Side Notes by Zerodha Varsity
Byte-sized lessons on investment strategy, financial metrics, business decisions, and market phenomena. The podcast is produced by Zerodha Varsity, an educational platform from India's largest stock broker. It aims to simplify complex financial concepts for retail investors.
Episodes
American Express - Why Buffett likes it more than Visa and Mastercard?
American Express is one of Warren Buffett's longest-standing bets. For over three decades, Berkshire Hathaway has held onto AmEx, through recessions, market crashes, and massive shifts in the payments industry. This is interesting given that AmEx operates a far smaller network than Visa and Mastercard.
So what makes AmEx different? Why has Buffett never sold? And how does a company with fewer card
Is Louis Philippe Indian or French?
Louise Philippe, Monte Carlo, Blackberrys, Bella Vita, and Da Milano are all foreign names of Indian brands. Is there a reason why Indian brands adopt English or European-sounding names? Does it have to do with perceptions of quality and trust? Or is it because we have not yet gotten out of our colonial mindset?
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What went wrong with Intel? What is it up to now?
Intel's quintessential Intel Inside sticker on laptops and in the marketing materials of other PC brands helped it achieve global dominance in processing chips.
However, another brand, TSMC, without any marketing and visibility on any computing products, somehow managed to take over Intel and become a far bigger semiconductor company. TSMC now commands more than half of the world's chip market to
Poka Yoke - Toyota's design thinking
The Toyota Production System (TPS) is a manufacturing system to ensure minimum wastage while constantly striving to improve quality. TPS is efficient, flexible, and extremely quality-conscious.
Poka Yoke is one of the many ideas developed under the TPS. This revolutionary system has inspired everything from a washing machine to aircraft.
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How Lenovo took over IBM to become the world's largest PC maker?
In 2004, Lenovo bought IBM’s iconic PC division. But this wasn’t an overnight leap — it was the result of years spent learning inside the value chain.
Starting as a distributor of laptops for global brands like HP, Toshiba, and IBM in China, Lenovo moved up the value chain to become a manufacturer and is now a global leader with over one-quarter of the market share for laptops worldwide.
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Why Apple Moved To The Type-C Charging Port?
Apple is known to be restrictive in letting its devices connect or share data with non-Apple devices. It has a lot to do with delivering a clean user experience and utmost digital security. In a way, it also compels an Apple user to buy other Apple products. So, it was a surprise when Apple introduced the universal Type-C charging ports in its iPhones. While Type-C solved for user experience, Appl
Revlon's fall from glory to bankruptcy, and revival
This episode explores the journey of Revlon — from a brand that sold glamour and aspiration to one that filed for bankruptcy nearly a century later. It traces Revlon’s early success, its marketing genius, the landmark hostile takeover that reshaped corporate law, and the debt-fuelled decisions that weakened the company over decades. The episode also examines how Revlon used Chapter 11 to survive a
The curious case of Narayana Health's profits
Narayana Health's 40% profit comes from just a small business in the Cayman Islands. Is it the pricing power or a different brand identity that Narayana enjoys in Cayman? Cayman might be a star of a business, but there is also some risk.
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Trent and Asian Paints - A tale of two popular stocks
Trent's ROE growth perhaps explains the rally in its stock, and Asian Paints' ROE slowdown perhaps explains the dull performance of its stock. Maybe it is the time frame you look at. Trent has outperformed Asian Paints over the last five years but underperformed over the last year.
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Nestle's brilliant razor and blade pricing model - and its pitfalls
Nestlé's Nespresso was a failed product when it was launched in the 1980s. A switch in product and pricing model helped make it a success. It was Nestlé's moat for a very long time, but then competitors broke it. Nestle came out strong nonetheless.
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Dmart's pseudo debt - a common accounting peculiarity
Most of Dmart's stores are owned, while a few are leased. Those leased stores are recorded as lease liabilities on Dmart's balance sheet. Lease liabilities are considered as good as debt or borrowing. It is an accounting peculiarity.
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Diet Coke Vs Coke Zero - What's the difference? Why the difference?
How can one drink be for women and the other for men? It is a day-to-day consumable, not even medicine. So, why target a drink to a specific gender? The lessons are in marketing and consumer psychology. Not just Coca-Cola, but also Pepsi had drinks targeted at different genders.
