the issue of security. A country of a billion people is suddenly faced with the issue of resources for security – what a paradox.

If I were Modi, I’d flex my financial muscle to hire SO many of those unemployed, semi skilled youth and train them to build up my own security forces for the IPL. Hiring or training is not an issue considering how much time is left. If you want to run and need shoes, you must go and get them! Waiting for someone to give them to you is not smart business. To me, this move is a great win win – strike a deal with the center to say that this newly built security force can be used as a potential resource to staff up national security services. Upskilling them to play a different game is easy and is doable if they clear hurdle one. Your cup of woes is filling up real quick Mr. Modi.. game to try?

Image Credit: Wikimedia

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India won the Chennai Test against England convincingly enough by six wickets. Sehwag once again proved that a solid start can change the course of the game and the psyche of opponents.

England was, for once, outplayed in the game and it did when it mattered most – the last innings of the match.

Sachin was brilliant. Scoring his 41st century speaks volumes of the cricket left in him, even at this age. He along with Yuvraj paved the way for an Indian celebration.

With that being said, are we now heading for the Top Spot in Test Cricket ?

We have a Captain Cool in Dhoni, a legend in Tendulkar, a Swashbuckler in Sehwag, A wall in Dravid etc who are raring to go and achieve the unachievable.

The question is even with these stalwarts on the side, can we still make it to the top ?

In my opinion we are just a few steps away from reaching the top. As per the latest ICC Rankings, India is placed 3rd only next to South Africa and Australia.

So, what would it take India to reach the top spot in ICC Test Rankings ?

A few wins. No losses – Slam dunk, isn’t it ?!

Let’s dig a bit deeper. What would it take the team to win matches after matches ? I have given a laundry list of “To Dos” which Dhoni & co can work upon…

1. Dhoni should maintain his cool, as he always has been
2. Sehwag, Gambhir & Tendulkar should continue the way they have been performing
3. Middle Order must be consistent even if it calls for a few heads rolling (Rahul – are you listening ?)
4. Zaheer, Harbhajan, Amit & Ishant need to set higher benchmarks and consistently perform
5. Get the team’s mind off from off-the-field issues

Off-Field Issues ?

• Security Guards are meant for your Security
• Who slapped whom & why
• Bollywood Dreams and
• Of course- Of DhoniLakshmi’s Kollywood Dreams

Unnecessary attention diversion, you see..

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Diversifying a portfolio means, deciding on how to divide the money available for investment between various investment options like shares, bonds, fixed deposits, Mutual funds, fixed property, gold and cash to be retained in hand.

In your personal investment plan try to ensure that there is adequate diversity. A clever investor will never put all his money in one type of investment. Let’s see why we should diversify our portfolio.

Main reason for a well diversified reason is mitigation of risk.

You can even add insurance to this list. But it’s slightly a different investment option in the sense its benefits are not available to you but to your dependants.

Once you have arrived at the money available for investment, it’s important to decide the ratio to be invested in different investment options. Before investing it’s important to know the amount of risk and return associated with each investment option.

Time is Money:

If you think of making money in a very short span it’s not possible with any type of investment option. Every investment needs certain time to generate returns. Before deciding on an investment option we need to be clear about how long we can hold that investment and what would be the approximate return. You must be clear as to go for capital appreciation or a short term return or a combination of both.

For example, if we remain invested for long term in stocks and fixed assets like a house, there are very few chances of incurring losses. Long term means you should keep the investment for at least 5 to 10 years.

History tells that those who have invested in stock market for 10 years have maximum lost 1.5 % of their investment.

So longer the duration lesser the chances of losses. There is also scope for making tons of money. Those who have invested money in stocks and real estate or gold between 2003 and 2007 have made tons of money.

Every investment has a cycle and it repeats. It’s very important to identify the right type of investment that has started churning money.

We can see that in the last 6 months, stocks are out and bonds are the preferred choice of investment.

• If your goal is long term, invest in stocks and real estate, this is the right time to buy as the valuations are very attractive. Though we can’t exactly say the % of appreciation, it will definitely yield good returns for long term investors.
• If your goal is short term, invest in fixed deposits or government bonds.
• It’s also very important to decide on the timing of the investment. Early birds will always make maximum money. When everyone is making money, realize that some will soon start loosing. Don’t buy when the market is at the peak. It’s very important to time the market.
• Finally ensure that you always have some cash in hand to attend to any emergency or to put in any attractive investment option that presents itself before you.

Finally remember that risk and return coexist in any kind of investment option and it’s always possible to lose money in any form of investment. Now the question you should ask yourself is “How much loss will I be able to bear?”

If you are not in a position to take more risk, put more of your money in FDs and Bonds and minimum in stocks. If you are capable of taking more risk, put more of your money in Equities and Real estate and very little in FD or Bonds. Those who have household responsibilities or those who are paying quite a bit of their money as interest towards loans should always be careful about the kind of investments they make.

Here is a small principle for dividing your funds amongst various investment options.

Reduce your age from 100 and what ever is the number you arrive at, you can put that much of money in high risk – high return investments.

For example, if your age is 30, you can put 70% of your money in high risk/high return assets and 30% in low risk – low return assets. As your hair starts turning grey, reduce your exposure towards equity, and increase it towards debt securities.

