Interview with Meeta Shetty, Fund Manager, Tata Mutual Fund

Radhakrishnan Chonat: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of AlphaStreet’s Fund Manager Insights Podcast and I’m your host Radhakrishnan Chonat.

Today we truly have the privilege of speaking with Meeta Shetty, one of the few women fund managers in India. Now with over 16 years of industry experience, Meeta currently manages the Tata Digital India Fund and the Tata India Pharma and HealthCare Fund. Her journey through notable firms like Kotak Securities, HDFC Securities and KAVI [Phonetic] has equipped her, I believe, with a very profound understanding of the IT, pharma and the telecom sectors. She is also a CFA charterholder and holds a bachelor’s degree in economics.

So, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, join me as I pick her brains and explore her insights on the market, her investment strategies and the unique challenges she faces as a woman in finance.

Meeta, it’s an absolute pleasure to have you on my show.

Meeta Shetty: Thank you. Thank you so much, Radhakrishnan. Pleasure to the entire team of — thanks to the entire team of AlphaStreet for giving us this opportunity. Just one addition, I also take care of Tata Focused Equity Fund.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: Right.

Meeta Shetty: So that — those are the three funds which I manage, yes.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: Okay, excellent, excellent. So Meeta, let’s start from Day Zero, right? You have had an impressive career spanning over 16 years as I told in the intro. Please walk us through your journey so far and how did these diverse experiences shape your approach to fund management?

Meeta Shetty: Sure. So I think, as any teenager and trying to see how we all want to chart our careers, I was totally unsure of what I want to do clearly. So I started my hands into the equity markets because that was exciting initially because of — there were a lot of talks — I come from a Gujarati family and there were lot of talks about stocks and shares in the family. And then I used to also realize that some businesses end up doing really great whereas some really falter off in their journey and that curiosity kind of kept my interest high on the equity market side.

So as I kind of grew and came into my years of early 20s, I started off as an equity advisor, just trying to lay my hands on whatever I could get in that phase and I thought that let me just start my journey there. After about a couple of years of experience there, I realized that research or fund management is what I would want to do and I kind of started shaping up my career in that direction.

For some personal reasons, I also had to take a sabbatical that allowed me to pursue higher education and come back even more strongly for what I wanted to do. So that kind of really shaped up to last about 10, 12 years of what I have done, clearly.

So I think that is how it all started and once I came back into the industry, I went into a research profile. That’s how most of us fund managers generally start with. Started looking at pharma sector at an analyst level, worked at few of the — one of the most renowned organizations today, like you mentioned, Kotak and HDFC, etc.

So that’s how that overall journey started and in 2017, I got my break into Tata Mutual Fund. As a pharma analyst, I was hired and obviously, I was given additional responsibilities to take care of the IT sector and the telecom sector. A year down the line, an opportunity came up to manage funds as well and the Digital India, which is an IT sector fund and the Pharma and HealthCare Fund, which is a pharma sector fund, both of them came to me and I started managing them since November 2018.

So that’s how it is largely shaped up. But today, when I look back, I think those first two years of me as an equity advisor kind of really helped me clear my thoughts as to what I exactly wanted to do. So one thing was clear that I want to do something in the equity markets, but what profile and how to kind of build that over, I think those two years really laid the foundation of how I want to kind of build this up as I go ahead.

And once I came back after my sabbatical with a higher qualification, that kind of also was a good turning point into my journey, which has been in the last 12 years.

So I think, yeah, I mean, when I was starting at about early 20s, I was not sure. But when I look back today, I think it was like a jigsaw puzzle, which kind of just fit very, very well.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: Brilliant, brilliant. As someone who I believe can be a potential role model, I have two little daughters, so I’m definitely going to show this interview. You have sort of broken the glass ceiling, I would say. So what unique perspectives or challenges, let me say, have you encountered in your career? And how do you see the role of women evolving in the financial industry in India? Because the West, it’s completely different, right? You have so many role models to look up to. So what unique challenges did you face?

Meeta Shetty: So I think one challenge, obviously, which I think the entire women community faces in this industry is that this industry does not have too many women. So that is a clear challenge because I have seen that in my career of the pharma analyst to then gradually moving up the ladder. I’ve hardly had women as colleagues.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: Right.