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Wipro's multiple hats - from groceries to IT
Wipro started as a vegetable oil maker. Samsung started as a trader of dried fish, groceries, and noodles. Today, neither Wipro nor Samsung is known for what it started out to do.Wipro's IT services are far removed from its initial oil business. Samsung is a tech giant with a global reputation for smartphones and semiconductors.
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Microsoft's bold pricing shift and the business rationale behind it
Microsoft Office used to be a one-time purchase. Now you probably pay for it every year. Why did Microsoft change its pricing so drastically? It was a risky move, but there was solid motivation behind it.Not just Microsoft, many software companies have transitioned from a one-time pricing model to an annual or monthly subscription model.
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Nike, Adidas, Puma, and their D2C pivot
For the longest time, Nike, Adidas, and Puma sold their sportswear through channel partners. However, in the early 2010s, they began shifting their strategy by selling directly to the end consumer through company-owned stores, websites, and apps. Did the business gain from such a shift, or did it blow up?
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Why Amazon did not care for profits in its initial years?
In its early years, Amazon focused more on cash flows and not so much on profits. It inspired a generation of startups to chase scale and not worry about losses. Those imitating startups revealed the pitfalls of taking only half the lessons from someone else's playbook.
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Temasek - A sovereign wealth fund that other nations want to emulate
Many nations have tried to model their sovereign wealth funds after Singapore's Temasek. While Temasek is an SWF, it behaves like a quasi Venture Capital firm with only one shareholder, that is, the Singapore Government. Here is Temasek's story.
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TikTok ban - How Instagram and YouTube swiftly took over the market?
A business might be a market leader. Network effects might have helped it become a moat. However, government regulations, through bans or restrictions, can make or break companies. TikTok had over 200 million users in India, and overnight, it was banned. Suddenly, TikTok lost a large business. And it became an opportunity for some others.
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Stanley Cups - from rugged uses to a stylish collectible
Launched in 1913, the Stanley Cup was marketed for its rugged uses by cops, defense personnel, and those engaged in outdoor activities. It remained a reliable but niche brand for its niche uses for over a hundred years. And then, by a stroke of luck, Stanley pivoted its marketing to appeal to a wider audience. What did they really do? What was this stroke of luck?
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Zomato to Eternal - Taking a leaf from Google and Facebook's playbook
Google became Alphabet, Facebook became Meta, and Zomato became Eternal - is there a commonality among the three? Each new name has a more widespread and overarching tone than the preceding one. But what drives an organization to rename itself at the peak of its popularity?
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When Reliance and Amazon went shopping at Big Bazaar
Big Bazaar was India's largest retail chain, sitting on a mountain of debt. Covid dealt a major blow to its operations. Reliance Industries stepped in to help, but Amazon obstructed the transaction due to an old deal it had struck with the Future Group.It was one of the most sensational corporate battles, but did anyone win?
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Starbucks Vs CCD | Whatsapp Vs WeChat | First movers vs Challengers
How could Starbucks improve over CCD's offering? How could Ola and Uber improve over Hertz and Wings Radio cabs? Newcomers or challenger brands bettered the offerings of pioneers in their fields and made them bigger than the pioneers. But there have been instances of pioneers nearly monopolising their categories. For example, WhatsApp has only grown its market share with a moat difficult to break.
Muhurat Trading and New Beginnings
Know the history and customs behind Muhurat trading, and why the Muhurat trading of 2025 is different.
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The world's best restaurants may not have a Michelin Star, do you know why?
It is interesting how a tyre company became an authority on rating restaurants worldwide. The connection feels unusual, but once you know the story, it seems almost obvious. Did you know that many restaurants may not get a Michelin Star, but a consolation prize of sorts? It is a cute tag, to say the least.
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Hyrox - Can cultural trends spark investment ideas?
Two companies, Concept2 and Centr, have long-standing agreements to supply equipment for Hyrox training and events worldwide. As Hyrox slowly becomes a cultural phenomenon, its suppliers stand to gain from the growing demand. There have been many similar parallels where cultural and subcultural trends have spurred demands for unlikely businesses.
