Let's Talk Money with Monika Halan

This week, Monika unpacks a busy stretch of economic headlines: a strong 8.2% GDP print, the rupee slipping to 90 against the dollar, and a 0.25% RBI rate cut. She begins by explaining why exchange rates matter, what drives currency demand, and why the recent rupee depreciation reflects global risk aversion, high US rates, and a seasonal widening of the current account deficit. Drawing on economis...

This week, Monika breaks down the surprising 8.2% GDP growth print for India’s July–September quarter, and why the cheer hasn’t shown up in the stock market. She revisits the GDP formula and unpacks the drivers — strong private consumption, resilient services growth, a manufacturing boost from PLI schemes and GST cuts, and a surge in MSME credit that signals broad-based momentum. With India on tra...

This week, Monika unpacks one of the biggest economic reforms since 1991 — the newly implemented labour codes. She recounts a timely moment from recording the Groww-ing India podcast with Amitabh Kant, where a discussion on delayed labour reforms was followed, just hours later, by the government announcing full implementation. Monika explains why India’s post-independence socialist legacy created...

This week, Monika breaks down the “inflation paradox” India is living through — where official inflation has collapsed to 0.25%, yet households still feel the pinch at checkout counters. She explains how the headline number hides a deeper story: if the impact of gold is removed from the Consumer Price Index, October inflation actually turns negative. An SBI Research estimate suggests that, excludi...

This week, Monika unpacks SEBI’s recent caution to the public against dealing in digital gold. The regulator clarified that while SEBI oversees gold ETFs, commodity derivatives, and Electronic Gold Receipts — all backed by strict rules and physical verification — digital gold remains completely outside its supervision. That means investors have no legal protection if something goes wrong. Many pla...

This week, Monika sits down with India’s Chief Economic Adviser, Dr V. Anantha Nageswaran, for a wide-ranging conversation on governance, regulation, and the challenges of doing business in India. He explains why India must “reduce the cost of being honest,” arguing that excessive compliance and inspection norms often force even well-intentioned businesses into shortcuts. The government, he says,...

This week, Monika breaks down the sweeping changes in the National Pension System (NPS) that came into effect from October 1, 2025, and what they mean for investors planning their retirement. The revamped NPS now offers a more flexible and competitive alternative to mutual funds and insurance plans. Monika explains how, for years, the NPS remained a rigid, low-cost product built for simplicity — b...

This week, Monika unpacks the buzz around Specialized Investment Funds (SIFs) — the newest category in India’s investing landscape. Positioned between mutual funds and Portfolio Management Services (PMS), SIFs promise more flexibility for fund managers and new opportunities for investors willing to take calculated risks. Monika explains how SIFs differ from mutual funds, which operate within tight...

This week, Monika turns the spotlight on a silent financial burden many carry — not bad investments, but chaos. After years of conversations and examining real money lives, she observes that it is not low returns that do the most damage; it is clutter — too many accounts, scattered assets, forgotten subscriptions, and decisions made only to save tax. She shares the story of someone who bought fara...

This week, Monika explores the rising conversation around India’s homegrown digital ecosystem and asks whether it’s time to switch from foreign platforms to Indian ones. As more Indians pay for cloud storage, app subscriptions, and premium digital services, billions of dollars flow each year to U.S.-based tech giants like Google, Meta, and Amazon. A recent report estimates these companies collecti...

This week, Monika reflects on a question that came up at a recent event in Jaipur: would gold have been a better investment than equity funds over the past decade? Looking back, gold’s average annual return of 15.4% has indeed outpaced the Sensex’s 12%. A ₹1 lakh investment in gold 10 years ago would now be worth about ₹4.18 lakh, compared with ₹3.16 lakh in equity. But Monika cautions that most o...

This week, Monika unpacks the government’s bold twin tax cuts in 2025 and asks if India is switching gears to go all-in on growth. She explains how both direct and indirect tax reductions put more money into people’s hands but also create a revenue gap of over 3% of the FY25 budget. Monika explores whether this fiscal gamble can revive private investment and lift growth above 7%, or whether it ris...

