Kotak Nifty India Tourism Index fund will invest in airlines, airport operators, hotels, restaurants and travel portals

Exposure to multiple sub-sectors differentiates the funds in infrastructure

Mahindra Manulife Focused fund is large-cap heavy and takes moderate risks in its portfolio

The fund will follow a top-down approach to sector selection and bottom-up process to zero-in on stocks

Here we list out the key aspects to know before dematerialising your mutual fund units

Large-caps offer relative safety from froth and Mirae Asset Large Cap Fund performed well in the class

An analysis on if and how historical outperformance of mutual funds foretell their future returns

As benchmarks rise and broader markets correct, a portfolio anchored in strong value-based stock-selection criteria may work well for investors

Arbitrage funds come with both – safety of capital as a debt fund and taxation of an equity fund.

With geopolitical tensions, US elections and crude prices weighing on sentiments, it may be a good time to take the safer option of dividend yield investing

A brief explainer on the amendments pertaining to investors recently brought in

Canara Robeco Blue Chip Equity has consistently beaten the benchmark and delivered above-average performance

Balanced advantage funds are seen as attractive in the current market as they tend to generate risk-adjusted returns and insulate investor portfolios from stiff corrections

Liquid ETFs, trading on both NSE and BSE, predominantly invest in TREPS, which ensures daily returns, very low volatility, no interest or credit risk.

Kotak Bluechip is a steady outperformer and suits investors, with a medium risk appetite, saving for long-term goals

Applying filters of the style throws up companies in market-leading positions with a competitive moat

Relative Discomfort: The Family Survival Guide author Jeremy Greenberg appeared on MyFox Kansas City.

See the interview here: MyFoxKC.com

Everybody has one, or more. That relative who drives you up the wall. And it's hard to get through the holidays without seeing them. Author, Jeremy Greenburg explains relative discomfort in his family survival guide. He'll be at Barnes and Noble on the Country Club Plaza Friday, Nov. 7 at 5:30 p.m. for a book signing. Visit his website at jeremygreenberg.com.

Relative Discomfort is a sidesplitting, guffaw-inducing guide to living through and laughing at all of our family encounters. You know that knot you get in your stomach when you're about to come face-to-face with your Uncle Drunk and Aunt Enabler, or the brother-in-law who always wants to show you his gun collection? This book unties that knot.

Book Review: Mass Historia
Fiction Book Reviews

Emmy award winning comedy writer Chris Regan has turned his considerable talents to past events and come out with a winner in this uproarious look at 365 days in history. Embellishing facts with liberal doses of light humor, history has never been more entertaining as demonstrated by the January 4 entry celebrating Utah’s statehood that explains how Utah became the forty-fifth state which coincidentally, was the average number of wives enjoyed by most Utah men at the time. Then learn about the army suppression of an uprising of a hoard of Donnie Osmond groupies and the five top Mormon fun facts.

Knives Cooks Love Review

As Emeril Lagasse writes in the book's foreword, knives are the most highly valued cooking tool in a chef's possession, and yet they are often the least discussed in the kitchen. This book, produced by Sur La Table, pulls the cloak back on that tool to provide a wonderfully coherent, easy-to-follow guide to selecting knives, maintaining them and, as you might guess, using them properly. Even better, they pair those instructions along with recipes that you can make immediately after learning each new cut, chop or slice.

Knives Cooks Love: Selection. Care. Techniques. Recipes. focuses on this most versatile tool in the kitchen and provides tantalizing recipes allowing you to practice and perfect techniques. Consider this Knives 101—lessons on everything you need to know to make your experiences behind the blade more straightforward, efficient, and enjoyable.

Knives Cooks Love: Selection. Care. Techniques. Recipes. by Sur La Table with Sarah Jay is reviewed in the 11/15/08 edition of Library Journal:

Most home cooks tend to be protective of their knives and often claim to be highly knowledgeable of the knife world. This book from Sur La Table and food writer Jay is slightly obsessive; it goes into shocking detail about each type of knife from the few countries that produce the best of the best. There is the obligatory section, "A Blade for Every Purpose," that describes each type of knife and its possible uses, which is the best part of the book. Another helpful portion addresses how to buy a knife, which has comprehensive explanations on such weighty points as blade anatomy and blade material. The lay reader will like the simple sections on how to chop, peel, and dice a variety of foods. The recipes that are included are basic for the most part and slightly uninspiring (e.g., mango-cucumber salsa). Recommended for academic libraries with a large collection of culinary arts materials.—Claire A. Schaper, Morgantown, WV

No Laughing Matter By JIM MCTAGUE
Cartoonist and blogger Scott Adams is outspoken about economics, politics and more -- but tight-lipped about Dilbert, hero to cubicle jockeys.