Meeta Shetty: Even when I look at in the industry and when I’m attending conferences and meetings, etc. Now, at least I see some participation. But in the initial years, it used to be barely one or two women that I see in a big crowd of, say, 100 or 200. So I think the challenge is that we don’t find us more in this industry. And then it kind of — it becomes a little bit, I would say, not discomforting because I think all the male colleagues that I’ve had are one of the wonderful ones and they’ve all been — I’ve never felt that I was not one of their gender. I mean, it was very, very comfortable in that sense. But you do feel, I mean, you do have — you want your own peer sets and sometimes you just want to be — you’re more comfortable with your own gender at times.

So all of those things, I think not challenge, but yeah, sometimes it does come to my mind that I wish there were women in the team. But I think challenge for, at least personally I would say, for me was to come back because I took a sabbatical and when I came back, to just breaking into a role — and I started in about late 20s by then, so breaking into a role which I did not have experience of was clearly a challenge to me, personally, I would say.

But I think there have been some great people in my career journey, which have really helped me break through that challenge and gave me the opportunity. So I think, yeah, those were — that was one challenge which I can think of.

Other than that, I think, yeah, I mean, more women in the industry would definitely make this industry more — will be more balanced, I would say. Because I think the way women think about investments and the way we analyze stuff, there’s no good or bad. It’s just that we get a different perspective to the table. And it’s very, very important that we have a good balance and a good mix of both the genders in this industry.

So I think we are doing that. Gradually, I’m seeing things kind of moving in that direction. We’re still a long way to go. I think recent numbers, if I look at, we have barely 10%, 12% of the fund manager number that I look at, at an India level. So it’s — we are just at 10%, 12%. So I’m sure there’s a long, long way to go.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: Interesting. And you rightly said, women have a completely different perspective to how they look at money. You look at any Indian household, it is always the mother who runs the whole family budget. I always used to wonder, why women have not come forward in finance. Maybe  this is an impetus for more to come. So more power to you.

Shifting gears, let’s talk about the funds that you’re managing at Tata. The Digital India and the Pharma and HealthCare Fund, both are sector-specific fund, right?

Meeta Shetty:  Yes.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: And I was just checking and looks like the Top 5, it’s — the Digital India Fund is — the Top 5 holdings are quite significant. So how do you manage the concentration risk there? Additionally, if I were to ask, what strategies do you employ to ensure diversification or stability across these sector-specific funds?

Meeta Shetty:  Okay. So I would add focus also to that. So basically, whatever funds I’m managing, whether it be pharma or health, IT or a focused equity fund, I clearly segregate the funds or I construct the funds keeping two buckets in mind. One is clearly the stable portfolio, wherein you might not have a re-rating necessarily, probably they’re priced to perfection in terms of their valuations, but they are very consistent and they have a long history. They’ve gone through multiple cycles and they’ve come out strongly in most of those rough times. So I think those are the companies which are basically compounders, which keep growing, and they’ve shown that stability over a longer period of existence. So those will be into my stability bucket or the compounder bucket, as I call them.

And the second bucket, which I segregate my — when I’m analyzing the stocks, I try to segregate the other bucket as an alpha bucket. Basically, alpha bucket is nothing but GARP, which we at Tata AMC try and — which guides our underlying philosophy. Now, what I say GARP is basically I’m trying to say that any company which is probably not doing well, maybe because the industry is going through some challenges or there is a peculiar company-specific risk, maybe the managements have changed or strategies have changed, etc., which has led to them not doing well. But — and that also would mean that the valuations for them have got de-rated, maybe a sector or a company, whichever piece I’m looking at. And there is some visibility that incrementally we are starting to get, comfort we are starting to get where things will start improving or have already improved, but the rerating has not happened. So basically, that’s my alpha bucket.

What I’m trying to do here is that the compounder bucket gives me growth, but no rerating scope possibly. But my alpha bucket not only gives me an opportunity to play growth, but also a rerating possibility. And we’ve seen — and markets, when they — when you’re trying to catch them right, particularly stocks which can rerate, the kind of alpha that it can generate for the investors is — one of the best times we’ve seen rerating usually gives us one of the best returns. So that’s what I try to do, whether it be IT or a pharma or a focused equity fund.

Now coming to your specific question on how do I take care of the concentration risk, especially in an IT fund where there is — the Top 4, 5 names will have a slightly higher weightage versus any other diversified fund? So do two things to keep in mind here. One is that if you look at the benchmark for these indices, sector’s indices, they are extremely skewed. So between three, four names, your entire indices will be covered most of the times. So that, we have to keep in mind because as a fund manager, what I’m trying to do is, one, I’m trying to beat the benchmark and second, I’m trying to be better than my peer set. So keeping both these things in mind, the benchmark is obviously the priority for all of us as fund managers. We have to keep benchmark weightages in mind and somewhere we try to balance that at.

