Finance Reimagined: The Convergence of Geopolitics, AI, and Alternative investments | Hyderabad
CFA Society India is excited to invite you for a mini conference on “Finance Reimagined: The Convergence of Geopolitics, AI, and Alternative investments | Hyderabad”
EVENT DETAILS
Date- 21st November 2026
Time- 9:00 AM to 3:00 pm
Venue- Avasa Hotel, Hyderabad
Session by Sach Wry on –Sometimes you don’t need the frontier: Getting familiar with personal LLMs
Soon, free tiers on frontier models may vanish. Prices will spike to justify the gargantuan investments. Meanwhile, newer local models are surprisingly capable. They also keep sensitive data quarantined. Companies would soon split analytical workload between free offline models and frontier subscriptions. Regular practice with them can help discriminate between local and paid model capabilities. It also gives an intuitive sense of token estimates for routine tasks, to help you stay in budget. This session will be an initiation to the world of personal LLMs, with just enough technical insight to launch you on a journey of accelerated self-learning.
InvITs in India: Unlocking Infrastructure Value, Enabling Investment Diversification by NS Venkatesh, CEO at Bharat InvITs Association
About the Session: An introductory session on InvITs, explaining what they are, how they work, their structure, and their role in enabling investment in infrastructure assets. The session will explore the growth of the InvIT industry in India, its evolving investment landscape, and its future outlook in the context of the country’s expanding infrastructure needs.
What Attendees Will Learn:
1.)What InvITs are, their structure, and how they function.
2.) How InvITs generate cash flows and distribute income to unitholders.
3.) How InvITs support infrastructure financing, asset monetisation, and capital recycling.
4.) Growth of India’s InvIT industry, emerging opportunities, and future outlook.
5.) The role of InvITs in supporting India’s infrastructure development and long-term investment requirements.
6.) Key risks associated with InvITs, including market volatility and operational risks.
7.) Factors influencing InvIT valuations, distribution sustainability, and the risk-return profile of investments.
Key Takeaways: A clear understanding of InvIT fundamentals, their functioning and investment potential, along with insights into the key risks and considerations associated with InvIT investments, growth opportunities for the InvIT ecosystem, and its contribution to India’s infrastructure ambitions.
Crosscurrents: Navigating Global Asset Allocation in an Uncertain World by Mihir Shirgaonkar, CFA Vice President –Alternative Investments Phillip Ventures IFSC Private Limited
Session Overview
In an increasingly interconnected world, geopolitical shocks rarely remain confined to national borders or individual asset classes. The events of 2026 have demonstrated how disruptions in energy markets can ripple through inflation, monetary policy expectations, sovereign bond yields, currencies, and global equity markets, fundamentally altering the investment landscape.
As geopolitical uncertainty intersects with evolving economic fundamentals, traditional assumptions about diversification, correlations, and safe-haven assets are being tested.
In this session, Mihir Shirgaonkar, CFA , will explore the transmission of geopolitical risks across global financial markets, examine the forces driving divergence in asset class returns, and discuss how investors can navigate an environment where economic fundamentals, policy responses, and geopolitical developments increasingly interact.
Key Themes and Takeaways
1. When Geopolitics Moves Markets : How geopolitical flashpoints translate into disruptions in energy supplies, global trade, capital flows, and financial market valuations.
2. From Energy Shock to Policy Stress : Understanding the transmission of energy shocks into inflation expectations, monetary policy decisions, and sovereign bond yields.
3. The Great Asset Class Divergence : Why equities, bonds, commodities, currencies, and precious metals respond differently to the same geopolitical and macroeconomic developments.
4. The Test of Traditional Diversification : Exploring changing correlations, the reliability of safe-haven assets, and the challenges of portfolio construction during periods of heightened uncertainty.
5. Navigating the Crosscurrents : Translating geopolitical and macroeconomic developments into informed global asset allocation decisions, balancing long-term investment opportunities with evolving risks.
Sach Wry
Sach specializes in institutions and the global economy. He earned a Ph.D. from Maastricht University, preceded by an MSc, an MBA and BTech. He has previously been a Research Affiliate with the United Nations University and served as Policy Analyst at the Environment Ministry in New Delhi working for a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Since then, he has given talks on four continents. Besides MPP and undergrad students from over 70 countries, he has taught in a Public Policy program attended by IAS officers at ISB Hyderabad.
Mihir Shirgaonkar, CFA
Vice President – Alternative Investments Phillip Ventures IFSC Private Limited
Mihir Shirgaonkar, CFA
Vice President – Alternative Investments Phillip Ventures IFSC Private Limited
Mihir Shirgaonkar, CFA, is a seasoned investment professional with over a decade of experience in the asset management industry. He presently heads the Alternative Investments division at Phillip Ventures IFSC Pvt. Ltd., a part of the Singapore-headquartered PhillipCapital Group. He manages the investment strategies for the Global Portfolio Management Services (PMS) and the India-focused Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) strategies based out of GIFT City.
Mihir manages the Phillip International Pioneer Portfolio which is the first Global PMS to be set up in Gift City. Mihir manages this strategy with a focus on identifying investment ideas across global regions, sectors, businesses, and investment themes. He is known for a distinctive approach that integrates fundamental research with data-driven insights. He has led the development of in-house market intelligence tools that process large datasets to identify macro, sectoral, and thematic trends across geographies, sectors, and businesses. His investment philosophy emphasizes constructing forward-looking portfolios anchored in robust fundamentals. His understanding of global markets informs his strategic allocation decisions across asset classes. Before his current role, Mihir was part of the ETFs and Passive Investments division at DSP Investment Managers (formerly DSP BlackRock) and has also worked with HDFC Asset Management Company.
Mihir has done his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and is a Chartered Accountant by qualification. He is also a CFA® charterholder. He actively contributes to the investment community as a member of the Public Awareness Committee at CFA Society India, including writing for its quarterly newsletter
NS Venkatesh
CEO @ Bharat InvITs Association
Mr. NS Venkatesh is a highly accomplished financial professional with over 40 years of experience in India’s banking and investment sectors. He currently serves as the CEO of the Bharat InvITs Association (BIA). Prior to this, he held the position of CEO at the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).With over 40 years of experience in the banking industry, more than 20 of which have been focused on Treasury and International Banking. Mr. Venkatesh possesses extensive expertise in Finance, Risk Management, Information Technology & Corporate Governance. He is also well-regarded for his strategic insight in areas such as Bank Strategy, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Bank Turnarounds. Notably, he played a pioneering role in introducing infrastructure and green bonds.He has served on numerous committees and working groups of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He is the former Chairman of the Fixed Income, Money Markets & Derivatives Association (FIMMDA) and a member of the Foreign Exchange Dealers’ Association of India Board (FEDAI). Additionally, he was an ex-officio invitee to SEBI’s Mutual Funds Advisory Committee and a member of SEBI’s Corporate Bonds and Securitization Advisory Committee (CoBoSAC). He was also a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of RBI on Government Securities, Money Markets & Derivatives.Mr. Venkatesh has spent over 19 years with IDBI, where he held several senior leadership roles including Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Executive Director.