Our guest today is Steven Holden, founder and CEO of Copley Fund Research in London.

Every other guest on this show tells you what they think about India. Steven can tell you what everyone else is actually doing. Copley tracks the positioning of more than 1,500 active funds — over three trillion dollars — so he sees, fund by fund, where global managers really have their money.

The picture on India is stark. It's now the largest underweight in emerging market portfolios. And yet one Indian bank is among the most widely held stocks in his entire seventeen-year dataset.

We get into how those two things can be true at once.

Here's our conversation with Steven.

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Disclaimer: This podcast is produced by Nitin Goyal and Saurabh Khandelwal, of Compounding Gems Advisors, a registered investment adviser with the state of Texas & Washington, and of Compounding Gems Capital Advisors, advisor to SEBI-registered CAT III AIF. The views expressed are solely those of the individual speakers and do not represent the views of Compounding Gems Advisors or Compounding Gems Capital Advisors or any affiliated entity. Guests are not compensated for appearing and are not endorsing the firm or its services.

This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not investment, legal, or tax advice, and nothing said here is a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security or to engage advisory services. Discussion of any market, sector, or security does not constitute a fair and balanced presentation of its risks. The firm, its principals, and guests may hold positions in securities or sectors discussed. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Please consult your own advisors before making any investment decision.

Compounding Gems Capital Advisors LLP is the Investment Manager for Compounding Gems India Aravalli Fund I, a scheme of Compounding Gems India Trust registered with SEBI as AIF Category III with registration number IN/AIF3/23-24/1452.

Our guest today is Howie Schwab, Portfolio Manager for Emerging Markets Growth at Driehaus Capital Management in Chicago — where he's invested through EM cycles for over two decades.

In 2024, Howie was quoted saying interest in India was broadening beyond the usual emerging-market crowd. Less than two years later, India is the single largest underweight in EM portfolios.

We get into that round trip — from everyone wanting in to consensus underweight — the growth investor's dilemma when the best structural story in EM gets expensive and then lags, and how India stacks up against the AI-led rally in the rest of Asia.

Here's our conversation with Howie.

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Disclaimer: This podcast is produced by Nitin Goyal and Saurabh Khandelwal, of Compounding Gems Advisors, a registered investment adviser with the state of Texas & Washington, and of Compounding Gems Capital Advisors, advisor to SEBI-registered CAT III AIF. The views expressed are solely those of the individual speakers and do not represent the views of Compounding Gems Advisors or Compounding Gems Capital Advisors or any affiliated entity. Guests are not compensated for appearing and are not endorsing the firm or its services.

This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not investment, legal, or tax advice, and nothing said here is a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security or to engage advisory services. Discussion of any market, sector, or security does not constitute a fair and balanced presentation of its risks. The firm, its principals, and guests may hold positions in securities or sectors discussed. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Please consult your own advisors before making any investment decision.

Compounding Gems Capital Advisors LLP is the Investment Manager for Compounding Gems India Aravalli Fund I, a scheme of Compounding Gems India Trust registered with SEBI as AIF Category III with registration number IN/AIF3/23-24/1452.

Our guest today is Shekhar Daga, Head of Private Capital at ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company Limited in Mumbai — one of India's largest institutional asset managers.

Shekhar has spent over two decades in parts of Indian finance most foreign investors never see: structured and distressed credit at ICICI Bank, and then special situations as a partner at AION Capital, the joint venture between ICICI Venture and Apollo Global.

We get into the case for Indian private credit — a market of roughly $25 billion against a $3 trillion global asset class — why India's bankruptcy code changed the game for lenders, and how you actually underwrite credit risk in a market like this.

Here's our conversation with Shekhar.

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"Private credit in India accounts for roughly 0.6% of GDP today, with AUM of approximately $25–30 billion - representing barely 1% of total bank credit. On a relative penetration basis, India's private credit market is at approximately one-tenth of where the US stands"

Source:https://www.kotakmf.com/Information/blogs/private-credit-market (as of Sep 3, 2026)

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Disclaimer (Guest): The views expressed are the general market views of Shekhar Daga, Head – Private Capital at ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company Limited (“the AMC”). The statements contained herein are based on the speaker’s current views and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. The views provided herein should not be construed as investment advice or a research report or a recommendation to buy or sell any stock or any other security covered under any sector/s or forecast of expected future performance. Past performance may or may not be sustained in future.

Viewers should make his/her/their own investigation and seek appropriate professional advice before acting on any information given herein. The content of this material has no intention to offer or solicit any specific product of PMS/AIF and is for informational purposes only.

