Book review of Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Extraordinary Results: Financial Express 14th June 2026

 The Science of Mindset: How Nir Eyal’s ‘Beyond Belief’ Deconstructs the Power of Placebos

Consider these three situations. In Europe, several people go through surgical procedures without anaesthesia. There is a psychiatrist who talks to the patient and controls the mind so as not to feel pain. Recovery is fast. In a second situation a person who has been hurt is administered a balm, which reduces the pain immediately. Later it is revealed that it was not a balm but a plain cream that was applied. In the third situation a person volunteers to be part of an experiment for a pill. When he reads up on it after taking it he realises it is potent and has some negative effects. The blood pressure levels increase dramatically and the person is rushed to hospital. But all body parameters are normal. Then the person is told that he was not given any medicated tablet but just a placebo. The blood pressure stabilises.

What do these stories tell us? It is belief that drives our behaviour. The way the mind is conditioned by such beliefs can make one feel the way we do. This is the core of Nir Eyal’s book written with Julie Li, titled Beyond Belief. It is a book that uses scientific ways to stop limiting ourselves which will, in turn, help to achieve breakthrough results. By changing the way our mind works or thinks we can change our attitude to life.

Quite interestingly, he argues that placebos are useful as they serve the purpose of making us feeling better. The same phenomenon can be taken to the area of religion or belief in god, which works in an analogous manner. While praying and doing nothing will not get one far, belief and effort put together can deliver better results. Therefore, whether or not one prays, belief in an entity called god is useful. A far reaching extension of this discussion is that those who are spiritual but not religious often suffer the most and have higher levels of anxiety, phobias and depression.

Beliefs, according to the author, are the foundation of motivation in life. Efforts will matter only if we believe in what we are doing. Motivation includes three elements of ‘what to do’ to reach the ‘desired outcome’ with ‘conviction’. If any of these three links are missing or weak, it will not work. We also need to be open to feedback so that we can change our goals so that we are tuned into reality all the time. Hence everyone cannot hope to become a president or sport star just by believing that one is made for it.

Three-Part Framework

In this context the author talks of three powers of the belief framework, which is the crux of the book. The first is ‘attention’, which he describes as seeing things that help to shape possibilities.

This is important because if our mind starts seeing failure or threats, it becomes demotivating, and eventually nothing is achieved. Therefore, negative thoughts need to be kept away. This is something that one tends to be caught in and hence there is need to challenge such unhelpful beliefs. This comes from rumination which should ultimately lead to reshaping our perception, which, in turn, redirects our attention through the power of belief.

The second element is ‘anticipation’, where one should predict what to expect from any action. If we anticipate pain, then it just might come true. There is need, according to the author, to break the pain-fear-pain cycle. If we fear pain, we will experience more of it, which will confirm the danger which we anticipated. Therefore, how one conditions the mind is important whenever we form expectations.

This is why placebos work because the conscious mind understands the cure being taken and the body responds to the same as if it is curing the problem.

Here there is an interesting take on ageing which most people can relate to. The author argues that one’s belief in ageing and physical capability literally influences the biology of the being. People with positive ageing beliefs live 7.5 years longer than those with negative thoughts. Negative beliefs leads to physical de-conditioning and social isolation, which just accelerates the process.

The third element is called ‘agency’. To make positive thinking work we need to use evidence to change and make it happen. The difference between people who perform this function well will determine how one tackles challenging situations. It is not just anticipating problems but working to navigate them, which helps beliefs turn into reality. Hence there is need to focus on things which we can control. Agency, therefore, transforms uncertainty into a bridge towards concrete benefits through intentional practice. This is where prayer works through psychology and hence goes beyond plain theology.

