My guest for today is Lakshmi Iyer. Lakshmi is currently President and Chief Investment Officer (Debt) & Head Products for Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company (KMAMC). She has been with the organisation since the last 20 years. Joining KMAMC in 1999 as a fund manager, Lakshmi was responsible for credit research, deal execution, managing fund performance across all debt funds and assisting sales in client interaction. In addition to that, she has been a portfolio specialist, and managed product related initiatives such as product pricing and coordination with the funds management and sales team in that role. Prior to joining Kotak, Lakshmi worked with Credence Analytics Pvt Ltd, as a research analyst where she was tracking corporate bond markets in India and generating research reports. She was also instrumental in conceiving various financial software tools in collaboration with software and technical teams. Lakshmi holds an MBA degree in finance from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. She loves exploring new places for travelling, is a big food lover, and is an ardent movie buff. She has a popular twitter handle @lakshmi1876 Show notes: 0:50 – Introduction about Lakshmi 1:53 – Many firsts and unique aspects about this podcast 2:52 – Lakshmi’s personal and professional journey 5:05 – State of Fixed Income securities in India 7:46 – Comparison of Indian versus US Fixed Income market 8:41 – How to look at Debt Mutual Funds from portfolio asset allocation perspective 11:30 – Financial advisor zaroori hota hai 13:49 – Lakshmi’s views on current global factors - inflation, rates and RBI actions 19:32 – How to position portfolio given global cues 21:05 – Types of risks in Bond markets and how to think about Duration and Credit 24:30 – How Kotak AMC navigated the Franklin Templeton situation 28:12 – Lakshmi’s thoughts on “risk hai to ishq hai” 31:07 – Thoughts on Credit Risk Funds in India 33:22 – Investing in Global debt funds 36:48 – Active versus Passive managed funds 39:44 – How Lakshmi manages her personal finances 42:39 – How Lakshmi chooses her ‘Pic(k) of the day’ on Twitter (Twitter: @Lakshmi1876) 44:10 – Lakshmi’s reading habits and recommendations 47:07 – Raj and Lakshmi’s Bollywood aspirations :D 50:09 – Lakshmi’s life and investing idols 52:00 – Advice to 20 year old self Book Recommendations 1. Life over Two Beers and other stories by Sanjeev Sanyal 2. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens