"Best Time To Invest In India Is Next Decade": Ace Investor Ramesh Damani

Among the most respected and famous investors in India, Manish Chokhani and Ramesh Damani shared market wisdom for the next generation to create wealth in a free-wheeling discussion at NDTV Profit IGNITE in Mumbai.

They recalled their entry into the financial markets in the 80s as a "golden phase" - liberalisation happened, the Berlin Wall fell, and the tech boom came in 1996.

"One good event after the other kept us forward. What is happening now is that Trump is changing the way the Washington consensus that was prevalent for the last 30 years -  liberalise, privatise and deregulate - into what I call the Mar-a-Lago mandate, which is basically each country for himself," Damani said.

The ace investor, who heads Ramesh S Damani Finance Pvt Ltd and is a member of the Bombay Stock Exchange, said the new realities as a result of US President Donald Trump's policies "require different investment strategies and different thoughts."

Does it mean young investors have missed the best years' bus? Not really, according to Damani.

"The question to ask is does someone starting [investments] in 2025 have the same opportunities I enjoyed in 1989? I have asked this question to all the best investors you can think of - what is the best decade to invest in India? Was it the liberalisation decade, was the tech decade, was it after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister? The best decade to invest in India is the next decade because the opportunities are so great ahead of us," Damani added.

In the context of the average Indian investor, considering what America's best-known investor Warren Buffett said about "Ovarian Lottery" i.e. being born in America meant being born at the right place and time for the next 10-20 years, Chokhani said the way to look at it is to assume, say, you were born in Europe or Japan, but the best years of your country are in the rearview mirror.

"What do you have to look forward to as a youngster in those countries? I mean, there's a great climate, great for us to go as tourists, but really are you going to build a hundred billion dollar business in those economies?" Chokhani said.

"The same way, look around our region - if instead of landing into Bharat, if you had just missed a little bit on the GPS, imagine where you would have been? You will be grateful that you are here [in India] and alive, right... When you go from bad to good, the rate of change is fantastic, so the rate of change for anyone born in India right now is fantastic," Chokhani, who is also well-known for his role as MD and CEO of Enam Securities before its merger with Axis Bank in 2011, said at NDTV Profit IGNITE.

On the whole, he suggested young investors to find the right business and not fall into FOMO.

"Don't blow yourself up. Don't take leverage. You don't need to do derivatives. Just find the right business, find the right person running it and just sit tight," he added.