Investing in select pharma stocks might be the shot in the arm that your portfolio needs in times of a slowdown. The general environment for the pharma industry, particularly for domestic companies, seems positive.

Value investors have traditionally looked at growth in earnings to pick stocks. But considering the slowdown and high interest rates, R. Sree Ram examines the debt levels, book values and cash flows of companies to fish out 10 winners.

As is to be expected in any fundamentally solid business, the best time to invest is when it’s in trouble. It’s in this context that Punj Lloyd’s first quarter results seem like a fairy-tale comeback.

Driven by a combination of tax and energy incentives around the globe, wind power is now the clear leader in alternative power generation technology.

Enam Securities feels that most pharma companies will continue with lukewarm performance in 2007.

At a time when the pillars of global investment banking had started to shake, Sidharth Punshi had two choices—relocate to Goldman Sachs India or take the top job at Jefferies India to set up its India operations.

While most Indian companies have yet to incorporate risk analysis in their businesses even after being hit by the slowdown, a handful has shown India Inc. why it’s essential to do so.

The recent run-up in stock prices notwithstanding, a host of Indian promoters has little choice but to either sell assets or equity to survive the downturn.

The time-bomb of foreign currency-denominated debt has been ticking for some time now and some of India’s best-known companies are at the doorstep of a default.

Plethico Pharma has used acquisitions to foray into new markets—and into a high-growth area of medicine.

Rolta India has used buyouts to carve a unique niche for itself in a high-end technology arena.

Jubilant Organosys is currently in a sea of red, but two acquisitions in North America hold the promise of transforming the company’s fortunes over the longer term.

A clutch of smaller Indian companies has gone international by making a number of small acquisitions the world over. The best part: They seem to be working, unlike some multi-billion-dollar buyouts. United Phosphorus: Agri AggressorRain commodities:It'sraining cashJubiliant Organosys: Crams caperSintex: Labour gainsBilcare: Right place for the right priceBartonics: Raising the barRolta India:Mapping the globeAllied Digital: Remote controlBinani Cement: Concrete gambitPlethico Pharma: Inorganic prescription

A clutch of brokerages—foreign and Indian—has braved a volatile market and flagged off operations. With an upturn nowhere in sight in the short- to medium-term, can these new kids on the block surive?

When the stock market was booming, dozens of Indian companies issued foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) to raise cheap capital. But with stock prices crashing and conversion coming up, they are in a soup.

Will Orchid’s Raghavendra Rao keep or lose his drug company?

Performance of 20 companies to watch in 2007 in alphabetical order.

Last fortnight, global investment banking giant, Lehman Brothers, put out a report on India which, unsurprisingly, waxed eloquent about the economy’s long-term growth prospects, titled India: Everything to Play For.

As India upskills, education becomes an investment haven.