Warren Buffett: Alpha Investor

NINETY-FOUR is probably not a bad time to retire, but for the millions of avid admirers of Warren Buffett it is still too soon. At the just concluded annual meeting of his company Berkshire Hathaway at its headquarters in Omaha, US, Buffett sprang a surprise when he announced he is going to ask the board to relieve him as chief executive officer. By the end of this year, the man he had already selected to succeed him, Greg Abel, will take over.

Buffett is considered the greatest investor of this era and his record shows just why. When he took over Berkshire in 1965, it was a textile company in trouble. He converted it into a conglomerate. If you bought a share of Berkshire in 1965 at $19, it would be worth more than $800,000 now. Converting it into Indian rupees means ₹1,600 would have become over ₹6.5 crore in 60 years.

This was achieved through value investing, looking for good companies at reasonable prices and holding them for a long time as they grew. Eventually, Berkshire started own­ing most of the businesses it invested in, which gave Buffett further control over its growth. Essential to his investing philosophy was to only buy what he understood, to only deal with honest managements and to not chase quick profits. In this he found an alter-ego in his long-time business partner Charlie Munger, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 99. A succession before his own passing will mean more stability for Berkshire, probably a reason why the announcement was made.
(By Madhavankutty Pillai)

Noisemaker: Ajay Rai
The Rafale Faux Pas

Congress’ Ajay Rai gained a degree of public recall when he contested against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi in last year’s Lok Sabha election. Since then, publicity has eluded him. He might have thought holding up a ‘model’ of the Rafale fighter jet and a string of green chillis and a lemon, intended to ward off the evil eye, would be eye-catching as he mocked an alleged delay in responding to the Pahalgam terror attack. It would also, he might have hoped, worked well with the Congress leadership. His timing could not have been worse. Just days later, Indian armed forces hit nine terror targets in Pakistan and the Rafales were very much part of the attacks. It might be Rai’s turn to chew on the lemon and chillies.

The Big Picture

Bahawalpur, Pakistan, May 7, 2025: Fire and Fury A seminary hit by an Indian missile in Operation Sindoor which, on its first night, precisely targeted nine sites known to be part of the terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

Ideas
Repatriation

Earlier this week, the auction house Sotheby’s was preparing to auction hundreds of sacred jewels linked to the Buddha’s remains in Hong Kong. The jewels, which are known as the Piprahwa gems (named after the place where it was discovered), are believed to have been discovered alongside the remains of the Buddha by an Englishman named William Caxton Peppé in 1898, who then carried it along with him when he left India. The proposed auction created a stir, and once the Indian government intervened, Sotheby’s declared that it was postponing the auction.

This news raises once again a question that has been coming up frequently in recent years—shouldn’t priceless relics plundered during colonialism be returned to the countries of their origin? It’s a question that comes up all the time, whether it is demands for the repatriation of items like the Parthenon Marbles, fragments of which are displayed in places like London’s British Museum, or the Koh-i-Noor diamond, currently displayed at the Jewel House in the Tower of London. The demand for the return of the Piprahwa gems has even more ethical weight, because it isn’t merely an important historical and cultural artefact, but one that is also among the holiest relics of a contemporary religion.

The return of the relics will probably not come by easily. But by putting enough pressure, the Indian government and other Buddhist groups that raised this issue have ensured that sacred relics can’t be treated like commodities either.

Money Mantra
The New Defensive Sectors
Hospitals and select IT firms are durable bets in a slowdown

 

WHEN MARKET EMOTION swings between euphoria and panic, investors have long protected their portfo­lios by buying classic ‘defensive’ stocks.

As we are in an economy where earnings can still rise steadily, two sectors stand out: private hospitals and select companies of the IT universe.

Healthcare’s core demand is non-cyclical, and India’s market is vast, so revenue keeps expanding even in lean years. Rising health in­surance penetration will only help. As more policies cover in-patient treatment, a larger slice of the population can afford Tier I hospital care, allowing chains to roll out new facilities across regions. Just look at their income statements. Several listed operators now post eye-catching net margins.

Now, come to IT stocks. On the face of it, they hardly look defen­sive. Top-tier IT companies are reporting low single-digit growth (or even mild degrowth), much like FMCG, the defensive stocks of the past. The difference lies in the reason. IT underperformance stems from a technology transition, not from demand saturation. Today’s challenge is artificial intelligence: clients are experimenting, vendors are retraining, and the revenue dip should prove temporary. FMCG’s slowdown, by contrast, is structural and persistent.

Another point—export-heavy tech stocks are a hedge in any downturn. If India’s economy softens, the rupee usually weakens, translating almost mechanically into higher rupee earnings for dollar-billing IT firms.

Hospitals and select IT companies may differ in their business models, but both tick the key defensive boxes: large, durable ad­dressable markets; earnings that withstand macro shocks; and share prices that resist panic selling.

For investors hunting stability without abandoning growth, these two segments look set to assume the mantle of defensive stocks once worn by staples, utilities, and big pharma. (Ramesh Singh)

Viral
Babil Khan’s Breakdown

Earlier this week, Babil Khan, the son of the actor Irrfan Khan, shared a video of himself on Instagram that left many both puzzled and worried about his emotional state. In the years after his father’s death, there has been much sympathy for Babil as he tries to establish himself as an actor. But in the video, Babil appeared visibly distraught and often broke into tears. Calling Bollywood “the fakest industry he had been a part of”, he then went on to name a few other young actors, without really specifying any details, and this led to even more confusion. By the standards of Bollywood, where all moves and actions are perfectly scripted, this was a bizarre moment, and many worried if Khan was suffering from some mental harassment. He deleted the video, and deactivated his account, and his team later uploaded a message asking people not to take his words out of context. But there was no stopping that video from going viral.

 

 

 

 

Ajay RaiIndian politicsIndian stock marketinvestmenttWarren Buffett