Access list of AMC Registrations - https://www.icicipruamc.com/blob/about-us/our-business/List-of-Registered-Intermediaries.pdf

Disclaimer (Host): This podcast is produced by Nitin Goyal and Saurabh Khandelwal, of Compounding Gems Advisors, a registered investment adviser with the state of Texas & Washington, and of Compounding Gems Capital Advisors, advisor to SEBI-registered CAT III AIF. The views expressed are solely those of the individual speakers and do not represent the views of Compounding Gems Advisors or Compounding Gems Capital Advisors or any affiliated entity. Guests are not compensated for appearing and are not endorsing the firm or its services.

This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not investment, legal, or tax advice, and nothing said here is a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security or to engage advisory services. Discussion of any market, sector, or security does not constitute a fair and balanced presentation of its risks. The firm, its principals, and guests may hold positions in securities or sectors discussed. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Please consult your own advisors before making any investment decision.

Compounding Gems Capital Advisors LLP is the Investment Manager for Compounding Gems India Aravalli Fund I, a scheme of Compounding Gems India Trust registered with SEBI as AIF Category III with registration number IN/AIF3/23-24/1452.

Our guest today is Sunil Asnani, Managing Director at East Bridge Capital Management — a US fund investing in India with a long-horizon approach.

Sunil led the Matthews India Fund before founding his own firm. And he came to investing by an unusual route: before finance, he spent five years as an officer in the Indian Police Service.

We get into what that ground-level view of Indian institutions taught him about assessing companies and promoters — and where foreign capital most often misreads India.

Here's our conversation with Sunil.

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Disclaimer: This podcast is produced by Nitin Goyal and Saurabh Khandelwal, of Compounding Gems Advisors, a registered investment adviser with the state of Texas & Washington, and of Compounding Gems Capital Advisors, advisor to SEBI-registered CAT III AIF. The views expressed are solely those of the individual speakers and do not represent the views of Compounding Gems Advisors or Compounding Gems Capital Advisors or any affiliated entity. Guests are not compensated for appearing and are not endorsing the firm or its services.

This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not investment, legal, or tax advice, and nothing said here is a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security or to engage advisory services. Discussion of any market, sector, or security does not constitute a fair and balanced presentation of its risks. The firm, its principals, and guests may hold positions in securities or sectors discussed. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Please consult your own advisors before making any investment decision.

Compounding Gems Capital Advisors LLP is the Investment Manager for Compounding Gems India Aravalli Fund I, a scheme of Compounding Gems India Trust registered with SEBI as AIF Category III with registration number IN/AIF3/23-24/1452.

Our guest today is Paddy Sinha — co-founder and Managing Partner of LaunchBay Capital, and one of the few people in Indian investing who has genuinely seen the market from every side.

Over nearly three decades, Paddy has been a tech entrepreneur, has deployed foreign sovereign capital into India from inside Temasek, co-founded and raised the Tata Opportunities Fund with marquee global investors, ran the private equity business at India's sovereign-linked NIIF, and chaired the country's apex private-equity and venture-capital industry body. I should also mention that Paddy was my boss for several years at Tata Opportunities — so this is a conversation between people who go back a long way.

We get into how foreign capital actually sees India versus how it gets deployed on the ground, the story of building NIIF, the exits question, and what twenty-eight years has taught himabout where the consensus gets India wrong.

Here's our conversation with Paddy Sinha.

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Disclaimer: This podcast is produced by Nitin Goyal and Saurabh Khandelwal, of Compounding Gems Advisors, a registered investment adviser with the state of Texas & Washington, and of Compounding Gems Capital Advisors, advisor to SEBI-registered CAT III AIF. The views expressed are solely those of the individual speakers and do not represent the views of Compounding Gems Advisors or Compounding Gems Capital Advisors or any affiliated entity. Guests are not compensated for appearing and are not endorsing the firm or its services.

This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not investment, legal, or tax advice, and nothing said here is a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security or to engage advisory services. Discussion of any market, sector, or security does not constitute a fair and balanced presentation of its risks. The firm, its principals, and guests may hold positions in securities or sectors discussed. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Please consult your own advisors before making any investment decision.

Compounding Gems Capital Advisors LLP is the Investment Manager for Compounding Gems India Aravalli Fund I, a scheme of Compounding Gems India Trust registered with SEBI as AIF Category III with registration number IN/AIF3/23-24/1452.

Our guest today is Vikas Chiranewal, Portfolio Manager at Templeton Global Investments in Singapore.

