’s been a season of many misses and very few hits. Weak demand and keen competition have left companies with limited pricing power while higher raw material prices have driven up costs. It’s not just smaller businesses that are finding it hard to pass on the higher costs, which are both commodity-driven and regulation driven. Heavyweights too have not been able protect their margins; from BHEL to HeroMotoCorp and Bharti Airtel, it has been a string of disappointments.