The Investor

Ideas that Atharv bets on

Nationally:

India, that is Bharat: For Atharv, being a citizen of the world’s largest democracy, an epitome of freedom, liberty and opportunity, inheriting eternal intellectual and philosophical riches, rooted in undying civilisational values and ethos, is a matter of the greatest pride. His belief is furthered by India’s global emergence in the past decade and its undeniable significance in posterity. The world’s most populous nation is brimming with aspirations, which upon maturing, are capable of altering humanity’s destiny in multiple ways. These aspirations are ubiquitous in a nation still emerging from the challenges of poverty, illiteracy and social inequality. However, these challenges are only amplifying the grit of 1.5 billion Indians, who now seek to prosper and live better lives. The overwhelming success of digital payments via UPI, the linking of Aadhaar or the striking numbers of yearly unicorns are only the tip of a mammoth potential that is rooted in the transformation of rural India.

Atharv is deeply invested in India’s interests, which he firmly believes are for the larger global good. Overtime, as India’s growth expedites, uncovering nascent horizons of opportunities, Atharv aims to extend his grip further on the India Growth Story. He is confident that in doing so, he and his ventures will be best positioned to leverage a fathomless aptitude in technology, infrastructure and personnel to deliver on myriad global agendas.

“At the time of Independence, the world questioned India’s ability to survive, remain a united nation, a democracy. We were supposed to derail and become a rogue, anarchist and divided nation – a failed nation. 76 years later, we stand united as the world’s largest democracy, demonstrating unparalleled accomplishments in the most sophisticated fields, teeming with widespread aspirations, and ready to only expedite our growth process. A rather grim modern world, plagued with the same blights supposed for us, deems India as its guardian for democracy, development and dignity of life. The India growth story is the greatest human endeavour, the biggest unfolding enterprise and the most optimistic bet one can make.” – Quote

Rural Development & Agriculture:

India’s steady growth since Independence is largely attributed to the tertiary sector and the urban regions. The drivers of our economy consisted of a minor proportion of the human resource, limited to certain geographical areas. Hence, for decades, fruits of India’s growth were reaped only by a minor fraction of the population. The bulk of the nation was engaged in a stagnated primary sector, plunged by obsolete agrarian practices, and virtually non-existent modern facilities. Therefore, the greatest impediment to the true realisation of India’s economic prowess was an expansive financial divide between the rural and the urban populations.

The rural, consisting of the majority, struggled due to illiteracy, lack of facilities and economic opportunities; leading to a very splintered urban population representing the whole of the economic growth. This divide further propelled a substantial rural-urban migration. However, its success was restrained as the urban regions were of meagre size and resources; resulting in a vast section of the population to participate in the economy, informally, and render their services for scanty compensation. Even today, the rural-urban divide is the greatest economic and social challenge faced by our nation. However, in the past decade, the progress in addressing this challenge has expedited significantly. We have, in record time, enabled equal access to the internet for rural people as for the urban. This has bridged the intellectual divide and paved way for the establishment of a nationwide uniform digital public infrastructure that will be the cornerstone of further rural development and prosperity. Moreover, Indian agriculture, the index of rural growth, is demonstrating gradual yet substantive growth, propelled by overall modernisation. The strongest evidence of this is the five-fold jump in the union budget allocation for agriculture – from less than 25,000 crores in 2014 to more than 1,25,000 crores in 2023. Relatively nascent concepts of clean and organic farming too are providing new opportunities to our farmers, who now sense empowerment. The widespread digital transformation and scaling agricultural productivity can be described as the fulcrum of rural growth. Consequently, India’s hinterlands, the largest reservoir of human capital with a promising trajectory ahead, poses as the most lucrative contemporary opportunity for investors.

