Global factors and FII activity will dictate trends in domestic equity markets this week while assembly poll results of Maharashtra and Jharkhand may impact stocks on Monday, say analysts. Stock markets witnessed a spirited recovery on Friday with benchmark Sensex and Nifty notching the best single-day gains in more than five months and offering relief after weeks of correction.

'It has changed the political character of India by ejecting socialism as an ideology from the Constitution of India.'

'What's sad today is that there are so many people who cannot find work, not because the country is devoid of that opportunity, but because we are not doing enough in the country.'

The fundamental construct of India's neighbourhood policy still needs to be what Vajpayee postulated, Manmohan Singh embraced, and Modi energised. It's just that we need to junk domestic politics and excessive religiosity, while acquiring much humility and a renewed respectfulness towards our neighbours, recommends Shekhar Gupta.

NEET is a court-ordered examination, supposedly aimed at meritocracy. However, over the past years when the incumbent Narendra Modi government at the Centre began implementing it, it took on political and casteist colours, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.

Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud on Thursday advised market regulator SEBI and the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) to exercise caution amid a significant surge in equity markets and pitched for more tribunal benches to ensure that the "backbone is stable". Inaugurating the new SAT premises here, CJI Chandrachud pitched for authorities to consider opening up new benches of the SAT given the higher workloads because of higher quantum of transactions and newer regulations.

'The Opposition parties will continue to woo Chandrababu Naidu even though he has said he will support the BJP.'

'Imagine what the BJP's urges would be if India's electorate awarded it truly brute majorities like the 400 plus seats the prime minister called for in the 2024 general elections?' asks Shyam G Menon.

'While any figure above 272 would provide the BJP with a stable platform for the next five years, a number below 303 would suggest the BJP has possibly peaked.'

The hot button moments of IPL 2024...

'Investors need to be stock specific and should not rush to buy stocks at the current levels.'

Is the unusually and unbearably scorching Sun and the general laxity, bordering on laziness, among voters, responsible, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.

Failing to get any reprieve from the Delhi high court, the Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will move the Supreme Court soon against his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate and maintained the excise policy case was the 'biggest political conspiracy of the country' to finish the party.

'To the believers of crypto regulations, I have only one question to ask, how will you regulate it?'

A lot depends upon the crucial decision-making skills of the management. If you have any doubts about the management then you always have the choice of selling your shares or not buying stocks of those companies at all.

She has shown shrewdness, sensitivity, and courage. All of these will be needed in ample quantities for the real challenge that will emerge after the elections, notes Shreekant Sambrani.

Medical seats for under-graduates and post-graduates remaining vacant in the NEET era, together with the Centre 'freezing' the number of medical colleges and seats in (Dravidian) Tamil Nadu and the launch of the PM's 'Vishwakarma Scheme' for the nation's craftsmen, are all seen as a bid to further reverse the state's progressive socio-economic agenda of and its achievements of the past hundred-plus years, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.

The weak April-June quarter (first quarter, or Q1) results of the largest listed specialty chemical maker, SRF, and multiple global headwinds for the sector are expected to weigh on the prospects of Indian specialty chemical companies in 2023-24 (FY24). Stocks in the sector (down 7-18 per cent) have underperformed the benchmarks (up over 10 per cent) in the past three months, and given the multiple challenges, the trend is likely to continue. Kotak Institutional Equities expects a very weak quarter (Q1FY24) for the sector due to destocking, demand weakness across certain critical end-use industries, and price erosion amid intense competition from Chinese suppliers.

Unless controlled and contained, given the untested belief that the north Indian labour support and follow the Hindutva kind of political ideology, there is a potential in terms of ideological clashes with their Dravidian brethren in the local neighbourhoods, and it all escalating into violence, especially during election time, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.

Elevated food price-led inflation could become a sore point for markets, which they seem to be ignoring at current levels, observe analysts. Retail inflation in India - as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) - came in at a three-month high of 6.52 per cent in January 2023, compared with 5.72 per cent in December and 5.88 per cent in November 2022. The inflation print for February, according to Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda, will be critical for the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy committee.

