Asian Paints is India’s largest paints company and its early history is hardly known; even less is known about how Champaklal Choksey and his friends made Asian Paints the largest paints company in as far back as 1967. There are many lessons that are relevant even today – from investing in high quality talent to separating management and ownership. Most importantly, there are very few books that show how honest businessmen can – and should – build large-scale institutions that endure beyond their lifetime, just as Champaklal Choksey has done. This book tells the story of an iconic institution and its less-known but visionary founder.

Art of Stock Investing is a book that will break the common misconception that stock investing is gambling. It teaches beginners, amateurs, and experts simple yet effective ways to leverage on great companies, churning more and more profits every year. It elaborates on the core basics to long term wealth building and uses examples to give clear inputs for beginners on where best to start when it comes to investing in the stock market. Art of Stock Investing is a must-read for anyone who wishes to explore the stock market.

In Indian context.

The Risk of India: Its Transformation from Poverty to Prosperity is an extremely interesting read. The book speaks not only to the mind and intellect but also to the heart as it clearly demonstrates that economic development is above all a question of people. It also shows that the Indian society, and particularly its youth, is much more open to changes than its political and bureaucratic class, and would welcome a third wave of reforms that would help the poor to benefit from economic progress. I strongly recommend this book. It offers a very unique and rich description of today's India from the author's perspective and many well chosen anecdotes. - Colette Mathur, Director World Economic Forum This fascinating work weaves together a set of seemingly diverse events into an intricate tapestry capturing the essence and purpose of emerging India. It is also an inspiration to people in "Challenged" economies that the power of honest entrepreneurship can bring about a greater transformation than the best intentions of any government. Well-researched and well-written, this book is a good guide for developing countries to leverage the potential of people and its inherent strengths. It also brings out the challenge for India that more reforms are necessary, not less. - Nandan M Nilekani, CEO & Managing Director Infosys Technologies Limited The Rise of India is an insightful and engaging story of India before and after the 1991 reforms. There are many academic tomes on India's reforms but none is as comprehensive, lucid, and earthy. Practicing "soft hearts, hard heads" Philosophy with anecdotes and personal experiences, the author builds a compelling case for further liberalization and reforms. This book is a must read for all policy makers, students of economics, and activists of all stripes. read, understand, and become part of the revolution-a continued rise of India! - Parth J. Shah, President, Centre for Civil Society

"The Indian entrepreneur is spearheading India's advance towards the forefront of the world economy. This book reviews and retraces the formidable path of those individuals who have spurred the growth of Indian businesses and are at the heart of India's economic fabric today. Be they ‘first’ or ‘second’ wave businessmen and women, they stand out by their creativity, sharp-mindedness, and hard work and self confidence. They have opened a new chapter in India's history by propelling their businesses into internationally competitive multinationals and are sources of inspiration and hope for the young citizens of India." —Colette Mathur, Senior Advisor to the World Economic Forum for India, Co-President of the EuroIndia Centre BI"India's Global Wealth Club is a fascinating read on today's India and what it can offer for the future. It provides rich insights on the confusing topic of what makes India tick, by describing it through the minds and intellects of Indian business leaders from a wide spectrum of industries." —Rama Bijapurkar, Author of Winning in the Indian Market: Understanding the Transformation of Consumer India "Mr Hiscock’s book will prove an essential resource for anybody contemplating venturing into the highly lucrative but deeply complex Indian marketplace. The industry case studies and personal profiles hold valuable and often unmatched insights into the financial secrets of the subcontinent’s restive tiger." —Grant Holloway, Managing Editor, The Australian - Online

What makes a company truly outstanding? What is the secret sauce of delivering successful results over multiple decades? What is common to Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Marico, Berger Paints, Page Industries and Astral Poly? They are Unusual Companies, built by Unusual Billionaires. This book tells the story of these seven companies, handpicked out of 5000 listed on the stock exchange. Built by visionary business leaders, they have delivered outstanding results for a decade and more. How did these companies do it? Why couldn’t this be replicated by other companies? What are they doing differently? Saurabh Mukherjea, bestselling author of Gurus of Chaos, delivers an exceptional book with lessons to learn from these seven businesses. Mukherjea tells you why focusing on the core business is central to corporate success and how a promoter giving up control to the top management could be a boon. He also explains how investors can generate market-beating investment returns from identifying companies such as these using a simple set of metrics. Packed with these learnings are riveting corporate stories of how Hindustan Unilever made an aggressive bid to buy Harsh Mariwala’s business, but had to sell a business to him in a few years, or how Page Industries found an innovative way to stop unionization at their manufacturing units. Other stories include the turnaround of Axis Bank and the boardroom coup that led to its chairman’s exit and how Vijay Mallya sold Berger Paints to the Dhingra brothers. This book is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to understand how business is done successfully in India.

Amid record rally in the equity markets, India has added on an average 13 lakh new DEMAT accounts every month since April last year. Retail investors have become dominant investors and now own stocks worth ~ 16 lac Cr. We think at this stage of India retail and individual investor equity participation, a specialized book that explains how analysts make investment decisions, assess and assign valuation multiples and write analyst reports will be useful to investors. This is explained with live data and examples to help build observational skills through a 4-step process. 1. Analyzing past financial data for the company 2. Making estimates of future growth and margins for the company 3. Finding and assessing the economic reasons (equity levers) that are playing out for company or sector 4. Making an assessment of the valuation multiple the company may command next year. Also, investors need to develop a strong common sense to judge business trends and build skills to identify market patterns which then help in taking strong conviction based investment calls. These financial and economic patterns can be learnt by anyone interested in markets by regular observation and practice. It is well known that human beings learn faster through pattern recognition as opposed to textbook narratives. This book is specially designed to understand and implement successful data patterns that help generate strong returns and multi-baggers through simple observation skills.