On Episode 830 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Capt. Shiv Samrat Kapur, Managing Director of the India arm at Sentosa Ship Brokers as well as Vivek Kaul, Author and Columnist.

SHOW NOTES

(00:00) Stories of the Day

(01:00) The markets recover on Tuesday but on tenterhooks once again

(03:41) Net FDI has contracted for the fifth month in a row

(04:53) LPG imports into India have dropped sharply. But how are ships presently navigating the Strait and what are the logistics involved?

(18:06) Gen Z has got a reality check in the markets. Can it survive the shocks?

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NOTE: This transcript contains the host's monologue and includes interview transcripts by a machine. Human eyes have gone through the script but there might still be errors in some of the text, so please refer to the audio in case you need to clarify any part. If you want to get in touch regarding any feedback, you can drop us a message on feedback@thecore.in.

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Good morning, it's Wednesday, the 25th of March, and we're reaching the end of March now, and this is Govind Raj Jaitley Raj broadcasting and streaming weekdays from Mumbai, India's financial capital. It also means that we are on Day 25, going into Day 26 of the war.

Our top stories and themes…

The markets recovered on Tuesday, but on tenterhooks once again

Net foreign direct investment has contracted for the fifth month in a row.

LPG imports into India have dropped sharply, not surprisingly, but how are ships presently navigating the state of Hormuz and what are the logistics involved?

Gen Z has got a reality check in the stock markets, can it survive the shocks?

A Perfect Matrix

The United States says it's talking to Iran, the latter denies it roundly and soundly, and has instead retorted that President Donald Trump made peeves moves on Monday morning only to calm the markets. The US also says it's talking to some specific leaders in Iran, all of whom are saying it's not them, which of course they would, even if they were indeed having those negotiations.

All of this obviously compounds the information distortion. Analysts in the US, including columnists for well-known media organisations, have speculated that the five-day peace offer made by Donald Trump on Monday only seemed to be a market-spacifying move than anything else and that was a slate of hand for a ground invasion that could happen any day now, which is what we've been saying too. Meanwhile, all sides are pounding each other with bombs, so focus on the action or on the words.

On Tuesday, oil prices started rising, not surprisingly, as markets reverted to their cautious and sceptical stance on what really is going on, and more on that shortly. Back home, the nifty 50 and cents were close to their day's highs at end, thanks primarily to bank and auto stocks as traders saw a de-escalation, which of course was visible till the markets closed at about 3.15pm Indian Standard Time. But by the time US markets opened on Tuesday morning, crude prices were rising as those hopes began to fade.

The nifty 50 was up 399 points to 22,912. The cents x was up 1,372 points to 74,068. The nifty mid cap and small cap were also up 2.6 and 2.63 percent higher.

Among other news, India's private sector grew at its weakest pace in over three years in March because of lower domestic demand, though international orders hit a record high. HSBC's Flash India Composite Purchasing Manager's index of PMI compiled by S&P Global was down to 56.5, this month below the median forecast of 59 in a Reuters poll, which had expected little change from February's final reading of 58.9. While a reading above 50 signals expansion, the downturn was the sharpest in 18 months, pointing to a notable loss of momentum, according to that Reuters report. Meanwhile, the rupee paused a three-day run, touching record lows and moved up slightly, about 0.1 percent, to end the session at 93.86. From its previous lows of 93.97 in the previous session, we had recorded that the rupee had closed just under 94 on Monday.

So the rupee has weakened about 4 percent in 2026, with a big fall coming obviously in March as oil prices have gone up and there has been more portfolio investment outflow or rather portfolio outflows. Speaking of outflows, net foreign direct investment into India contracted for the fifth consecutive month in January 2026, with outflows exceeding inflows by nearly 1.4 billion dollars, a three-month high according to a report in The Hindu. And the data shows that this was because inflows into India fell nearly 7 percent, while the amount that went out of India nearly doubled.

The Hindu quoted Reserve Bank of India data saying that the total amount of money that came into India as direct investment across FDI was about 5.7 billion dollars in January 2026. This was about 7 percent lower than in January last year, and only two-thirds of that amount came in December 25. So here's the interesting part.

Now firstly, sector-wise, it's roughly the same. Computer services, electricity, and other energy and financial services, which represent about 60 percent of total inflows. Now the outward part, we don't know where it's going at least from here, but that was up 5.4 percent in Jan to 2.1 billion, and 75 percent of that went to the United States, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates in the April 25 to January 26 period according to the Reserve Bank of India.

