A friend called me recently, sounding a bit stressed. He was in the final stages of buying his house when the bank told him they could only approve his loan if he took home loan insurance.

So, naturally, he felt pressured to sign up.

When I asked him if he understood how it truly worked, he seemed clueless.🧵👇 And this is what frustrates me. Banks and financial institutions push products without giving people the full picture.

So, I thought I’d take a moment to explain what’s really going on.

A lot of @joinditto’s customers have asked for my opinion on this article. So I thought I’d put together a quick thread explaining what I think about the matter.

A thread 🧵 Firstly, it's important to note that the report's authors haven't disclosed how they calculated these ratios. This is important because Insurers don't provide settlement ratios directly in their public disclosures; instead, they offer raw data. And so depending on the formula you use, you can arrive at vastly different figures. (2/n)

Did you know a failed lawyer’s dream to make India self-reliant created one of the biggest business empires ever?

[Thread...]🧵 You see, the story starts in the 1890s when Parsi lawyer Ardeshir abandoned his law practice after he found the profession too dishonest for his liking.

And after another failed assistant’s job at a chemist, he set out to create ‘swadeshi’ items to help strengthen the nation.

How rats forced Marico to redesign Parachute Oil👇🏻

Back in the early days, Parachute was sold in huge tin cans of 15 liters each, mostly through wholesalers.

But during the late '70s, traders in Bombay began experimenting with different packs and sizes.

(1/n) And some of the more adventurous folks started selling Parachute in smaller packs.

These new packs were more consumer-friendly and received a lot of interest from buyers. So the founder of Marico immediately charted a plan.

Pepsi ran an ad campaign where they gave people 2 cups —one with Pepsi & one with Coca-Cola, without revealing which one was which.

The blind tasters were asked which 1 they preferred.

Surprisingly, more than half chose Pepsi, despite Coke having a much higher market share☕️ This disparity was baffling, so in 2003, a neuroscientist called Read Montague decided to get to the bottom of it.

He assembled some test subjects and recreated the blind taste test while monitoring their brain activity.

His findings were in line with the TV campaign —

By the end of 2023, you might end up seeing more Indians in denim.

Popular denim maker Levi Strauss & Co. sees India as a great playing field to expand its denim sales.

Supposedly, it’s scaling up its investment in Indian stores & innovating its products. The reason?☕️ (1/n) Global recession fears! With inflation and energy prices shooting up in other major economies — a pair of jeans could be the last thing on the western buyer’s shopping list.

That’s quite opportunistic because the Indian denim market is smoothly growing at 8 to 9% a year.

A complete thread on how RBI controls inflation in the economy (through infographics) ☕️

PART 2: FISCAL POLICY (1/3) (2/3)

A complete thread on how RBI controls inflation in the economy (through infographics)☕️

(1/n) (2/n)

Did your HR recently ask you to fill out something called “Investment Proof Declarations” to determine your taxable income?

Here’s a quick 101 to ensure you don’t shell out excessively on income taxes:

[A thread...🧵] 1. At the beginning of each financial year, your HR will ask you to fill out a tax declaration form. This form determines your TDS (Tax Deducted at Source).

Zomato saved 1.2 million kgs of single-use cutlery last year by using a simple yet powerful psychological trick called - “the nudge”. ☕️ (1/n) You see, if you were ordering food on the platform back in August 2021, you might have seen a message. One that said ‘Don’t send cutlery, tissue and straws’. And if you didn’t want the cutlery, you would have to tick the box. Or ‘opt out’.

It was a great idea.

📢 Yes Bank is dumping $6 billion of its bad loans. And the buyer could be someone who you’ve never heard of before — J.C Flowers, an American private equity firm.

Wait…is J.C. Flowers insane to take on Yes Bank’s bad loans that may not be repaid, ever?🧵👇 Okay, let us explain.

See, if you’re in the lending business, you can’t escape the mess of bad loans. Some borrower or another will run into financial difficulties and the repayment situation will turn dicey.

