Explained: What is passion investing and who should consider it?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Passion Investing is about collecting your object of desire or investing in them to turn your passion into profits. Although it’s been around for a few decades, passion investing isn’t just another fad contrary to popular belief. Instead, passion Investing works on the assumption that assets will gain in their value through their apparent rarity, and collectibles today will become the object of desire that people take pleasure from owning at a later date.

It has to be approached with a detailed and well-defined framework as you approach your other investments. However, if done correctly and systematically, you can have the best of both worlds, a constantly evolving collection of whatever you’re interested in (object of desire) and a way to diversify your portfolio with some unique and more personal assets.

Passion investing can be an effective way for portfolio diversification when done correctly. It has transitioned from a hobby to a lifestyle to investment over decades. In Passion Investment, the word passion is followed by investment; hence it should be considered a passion first and investment later. Investors can start small and gradually build a passion investment portfolio. Investors can allocate up to 10-15 percent of their portfolio to art collections as it can become a sub-asset class.

Their value does not rise and fall simultaneously as the stock market, so they could help minimize the pain of stock market downturns. In addition, these types of investments typically tend to do well during times of economic uncertainty. However, their financial returns are far from assured or predictable. Finally, one should note that they are volatile as well as illiquid, hence can rarely be liquidated overnight, especially when you need the cash quickly.

Passion investing should only be considered a long-term investment strategy and a part of a broader wealth management strategy. In addition, there are various luxury collectibles like Wine, Art, Watches, Coins, Jewellery, Cars, Stamps, Coloured Diamonds, Antique furniture, Chinese ceramics, etc.

Each different luxury investment has pros and cons, but it is best to choose the one you love and have knowledge of. Look at how different passion investments have performed over the past ten years and then buy the assets you are passionate about and that have the potential to appreciate. Knight Frank Luxury Investment Index provides a useful source of information, particularly on luxury investments such as cars and jewellery. The report looks at how different luxury investments have performed over the past ten years and has become one of the go-to reports for measuring passion investments worldwide. It is prudent to build it over time and diversify within this sub-asset class rather than putting all your eggs in one basket.

There is a high level of risks involved, as passion investing, in particular, is substantially different from other investment markets. Undertaking detailed due diligence is vital for the investors, as the available market intelligence and public information about an artwork may be limited. It is imperative to know the asset, the seller, hidden costs, and the asset’s authenticity. The market is small, opaque, highly fragmented, unregulated, and usually have issues like illiquidity and valuation subjectivity.

A comprehensive due diligence process and experienced legal and transaction counsel can help investors take informed investment decisions and mitigate risk. Also, to note is that there is cost associated with selling and buying of passion assets as they usually involve the services of a specialist auction house, and commissions can be high, often in the region of 15-30 percent. In addition, one has to factor in the cost of ownership, including the insurance cost of passion asset, its maintenance, and storage cost, as incorrect storage and maintenance often adversely impact the realisation price, requiring a professional approach or custody of many luxury items.

Passion Investing may be more fun than traditional investing, as it allows one to enjoy the asset of desire. It requires serious effort however when done right, passion investing can be a journey to an ultimate reward.

The author, Prashant Joshi, is Co-founder at Fintrust Advisors. The views expressed are personal

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Kangana Ranaut’s car stopped in Punjab, protesters seek apology for comments on farmers’ stir

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Actor Kangana Ranaut’s car was on Friday briefly stopped at Kiratpur Sahib in Punjab’s Rupnagar district by a group of people, demanding an apology from her over her remarks on the farmers’ protest against the Centre’s farm laws. Ranaut was returning from Himachal Pradesh when this incident took place.

In a video message on her Instagram account, the actor said, “As I entered Punjab, a mob attacked my car…They are saying they are farmers.” Police said when her car reached the Bunga Sahib gurdwara near Kiratpur Sahib in Rupnagar, a group of men and women, carrying flags of a farmer outfit, did not allow the cavalcade to move forward. They were demanding an apology from the actor for her comments against farmers protesting the Centre’s three farm laws, they said.

