Private consumption drives Indian GDP significantly. Which sectors are going to particularly benefit from the impending festive season when many open up their purse? Arun Patel, founder and partner, Arunasset Investment Services, a Bangalore-based boutique wealth management and financial advisory firm lists them out.

With financial information, investment platforms and market commentary more accessible than ever, investors today have a wider range of choices, but also more noise to navigate. Social media trends and short-term market narratives can often compete with the need for a more measured, goal-oriented approach to investing.

There is considerable discussion around how AI is changing wealth management, but before we jump onto that bandwagon, it is worth understanding what the technology actually is.

India’s financialisation story is increasingly including women. Their absolute numbers, mutual fund assets and use of systematic investment plans have expanded sharply. The real story is not that the gender gap has disappeared, but that more women are exercising direct control over long-term financial assets.

Investors often spend lots of time and energy trying to predict short-term market movements. They look for corrections, try to find the perfect entry point, or delay investing until valuations appear more comfortable. In practice, this strategy rarely works consistently. Markets movements, which are basically the sum total of the sentiments of millions of human beings, respond to thousands of variables such as interest rates, economic growth, corporate earnings, global events, liquidity.