Dev Chandrasekhar

Dev Chandrasekhar advises corporates on big picture narratives relating to strategy, markets, and policy.

TCS's $2.6 Billion AI Business Has to be Re-sold Every Quarter

TCS's AI business brought in $650 million in the June-ended quarter. The CEO concedes these deals last one to two quarters, so half to all of the book must be re-won every ninety days to stand still.

Dev Chandrasekhar

July 10, 2026 at 9:31 AM IST

istock.com

TCS is Best Primed for India Big IT’s Next Sovereign-AI Move

TCS has the infra, partners and people for AI—but lacks a proprietary foundation model, a single flagship AI platform, and a clearly articulated high‑risk capital bet.

Dev Chandrasekhar

June 22, 2026 at 8:12 AM IST

istock.com

Behind the Suzlon 2.0 Vision Is the Outline of an InvIT

The wind major has rebuilt itself into four businesses and pledged to quadruple both its annual sales and the fleet it services by 2031. Its most valuable promise is a swelling base of annuity assets, the kind of cashflow that tends to end up packaged and listed.

Dev Chandrasekhar

June 9, 2026 at 8:06 AM IST

istock.com

Zydus's ₹11 billion Buyback is a Promoter Cash-out Dressed as Capital Discipline

Buyback barely lifts earnings and sends most cash to promoters just as Zydus Lifescience's balance sheet tightens and growth plans vie for the same funds

Dev Chandrasekhar

June 3, 2026 at 6:48 AM IST

Istock.com

India’s Guided Missile Maker Has a Profit Problem Hiding Behind Its Cash Pile

Most of BDL’s profit now comes from interest on its ₹47 billion cash pile, not from building missiles. The missile maker is, in effect, running a treasury operation with a defence business attached.

Dev Chandrasekhar

June 1, 2026 at 6:51 AM IST

https://bdl-india.in/en

ITC's Conglomerate Structure Hides Its Peer-Beating Digital Build

ITC's digital commerce presence has nearly doubled in five years, but the market is still pricing the parent that owns it.

Dev Chandrasekhar

May 25, 2026 at 5:26 AM IST

istock.com

India’s Big IT Claims “AI-First”, Disclosures Show Otherwise

The Nifty IT P/E sits at around 20 times, well below the 28x-to-30x range the sector traded at through much of 2024. This compression tracks the widening distance between what the Big 6 are claiming on AI, and what they are disclosing.

Dev Chandrasekhar

May 18, 2026 at 8:39 AM IST

Istock.com

India Just Made Gold More Valuable at a Pawnshop Than a Jewellery Store

The import-duty increase from 6% to 15% is being sold as a balance-of-payments measure. It is also a transfer instrument, from jewellers to gold-loan lenders.

Dev Chandrasekhar

May 14, 2026 at 3:40 AM IST

istock.com

D-Mart’s Store Count Soars, but Returns Slide

D-Mart hits 500 stores with 16% growth, but returns, margins, working capital, and balance sheet trends are all moving the wrong way.

Dev Chandrasekhar

May 5, 2026 at 1:46 PM IST

Istock.com

HUL Spent Two Years Blaming Rural. The Real Margin Story Is Structural

For two years, HUL leaned on a rural-slowdown story to explain every soft quarter. The January-March quarter saw volumes at a twelve-quarter high, yet margins slipped anyway. The structural shift in new FMCG selling models is eating HUL’s old model.

Dev Chandrasekhar

May 1, 2026 at 7:35 AM IST

HUL

Coal India's Cash Engine Is Outrunning Its Coal Engine

A second straight year of missed volume targets, a 129 MT pithead overhang and a shrinking market share suggest the monopoly story is quietly thinning, even as the dividend cheque keeps clearing.

Dev Chandrasekhar

April 28, 2026 at 8:15 AM IST

iStock.com

For RIL, 2025-26 is the Year Energy Stopped Being the Dominant Business

It is still a major oil and gas company, but Jio Platforms, the holding company for Reliance’s telecom, broadband and digital services, is now the single largest profit pool.

Dev Chandrasekhar

April 25, 2026 at 9:36 AM IST

RIL

Infosys’s Guidance For 2026-27 Says What Management Would Not Earlier

Infosys hits targets but lowers expectations. Growth slows, conversion lags and AI remains a story without numbers.

Dev Chandrasekhar

April 24, 2026 at 3:36 AM IST

iStock.com

HDFC vs ICICI Shows What Happens When Funding Tightens

Both showed double-digit deposit growth and dividend hikes. HDFC's headline profit growth is one-off-inflated; ICICI's is cleaner and wider across loans, asset quality and returns. Scale favours HDFC, momentum favours ICICI.

Dev Chandrasekhar

April 18, 2026 at 6:16 PM IST

iStock.com

Six Deals, Five Verticals, No Unifying Logic Is The Reality Of Wipro's 2-Year Acquisitions Run

Through buying domain depth across insurance, automotive, engineering, application services, and recently, food and agri-business, Wipro is either building an unusually broad capability mosaic or accumulating integration drag across multiple sectors at once.

Dev Chandrasekhar

April 17, 2026 at 10:52 AM IST

iStock.com

Titan's Best Quarter in a While Masks Non-Gold Concerns

Consumer business’s 46% growth continues a gold-price-driven recovery that began in October-December. Coins nearly tripled, but smart watches fell 53%, and the structural questions from last June's miss remain open.

Dev Chandrasekhar

April 13, 2026 at 7:24 AM IST

www.titancompany.in

Airtel's $1 Billion Nxtra Funding: Strategic AI Asset or Expensive Overhang?

The $1 billion round values the data-centre subsidiary at $3.1 billion, but hyperscaler ambitions, power constraints and fierce rivals test whether the bet pays off.

Dev Chandrasekhar

April 12, 2026 at 6:36 AM IST

Istock.com

BEL's Record Turnover Highlights a Steadily Accelerating Execution Cycle

A ₹740 billion order book and expanding margins are the headline. The story is the structural shift underneath, from long-cycle PSU to higher-velocity defence supplier.

Dev Chandrasekhar

April 6, 2026 at 5:26 AM IST

BEL

LG India’s Summer Optimism Faces Weather, War and Cost Uncertainty

A cleaner channel and price hikes set the stage, but LG India’s recovery leans on a flawless summer. Weather, input costs and geopolitics leave little margin.

Dev Chandrasekhar

March 25, 2026 at 7:03 AM IST

www.lg.com

Apollo Demerger Recasts It as a Pure-Play Hospital Story

The planned separation of HealthCo from the hospital core is as much a valuation argument as a strategic one. It arrives just as Apollo's value-over-volume thesis begins to pay off.

Dev Chandrasekhar

March 20, 2026 at 8:55 AM IST

iStock.com

The Bureau

India June CPI Highest Since December 2024 as Food Inflation Tops 5%

Trump says Hormuz open for non-Iranian ships, but for a fee

Equities Recover on IT Rally; Rupee Falls as Oil Rises

Asia Rises Despite Escalating US-Iran Conflict and Higher Oil Prices

Equity MF Inflows Revive in June; Debt Withdrawals Keep Overall Flows Negative

India–UK CETA: Mapping UK's Export Winners

Brent jumps above $76 as US strikes Iran, sanctions return

India’s Water Crisis Is the Price of Years of Policy Neglect

Flawed Design, Poor Planning Make Extreme Heat Conditions Worse For Indian Cities

The Foster Mother of Lodhi Garden

Shyam Sundar Sharma