Naren: India's IPO market has moved from Kedarnath to Tirupati

Daniel Okafor

ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company chief S Naren has likened India's current IPO market to Tirupati, contrasting it with Kedarnath and Badrinath. He used the pilgrimage comparison to describe how the primary market has moved from selective, hard-to-access offerings to a much broader, mass-flow pipeline.

The line, carried by Moneycontrol, has circulated among market observers since publication.

What does the metaphor actually point to?

Naren's Kedarnath-Badrinath-to-Tirupati image leans on a sharp gap in physical access. Kedarnath and Badrinath sit high in the Himalayas. The climb to either runs more than ten kilometres on foot. The window to visit lasts only a few months each year.

Tirupati, by contrast, draws the heaviest pilgrim footfall in the country. Walk-in traffic reaches several tens of thousands on a normal working day. Steel-cutters' queues stretch through the night.

For Naren, the IPO market of his earlier years resembled the Himalayan shrines: few, demanding and selective. The current setup, he implied, looks more like Tirupati: dense, popular and easy to enter.

Who is S Naren?

Naren runs ICICI Prudential AMC, one of India's largest domestic asset managers. He is widely followed for his market calls, which tend to frame long-running trends rather than short-term picks.

His past cautions on valuations, including the period around the post-pandemic high, shaped allocation choices across the industry. His current comment lands as the Indian primary market continues to process a heavy deal calendar.

What the pilgrimage comparison actually says

Three threads run through the analogy:

• Volume. Tirupati processes more footfall in a week than Kedarnath or Badrinath see in a season. Naren appears to be reading the IPO calendar the same way: many more deals, not fewer.
• Accessibility. Himalayan shrines filter visitors by fitness and patience. Tirupati filters on willingness to queue. The IPO entry test has loosened.
• Prestige. A completed Kedarnath yatra carries its own standing. Tirupati carries its own. Scale has replaced rarity.

For a money manager sitting on retail flows, the shift matters. Cheaper tickets bring more buyers, but they also dilute the filter that historically separated a strong IPO from a me-too one.

Why the line is being quoted

The metaphor compresses a debate that has run through Dalal Street for years. After the post-pandemic burst of new issues, brokerages split into two camps. One says the pipeline has widened, rewarding investors with choice. The other says underwriting standards have slipped.

Naren is widely read as sitting in the second camp. The pilgrimage image lets him make that point without naming names or naming deals.

How to read the quote

For an allocator, the line is a one-line caution. It says the primary market now processes volume. The bargain-hunter's edge has thinned. For a retail investor, it is a reminder that geography changes. Recent IPO calendars were Kedarnath: small, select, hard. Current ones are Tirupati: wide-open, crowded and easy.

Both pilgrimages end at a temple. The path, Naren warns, is no longer the same.