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THE ECONOMY COULDN'T POSSIBLY get worse comes this disturbing news: Dilbert's mismanaged high-tech company is foundering, jeopardizing the lovable cartoon character's oppressive but steady job as an electrical engineer in a stuffy cubicle, where he's manufactured laughs about illogical and inhumane corporate managers for nearly 20 years.

Barron's won't divulge the climax of the current plot. During a recent interview, Dilbert's creator, Scott Adams, asked that we merely hint at what lies ahead for the cylinder-headed nerd with the upturned, clip-on tie. But read the daily Dilberts carefully over the next few days or weeks; clues abound and they don't point to a happy conclusion.

That's fitting because, as Adams notes in Dilbert 2.0, his $85, 576-page 20th-anniversary collection of 4,000 of his more than 8,000 cartoon strips (plus a DVD): "Dilbert is most popular when the workplace is at its worse." In fact, the strip, a window on workplace absurdity, took off during the downsizing binge of the early 1990s. In one memorable sequence from that period, Dilbert competes with a monkey to keep his engineering job. Dilbert wins, but his victory jig is short-circuited by his pointy-haired boss' decision to place the monkey on the upper-management fast track. Sounds like a telling commentary on the corporate world of 21st century's first decade, too.

Adams' current strips and very funny blog (http://www.dilbert.com/blog/), which often feature the cartoonist's insightful economic and stock-market commentaries, provide more hints about Dilbert's fate. A Dec. 12 blog argues that the recession is anything but temporary: "I think we are on the verge of a change as profound as the Industrial Revolution. Society will have to retool its expectations to meet the reality that there just won't be enough money to provide necessary services if we insist on consuming in an inefficient way."

One clue about Dilbert's fate appeared on Dec. 13 in newspapers around the world (Dilbert is published in 70 countries and 25 languages) in what turned out to be one of the most popular episodes in the strip's history: A financial adviser recommends that Dilbert's pointy-haired boss invest all of the company's funds in sick livestock. Don't buy just one sick cow, the adviser urges; buy an entire herd, because by aggregating sick cows, the risk goes away. "It's called math," the adviser adds, in a send-up of the asset-backed securitizations that have helped topple the global economy.

The financial adviser, by the way, is a malicious canine. In his blogs, Adams is equally unkind to real advisers and money managers. In his view, formed long before the disrobing of Bernie Madoff, they're always conniving to steal investors' money. Perhaps this depiction is payback: Adams lost a bundle following advice during the tech bubble, which also convinced him that investing in individual stocks and "professionally managed" funds is a losers' game. His advisers put half of his portfolio into WorldCom, Enron and other sure things and lost 40% of his invested cash, he says. He managed the other half and lost 20% in the tech wreck.

"Most of the investments I made in individual stocks went bad because managements were lying. They are the source of the information for the markets." His conclusion: "It is even dumber to pay an expert to talk to the liar for you and charge you 1% of your portfolio." Some folks who bought funds of funds that invested with Madoff surely would agree.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s review of President Obama Election 2008: A Collection of Newspaper Front Pages Selected by the Poynter Institute on Sunday (1/19/09) includes the following:

Everyone should probably grab one as a momento, but for sheer fun, the best of the commemoratives is President Obama/Election 2008: A Collection of Newspaper Front Pages from the Poynter Institute (Andrews McMeel). It gathers dull headlines (“Historic Victory”), witty ones (the Tulsa World’s, “Yes He Did”), and lovingly local riffs (The Jakarta Post’s “Barry’s Done It!”).


President Obama
(ISBN-13: 978-0-7407-8480-4)

Publisher’s Weekly’s Children’s Picture Book Bestsellers (2/16/09) features Bee & Me at #8

When a young boy discovers a bee trapped in his bedroom he hides for fear of being stung. But when the amiable bee frantically explains all that bees do, the boy comes to understand how good things come in different packages: "Bees make honey. That much we know. Bees also spread pollen, which makes all things grow."

The subject of honeybees' mysterious dwindling population throughout the world has been a growing concern in the news in recent years. Bee & Me brings the critical importance of bees to light for young children through the innovative, full color process of ANIMOTION™ in an engaging story of friendship and understanding. Bee & Me will charm readers while providing valuable information about how important bees are to sustainable agriculture. Bee & Me is sure to fascinate, entertain and engage readers of all ages.

Coming soon: Baby Turtle's Tale

Tom Flynn Reads from Bikeman

Journalist Tom Flynn decided to respond to the events of September 11, 2001, by writing an epic poem in which he recalled how, on that fateful day, he had hopped on his bicycle, braved the chaos, and headed down to the World Trade Center to cover the attacks for CBS News. When the second tower was hit, Flynn found himself in the middle of the unraveling horror. In his book, Bikeman: An Epic Poem (Andrews McMeel), Flynn's poetic dispatches reflect on the sorrow, fear, and humanity shared by the nation on that “forever September morning.”

In celebration of National Poetry month, VF.com presents an exclusive audio excerpt.