Shivam Saklani

Inflation is extremely relevant to the economy of a country. It influences interest rates and the stock market. The February 2025 Consumer Price Index (CPI) report is out, and we see that inflation has fallen significantly. This blog tells us about the key points from the report, how various sectors are impacted, what the RBI can do, and how investors should interpret the numbers. Key CPI Inflation Highlights – February 2025 Overall Inflation Rate CPI Inflation (February 2025): 3.61% (Projected) CPI Inflation (Jan 2025): 4.26% CPI Inflation (Feb 2024): 5.49% This is a steep fall of 65 basis points (0.65%) from January 2025 and a yearly fall of 188 basis points (1.88%) from February 2024. This is the lowest inflation since July 2024. Food Price Inflation (CFPI - Consumer Food Price Index) February 2025: 3.75% January 2025: 5.97% February 2024: 9.24% Rural Food Inflation: 4.06% Urban Food Inflation: 3.20% Food inflation has decreased significantly by 222 basis points (2.22%) from Januar...

Investing can feel overwhelming, especially if you're unsure about picking individual stocks. That's where Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) come in. They offer a simple, cost-effective way to invest in a diversified basket of stocks, bonds, or commodities—all in one go. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned investor, ETFs provide flexibility and ease of access to the market. But like any investment, they have their pros and cons. Let’s dive in to see if ETFs are the right fit for you. What is an ETF? An Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) is like a mutual fund but trades on the stock market like a regular share. It holds a mix of assets—stocks, bonds, gold, or even real estate—and aims to track the performance of an index, sector, or commodity. The key advantage? You get exposure to multiple assets with a single investment. How Do ETFs Work? Imagine you want to invest in the Indian stock market but don’t want to research and pick individual stocks. You could simply buy a Nifty 50 ET...

Alivus Lifesciences (formerly knows as Glenmark Lifescience Ltd) is primarily engaged in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) manufacturing, serving both generic and innovator pharmaceutical companies. The company has a portfolio of high value, non-commoditized APIs in chronic therapeutic areas, namely Cardiovascular (CVS) disease, Central Nervous System (CNS) disorders, Pain Management, Oncology, Diabetes and Urology. History The company’s journey began over 22 years ago when Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (GPL) established its API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) business. Initially, Glenmark acquired the Kurkumbh site to support its API needs. Over time, the API division expanded its R&D and operations to serve both Glenmark and external customers. In 2019, Glenmark Life Sciences became an independent company, separating from Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. This transition allowed GLS to focus solely on APIs, making it a trusted global supplier. The company began building a stro...

The share market, where everyone believes a person can earn a lot of money, is not in a good condition. The market has disappointed investors and speculators since the beginning of this year. Nifty 50 has fallen by 3.49% since the beginning of the year till date, February 20, 2025, and by 2.45% alone in the month of February. It seems the bears are dominating the bulls. YouTube's so-called finfluencers are proclaiming this is a crash and claiming that the market will decline even more, making such comments as "the market will crash even more." Is this actually a crash or a correction, though? As for YouTubers, they only care about getting views on their videos. They know that if they put "CRASH" in bold letters on their thumbnails, their videos will attract more views. So, in today’s blog, we’ll discuss the truth behind the hype—what’s really happening in the market. Before we determine whether this is a crash or a correction, we must know what these terms mea...

In today's blog, we are going to keep discussing about how to check a company's financial health and look at six important metrices that every investor should consider about before investing in a company. This is an intermediate guide, which means we will explore a few more advanced parameters. In the last blog, we covered the basics, focusing on simple metrics. So let's discuss. PEG Ratio The full form of PEG ratio is Price to Earnings growth ratio. In simple words, it is one of the stock price value-measuring methods. It can be thought of as an improved form of P/E Ratio since it, too, shows how much earnings a company would have in the future. Most people are aware of and familiar with the P/E Ratio, but very few know the PEG Ratio. This is only because it is more complicated to understand the PEG Ratio, and each person tends to view it differently. Others would say that if the ratio is more than 1, it's too pricey. If less than 1, it's cheap—no more, no less. ...

Once valued at $22 billion, the Indian edtech company Byju's has fallen to below $2 billion today. When Byju Raveendran, the founder of the company, began with ambitious plans to disrupt the Indian edtech industry, a question annoyingly follows: what went awry that led to the initiation of insolvency proceedings? We will comprehend this in today's blog.  Massive Expenditure on Advertising The company's aggressive expansion plan and financial ignorance were highlighted. It ventured into foreign countries without studying demand and competition. This was costly and a failure. The company threw money at the wall on useless advertisements. Byju did not conduct cost-benefit analyses for major sponsorships and celebrity endorsements. Instead, they looked for sponsorships and deals. This was significant because poor financial decisions reduced revenue and increased debt. They were spending too much, which left them with less cash and higher costs to run the business. Looking at t...

L&T is one of India's largest and most diversified companies; it performs various activities in a very diverse number of areas and sectors, thereby making this company a very energetic and important one. The major focus areas are on engineering, construction, manufacturing, and technology. So why on earth would a construction company buy a technology company, especially when it does not match the company's main business? Did you know that L&T had no intention of acquiring Mindtree? So, how and why did it finally decide to buy a technology company? These will form the crux of our discussion with this case. Read more Case Studies at  Corporate Chronicals L&T Problem L&T had enough cash on its balance sheet with over US$2 billion of free cash flow in 2019. It was expecting another US$1.5 billion of such ready cash in 2020. All that the company wanted to do was to use this surplus cash on share buyback from the market. There was, however, no such approval of SEBI ...