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Brand Collabs, Drop Culture, Limited Editions - the business of hype
KFC x Crocs, Nike x Ben&Jerry's, Supreme x Oreo, and Comet x Naru are all weird brand collaborations. There are so many more. But are such collabs just marketing stunts or actual business drivers?
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Bhushan Steel's Fall From Fortune to Fraud
Bhushan Steel was among India's largest secondary steelmakers. It rode high on India's infrastructure boom, expanding operations fueled by massive debt. Its growth came to a screeching halt when the promoters and senior officials were accused of multi-thousand-crore accounting fraud involving shell companies, fake invoices, fund diversion, and round-tripping.
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When Reliance Jio behaved like a startup
Within just 6-7 months in 2020, Reliance had raised over 20 billion dollars from 13 prominent investors and sold about 33% of its equity Jio Platforms. This was the largest private capital raise by any company in India’s history. Why did such a cash-rich company like Reliance need external capital?
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Flipkart is loss-making but valuable for Walmart
Aswath Damodaran called Walmart's acquisition of Flipkart the most expensive facelift in history. He felt Walmart wanted to feel young again by acquiring a modern-age e-commerce company in a developing market. But Walmart is seeing a value that others may seem to ignore.
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L&T's hostile takeover of Mindtree
L&T wanted to diversify out of infrastructure-related businesses. It was looking for targets. Mindtree was not looking for buyers, but it came on L&T's radar because of VG Sidhartha's struggles at Cafe Coffee Day. Then came a hostile takeover.
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Lacoste - A solid business of solid shades
Rene Lacoste, a French Tennis prodigy, first wore a crocodile logo on his blazer. After his tennis career, he launched the Lacoste brand of tennis shirts, which, of course, had the signature crocodile logo.Lacoste is known for various shades of solid polos today. Surprisingly, it introduced those shades way back in the 1950s.
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How does WhatsApp make money?
WhatsApp is perhaps the only messaging app in the world that is free and does not display ads when you use it. When Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion, everybody thought WhatsApp would now start having ads. But it remained independent and had no ads. Even today, WhatsApp does not have any intrusive ads. It has a brilliant way of making money.
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Tata Steel's adventurous (mis)step - Corus
Tata Steel punched above its weight when it acquired Corus, a UK-based steelmaker, in 2007. It was touted as the coming-of-age for corporate India. However, it soon became a tale of caution. Was it operational challenges or adverse externalities?
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Vaseline - a soft product with rugged origins
When you think of Vaseline, the first thing that comes to mind is petroleum jelly. And there is a reason for it. As one of the most recognized personal care products, Vaseline has a very interesting story to tell.
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Tata Nano - Visionary Product or Failed Experiment
Mr. Ratan Tata's vision gave birth to the Tata Nano, which the engineers at Tata Motors made a reality. Perhaps some marketing missteps impeded the Nano from attracting customer interest as great as its popularity as the world's cheapest car. But was it just marketing or there were some other issues, too?
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Labubu Mania - The Business of Fad
Labubu dolls have single-handedly transformed Pop Mart from a domestic toy retailer in China to a global toy retailer with stores in the most upmarket streets of London, Paris, and Los Angeles, and several countries. Labubu dolls are a fashion accessory, with arguably no utility, but crazy demand. This episode tries to dissect the business of a fad collectible.
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The Day Silver Broke Wall Street
In 1980, two Texas oil billionaires, the Hunt Brothers, tried to corner the global silver market. From secret Swiss accounts and offshore trusts to futures contracts and a full-blown silver mania, their plan sent prices soaring, until it all came crashing down on Silver Thursday.
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Dettol's Liquid Soap Over Bar - Blue Ocean Strategy
How did replacing soap bars with liquid handwash renew the soap market's business potential? How did Colgate use a simple ad message to renew the toothpaste market's business potential?
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How Cadbury's hostile takeover turned into a friendly takeover?
The 100+ year-old Cadbury brand has had multiple owners. Kraft, Mondelez, and Heinz were side actors in this story, and Warren Buffett also made a cameo.
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Hersheys Hazelnut Chocolate Spread travels six countries to reach you!
A Hershey's hazelnut chocolate spread is used to make breakfast toasts, for baking cakes and cookies, and as a topping on fruits and desserts. But before reaching your table, the spread traverses through six out of twenty-six countries that participate in Hershey's supply chain.