LPG, LNG, Crude Oil and The Strait

Reliance Industries has bought about 5 million barrels of Iranian crude days after the U.S. temporarily removed sanctions on the oil according to Reuters, and that oil was bought from the National Iranian Oil Company and was priced at a premium of about seven dollars a barrel to Brent Futures. Iranian oil has been mostly bought by Chinese independent refiners in recent years and is often rebranded as originating from another country according to Reuters. Elsewhere, Brent crude futures were up $1.25 to about $101 a barrel.

The war has obviously curtailed shipments of about 20 percent of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas through the state of Hormuz, causing what the International Energy Agency has called the biggest ever oil supply disruption. Now, Reuters says that if the state remains effectively shut until the end of April, Brent could touch $150 a barrel, that's quoting Macquarie, the research firm, and that would obviously cross the all-time high of $147 set in 2008. The same blockage is said to halve the month's imports of liquefied petroleum gas, that's LPG by India, which is the number two importer according to traders and data put together by Reuters.

Roughly 60% of India's LPG needs come from imports and 90% of that comes from West Asia and obviously the war has changed all of that. This was about 22.7 million tonnes last year. On the domestic side, the government has said that local refineries have increased LPG output by about 40 percent in the last month.

Meanwhile, India is also loading LPG into empty vessels stranded in the Persian Gulf as a gas shortage grips the country, according to Reuters quoting an official from the shipping ministry. Eight LPG carriers, four crude oil ships, and one LNG, that's liquefied natural gas tanker, were amongst the 24 Indian flagged vessels stranded in the Persian Gulf. Sticking to LPG, what's the status of ships presently at sea, which India is obviously facing major shortages on? I spoke with Captain Shiv Samrat Kapur, Managing Director of the India arm of shipbroking firm Sentosa Shipbrokers, a firm that matches demand for LPG in this case.

Kapur is a former mariner and has captained ships through the state of Hormuz in the past. I began by asking him how he was reading the current situation and the ship traffic.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Capt. Shiv Samrat Kapur: At the moment, like there are no fresh loadings happening in the Middle East. So, you know, I'll just call that area the Middle East Gulf, you know. So, the typical ports over there, Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura, then you have KPC, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation's Neenah Al Ahmadi, QP has Ras Laffan, Das Island, UAE has Ruwais, you know, these are the load ports.

So, these are the typical loading areas, I think I've probably covered all of them, from where cargo is typically picked up. And I'm talking with respect to the very large gas carrier segment, which typically pick up like the parcel sizes are 44,000 plus minus 5% metric tonnes. This is normally like if we talk about India-centric, it's a 50-50 split between Khoper and Bute.

So, at the moment, as I said, there are no fresh loadings happening. And the ships that we have recently seen transiting, these are ships which have mostly loaded in the past in the pre-war area, but they were stranded there because of the blockade created by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. And now what has happened is, thanks to the Indian government, you know, having a neutral relationship with all the parties involved, they have been able to sort of evacuate and I would avoid a total LPG crisis in India, you know, sustain the current supply-demand balance that we sort of need.

You know, there's no emergency, there's no dry out, which is happening. The first ships that we saw transiting were the Nanda Devi and Shivalik on the 13th of March. And then the Jagvasanth and the Pine Gas, they started moving.

I mean, there were talks about them moving since Friday evening, I think that's when we started picking up and we started monitoring those ships. And they finally heaved up, anchored and started transiting yesterday morning, I think around 10, 10.30, 11 in the morning, if I'm not wrong. And they were successfully able to come out by, you know, tomorrow evening.

Now they're well in the clear. So that's what is happening. And mostly I think the strategy that the Indian government is probably using that we've seen on most of the two ships which came out and even these two ships, they are discharging them in West Coast India.

And one more interesting factor is, so the Indian government currently controls, I think about around 23 to 25, like I don't have the list in front of me, but about 23 to 25 time chartered ships. Out of these, the ships which have come out, like they are Indian flagships. And it's not again confirmed.

But what we have heard and what we feel is because they are discharging the ships at West Coast India is they want a quick turnaround so that, you know, if they are able to, they can take the ships back inside. If you know, they can try and them again from loading facility. So this is the current scenario.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Right. And you talked about 23 to 25 time chartered ships. Now, so these ships are still on the other side of the strait of Hormuz.

