Why tier II and tier III cities are new startup hubs

It's instigative to see India's Tier II and Tier III metropolises arising as startup capitals. This trend highlights the growing entrepreneurial spirit and invention in these metropolises, as well as the adding openings and resources available to support startups in these areas.

The fact that around half of all government- honored startups in the country are grounded in these metropolises is a testament to the eventuality for growth and success in these regions. This also indicates that startups from these metropolises are getting more competitive and secure backing and recognition at the public position. 

The emergence of incipiency capitals in these metropolises can also have a positive impact on the original frugality, by creating jobs and driving profitable growth. It also helps to bring in further investment and development in these metropolises. 

What is driving this trend?

Faster internet, access to a massive gift pool, better transport, and quality structure at a lower cost. Diversity of ideas and perspectives from startups grounded in these metropolises can also bring a fresh perspective to the incipiency ecosystem and can contribute to the diversity of the frugality.

Startups in these metropolises are usinge-commerce, fintech, and digital health technologies to make great products and says numerous of them are fastening on sustainable results and clean energy

Silent Treatment - An Emotional Abuse

If you’ve ever found yourself in a situation where you couldn’t get someone to talk to you, or even acknowledge you, you’ve experienced the silent treatment. You may even have given it yourself at some point. The silent treatment can happen in romantic relationships or any type of relationship, including between parents and children, friends, and co-workers. It can be a fleeting reaction to a situation in which one person feels angry, frustrated, or too overwhelmed to deal with a problem. In these cases, once the heat of the moment passes, so does the silence.

 The silent treatment can also be part of a broader pattern of control or emotional abuse. When it’s used regularly as a power play, it can make you feel rejected or excluded. This can have a huge effect on your self-esteem. The silent treatment is a particularly insidious form of abuse because it might force the victim to reconcile with the perpetrator to end the behavior, even if the victim doesn’t know why they’re apologizing. Mostly, employed by passive personality types to avoid conflict and confrontation, while strong personality types use it to punish or control. Some people may not even consciously choose it at all. A person may be flooded with feelings they can’t put into words, so they just shut down.

But the silent treatment ultimately harms the person causing it, too. Humans are predisposed to reciprocate social cues, so ignoring someone goes against our nature. The perpetrator is therefore forced to justify the behavior to keep doing it; they keep in mind all the reasons they’re choosing to ignore someone. You end up living in a constant state of anger and negativity. Before diving into ways to respond to the silent treatment, it’s important to know how to recognize when it becomes abusive. Sometimes, going silent may be the best thing to avoid saying things you would later regret. People might also use it in moments where they don’t know how to express themselves or feel overwhelmed.

But some people use the silent treatment as a tool for exerting power over someone or creating emotional distance. If you’re on the receiving end of this kind of treatment, you might feel completely ostracized.

If you believe you’re experiencing emotional abuse, you don’t have to put up with it. Consider whether or not you want to maintain a relationship with that person.

If it’s your spouse or partner, you both may benefit from couples counseling or individual therapy to learn better ways to manage conflicts.

When the silent treatment is part of the larger issue of emotional abuse, don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault. You’re not responsible for their behavior, no matter what they tell you. If that person genuinely wants to change, they’ll get themselves into counseling.

You need to take care of your own emotional needs, which may include breaking off the relationship. It’s important not to isolate yourself at this time. Maintain your social contacts. Reach out to family and friends for support.

 

Women in the driver's seat- Seeing the road ahead

" Women in the driver's seat"- this tagline is though practical but in reality society fails to understand it and those who understand it are leading the market.

 

The gender gap on Indian roads is rapidly decreasing. Like other roles, women in India are taking the wheel in larger numbers - drift that happened - probably can be attributed to several factors, including rising education and increased career opportunities.

The growth spurt in women drivers has prompted car makers to innovate and design vehicles to suit women's preferences.

In gender-based auto needs found that women today play an important role when choosing and in some cases, even buying the family car.

 “As women become the dominant car buying segment, auto makers and suppliers need to change their product development strategy”, advises Olivia Price-Walker, Frost & Sullivan Visionary Innovation Senior Consultant. “The rise of the female car purchaser is impacting OEM strategy and broadening some car categories. We believe OEMs will win by developing products and strategies that are directed at women.”