Her car was stopped for about half an hour. Ranaut also spoke to some protesting women, said police. After police persuaded them, the protesters allowed the actor’s car to proceed from Rupnagar. Earlier, the actor was accused of comparing protesting farmers with “Khalistani terrorists”. In the past, FIRs have also been registered against her over her remarks.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Hiring activity in India spiked 26 percent in November: Naukri JobSpeak

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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As economic activity returns to normal after nearly two years of duress courtesy the COVID-19 pandemic, the job market in India has posted an annual growth of 26 percent in the month of November. As per the findings of the Naukri JobSpeak report for November 2021, barring auto/auto ancillary, BPO/IPES and IT – hardware and networking, every other industry has recorded a positive year-on-year growth when compared to performance in November last year. The Naukri JobSpeak index was trending with 2,173 jobs postings, the report said.

Naukri JobSpeak is a monthly index that records hiring activity based on the job listings on the Naukri.com.

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Sectoral trend

The biggest improvement was recorded in the telecom and ISP sector, that recorded a growth of 91 percent YoY in November 2021. The hospitality sector also seems to be on the path to recovery as it reported a 58 percent growth this month, followed by education, training and teaching, that showed a 54 percent YoY jump.

The IT software industry moved up by 50 percent while retail grew by 47 percent and banking recorded a 30 percent growth.

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Experience level

The growth in the demand for employees with 8-12 years of experience grew by 37 percent YoY. Demand was also positive for professionals in the 4-7 years (30 percent), 0-3 years (27 percent), 13-16 years (26 percent) and above 16 years (20 percent) brackets.

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Geographies

The report suggests that the demand improvement in the job market was spread across the country, with only a few cities showing negative growth. This included Kochi and Chandigarh, that recorded 2 percent and 4 percent dip in the job market, respectively.

The sharpest jump, however, was recorded for Ahmedabad, that showed maximum growth (61 percent) in November 2021 when compared to the corresponding month last year. Bengaluru showed a growth of 50 percent, followed by Hyderabad and Pune that recorded 47 percent positive movement.

Also read: Job market in these 6 metro cities grow by 88% in September, says Naukri JobSpeak report

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

You will have to pay more for ATM transactions from January 1; here’s how much and why

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Customers will have to pay more if they exceed the free ATM transaction limit from January 1, 2022. This development come on the back of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) order that permitted banks to increase charges for cash and non-cash ATM transactions beyond the free monthly permissible limit.

The central bank, in a June 2021 order, allowed banks to increase charges on ATM transactions to Rs 21 per transaction after people have exhausted the free transaction limit from January 1, 2022.

However, the customers will be allowed five free transactions, including financial and non-financial ones on a monthly basis from their own bank ATMs and they will be able to conduct three free transactions from ATMs of other banks in metro cities.

As per the new RBI directives, banks would be able to levy charges on customers within this ceiling, once they exhaust the free transaction limit.

“To compensate the banks for the higher interchange fee and given the general escalation in costs, they are allowed to increase the customer charges to Rs 21 per transaction,” RBI had said in a statement.

HDFC Bank and Axis Bank have already started informing customers about the development.

According to the HDFC Bank website, the ATM transaction charge rate beyond the free limit of Rs 20 + taxes will be changed to Rs 21 + taxes as of January 1, 2022.

As per the Axis Bank website, “Effective January 1, 2022, financial transaction fee above the free limit in Axis Bank or other bank ATMs will be Rs 21 + GST.”

In August 2021, the interchange fee, the fee that the merchant bank pays to the card-issuing bank each time a customer swipes their credit or debit card, was also hiked. Customers are now supposed have to pay Rs 17 instead of Rs 15 as an interchange fee per transaction through ATMs for financial transactions. The charges for non-financial transactions were hiked from Rs 5 to Rs 6.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Curbing Delhi pollution: SC satisfied with Centre’s affidavit, experts weigh in

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Deployment of flying squads, an enforcement task force and reduced operational hours for industries not using cleaner fuels – this in a nutshell is the Centre’s response to the 24-hour ultimatum given by the Supreme Court (SC) in order to act against industrial and vehicular pollution in Delhi-NCR.