Capt. Shiv Samrat Kapur: No, no, no, no. A few of them are out. A few of them are here. Like if you want, I can draw that list out for you.

It's not like all ships are perpetually stuck inside. A few are out, a few are in, you know, that's what we would say.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Right. What's the rough sailing time between some of the ports that you mentioned or all the ports that you mentioned to the point it reaches the Gulf of Mohan, which is, I think, where the safe area is.

Capt. Shiv Samrat Kapur: So the furthest one is Neenah-ul-Ahmadi, KPC, which I think is about, it should take, I think, about one and a half days or something, roughly speaking. And I think Ras Tanura should be like less by a day. That is like, I would say, you know, somewhere in the middle.

And then the closest one, I think, is UAE, which is Ruwais. That is, you know, the least on the distance. Ras Laffan as well, Das Island as well, you know, so there are a few hours like, you know.

So, but I mean, once you're clear of the strait, you're fine. So it's majorly, you know, the bottleneck is the strait itself, which takes a few hours. I would say, like, typically rounding off, we call it Quine Island, which is like, it's an imaginary place.

It's not an island in itself, it's a place from where the distances are measured. And that place basically, you know, to transit to do the whole round off in the Strait of Hormuz, it takes about, a VLGC typically would do, you know, there are newer ships, older ships, but I would say an average speed of 15 knots. So it should take about five and a half to six hours to typically round off the Strait of Hormuz.

And you know, you add a couple of hours here and there to, you know, be absolutely clear. So I would say about 12 hours, 10 to 12 hours.

Govindraj Ethiraj: So two things. So one is from the time they load, whether it's in Saudi Arabia or the Emirates, till the point they clear the Strait of Hormuz, what is the total time usually?

Capt. Shiv Samrat Kapur: So again, it depends which port you're loading from, right? If it's KPC, if it's Mina al-Ahmadi, it's farthest, you're like completely inside the Gulf, you know, so that would take, I think, about one and a half to two days. And if you're loading from say, Ruwais, Ras Al Khan or Dar es Salaam, probably about half a day to one day, that's what I would say.

Govindraj Ethiraj: And once you clear the Strait, and which you're saying will take anywhere between one and a half to two days from the time you've loaded to reach western ports of India?

Capt. Shiv Samrat Kapur: I think it takes about three days to sail via the Arabian Sea. There is still a spot market, but it's not as liquid as it used to be for the medium-sized gas carriers, MGCs, which typically carry 20 KT. I remember I used to account like 15 days as a round voyage time, which includes, and the lay time at that time used to be around 120 days, which is like five days for loading and discharging, and probably four to five days for coming and going.

So that's how we used to calculate, you know, our turnaround. So it's about probably, when you reach the load area, about 24 hours typically to load, and then about four and a half to five days to reach a western port. And it depends which West Coast India port you're going to, New Mangalore being the southernmost, and then, of course, Karnala, Pipava.

Korbandar now, I think, is the only West Coast India port which does not accept VLGCs. Otherwise, typically, most of the West Coast Indian ports have become VLGC ports.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Right. If you take the total time going back and forth, if you were to look at the time going back many years, when you were sailing, how many ships would be going, you know, transiting in a good season, let's say?

Capt. Shiv Samrat Kapur: On a day, thousands of them, I would say. I'm not talking just LPG at any given point of time, that's a very high traffic dense area. No, I mean, the India, West Asia or the India Middle East corridor.

You're talking about West Coast India at that time. So at that time, I was sailing in 2011. So at that time, the Indian LPG imports were not where they are right now, you know, right now, we are doing 20 million plus of LPG imports.

At that time, I was not on the commercial side of things. But I would still assume we would probably just be importing about two and a half, three million tonnes. You know, we were not doing much because the PMUI came on later, right?

The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana probably came in about 30, I don't remember the exact time, but probably about 14, 15. And that's what sort of gave the India a boost on its LPG consumption, making it overtake Japan.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Yeah, it's more recent than that. But my point is at the current consumption rate, let's say even before February 28, how many ships would be typically going back and forth on the India Middle East corridor?

Capt. Shiv Samrat Kapur: So if we look at it, we have like, as I said, about 20 plus VLGC's on time charter. So I think last financial year, we did about 55 VLGC's on spot, you know, so that is excluding March. So if we include March as well, then it would probably be 60.

