New Delhi, Aug. 24 -- Thirty Tejas Mk1A fighter jets are finished. They have been built, flown and tested at Hindustan Aeronautics' plants, and they cannot be handed to the Indian Air Force because the engines that go in them are still in Ohio. That is not a metaphor for HAL's problem. It is HAL's problem, stated literally, and it is the reason a company with the largest order book in Indian defence keeps losing ground.

nobody was fighting over it.

The context that matters is the calendar. HAL touched Rs.5,149.90 on August 17, the highest it has ever traded, and has closed lower in four of the five sessions since. Monday was the sharpest of them. The stock is now 4.7 percent below that high, which sounds mild until you set it against wh...