India’s medical inflation stands at an alarming rate of 14% - in fact, we have one of the highest medical inflation rates in all of Asia!

At this pace, a treatment that costs you 10 lakh today - will cost you a whopping 40 lakhs after 10 years. And 1.6 crores in 20 years. 🧵👇 Medical inflation is defined as a constant rise in the prices of medical services, and these costs are ultimately passed on to the consumer.

Think - medicines, hospital stays, outpatient services like x-rays & lab tests, etc.

But what drives these staggering numbers?

Approximately 7 out of every 100 foreigners who visit India make a trip solely for medical treatments. In fact, in 2019, 679,000 foreign tourists visited India for medical purposes.

But wait - why get on a plane and travel all the way to India? 👇🏻 1. Cost-effective: Surgeries are cheaper in India compared to other first world countries. For eg, the cost of treatment is 65-90% less in India compared to the US.

2. Trust: India’s medical fraternity, infrastructure, and diagnostic facilities are well respected worldwide.

Here are some of the most unusual economic indicators you've probably never heard of. 🧵👇🏻 1. Men’s underwear Index:

As per this index, a decline in men’s underwear sales indicates a poor overall state of the economy, while an upswing predicts an improving economy. Hence, by tracking the sales of men's underwear, we might be able to detect the health of the economy.

PhonePe charges its users a ₹1-₹2 transaction fee on mobile recharges. Paytm charges ₹1-₹6 for the same.

But Gpay remains free. 👇🏻 June 2022 saw Google Pay as the second leading online payment option after PhonePe - it facilitated over 2 billion UPI transactions (33.9% market share).

And while PhonePe and Paytm registered losses in FY21, Google Pay saw its net profit rise by 62%.

I received an SMS this morning under the ID, “AX - SWIGGY” - and that put me into a spiral of questions.

Have you ever wondered what that two-letter prefix means in all these SMSes? Back in 2007, when regulations were imposed on bulk SMSes, there wasn’t a rule for the sender ID - so your message could have come from any ID like 57333 or HelloWorld.

For the first time ever in India, health services are now under the almighty GST.

A trip to the local private hospital would cost you an average of 30k. And if you think that’s expensive - buckle up - because it’s only going to get worse. 👇🏻 Inflationary pressure has led to the government introducing various tax reforms to boost revenue collections - and hospital room rents seemed to make the cut.

Starting today, hospitals will witness a 5% GST on rooms with rents above ₹5000 (excluding ICUs).

Ever wonder what’s the cost of raising a child in India?

A study by the ET concluded that the average cost of raising a child from 0-22 yrs was a whopping 55 lakhs! 👇🏻 This was back in 2011 - so considering inflation, the figure must have ballooned significantly by now.

We obviously can’t assign a value to the emotional aspect of having children - but it doesn’t change the fact that raising a child is a tedious, demanding financial choice.

What do Kit Kat, Nike, Krispy Kreme, KFC, and Starbucks have in common?

Well, they’re all a product of a neuromarketing technique called the K effect. Meaning, they all either have the letter K or the K sound in their brand names.

But what’s so magical about this letter? 🧵 You see, branding practitioners are often looking for something unique to make their product stand out - and the letter K delivers. It’s one of the least common letters in the English Dictionary.

When you go out to eat at a restaurant, the bill usually looks like this: The cost of food + GST + “Service Charge”.

But here’s something you might not know - consumers are not actually obligated to pay this service charge.
🧵 A survey concluded that 40% of consumers paid the ‘service charge’ on food bills in April 2022.

But if this charge isn’t imposed by the authorities, why do restaurants add it to your bill? And more importantly, why the heck do we continue to pay?

We’re truly saddened by the layoffs plaguing the startup ecosystem - leaving so many unemployed overnight.

To all those affected, we have a proposition that may alleviate some of the burden.

At Ditto (@joinditto) , we want to revolutionize insurance in India. How? 🧵 Well, by helping people understand it for free, with no spam whatsoever. And it’ll be great to have you hop on if you’d like.

And no, you needn't worry about what role you’ve been in at your previous organization.