You know, I think it was 54, 55, something like that. So you know, it's about five spot ships a month. And then typically, I would say for a VLGC to do a round voyage from East Coast India, it takes about 25 to 35 days.

So let's say a 30 day voyage, you know, because the normal trend is okay, these circumstances are different. The normal trend otherwise is a ship would load out of the Middle East to a two boat discharge in India, which could be two ports in East Coast India or one West Coast, one East Coast India. So it takes you know, so the lay time that they use in their spot voyages, I have seen it going up from 240 to 360 days.

It depends on the port congestion also at different times, the monsoon stuff like that, you know, if we calculate a total of it, it would be one PC ship a month, plus five ships. So that would make about 25 to 30 VLGCs. And on the MGC segment, as I said, the spot market is not that liquid anymore.

So maybe about one spot ship every one or two months. So let's say six ships. And then I think we have about eight to 10 MGCs on time charter.

So I would say about roughly around 35 ships or something, you know, that would be like, you know, in the entire month.

Govindraj Ethiraj: That's how I would look at And what would be the current run rate in terms of what we are in the last, let's say, 24 days, we've just seen four ships coming out, right? Just four ships. Got it.

So arguably, we are at least 20 to 25 ships short for this month.

Capt. Shiv Samrat Kapur: So I mean, this is not the correct way to put it, because a lot of things have changed this year also, because India has started importing CFR cargoes from the US, right? So that sort of, you know, offsets. The other thing which they've done is they've also increased domestic production.

So it's very hard to sort of, you know, there's a lot of things which are happening, you know, so I think the domestic production has jumped by 25 to 40%. But if you talk about shipping, there are ships which are coming from the US as well, you know, about 2 million tonnes of LPG, I think 2 million plus tonnes of LPG per annum has been committed from US on CFR tonnes. So that has also sort of eased the dependence or the pressure we would have had from loading out of the Middle East Gulf.

Govindraj Ethiraj: But assuming let's say our need is combination of mid-size, large-size carriers, about 25 ships a month, how many could come from the US in your estimation going forward? Takes a long time.

Capt. Shiv Samrat Kapur: I mean, it can't be typically offset in one go. But of course, there's some stock, there's some reserve, which is going on. From US, I think it takes about, I would say maybe around 40 days or something, 40 odd days.

I'm just talking off and I can look it up. But that's what I would assess it at.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Sure. Last question. So, Captain, I mean, I'm sure a lot of people you know are piloting some of these ships or are stuck somewhere.

So what are they telling you in terms of what they're going through right now?

Capt. Shiv Samrat Kapur: So honestly speaking, I haven't spoken to a seafarer who's currently on board. But all sorts of things are going on. I think additional normally in such a situation, I remember when I was sailing, like, you know, your charters or owners would offer you like additional crew bonus to sail through high risk, we call them HRAs, high risk areas, you know, to sail through those.

And so all that must be happening. Of course, people would be scared. At the moment, I think there are a few ships.

So I was trying to work on something also in the Middle East Gulf. There is one ship which is empty, which is an Indian flagship, but not on time charter to the Indians. So I was trying to work something on them.

And then of course, owners need a big premium to load out of AG in the current situation. Because what happens is like, I was discussing more on the commercial transport people. Of course, like whether you get hit on an empty ship or a full ship, it doesn't matter.

But once you are full, once you're loaded, then the incentive for someone to hit you becomes more because it's not just an empty vessel, it's something so there is reluctance for people to sort of, you know, load currently like there is a tender which got quoted today by Pertamina, which is an Indonesian PSU to load out of Mina Al Hamidi. And this ship which is sitting empty over there, they decided not to offer in for the tender. So there is reluctance for seafarers at the moment, who are stuck inside to load.

Of course, there are a few unfortunate few which are loaded and are stuck. They are not Indian ships which are being able to come out. You know, I can at least think of three or four offhand ships like owners who have spoken to.

So of course, they're scared. There is like, you know, that atmosphere of fear, which is on board, which is natural, right in such a situation.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Captain, it's been a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you so much for joining me.

Capt. Shiv Samrat Kapur: Thanks a lot, Govind.

Gen Z and Markets

The Indian markets have obviously had a rocky ride this year.