 

Also, considering women on the driver seat companies tend to come up with features which are women centric. Study has identified eight key design trends of female consumer vehicle preferences:

•        A customized, spacious cabin

•        High visibility around the vehicle and a sunroof

•        Green credibility and low CO2 emissions

•        Intuitive controls

•        Wellness features

•        High quality materials (e.g. leather seating)

•        Auto assist functions (e.g. park assist and sensorial doors)

•        Personalization options (e.g. special pedals for long heels)

 

But are we into giving a better customer experience when we enter the showroom?

You do not have to look far to find women who have had a bad car buying experience. "One of my friend was buying a car recently, and she became more and more irritated because the car salesman was talking only to her husband. So she said, You know, I feel like you're not paying any attention to what I say.'" The car salesman, surprised, insisted he was paying attention to her. "Oh yeah?" she replied. "What's my name?" The dealer--who had made a point of using her husband's name repeatedly--was speechless."

 

Just a incident that also portray poor selling strategy or a poor sales pitch that was never modified. It could also be stereotypical influence of society that men will only buy car forgetting the point it could be opposite if not that most men are influenced by women choices.

Men and women communicate differently and can misunderstand cues and singles differently. Car dealers don't have to offer cookies and manicures to improve the buying experience. The most important thing they can do is change the way they listen.

Mostly, women like to tell stories. We don't talk in bullet points. When we come in to get  car serviced, we want to tell you the whole history. But men tend to interrupt and cut to the chase, and that makes us feel bad, like they're not respecting us.

Will better listening work to increase sales?

Understanding women psychology many online landscape offers female oriented review sites assisting women with accessing information and transparency on car buying (Truecar), car reviews, and driving tips (VroomGirls).

The consciousness of the female buyership does not end in the showroom: Currently one of the lowest global industry averages for diversity at 18 percent, the automotive industry will proactively hire women at all levels.

Toyota is the most popular brand among women , followed by Honda, Ford , Chevrolet and Nissan.

Meanwhile, a major percent of all MINIs are sold to women. The English brand is followed by Kia, Honda, and Nissan.

Clearly, women represent a substantial market for automakers, which justifiably invest more and more time and financial resources to win them over. Nowadays, women are synonymous with profits. So, gentlemen, don't be offended if you go to a car dealership and the sales representative focuses on your significant other. It's just that they've finally realized her major role and influence in the shopping process and, ultimately, your purchase decision.

Why or Why not Mutual Funds?

What  is Mutual Fund?

A mutual fund is an investment vehicle where many investors pool their money to earn returns on their capital over a period. This corpus of funds is managed by an investment professional known as a fund manager or portfolio manager. It is his/her job to invest the corpus in different securities such as bonds, stocks, gold and other assets and seek to provide potential returns. The gains (or losses) on the investment are shared collectively by the investors in proportion to their contribution to the fund.

Why should you invest in Mutual Funds?

The primary benefit of investing in a mutual fund is that you get exposure to a variety of shares or fixed income instruments. For instance, if you wanted to invest Rs. 1,000 directly in stocks, you would probably get only a share or two. If, on the other hand, you invested through a mutual fund, you would get a basket of several stocks for the same amount.

These are the main types of mutual funds:

 

·         Stock (equity) funds typically carry the greatest risk alongside the greatest potential returns. Fluctuations in the stock market can drastically affect the returns of equity funds. There are several types of equity funds, such as growth funds, income funds and sector funds. Each of these groups tries to maintain a portfolio of stocks with certain characteristics.

 

·         Bond (fixed-income) funds are typically less risky than stock funds. There are many different types of bonds, so you should research each mutual fund individually in order to determine the amount of risk associated with it.

 

·         Balanced funds invest in a mix of stocks, bonds and other securities. Balanced funds (also called asset allocation funds or hybrid funds) are often a “fund of funds,” investing in a group of other mutual funds. One popular example is a target-date fund, which automatically chooses and reallocates assets toward safer investments as you approach retirement age.

 How mutual funds make you money

 When you buy into a mutual fund, your investment can increase in value in three ways:

1.     Dividend payments: When a fund receives dividends or interest from the securities in its portfolio, it distributes a proportional amount of that income to its investors. When purchasing shares in a mutual fund, you can choose to receive your distributions directly, or have them reinvested in the fund.