Image Credit: SMN

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Where the mind is without fear and the head held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action;
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake

                                                                                                by Rabindranath Tagore

Life will be a peaceful journey if we are able to face difficulties without fear, swallow the bitterness of tragedy, enjoy the happiness, and love that life showers on us.  Such lovely life is being crushed to death by the ruthless terrorism in a fraction of second right in front of our eyes.  In the journey of life death is appearing everywhere in today’s world. 

Parliament, temples, malls, shops, local trains, on streets, in star hotels, in air, on land or in water – everywhere terrorists are hunting down innocent people.

Recent attacks in Mumbai with are a direct war waged by terrorists on India.  Every time something like this happens I see a regular drama and it always has the below statements:

“We will destroy the very roots of terrorism and make our country a safe place again”

“I appreciate the people for the courage they have shown in this hour of crisis”

“We will not bow down before terrorism”

I think by now you would have guessed the people who make these statements.  These are our Netas.  When terrorist beasts are killing people mercilessly, what is the assurance being given these leaders,:

 “Incidents like these are happening all over the world and it is difficult to predict these incidents”

 “In a big city like Mumbai it is not possible to keep an eye on every person who comes in”

This is nothing but escapism and gross irresponsibility of the leaders.  They don’t even feel ashamed for making such statements. First time when terrorists killed people, I hated terrorists.

But then they repeatedly killed people, I started hating our politicians and law makers more than I hated terrorists for giving them a license to kill. 

10 to 12 terrorists who have entered Mumbai via sea  were able to hold the entire nation as hostage for 3 days. This clearly shows how incompetent our leaders, our policies, and our intelligence are. 

As if a sudden realization has dawned, Shivraj Patil resigned form his post. 

But it took a nation to loose 200 lives of civilians, 24 police officers, and soldiers to remind the Home minister of his “Moral Responsibility”.  After the UPA government came to power the number of attacks by terrorists have increased manifold and nothing was done politically to tackle this issue.  With all their concern for the terrorism they got POTA abolished. 

These leaders who can’t even step out without a dozen commandos around them say “people here are very courageous”.  They don’t have to certify our courage.  People of this nation are always more courageous than the leaders.  Though we know that our lives are not safe every time we step out, we still walk on the street without any fear.

Leaders make statements like “we will not be cowed down by terrorism’.  But it’s we the people who show this in action.  Within 3 days of the terror attack, ‘Leopold café’ is opened and people thronged it.  This is testimony to the courage of an Indian.

Mumbai resembled a war zone for 3 days.  Once it’s over people are back on the street not because of the assurances given by our politicians but because of the courage and patriotism shown by the Armed forces. 

Those brave commandoes who have sacrificed themselves to save us gave us the courage to come out and salute them.  Those of us who witnessed their dedication and sacrifice in flushing out the terrorists from Taj, Nariman house and Oberoi can’t forget them in our life time.

Even today we don’t have proper mechanism in place to tackle something like this.  We don’t have the weapons or technology or strategy.  How can you explain bullets piercing the bullet proof jackets of our cops? Our government is not able to stop the inflow of RDX into the country from Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

Our intelligence officers became spectators when the terrorists were equipping themselves with latest weapons.

After the parliament attack in 2001, though the government declared Terrorism as a national issue, nothing was done to beef up internal security.  Though, Prime Minister spoke about setting up of a ‘Federal Investigation Agency’ nothing has materialized.  Look at America, immediately after 9/11 attacks, they have put in place ‘Department of Homeland Security’.

At last Prime Minister woke up and setup a task force to come out with a strategy to counter terrorism in 100 days.  Actually, this should have happened long back.  None of the states in India has plan in place for terrorist attacks.  There is no proper co-ordination between our Police and intelligence.  Attack on Mumbai is an attack on the whole nation. 

Hope at least now our leaders will open their eyes and really take an action to fight terrorism.

Image Credit- Sameer Gupta

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Kudos to the Indian Navy for their fortnight long success off the Gulf of Aden. India now plans to send some more frigates to patrol this sensitive area. Interestingly, there is now news that India also has “approval” for hot pursuit of pirates into Somali waters.

Do we see India as the new naval superpower?

The Indian Navy is the 5th largest in the world. There are ~55,000 personnel including ~5,000 personnel in Naval Aviation and 2,000+ marine commandos. The INS Viraat is the only aircraft carrier and leads the fleet of over 150 ships and submarines. Their role in times of war and peace has been immense in safeguarding our coastline of about 7517 km (about 5423 km along the mainland and 2094 km the Andaman and Nicobar, and Lakshadweep Islands).

For years it has been known that we have been struggling with the need for another aircraft carrier. Its funny how Russia has been such a strong arms ally and also manages to twist India’s arm for more and more money for rebuilding a once dead carrier.

The Armed Forces Chiefs have been asking for more and more to replenish the forces that have saved the nation from the many wars and the clutches of internal forces. None better than our forces know that it is art and skill that wins wars today and not just the ability to deploy the latest smart bombs. But as with everything there is a need to compensate brain and brawn. Let’s leave that to our think tanks.

With all the war games amongst many nations in the last couple of years, is is sad that none else seems to want to join forces to make the oceans a safer place. This latest move sees India taking the initiative and moving in to save not only our maritime economic resources but also as a measure to enhance the security of perhaps today’s most dangerous seafaring route. It remains to be seen how the world takes this move from India.

What do you think ? Post your comments below …

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