Second is that, particularly in the IT, the position which you see is also an outcome of what I saw as in valuation and in terms of growth, etc., because the mid and small, over the last one year, we’ve seen some rally come back to the IT because 2022 as a calendar year was a year where IT clearly corrected meaningfully and ‘23 was a year where we’ve seen some comeback. But the valuation difference between the large and mid or, say, large and mid-small bucket was quite stark. So that allowed us to take that bet and try to see if I can generate some alpha out of it. So again, that — the logic which I was trying to explain that my alpha would be where I can see some rerating and growth coming back. So it was also driven by that thought, actually.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: Interesting. And I just saw that the Tata Digital India Fund delivered something like 25.7% over the past year, outperforming the benchmark that you mentioned where there’s very significant margin. So excellent. Interesting that you spoke about the two buckets. I was very intrigued with the alpha bucket that you mentioned and GARP, right, growth at reasonable price philosophy that you follow. For the benefit of the audience, can you give us an example of how this strategy influenced your investment choice, let’s say from the pharma healthcare sector, because that’s where most of the reratings happen because of some FDA announcement? So give us some flavor of what happens.

Meeta Shetty: Okay. So I think without taking names, I can — on the stocks. So in the pharma space, we’ve seen one of the Top 5 companies in the pharma and healthcare space, particularly the pharma space, was going through an extremely challenging time. All of their plants were under some of the other FDA governance issues and — U.S. FDA governance issues. And plus, there was also a challenge in their domestic growth business, as well as the U.S. growth outlook. So all of that was making the valuations look very, very cheap.

And there was a point when we started realizing that, yes, there is a trough, complete trough, that the company is right now in, but we think that it’s a trough and probably things will start moving in the right direction. So we kind of did more detailing around each and every piece of the business and on their pipeline, etc. And as we started getting more comfort on it, we realized that this is where our — my alpha bucket clearly ticks in, all the tick marks that I would want to have in terms of improving ROIC, in terms of improving cash flows, growth coming back, and a potential rerating, which was probably on the cards.

So we tried and took that decision. And across the market, there was this talk where there was so much negativity around it, but I saw possibly an alpha opportunity lying there. So that’s how we took it, not only in pharma fund, but even in my diversified fund, which is a focused fund. I tried and took a decent position into that, so it can be played out well. And obviously, it played out eventually, as we had anticipated. And it has delivered one of the best alpha returns, not only for focused, but also for the pharma fund.

So I think to catch them at a time when the things are going wrong, and then if you start doing your work and you start getting confidence that, look, things are bad right now, but things will improve eventually in the next, say, maybe four quarters or eight quarters, I think that’s when we go all out and try to — and the most important thing is that once you’re convinced, it has to be also — it should be reflecting into your weightages, because if you’re too convinced about it, and if you just end up taking a small position into that, that eventually won’t help you deliver or take the most of the benefit of what your conviction is. So that is another important thing as a portfolio manager or a fund manager, that having a good conviction on a particular name and taking the right — size it well in terms of your weightage is another most important critical aspect that I have learned over the last few years of my journey as a fund manager.

Radhakrishnan Chonat:  Interesting, very interesting. Meeta, can you walk us through your research process and how do you assess the various parameters that you have, right? Obviously fundamental research, but other than that, management competitiveness, like corporate governance, growth, help us understand — because you started your career also as a research analyst, help us understand the unique research parameters that you have at Tata Mutual Fund.

Meeta Shetty: Okay. So I think GARP is something which I already spoke, growth at reasonable price, which is what we try and implement, but I can share what are the broader areas that I generally try to keep in mind. So I think management quality is the foremost. I think that is a hiding factor and which we will definitely want to get it out of the way and check and ensure that, that is in the right place.

But second thing, most important for me, would be that there can be great management and they can be doing really well at this point in time, but is the business scalable enough for them to grow maybe 5 times, 10 times or even bigger over the next, whatever, 15, 20, 30, 50 years? I think the scalability is very, very important because even if the management is of the right quality and they are aggressive and they’re doing the right things in terms of capital allocation or strategies, etc., but if the industry itself is in constraint beyond a point or beyond, say, four years or five years or maybe a few years, then it kind of will probably mean that, yes, I can maybe make an alpha out of it in the near term, but in the longer run it may not.

