The Hindu Business Line : `Investment is a winners-all game'

"INVESTMENT is a winners-all game whereas speculation is winners plus losers, and gambling is a losers-all game," said Mr G. Sridhar, Executive Director of India Cements Investment Services Ltd, Chennai, addressing students of Commerce and Business Administration at Jagan's Degree College, Nellore, under the BL Club series of lectures.

Elaborating on the topic, `Indian Economy and the Stock Market,' after inaugurating the BL Club, Mr Sridhar said, "In investment, the path is more important. It is time that is important in the case of speculation. Both path and time are absolutely irrelevant in gambling."

In terms of probability of win, it is 60 - 80 per cent in the case of investment, 10 - 90 per cent in speculation and 0 - 100 per cent in gambling.

For investment, knowledge is necessary, he said, but one needs skill and money to speculate, whereas it is more of luck in gambling.

The sentiment in the market is currently buoyant, he said, discussing the Sensex. He also added that people outside India had more faith in India than Indians did in the nation's economy and its future growth.

Pointing out the other favourable factors that contribute to buoyancy in the economy, he added that the low interest rate and control of inflationary trends are positive factors. Corporate sectors continue to show decent growth at 30 per cent. On the FII front, he said it is significant that the Indian economy is currently attracting investments from various other markets, particularly Asian ones such Japan, Singapore and Korea, unlike earlier, when it relied on one single market, namely the US, for both investments as well as sale of goods. The combined FII inflow from these countries other than US has risen significantly. It is a strength India has to leverage further. The FII inflow for this year will be as high as $10 billion, he said. This may be lesser than that to China but is nearly 50 per cent more than what the country attracted last year.

What strategic role does the Government have in car-making or running hotels, he questioned. By doing this, it will only spoil the investment trends of the competitive private investors.If it wants to contribute to nation-building and aid investment, it can invest in infrastructure, defence, healthcare and education, he added.

Besides 200 students of commerce and management, others present on the occasion were Mr S.V. Madhusudhan Reddy, Secretary of the Jagan Group of educational institutions.