While the war in West Asia has delivered multiple shocks, the markets have been tepid to weak across the board with greater losses in the mid and small cap stock segments for almost a year or more. Financial columnist and author Vivek Kaul argued in an article a few days ago in Mumbai Mirror that the victims of this exuberance were mostly youngsters who jumped into the markets in the last few years and were cheered on by a deadly mix of frictionless broking apps, influencers of influencers, and the general sense that the market was only going to go one way. I spoke to Kaul and I began by asking him how he was seeing the victims of this phenomenon of the last few years in the stock markets before also asking him about how JNZ should be approaching its investments and savings here on.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Vivek Kaul: If you look at the number of investors under 30, as of March 2019, it used to average at around 226 per thousand investors. And as of February 26, this has gone up to around 384 per thousand investors. Okay.

So essentially, what that tells you is that incrementally, it's the youngsters who are getting into the stock market more. And this has happened over the past five to six years. And there are multiple reasons for it.

First, obviously, is the pandemic, where, you know, people ended up at home. And essentially, it became easier to trade slash invest. I mean, it would have been slightly more difficult if you know, we would have all been going to office, right.

But at home, it was just easier to invest, trade and do crypto better on your gambling apps, or all these online money games. So it's the same trend, essentially. And you know, it's also a function of the fact that you now have, you know, in the last seven, eight, 10 years, you have apps which are very, very easy to use vis-a-vis, you know, the Demat websites that one used to use.

If you were to compare, you know, the current the low cost apps with the legacy apps, the ease of use is just huge. I mean, anyone who's used the legacy apps would know that it was sometimes it was just very difficult to even figure out as to how do you buy a stock? Or how do you trade a derivative?

Plus, you know, cheap internet, smartphones, and the rise of financial influencers. So I think all these things came together and created sort of a deadly cocktail where the essential message that was promoted is that it was easy to get rich. And you know, I think what I wrote in my piece in the Mumbai Mirror was that financial influencers essentially said that it was very easy to get rich, and it was possible to get rich by lunchtime.

Whereas, you know, those in the business of managing other people's money came around and said that you possibly can't get rich by lunchtime, but we will get you up and running by tomorrow morning. So essentially, the whole idea was to catch these individuals, investors young, and promote the idea that it was easy to invest and get rich. And this is not just true about stocks.

It's true about crypto. It's true about futures and options. It's true about all the online money games that kept getting promoted that cricketers essentially promoted.

So the core message was the same across these. I mean, I can't call them asset classes, and neither can I call them ways of investing. So across these things.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Right. One of the things you've said is that people were sold stories and not stocks. And what does that mean?

Vivek Kaul: That's always happened wherein, you know, you are essentially told that, you know, such and such stock will go up because such and such stock has been going up. Or, you know, the market will go up because the market has gone up. So this is essentially a story, you know, you're not looking at the fact that, you know, the sales growth of companies has slowed down in the last three years, you know, the profits are not growing as fast as they were, or the fact that post the pandemic, many listed companies benefited, because the informal sector wasn't doing well.

So the pricing power went up, they got more business. So all this was true at a certain point of time, you know, what was true in 2022, need not have been true in 2024, and 2025 and 2026. You know, there are people who come around and tell you that Sensex will reach 1 lakh points.

And they've been doing it for a while now. And obviously, one day Sensex will reach 1 lakh. But does that mean anything?

I mean, I can confidently say today that Sensex one day will reach 10 lakh points. I mean, if it has gone from I mean, when I first started looking at the Sensex, it was at some, you know, 2000 3000 or 4000 point, we touched as high as 86,000 points, right? If something can go from 2000 3000 to 86,000, I mean, it will definitely go to a lakh, and it will definitely go to 10 lakhs also.

But the point is, when right? Nobody really knows that. But then you know, what happens is nobody really wants to most of us like do not like these nuances, or anything that makes life complex, right?

We're just looking to get in on the idea You know, if someone tells us, okay, this is a good stock, let's you know, why don't you just invest and you know, that is what these people in the business of other people's managing other people's money or OPM as I like to refer to them, essentially back on that's what they do.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Right. One of the things that this phase, which is the last five years that you referred to five or six years also created was the SIP phase or the SIP boom, which also has created a floor of sorts in the market. So would you say that that's a good outcome of the exuberance as well?

