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Business / World Business

Fund manager brings Bollywood turn to India’s operation twist

Published: 24 Dec 2019 - 10:16 pm | Last Updated: 16 Nov 2021 - 08:47 am
Kotak Mahindra Asset Management chief investment officer Lakshmi Iyer (Photo courtesy: Kotak Mutual Fund Repository) n

Kotak Mahindra Asset Management chief investment officer Lakshmi Iyer (Photo courtesy: Kotak Mutual Fund Repository) n

Kartik Goyal I Bloomberg

Lakshmi Iyer, who helps manage $22.7 billion as chief investment officer at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Ltd., used a Bollywood tune to explain the Indian central bank’s embrace of unconventional monetary policy.

The Reserve Bank of India’s decision to emulate the Federal Reserve’s "Operation Twist” is the authority’s way to signal "main hoon na,” Iyer said, referring to the popular star Shahrukh Khan’s song, which loosely means, "Fear not, I am here.”

"The relentless steepening of the yield curve is getting pacified by the RBI’s coming in and signaling I am here to support,” Iyer said. "There was general apathy at the long-end of the curve, so much so that ultra-premium was being paid to the short-end. That’s correcting right now.”