New Delhi, March 25 -- You know what will happen if you drive looking at the road that is already behind you? Ignoring both the dangers and opportunities ahead? That is what I thought of when I saw that inflows into Indian gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) exceeded flows into equity funds in January 2026.

For context, in March and April 2025, gold inflows were hugging the zero line even as equity mutual fund flows were at pretty much the same level as in January-around Rs.24,000-25,000 crore. Now the dollar price of gold is down 20-25% from its January peak.

But this is not a column about gold. I have already written about gold prices earlier explaining that this metal has been historically a more volatile asset than equities and its 19...