2.      Capital gains: When a fund sells a security that has gone up in price, this is a capital gain. (And when a fund sells a security that has gone down in price, this is a capital loss.) Most funds distribute any net capital gains to investors annually.

3.      Net asset value: Mutual fund share purchases are final after the close of market, when the total financial worth of the underlying assets is valued. The price per mutual fund share is known as its net asset value, or NAV. As the value of the fund increases, so does the price to purchase shares in the fund (or the NAV per share). This is similar to when the price of a stock increases — you don’t receive immediate distributions, but the value of your investment is greater, and you would make money should you decide to sell.

How to invest in mutual funds?

 Decide whether to go active or passive

Your first choice is perhaps the biggest: Do you want to beat the market or try to mimic it? It's also a fairly easy choice: One approach costs more than the other, often without delivering better results.

Actively managed funds are managed by professionals who research what's out there and buy with an eye toward beating the market. While some fund managers might achieve this in the short term, it has proved difficult to outperform the market over the long term and on a regular basis.

Passive investing is a more hands-off approach and is rising in popularity, thanks in large part to the ease of the process and the results it can deliver. Passive investing often entails fewer fees than active investing.

Calculate your budget

Thinking about your budget in two ways can help determine how to proceed:

How much do mutual funds cost? One appealing thing about mutual funds is that once you meet the minimum investment amount, you can often choose how much money you’d like to invest

Which mutual funds should you invest in? Maybe you’ve decided to invest in mutual funds. But what initial mix of funds is right for you?

Generally speaking, the closer you are to retirement age, the more holdings in conservative investments you may want to have — younger investors typically have more time to ride out riskier assets and the inevitable downturns that happen in the market. One kind of mutual fund takes the guesswork out of the “what's my mix” question: target-date funds, which automatically reallocate your asset mix as you age.

Mutual fund pros and cons

Still trying to decide if mutual funds are for you? Here are the pros and cons.

 Pros

These are the primary benefits to investing in mutual funds:

·         Simplicity. Once you find a mutual fund with a good record, you have a relatively small role to play: Let the fund managers (or the benchmark index, in the case of index funds) do all the heavy lifting.

·         Professional management. Active fund managers make daily decisions on buying and selling the securities held in the fund — decisions that are based on the fund's goals.

·         Affordability. Mutual funds often have a required minimum amount as low as RS 100, but several brokers offer funds with lower minimums, or no minimum at all.

·         Liquidity. Compared with other assets you own (such as your car or home), mutual funds are easier to buy and sell.

·         Diversification. This is one of the most important principles of investing. If a single company fails, and all your money was invested in that one company, then you have lost your money. However, if a single company within a mutual fund fails, your loss is constrained. Mutual funds provide access to a diversified investment without the difficulties of having to purchase and monitor dozens of assets yourself.

Cons

 Here are the major cons of mutual funds:

·         Fees. The main disadvantage to mutual funds is that you’ll incur fees no matter how the fund performs. However, these fees are much lower on passively managed funds than actively managed funds.

·         Lack of control. You may not know the exact makeup of the fund’s portfolio and have no say over its purchases. However, this can be a relief to some investors who simply don’t have the time to track and manage a large portfolio.

Investing and Smallcase

Many of us in this lockdown have at least thought or studied or invested in stock market. For the beginners it is really tough to analyse and study. Mostly, we tried to join a random group or to get suggestions on which stock to invest and how much to invest in those stocks. Some of us blindly followed these random suggestions and trusted others.

In this randomness I tend to found out an App named Smallcases.

To simplify Smallcases are a new way to invest in stocks. A smallcase is basically an intelligently weighted basket of upto 50 stocks that reflects a theme, idea or strategy.

If you are investing in smallcases, you get the direct ownership of the individual stocks bundled together in a portfolio. This is different from mutual funds, where you don’t have ownership rights in the stocks that form your mutual fund portfolio but you hold units of the portfolio.

Smallcases are centred around a trending market theme probably rising rural demand or a financial model like zero debt or different risk profiles viz. aggressive, balanced and conservative (they also explain which type of variants will likely suit you or which type of investment will be better).

