My motivation to apply for the PhD program in Management lies in my innate curiosity about businesses

and how they grow and make money for their stakeholders. Specifically, I am interested in the behavior
of successful retail investors and how they can use the equity markets to generate not just alpha over
the benchmark indices but to also outperform the professional, institutional investor.

I believe that everyone should know personal finance and if willing, should also learn how to invest for
themselves. I was strongly influenced by the books written by renowned investors such as Peter Lynch,
Howard Marks and William O’Neill who created their own unique styles of investing. As a young student
of management, reading them was an eye-opening experience for me. It gave me a sense of freedom to
know that it was possible to improve your economic situation in life through investing if you worked
hard to analyze securities and recognized opportunities in the markets.

I believe that my background of an undergraduate degree in Management coupled with an MBA, both
with a specialization in Finance, make it a natural extension for me to pursue a PhD in Management. As
a PhD researcher, I seek to investigate the behavior of retail investors in equity markets, that at times
seem to be tilted in favor of large institutions. It is my innate belief that retail investors have a huge
advantage over their institutional counterparts due to not having to follow any mandates with respect
to limitations of market capitalization, sectoral bias, liquidity constraints and exchanges among others. I
strongly feel that the common man should take charge of his own financial life, rather than blindly trust,
and lean on financial institutions to secure his future. The past few years have shown that their
interests, might not always be aligned with their clients’.

I joined the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi (Ranked among the top 10 in India) for my MBA
after completing my undergraduate degree of bachelor’s in management studies from Delhi University.
Ever since starting college, I had a keen interest in the field of business and finance. I would devour
books and business newspapers and magazines in my quest to learn more about them. As an aside, it
also made me a very competent quizzer and I received accolades for winning many business quizzes and
case study competitions. I was also fortunate to be exposed to some great teachers during my
undergrad days who nurtured my curiosity.

I authored a research study, “Hedge Funds and their impact on the financial world” as part of my
undergraduate curriculum that was an investigation of Hedge Fund strategies. I also authored a research
study, “What determines returns in the Indian equity markets?”, as part of my MBA curriculum that seek
to uncover leading valuation ratios of future outperformance.

Currently, I am employed as a Product Manager at a lending subsidiary of an online marketplace for

vehicles in India. Working as a FinTech product manager has given me an insight into the bleeding edge
of financial innovations, especially in the online lending space. More importantly, working in the tech
industry allowed me to pick up coding in languages such as Python and SQL. I feel this would be very
valuable as part of my PhD research, especially when I would be analyzing large sets of data.

Post my PhD, I seek to work in a research capacity, either as part of a think tank or as part of a
university’s research department, studying and trying to demystify the behavior of markets.

IIT Delhi, is one of the leading institutions of this country and needs no introduction. I strongly believe
that my research area, will intersect with the cutting-edge work being done by your faculty and
researchers. With my background in management, I feel I will be a strong asset to your program.