On December 2, the SC said that it would be forced to take extraordinary measures if the Centre and the concerned states did not step up their measures to curb pollution in the National Capital Region.

The SC today (December 3) expressed satisfaction at the Centre’s proposal, even as it hit out at some sections of the media for trying to project it as the ‘villains’ who want to close down schools.

The Uttar Pradesh (UP) government in its submission told the court that reduced operational hours will impact the sugar processing industry in and around NCR which in turn will affect the farmer.

Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, Dr Vibha Dhawan, Director General of the Energy and Resources Institute, Polash Mukherjee, Lead on Air Quality at Natural Resources Defense Council India and Karthik Ganesan, Fellow and Director – Research Coordination at Council on Energy, Environment And Water discussed this further.

Vikas Singh is also the counsel for the petitioner in this matter.

For the entire discussion, watch the accompanying video.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

FindYourFit raises undisclosed amount from Aditya Sanghi, plans to use funds for product strengthening

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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FindYourFit a geo-social app which matches people based on their fitness interests, has raised an undisclosed amount from Aditya Sanghi. The funds will be directed towards product strengthening, growth marketing and hiring the best talent out there, the company said.

The app al-ready enjoys a strong presence in Delhi-NCR and Jaipur with more than 1,500 downloads in two weeks and will now be targeting all the Indian metros and tier-1 cities.

“Pandemic has made everyone health and fitness conscious. Even though, the initial phase saw closing of gyms across the country, the fitness industry witnessed the launch of many new fitness apps. According to World Economic Forum, there was an increase of 46 percent in fitness and health apps downloads between the first and second quarters across the globe. India had a staggering number of downloads at 156 percent or 58 million new users. This trend is here to stay and will see a further boost in online fitness training, wearable technology, and mindful exercising,” FindYourFit said in a statement.

“The biggest issue faced by fitness enthusiasts today is the lack of motivation to stay fit even though they have access to all sorts of fitness content around them. Joining fitness groups, or signing up for a fitness challenge, or tying up with a fitness partner is a better way to ensure one doesn’t lose focus. The two young women entrepreneurs Ankur Lohani and Arushi Lohani realized they were fre-quently falling behind their fitness goals, due to lack of motivation. In order to address this issue, they decided to be each other workout partners. This is what gave birth to the FindYoutFit Value Proposition,” it said.

The user needs to register themselves on the app, based on their interests, skill level, and lo-cation, a number of searches will be shared with them. The user can connect with those searches which are deemed fit.

Arushi Lohani, Co-Founder FindYourFit said, “Fitness is here to stay. Individuals have become more conscious of their lifestyle and fitness choices. Through this app, we aim to connect with like-minded individuals through fitness and sports. We are planning to scale up and have a strong presence in Pune, Bangalore, Mumbai, and other metros starting early January.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Explained: What is Facebook Protect; how it helps users at risk of cyberattacks

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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After broadly expanding it during the US 2020 elections, Facebook Protect, a program designed to provide extra protection and security to high-risk users targeted by cybercriminals, is now being rolled out in more countries, including India. Facebook plans to expand the programme to nearly 50 countries by the end of 2021.

What is Facebook Protect?

First tested in 2018, Facebook Protect is a feature that will provide stronger account security protection to users at high risk of being targeted by malicious hackers. When turned on, the feature will mandate these account holders to use a two-factor authentication (2FA), particularly by using third-party authentication apps. This will significantly improve the security of the online accounts.

Also read: Apple suing Israeli hacker-for-hire company NSO Group

Who is it for?