Smallcases, the stock selection for a theme is a result of well documented research processes and it's ensured that the selected stocks aptly represent the particular theme. If an investor spots a particular trend and believes that the trend will last long enough to make a significant difference in terms of capital gains, then he/she can invest in such themes by using Small case’s tailor-made portfolios. Investors can customize their Smallcase portfolios if they wish to. Stocks can be added and removed.

Smallcases aren't a means of recommending or advising investors. Choosing a smallcase is upto each individual. Mostly, provide you exposure to trending market themes (GST, smart cities) & investing styles & strategies (Buffett, Graham, Greenblatt).

A brokerage account is mandatory to trade in smallcases.  Since you will be investing in stocks directly, a trading account and a Demat account is required. Smallcase Technologies has partnered with brokerages such as Zerodha, HDFC securities, Kotak Securities, Axisdirect, Edelweiss, 5paisa and Alice Blue.

When you invest in smallcase, money is debited from your trading account and stocks are credited to your Demat account.

Smallcase does not charge any fee individually for its portfolio. The fee is charged by Smallcase’s brokerage partner.

All its partners, namely Zerodha, HDFC Securities, Axis Direct, Edelweiss, and 5paisa, charge Rs.100 as the fee for the first transaction on a particular Smallcase portfolio.

Once the investor has paid the Rs.100 fee after selecting a certain Smallcase portfolio, then no subsequent fee is charged for further investments made in that particular portfolio.

For example, let us assume that an investor starts with an Rs.10,000 investment in the “Smart Cities” Smallcase.

During this first Rs.10,000 transaction, a fee of Rs.100 will be charged. This Rs.100 is irrespective of the investment amount.The initial investment amount can be Rs.10,000 or Rs.50,000. The fee will remain Rs.100 for that first transaction.

Subsequently, if the investor invests another Rs.1 lakh, then there will be no Smallcase fee. Only brokerage and other charges, as charged by the broker, will be applicable.If that same investor also invests in another Smallcase portfolio, like “Smart Beta”, then another Rs.100 will be charged for the very first investment made in “Smart Beta”.Then, subsequent investments in “Smart Beta” or “Smart Cities” will not attract any Smallcase fee. All investment transactions, however, will attract brokerage-related charges.

If you are having a thought how it is different from Mutual Funds? 

So let me tell you this when you buy from smallcase you become a direct shareholder of those companies present in the Stock Basket when you invest ‘through’ Smallcase. But when you invest ‘in’ a Mutual Fund, you are just buying the Units of Mutual Fund and not the stocks that make up the portfolio of the fund, so you do not become a proud shareholder of a company when you invest in a Mutual Fund.

When a Mutual Fund buys or sell any stock from their portfolio the tax burden is not carried by the Mutual Fund Unitholders but when a Stock Basket is re-balanced, the tax burden that comes with the re-balancing falls on the portfolio owner.

Different Categories in Smallcase are:

For New Investors – It is for the newcomers, who are just starting into Direct Equity Investment. There are 6 Baskets present at the moment in this category. Most of the Stock Baskets in this category contains Big, Established, Bluechip Companies.

Smart Beta – The baskets on this category are mainly for passive investors. The Stock Baskets in the Smart Beta category mostly consists of well established Large Cap companies. This category aims to provide a market-beating return at low risk.

ETF Smallcase – Stock Baskets in this category are made out of ETFs or Exchange Traded Funds(Will make a blog on this too). The baskets are more geared towards general market investing. As the cost of each ETF Unit is low so does the baskets in this category.

Long Term – This category mostly contains baskets oriented around the public consumption sectors of the economy like Private Banking, Logistics and Transportation, Purchasing Power of the Indian Middle Class, etc.Stock Baskets from this category are designed for Long term investment. An intermediate investor who will not panic during a crisis like the Pandemic should invest through the baskets present in this category.

Dividend Income – By far the favourite category of ours.The Stock Baskets in this category are made to provide Investors with a regular income in the form of Dividends. These baskets again mostly contain Big, Established, Dividend Paying Bluechip Companies and some of them have paid dividends to their shareholders for more than 10 Years.

Sector Trackers – The baskets in this category are simply different economic sector tracker. In this category, Smallcase has a basket starting from Auto to FMCG to Infra to Pharma to Realty.As Sectorial Investing comes with its own set of risk, these baskets are not ideal for any Begineer Investor.

