Koel Ghosh
Former Head of South Asia, S&P Dow Jones Indices
Indexing’s Evolution in Indian Markets
Indexing, also known as index-based or passive investing, has been slowly but steadily growing and transforming asset management and financial markets in India. For more than a decade, there has been a strong preference for actively managed funds among Indian investors, and understandably so as historically these were the only financial products that dominated the…
India’s ETF Market: Sustainability and Innovation
The pandemic, along with its disruption, also opened windows to many opportunities. Innovation and new ideas are the key words. Sustainability is not a new idea; however, its focus has accelerated with the pandemic and incidents triggered by climate change. Nations and organizations are adopting ESG measures and bringing its importance to the forefront. Its…
- Categories ESG, India
- Tags Active vs. Passive, ESG, ETFs, India, Indian ETFs, multi-asset, sustainability
India’s ETF Market: Examining Passive Investing’s Continued Growth
Market Resilience The financial markets have been witness to numerous market cycles, trends, and crises, from the technology bubble in 2000 to the subprime housing crisis around 2007-08 and the collapse of Wall Street in 2009. 2020 brought the unexpected disruptor, coronavirus, and the ongoing pandemic changed the way markets and economies reacted. As with…
- Categories India
- Tags Active vs. Passive, India, Indian bond, Indian equities, SPIVA, spiva india
- Categories
- India
Global Diversification Trending in India – Time to Notice?
The merit of international diversification seems to have proven itself lately in the context of the Indian market. Over the past year, interest has increased in adding global exposures to local investment portfolios. Global markets offer the potential opportunity to diversify beyond a traditional concentrated focus on local markets. The latest August Global Equity Dashboard…
Understanding the Basics of Sustainability Part 2: Focusing on Net Zero
The increasing focus on sustainability inclusion is being reflected through the markets’ growing recognition of the financial materiality and impact of ESG issues on corporate balance sheets. Therefore, the range of ESG offerings has expanded to include indices that focus on climate change, carbon efficiency, fossil fuel free, and thematics, which include clean energy and…
- Categories ESG, India, Thematics
- Tags Carbon Emissions, ESG, India, Net Zero, S&P BSE 100 ESG Index, sustainability
Understanding the Basics of Sustainability Part 1: Time for a New Strategy?
The growing importance and inclusion of sustainability values among global investment themes has redefined investors’ views of sustainability factors in portfolio strategies. The idea that sustainability concepts are futuristic is dated—the future has definitely arrived. The world is changing, and the percentage of retail and institutional investors applying environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles is…
- Categories ESG, India, Thematics
- Tags ESG, India, S&P BSE 100 ESG Index, sustainability
Indian Investments in Global Equities: From Zero to Hero
India has been one among many countries that favor a strong home bias in their investment portfolios. There have been many theories put forth on what causes the bias and research has been undertaken to understand it. Whether it is the ease of local information access, regulatory concerns, investor preferences, cost concerns, transactional viability, or…
Global Diversification in 2020 – Is India Seeing This Opportunity?
The year 2020 has been unique, with the COVID-19 pandemic bringing unprecedented changes to economic activity that no one was fully prepared for, as well as record levels of volatility in financial markets. But such disruption not only creates innovation, it also gives opportunities to contrarian options and allows new themes to emerge dominant. India…
Getting Up to Speed with the Essentials of Index Construction
Why choose index investing? Yes, the merits of diversification and low cost are usually factored in, though one critical benefit that many do not realize is the transparency that is provided in the methodology of an independent index provider. To understand what goes into the design and methodology of an index, it’s important to note…
Core and Satellite – The Best of Both Worlds
The contentious debate of active versus passive is perpetual. Over the past 15 years, SPIVA® Scorecard results have reflected on the trends of active fund management vis a vis benchmarks, wherein statistics tilt the balance in favor of indexing. This recurring feature of benchmark outperformance is contributing to the adoption and growth of the passive…