New Delhi, Dec. 11 -- For nearly three decades, market veteran Raamdeo Agrawal has published his annual Wealth Creation Study, a project that began in 1996 as a simple 25-slide statistical review that happened to spotlight Hero MotoCorp. In its early years, it was largely a data-gathering exercise with a few market observations. But by the mid-2000s, the study had evolved into a thematic exploration, shaped by the investment books Agrawal was immersed in at the time. Each year, one influential book-from Value Migration to Quality Investing-became the study's anchor, tested rigorously against Indian market data.

Agrawal, chairman and co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services, broke down the highlights of this year's study, shared his...