Capitalmind Podcast

What if money wasn’t the goal… but the tool? Deepak Shenoy and Shray Chandra dive deep into how money can enable experiences, freedom, and meaning, instead of becoming an end in itself.   00:00   Intro  02:33   GDP, Good Life, and Getting Real About Returns 15:14   The Real Cost of Wealth (and the Price of a Good Life) 31:20   Planning for Joy, Not Just Returns 43:34   Compartmentalize to Live Fully 01:04:04  I have enough money, what do I do now? 01:13:23  Is winning in life all about money?

In this episode, Deepak and Shray unpack the SEBI allegations against global trading giant Jane Street and explore whether this is a case of shrewd arbitrage or market manipulation in India's underregulated options landscape. In doing so, they reveal deeper structural issues. An outsized derivatives market, regulatory blind spots, tax inequities, and unchecked index power that favour global giants over domestic traders all act as leading factors to the outsized profits made by the firm. The episode ends with a call for reform: position limits, STT rationalisation, index oversight, and a level playing field to restore market integrity.

Indian retirement planning for long has been centered on your children being successful and them supporting you in your golden years. But, times are changing, with the rise of nuclear single child households, new pension options and easier access to capital markets, retirement planning also has to change.  In this conversation, Deepak and Shray discuss the various options you have to set up a retirement corpus. Be it investing in a pension scheme or managing your own investments, they provide the pros and cons as well as the steps you need to take to do so. They also suggest policies that if implemented, could make retirement planning simpler.  The earlier the better is the mantra for retirement planning and this conversation will help you get started. 00:00 - Intro 01:18 - Choosing Your Retirement: NPS or UPS? 15:36 - The real math behind the Unified Pension Scheme 22:33 - Can private sector employees build their own pension? 28:54 - Forced Savings: A behavioral take on long-term wealth 35:43 - Guarantees, gradually: structuring safer payouts as you age 39:33 - Tax efficiency and corpus optimization 44:17 - Managing Volatility: Behavior & long-term thinking 51:27 - The structural risk behind public pension guarantees 57:55 - Belief in the System: Will pensions and markets survive? 01:03:13 - Where do I even start? 01:14:52 - Why India needs its own 401(k) 01:19:36 - The roadblocks to retirement reform 01:23:44 - Will Equity Returns Moderate?

In this wide-ranging chat, Shray plays devil’s advocate while Deepak unpacks why conflict often jump-starts economies, how India’s defence binge could spill over into everything from lithium mining to 10-minute groceries, and why a 70-hour work-week isn’t the villain Twitter thinks it is. Returns—not patriotism—ultimately determine whether CapEx endures, a reality visible in the economics of fracking, rare-earth extraction, and the three types of “crazy” investors who fund long-shot bets: governments, bondholders, and VCs. India’s manufacturing ambitions have long been stifled by outdated labour laws and missed opportunities, but we may now be staring at a rare, once-in-a-generation window of opportunity. While defence and industrial stocks might seem richly valued, there's still plenty of runway—especially if order books start to triple. That said, the journey is fraught with risks: a sluggish judicial system, bureaucratic inertia, and our national knack for fumbling promising leads. For investors, the challenge is knowing when to play defence and when to swing for the fences in a market that increasingly rewards conviction. -- 00:00 - Intro 01:09  - Wars & the Economy 12:56 - Return on Investment - Driver of returns 25:28 - Does CapEx without justification work? 35:30 - Why don't we manufacture in India anyway? 47:33 - Labor laws - Why do they exist?  55:20 - Is the rally already priced in? 01:11:18 - What’s the downside risk? 01:15:49 - Where do you invest now? 01:19:03 - Trump, 70 Hours & Self-Reliance! -- More about us: https://cm.social/pms Connect with us : https://cm.social/pms-connect Deepak's Twitter: @deepakshenoy Shray’s Twitter: @shraychandra Capitalmind Twitter: @capitalmind_in

Mutual Funds are often seen as the McDonalds of the investment world. They are ubiquitous and convenient, and yet, they are seen to lack the prestige of a fine dining experience aka Private Equity et al. In this episode, we take on the big question: Are mutual funds only for the salaried middle class, or is there a bigger story here? Deepak and Shray dive deep into the history and perception of mutual funds, from their once-exclusive status to becoming the go-to vehicle for SIPs and forced savings.  But why don’t you hear family offices or the ultra-wealthy proudly boasting about their mutual fund holdings? We explore this through the lens of economic class distinctions (India A, B, and C) and unpack how perceptions of exclusivity and quality affect investment choices. Whether you're planning for retirement, your child’s education, or just wondering if your portfolio is too “plain vanilla,” this is a conversation that will make you rethink how you view mutual funds. -- 0:00 – Intro 3:29 – Choosing Exclusivity Over Simplicity 7:34 – Volatility Laundering 20:32 – Liquidity in University Endowment Funds 31:49 – Alternative Investments 38:58 – Mutual Funds vs Other Investments 44:12 – Why not hire a personal fund manager? 48:04 – Advantages and Disadvantages of Mutual Funds 1:12:26 – Use cases for Mutual Funds 1:22:41 – Who are Mutual Funds not for? -- More about us: https://cm.social/pms Connect with us : https://cm.social/pms-connect Deepak's Twitter: @deepakshenoy Shray’s Twitter: @shraychandra Capitalmind Twitter: @capitalmind_in