Dev Chandrasekhar

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

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

When Crude Spiked, Reliance Didn't Move Like a State-owned Refiner

Jio-bp is the domestic fuel retail JV built over three years specifically to reduce Reliance’s exposure to the windfall levies and marketing losses that are now squeezing its PSU peers.

Dev Chandrasekhar

March 14, 2026 at 5:00 AM IST

www.jiobp.com

ONGC's Expected Windfall Could Be a Mirage

Brent at $110 is expected to flatter ONGC's numbers, but the government's reflex to claw back upstream windfalls, combined with a sputtering E&P engine, means the rally has a ceiling the market might be choosing to ignore.

Dev Chandrasekhar

March 12, 2026 at 5:48 AM IST

Indian Navy

Petronet and GAIL Are Not the Same Stock but Markets Miss the Point

Petronet built its entire business around one terminal in one country accessible through one strait. GAIL spent years building around all three of those constraints. When the market sold them identically, it wasn’t reading the risk — it was reacting to the headlines.

Dev Chandrasekhar

March 10, 2026 at 6:36 AM IST

iStock.com

Mahindra Pursues Toyota-Inspired Consolidation to Unlock Manufacturing Scale

The ₹150 billion unified production strategy replaces dispersed facilities to compete through operational leverage, platform adaptability, and asset efficiency

Dev Chandrasekhar

February 11, 2026 at 5:09 AM IST

iStock.com

Adani Green's Growth Machine Faces a Reckoning on Value

Opinion

India's largest listed renewable company demonstrates execution prowess, but collapsing profits and highly leveraged debt raise questions about premium valuations.

Dev Chandrasekhar

January 30, 2026 at 5:40 AM IST

Adani Green Energy

The Bureau

Benchmarks End Lower, Post Monthly Losses Amid US-Iran Uncertainty

India Cuts Monsoon Rain Forecast to 90%

RBI Says Bond Yields May Face Upward Pressure If Global Easing Stalls

Cash Growth Outpaces Economy as Currency in Circulation Rises Nearly 12%

Large-Ticket Frauds Drive Sharp Rise in Bank Fraud Value Despite Fewer Cases: RBI Report

RBI to Sharpen Focus on Neutral Rate in Wider Policy Modelling Push

RBI to Transfer Record ₹2.87 Trillion Surplus To Govt, CRB Buffer Set Lower at 6.5%

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

Learning to Shoot: I Tried to Fly Before I Could Walk