New Delhi, July 28 -- It's halfway through the reporting season and Bertie is struggling to recall a quarter that has felt this meh. Well, statistically there would have been poorer earnings growth in the past, but that would have been accompanied by significant macro upheavals. But for what is a macro-placid time in India, this outcome just feels disappointing. Bertie has scrolled through dozens of result notes but is yet to find anything that has made his eyes light up.

To be sure, there are a few 'doing-alright-under-the-circumstances' candidates, and a bland institutional portfolio can be constructed around them. But that is rather like the backhanded compliment that Bertie sometimes receives "You look OK for a man in his forties." B...