The feature is designed for people whose accounts are at risk of cyberattacks or state-sponsored attacks. These include human rights defenders, journalists and government officials. “Facebook Protect enables additional automated defences from our systems to help protect these accounts,” Facebook’s Head of Security Nathaniel Gleicher said.

How does it work?

Users in this group will be prompted by Facebook to turn on the feature. “It also flags these accounts in our internal systems. So, we get a report about one of them or we see repeated targeting of one of them and we know there could be more at stake,” Gleicher said.

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Is your account at risk?

According to Facebook, if a user gets the prompt, it means their account is considered as a high-risk profile and the user will have to turn on the feature. After approving the prompt, the user will also have to also turn on the two-factor authentication for the account if it has not been done already.

Facebook provides the prompt with a deadline. Unless approved within that time period, the user will be locked out of the account. Even if the account is locked, the user will not lose any data. The account can be accessed again after turning on 2FA and Facebook Protect feature.

Users in India

As the feature is in the process of being rolled out in India, not all users will get the prompt immediately. Facebook will bring in a process allowing high-risk users to register themselves for the feature.

Also read: Facebook data breach 2021: Details of 533 million users leaked, what we know so far

“We have a journalist registration programme, for example, and a number of publications work proactively with us to make sure that their journalists are highlighted on our platform so that we can provide this additional protection,” Gleicher said.

According to Gleicher, Facebook has enabled the feature in more than 1.5 million accounts so far.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Govt extends last date to submit annual life certificate to December 31

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The deadline for government pensioners to submit their annual life certificate or Jeevan Pramaan Patra has been extended to December 31, 2021. The usual yearly deadline for the same is November 30.

With this extension, pensioners now have more time to submit their annual life certificate. It is vital for pensioners of all hues to submit a ‘Life Certificate’ or ‘Jeevan Pramaan Certificate’ every year to Pension Disbursing Authorities (PDAs) such as banks, post offices et al to receive their monthly share.

Pensioners can submit their annual life certificates at PDAs either by presenting themselves personally or by delivering a life certificate online.
Pensioners can generate a digital life certificate using a software application and secure Aadhaar based Biometric Authentication System.

The Digital Life Certificate (DLC) so generated is stored online and can be accessed by the pensioner and the PDA as and when required.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Bitcoin network surpasses PayPal in transaction volumes

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The bitcoin network has reportedly surpassed transaction volumes of payments platform PayPal. At an average $489 billion, the bitcoin network transacted $187 billion more than PayPal per quarter this year, dailyhodl.com reported quoting data by blockchain intelligence company Blockdata. PayPal processed an average of around $302 billion per quarter.

However, bitcoin’s current transaction volume per quarter is still only a fraction of the value processed by credit card companies Mastercard and Visa, Blockdata noted.

Mastercard processed an average of $1.8 trillion per quarter this year, 260 percent more than PayPal.

Also Read: Nothing to accept cryptocurrency payments

“It’s impressive how bitcoin, as a 12-year-old decentralised network, is 27 percent of the way in terms of one metric (volume processed) compared to Mastercard, a company founded in 1966, especially when you take into account that this is a decentralised movement,” Blockdata said in the report.

The blockdata report makes a case for the bitcoin network beating Mastercard based on three factors — the rise in the number of transactions, the average amount of bitcoin sent per transaction and the surge in bitcoin price.

Also Read: Why is Ether outperforming Bitcoin? Will the trend continue?

The bitcoin network would have to scale 260 percent to process an equivalent volume to the Mastercard network on a daily basis, and 540 percent for Visa. However, there has not been any indication that the amount of bitcoin set per transaction is rising, it said.

Alternatively, if the price of bitcoin were to rise by 260 percent, then the bitcoin network could reach Mastercard’s volume, it noted. As the rise in the price of bitcoin has been unpredictable historically, it is hard to say if it will reach this point.

According to the report, at the current growth rate, bitcoin could reach Mastercard’s volume anywhere between 2026 and 2060, taking into account that Mastercard would also be processing more transactions than today.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow