NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, BENGALURU, KOLKATA, CHENNAI, AHMEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE* VOL. 15 NO.

126

Friday, May 28, 2021

livemint.com

mint primer QUICK EDIT

Why is long covid Over to

turning out to be New Delhi Last week’s ₹99,000 crore-plus
a fresh concern? transfer by the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) of its surplus to the
government, its owner, had
BY SOHINI SEN piqued curiosity over how it had
People suffering from covid-19 are increasingly complaining of fatigue, managed such a large payout in
fever, headaches and loss of smell for weeks, or even months, after the a pandemic-hit year. After all,
diagnosis. These people have also caught the attention of medical an expanded balance sheet the
practitioners and support groups. Mint looks into the problem: previous year had forced RBI to
replenish its contingency fund,
Another battle leaving it with a low surplus.
There is no clear data about how many people have long covid in India, but we The release of its annual report
can get an idea from the UK. According to Office for National Statistics estimates, on Thursday showed the math.
1.1 million people reported long covid symptoms in the four weeks ending 6 March. In contrast with asset growth
How long covid hindered activity Nearly 14% of the study participants of around 30% during the year
In all patients still had symptoms after 12 weeks ended 30 June 2020, RBI’s bal-
In patients with symptoms for 11+ weeks % experiencing symptoms
22
ance sheet grew only about 7%,
(in %) 12 weeks
21.0 to just over ₹57 trillion, in the
No activity 38.4
limitation 39.4 18 nine months to 31 March 2021.
Activities 43.7 This meant that RBI had to put
limited a little 14 12.2 just ₹20,710 crore into its safety
42.4
Activities
17.9
vault to maintain its level at 5.5%
limited a lot 10 of assets, as recommended by
18.2 35 No. of days 130

The survey was based in the UK, and covered 21,622 participants who had tested positive for covid-19.
What is long covid and
1 how prevalent is it?
Long covid refers to the
phenomena where people
continue to experience the effects
of covid-19 for weeks or months.
According to Randeep Guleria,
director of All India Institute of
Medical Sciences, if symptoms
persist for 4-12 weeks, it should be
regarded as post-covid acute
syndrome, while if symptoms
+ roared back. It’s for New Delhi
persist for longer than 12 weeks, it
should be marked as long covid. A
study by Roberto Bernabei, Angelo
Carfì, and Francesco Landi of 143
people hospitalized in Italy found
that as much as 87.4% of the
patients reported persistence of at
least one symptom, with extreme
fatigue being the most common.
REUTERS
Source: The Office for National Statistics (UK)
What are long covid’s
2 symptoms?
Two main groups of symptoms
have been identified based on data
shared by people on the Covid
Symptom Study app. One group
includes respiratory symptoms
such as cough and difficulty in
breathing, as well as fatigue and
headaches. The other includes
symptoms affecting various parts
of the body, including the heart,
gut, and brain. Palpitation, pins
and needles, increased heart beats,
and numbness, as well as ‘brain fog’
were also reported. A report by the
US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, which studied 3,171
non-hospitalized covid patients,
showed 69% had one or more out-
patient visits over the six months.
the Bimal Jalan panel in 2019.
But a smaller buffer top-up isn’t
enough to explain its dividend.
The central bank’s earnings
were quite robust in 2020-21.
For this, it reportedly has gains
on foreign exchange and other
market operations to thank.
Well done. Attention will now
turn to its monetary policy
review on Friday. But what we
should really be waiting for is a
shift in India’s fiscal stance. The
budget was made before covid
now to get into rescue mode.
MINT METRIC
by Bibek Debroy

