Dear Niveshaks

The advent of 2010 brought a remarkable change in the functioning of the two major Indian exchanges – BSE & NSE, when they started the new trading yearby advancing market hours by 55 minutes to 9 a.m. As many of us must have predicted, this move saw a widespread opposition from many small brokers, however there were positive responses from institutional and retail investors. These indices have been flat for the time being but with lots of FII money expected to pour in, we can predict the triggering of a bull run. The fiscal tightening by Peoples Bankof China has had its effect on capital markets across the world but its effect seems to have faded away. So we expect the bull to prevail over the bear for most part ofthe year. Strong quarterly results for the last two quarters of FY 09-10 will surely takethe markets on an upward spiral. But if you say that is not real growth, we have the success story of Bihar, a state that has long been epitomized as the worst governed state. The state registered a miraculous growth rate of 11.44% in 2008-09 for which its Chief Minister Mr. Nitish Kumar got the Business reformer award. Add to this, the strong IIP numbers of last quarter and the growth posted by many states indicate that the economy could be out of the woods now. With this ecstatic news, we welcome you all to the year 2010!!

But the first edition of 2010 will be incomplete if we don’t have a glimpseon what happened in 2009 and how the year 2010 is going to shape up in the context of finance. Our cover story shall carry a broad perspective and foresee the future prospects of financial world and economy of India in the coming months of 2010. At the same time, the article will also highlight some of the crucial events like the Dubai crisis and the trends followed by sensex & inflation of the country during 2009.

In the present issue, we bring to you an insight on the agriculture insurance scenario in India along with a proposed product in the same industry. The article also features the problems in the current system of agriculture insuranceand inherent risks of the agriculture sector. As we stand at the doorstep of a new decade now, we take a look at some of the key learnings from financial misfortunes and various crises which left their marks in the last decade. We also introduce you to pension funds of India and try to acquaint you with the need of pension fund reforms for capital market development in India. Owing to the overwhelming responses for the recently introduced “Nivesh” from so many B school students across India, we have decided to continue Nivesh for this edition also.

We, the new team, feel fortunate to be associated with the illustrious Niveshak, brainchild of the first team Niveshak including Amit, Biswadeep, Nilesh, Sareet,Sarvesh, Sujal & Tripurari, who, with the support of the whole MBA fraternityof top 50 B schools of India, took Niveshak to that height where it is today - theonly monthly finance magazine from a business school. It is a delight and pleasurefor us to carry forward the legacy fashioned by our seniors but at the same time it brings in a big responsibility of living up to the standards set by the brand “Niveshak”.We promise that with your support and appreciation, we will try to meet your expectations and build a bigger platform to facilitate knowledge sharing forall the finance enthusiasts of India.
Hope you find this issue an interesting read.

Stay invested for the good times ahead.
Bhavit Sharma
(Editor-Niveshak)

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