“By investing in Rural India, one doesn’t simply weigh in on the most promising growth ambit ever, but also on aeons old concepts and traditions, representing the values and ethos of the greatest civilisation ever.” – Quote

Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs):

The bedrock of India’s economic flight, over the past decade, has been a burgeoning middle class. They represent the broader sentiments of the country’s citizens – highly bullish. Flagship initiatives of the government as Make in India, Skill India, Start Up India inter alia have empowered the middle class to undertake long thought ventures and long due business expansions that have cumulatively broadened Indian commerce and strengthened consumers; vitally adding to the nation’s economic resilience. The Indian middle class, globally renowned for its ingenuity, work ethos and practices has swiftly leveraged the economic tailwinds stimulated by the government, and delivered the nation, brisk and flexible growth, in a relatively short span of time. India’s middle class, despite agonising challenges, demonstrates indubitable prospects to be the backbone of economic growth in the 21st century. Consisting of a multi-talented, trained and consummate workforce with climbing aspirations and novel objectives; their contributions will be indispensable to global growth. The relationship between investors and these committed small businesses and unfolding enterprises, has the potential of illimitable booming in the times to come.

Credit: Undoubtedly, the central indicator of a flourishing economy is proliferating credit needs. Credit requirements underpin growth rates, expansion strategies and entrepreneurial scales and objectives. In India’s case, the credit requirement only explodes with the exponential growth at various levels, seated in myriad sectors. This helps us gauge the robustness of the economy. While the government, banking sector, cooperatives and non-banking financial corporations, step up to meet this spurring growth in credit demand, there still remains a vital underservice; providing opportunities for private investors to draw on. Satisfying India’s credit demands by supporting entrepreneurs and commercial ventures in various regions and sectors, over the longer term, poses tremendous profitability.

Real Estate & Infrastructure: The real estate market is another salient indicator of economic growth, and India is no exception. Real estate market in the country, across segments, has witnessed rampant growth; supported by an inflating middle class, mounting infrastructure investments, and broadening urban and semi-urban areas. Real estate has an inherent inviolable standard value that only augments in a country like India, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, boasting the largest youth population, and myriad pristine 21st century industries and sectors. They will create opportunities, attract people and investments from across the world and amplify the real estate market. Across India, metropolitans are expanding, encompassing a greatly diversified asset classes, simultaneously, new cities and towns are emerging, further widening the scope of real estate development. India’s real estate market also stood successfully the test of time during covid and exhibited extraordinary resilience. The real estate sector, across all major economies, nosedived during covid as people shifted their working spaces and mediums. Nevertheless, the real challenge for the sector in all major economies was the continued distress in the various segments of the sector in the post-covid period of recovery. The worst-hit were the commercial and industrial segments, where a large number of office spaces continue to lie vacant. The housing market is also in distraught with skyrocketing mortgage rates, consequently, cooling demand. In India, however, there was a slight waning but never a nosedive in the sector. Moreover, post-covid recovery has been greatly encouraging with major realty firms across the globe investing across-spectrum in Indian real estate. The sector’s growth rate is currently at 6-7 per cent and is expected to reach 18 per cent by 2030. Such is the promise of the sector that its market is touted to be worth a trillion dollars in 2030, up from $ 200 billion in 2021.

In today’s times of efficient and extensive mobility, facilities and multitudes of developments to enable faster and smoother commerce and upgradation of the standard of living; infrastructure has become the nucleus of spurring economies. In India, infrastructure development in the past decade can inarguably be declared the champion of economic growth and prosperity. In the last decade, infrastructure in India has witnessed a thoroughly comprehensive development – from rolling extensive highways, multiplying airports, developing ports, face-lifting railway stations to enhancing public amenities, introducing modern technologies and fostering structural growth of the country. As the India growth story continues to bust forth, infrastructure development’s centrality in its momentum, only buoys to greater heights.

Internationally:

It is Atharv’s firm belief that global development be a fundamental concern of global citizens. In times of the gravest crises, it is only through unity and cooperation by sharing strengths and weaknesses, can one and all flourish.

“Today more than ever are our countries and regions interconnected and interdependent on one another. It is absolutely ludicrous for any nation to endeavour an isolated growth or prosperity in the midst of a grim world or to tread lightly the impacts of global developments. In the longer term, our fate is shared and hence the only rational approach to development should be based upon the principles of global cooperation, unity and mutual respect. Anything else is a farce.”

Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Mechanics & Computing and other nascent technologies: Atharv firmly believes that today’s growth trends and pockets are the greatest propeller to global cooperation. Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Nanotechnology and Quantum Mechanics are titans of global growth in posterity. And no country is capable of realising their complete development and fruition. A network of nations sharing insights, information and innovation can only successfully deliver on these sophisticated technologies. Chip manufacturing is another critical and contentious issue of the day and its modernisation is centred around partaking of nations with their unique abilities and resources. Technology’s centrality in contemporary global commerce is only to be augmented with the greater introduction of these mammoth concepts that are capable of redefining the actual prowess of technology. Still in nascent stages of development, the magnitude of their impact is hard to imagine, however, it is surely more astronomical than anything else seen before. The cause of these technologies is further supplemented by their immense relevance in sustainable development, clean transitions and social welfare. Atharv considers it to be the responsibility of global investors to prod these concepts for delivering the growth of the 21st century.

Emerging countries: Thousands of years of the human journey, from the invention of the wheel to launching the International Space Station, is apparent of the universe’s greatest force – our imagination. Unfortunately, as a combined society, our imagination, aspirations, seek all but less of social welfare, equality and empathy. History is thronged with instances when interests of one state or people were a curse for the other. This is more evident today than ever before as some of us relish the many luxuries of life, four billion people, two-thirds of world population, experience water scarcity at least a month in a year, over 2 billion people are moderately or severely food insecure, lack basic hygiene services, and as we enter the “AI boom” – 2.9 billion people still have never accessed the internet. African, South Asian and Latin American countries are home to the most despondent and deprived populations of the world. These figures are a conspicuous reflection of the deep-rooted social, intellectual, economic and regional divides in our world. Given their laggarding progress over the years, these countries are now capable of blazing the trail for global economic recovery. Emerging economies have an insatiable appetite for growth and attracting investments. Virtually, across all sectors of the economy, emerging markets provide the most lucrative returns upon a healthy investment. This club of countries, popularly known as the “Global South”, led by economies of India and Indonesia, who currently experience the biggest booms of the 21st century, and also include thriving markets of Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil and Mexico. Gabon is predicted to demonstrate the strongest economic growth in the coming years, an indicator of the depths of opportunities for investors. Economic prosperity of the global south is the mainspring for the empowerment and well-being of the neglected half of the world population. Their widespread growth will enable fuller realisation of existing resources, including human capital, augment trade and commerce, foster equitable international cooperation and lead towards sustainable development and peace. Economic upheavals are also the foundation of political and regional instabilities. Both, from a commercial and an ethical point of view, emerging economies dispense the strongest promise to investors in contemporary times.

Means of Sustainable Development & Clean Energy:

As the sophistication of mankind’s ventures and operations increases, requiring sheer efficencies and an ever-dynamic energy production and distribution system, an unprecedented pressure is falling upon the traditional, exhaustible sources of energy – as coal, oil etc. Not only are these sources limited but are also highly hazardous for the planet and the people. The pitfall of the global “industrial developments” or “industrial revolutions” in the past three centuries are the excessive temperatures, forest fires, floods, pollution and deprivity of today. In other words – the obliterating threats posed by climate change today. We, like never before in the preceding generations, are at a crossroad directly concerning the survival of us, everything we are and we know. In this hour of crunch, our collective ability to adapt, make prescient choices and commitment to sutainable developnmet goals (SDGs) will come to determine the condition of our relequence, if any, to the future generations.

Irrefutably, transition to clean energy by its renewable means of production and a streamlined global grid network (distribution system) are the kernel of any efforts towards sustainable and eco-friendly developments. Unsurprisingly, a downright global effort towards energy transition and amplification, in due consideration of varying feasibilities of nations and corporations, is a herculean and heterogeneous task to undertake. It requires intense dialogue at various levels, myriad incentivization from governments and international players, a comprehensive and panoramic global & regional policy formulation, and above all an exigent belief and worldwide will to come to grips with the challenge. If successful, the global energy transition will be the most monumental collaborative achievement of mankind. Indubitably, the realisation of this endeavour is the backbone of mankind’s future and requires an astronomical investment to advance. However, in the longer term, the obsoleteness, volatility and ramifications of the conventional energy sources pose a greater cost on mankind than that to process a transition. Hence, an investor rooting for a clean future and wishing to engage in everything enormity that surrounds energy, must rightly pitch into the sector and its relevant evolution.

The above concepts & ideas are simply aligned with the narrative of forstering equitable global sustaninable development by encouraging innovation, growth and duly considering regional social and cultural dynamics.