Vikas has spent nearly two decades at Templeton, investing across emerging markets with a particular focus on Asian and EM smaller companies — a corner of the market where India is often at its most active and least understood by foreign capital. That long tenure means he's watched Indian markets through almost every cycle of the last twenty years, from one of the longest-running EM platforms in the business.

Here's our conversation with Vikas.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

07:26 How should a sophisticated foreign allocator view the Indian market?

15:07 Structural changes in the Indian market

24:35 India-AI play

33:03 Role of active management in the Indian market

48:17 Valuation of the Indian market

55:24 Where have you changed your mind significantly on a hypothesis regarding the Indian market?

61:03 Role of luck in investing

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(1) Disclaimer - Host:

This podcast is produced by Nitin Goyal and Saurabh Khandelwal, of Compounding Gems Advisors, a registered investment adviser with the state of Texas & Washington, and of Compounding Gems Capital Advisors, advisor to SEBI-registered CAT III AIF. The views expressed are solely those of the individual speakers and do not represent the views of Compounding Gems Advisors or Compounding Gems Capital Advisors or any affiliated entity. Guests are not compensated for appearing and are not endorsing the firm or its services.

This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not investment, legal, or tax advice, and nothing said here is a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security or to engage advisory services. Please consult your own advisors before making any investment decision.

Compounding Gems Capital Advisors LLP is the Investment Manager for Compounding Gems India Aravalli Fund I, a scheme of Compounding Gems India Trust registered with SEBI as AIF Category III with registration number IN/AIF3/23-24/1452.

(2) Disclaimer - Guest:

This material is provided for general informational purposes only and should not be considered individualized investment advice, a recommendation or a solicitation to adopt any investment strategy. It does not constitute legal or tax advice. Franklin Templeton accepts no liability for losses arising from use of this material.

The views expressed are those of the investment manager as of the publication date and may change without notice. These opinions and analyses are based on certain assumptions, including market conditions that may change. They may differ from those of other portfolio managers or from the firm as a whole.

This material is not intended to provide a complete analysis of all material facts regarding any country, region or market. No assurance can be given that any forecast, projection or prediction regarding economies or financial markets will be realized. References to specific securities are for illustrative purposes only and should not be interpreted as recommendations or a solicitation to buy, sell, or hold any security.

Any research or analysis in this material has been prepared by Franklin Templeton for its own purposes and is provided incidentally. While the information included is believed to be reliable, its accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed, and it is subject to change without notice.

Past performance does not guarantee future results, or any profit or gain. All investments involve risks, including possible loss of principal.

Franklin Templeton offers environmental, social and governance (ESG) capabilities, though not all strategies or products incorporate ESG as part of the investment process.

Investment strategies and services may not be available in all jurisdictions. Please consult your financial professional or Franklin Templeton contact for further information.

Our guest today is Vikas Pershad, Portfolio Manager for Asian Equities at M&G Investments in Singapore.

Vikas has spent his career investing across Asia — from hedge funds and multi-strategy platforms to long-only — based in Chicago, Hong Kong, and now Singapore. That breadth gives him a particular vantage point on the question this show is built around: how a global investor should actually think about India, sitting inside a portfolio that has to weigh it against everything else.

We get into the AI or semiconductor story that's quietly reshaping how pan-Asia mandates are positioned, why he sees India as a stock-pickers' market, the case for going below the large-caps, and where he thinks foreign capital most often gets India wrong.

Here's our conversation with Vikas.

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Disclaimer:
This podcast is produced by Nitin Goyal and Saurabh Khandelwal, of Compounding Gems Advisors, a registered investment adviser with the state of Texas & Washington, and of Compounding Gems Capital Advisors, advisor to SEBI-registered CAT III AIF. The views expressed are solely those of the individual speakers and do not represent the views of Compounding Gems Advisors or Compounding Gems Capital Advisors or any affiliated entity. Guests are not compensated for appearing and are not endorsing the firm or its services.

This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not investment, legal, or tax advice, and nothing said here is a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security or to engage advisory services. Discussion of any market, sector, or security does not constitute a fair and balanced presentation of its risks. The firm, its principals, and guests may hold positions in securities or sectors discussed. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Please consult your own advisors before making any investment decision.

Compounding Gems Capital Advisors LLP is the Investment Manager for Compounding Gems India Aravalli Fund I, a scheme of Compounding Gems India Trust registered with SEBI as AIF Category III with registration number IN/AIF3/23-24/1452.