Punita Kumar-Sinha is a person very familiar to us. She is the former fund manager with Blackstone where she handled portfolios worth billions of dollars. She quit in 2012 to set up her own investment advisory firm called ‘Pacific Paradigm Advisers’.
We have seen Punita Kumar-Sinha on TV on a number of occasions. She has a lovely and charming personality together with a clear understanding of complex global issues.
You can see in the embedded clip how Punita is at ease debating the complicated issues of China growth with the legendary Mark Mobius.
Punita’s husband is Jayant Sinha, the son of Yashwant Sinha, the former Finance Minister. Jayant Sinha is also a brilliant fund manager, with a MBA from Harvard Business School. In fact, the duo met in the USA, fell in love and got married.
At Harvard, Jayant Sinha was a classmate with Bill Ackman, the Billionaire fund manager. Nobel price winner Amartya Sen was his professor. While in the USA, he also interacted with Raghuram Rajan, the present Governor of the RBI.
You can see an interview with Jayant Sinha where he gets grilled by Vivek Law of Bloomberg on complex economic issues and and comes out with flying colours.
Jayant Sinha is standing for election from Hazaribagh (Jharkhand), a strong hold of his father Yashwant Sinha. There is a nice article in the Business Standard about the transition that Jayant is making from the elite corridors of Harvard to the dusty bylanes of Hazaribagh. You can also read about Jayant’s business interests in this article.
Punita’s net income in FY 2013-14 was surprisingly low at Rs. 24.17 lakhs. My guess is that the transition from Blackstone to Paradigm has temporarily crunched her earnings. Jayant, however, reported a respectable income of Rs. 3.67 crore in the same period.
In terms of assets, Jayant was ahead with a net worth of Rs. 36.38 crore as against Punita’s net worth of Rs. 14.28 crore.
Between them, the power couple has 5 luxury cars, two of which are Mercedes Benz.
Surprisngly, neither of the two top-notch fund managers have any investments in stocks, probably as a result of their job profile. This must be the most frustrating part of their jobs – to be able to identify multi-bagger stocks but not participate in them.
Punita & Jayant have, however, made up for the lapse by making hefty investments in real estate. Between them, they boast of a penthouse and lots of agricultural land. Jayant also has a treasure trove of artworks of masters like MF Hussain, SH Raza and Ram Kumar and precious antique items.
If Jayant does make it to Parliament, it will be great for all of us investors because with Punita’s aid, he is sure to bring in reforms that will benefit the stock market.
So, if you happen to be in Hazaribagh, do vote for Jayant Sinha. His symbol is the Lotus.
Dear Ketan
Why bring politics into this site, i dont see any stocks or analysis of stocks in the article. It is like asking us to vote for BJP.
Sorry….. if hurt your feelings
AAJ KAL CRONY CAPITALIST MODI KO P.M. BANAKE DESH KO LOOT NA CHAHTE HAI
There are a couple of mistakes in the above article as far as I know.
Raghuram Rajan went to MIT not Harvard. Even though students who are enrolled at MIT can take classes in Harvard.
Jayant worked in Mckinsey and I don’t think he manged any fund.
The article is good. Just want to correct some things.
Thanks. You are right about Raghuram Rajan. I assumed they were classmates, which is not so. The article is corrected. As regards the other point, Jayant Sinha was a partner and MD of Omidyar Network’s India operations. Omidyar has a fund of about $600+ million. Prior to Omdiyar, Jayant was the MD at Courage Capital Management, an investment advisory firm. So, it may not be incorrect to say that he did manage a fund.
Pl. refrain from politics on this website. Punita was working in a different field. Her claim to fame is getting married to the Finance Minister’s son -after which she started managing funds for Indian markets for Blackstone. At one time, during BJP reign, her portfolio managed was 2 billion plus. Since then she has lost power and also her job.
If you want more details on education, she did majorty of her good schooling after getting married. Pl. be aware of this: THere are 20% seats reserved in all US colleges for the kith and kins of Politicians, CEOs, sportspersons etc. So, all these people whose kids whether it is NR Narayanamurthy or Rajiv’s Gandhi’s kids or Imran Khan’s kids or Laxmi Mittal’s kids or Yashwant Sinha’s kids have this pedigree…. which propels them to being granted admission to these colleges.
HAVE YOU EVER FIGURED OUT HOW THEY SECURED ADMISSION OR WERE GRANTED ADMISSION TO OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE, MIT, HARVARD, ETC…
PLEASE DO NOT PUBLISH SUCH ARTICLES ON THIS WEBSITE….
