Stocks from the banking sector have been major beneficiaries of optimism that has been seen since the second week of March. Or what would justify that while the Sensex has gained by a strong 67% since March 9th, the BSE-Bankex is up a whopping 109%. While investors have rooted for stocks from the sector expecting that an economic upturn will be beneficial for the sector, the fact that is not being given much thought is the potential increase in banks’ non-performing assets (NPA) over the next few quarters. At least, this is what the credit rating agency, CARE, believes, as it foresees the net NPAs of the Indian banking sector to triple from the current 1% of advances to 2.7-3% of advances by the end of FY11. As per the agency, given that delayed loan repayments are currently suppressed under the shadow of restructuring where banks are giving more time to companies to pay back their loans or are lowering interest rates to help companies pay back faster, they will emerge bad once the restructuring ends. Special mention has been given to the banks’ retail lending (especially segments like credit cards and personal loans), where NPAs are likely to touch as high a level as 10-12%.
Learning from #FriendsReunion - Plan Your Bottle Episode While watching Friends: The Reunion a while back ( Yes, i am super late, been a very busy week) something struck with me which the show’s creators said about "budgeting" a term called Bottle Episode. On Friends - Its one of the most successful television sitcoms of all time. From 1994 to 2004, the show never left the list of top 10 most-watched television programs. It was also one of the most expensive television series of all time. By the last two seasons, each of the six main actors earned more than $1 million per episode. From the resources perspective, the show has more than justified that expense since then. As per some estimate Friends earns around $1 billion a year from syndication, merchandising, streaming, and other deals. During the reunion show, creator Marta Kaufman talked about how they planned “bottle episodes” each season to manage the show’s budget....
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