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By:

Abhijit Mulye

21 August 2024 at 11:29:11 am

Indian students strike gold

Mumbai: India’s brightest young scientific minds have once again proven their mettle on the global stage, securing exceptional medal hauls at two of the world’s most prestigious science competitions for secondary school students. Showcasing unprecedented academic prowess, the Indian delegation brought home a historic all-gold sweep at the 58th International Chemistry Olympiad in Uzbekistan, alongside an impressive haul of one gold and three silver medals at the 37th International Biology...

Indian students strike gold

Mumbai: India’s brightest young scientific minds have once again proven their mettle on the global stage, securing exceptional medal hauls at two of the world’s most prestigious science competitions for secondary school students. Showcasing unprecedented academic prowess, the Indian delegation brought home a historic all-gold sweep at the 58th International Chemistry Olympiad in Uzbekistan, alongside an impressive haul of one gold and three silver medals at the 37th International Biology Olympiad in Lithuania. These stellar performances cement India’s position as a powerhouse of STEM talent, reflecting the rigorous training and dedication cultivated by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) and a nationwide network of educators, said national coordinator of Science Olympiads Prof. Anwesh Mazumdar. In a landmark achievement, all four students representing India at the International Chemistry Olympiad, held in Tashkent from July 10 to 19, bagged gold medals. This marks India’s first-ever all-gold sweep in the history of the competition. The victorious quartet includes Debadatta Priyadarshi from Bhubaneswar, Harshit Singla from Mandi Gobindgarh, Kabeer Chillar from Delhi, and Sandeep Kuchi from Hyderabad. This year’s event was the largest to date, featuring 363 students from 93 countries. India’s flawless performance tied the nation for the top spot in the country-wise medals tally, sharing the first position with China, Vietnam, and an individual participant from Russia. The students navigated highly complex experimental and theoretical tasks, including decoding the composition of historical and natural artifacts, calculating the mass of uranium used in a 1966 detonation, and performing advanced pH-metric titrations. The team was guided by Head Mentor Professor Subhajit Bandyopadhyay, Mentor Dr. Indrani Sen, and Scientific Observers Dr. Anubendu Adhikary and Dr. Jayasree Gopalakrishnan. Running concurrently in Vilnius from July 12 to 19, the International Biology Olympiad saw the Indian team secure one gold and three silver medals against a highly competitive field of 307 students from 78 nations. Bhavyaa Gunwal from Mahendragarh clinched the gold medal, while Soumil Maity from Howrah, Nishit Kalani from Pali, and Anmol Kumar from Mansa each brought home silver. The biology competition pushed the boundaries of secondary education with a gruelling six-hour theoretical exam and an intensive six-hour practical laboratory test designed by the Vilnius University Life Sciences Centre. In the labs, students executed complex molecular biology tasks like restriction digestion, evaluated the pharmacokinetics of aspirin, performed precise insect morphology dissections, and utilized cutting-edge digital software for plant transcriptome analysis. The delegation was led by Professor Rekha Vartak and Dr. Anupama Ronad, alongside Scientific Observers Dr. Ranjithsinh Devkar and Dr. Siddhesh Ghag.

Why buying high P/E ratio stocks is risky?

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

stocks

The Indian stock markets have generated significant wealth for investors over the past 3-4 years. The Nifty50 index has seen a return of 48.5 per cent over this period. Similarly, the Nifty smallcap 100 and Nifty midcap 150 indices have shown impressive returns of 76.6 per cent and 96.8 per cent respectively during the same timeframe. However, some individual stocks have underperformed the broader markets. The primary reason for this underperformance is often attributed to their high valuation.

To begin with, let's look at the Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio, which is a key valuation metric. This ratio provides insight into how much investors are paying for each dollar of a company's earnings, with higher ratios indicating a more expensive stock. Generally, stocks with a P/E ratio below 15 are considered value stocks, those between 15 and 25 are seen as fairly valued, and those above 25 are deemed expensive. Now, let's examine the stocks in the Nifty 500 index that have significantly fallen short of the index's performance over the last 3 years.

Out of around 500 stocks in Nifty500 index, about 25 have either seen no return or have returned very little. Prominent examples include Bata, Asian Paints, Metropolis, Star Health, Mphasis, SBI Cards, and Jubilant Foodworks, all of which had a P/E ratio above 25 in September 2021. This data suggests that investing in high P/E stocks can be a risky move, as these stocks often lag behind the overall market.

While the P/E ratio shouldn't be the sole consideration for investment, it's undeniably a crucial one. Investors should also look at other financial ratios such as Return on Equity (ROE), Return on Capital Employed (RoCE), and Debt to Equity (D/E) ratio in conjunction with the P/E ratio. Stocks that show consistent profit growth, a healthy ROE, low debt, and a reasonable P/E ratio are more likely to generate above-average returns in the stock market.

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