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By:

Anil D. Salve

21 March 2026 at 8:11:09 pm

A Drought of Wisdom in an Ocean of Information

We live in an age where information is everywhere. With a single click, we can access news from across the world, thousands of opinions, countless videos and endless claims. Knowledge has never been so accessible. Yet, in this overwhelming flow of information, something increasingly scarce is discernment-the ability to distinguish what deserves our belief from what deserves our doubt. Information and knowledge are not the same. Reading, watching or hearing something does not automatically...

A Drought of Wisdom in an Ocean of Information

We live in an age where information is everywhere. With a single click, we can access news from across the world, thousands of opinions, countless videos and endless claims. Knowledge has never been so accessible. Yet, in this overwhelming flow of information, something increasingly scarce is discernment-the ability to distinguish what deserves our belief from what deserves our doubt. Information and knowledge are not the same. Reading, watching or hearing something does not automatically make it true. We need the ability to verify information, understand its context, recognise its purpose and only then form an opinion. In the digital age, this ability has become one of the most important forms of wisdom. Social media has transformed the way information travels. WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and other platforms have made communication faster, wider and more accessible. But the same speed that connects society can also overwhelm it. Information often reaches us before facts do. A headline is read before the full story. A short video is watched without knowing what happened before or after it. A photograph is circulated without its original context. A message arrives with the familiar words, “Forwarded as received,” and within minutes it may reach thousands of people. By the time the truth catches up, the rumour may already have done its work. The problem becomes even more serious when misinformation is deliberately created and circulated. Rumours may be planted not merely to mislead individuals but to divert public attention from an important issue, create suspicion, damage someone's reputation or push society towards a particular narrative. A distraction does not always need to be completely false. Sometimes a small piece of truth is mixed with exaggeration, selective facts or emotional language. The result can be more powerful than an outright lie because it appears believable. This is how narratives are manufactured. Social media platforms can become powerful tools in this process. A repeated claim begins to look familiar, and familiarity is often mistaken for truth. A provocative post attracts attention. Thousands of reactions create the impression that “everyone” believes it. One emotional video triggers another, comments intensify the mood, and before facts have an opportunity to speak, public sentiment may have already shifted. This is where mob psychology enters the picture. A society can move from calm to anger, suspicion to trust, or optimism to fear with surprising speed. People who would ordinarily think carefully may react differently when they see thousands of others expressing outrage, fear or hostility. The individual begins to follow the crowd, and the crowd begins to reinforce the individual. The danger is not limited to negative emotions. The same mechanism can also be used positively-to mobilise people for social causes, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, public awareness and community action. Technology itself is neither wise nor foolish. Its impact depends on how information is created, amplified and consumed. The greatest danger, therefore, is not that we have too much information. It is that we may lose the habit of thinking while consuming it. We are increasingly becoming consumers of information rather than creators of thought. Everyone has access to information today, but access does not necessarily mean understanding. The boundaries between a rumour and a report, an opinion and a fact, popularity and truth are becoming increasingly blurred. A post does not become true because thousands of people have liked it. A video does not become evidence merely because it has gone viral. An opinion does not become a fact because it is expressed confidently. An idea does not become correct simply because it confirms what we already believe. This last point deserves particular attention. We often accept information not because it is accurate, but because it is comfortable. We are naturally attracted to information that confirms our existing beliefs and suspicious of information that challenges them. In the digital world, this tendency can be amplified by algorithms that repeatedly expose us to content similar to what we have already watched, liked or shared. Gradually, we may find ourselves living inside an information bubble where we hear many voices-but mostly voices that agree with us. That is not diversity of information. It is an illusion of certainty. Discernment does not mean doubting everything. It means thinking before believing. It means asking simple but powerful questions: Who is saying this? What is the evidence? What is the context? What may be missing? Who benefits if I believe it? And have I heard the other side? These questions may take only a few seconds, but they can prevent hours, days or even years of misunderstanding. This responsibility is particularly important for the younger generation. Children today are growing up in an environment of unprecedented information exposure. They can encounter more information in a few hours than earlier generations might have encountered in weeks. Therefore, education cannot merely teach students how to collect, remember and reproduce information. It must teach them how to question, verify, analyse and interpret it. A student who can write the correct answer in an examination may be academically successful. But a student who knows how to ask the right question is better prepared for life. The classroom of the future must therefore produce not merely informed students, but thinking citizens. They must learn that forwarding a message is also a form of responsibility. Sharing a post is not an innocent act when it can affect someone's reputation, create public fear or influence social behaviour. The challenge becomes even greater in the age of Artificial Intelligence. AI can generate information, images, audio and video with extraordinary speed and sophistication. The distinction between what is real and what merely appears real may become increasingly difficult. In such a world, human judgment becomes more valuable, not less. Technology can produce an answer in seconds. It cannot automatically tell us whether that answer deserves our trust. Some answers require experience. Some require context. Many require the ability to think independently. We have more information, more technology and more connectivity than any previous generation. Yet our real challenge is to preserve something technology cannot manufacture for us: the capacity to think for ourselves. The ocean of information will only become larger. The question will no longer be, “How much information do we have?” The more important questions will be: What should we accept? What should we question? What should we verify? And what should we reject? No technology can completely answer these questions for us. No number of likes can substitute for evidence. No viral trend can replace judgment. No majority can turn misinformation into truth. That responsibility belongs to human beings. Information can tell us what happened. Discernment helps us understand what it means, why it happened, what may be missing from the story and how we should respond. Perhaps, therefore, the greatest educational challenge of our time is not to teach people how to find more information. They already know how to do that. The greater challenge is to teach them how to pause-to pause before believing, to pause before reacting, to pause before forwarding and to pause before joining the crowd. Because sometimes the most intelligent response to information is not an immediate reaction, but a moment of reflection. The ocean is already around us. It is growing deeper every day. What we need now is not more information to swim through it-but the wisdom to know which direction to take. (The writer is the Principal of Podar International School, Ausa, Latur. Views personal.)

