Ashwani Nexus

Yesterday, while discussing personal finance with a friend, we shortlisted a set of companies that — based on fundamentals — looked solid long-term bets. One stock in particular stood out. Strong balance sheet, clean governance, consistent performance. To me, it was one of the best in the entire list. But my friend instantly said: “No… my father once lost money in that stock. I’ll never invest in it.” That one line changed the entire discussion. It wasn’t about the company. It wasn’t about the numbers. It wasn’t about fundamentals. It was a memory of loss shaping a current investment decision. And that’s when it hit me: We don’t invest only with analysis — we invest with experience, emotion, and mental shortcuts. 🔍 The Bias at Play: Availability + Affect Heuristic ▪️ Availability: A past event that is emotionally vivid becomes the decision driver. ▪️ Affect: The negative feeling from a loss overrides objective evaluation. The brain says: “I’ve heard a bad story → it must be a bad...

  A few years ago, in a review with a senior leader in a large  services organisation, I heard a familiar line: “We are a big-volume company. With such a large distribution network, we can’t grow as fast as smaller players.” It sounded reasonable. But the more I looked at the data—and the reality on the ground—the more I realised it was just a comfortable narrative . In services, sector, with large distribution channels, size is often seen as a constraint. But here’s the hidden truth: 👉 Large distribution channels don’t limit growth — they demand it. 👉 When volumes are high, resources are even higher. 👉 And if growth slows, those very resources turn into underutilised capacity, rising costs, and fading market relevance. The paradox? Scale should be a competitive advantage, not an excuse. When you have thousands of distributors, branches, partners, and a brand with reach… Your challenge isn’t that you're “too big to grow.” Your challenge is that you n...

  There’s a growing belief that the recent slowdown in life insurance is largely because of changes in the income-tax regime and new regulatory guidelines. But when we examine the actual numbers — especially for the Individual Non-Single Premium (INSP) segment, which should have been the most impacted — the story looks very different. 📊 What Does the Data Really Show? IRDAI Data (31 March 2023 vs 31 March 2025) ▪️ First-Year Premium: ₹99,449 Cr → ₹1,15,237 Cr (+15.9% growth) ▪️ Policies Sold: 2.71 Cr → 2.79 Cr (Marginal growth, essentially flat) ▪️ Average Premium per Policy: ₹36,697 → ₹41,304 (+12.5% growth) 👉 This is important because Section 10(10D) changes (effective 1 April 2023) made maturity proceeds taxable when total annual premium exceeds ₹5 lakh. Logically, Premiums  should have slowed down. Yet, premium growth continues to be strong — only policy count has stagnated. 🔍 So what’s actually happening? The data shows something counter-intuitive: ✔ Premium...