Trap of Pure Optimism

Is all positive thinking very good and a panacea for our problems? This is a likely question to come up as the reader peruses these pages. Here the author raises a red flag and talks about how positive fantasies can backfire as they relax the body as if the goal has already been achieved. The circle of false promise traps people, leading to major disappointments. He hence prefers mental contrasting to plain positive thinking where we constantly pair future dreams with present obstacles. They hence engage with all the three powers of belief. They direct attention to realistic obstacles. They build anticipation for both success and challenges, and finally strengthen the agency trait to handle these challenges.

his book can come under the self-help category which uses psychological principles to enable empowerment of the individual. It does show that belief lies in the mind which can be made to work to take us in the right direction. But the three vital components of belief — attention, anticipation and agency are essential to make wishes come true. This is a book with a strong message to reinforce confidence in oneself and meeting challenges with a positive mind frame.

Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Extraordinary Results
Nir Eyal with Julie Li
Penguin Random House
Pp 304, Rs 999

RBI's plan to attract foreign currency : How much of it could FCNR deposits really expect to lure? Mint 12th June 2026

 https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/rbi-plan-foreign-currency-fcnr-deposits-nri-dollars-yen-carry-central-bank-debt-yields-11781081669374.html

An apt policy: RBI may tighten credit later but its current focus is on attracting flows of foreign exchange: Mint 5th June 2026

 https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/rbi-mpc-monetary-policy-committee-credit-foreign-exchange-forex-rupee-repo-rate/amp-11780638285109.html

Withdrawal of taxes on FPI investment in Gsec: The final frontier? Business Standard 5th June 2026

 The foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have been in a withdrawal mode this year. One of the reasons which has been given is the system of taxation where returns become less competitive when compared with other markets.

 This has been addressed well by the government by exempting interest earned on GSecs holding from tax as well as removing any capital gains tax on GSecs. This is a big positive step that has been supplemented by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which now allows them to invest under the FAR regulation in securities of over 10 years duration. 

 

The important question is whether or not there will there be an about turn in the flow of funds in the debt segment? This is something which will be tested in the coming months. Prima facie, the tax rates of 20% on earnings in interest or capital gains meant erosion in real return. The prevailing thought process earlier was to have some kind of a level playing field for investors from both the domestic and foreign sections.

However, this could have militated against such investment, especially so considering that investors have been looking at other emerging markets and comparing returns. A declining rupee already lowered effective return that was compounded by the tax rate. This correction should make GSecs valuable again for investors. 

 

It must be pointed out that our GSecs are now part of global bond indices, which means that all such policies matter as investors keep rebalancing their portfolio depending on effective returns. Often investment in indices is complemented by separate investments in the Indian market to take advantage of any arbitrage opportunities. The nominal returns on bonds are fixed by the market over which no one has control. The same holds for currency movement that is determined outside the system. What we can control is the system of incentives available for investors. The government intervention here is hence pragmatic as it plugs a gap. 

With interest rates poised to rise across the world, the bond returns would be one of the clinching factors. The decision taken by the Fed in the upcoming meeting will hold the clue to the direction of interest rates in the US under the new Chairman. 

The next few months will test the efficacy of these measures as there has been a long standing demand for withdrawal of the withholding tax on FPI earnings in the debt segment. 

 

With the present measures being invoked all returns – interest and capital gains are not subjected to any tax. In parallel the RBI has also enabled them to invest in bonds of maturities higher than 10 years as well as in fresh issuances of paper.  All this should boost inflows. But ‘how much’ is the question? 

Why are FPIs exiting? Financial Express 5th June 2026

 Since the war began, global stock indices have behaved differentially. The Sensex surely has gone down from 81,287 to 75,415 between February 27 and May 22. This could give a signal that the Indian market has underperformed; however, US indices S&P 500 and DJI have gone up while the NYSE Composite is marginally down. Nikkei is up significantly while FTSE is down. German (DAX 40) and French (CAC 40) indices are down. So is the case with Brazil (IBOVESPA). But Korean KOSPI has done brilliantly while Singapore (STI) has trudged in the positive zone. Hang Seng of Hong Kong is down, as is the Shanghai Composite. Therefore, our market is not an outlier.