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Gulf Rupee - the time when India printed currencies for other countries
Five Gulf countries - Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the UAE - used the Indian rupee as a legal tender until the late 1950s and early 1960s. But it became a problem for India. So the RBI introduced the Gulf Rupee, a special edition of the rupee that could be used only in those five countries and not India. But why is it not in circulation today?
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Semiconductor Chips - Moore's Law, TSMC, ASML, India's push for chips
A semiconductor is a small card or chip inside your phone, laptop, smartwatch, or other digital device. That small chip has a value chain that spans thousands of players across many countries. Semiconductors are also seen as a tool of geopolitical influence, therefore, many countries have been rushing to become part of the semiconductor value chain.
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How shale oil made the US the world's largest oil producer? What is shale oil?
The US extracts oil trapped in hardened shale rocks. The technology used in drilling through shale rocks and extracting oil is difficult and expensive. America's peak capitalism helped make it cheaper and made the US the world's largest oil producer.
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From earth to your cars - how crude oil is extracted and refined into petrol
Petrol, diesel, natural gas, fertilizers, plastics, rubber, detergents, and fragrances all have origins in crude oil (hydrocarbon) extraction. Crude oil runs deep in our daily lives, so it is understandable that crude oil prices are a major influence on the inflation rate. This episode traverses the entire crude oil value chain and more.
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How Zara's control over its supply chain makes it the most fashionable
Unlike most companies that aim for maximum capacity utilization, Zara deliberately operates below full capacity and is even willing to ship half-empty trucks or containers. The less-than-optimal capacity utilization means that Zara cannot always offer the lowest prices, but they are competitive enough. Rivals can only scramble to match Zara's agility.
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The rise and fall of Long Term Capital Management (LTCM)
LTCM had four co-founders - Myron Scholes and Robert Merton, who were famous for developing the Black-Scholes-Merton model of deriving option prices, and later also went on to win a Nobel Prize; David Mullins Jr., who served as the Vice Chairman of the US Fed from 1991 to 1994; and John Meriwether, who headed Salomon Brother's bond trading desk when it was caught in a bond auction scandal. After
Who broke the Swiss Banking Secrecy Code?
Bradley Birkenfeld was an American banker working for UBS in Switzerland. He blew the whistle on how UBS enabled American clients to skirt the tax laws. The investigation that followed forced Switzerland to break its decades-old banking secrecy code to let UBS share client data with the US authorities.
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Sumitomo Copper Scandal - How one trader cornered the world's copper market?
Around the 1990s, Yasuo Hamanaka of Sumitomo Corporation came to control 5% of the world's copper. He used various unscrupulous means, such as fake trades, forged documents, and hoarding, to manipulate global copper prices. Then, a twist came with the resurgence of copper mining in China. Sumitomo lost USD 2.6 billion when the scam was uncovered in 1996.
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Salomon Brothers Scandal and how Warren Buffett handled it
Salomon Brothers was one of the largest investment banks in the US in the 1970s and 1980s. It was the first bank to sell mortgage-backed securities. The head of the government bond trading desk at Salomon had figured out a way to scam the Fed's treasury auctions. When the scam surfaced, the Fed and the SEC were both determined to bring down Salomon, but Warren Buffett stepped in to help find the c
Bernie Madoff's big fat Ponzi scheme - How was it discovered?
Bernie Madoff ran an investment management firm that was not open to all - it was an invite-only club. That is what made it aspirational. Many investors saw it as a sign of status if they got to invest with Madoff. But no one knew that Madoff was not investing their money; he was just running a Ponzi scheme that lost investors a massive $65 billion.How did he pull it off?
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Lijjat Papad - How a group of 45,000 women swiftly run a pan-India organization?
Seven women from a housing society in South Mumbai started Lijjat Papad in 1959. It started as a co-operative and has since onboarded more than 45,000 member sisters. Interestingly, Lijjat also runs the Sasa brand of detergents and soaps.Lijjat Papad is a masterclass in sustainably managing a large-scale organization that has remained true to its core values, even decades after its establishment.
How a Rogue Trader caused the collapse of UK-based Barings Bank?