This week, Monika explores the big question: is your career heading for a sudden cliff or does it have a runway for take-off? She draws parallels from past disruptions — typesetters replaced by computers and librarians displaced by the internet — to highlight how today’s fears around AI are part of a recurring pattern. Some people adapt and thrive by upskilling, while others stagnate. Monika share...

This week, Monika explains why so many borrowers feel cheated when their home loan EMIs don’t drop even after RBI cuts rates. The key difference lies between banks and housing finance companies (HFCs). While bank loans are linked to external benchmarks like the repo rate, HFCs use their own prime lending rates — numbers they control and reset far less frequently. Monika breaks down how this allows...

This week, Monika takes on the headline-grabbing claim that Indians need just ₹3.5 crore to retire, based on HSBC’s Affluent Investor Snapshot 2025 . She explains why a survey of only 1,006 people cannot give us a one-size-fits-all number for something as deeply personal as retirement. Using her three-bank-account system, Monika shows how to calculate expenses, adjust them for inflation, and arriv...

This week, Monika explains how stablecoins promise safety in uncertain times. She recalls Lebanon’s 2019 crisis, when $93 billion in deposits were frozen, to show why people turned to alternatives. Unlike Bitcoin, these coins are tied to assets like US dollars or government bonds. And with the US GENIUS Act setting strict rules on reserves and transparency, stablecoins are moving into the mainstre...

In this Independence Day episode, Monika draws a sharp line between “retirement” and “financial freedom.” Retirement, she says, is a finish line — an end to working life, often followed by leisure but sometimes shadowed by boredom and stagnation. Financial freedom, in contrast, is a launchpad — a state where money works for you, freeing you to work for purpose, passion, or not at all. It’s about c...

This week, Monika dives into a quiet but massive shift in India’s financial landscape: mutual funds are set to overtake life insurance in total assets under management by FY26, with both industries nearing ₹80 trillion. For years, life insurance dominated household savings, but mutual funds—once less than half its size—have now caught up. SIPs have gone mainstream, while trust in life insurance re...

This week, Monika steps back from the noise of partisan debates to ask: how is India really doing? It’s a difficult question to answer amid competing political narratives, but the data tells a story of steady progress. India is still the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with GDP set to grow at 6.5% this year. Per capita income has risen at 7.6% annually over two decades, and poverty has fall...

This week, Monika unpacks SEBI’s case against global trading firm Jane Street, accused of manipulating India’s markets through high-speed trading and deep capital. With alleged unfair profits of over ₹36,500 crore, the case raises big questions around market fairness and retail investor safety. Monika explains what happened, why it matters, and what lessons investors should take away. The core mes...

This week, Monika talks about the coming fall in bank fixed deposit (FD) rates as the Reserve Bank of India signals a low-interest rate environment ahead. With major banks like SBI already reducing savings account interest to 2.5%, Monika explains why risk-averse investors should act now to lock in current FD rates. She discusses strategies like laddering across time periods and breaking large dep...

This week, Monika talks about the rising global war anxiety and how it’s triggering panic among investors. As conflicts erupt across the globe, the instinct to pull money out of the markets is growing—but is that the right move? With fears of nuclear escalation, many are tempted to book profits and flee to cash. But Monika explains why the better approach is to stay calm, focus on asset allocation...

This week, Monika highlights how Indian banks are aggressively mis-selling financial products, especially to the elderly and vulnerable. A recent experience with her father at a bank shows just how predatory these practices have become. New moves by the Ministry of Finance and RBI signal growing concern—banks have now been told to stop staff incentives for insurance sales, and the RBI is exploring...

This week, Monika unpacks the Reserve Bank of India’s surprise 50 basis point cut in the repo rate—the third such cut this year, bringing the rate down to 5.5%. Alongside this, the central bank announced a phased reduction in the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) from 4% to 3%, injecting ₹2.5 trillion into the banking system. These moves signal a clear shift to an easy money policy—one that indicates infla...

This week, Monika unpacks India’s fourth quarter GDP growth of 7.4%, which lifts the annual rate to 6.5% and suggests the slowdown may be over. Despite global challenges, India remains the fastest-growing large economy, driven by strong construction, manufacturing, and agriculture. Private investment is picking up, per capita GDP has nearly doubled in a decade, and sectors like smartphone exports...