So I would be more excited on a business which has a huge scalability aspect. So, for example, a consumption FMCG, right? I mean, it’s a consumption thing and we all will consume more and we all will go up the ladder on the premiumization curve. Eventually, some will go early or some will go — some will follow later, but that curve will eventually keep on growing over the longer run. And that’s why FMCG companies get the multiple that they get, right?

On the contrary, something like a commodity or any other business where you don’t know in the next five years how things are going to shape up, that eventually then reflects into the valuation. So for me, the scalability aspect is very, very important when I’m zeroing down on any of the — especially the alpha bucket, even compounded to some extent, but especially my alpha, because then I’m also trying to make higher returns from that bucket maybe. So scalability is one aspect I would say I would keep in mind.

And then would be the pure numberings as to how the growth can be, how the profitability can move because growth is one aspect, but then eventually, are you paying incrementally lesser for the same amount of business? So that will be your profitability, that will be your working capital, that will be how you manage your cash flows. All of that would come into that. So basically, are you trying to churn the same asset in a much better way as you grow? And all of that will eventually mean that you’re generating a higher ROIC or your ROEs are starting to look better as you go.

So I think all of that roughly is what would make – obviously, there’s more to that and more deeper. And I’m sure we can go on for hours on this, but broadly, I think every penny that you spend, are you trying to generate better on that penny versus what you did last year, which is where I think we end up finding one of the best companies in the industry.

Radhakrishnan Chonat:  Very, very interesting. Again, sort of shifting gears a little bit. I’m going to ask you to become an astrologer of sort. With the IT fund — let’s start with the IT fund. All of us have heard about the AI stuff that’s happening, the generative AI. The Indian IT companies have traditionally been service-led models. So do you see a huge disruption happening or what is your analysis, sort of how the Indian IT industry or the story is going to go forward?

Meeta Shetty:  Okay. So, see, I think GenAI obviously is one of the technology changes which we’ve seen. I mean, every 10 years, 15 years, we see some new shakeup happening in the tech space. And this has been the case for multiple years when I look back. So I think GenAI is one of that. Now, when you say the outlook, how does it look, I think, one, we are — we’ve seen last one year on the growth front and GenAI is outside of this, last one year has been a year where growth has completely faltered off. From about 7%, 8% growth that the sector was growing on a normal basis on an average basis, pre-COVID years, has come down to 2%. So we’ve had an aberration that 7%, 8% went to 15%, 20% and then we’ve kind of come back to 2% right now, right?

So one, we are coming out of a low base and as you have more comfort in the way U.S. economy kind of unfolds, then rate cuts at some point will start happening. And that will kind of give a lot of comfort to clients sitting outside there in the U.S. economy to kind of open up their wallets and start spending more. Right now, there’s a more cautionary stance. So that itself will give us slightly better outlook versus what the last year has been in the next two years — one to two years from now.

Then would be the GenAI layer to it. Now, GenAI, I think probably will start contributing to revenues in a not meaningful way because I think meaningful will take a lot more time, but even in some way that companies will call out its contribution, probably from FY ‘27. Now, one is that — I mean, there are two lines of thought. One is that GenAI will add some additional opportunities for these IT companies to grow and some may be faster in adopting that, some may be a little slower, but eventually, everybody will be there in terms of taking that share of the pie.

On the other side, and the other line of thought is that there will be some leakage also which will happen because the older technologies will become redundant. And if a company is working with a set of clients which are still on those older technologies, will eventually end up losing that piece of work.

So I think there will be some balance that we will have to see how and where that equilibrium kind of sets in. But eventually, as I said, in the last cycles also, we have seen that new technologies always open up a far more opportunity for the Indian IT services or for that matter, any IT services company. There is some leaking bucket in the first initial years till that shift kind of happens, but once a large part of shift has happened, we’ve seen that the pie grow bigger.

So I think I see IT sector as a very, very structural story. I mean, today, we are living in a world where if you’re not spending enough on tech, you’re becoming irrelevant in the industry, whichever industry that may be. And you have to use it internally and externally for your customers, both. So I think it’s becoming more and more important for you to be ahead of the curve in terms of tech spend. So I see this as a very, very structural industry going ahead.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: Interesting. If I were to ask about the Indian pharma story, we are the generic headquarters of the world in terms of API formulations, but we keep hearing these U.S. FDA bans and all that stuff. So what sort of an outlook do you have as a fund manager towards the Indian pharma sector as a whole?