Yet it has been seen that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) are in a withdrawal mode. Since March 1, they have pulled out $23.75 billion from the Indian market (equity and debt) while in the corresponding preceding 51 sessions, they withdrew $1.25 billion. The former included around $21 billion in equity and the balance in debt and hybrid. Interestingly, for the 51 days prior to the war, equity withdrawal was at $22.75 billion, with debt being positive.

Thus, the FPIs have been withdrawing funds from the equity segment even before the war began, which means it is a continuation of an earlier trend. The war has only maintained this tendency. However, in debt it was positive though marginal, which turned negative once the war began. An explanation can be conjectured here.

Decoding Herd Mentality

On the equity front, the FPIs have been bearish about Indian markets. It should be remembered that FPIs consists of myriad investors who are registered with Sebi and not a single entity. Therefore, the joint action can be taken to be some kind of group-think where decisions are taken based on a common line of thinking. One reason is the belief that some of the major stocks and sectors may be overvalued with very high private equity ratios. Generally, ratios above 30 denote overvaluation, less than 20 reflect opportunity, while the range of 20-30 could go either way.

The NIFTY pharma, FMCG, and consumption indices show ratios of ~35. It is 30 for auto, while it is less than 15 for banks, making them attractive. Here, the clue is corporate profitability. Growth in sales and profits has tended to be more in the single digit range, which indicates stability at best. This needs to change for the valuations to be justified or else, theoretically, the prices would have to correct over a time period.

The issue with stocks being considered to be overvalued is twofold. First, it makes sense for investors to exit as the upside seems limited. In fact, with the Sensex exhibiting higher volatility, it is a sign that the best is over for the time being until there is more buoyancy in the performance. The annualised daily volatility since the war began increased to 21.6% for these 50-odd sessions compared with 11.6% in the earlier period. Second, for new investment to flow, a wait and watch approach would be taken, following which a fresh round of investment would begin.

As mentioned earlier, some markets have shown remarkable resilience during these times, and investors would probably be moving their funds from markets like India, Brazil, etc. to the US, which has witnessed a general upward movement. It must be noted that ever since the central banks have been pursuing quantitative tightening, the quantum of investible funds has come down considerably. Hence, funds are being reallocated as investors search for opportunities in a wider set of markets.
Coming to the war, India’s market performance could be making FPIs cautious.

The high dependence on imported crude oil makes the trade balance jittery. While real growth is less of a concern, the issue with rupee depreciation is a consideration. The fact that the rupee is moving down lowers purchases and enhances sales, leading to net outflows. This in turn, feeds back to the currency strength as the rupee tends to be affected perversely, thus justifying the view that real returns would be weak. This is a tough nut to crack from the policy point of view.

How about debt? Ever since the war began, the bond markets have been in a different mood. Higher crude prices cause higher inflation across the world. This means that interest rates will no longer be lowered. Kevin Warsh’s appointment as chairman of the Federal Reserve was supposed to be associated with lowering of rates, which is what Donald Trump wanted. The last policy was cautious on rates. Now there is talk of rates being increased rather than lowered as inflation increases. This has pushed up bond yields. While Indian bond yields too have climbed up to cross 7% for 10 years’ maturity, there is a case of investors weighing the net return where the currency decline comes into play.

Therefore, FPIs will continue to be unpredictable in the next few months. They cannot be considered as a source of long-term capital when working out the options for closing the current account deficit gap. As long as they do not accelerate their withdrawal, it could be steady news. But the declining rupee is definitely a consideration for them as the real value gets affected.

What will the MPC do this time. BusinessLine 2nd June 2026

 

Business beyond profit and loss: Financial Express Book review 1st June 2026

 https://www.financialexpress.com/life/lifestyle/business-beyond-profit-amp-lossnbsp/4255152/lite/

Today businesses need to think beyond just making money. They need to be socially relevant as well. The government has come up with a mandatory amount to be spent by companies on corporate social responsibility, but that is just the monetary aspect, and money spent has often has been belittled as green-washing. All that is changing now, as companies and corporate heads work seriously to bring about changes in the way business is conducted.

