< The 2014 All-India Research TeamG.V. GiriIIFLFirst-place appearances: 0

Total appearances: 3

Analyst debut: 2012IIFL researcher G.V. Giri advances from runner-up after two years to claim the No. 3 position on this lineup. He is optimistic that India’s telecommunications industry is emerging from its problems — the sector rose 4.8 percent year to date through late October but lagged the broad domestic market by 16.7 percentage points — with the expense of staying in the business acting as a high barrier to entry that is weeding out smaller competitors. The Supreme Court of India has been very watchful about the government’s implementation of policies affecting the sector, Giri adds, to ensure that no players can take advantage of the system. As a result, “there will be good revenue growth — and when revenue growth is good, other things normally take care of themselves. So within two, three years, the sector should have grown out of all its problems,” he contends. “There are also exciting new opportunities, like mobile money and machine-to-machine communications, in addition to the traditional revenue growth engines of data growth and subscriber growth.” The analyst favors New Delhi–based Bharti Airtel over Mumbai’s Idea Cellular. The former is India’s largest mobile provider, and unlike the latter, does not have large amounts of spectrum coming up for renewal. He projects double-digit revenue growth for at least the next five years for Bharti and profit growth in the high teens for three to five years at the minimum.