Government Reforms – By the name you can understand that this category contains Stock Baskets that are focused on the Government Policies and Reforms. All the positive initiative from the government will reflect in these baskets.

Growth Investing – Baskets in this category are made following any particular famous ‘Methodology’ of Investing. As the stocks in these baskets are chosen because of their Growth Potential, the risks associated with these baskets are high too.And along with all these categories when you login in with a particular broker, you will find some more Category or Stock Baskets which are associated or might be developed by that broker.

To conclude:

Stock Baskets are still new in India also the reality of investing through Stock Baskets is different. Regular portfolio updates and re-balancing will take a chunk out of the investor’s profit in the form of Taxes. And not to mention the loss borne by investors due to selling of securities when they are in the red. For me, Smallcase is a great tool to find new companies in different sectors and themes but it is not the right investment medium for Direct Equity Investment. We would use Smallcase as a Screener rather than an Investment Medium.

Disclaimer: This is my opinion and not paid promotion ;)

Comfortable Underworker

 Almost every manager has been in the uncomfortable position once because of managing someone who thinks their performance is superb when it’s actually just adequate, or worse.

What do you think is causes the mismatch between these employees’ real output and their perceptions of success?

Many may not be receiving enough resources and clear feedback which they need to develop and improve; others may be unable to recognize the reason they’re struggling. If leaders fail to address the situation, the lagging employee’s work will not improve, and the organization will lose the value of a team member who could thrive if given the proper support. Although, a more insidious risk is that the leader will appear to condone substandard work, and competent employees may become demotivated and disengage.

In this blog we will discuss about the approaches that will help to correct the problem — or understand whether that’s even possible.

Being clear about the expectations-

In any non-profit organization, client had a congenial work environment and a cultural commitment to understand each other’s need. 

In every part of hierarchy everyone committed that they are working hard but, just the hard work will not give fruitful results timely performance corrector and what may go wrong need a timely analysis.

When employees are supported with resources they can achieve the desired results. 

Many a times their natural skills are insufficient to meet the requirements of their role and responsibilities, they may not even perceive what their deficits are. When employees are supported with resources appropriate leadership, mentoring, and strong supervision in order to develop, particularly if they’re stepping into a function that’s new to the company or are promoted to fill an absence in the organization

For example-

A company promoted a director to cover the gap left by the sudden departure of an executive two levels up. No one in the senior leadership evaluated the new director’s development needs, despite the fact that he was suddenly responsible for large numbers of people performing varied jobs. The new director felt he was doing well by virtue of the promotion. But because this more complex job couldn’t be managed like his old one, the director became a burned-out micro-manager, creating operating bottlenecks and severe employee dissatisfaction.

A manager biggest responsibility is to determine whether to continue investing in the individual. If  not, it’s much more practical to reduce expectations or else it will not only drain your mind but also it will degrade the quality of the work and environment.

It is essential for a manager to praise carefully or else when an employee with an inflated sense of their own performance delivers high-quality work or conducts an interaction well, it’s important to praise them. But letting the praise stand alone can encourage them to think that everything they do is outstanding.

It is always desired for a manager to help an unaware under-performer be more realistic about their work requires a lot of attention and involvement. Understanding what’s driving their lack of awareness will either help determine what support they need in order to improve, or confirm assessment that they` just might not be able to satisfy the requirements of the job.

  

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  Almost every manager has been in the uncomfortable position  once because of managing someone who thinks their performance is superb when it’s actually just adequate, or worse.

  What do you think is causes the mismatch between these employees’ real output and their perceptions of success?

  Many  may not be receiving enough resources and clear feedback which  they need to develop and improve; others may be unable to recognize the reason they’re struggling. If leaders fail to address the situation, the lagging employee’s work will not improve, and the organization will lose the value of a team member who could thrive if given the proper support. Although,  a more insidious risk is that the leader will appear to condone substandard work, and competent employees may become demotivated and disengage.

  In this blog we will discuss about the approaches that will help to correct the problem  — or understand whether that’s even possible.

  Being clear about the expectations-

  In any non-profit organization, client had a congenial work environment and a cultural commitment to understand each other’s need. 