Vivek Kaul: Again, I have a slightly nuanced view on that. And I see this as a serious SIP investor, I've been a SIPing for two decades now. So see, what happens is, you know, the economists refer to this situation as the fallacy of composition.

Simple English, what it means is that what is good at an individual level may not necessarily be true at an aggregate level. And the best example of this is if you ever want to watch a cricket match or any sport in a stadium, you see that once you know, the guy on the first row gets up, then the guy on the second row gets up third, fourth, fifth, and then everybody has to get up. And you know, they would have just been better off if all of them were sitting right.

Nobody needed to get up but someone in front of you gets up then you also have to get up. So SIP was a great concept when only people like me and you and a few others knew about it. But the moment it became mass market, the flows became so huge that we just didn't have the number of companies or the kind of companies which could take in that flow.

And the result of that was that, you know, prices of a lot of stocks just went through the roof. I mean, look at all the money that has gone into small cap funds. And look at the kind of valuations, you know, that some of these companies which barely have any business or revenue have seen or look at what has been happening in the SME exchange, right?

I mean, I'm sure you remember this story about auto showroom, you know, guy who had two auto showrooms in this Delhi suburb of Dwarka in an IPO, he had to raise some 11 crore. I mean, I don't remember the number correctly, but somewhere around, you know, low number and he got applications of more than 400 crore. So what does that tell you?

I mean, obviously, you know, what was essentially good at a small level when it got scaled up became a terrible idea. Now I'm basically hoping that lots of people cancel their SIPs so that people like me who have religiously SIPed can benefit.

Govindraj Ethiraj: I'm going to come to the advice part in a second. But are you saying this or writing this today because we've seen the shock of the war and its impact on the markets where obviously markets have fallen more dramatically than the steady decline that we've seen in recent months?

Vivek Kaul: I have been saying this for a while now. I mean, it's not like I wrote the piece that appeared on Monday and said what I did for the first time. Obviously, what happened was that I was just lucky that the piece landed on the day that it did.

I mean, and I had nothing to do with it. And I've been saying this for more than a couple of years now. And obviously, you know, I've been wrong for all this time, because the market did go up when you know, even after one started saying that this is all overvalued, the market continued to go up.

Though one has been right since September 2024. See, it's very easy to figure out that something is overvalued. But saying that when that overvaluation will pop is next to impossible.

It's just not possible. So the only thing you can do is essentially say what you are and hopefully continue to invest the right way and be adequately diversified. You know, people will say that if you knew that the markets were overvalued, why did you continue SIP?

Right? Now, the explanation for that is that I have been adequately diversified all along. It was not my savings were not going just into SIPs of mutual funds.

Govindraj Ethiraj: So, right. And therefore, last question. So, as you talk to, let's say, younger Gen Z people who want to come into the market or who already come in and are sort of licking their wounds, so to speak, what would your advice be to them today?

And particularly those who do feel that they want to stay invested?

Vivek Kaul: Okay, so the first thing I would say is that you cannot start preparing for a crash once the crash happens. So, you have to take some risk off the table early enough. Right?

But that also means is that when you take the risk off the table, you might end up not earning the returns that you would have otherwise earned if you would have stayed invested. So, that is also a risk. But it depends on what risk you want to take.

Do you want to take the risk of return on capital? Or do you want to take the risk of return of capital? To me, return of capital is more important than return on capital at any point of time.

The second thing is to be adequately diversified. You know, when things are going good, you will hear all kinds of comments about FDs are boring product, you should break your FDs, FDs are something your parents and your grandparents did. So, all this is basically rubbish.

Now, FDs may not be the best product going around, especially once you look at their inflation and tax adjusted returns. But they are still a very important part of your investing portfolio. Because on days like Monday, it is the FD that will save you.

And also, you know, what the youngsters are also dealing with another thing, which, you know, you and I were slightly lucky not to deal with is the fact that artificial intelligence is just around the corner, right? While, you know, there is a lot of hype around it, but there are jobs that are likely to be lost. When you have the risk of losing your job, I mean, you better have an emergency fund because, you know, only when you have an emergency fund, which is safely invested, are you in a position that you will make good decisions.

I mean, you may not make the best decision, but you're more likely to make good decisions when you have some money in the bank. And obviously, I mean, if you still want to SIP, I mean, this is a good thing.

Govindraj Ethiraj: Vivek, on that note, thank you so much for joining me.

Vivek Kaul: Thanks.