Strange souls see a research report on an Indian conglomerate as part of a vast conspiracy to Keep India Down. There is only one possible response to this: Grow up. Nobody in the West cares enough about India or Adani to put all the effort into creating a giant conspiracy that links together BBC documentaries and short-sellers, points out Mihir S Sharma.

'They are not tom-tomming what a great thing the Supreme Court decision is.' 'If they say it was a great thing, the public will react because people suffered and are still suffering.'

'People trust India and Indians a lot more than they trust China and the Chinese.'

India's economic growth is now 'extremely fragile' and needs all the support that it can get, as private consumption and capital investment are yet to pick up, RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Jayanth R Varma said on Friday. Varma further said out of the four engines of growth for the economy, exports and government spending supported the Indian economy through the pandemic, but other engines need to pick up the baton now. " I like to think in terms of the four engines of growth for the economy: exports, government spending, capital investment and private consumption. "...while exports cannot be the main driver of growth because of the global slowdown, government spending is necessarily limited by fiscal constraints," he told PTI.

Modi also lauded party workers in the state, saying each of them is a champion

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party of weakening the country by spreading fear and hatred, and said only the Congress can unite the country and take it to the path of progress.

Social media posts and articles falsely suggest that Jawaharlal Nehru 'signed a bond' or 'used his father's influence' to escape from serving a prison term in Nabha in 1923. Utkarsh Mishra reveals the true story. The first of a series of occasional columns correcting social media's false take on History.

Ramesh Menon, the veteran journalist suggests Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi what he should do if he wants to win 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The FPI holding in India's top 100 companies, which are part of the Nifty 100 index, declined to 24.23 per cent on average at the end of March this year, from a high of 27.5 per cent at the end of March 2021. This is the lowest FPI holdings in India's top listed companies in at least three years. A general sell-off by FPIs has weighed on stock prices and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex is down 8.5 per cent, from its 52-week high made in October 2021. Most analysts expect FPI flows to remain weak in FY23 as well, given rising bond yields in the US and an expected earnings slowdown in India due to high inflation and commodity prices.

Many of the stories, the pictures going out of India worldwide lately with these provocative processions, taunting of Muslims, bulldozers targeting mostly their properties, the sweeping 'othering' of a community of 200 million are painting the front pages and TV screens in the democratic world. That is where most of the friends we covet lie. Soon enough, these will also make our vital friends among the Muslim nations, from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, uneasy. The best time for course correction is now, asserts Shekhar Gupta.

'The Congress has indeed become overly dependent on the RJD.' 'A few Congress leaders have successfully convinced the national leadership about the benefits of maintaining ties with the RJD.'

'In May 2020-2021, nearly 10 crores (100 million) lost jobs. 'Covid is not the reason for the present crisis. It aggravated the crisis.'

Veterans in the travel industry, a well-known corporate lawyer, and a marquee US-based hedge fund have backed the upcoming low-cost airline Akasa Air. Founded by former Jet Airways chief executive officer (CEO) Vinay Dube, the venture counts ace stock trader and investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala as its biggest financial backer with an investment of around Rs 300 crore. A person with knowledge of the development said most of the people were well known to Jhunjhunwala and Dube, who approached them during the conception stage.

'We would advise investors to invest in a disciplined way in equities for the long term.'

New norms are in place to strengthen regulations for this set of lenders which has been playing a critical role in Asia's third largest economy, notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.

Exposure to debt funds and gold is essential even if current returns from these asset classes are low, suggests Sanjay Kumar Singh.

The temptation to get into businesses that are hot is perhaps too great for any politician, no matter what his public slogans are. Nehru plunged into hot sectors of his time -- engineering and iron and steel. Modi has plunged into digital payments -- the hot sector of his time, notes Debashis Basu.

December 3, 2021 marks 50 years since the beginning of the 1971 War which ended in a decisive military victory for India and the liberation of Bangladesh. Most analysts of the 1971 War agree that the IV Corps dash across the mighty Meghna river led by the brilliant General Sagat Singh was the turning point in the war, recalls military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).

'Any normalisation exercise will bring its share of volatility.'

Ajit Balakrishnan offers a thinking man's guide to the state of ecom in a nation of shopkeepers.