Sutapa Banerjee captures this in her book, where her focus is on what companies should do to go beyond mere profit and loss. There is no better way to do it then get a mélange of experts to talk about the importance of three broad heads—sustainability, equity and breaking stereotypes. There are 24 essays in this book with 20 authors providing their views on various issues under these headings, besides the author who has her say on each of these subjects before having a round-up in terms of structuring a playbook.

There are some stellar names associated with this book, starting with a foreword by Nadir Godrej in a rather catchy poetic style. Others include Abheek Barua, Kiran Khalap, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Manish Sabharwal, Deepinder Goyal and more.

Abheek Barua has an impressive piece on sustainability and inclusion, which is an economist’s view that talks about the importance of this issue and how corporates can work to make this world a better palace. This can be on projects taken up as well as environment-friendly ways of going about their business. Hence, what is important is doing the same business in a better manner. There is the case of ITC taking up projects to not just tackle waste but also new ways of greening land. Companies have now started projects to address issues concerning product disposal, which is very important.

Mukundan takes up the case of his domain, the chemicals industry, and flags three issues that have to be taken up by corporates. The first is to support bioethanol and biodiesel to ensure that coal boilers become more ecofriendly. The second is to set intermediate targets such as closure of old and inefficient power plants, vehicles, building, and improvement in logistics to enhance efficiency and lower costs. Third is to focus on goals such as providing green hydrogen at $1 per kg by developing smart grids, etc.

There are nine essays in this section with some foreign insights on sustainable agriculture in Africa being provided by MD Ramesh, which can hold clues for us within the country too.

Digital Equalizers

The section on equity and economic participation will appeal to every Indian reader. For instance, the essay on a digital job place by Bhikchandani takes us to how the concept of Naukri.com evolved, which has made searching for jobs easy for both prospective employers and employees. There is an extension now for blue collar workers too, called JobHai.com.

This concept was novel when it started and was an equalising tool for all segments of society. We have also seen the government launch a similar initiative at a different level for MSMEs where a virtual marketplace called GEMS has been launched.

Sabharwal’s name is synonymous with human resources and he has focused on reforms that are needed in the education space. He touches the right chord when he talks of reforms in the twins of education and skilling, which are both priorities of the government. The former is a challenge because it is quite diverse in the country and becomes the basis of fomenting inequality as access to quality education is not the same to all. A similar challenge is on the skills front where the youth do not have them to get meaningful jobs.

Preeti Reddy writes on the gender inequality pervading corporate India. She believes that things are changing as many companies are addressing this issue by making jobs more inclusive. Therefore, the DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) formula is widely used by them. In USA, however, there has been a slowdown on this front, especially after Donald Trump has come to power, and there have been executive orders passed to restrict race and gender-based DEI programmes.

Reddy highlights the progress made in India and the fact that 97% of NSE-listed companies have one woman director and 48% have two or more than two, which is testament to this commitment. She highlights the need for political will to pursue this cause. She also believes that we need to have more women role models. Here an interesting observation is made that when the CEO is a woman, there tends to be more gender balanced boards.

At a different level, Deepinder Goyal talks about how his model of Zomato quite effectively fostered equality across three constituents in the value chain of food delivery. The customer, of course, is most empowered by getting access to not just knowledge but also to food from various outlets. Restaurants are the second group which are able to enlarge the universe of customers which was not possible in the pre-online model where they had to depend on the locality of their establishment for business. Last is the delivery partner model which has become a large industry given the proliferation in not just these delivery-app companies but also the physical area to be covered.

Pirojsha Godrej talks of the construction industry and the assimilation of migrant labour given that this industry employs 56 million workers, including 7 million women. The efficiency of starting projects and completing on time is contingent on delivery, and the seasonal labour shortage is a bane for the industry. The solution is to give primacy to the worker and ensure well-being as it is the only way to ensure there is limited reverse migration. Business hence has to be more responsible to remain viable and successful.

Banerjee has made this compilation well focused on three subjects which has several takeaways for both existing and prospective entrepreneurs.