Meeta Shetty: Sure. So let’s get the FDA piece out of the concern, right? So I think, yes, we keep hearing and reading about it that there are concerns on plants, etc., but we have to remember one very basic fact that outside of the U.S., we are the second largest country in terms of FDA-approved plants. Okay?

Radhakrishnan Chonat: True.

Meeta Shetty:  And we have almost — in terms of value terms, we will be around close to 20% to their generic market in terms of supplies that we do, the exports that we do. But in terms of volume, we are very closer to about 40% to 50% band. So I think we have a very strategic role to play in terms of the U.S. generic market today as we stand. And if we are the second largest in terms of FDA-approved plants, we will have these once in a while, we will keep seeing these issues getting cropped up. And that’s only to make the processes a little more better and sharper and efficient as in terms of what the FDA demands — the U.S. FDA demands.

So I think these are events that will keep playing out. But at a broader level, because I’ve covered pharma for the longest time of my career, I’ve seen that if companies are good in their capabilities, and if they are very good on both R&D capability and on the manufacturing capability, these events do derail growth for the interim period, but eventually they do kind of provide good investment opportunities for the entire investment community.

So I would say that, yes, these events are there and one would have to probably live with it. I mean these are events and we cannot completely outgo there. So that is on the FDA part.

As far as the broader outlook and whatever we keep hearing in terms of what’s happening in the world, I think there are — we have made our space for the formulations clearly. On API, yes, we are trying to see how we can kind of become as strong as we are in formulations. Government is also coming out with a lot of PLI schemes and encouraging India manufacturing on the API on the chemical fronts. API is basically just the chemicals which go into the pharmaceutical product manufacturing.

So we are doing a lot more groundwork here at a central level, at a country level. And eventually, we will see the benefits of that. There is a BIOSECURE Act which is there in the U.S. where they also want to have an alternate option other than China where they can kind of start sourcing their APIs. So I think that also comes as a benefit to India, which is also — the thoughts are aligned basically on both ends. So I think that is another area which outside of pharma where we are already doing good, API is another area which will probably do well going ahead. And entire CRAMS ecosystem also kind of is going to benefit because of this BIOSECURE Act.

So I think, broadly, we are very strategically placed and incrementally, we will see those benefits. Additionally, what has happened over the last one and a half, two years is that U.S. generic market was going through its own challenges because of fierce competition. There was a very sharp deflation which was going through all the way from 2015 to up to 2019-‘20. And that has started to move in a zone which is more acceptable. So there is still a deflation, of course, and U.S. generic market is a deflationary market. But that deflation number has clearly tapered off from a high single-digit to maybe a low double-digit number to now coming to a low single-digit band.

So we have seen that happening over the last one and a half years and directionally at least it looks like we are in a good spot going ahead at least for the next few quarters as well. So that’s an additional layer of positivity which is added to whatever we are seeing in the sector over the last one and a half years.

So I think structurally we are good and incrementally the cyclicality is also playing for our benefit. So whatever we spoke right now is largely on export but I think even if I look at domestic as a market for pharma, we are clearly — it’s a very stable market and we keep growing in a band of about 7% to 8% band and it’s a good – it’s more similar to what a consumer business would be in terms of growth, stability, etc. So I think that’s a very stable market and that is continuing to do well and that will keep adding to a good cash flow and margin profitability for the companies.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: Very interesting, Meeta. The third fund that you manage, my notes have very little, so my bad. So the focused fund, right, the Tata Focused Fund, walk us a little bit about what is the theme of the fund at a very high level?

Meeta Shetty: Sure. So focused category basically means that you will have a mandate to own only a set number of stocks. In our case, that number is 30. So I cannot exceed 30 stocks at any point of time in my fund. It’s a go-anywhere fund in terms of market cap or a sector. So there is no mandate as to what market caps I can own and how much weightage, etc. So only mandate is that I cannot cross 30 is what I have to follow.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: And is there any individual stock-specific percentage within this 30?

Meeta Shetty: So that’s largely the 10% which we follow for any diversified fund. Yeah, yeah. But the thought process is very similar, which I already touched upon, the compounder and the alpha bucket. Now focused, because the number of names that I can add is capped at 30, obviously the weightages play an even more critical role here. So when I was saying that if you have a high conviction idea and if I don’t size it well, then it’s not going to add too much value to the fund. That gets even more amplified in a fund like focused because your number of stocks anyways is going to be limited. So those weightages play a very, very crucial role here, especially in my high-conviction ideas bucket, the alpha bucket.

