You say that stock markets create wealth, but the newspapers are reporting that India’s market cap has fallen from $2 trillion to $1.8 trillion. Why is that?

There are two things you need to remember. Firstly, you cannot judge wealth creation over a small period of time. You have to take a longer perspective. For example between 2002 and 2008, the market cap of the Indian markets went up nearly 15-fold. Over the short term, changes in market cap can be quite volatile. Secondly, when you measure market cap in dollars, there is also a dollar depreciation aspect to it. During this period, even if the markets had not fallen but if the rupee had weakened against the dollar, then the dollar market cap would have gone down.