People may moralize

3 Can long covid impact
survivors mentally?
Anxiety and depression have been seen as
On using a lottery prize.
fallouts of long covid, with survivors
United States will pursue
suffering from post-traumatic stress Such vaccination incentives too.
disorders (PTSD). A study published in
The Lancet Psychiatry at the beginning
Hesitancy can be high, otherwise.
of this year suggested that adults
suffering from long covid are more
likely to be diagnosed with psychiatric
conditions. QUOTE OF THE DAY
Over time, we’ll have to figure
4 What does this mean
for India?
There is no clear data about how
5 What should be done
to help patients?
Recovery from covid-19 is counted
out responsible AI regulations,
many people have long covid in as those who have not died from
which promotes innovation,
India, but we can get an idea from the virus. However, experts believe but balances it with
the UK, which saw a strong second monitoring the health of those
wave as well. According to Office who have recovered for up to a
responsible oversight.
for National Statistics estimates, 1.1 year is required to make sure they
million people reported long covid are really out of danger. Guleria
symptoms in the four weeks has suggested rehabilitation of
ending 6 March. More than two- patients experiencing long covid
thirds of them had symptoms for and setting up of multidisciplinary SUNDAR PICHAI
more than 12 weeks. India’s case- post-covid clinics. Experts believe CEO, GOOGLE AND
load in the second wave shows that that for long covid survivors a ALPHABET
the numbers for people with long multidisciplinary and multi-care
covid could be much higher. This approach would be needed
can put more stress on the already because it can impact so many
strained healthcare infrastructure. different organs.

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Anand Rathi Research (on 26 May) Emkay Global Financial Services (on 26 May)

THERMAX AIA ENGINEERING

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Motilal Oswal Financial Services (on 26 May) Nomura Research (on 26 May)

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 PLAIN FACTS

How India fell behind

peers in vaccine race
BY RASHMI KUNDU, HOWINDIALIVES.COM

O
n 26 May, India became the third country to administer 200 million doses of the covid-19 vaccine. However, this
number hides more than it reveals. As a share of its population, India has been able to vaccinate fewer people than
other populous developing countries such as China, Brazil and Mexico.
On 1 April, when India started vaccinating the public in a graded manner, the country’s vaccination numbers were compa-
rable to peers. At that time, India had given 5 doses per 100 population. Brazil, China, Russia, and Mexico were in the range
of 6.7-9.7.
In the 56-day period between 1 April and 26 May, India’s per capita coverage has increased to 14. Over the same period,
China’s per capita vaccine coverage has shot up to 38 and Brazil’s to 30. The lack of adequate supplies has meant that India’s
vaccination rate has suffered even as other countries have stepped up their vaccination efforts.
Even Japan, which had been a laggard in vaccination till a few weeks ago, has been able to ramp up vaccination rapidly.
So has the Philippines, which saw a spike in infections around the same time that India did. These countries have already
ordered enough vaccines to provide at least one dose to each citizen. India is far behind on that front.
Among the 10 most populous countries, India is among the three countries that have seen a drop in vaccination rates over
the past week. The other two countries on this list are the US and Bangladesh. The US has already vaccinated a majority of
its citizens and has more than enough stock. Bangladesh’s predicament is similar to that of India: limited vaccine coverage
amid limited vaccine supplies.

Vaccine coverage gap between India and peers such as Brazil and China has widened
Cumulative covid-19 vaccine 1 April Change in Doses
doses per 100 population 26 May vaccination pace purchased/
(in %) * Population
0 20 40 60
US 86.1 US -29 3.69

Brazil Brazil 33 2.23

China China 107 NA

Russia Russia 25 NA

Mexico Mexico 21 1.39

India India -10 0.29

Indonesia Indonesia 3 0.94

Bangladesh Bangladesh -60 0.2

Japan Japan 162 2.49

Philippines Philippines 130 1

* Change in average daily doses for latest week

versus that for period from 1 April to 26 May

1. Data for 10 most-populous countries, arranged in descending order of coverage on 1 April. Pakistan, Nigeria and Ethiopia excluded due to inadequate
data. 2. Data as of 26 May or latest available. 3. Number of doses may not indicate full vaccination since many vaccines require multiple doses. 4. Doses
purchased for China and Russia not known, but both are using homegrown vaccines.
Source: Our World in Data, World Bank, Duke Global Health Innovation Center
+

