Dear Shareholder

It was the worst of times and it was the worst of times.

That sums up a year when everything that could possibly go wrong, did go wrong. The world reeled under the collective assault of a financial market contagion, a flu epidemic, corporate fraud and the new reality of terrorist attacks. Nothing was more certain than uncertainty.

But it was not all dark clouds. The silver lining was represented by landmark elections in the world’s two greatest democracies: voters in the USA opted for a harbinger of change and we, the people of India, voted decisively for stability and steady reform.

In my letter of last year, I had written that global financial institutions have become money juggernauts with excessive leverage, where proprietary trading, in many cases, far outstrips client businesses.

Over one eventful month last year, Lehman Brothers folded, Merrill was acquired by Bank of America; and Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley converted themselves into commercial banks.