CFA Society India Hosts the 16th India Investment Conference

BusinessWire India

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 14: CFA Society India hosted the 16th edition of its flagship conference, India Investment Conference, in Mumbai recently. Co-hosted by the CFA Institute, the annual conference attracted over 600 financial markets professionals including CFA charterholders, investment professionals, and wealth managers.

The conference explored a wide range of topics such as opportunities in emerging markets, supply chain shifts, AI-Driven alpha, India's growth amidst geopolitical turbulence, followed by a thought-provoking panel discussion on Public Equity markets in India.

The conference was chaired by Shamit Chokshi, CFA (Director, CFA Society India and Founder, Aumori Capital Partners) and Vijayanand Venkataraman, CFA (Director, CFA Society India and Co-Founder, Wealth Yantra Technologies Private Ltd).

"We are moving past the era where geopolitics was an 'occasional footnote' in an investment memo. Today, it is the headline, so "integrating the potential impact of trade realignments to energy security and access to tech" is a core requirement of our investment process and is being covered in the sessions at IIC. In 2026, a portfolio that ignores geography is a portfolio that ignores reality," said Shamit Chokshi, CFA, Conference Chair.

The opening remarks were delivered by Paul Moody (Managing Director, Global Partnerships & Client Solutions at CFA Institute), where he highlighted India's position as the leading market for CFA Program registrations globally and the Society's key milestones of being a strong community of over 4,700 members in India. Acknowledging the conference theme, he said, "Taken together, AI and geopolitics remind us that technical skills alone are not enough. What truly differentiates our profession is judgment, ethics, and the ability to see the bigger picture all qualities that CFA Institute and CFA Society India work every day to promote."

The conference officially began with an enlightening session by Arjun Divecha (Senior Advisor & Former Head of Emerging Markets Equity, GMO) on 'Opportunities in Emerging Markets, Supply Chain Shifts, and AI-Driven Alpha'. Arjun discussed the stock quality parameters, i.e., strong profitability, predictable earnings and cash flows, and financial safety like low leverage. Arjun also shared GMO's framework focusing on value, momentum and quality. As someone who figured that it's never too late to learn something new, Arjun shared a demo of the techniques which can help investors to leverage AI to synthesize information for investment decisions.

In the second Session 'Twilight Before the Storm and its Investment Conclusions', Viktor Shvets (Global Strategist and Author) shared insights on how AI will continue to shape everything around the world, and the past lived experiences not enough to prepare for the future. He highlighted the importance of Central Bank policy communication as forward guidance, credibility, and narrative shape expectations, financial conditions, and market behavior. Structural reforms, fiscal spending and capital efficiency have a great potential to influence India's growth story in the future.

The next session was led by Ajit Ranade (Economist) focusing on India's growth amid geopolitical turbulence. Ranade highlighted growth to be the Indian economy's structural feature across the various government regimes and external global events, and how the macro economic indicators, i.e., foreign debt, fiscal deficit, savings percentage, continue to be strong and resilient. India needs to continue the focus on large-scale reforms in order to remain competitive in the ever-evolving geopolitical scenario across the world.

Rajesh Sehgal, CFA (Chairperson, CFA Society India and Managing Partner, Equanimity Investments) spoke about the Indian Association of Investments Professionals celebrating its 20 years milestone. He noted that CFA Society India's two-decade journey has been rooted in shared values and a common purpose. He highlighted the Society's focus on enhancing member value, strengthening employer engagement, fostering a global outlook, and promoting diversity, while acknowledging the sustained and invaluable contributions of volunteers who have played a pivotal role in shaping the Society's growth.

The next session focusing on integrating geopolitics and external factors into one's investment process was led by Joachim Klement (Head of Strategy, Economics, and ESG, Panmure Liberum). Joachim highlighted that for a 10-year long-term investor, 9 out of 10 geopolitical developments should not matter. Most of such events create short-term noise rather than changing the fundamentals and intrinsic valuation over the long-term. Most of such events and the subsequent drawdowns are an opportunity rather than a signal to exit.

The conference concluded with an engaging panel discussion on Public Equity Markets (in context of India) which featured Vikas Khemani, CFA (Co-founder & CIO, Carnelian Asset Management & Advisors), Chirag Setalvad (Head - Equities, HDFC Mutual Fund), Prashant Khemka (Founder, WhiteOak Capital Group) and moderated by Prashant Nair (National News Editor at CNBC-TV18) where they offered their perspective on the important factors i.e. geopolitics, AI and structural reforms shaping Indian Equity markets. India's equity markets continue to present significant opportunities in the Financial Services, Consumer, Technology and Pharma space in the near future.

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