Save Smarter with Savings+

Writer: C.S. Krishnamurthy
C.S. Krishnamurthy
Dec 1, 2025
3 min read

In many Indian households, money lies idle in savings accounts. It feels safe to see a good balance, but interest rates are low - about 2.5–3% a year. After tax and inflation, the real value of money falls. What seems secure today may not be enough tomorrow. Keeping too much in savings make the future goals harder to achieve.

Across scheduled commercial banks, savings balances run into tens of lakh crore rupees, reflecting a deep habit of leaving cash where it works the least. Habit, not strategy, often decides where hard earned money rests.


How professionals park money

If you are a Chief Finance Officer (CFO), you are unlikely to leave large surpluses idle in a savings or current account. Instead, you use debt mutual fund options such as overnight, liquid and money market funds to keep cash accessible while seeking better risk adjusted returns. The same types of funds are available to individual investors, raising an obvious question: if India’s top CFOs rely on these vehicles, why should retail savers not consider them for at least a part of their own surplus?


Savings and investments are often used interchangeably, yet the intent is different. Savings focus on safety and ready access, whereas investments aim to grow wealth; there is no reason why savings cannot be structured to do a bit of both.

Bajaj FinServ Savings+ is designed as a bridge between the comfort of a savings account and the efficiency of short term debt funds. Surplus balances above a chosen threshold in a savings account can be channelled into selected debt funds of Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund, typically a liquid or overnight fund. These funds invest in short-term, high-quality debt instruments and seek to deliver a return profile that may exceed a standard savings rate, though outcomes remain market linked.


Experience the daily convenience like a savings account - high liquidity, quick access, and flexible redemption. Up to Rs. 50,000 is processed within minutes, while larger withdrawals follow within two days as per scheme terms.

As Ganesh Mohan, Managing Director of Bajaj Finserv Mutual Fund, puts it, the idea is to “teach your money to be on its toes instead of sitting on the sofa,” so that cash is alert and active while risk remains conservative.


Inside the Savings+ structure

The underlying portfolios of the liquid and overnight schemes used in such a structure typically emphasise short duration and strong credit quality. In many cases, long term ratings are predominantly in the AAA category, with instruments often maturing within 91 days, aligning with the need for stability and rapid access. Investors are advised to stay for at least seven days in a liquid fund to avoid exit load.


This combination gives savers the potential to earn more than basic savings rates while continuing to enjoy high liquidity. As Ganesh Mohan notes, thoughtfully designed solutions in this space can change the way retail investors view their debt allocations, opening up a largely untapped category of disciplined, yet accessible, fixed income investing.


Who Savings+ may suit

A Savings+ type solution can be relevant for conservative savers who want low volatility but seek a modest step up from savings account returns on surplus balances. It may also appeal to new mutual fund investors looking for a straightforward, relatively low risk way to begin, with emphasis on capital preservation and quick access to money.


Households that maintain sizeable contingency funds or near-term expense pools in savings accounts, and are comfortable using digital platforms, might also find this structure useful. However, it is not a substitute for long term equity investing, retirement planning or growth-oriented strategies, as there are several schemes to address different goals.


In India, more than 50 crore people are estimated to have bank accounts, which almost always imply a savings or current account. In contrast, unique mutual fund investors number only four crore in a population of about 140 crore, indicating that the mutual fund segment is still a fraction of the banking universe. If even a small portion of the balances lying idle in savings accounts were thoughtfully redirected into suitable debt funds, it could significantly expand both investor participation and the effectiveness of household money management.


Bajaj Finserv Savings+ is one illustration of this concept; other asset management companies may offer similar structures with differing features, costs and risk profiles. Consulting a qualified financial adviser is advised before taking an investment decision.


Disclaimer: Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks, and scheme related documents should be read carefully before investing.


(The writer is a retired Bengaluru-based banker. Views personal.)


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