Wonder is the heaviest element on the periodic table. Even a tiny fleck of it stops time.~ Diane Ackerman.
Mumbai, India
Joined April 2020
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Ajay Zaveri retweeted
We can disagree on Andy approach, but we have lost a generation or two to complexities that could be built and implemented. We went by a coders easy life, and sorry to borrow a crude term, techno-coolies. It was good for the schools, the workplaces and even the kids to have this dream… the elusive Amrikan dream now in every major city and the elusive Indian dream of having a white collar job in every syllabi.
Where we missed the original clusters that was getting built. Instead of clusters, we started promoting MLAs, MPs and their constituencies to keep winning votes. Even those knew it has nothing to do with the goals
Of the nation and only to do with them winning the next term.
And here, in this glorious mess of comparing ourselves with everyone, and technically have become a large consuming class of desires.
Ajay Zaveri retweeted
Akash Prakash has invested in Indian equities for over 30 years. In today's Business Standard he writes that, for the first time, global allocators are asking him whether India needs a dedicated allocation at all.
India's weight in the MSCI Emerging Markets index has fallen from 21% in September 2024 to about 10%. TSMC alone now carries a weight 50% larger than the whole of India.
Since that peak, he puts Indian equities down about 25% in dollar terms while EM indices are up about 50%.
He still reads this as a contrarian signal and expects the tide to turn.
Global funds are asking whether India deserves its own bucket.
Most Indian investors have never asked that question the other way. For them, India is the whole portfolio.
Ajay Zaveri retweeted
‘I told you so’ is not something to mention cheerfully, especially when what was said is negative.
From the time long term capital gains tax was brought back, I have been tirelessly pointing out how unfair it is to have both STT and long term capital gains tax.
Even when I was a BJP supporter, I criticised how disastrous the 2019 budget was. From that time, I have been consistent in saying that Nirmala Sitharaman is unfit to be a finance minister.
She reduced corporate tax but kept the individual tax rate as it is. In fact, the individual tax rate went as high as 42 percent and is now around 39 percent.
Income tax is paid by a tiny fraction of the population. Still, the amount they pay is more than what all corporates in India put together pay.
Individuals paying cumulatively more than corporates started only during the period of the current Finance Minister. This is a travesty of justice.
This government has no clue about capital markets or risk capital. Prime Minister’s most trusted officer Hasmukh Adhia said making profits from markets requires no effort. Then why do very few create wealth and most get wiped out from capital markets?
Neither Hasmukh Adhia nor Nirmala Sitharaman would have ever invested even a single rupee in capital markets.
All asset classes are not equal because the nature of risk is different. In a capital starved country, risk capital needs to be incentivised.
For those who say it is only the secondary market, without ease of entry and exit in secondary markets, the primary market would cease to exist. And without that, there would be zero risk capital.
The odds of success in trading are already very low. The government has kept increasing STT, making trading unviable.
The government simply does not understand that trading provides two important things for markets: liquidity and price discovery. Without liquidity and price discovery, secondary markets would become practically useless.
Even in 2024, after NDA won the elections, I tagged the Prime Minister multiple times stating that anyone other than Nirmala Sitharaman should be considered for Finance Minister because she would prove to be economically disastrous for the country. And unfortunately, I am proven right.
The Finance Ministry is only good at setting narratives like poverty has been rooted out in India, we would become a developed superpower by 2047, and the latest narrative of how economically powerful we are becoming on a PPP basis.
I have repeatedly shown with data and facts how every single narrative is false and disconnected from reality. The Finance Ministry lives in a completely different reality.
Even developed nations understand how important foreign capital is. But our finance minister said in Parliament it is ok if foreign capital goes away because we have domestic retail investors. Certain statements are coming back to haunt us.
As I have said in the past, it is not that this government did not do anything positive. But given the huge mandate, the last twelve years are wasted opportunities on an overall basis. And the contribution of the Finance Ministry to these wasted opportunities is significant.
For many years, I have been trolled, criticised, and abused for questioning the finance minister and the government’s economic policies.
Now every well meaning individual realises how disastrous the Finance Minister has been for both the economy and capital markets.
My views stand vindicated now. Still, you do not feel happy when your negative views come true.
Ajay Zaveri retweeted
Living longer and better doesn't require anything remotely complicated.
I'm 63 and have been an orthopedic surgeon for 30 years. The people who do best aren't doing anything crazy or exotic. They just refuse to let their lives narrow and acting accordingly.
Here’s my Twitter book …
- Don't smoke
- Keep alcohol modest or absent.
- Move
- Move more
- Keep moving
- Push and pull heavy things
- Sleep 7 hours.
- Have friends
- Keep moving.
- Find a reason to get out of bed in the morning!
- A sense of purpose is key.
- See your friends in person.
- Keep moving. For real benefit- consider 500+ min/wk. Sure… 120 min/week works. But my goal is vastly higher.
- Eat real food that you cook.
You can read books that say something else. You can try one of a thousand supplements or research grade injectables. Won’t matter one bit for most of you. Might hurt some of you.
Simple works really well.
Form the habits… they will largely determine your destiny.
There are no shortcuts.
