Hey folks!

The other day, my dad brought home two whole dozens of bananas. Dads, I tell you! Ask them to pick up a few, and they’ll bring you enough to open a fruit stall. 😆

And I panicked. With summer setting in, a stockpile of bananas is the last thing you want to worry about. So, I made a plan. Any overripe bananas would be turned into pancakes!

Now, that’s a simple fix at home. But on a global scale, where billions of bananas are grown each year, not everyone can whip up banana pancakes, no? Because the reality is that a whopping 50% of all bananas never get eaten. They just rot away.

And for India, the world’s largest banana producer, that’s a massive problem. We churn out about 37 million tonnes annually. But thanks to our hot weather and lack of sufficient storage facilities, a big chunk of bananas go to waste. In 2021 alone, India lost over ₹30,000 crores due to fruit wastage, much of it from bananas and mangoes.

But science might have just the solution — gene-edited bananas!

Recently, researchers in Norwich, England, have come up with genetically modified bananas that brown at a much slower pace. They stay fresh longer, and can last up to 12 hours even after being peeled. And that’s a game-changer for India!

Right now, despite being the top banana producer, we’re nowhere near the top exporter. Ecuador holds that title. That’s because most Indian banana farmers are small cultivators who can’t afford cold storage facilities. Their produce simply can’t survive long enough to be shipped overseas, which is also probably why most of the bananas India produces gets consumed locally. But with gene-edited bananas, that could change. Less spoilage means less food waste, more income for farmers and also more exports.

And let’s not forget the environment. Rotting bananas release methane, a greenhouse gas that is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat. So fewer wasted bananas could actually help slow down climate change too.

But of course, until this amazing banana variety reaches Indian farms, we might need to get creative. Maybe we could take inspiration from Korea, where bananas are sold in packs arranged by ripeness. Simply put, you can buy a pack of bananas, with one ready to eat today and others gradually ripening over the week.

But if Indian fruit sellers think that’s too much work, then the only option we’re left with is to make pancakes!

Here’s a soundtrack to put you in the mood 🎵

Aasaan Nahin Hota by Bharat Chauhan

Thanks for the recommendation, Amit Kumar Eshore!

What caught our eye this week 👀

Going Green… Even After Death?

Picture this. You spend your life being eco-conscious — ditching plastic, cutting down waste, composting leftovers. But what about after you’re gone?

Well, turns out, your last goodbye can be just as green as your lifestyle.

Enter mushroom coffins, biodegradable burial boxes that turn you into compost in just 45 days. Invented by Dutch entrepreneur Bob Hendrikx, these coffins aren’t built; they’re grown from mycelium, the root structure of mushrooms, which is also nature’s most powerful recycler. You see, mycelium makes for over 90% of the plant network and it breaks down dead plants and animals in forests, feeding new life. So, instead of a dead body taking years to decompose or requiring tons of wood for burning, this mushroom coffin speeds up the process to return you to nature.

Countries are embracing this shift, and for good reason. Because every year, 4 million acres of forest are cut down to make wooden coffins, and embalming fluids seep gallons of toxic chemicals into the ground. And cremation? That’s no better. It releases carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and heavy metals into the air. A survey by the United Nations shows that cremating just one body requires 400-500 kg of wood. And in India, about 60 million trees go up in flames in funeral pyres every year, pumping tons of carbon into the air. Not exactly the greenest thing to do while you leave for good.

And while mycelium coffins might not be the answer for India just yet, green cremation alternatives are already here.

IIT Delhi students have developed cow dung logs to replace firewood in cremations, a cheaper, deforestation-free option. Another alternative uses a metal tray setup to burn bodies faster, with less wood and smoke, cutting the process down from three days to just two hours. And while the National Green Tribunal is pushing for electric and PNG crematoriums, cultural resistance and lack of awareness have slowed adoption.

So, could this actually change the way we think about death? Instead of something morbid, burials could be seen as a way to give back to the planet. Imagine entire forests of memorial trees, each one growing from a loved one who passed!

And if this all sounds futuristic, well… the market is already booming. Globally, the sustainable casket industry is expected to hit $3.6 billion by 2031, with innovations ranging from cardboard coffins to tree pod burials.

So whether it’s mushroom coffins, cow dung pyres or electric crematoriums, India is slowly finding its own way to make death more sustainable.

Infographic 📊

This Day in Financial History 📜

12th of March 2009 ― Bernie Madoff pleaded guilty to one of the largest frauds in the history of Wall Street

On this day, Bernie Madoff, a Wall Street financier, admitted to running the largest Ponzi scheme in history, swindling $65 billion from unsuspecting investors.

But how did he pull off something so massive?

Well, Madoff wasn’t just any financier. He was a Wall Street legend and a former NASDAQ chairman. He’d started trading penny stocks in the 1960s and gradually made a name for himself as a market maker. But real success came when he built electronic trading systems with his brother, attracting massive order flow that boosted his business by providing insights into market activity. So it’s no surprise that he was a trusted name in investing.

This is exactly why his promise of steady, double-digit returns, which were of course too good to be true, managed to lure in farmers, teachers, charities, pension funds and even celebrities.

His supposed strategy was something called a split-strike conversion, a legitimate trading method using stocks and options. Here, you first buy shares of a company, with the hope that their value will increase. But you also do two other things on the side. One, you buy a put option, which means that if the stock price falls too much, you can sell it at a pre-decided price to limit your losses. And two, you also sell a call option, which means that you agree to sell the stock if the price rises above a certain level. In return, you earn an upfront payment called a premium, which helps cover costs.

Think of this as a strategy that helps balance risks and rewards.

But here’s the twist. Madoff wasn’t making any trades at all. He was just taking money from new investors to pay old ones. Fake statements kept clients believing that their portfolios were growing.

But his house of cards collapsed when the market crashed in late 2008, and too many clients rushed to withdraw their money. And ultimately, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison but died after serving 11 years.

Seems like a stark reminder that if an investment seems too good to be true, it probably is, no?

Readers Recommend 🗒️

This week, our reader Bhratesh Agrawal recommends reading Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, a book by Robert B. Cialdini, that explains why people say ‘yes’ and how to use that psychology to become a skilled persuader.

Bhratesh also tells us that Charlie Munger (the former Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway) considered this book a must-read. He was so impressed by its research on persuasion that he even gifted a share of Berkshire Hathaway to the author after reading it. That’s interesting!

Thanks for the rec, Bhratesh.

That’s it from us this week. We’ll see you next Sunday!

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