New sectors, old tricks

Three decades ago, when I was just starting as an investment analyst, I received some sobering advice from a Wall Street veteran who knew many of India's biggest industrialists personally. Despite his deep understanding of equity investing, he refused to hold Indian stocks for the long term. His reasoning was blunt: "If you knew businesses and businessmen as well as I do, you would never buy a single stock for keeping." That cynical view reflected the corporate governance reality of early 1990s India, where promoters routinely milked shareholder wealth with impunity. Since then, things have improved substantially through tighter regulation, greater information flow, and the growing realisation among promoters that sustained wealth creation beats quick extraction. Suggested read: Beating the pros | Warning signs in tiny IPOs Yet recent events remind us that corporate governance risks never truly disappear - they merely evolve. The Gensol affair offers a textbook example of how emerging sectors can become breeding grounds for questionable practices. Renewable energy, with its compelling growth narrative and abundant funding, created perfect conditions for governance lapses to flourish beneath the glossy veneer of sustainability. Similarly, the on