@ThinkTank
@ThinkTank · 1:21

In conversation with India’s youngest billionaire Nikhil Kamath

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He is also India's youngest billionaire, but I doubt that his source of pride comes from there. He has been described as a visionary disruptor who has fundamentally changed the way Indians trade on the stock market, having come up with a phenomenal platform and for someone like myself who's curious but doesn't have esoteric wisdom about the stock market, if you will. Nicole's talks and interviews have served as a rich source of information and guidance

Nikhil is the founder of Zerodha- India’s largest trading brokerage and True Beacon, an Alternative Investment Fund. #indianpoliticsonthinktank

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@ThinkTank
@ThinkTank · 0:18

Lessons from the pandemic

Nikhil on a personal note. Firstly, how have you been doing mentally over the last year? And what are some of the things that you've learned about yourself during the pandemic, which perhaps you weren't aware of earlier. How has it also been on the business side and the work front
@nikhilkamath
Nikhil Kamath
@nikhilkamath · 0:38
So the Pandemic taught me the importance of having many facets to your life. It's great to be professionally motivated and dedicated, but without having a great family structure, a good community that supports you and being healthy and all the other facets life does not truly feel complete. I think that's just one big portion of my life, which the Pandemic reiterated how important that is
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@Swell
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15

Welcome to Swell!

@ThinkTank
@ThinkTank · 0:55

@nikhilkamath Thoughts on education, the shadow self and decisions at work?

And I know you're a fan of psychology. So do you also subscribe to the psychologist Carl Jung's ideas about the influence of the shadow self and the psychological toll that it takes due to a lack of intellectual fulfillment at the schooling stage. And as I'm sure you're aware, these conflicts tend to surface in adulthood and might interfere with decision making, especially in a business context. So can you maybe point to instances of this in everyday decisions at work
@nikhilkamath
Nikhil Kamath
@nikhilkamath · 1:26
There's plenty that one can critique the education system by especially in India. Our system of pedagogy is very theoretical in nature. We spend a lot of time teaching our kids how to earn money, but do very little in terms of helping them manage that money once they have a job and they're earning a wage. Storage is in my version of it is whenever you run a business or you're an entrepreneur, whenever you're an entrepreneur, you have ten different things going on at the same time
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@ThinkTank
@ThinkTank · 0:43

@nikhilkamath Issues which the political class needs to take the lead on?

Thank you for calling that sentiment about education. Nikhil, as I mentioned in the introduction, given that a lot of my guests on Swell have been from the political sphere, I was wondering how you look at yourself ideologically, and I don't mean to to think within the binaries of left wing or right wing. I was pleasantly surprised to see that you tweeted the book cast by Isabel Wilkinson. And coincidentally, I'm reading the same book at the moment
@nikhilkamath
Nikhil Kamath
@nikhilkamath · 2:06
I'm a big proponent of any kind of a free market model. The lesser government intervention historically has been better for the economy. Plenty needs to be changed in terms of governance. It is scary that we are in many ways moving in a direction which is less Democratic than we have traditionally known our country to be and not following on the lines of our Constitution. In many ways, younger people need to participate
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@ThinkTank
@ThinkTank · 0:27

@nikhilkamath- covid being a black swan year, what is your reading?

That was very well put. Nicole, I think a lot of people agree with a lot of the ideas which you just mentioned. And democracy is at the end of the day about building a consensus and taking people along. Nicole, the ideas of Nazim Nicholas Tales, especially the Black Swan and his theory of the skin in the game, have gained currency over the last year. But in terms of COVID being a Black Swan event on the markets, how would you describe the past year
@nikhilkamath
Nikhil Kamath
@nikhilkamath · 1:26
Whatever he's days will do much better in a very volatile world and do badly in a trending or a stable world. So interesting to see what he does next and what he comes up with
@ThinkTank
@ThinkTank · 0:18

@nikhilkamath what are the biases in the markets which you’ve observed?

On a related note, Nicole, it's a fact that human perception is riddled with biases. And while it has been propounded that the basis of the efficient market hypothesis is underpinned by investor rationality, what are some of the biases which you've observed in the industry, in stock markets, historically, and over the course of the pandemic
@nikhilkamath
Nikhil Kamath
@nikhilkamath · 2:04
There aren't very many biases right now. Karin, people are choosing to ignore the pain, which is very evident in front of our eyes to see on the ground. With unemployment, crime rates is going up, job losses across the board and many industries suffering. Investors and retail alike are choosing to look into the future. They are looking at what might happen post Pandemic
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@ThinkTank
@ThinkTank · 0:18

@nikhilkamath- Inspiration behind Zerodha and true beacon

Shifting focus. Nikhil You've often said that a big part of your vision is to increase accountability and cut down the long chain of unnecessary middlemen in accessing the markets. And this seems to be a problem across different spheres in India. In this context, can you speak to how you how this idea inspired zeroDA as well as true beacon
@nikhilkamath
Nikhil Kamath
@nikhilkamath · 1:18
We charge a flat carry or performance based profit sharing of 10% at the end of the financial year. So a client only pays a fee if he makes money and he does not pay anything if he does not. Both of these have added to increasing transparency in the respective sectors outside of the cost structure, communication and being transparent with what exactly is happening in the business and on the ground. It's increasing transparency incrementally. And we ended ever to do that consistently as well
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@ThinkTank
@ThinkTank · 0:28

@nikhilkamath investor outlook, key sectors and hopes for the economy

Just to conclude, I'd like to club a couple of questions together. I know true Beacon has launched in the Gift City Special Economic Zone in Gujarat. So what would you say to global investors looking to India? Are you optimistic about the prospects for the next year and what are some of the key sectors which you're bullish on? And finally, Nicole, I know you touched upon this in one of the earlier questions
@nikhilkamath
Nikhil Kamath
@nikhilkamath · 2:51
The 26 may we hear social media outlets might be banned or curtailed to a certain extent here in the country. I don't think these things are moving in the right direction. It is worrying and should be worrying to everybody who is living here in India. I personally believe we need to move to a freer form of democracy where free speech and public emotion should be allowed to be expressed in any manner that the voice the person behind wants to see fit in its own way
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@ThinkTank
@ThinkTank · 0:21

@nikhilkamath Thank you for this wonderful conversation 🙏

Well, Nikhil, I want to thank you for this wonderful conversation. I've had so much fun connecting with you on Swell, and we've covered a lot of ground, and I sincerely hope that this will be the first of many such interactions that we will have with you. You've given us a lot of insights, and I'm looking forward to hosting you back here on the Think Tanks forecast very soon. Thank you so much again
@nikhilkamath
Nikhil Kamath
@nikhilkamath · 0:07
Thank you guys for having me. It was wonderful being here. Thank you, Karen
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