IF YASHWANT SINHA OR JAYANT WIN THE POLLS, THEN PUNITA KUMAR SINHA(LAST NAME CHANGED AFTER MARRIAGE) WILL AGAIN BE AT THE HELM MANAGING A FUND …. DUE TO HER FIL OR HER HUSBAND MAKING IT TO THE PARLIAMENT.
i WOULD SUGGEST YOU REFRAIN AND ABSTAIN FROM DRAGGING POLITICS AND POLITICIANS ON THIS REPUTED SITE.
Nick, I want to correct some of your nasty comments. I got my degree from IIT Delhi before I got married to Jayant Sinha. I got my Phd in Finance from Wharton before my father in law became finance minister. I started managing the India Funds before BJP was in power. I became Senior Managing Director of Blackstone after BJP lost power. The article posted on Blackstone had nothing to do with the Funds I managed. My educational qualifications had nothing to do with my marriage!! I was on the Director’s list in IIT Delhi even before I got married!!
Please refrain from making factually incorrect and personal comments!
Mr. Damani this article has many factual errors and is wrong on many counts. Please get in touch with me.
Nick,
Also, before you make personal comments about my educational qualifications, do check the years of my admissions to various universities and you will see that I got my admissions prior to Mr. Yashwant Sinha even becoming a “Member of Parliament.” Can a woman not accomplish anything on her own merit? How many women get through the IIT entrance exam? How many women get into a Doctorate Program at Wharton? And that too I achieved all this before my father in law even became a “member of parliament!!” If you write slanderous and incorrect comments on the website about me, I will have to take legal action against you for disparagement.
Ketanji, Whatever has been written here is not correct and unwarranted for such respected women like punitaji , are you an election commission or cbi, pls only put stuff which are verified and correct don’t try to make ur blog an electronic media for bull shit , women and girls should be inspired in our country by seeing punitaji,and people leaving their high profile job and helping to serve the country like Jayant bhai are a source of inspiration to young Indians .
Pls refrain from making personal comments .
Ms Sinha,
I am sure you are an extremely intelligent, knowledgeable and matured lady. My best wishes on your future achievements. I am a big follower of yours, so apologize if I rubbed you the wrong way.
With due respects to all your education, achievements and background which was never my intention, you missed the moot points in the message:
1. This website is built by fans of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala to share knowledge for stock recommendation. I am trying to figure out what asset class/ stock/ commodity this article is supposed to recommend.
2. “Why bring politics into this site, i dont see any stocks or analysis of stocks in the article. It is like asking us to vote for BJP. Sorry….. if hurt your feelings” === I am sure you must have read this comment also.
Even before I commented, people mentioned it very clearly – “We are huge fans of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and are here to learn investing”.
3. The title says “Fund Manager power couple with assets of 55 crores”. My apologies: I am not sure I understand what this statement is supposed to convey…
4. You are a self-motivated person. We all are educated but that does not mean easy money for anyone. I am proud of your achievements. There are people like Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, who are school dropouts and have billions in their account.
FYI: I am a portfolio manager with one of the biggest hedge funds: Am a B.Tech(IIT-Bombay), MBA-IIM(Ahmedabad), CA(15th all Indian rank), CFA(Medals in various groups), AIA(Gold Medalist), MS(Columbia University), PhD(Economics from Princeton).
5. I am not sure what this insinuates: “In terms of assets, Jayant was ahead with a net worth of Rs. 36.38 crore as against Punita’s net worth of Rs. 14.28 crore”.
“Between them, the power couple has 5 luxury cars, two of which are Mercedes Benz.”.
“Punita & Jayant have, however, made up for the lapse by making hefty investments in real estate. Between them, they boast of a penthouse and lots of agricultural land. Jayant also has a treasure trove of artworks of masters like MF Hussain, SH Raza and Ram Kumar and precious antique items”.
6. “So, if you happen to be in Hazaribagh, do vote for Jayant Sinha. His symbol is the Lotus.” === You are far more intellectual than ask for votes through the website. Again, like I mentioned aforesaid, this website is for investment recommendations.
Apologize if you think I misquoted but I am human and I make blunders…. Would like to have your guidance.