States of Despair Himachal, Delhi and Uttarakhand are

among the leaders in vaccine coverage
AS MANY as 22 of the 36 states and Union territories have Vaccine doses given per 1,000 population
registered a drop in the average daily shots administered in the <157
Ladakh
latest week compared to the 56-day period since 1 April. Kerala 479
saw the highest dip (-66%), followed by Telangana (-64%). Even 157–227
among the 14 states that have seen an increase in pace, states 227–345
such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have been able to cover only a >345
minuscule share of their population.
Gujarat
Uttar Pradesh (72 doses per 1,000), Bihar (81), Tamil Nadu 252 Tripura
(102), Jharkhand (105) and Assam (111) continue to lag other 376
Maharashtra
states in terms of cumulative doses per capita. 173
The current top five in terms of cumulative doses per capita Data as of 27 May. Number of Tamil Nadu
were all among the leaders even in early April. These are doses may not indicate full 102
vaccination since many vaccines
Himachal Pradesh (320 doses per 1,000 people on 27 May), require multiple doses.
Source: Ministry of health and family welfare
Delhi (279), Uttarakhand (252), Gujarat (252), and Kerala (246).

All districts in Tamil Nadu registered

above 1,000 new cases last week
Slowing Spread
New confirmed cases in each district in the last seven days THE SILVER lining in the covid story is the fall in new cases
<100 NA amid widespread lockdowns. The daily average of new cases fell
100–500
500–1,000
to about 228,000 in the latest week, against 295,000 the week
1,000–5,000 before. The drop is wide ranging. Of the 303 districts with more
>5,000 than 1,000 new cases this week, 213 have seen a weekly drop.
There were 11 districts from six states where new cases exceeded
20,000. Three weeks ago, this was true of 18 districts across
nine states.
North 24 Parganas
26,677 Still, there are pockets of concern. One is Tamil Nadu, where
Satara all districts registered more than 1,000 new cases last week.
14,057 Bengaluru
53,085 Amid the countrywide fall last week, 27 of its 32 districts
Coimbatore reported an increase in new cases, including double-digit
Mysuru
16,695 25,926 growth in 19. Among the top 20 districts by new cases, only
three had more cases than the week ago: Coimbatore in Tamil
Latest data as of 7.30 pm on 26 May. Source: howindialives.com Nadu, Mysuru in Karnataka and Satara in Maharashtra.

Death Factor Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala

registered more deaths last week
EVEN AS new infections have declined, the number of reported Rolling 7-day average of deaths
Karnataka
deaths continues to rise across several states. Among the top 10 518
states by case count, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala Maharashtra Tamil
Nadu
registered more deaths in the latest week than the last week. Even 1,000 440
Maharashtra, which was seeing a tapering, showed an increase. Punjab
There is typically some lag between the time infections peak and West Bengal
100
when deaths peak. In the current wave, the lag also reflects
Rajasthan
delayed reporting and efforts at reconciliation by authorities. Andhra
Maharashtra reported the maximum covid-19 deaths in the 10 Odisha Pradesh
latest week (7,046, up 12%), followed by Karnataka (3,623, up Assam Kerala
165
23%). Kerala and Odisha saw the highest weekly increases, of 72% Data for top 10 states by
1 cases as on 26 May. The
and 41%, respectively. In Kerala, Kottayam reported 91 deaths this vertical axis uses a
week, up from eight deaths last week. Palakkad has reported 340 logarithmic scale, which
makes the scale appear
deaths in the past month, of which 182 were in the latest week. smaller than it actually is.
0.1
Even as new cases drop, control over fatalities will greatly 6 Jan 2021 26 May
influence when and how states lift lockdowns.
www.howindialives.com is a database and search engine for Source: Ministry of health and family welfare

