Quarter 1, 2019

We will keep this one short since we don’t have much to say this quarter. Neither do the Indian business owners we met during our recent travels. There’s a sense of stillness in the community, a quiet anticipation of sorts – itching to make a move, but not quite sure in which direction. Abhi election ke baad dekhenge, “We’ll see after the elections”, is the common refrain. This makes sense. Almost 900m Indians, over 75 days, are selecting 543 representatives, out of the 8,000 plus candidates fielded by 450 parties. No matter which dimension you pick, the scale of the Indian general election looks astounding. So, it’s natural to think that it’s outcome will have an astounding effect on the business as well. We don’t think so. We have looked at the data - market returns, earnings, macro factors like deficits, currency, and other finance-y stuff. None of it has any correlation with the election outcomes.

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