  In every part of hierarchy everyone committed that they are working hard but, just the hard work will not give fruitful results timely performance corrector and what may go wrong need a timely analysis.

  When employees are supported with resources they can achieve the desired results. 

  Many a times their natural skills are insufficient to meet the requirements of their role and responsibilities, they may not even perceive what their deficits are. When employees are supported with resources appropriate leadership, mentoring, and strong supervision in order to develop, particularly if they’re stepping into a function that’s new to the company or are promoted to fill an absence in the organization

  For example-

  A  company promoted a director to cover the gap left by the sudden departure of an executive two levels up. No one in the senior leadership evaluated the new director’s development needs, despite the fact that he was suddenly responsible for large numbers of people performing varied jobs. The new director felt he was doing well by virtue of the promotion. But because this more complex job couldn’t be managed like his old one, the director became a burned-out micro-manager, creating operating bottlenecks and severe employee dissatisfaction.

  A manager biggest responsibility is to determine whether to continue investing in the individual. If  not, it’s much more practical to reduce expectations or else it will not only drain your mind but also it will degrade the quality of the work and environment.

  It is essential for a manager to praise carefully or else when an employee with an inflated sense of their own performance delivers high-quality work or conducts an interaction well, it’s important to praise them. But letting the praise stand alone can encourage them to think that everything they do is outstanding.

  It is always desired for a manager to help an unaware under-performer be more realistic about their work requires a lot of attention and involvement. Understanding what’s driving their lack of awareness will either help determine what support they need in order to improve, or confirm assessment that they` just might not be able to satisfy the requirements of the job.

  
  

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Top business and personal finance influencers in India

 Are you interested to update  on the nitty-gritty of the industrial and financial landscape of India? It informs you about the latest startup trends or the changes in government policies that will affect business, business blogs have everything covered .

There are a plethora of finance bloggers who are sharing deep insights on several topics such as investments, personal financial planning, income tax, mutual funds, retirement plans, stocks and shares. In this blogs will provide you a  curated  list of best personal finance and business bloggers in India taking into consideration factors such as quality of content, web ranking, expertise in the subject and frequency of blogging.

Trak.in-Arun Prabhudesai

One of the most widely read business blogs in India, founded in 2007 by Arun Prabhudesai, Trak.in . He always felt that the India in youth have huge potential, but what lacks is the necessary resources to understand the concept of entrepreneurship. This was the main motive behind Trak.in.  Over the years, Trak.in has been successful in providing deep insights on the latest developments in the start-up space. Apart from informative articles, Trak.in also includes feature columns and expert talks from leading entrepreneurs in India.

capitalmind.in-Deepak Shenoy

If you are looking for one-stop destination for you to learn everything about investing its Capitalmind by Deepak Shenoy. In his blog there is a comprehensive guide that acts an unbiased and objective resource for all active investors. Deepak being an excellent analyst also gives meaningful insights on how to manage your stocks effectively so as to increase your savings and earnings.

Safal-Vishal Khandelwal 

Personal finance blog covers interesting aspects about investments, mutual funds, stocks, financial planning and tax savings,it was founded in 2007. Manish Chauhan also focuses on effective financial strategies for companies that can help sail through adverse market conditions.

 cashoverflow.in - Pardeep Goyal 

Cash Overflow is must be your favorite blogs if you are looking out to manage your funds more effectively and enjoy better financial freedom. An individual can seek financial freedom without compromising on his lifestyle. This blog not only provides from investment tips, he also provides a guide for readers on how to run a successful online business and earn  profits you can't imagine.

ApnaPlan.com- Amit Kumar

ApnaPlan, is founded by Amit Kumar is an ultimate guide for all your investment needs. From loans and insurance to credit cards and mutual funds, this blog can help you make safe and secure financial investments. ApnaPlan is a platform if you want to update yourself with the necessary government regulations in the financial sector.

Iwillteachyoutoberich.com - Ramit Sethi 

Ramit Sethi’s blog I Will Teach You To Be Rich is all about money making he is also awarded  New York Times best-selling author. He offers dhacks to master your psychology to achieve your financial goals within a scheduled time period. The interactive tools employed in his blogs help an individual to discover his potential to increase his savings on a regular basis. Apart from that, he also provides insightful  tips on how to improve your negotiation skills and develop a successful online business.