Glad that AP Government has dumped the total liquor prohibition policy

Gradual decrease of liquor availability and eventual total liquor prohibition was one of the "Navaratnalu" of Jagan's Government. It was a poll promise. I am glad that this policy has been dumped because it did not make any practical sense.

An adult should have access to buy alcohol if he/she can afford it. There is already substantial awareness about the ill-effects of drinking alcohol. In spite of this, if someone drinks alcohol, it is their choice.

Indian Defence Forces are not an employment creation scheme

The purpose of Indian defence forces (Army, Navy, Air Force, other wings) is not to act as an employment creation scheme. They devise a mechanism for recruitment based on their requirement and the budget allocated to them.

Coming to Agnipath scheme, it is a wonderful approach. The obvious benefits are:

• The composition of the Forces becomes younger. Now it is a bit older than desirable.
• The Forces save money (our taxpayers money) that can used to buy valuable combat equipment.

What about those fail to get a permanent job after 4 years? Well, they can try for a job with their existing skills. Or, reskill themselves for their desired job.

Do not name districts, cities, towns, villages after individuals.

The Government should not name districts, cities, towns, villages after individuals. If the Government wants to honour an individual, continue to name a street, museum, park or traffic junction after that person.

Roll back the names of all districts that were named after individuals in the past 20 years.

Politics will play a major role in the naming activity and in the protests against a naming activity! Unwanted activity.

It is better to call a district, town or village by its historical name.

We, the consumers, are underpaying for food grains. Farmers and environment are the sufferers.

Globally, we, the consumers, are underpaying for our food grains. Due to this, the farmers are suffering. Environment is also suffering.

Many farmers are not growing food grains mainly because it is not an economically viable activity for them. Till the cost of food grains increases, agriculture cannot be a viable occupation for crores of farmers.

Consumers have become accustomed to spending significantly less on food grains. However, they do not mind spending considerably on discretionary, non-essential expenses (such as travel, entertainment and gadgets).

It looks like there might be a shortage of food grains in the world in the near time. If that happens, the consumers will have to adjust (at least temporarily) their spending pattern to pay more for the food grains.

I will articulate soon for few related questions that you might be having:

1. How consumers have been able to underpay for the food grains?
2. What happens if consumers continue to underpay for the food grains?
3. Why environment is the casualty if farmers underpay for the food grains?

Economic downturn and timing of next AP Assembly elections

There is a decent amount of probability that US might enter into a recession this year. At the least, there is a high probability that US would enter into economic downturn this year. This downturn in the US might last up to 2 years.

If that happens, India too might start facing economic downturn starting from early-2023 for up to 2 years. Andhra Pradesh would be hit more badly compared to many other states.

Andhra Pradesh State elections are due in 2024. It might be in the best interests of the Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy to prepone the election date to 2023 in order to escape the dissatisfaction of the common man that would be built up by 2024.

My analysis. I can be wrong too.

Lesser appetite for “anti-national” policies of political parties

As a country strengthens from a lower-income society to a middle-income society, the majority of its citizens gain confidence and become more nationalist. In the last few years, India is in this phase and will continue to be in this phase at least for the next two decades.

This basic point was missed by the Congress party as it scored many self-goals in the last 12 years (since the recovery from the 2009 downturn). For example, its self-goal by opposing the repeal of Article 370! Unless the Congress party tilts toward “nationalist-friendly” policies, there is little scope for its reemergence as a strong alternative to BJP.

I notice that even AAP and its leaders are making the mistake of tainting itself with many “anti-nationalistic” statements and steps. AAP should be careful and not repeat the mistake of the Congress party.

Some thoughts on UBS acquiring Wealthfront

Congrats to the shareholders of Wealthfront as UBS acquires Wealthfront for $1.4B. Wealthfront has been one of the two industry-defining robo-advisors (the other one was Betterment). I can say that WealthFront built the best robo-advice product in the world.

The industry-leading, consumer-facing, web-based product that Wealthfront built is ideal for a massive segment of customers who opted for digital investment management. Even though the direction of its product development meandered for the last two years, its robo-advice tech is still the best-in-class.

I believe the $1.4B that UBS is paying for is primarily for the tech product, much more than for the $27B book of tech-savvy early-adopters. There was no way the UBS tech team would've built such an investment management product on their own even after five years of slogging it out!

Any acquisitions of other robo advisors in the US in the near term might not fetch the same acquisition pricing because other robo advisors do not have a similar "product premium" that Wealthfront enjoyed. Well done, Andy Rachleff and team.

That said, the original mission of Wealthfront (before it tried to integrate banking services to its product, thus losing focus) remains semi-complete. I think Wealthfront under its new UBS owners (and under new management in the coming years) will fail to do justice to the mission.

This acquisition creates room for the emergence of a new firm sometime in future to take up from where Wealthfront has traversed so far. I hope QuietGrowth is that firm!

UBS continues its efforts in digital wealth management -- It invested in SigFig in 2016. It closed its own robo advisor SmartWealth in 2018. It is running Sigfig-powered UBS Advice Advantage. Now the acquisition of Wealthfront.

With so many acquisitions of leading VC-backed robo advisors by big banks and financial institutions taking place in the US and UK, the terms "independent robo advisor" or "standalone robo adviser" might be used increasingly to differentiate!