Siddhartha Singh, the chief executive of Pinebridge Investments Asset Management in India, tries not to get distracted by cases of corruption, violence and other bad news that comes out of the world’s largest democracy.
And while he is betting that the prime minister Narendra Modi’s landslide election victory in May will boost the country’s economic growth, he is not concentrating on that too hard for the moment.
Instead, he is focusing on the forecast that India’s workforce will grow at the fastest rate in the world, outpacing China’s ageing population. That will help to boost his country’s industrial base, creating more jobs and bolstering the economy in the long run. Until then, Mr Singh is calmly trying to figure out which companies are set to benefit the most from that growth.
While he does not want to be drawn into revealing the names he prefers, he is upbeat about industrial and consumer companies, among others.
“The India story remains very much intact and what we have been talking about now for the past couple of years is demographics,” says Mr Singh, who oversees Pinebridge’s US$372 million India fund.
“It’s not just population growth but the fact that the working age population is growing faster than the [overall] population. And if you link this to the China story, China is ageing very fast, so India has all the potential to become the factory to the world. India can take that piece.
“I was reading a study that was saying India will add over the next two decades 220 million-odd people to the workforce compared to China, which is going to lose around 60 million people,” Mr Singh says.
Out of a population of more than 1.26 billion, there were about 487 million workers in India in 2012, the second-largest workforce after China’s, according to statistics from the US central intelligence agency.
Already, industrial production in India is on the rise.
According to HSBC’s purchasing manager’s index (PMI), Indian factory output grew in October for the 12th consecutive month thanks to an increase in export orders. The London-based bank said its India PMI rose to 51.6 points from a nine-month low of 51 hit in the previous month, according to Reuters.
In the survey, which is regarded as a harbinger of industrial and economic health, a reading of more than 50 points suggests expansion while anything below indicates contraction.
HSBC attributed the growth to good annual rains, falling commodity prices and the rising pace of economic reforms under India’s new government that has come to power with a clear mandate.
Since assuming power, Mr Modi lost little time in his plans to overhaul the country’s economy, Asia’s third-biggest. As well as moving towards market-based energy pricing by removing energy subsidies, Mr Modi is also getting ready to pass a goods-and-services tax, to open up more to foreign investment as well as to better target subsidies for fertilizer, cooking gas and food more toward the poor.
As a result of the optimism, the S&P BSE Sensex Index, the country’s benchmark measure of equities, has gained 33 per cent this year, making it the fifth-best performing index in the world.
Even that has made Mr Singh, who says he is normally unmoved by short-term price movements, a bit skittish.
“Prices have gone up too fast, too quickly,” he says. “To be honest, we are anxious. We are sitting in the bazaar. I still think, though, that markets are trading at 15 per cent to 20 per cent discount to their fair value. I am not typically going by the price to earnings multiples. I am going by market cap to GDP ratio, which Warren Buffett keeps talking about.”
mkassem@thenational.ae
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The%20specs
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
Intercontinental Cup
Namibia v UAE Saturday Sep 16-Tuesday Sep 19
Table 1 Ireland, 89 points; 2 Afghanistan, 81; 3 Netherlands, 52; 4 Papua New Guinea, 40; 5 Hong Kong, 39; 6 Scotland, 37; 7 UAE, 27; 8 Namibia, 27
Company%20Profile
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Company%20Profile
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The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
Rating: Two out of five stars
Profile box
Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
Race card
6.30pm: Emirates Holidays Maiden (TB), Dh82,500 (Dirt), 1,900m
7.05pm: Arabian Adventures Maiden (TB), Dh82,500 (D), 1,200m
7.40pm: Emirates Skywards Handicap (TB), Dh82,500 (D), 1,200m
8.15pm: Emirates Airline Conditions (TB), Dh120,000 (D), 1,400m
8.50pm: Emirates Sky Cargo (TB), Dh92,500 (D)1,400m
9.15pm: Emirates.com (TB), Dh95,000 (D), 2,000m
Company%20Profile
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Company%20Profile
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SPECS%3A%20Polestar%203
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sly%20Cooper%20and%20the%20Thievius%20Raccoonus
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SPECS
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Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
if you go
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Seoul from Dh3,775 return, including taxes
The package
Ski Safari offers a seven-night ski package to Korea, including five nights at the Dragon Valley Hotel in Yongpyong and two nights at Seoul CenterMark hotel, from £720 (Dh3,488) per person, including transfers, based on two travelling in January
The info
Visit www.gokorea.co.uk
Honeymoonish
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Elie%20El%20Samaan%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENour%20Al%20Ghandour%2C%20Mahmoud%20Boushahri%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
Amitav Ghosh, University of Chicago Press
FROM%20THE%20ASHES
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Confirmed%20bouts%20(more%20to%20be%20added)
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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SPECS
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THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
MATCH INFO
Manchester City 1 (Gundogan 56')
Shakhtar Donetsk 1 (Solomon 69')
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog:
Favourite book: The Leader Who Had No Title by Robin Sharma
Pet Peeve: Racism
Proudest moment: Graduating from Sorbonne
What puts her off: Dishonesty in all its forms
Happiest period in her life: The beginning of her 30s
Favourite movie: "I have two. The Pursuit of Happiness and Homeless to Harvard"
Role model: Everyone. A child can be my role model
Slogan: The queen of peace, love and positive energy