Pankaj Sharma
Independent, Market ExpertHe has more than 15 years of experience in leadership roles with global investment banks, brokerages and state-owned enterprises. Most recently, he was heading the institutional equities business for Equirus Securities. He has worked with Citi, JP Morgan and UBS India. He has also been involved in raising funds for startups and has also been an entrepreneur.
You thought markets are scientific? Then why does image matter more than facts?
For those in public life, image matters the most. Many political leaders who would have learnt it the hard way would vouch for the fact that at times, appearing to be honest is more important than being honest.
Not just in politics. There are many other areas where media-created perceptions could create bias in the opinion of authorities and general public. Movie stars, sportspersons and, sometimes, even unknown and ordinary people get caught in this web.
Many of us would remember the unfortunate 2008 Noida double murder case of Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj (Hindi movie Talvar starring Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Tabu and directed by Meghna Gulzar was based on this incident) and later on, the parents of Aarushi admitted how Uttar Pradesh police advised them not to talk to media and how that was a terrible mistake they made because in the meantime, the media opinion had decisively turned against the doctor couple.
We are not commenting on the intricacies of the case and who was guilty, but this is the reality that in the age of incessant information flow, public opinion is formed quickly and once formed, it becomes difficult to change the same.
It is no surprise that there is always a mad rush among politicians to take credit of any development work no matter how small or trivial it may be. Sometimes, a plaque mentioning credits for a small culvert may be bigger than the culvert itself and a small pavement would have more claimants than the bricks used in it.
There are enough stories of this nature like how a completed flyover had to wait for months for inauguration because no big or important enough political leader was available to do the honours.
This also reminds us of a phenomenon from late 1980s and early 1990s. Gulshan Kumar of T-Series is unfortunately no more, and he was a great entrepreneur who single-handedly changed the face of the Indian music industry. But it was really comical to see those cassette covers of devotional songs where the size of his photograph was almost 3-4 times larger than a photograph of Lord Shiva or Goddess Durga.
Now, time for a small quiz. Name the movie slated for a release in 2018 in which Akshay Kumar is essaying the role of music mogul Gulshan Kumar. The clue is that I have already given you the answer.
Jokes apart, it is really surprising to see the case of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which is also popularly known as Aadhaar. This was an initiative of the UPA government and it was really expected to be one of the important game changers in plugging the loopholes and reducing leakages in the government’s benefit schemes and that is just one aspect of it.
Apart from the concerns over privacy and whether it should be mandatory for availing these benefits, there is actually very little you can argue as to why this is not a conceptually good move for a country like India, where a large part of benefits provided by the government do not reach the targeted beneficiary.
It is not a surprise that the NDA has lapped it up and is making all efforts to use Aadhaar more and more. But what is baffling is that the Congress has been almost completely ignoring the need to highlight that Aadhaar was a UPA initiative. There are a few other things such as the NREGA, or National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 (which was later renamed as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or MGNREGA), on which again the Congress has completely failed to gain political mileage in election campaigns.
This works in business too. There are many companies and individuals who always get more credit than they deserve and are considered holier than thou. On the other hand, there are many others who never even receive the recognition they deserve. For this, there can’t be any explanation but the difference in perceptions and media image.
Not a surprise then that, markets too get carried away by this and investors can only ignore this difference at their own peril. It is as simple as that. Doing good work alone is not enough; you must also be seen to be doing good work. And that is important; it may be sad but a fact of life, nevertheless.
Not just in politics. There are many other areas where media-created perceptions could create bias in the opinion of authorities and general public. Movie stars, sportspersons and, sometimes, even unknown and ordinary people get caught in this web.
Many of us would remember the unfortunate 2008 Noida double murder case of Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj (Hindi movie Talvar starring Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Tabu and directed by Meghna Gulzar was based on this incident) and later on, the parents of Aarushi admitted how Uttar Pradesh police advised them not to talk to media and how that was a terrible mistake they made because in the meantime, the media opinion had decisively turned against the doctor couple.
We are not commenting on the intricacies of the case and who was guilty, but this is the reality that in the age of incessant information flow, public opinion is formed quickly and once formed, it becomes difficult to change the same.
It is no surprise that there is always a mad rush among politicians to take credit of any development work no matter how small or trivial it may be. Sometimes, a plaque mentioning credits for a small culvert may be bigger than the culvert itself and a small pavement would have more claimants than the bricks used in it.
There are enough stories of this nature like how a completed flyover had to wait for months for inauguration because no big or important enough political leader was available to do the honours.
This also reminds us of a phenomenon from late 1980s and early 1990s. Gulshan Kumar of T-Series is unfortunately no more, and he was a great entrepreneur who single-handedly changed the face of the Indian music industry. But it was really comical to see those cassette covers of devotional songs where the size of his photograph was almost 3-4 times larger than a photograph of Lord Shiva or Goddess Durga.
Now, time for a small quiz. Name the movie slated for a release in 2018 in which Akshay Kumar is essaying the role of music mogul Gulshan Kumar. The clue is that I have already given you the answer.
Jokes apart, it is really surprising to see the case of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which is also popularly known as Aadhaar. This was an initiative of the UPA government and it was really expected to be one of the important game changers in plugging the loopholes and reducing leakages in the government’s benefit schemes and that is just one aspect of it.
Apart from the concerns over privacy and whether it should be mandatory for availing these benefits, there is actually very little you can argue as to why this is not a conceptually good move for a country like India, where a large part of benefits provided by the government do not reach the targeted beneficiary.
It is not a surprise that the NDA has lapped it up and is making all efforts to use Aadhaar more and more. But what is baffling is that the Congress has been almost completely ignoring the need to highlight that Aadhaar was a UPA initiative. There are a few other things such as the NREGA, or National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005 (which was later renamed as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or MGNREGA), on which again the Congress has completely failed to gain political mileage in election campaigns.
This works in business too. There are many companies and individuals who always get more credit than they deserve and are considered holier than thou. On the other hand, there are many others who never even receive the recognition they deserve. For this, there can’t be any explanation but the difference in perceptions and media image.
Not a surprise then that, markets too get carried away by this and investors can only ignore this difference at their own peril. It is as simple as that. Doing good work alone is not enough; you must also be seen to be doing good work. And that is important; it may be sad but a fact of life, nevertheless.