Nick Leeson was a young trader at Barings Bank who was tasked with setting up a trading desk in Singapore. He was an aggressive risk-taker who told small, harmless lies that soon became big enough to bankrupt the bank. He exhibited several behavioral biases that also led him to run a full-fledged scam. When in prison, he wrote a book called Rogue Trader, detailing how he orchestrated the whole sca
Reliance has equity reserves of ₹8 lakh crore! How does it use them?
A company usually creates reserves from share premiums and retained earnings. However, not all reserves are liquid. Companies use reserves for various purposes. If not used well, excessive reserves held in cash could be a drag on the company's ROE.
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Ryanair offers cheapest airfares and is still the most profitable
Ryanair offers extremely cheap flight tickets in Europe. They sell most tickets for £15 or less, which is roughly ₹1600. You hardly ever find those fares, even in India. Indigo is said to have emulated Ryanair's business model in its early days, but not anymore. So, how does Ryanair make money? What is its business model?
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Crazy Eddie - Scams and More Scams
Crazy Eddie was an electronics retailer in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. It was very famous for its catchy TV commercials but soon became infamous for the scams by its founders. This is a crazy tale of how two cousins defrauded their customers, shareholders, insurers, and the government.
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Why Jio Financial Services became part of the Nifty 50 index for just 13 days?
Jio Financial Services was spun off from Reliance Industries. Reliance is a part of the Nifty 50 index. Does that make JFS a de facto member of the index? JFS became part of the index for 13 days. What was the reason? Was 13 days too much or too little?You could use the same framework to understand ITC Hotels' inclusion and exclusion in the indices.
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Why Airlines are a tough business to crack? Indigo, Jet Airways, Kingfisher and others
Warren Buffett called airlines a cursed sector. Kingfisher, Jet Airways, and Go Air in India, and many other airlines worldwide, have gone out of business. Even Indigo, India's most successful airline so far, suffered losses in four out of the last eight years. Why are airlines such a complicated business?
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Friends of Reliance Vs the Bear Cartel of Kolkata
A Kolkata-based group of brokers, often called the bear cartel, was shorting Reliance stock. As the stock was getting hammered, Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani apparently sought help from a group of NRIs to steady the stock price. The tale is dramatic and typical of the time when it happened.
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Why Hong Kong lets private banks print its currency?
Hong Kong's central bank does not print its currency. Instead, three private banks are entrusted to print Hong Kong Dollars. This arrangement is as good as handing over the monetary policy to private players. It seems strange, but there is a British-era reason behind it. And guess what? Currency pegging has also worked well in this arrangement!
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How Harshad Mehta Scam led to many reforms in the Indian markets?
The Harshad Mehta scam of 1992 exposed massive loopholes in India’s banking and stock market systems, leading to a series of crucial financial reforms. Faster adoption of digital banking and dematerialized shares, stricter regulatory oversight, and modernized stock exchanges were all outcomes of the reforms meant to prevent such frauds in the future.
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Why mutual funds were suddenly underperforming in 2019?
A SEBI rule in 2019 mandated mutual funds to change how they benchmarked their performance to an index. An understanding of price return (PR) and total return (TR) indices explains how the reported outperformance of mutual funds vanished.
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Leverage, ROE, and ROI - Margin Trading and Businesses
Borrowings can amplify your profits as well as losses. The profits earned on borrowed money add to earnings, but losses eat into the equity capital. Interest payments can further hurt equity. It seems like a risk-return dilemma! Zerodha Varsity on Social Media:
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Crude Oil once traded at negative prices - Do you know why?
There came a time around COVID-19 when crude oil prices had fallen below zero. Meaning that you would be paid to take crude oil. It sounds strange, but it did happen. Tune in to know how and why was crude oil trading at negative prices. Zerodha Varsity on Social Media:
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Surf Excel, Rin, Wheel - Why does HUL sell detergents under different brand names?
HUL has Dove, Lux, Pears, Axe, and Lifebuoy soaps. It has Sunsilk, Clinic Plus, Dove, and other brands of shampoo. HUL is a house of brands with multiple brands in every product category.
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Singapore is the most expensive place to own a car!
You need a Certificate of Entitlement (COE) to own a car in Singapore. COE is very expensive, and you must bid for it in an open auction, thereby adding to the cost of buying a car. Has Singapore made cars expensive on purpose? If yes, why? Zerodha Varsity on Social Media:
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Diseconomies of Scale in Steel Recycling
We know economies of scale - as production increases, the per-unit cost goes down. Diseconomies of scale are the opposite - as production increases, the per-unit cost also rises. But why would that happen? Zerodha Varsity on Social Media:
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Parle-G and Cadbury Dairymilk - Shrinkflation
Do you think today's Cadbury Dairymilk and Parle-G's five-rupee packets are much smaller than those 10-15 years ago? If inflation is the reason, couldn't they increase the packet price instead of reducing their size? Zerodha Varsity on Social Media:
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Why is RBI selling Dollars? The USD-INR Struggle
The RBI sold more than 50 billion dollars between September and December of 2024. Was it a planned course of action? Why would the bank reduce its forex reserves? Zerodha Varsity on Social Media:
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IL&FS, Essel, and Others - Why NBFCs were failing in 2018-19
NBFCs borrow money from banks and the public to give out loans. They make money by keeping the difference between the interest rate they receive from their customers and the interest rate they pay to their lenders. But something went awry in this arrangement in 2018-19.
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Amber Enterprises, Taj, Ultratech Cement - What's common among them?
Amber's revenues are the strongest in the March quarter and the weakest in the June quarter. Taj Hotels sees the weakest quarter in September and the strongest in December. Ultratech Cement witnesses a strong March quarter and the weakest September quarter.Seasonality has got something to do with it, maybe.
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Bricks, Nuts and Bolts, Zips and Buttons - businesses without brands
Do you know the brand of bricks in your house? Do you know the brand of zips or buttons on your denims? Do we really care for the nuts and bolts used in our cars? How can one be successful in running such a no-brands business?
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Bajaj Auto Vs TVS Motor and Return on Assets
TVS Motor and Bajaj Auto are similar in terms of the size of their revenues and assets. However, TVS has a return on assets of 4%, while Bajaj’s return on assets is almost 20%. Why this difference?
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Vedanta paid dividends in excess of earnings
Vedanta Limited has been paying dividends that are in excess of its earnings over the past two years. Why is it doing so? And how can it pay such high dividends?
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Parachute Oil, Colgate Toothpaste, & Velvette Shampoo - Packaging Innovations
Velvette's shampoo sachets, Colgate toothpaste tubes with wider openings, and the rounded Parachute oil bottles were all revolutionary innovations in product packaging. These cases show how packaging can solve for affordability, convenience, and even business profitability.
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India and China - Electric heating vs sun drying - Population density
China is the second-most populous country on earth but has a significantly low population density. How is this causing the same sector to behave differently in India and China?
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Samsung, Apple, TSMC, Nvidia, and their PE Ratios
Apple, TSMC, and Nvidia have much higher PE ratios than Samsung despite Samsung competing directly with these players in the global markets. Samsung's revenues and operations are at comparable levels with the others. So, what is holding its PE Ratio back?
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Argentina's 287% inflation rate - Cheap money and freebies
In 2024, people in Argentina carried bags or even suitcases filled with money for simple transactions. Inflation was as high as 287%. What structural issues pushed Argentina into a spiral of hyperinflation? What is the country doing now to correct its course?
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Was Adani Power charging a country risk premium to Bangladesh?
Risk attracts a premium. A higher price is quoted if there is doubt about a customer's ability to pay up in time. The higher price is because the business wants a premium for assuming the risk. What if there is doubt about a country's ability to pay up? Perhaps that is what Adani Power was concerned about in its power supply deal with Bangladesh.
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Cuba, China, Middle East, and Concentration Risk
Cuba is called the sugar bowl of the world, but Brazil and India have overtaken it as the largest sugar producers. Why did Cuba fall back? It seems the Middle East might be taking lessons from such mistakes that Cuba and many other countries have made.
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Adani Power, Palantir - Nationalization of Businesses
When Bangladesh struggled to pay power bills, Adani Power cut power power supply to the country by half. Adani could do this because its power generation was being done in India. What would the Bangladesh government have done if Adani Power had a power generation unit in Bangladesh?
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