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An Indian-origin investor living in the US wants to invest ₹1 crore in India. The obvious questions are familiar: Should the money go into mutual funds, PMS or an AIF? Should the portfolio be large-cap heavy? How much should be allocated to equity? There is another question that can change the entire investment decision: How will the investment be taxed in the US? For a US taxpayer, an Indian investment is not necessarily treated the same way it is for an investor living in I

The US Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.75%–4.00%, marking its first rate hike since 2023. The move comes as US inflation remains elevated and the Fed signals that further tightening could still be required. For India, the immediate impact is unlikely to come from the 25-basis-point hike itself. The bigger question is what happens to US bond yields, the dollar, foreign capital flows and the Reserve Bank of India's policy response

Imagine an emergency Cabinet meeting. The Prime Minister walks in. Before anyone says “Mitron”, the Finance Ministry has already flagged the bond market, the Petroleum Ministry is watching crude, the RBI is watching the rupee and the stock market is watching all three. That is roughly the kind of situation markets are dealing with right now. Oil has moved above $100 a barrel. The rupee has slipped beyond ₹95 to the dollar. Indian government bond yields are rising. The RBI has

At 30, your biggest financial asset may not appear anywhere on your balance sheet. It could be your ability to earn ₹30 lakh a year, with the potential to earn considerably more over the next two or three decades. That earning ability is your human capital. For most people, human capital is at its highest during their working years. You exchange time, skills and experience for income. The money you earn can then be spent, saved or invested. The third option is where the inter

The U.S. government has a problem that cannot be solved at the Federal Reserve. It needs to borrow a lot more money, and investors are asking to be paid more for lending it for a long time. The yield on the 30-year U.S. Treasury touched 5.337% on August 18, the highest since 2007. It fell back after the Treasury announced that it would double its purchases of longer-dated bonds, and was around 5.19% thereafter. The 10-year Treasury has also been trading near 4.7%. Five per ce

A working guide for Indian equity investors · August 2026 Executive summary For most Indian equity investors, somewhere between 15% and 25% of the portfolio makes sense as a foreign allocation, and 20% is a reasonable place to default to. The case for going abroad at all is straightforward: an India-only portfolio is exposed to one economy, one currency and one market cycle at the same time, with nothing to pull the other way when any of the three has a bad run. Where inves

For many, buying a house is the ultimate sign of "having made it." It is a milestone that blends deep emotional satisfaction with significant financial commitment. However, in the rush to secure a piece of the earth, many investors fall into the trap of looking for a "treasure hunt" strategy rather than building a solid behavioral foundation. A home is more than just four walls; it is a "Commitment Asset". It requires high entry costs, carries significant illiquidity, and oft

Retirement planning has acquired an unfortunate reputation over the years. Mention it in a conversation and most people immediately think of calculators, retirement corpus estimates and large, intimidating numbers. The discussion quickly turns into mathematics. How much will you need? How much should you save every month? Which investment will give the highest return? Those questions matter. They just don't come first. One thing I have realised after years of working with inv

A high income can create the impression of financial success. But income and wealth are not the same thing. Over the years, one pattern has become increasingly visible across professionals, founders, senior executives, and business owners: people who earn well do not always build wealth well. Some individuals earning modestly create strong long-term financial stability. Others with impressive salaries remain financially stretched despite years of high earnings. The difference

By Prachie A Dixit, Founder & CEO, INFN Money For two decades, I’ve sat across tables with entrepreneurs, business families, CXOs, inheritors, first-generation wealth creators, and retirees who had already “made it.” Different industries. Different personalities. Different lifestyles. But over time, patterns emerge. Money leaves clues. So do mistakes. One thing became obvious very early in my career: wealth is rarely destroyed by bad markets alone. It is usually destroyed by

When the RBI stops increasing interest rates after a series of hikes, it usually means inflation is not running away anymore, or growth needs some support. It doesn’t mean rate cuts will happen immediately. But it does mean the worst of the rate pressure on bonds may already be behind us. For debt fund investors, this phase matters because returns are often better when rates are stable than when they are constantly moving up. First, what actually changes when rates pause? Dur

Uncertain markets don't reward rigid strategies. They reward flexibility. When valuations look stretched, liquidity tightens, or earnings visibility drops, fund structure starts to matter more than past returns. That's where the difference between Flexi Cap and Multi Cap becomes relevant. Both invest across market caps. But one can adapt freely. The other has rules it cannot break. And rules are great until the market stops cooperating. First, the Key Difference Flexi Cap F

Debt funds haven’t been very popular in the last few years. Most investors were focused on equity because markets were doing well and returns looked attractive. Debt felt slow. Sometimes even disappointing. But the situation today looks different. Interest rates have moved up significantly over the past couple of years as central banks tried to control inflation. Because of this, bonds today are offering higher yields compared to what was available earlier. That changes the e

To understand a Gold ETF, you first have to look at the "old way" of buying gold. Traditionally, if you wanted to invest in gold, you bought a physical item-a coin, a bar, or jewelry. You then had to find a place to store it, pay for a bank locker, worry about its purity, and eventually, when you wanted to sell it, you had to find a jeweler who wouldn't rip you off on the "melting charges" or the "spread." A Gold ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) solves all of those problems. It is

For years, the typical investing advice was simple: invest in equities and stay invested. And to be fair, that approach worked well. Equity mutual funds delivered strong returns, SIP inflows kept growing, and more investors started building portfolios heavily tilted toward equities. But markets rarely stay comfortable forever. Over the past year, investors have started facing a more uncertain environment. Global interest rates remain high, geopolitical tensions keep resurfaci

The Global AI Shock That Spilled Into Dalal Street Early February 2026 will be remembered as the moment markets stopped treating AI as a feature and started treating it as a competitive threat . The trigger was not weak earnings. In fact, many global software companies reported stable or better-than-expected results. Yet stocks sold off sharply across the board. The catalyst was the launch of Anthropic’s new Claude agent-based tools , which pushed AI from “assistant” to “auto

At first glance, the setup looks odd.Global equity markets are holding up reasonably well. The US is near highs, Europe is stable, Japan refuses to die quietly. And India? India is correcting. This has led to the usual panic theories. Global slowdown incoming. Something is “wrong” with India. Smart money knows something retail doesn’t. None of that is true. India’s correction has very little to do with global macro stress. It has a lot to do with how India entered this phase

Most people invest in mutual funds because they don’t want to think about the economy all the time. No views on interest rates, no opinions on inflation, no stress about what’s happening globally. You pick a few funds, set up SIPs, and move on. That’s the intention. The outcome is different. Every equity portfolio ends up taking macro positions anyway. Not because investors want to, but because markets force those positions onto them. Over time, those positions add up to a fa

Most investors buy mutual funds to avoid taking big, concentrated bets. The assumption is simple: if you own a few good funds across categories, diversification takes care of itself. In reality, many portfolios are far more concentrated than they appear, just not in obvious ways. In India, that concentration shows up most clearly in banking. Why Banking Sits at the Core of Indian Mutual Funds Indian equity markets are built around financial services. As banks have grown large

Geopolitical conflicts rarely impact India in obvious, immediate ways. Their influence is usually indirect, working through trade routes, energy flows, capital movements, and costs. For investors, the real question is not what is happening, but where India is exposed. Conflicts Aren’t About Headlines. It’s About Exposure. Most global conflicts don’t move Indian markets overnight. Their effects show up gradually, through changes in prices, margins, and cash flows. Conflicts ma