Nick,
I do not know Ketan Damani so how could I ask him to request for votes on our behalf and I do not know what this website is either. Someone told me about this article and the nasty comments from Nick which is why I checked this website. I am not the one who wrote this article (which has many factual inaccuracies) on this website so why should I be subjected to this abuse? I am not contesting for any election and am a professional in my own right, so why are you going after me? If you did not like what the author wrote, you could have told him politely that it was uncalled for, but why slander me when I had nothing to do with this? If you are as qualified as you state you are, then I am shocked that you can make statements about people getting into top notch academic institutes without academic merit. Given your stated credentials, I would have hoped that you would know better what it takes to get through an IIT exam, an equally rigorous qualifying exam at Wharton’s Doctoral program, a CFA and other degrees. To attribute all of my hard work and achievements to my father in law is a very unfair and mean statement. Also, how can you make erroneous comments about my jobs when most of my career advancement has happened either before or after the BJP reign which was in any case only for 5 years in my 30 year career! For your kind information, BJP has not been in power since 2004 and I became a Senior Managing Director of Blackstone several years after that! I never lost my job (in fact, I was instrumental in getting our funds sold and in fact took over one of our fund structures from Blackstone which some of us are still managing). It appears your comments are intended to defame me and in very poor taste. I did not ask for anything to be written and in fact, am requesting Ketan Damani (if he reads this) to please take this article and any references to me off from this website. Again, I do not know Ketan and have no way of reaching him, so I really hope he sees my request. I would really like to see this article and the associated comments to be removed and the chapter closed. In any case, there are lots of factual errors on this website and in your comments.
I am sorry to see that so much hurt & distress has been caused to Punitaji by the comments. My guess is that the readers were irritated at the reference to politicians, who are generally seen to be corrupt & unscruplous. Punitaji became an unwitting subject of attack by some commentators. Of course, Jayant Sinha ji is not in that category of politicians. We should be proud that such highly educated, experienced & accomplished persons are willing to serve the Country. We should encourage them so that the illiterate, uncouth & corrupt politicians are driven out.
Punitaji is highly educated, self-motivated & accomplished person. I don’t think it is possible for anyone to reach, and retain for a long time, such an important position in a multi-billion dollar global organisation. Naina Lal Kidwai, Zia Modi, Chanda Cochar, Renuka Ramnath are examples of other women who have achieved exalted heights.
I would urge everyone to read the article in Lokvani which has a nice profile of Punitaji.
http://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/article.php?article_id=9214
Punitaji, deleting the article or comments is not the solution. If people are skeptical of your achievements and call you out, you need to be able to take them on – which you have done in an admirable fashion. i have a very positive feeling about you after your replies to the comments. You are not afraid to face them head on and give a point to point answer. A real fighter!
I am extremely proud of Ms Punita’s achievements as an Indian. The comments made by xyz are extremely unfortunate and intolerable. I also wish Ms.Punita should not waste her valuable time and energies on this silly comments. There are many people in India can achieve laurels in their field except for crony capitalism and corruption.
My best wishes to Ms Punita and wish her success in all endeavors.
Punitaji,
While I am proud of your achievements being an Indian woman, I agree with other authors that this is a stocks suggestion and recommendation website. It would be better if whoever the author is, does not publish such articles which are more of a show-off…
If this article was asking for votes, I do not think this is the right forum. I admire your efforts.
Authors: Please do not publish self-proclaiming articles on this website, is my request
Sorry, if this sounds a bit odd… I am not an accomplished person like Punita but one comment I can make is: all accomplished individuals, be it Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, etc. do not boast about their achievements. This article digresses from the basic purpose of this website. Secondly, people have every right to rejoice their accomplishments but asking for votes on the website — I think it defeats the purpose of this website.
Hopefully, educated individuals can take my small advice and recommend or suggest investment strategies.
“Surprisngly, neither of the two top-notch fund managers have any investments in stocks, probably as a result of their job profile. This must be the most frustrating part of their jobs – to be able to identify multi-bagger stocks but not participate in them.”
What does this mean?? Does it mean that no fund manager or individual in the business of stock research is legally not permitted to make personal investments in equities??
Well, people who work for broking houses can’t have trading accounts in their own and family members’ names even. So I won’t be surprised if the same rule applies to fund managers. This is not a law but is part of their contract, to ascertain that they pay attention to their job and not the stocks they own.
Ok..and what about government employees in the central government? I mean specifically RBI employees.. Can they make investments if not trading?
In general Central Govt. employees can make investments, they can buy mutual funds and own shares, but some employees of the RBI having access to sensitive (insider) information may be forbidden. You will have to ask the concerned department for specific info on this.
Thank you Abhi..
Folks –
Mr. Jayant Sinha is my ideal.I have met personally with him during 2014 election and was amazed by his personality.I got inspired by him and had always dream to reach NYC where Jayant has spent his time during consulting business.Finally am in NYC not as investment consultant but as IT professional.Jayant sinha was my inspiration.Good thing is myself belongs to hazaribagh constituency and very close observer of his performance in constituency and parliament.I would just like to say—–Jayant Sinha -You Rock.