public data. AHMED RAZA KHAN

PEANUTS by Charles M. Schulz

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 NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, BENGALURU, KOLKATA, CHENNAI, AHMEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE*
Friday, May 28, 2021
SENSEX 51,115.22 97.70
Paytm looks to raise
$3 bn from share sale
Firm may be valued at around $24 billion in India’s biggest IPO
Swaraj Singh Dhanjal &
Tarush Bhalla
MUMBAI/BENGALURU
P
aytm, India’s largest online
payments company, plans
to raise as much as $3 bil-
lion (₹21,700 crore) by sell-
ing shares to the public by
the end of this year, four people
aware of the development said.
One97 Communications India
Ltd, which runs the Paytm service, is
in talks to hire investment banks for
its initial share sale in India, and a few
law firms have already been
appointed to help with regulatory
aspects, the people said on condition
of anonymity. The payments com-
pany is likely to raise $2.5-3 billion,
they said.
The company is in discussions with
investment banks, including Morgan
Stanley, Citigroup and JP Morgan, for
its proposed initial public offer (IPO),
said one of the four people who is
directly aware of the discussions. The
person added that the company
could look at a public listing by the
end of the year, around November.
One97 Communications, backed
+ marquee investors such as Soft-
by
Bank, Ant Financial and Berkshire
Hathaway, could potentially seek a
valuation of $22 billion to $24 billion
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VOL. 15 NO. 126 Rs 5.00 IN DELHI-NCR; Rs 6.00 OUTSIDE DELHI-NCR. PRICE WITH HINDUSTAN TIMES Rs 9.50 (FOR DELHI & NCR) 16 PAGES
JetSetGo’s focus is on medevac Business of Life | In India, there’s
livemint.com services, says CEO Tekriwal uP7 always thirst for beer uP14
NIFTY 15,337.85 36.40 DOLLAR ₹72.59 ₹0.19 EURO ₹88.52 ₹0.06 OIL $68.27 $0.60 GOLD ₹48,773 ₹278
Twitter flags privacy
concerns, Centre says
RBI points to
inflation risk,
DON’T MISS
calls for fiscal
firm ‘dictating terms’ measures
Saumya Tewari & Gopika Gopakumar &
Prasid Banerjee Shayan Ghosh
Polygon’s investments will be
NEW DELHI MUMBAI strategic, says co-founder Nailwal
DUE DILIGENCE Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of blockchain
T T
ensions between the he Reserve Bank of India scalability platform Polygon (formerly Matic) in
One97 Communications India Ltd, which runs Paytm, is in talks to hire merchant
Indian government and (RBI) on Thursday said which billionaire investor Mark Cuban recently
banks for its initial share sale. A look at the company’s business in the country.
Twitter rose on Thursday runaway price rise has invested an undisclosed sum, speaks in an
Paytm after the social media giant said it crimped the space available for interview on the founding of the firm and its
Payments*:
was concerned by the use of monetary policy to revive flag- investments plans. >P6
300 mn+ users “intimidation tactics” by the ging economic growth and
 Paytm Wallet police and asked the govern- Twitter’s statement and the called for fiscal measures—the
 Paytm Payments Bank
States’ fiscal woes to be in focus
 UPI ment to respect freedom of government’s response marked domain of governments—to try at GST Council meeting today
 FASTag— speech. an escalation of tensions. REUTERS and curb supply-side inflation.
Paytm for The fiscal woes of state governments are
Business: toll collection Others The central government “Inflation remains a key con- expected to be key areas of focus at the GST
20 mn+
merchants
 Advertising fumed at Twitter, accusing the Gurugram offices to ask its offi- cern and constrains monetary Council meeting on Friday. States are likely
 Gaming
 Merchant  App store company of trying to “dictate cials to join an investigation as policy from using the space to target issues such as the Centre’s practice
digitization:
QR codes; Smart
terms” to the country. to why it tagged a controversial available to act in support of of not sharing cess revenue, and the expiry
PoS; merchant “Twitter Inc, a US-based pri- post by Bharatiya Janata Party growth,” RBI said in its 2020-21 of GST compensation in June 2022. >P2
accounting
 Enterprise
Paytm Credit E-commerce vate company, in its communi- spokesman Sambit Patra as annual report.
software: Payroll,  Merchant  Paytm Mall
que says it seeks ‘constructive “manipulated media”. “Monetary policy will moni-
accounting Credit
 Consumer
 Coupons platform Digital news, OTT platforms get 15
dialogue’, ‘collaborative “Right now, we are concerned tor closely all threats to price
Credit:
co-branded
Paytm Money Paytm Insurance
approach’ from the govern- by recent events regarding our stability to anchor broader
days to give details under new rules
 Mutual funds  Insurance
credit cards Source: Company filings,
*Core business
 Broking distribution, payments
Bernstein analysis ment of a sovereign democratic employees in India and the macroeconomic and financial The information and broadcasting ministry
 General insurance
republic to ‘safeguard interests potential threat to freedom of stability while continuing with has notified details that content publishers
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
of the public’. It is time that expression for the people we the accommodative stance.” on digital news sites and over-the-top video
streaming platforms have to furnish within
(around ₹1.74 trillion) from the India One97 Communications’s board Twitter disabuses itself of this serve. We, alongside many in civil Supply-side inflation refers the next 15 days to comply with the new IT
listing, a second person said. is expected to meet on Friday to dis- grandiosity and complies with society in India and around the to price rise caused by shorta- rules announced in February. >P9
“The company has appointed law cuss details of the listing and seek the laws of India,” the govern- world, have concerns with ges of goods.
firm Khaitan and Co. to start work on approval from the directors. The ment said in a statement. regards to the use of intimidation The RBI warning follows
its proposed IPO. Khaitan will be the company will finalize the details for Twitter’s statement and the tactics by the police in response to cuts in India’s FY22 growth Condom sales drop in FY21 as
main legal counsel for the company. the public offering in the coming government’s response enforcement of our global Terms forecast by experts amid a rap- lockdown restricts socializing
A few other firms have also been four weeks and will work towards marked an escalation of ten- of Service, as well as with core ele- idly spreading coronavirus The nationwide covid-19 lockdown of 2020
hired to represent the investors in submitting its draft IPO documents sions. The company’s state- ments of the new IT Rules,” a reduced condom sales by 48% in the first
the company. The exact details of the later this year with financial details ment came just days after a Twitter spokesperson said. TURN TO PAGE 9 quarter of FY21, industry body Condom
Alliance has said. It estimates the full-year
share sale, how much the company for the year ended 31 March, said the team of officers of the Delhi The micro-blogging firm
decline to be at 45%, driven by mobility curbs,
will raise and which investors will fourth person. Police’s anti-terrorism and had earlier in the day said it After RBI bonanza, Delhi can’t
sell shares and how much are still to organized crime unit landed up social distancing and limited socializing. >P6
sit out the 2nd wave hit >P4
be worked out,” said a third person. TURN TO PAGE 9 at Twitter’s New Delhi and TURN TO PAGE 2
 02 FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2021
NEW DELHI ECONOMY & POLICY LIVEMINT.COM