Here, I generally go completely bottom-up. I don’t take sectoral calls whereas for IT and pharma, I might look at some sub-segments and sub-sectors to play some top-down and bottom-up. But focused, largely, it’s a complete bottom-up kind of fund. And you will generally not see sector-specific calls. It will be more stock-specific ideas, which I would want to bet on.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: Excellent. Excellent. Meeta, segueing a bit, we want to come back to you as a person. So what do you do off work? I mean, I know 24 hours is probably not enough for you, but the very little time that you do get, walk us through your hobbies.

Meeta Shetty: Okay, so I like to play chess a lot. My day doesn’t end without playing at least a game. So that is something that I really like and I do. I listen to music a lot. So I think that’s one way to kind of get myself — it’s like a meditation for me, a part of my regular workout and all. I think music is what kind of really charges me up for the next day, look forward to come back to desk. It really kind of balances the entire juggle and the entire ups and downs that we see, especially the way markets have been over the last few years.

So I think those are the two things which really are there. Apart of that, obviously, there’s friends and families and spending some quality time with them, yeah.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: Excellent. Meeta, I’m assuming playing chess is kind of burning calories for you. Instead of working out, you play chess to burn your calories. Is that what it is? Because this is the very unique thing that I’ve heard. People normally play chess not to relax, but to sharpen their brains. So what’s the thought process behind that? To burn calories, sharpen your brains?

Meeta Shetty: So yeah, it’s just that thinking about the same thing in a very different way. Basically, just making your mind more analytical.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: Excellent. Excellent. Okay. That’s very, very unique. Meeta, so this is a standard question that I ask all my guests before I sign off. Maybe I’ll add an additional thing. Favorite books of yours for the larger audience that is listening to this? Maybe add your music genres also, favorite music genres.

Meeta Shetty: Okay. So I think on the books, this is one book which I think resonates very well with the mass and once you read, you kind of relate more to it, which is where I started my journey of reading. And I think Beating the Street by Peter Lynch is one of the books which I always realize that how basic it is — I mean, just reading the book makes you feel that how easy and basic he has kind of analogy-wise, whatever he’s used and the kind of experiences that he shared as to how he went about picking some of the ideas, which are so — I mean, just invest in what you see. Basically, that’s the underlying of that book. And I think anybody who’s not even from this background can easily relate to that book and resonate to how to generate ideas, etc. So I think that is one book which clearly is always on my mind whenever I think about books.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: And music genres?

Meeta Shetty: So music genres, I think I am a big Lata Mangeshkar fan and I’ve always adored all the music that she’s had and some of the 90s music because I’m a 90s — I mean, in my 90s, I was obviously hearing a lot more music, India and international, everything. So I think anything on the 90s is clearly on my list all the time.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: I think you were about to say I’m a 90s kid and then kind of…

Meeta Shetty: Not 90’s kid, I’m not.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: Just last question from my end, what advice would you give to aspiring fund managers, especially women or teenagers who are probably going to watch this interview, who are looking to make a mark in the finance industry? What would be your biggest advice for them?

Meeta Shetty:  So I think that this one thing which this role clearly gets you is if you are curious about knowing more about companies, about businesses, about why some did well, why some didn’t do well, I think that curiosity aspect is the underlying. And if you as a person are even half curious, I’m sure you’ll go even more curious as you get into this role. But curiosity is a very underlying factor, which I see and I look back and I think that, that was one thing which really was always there in my mind. And this role clearly is for you if you are curious as a person to know more and kind of read more and try to get knowledge more about any of the subject.

So I think that if you’re aspiring to be here and if you have curiosity as an underlying habit or nature, then I think this is clearly the role that you should be looking at because eventually, that will make you do more and do more detailing on whatever you’re coming across. And eventually, that will refine your processes as you go and grow in the ladder as a fund manager. So I think that is one thing which everybody who’s looking at this career should keep in mind.

Other than that, I think, as I said, we need more women. So I’ll be more happy to see more women 10 years down the line in this field and as peer set in the industry. So yeah, largely that’s it.

Radhakrishnan Chonat: Wonderful. Wonderful. It’s been an absolute pressure catching up with you, Meeta. Thank you for agreeing for this and looking forward to many more such interviews and interactions.

Meeta Shetty: Thank you. Thank you, Radhakrishnan. Thank you, AlphaStreet. Pleasure connecting. Thanks.