MF Chronicles by Vikaas M Sachdeva

"Every crisis leaves a scar. The best ones leave a lesson." When I sat down with Nilesh Shah, Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra AMC. I wasn't looking for market predictions or investment ideas. I wanted to understand something deeper: how India's mutual fund industry evolved through crises, mistakes, reforms and reinvention. Nilesh has had a front-row seat to some of the most defining moments in...

"The stock price determines the narrative of the street."  These words. Decades of investing wisdom. Kenneth Andrade has spent most of his career looking where others aren't. Before he became one of India's most respected mid-cap investors, he was a journalist studying businesses one report, one IPO and one industry at a time. His investing philosophy is surprisingly simple: when everyone is looki...

“Why beat the market… when you can simply access it?” For years, ETFs in India quietly stayed in the background while active investing took centre stage. But somewhere along the way, passive investing stopped being an alternative and started becoming infrastructure. My conversation with Sundeep Sikka, ED & CEO of Nippon India Mutual Fund, goes far beyond ETFs. We spoke about conviction, invest...

When your money could double in 5 years back in those days… why would you take market risk? It’s easy to forget that this was once the norm. To really understand that shift, I spoke to Navneet Munot, Managing Director & CEO, HDFC AMC. There was a time when you didn’t need markets to make money. 14% was normal, debt did the job, and equity felt unnecessary. From that world to today’s world of S...

Why do investors enter at the top… and exit at the bottom? Let’s break that down. In this episode, I’m joined by Dhirendra Kumar - Founder & CEO, Value Research, who’s seen India’s investing journey up close for over three decades. We get into: • Magnum Multiplier, Mastergain, and the frenzy of the 90s • How PSU mutual funds shaped early investing in India • The shift from share certificates t...

“The third generation will approach life very differently from the way we did.” That line genuinely made me pause. It came from Swarup Mohanty, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mirae Asset Mutual Fund (India) and it changed how I think about the future of investors in this country. Over the last three decades, global asset managers have entered India with strong processes, big brands a...

“Investing isn’t arithmetic. It’s judgment. ”That line stayed with me. In this chronicle, I sit down with Sankaran Naren - currently the CIO at ICICI Prudential AMC, but once a fund manager navigating the excesses of the 90s, the lessons of 2008, and the eventual rise of hybrid investing. He has seen the industry evolve - from unchecked optimism to tighter regulation, from pure equity enthusiasm t...

The hardest part of investing isn’t earning returns. It’s staying in the game. This episode of #MFChronicles features two leaders who have quietly built one of India’s most respected long-term investing journeys - Neil Parikh and Rajeev Thakkar of Parag Parikh Mutual Fund. In this episode, we discuss: • Why “not losing money” matters more than chasing returns • How they invested when markets fell...

The foundation decade is over. Now begins the decade that made mutual funds stronger. This episode of #MFChronicles features a leader who has closely seen the growth of India’s mutual fund industry, especially the debt and bond markets, since the early 2000s. He is A Balasubramanian from Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund. From the early days of limited bond market depth to today’s evolved debt inv...

Before mutual funds became part of everyday conversations, the industry was being built from the ground up. In this episode of MF Chronicles, I sit down with Ajay Srinivasan to revisit the 1990s - when Prudential ICICI entered the mutual fund space and India was learning how to invest amid rapid change. From cricketing highs to economic uncertainty, these years quietly shaped the foundations of th...

In the second episode of MF Chronicles, we bring you a voice that has seen the Indian mutual fund industry from the inside - through its most uncertain and defining years. Bharat Shah, Executive Director at ASK Asset & Wealth Management Group, reflects on his journey across market cycles from the early 1990s onwards, when the industry was still finding its footing. I sat down with Bharat to ta...

Welcome to the very first episode of MF Chronicles with Vikaas M Sachdeva.  In this debut episode, I sit down with Samir Arora, Founder of Helios Capital, to explore a decade that changed everything: 1995 to 2005.What stands out in this conversation isn’t just Samir’s track record, but his honesty. He speaks openly about arriving in India in ’93 with curiosity, stumbling into fund management almos...

How did an unknown industry grow into an ₹80 lakh crore giant? The answer lies in the people who built it. MF Chronicles brings you their stories - the challenges, the breakthroughs, and the moments that changed India’s investing culture forever. 3 decades, 9 episodes, 1 incredible journey. Follow Vikaas M Sachdeva for more market wisdom: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vikaas.m.sachdeva/  Yo...