There are no shortcuts.
Ajay Zaveri retweeted
On a logarithmic scale we sit well toward the cosmic end. There are about 35 orders of magnitude between us and the Planck length, and only about 26 between us and the edge of what we can see.
Ajay Zaveri retweeted
By weight, about 90% of your body was forged inside stars. The other 10% is hydrogen left over from the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years old.
Either way, you're older than the Sun.
#funtrivia
Ajay Zaveri retweeted
Your brain has 86 billion neurons. The Milky Way has 100 to 400 billion stars.
Your body has 7 billion billion billion atoms, more than all the stars in the observable universe.
Every day you replace 330 billion cells. Almost a galaxy a day.
You are not in the universe.
You are the universe, briefly arranged, for as long as you live on this beautiful home called Earth.
And yet the universe is 10²⁷ times bigger than you.
#funtrivia
Ajay Zaveri retweeted
All good doctors already follow all of this and a lot more.
Real questions are -
1. Will NMC actively go after those who don't? Or hide behind "we have not received any complaint yet"
2. Will govt apply this to ALL healthcare individuals, NGOs, Charities and corporations?
3. Will govt apply this to ALL pathies, especially govt blue eyes pathies that have most unscientific claims and largest ad-spends ?
Ajay Zaveri retweeted
Immortal words from Jacob Bronowski:
“It is said that science will dehumanise people and turn them into numbers. That is false, tragically false. Look for yourself.
This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.
Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known, we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error, and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. In the end the words were said by Oliver Cromwell: ‘I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken’.
I owe it as a scientist to my friend Leo Szilard, I owe it as a human being to the many members of my family who died at Auschwitz, to stand here by the pond as a survivor and a witness. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people.“
Ajay Zaveri retweeted
In India, access to doctors is often remarkably easy, especially in cities. This is a strength, but it can also encourage overmedicalization.
Patients may seek care early for symptoms that might resolve on their own—not unreasonably, but because they are worried or unsure what to do. Easy access can then lead to unnecessary tests, medicines and expectations when reassurance, time and observation may be enough.
Thoughtful clinical guidance is essential. A good doctor helps patients understand what is concerning, what is not and when it is safe to wait.
Good medicine is not always about doing more. Sometimes, it means listening carefully, reassuring patients and knowing when to do less.
Ajay Zaveri retweeted
We need to reform the hotel room
'According to Indian five-star hotels, a guest likes to walk into the room and see the TV come alive on its own, blaring IP-free music, and displaying promotions for the same hotel, as though this is the sort of entertainment that brought him to town. Later, when he decides to sleep, he apparently loves finding the blanket so tightly tucked in that he feels like a letter slipping into an envelope.
'I have a very different view of human nature, and on that basis, here are my suggestions on how to reform the five-star hotel experience.'
Read free on my Substack:
substack.com/home/post/p-218…
Ajay Zaveri retweeted
A 50% fall needs a 100% rise. An 80% fall needs a 400% rise.
The relationship is nonlinear because every deeper loss leaves a smaller base from which the stock must recover.
#stockmarkets #drawdown
Ajay Zaveri retweeted
98% of success comes from consistently doing boring things no one sees. 2% is visible and exciting, so that's all everyone talks about.
Ajay Zaveri retweeted
Cashless health insurance is legally sanctioned house arrest.
The doctor officially discharges you at 9 AM. You are fully recovered, your bags are packed and your family is ready to take you home.
Then the hospital administration steps in: "Sir, the insurance TPA approval is pending. Please remain seated in your room until we receive the final payment."
You then spend the next 8 to 12 hours held hostage in a ₹15,000-a-day hospital room.
You are no longer a patient but you are collateral. The hospital doesn't trust the insurance company to actually pay, the insurer is deliberately stalling to find a typo in your medical history to reject the claim and you are stuck in the middle of a corporate standoff.
We live in a country where UPI settles transactions in 300 milliseconds and automated trading algorithms move crores in a microsecond.
The system is designed to exhaust you. They want you so frustrated and desperate to go home that the next time you get sick, you just pay the cash upfront and file for a reimbursement which they will conveniently reject 45 days later citing "insufficient documentation."
If my policy is active and the hospital is in-network, the final discharge should be an instant and automated API settlement. Man I paid insurance company for this service.
Until we force insurers to adopt automated clearing, stop calling it a cashless facility.
Call it what it actually is: an extortion racket with a waiting room.
Ajay Zaveri retweeted
"A vast majority of people spend their entire lives in a state of 'provisional living', a psychological posture where current circumstances are treated as merely temporary, uncomfortable waiting periods before their 'real' life begins.
We tell ourselves that once we pass this exam, survive this quarter, fix this relationship, or pay off this debt, the provisional phase will end and authentic existence will commence.
But life is not divided into a provisional rehearsal and a final performance; the provisional phase is the performance.
Every day spent enduring the present solely for the sake of an imagined future is a day permanently deleted from your brief, non renewable supply.
The real revolution in personal life happens when you decide to stop treating your current messy, imperfect conditions as an interruption, and accept them as the actual stage upon which your life is taking place."
- Oliver Burkeman