Vidya Bala
Founding Partner & Head, Research and Product
About Vidya
Vidya helped build one of the country’s earliest robo-advisory solutions in the country in her earlier role at FundsIndia. She believes in not just providing the right solutions for investors but also taking ownership for the same and following up or changing course when the situation warrants.
Vidya was the head of mutual fund research at FundsIndia where she did some path-breaking work in analysing funds and offering researched portfolios. Her recommendations had a sound track record of beating markets and showcasing consistency. They were followed widely by investors, advisors and media.
A Chartered Accountant by qualification, Vidya began her career as a Senior Internal Auditor for Ashok Leyland. She then went on to work for The Hindu Business Line’s Research Bureau, tracking mutual funds, stock markets, sectors and the macro economy for eight years. She has more than 18 years of experience, of which over 15 were spent analyzing the markets.
Vidya is known in the media for her straight talk and, calling out bad products.
Stay in touch
Vidya in the media
- One size fits all approach does not work for debt funds – LiveMint
- Big Truth about investing in Small Caps – The Hindu
- Why SEBI needs to strengthen rules to protect investors in debt mutual funds – Economic Times
- Why people are exiting their real estate investments – FundsIndia
- The debt funds spook and what it means – FundsIndia
Watch Vidya talk about her financial journey
Vidya's recent articles
US recession and IT sector slowdown – impact on our stock pick
Will the Indian IT sector slowdown as a result of a looming recession in the US? This is the question that many of you have asked us on the back of a sharp 32% correction in the Nifty IT index from its peak in January 2022. The next question is whether our ‘buy’ on one of the IT stocks is valid now and whether the same can be accumulated. We will try to answer these questions here.
Corporate bond funds, gilt funds and credit risk funds – which to own and when?
When it comes to building long-term portfolios with debt, many of you are confused about which funds to use. Should it be corporate bond funds or gilt funds or credit risk funds? To choose these or a combination of these, you need to first know the difference in the characteristics of these fund categories.
When to use multi-asset allocation funds
Multi-asset allocation, by itself, is part of any portfolio building strategy. Both your portfolio’s return potential and its ability to contain downsides is determined by the asset allocation you choose. To this extent AMCS are trying to provide an all-in-one solution through a hybrid category of mutual funds called multi-asset allocation funds.
Prime Stock recommendation: A capital goods player taking the inorganic route
Apart from corporate capex, production linked incentive (PLI) of the government and China-plus-one strategy, the manufacturing space is also undergoing a transition. Companies that have already invested or are now investing to meet the above demand triggers are readying themselves for future growth. This capital goods stock is one such superior player.
Prime Recommendation: How to play the cyclical space now
Manufacturing is back in favour in the stock market, largely driven by cyclicals such as auto, auto components, industrials and capital goods. In this report, we discuss in detail the prospects for the manufacturing space and how to play it through a thematic fund that we added a month ago in Prime Funds.
All your debt fund doubts, answered
It is true that debt funds have been a washout in the past 3 years. For an investment of 1-2 years, FDs would have marginally (although not significantly enough) returned higher than liquid and ultra short duration funds.