m MINT SHORTS
IBF widens scope; renamed Indian
States’ fiscal woes in focus CBIC asks
staff to help
Broadcasting Digital Foundation
New Delhi: The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the apex
body of broadcasters, is being renamed as Indian Broadcasting
and Digital Foundation (IBDF), as it expands its purview to cover
at GST Council meet today businesses
claim dues
digital platforms to bring all digital over-the-top streaming firms
under one roof, it said in a statement. IBDF is in the process of Gireesh Chandra Prasad
forming a new wholly-owned subsidiary to handle all matters gireesh.p@livemint.com
pertaining to digital media, it added. LATA JHA States are likely to demand extension of GST compensation period to meet revenue shortfall NEW DELHI

T
he Central Board of Indi-
Motherson Group’s rejig gets Gireesh Chandra Prasad
Closing the gap
the fuel cess, Badal said. rect Taxes and Customs
gireesh.p@livemint.com In the case of petrol and diesel, a por- (CBIC) has asked field
nod of competition regulator NEW DELHI Opposition states feel GST revenue tion of the taxes levied by the Centre as officers to handhold businesses
BLOOMBERG
loss should be met in part with additional excise duty is collected as and merchants in their tax

T
he fiscal woes of state gov- central grant in FY22. road and infrastructure cess. Also, in refund claims to help clear dues
ernments is expected to be a GST compensation gap the FY22 Union budget, the Centre by the end of this month.
major friction point when met by debt in FY21 rejigged the import duty structure to In two separate communica-
the Goods and Services Tax
(GST) Council meets on Fri-
1.1 trillion replace a part of the customs duty with
agriculture and infrastructure develop-
tions to field officers this Mon-
day and the last, the CBIC
day with states likely to focus on the Major recipients in FY21 ( crore) ment cess. urged its staff to revisit pending
Union government’s practice of not Karnataka 12,407 Odisha chief minister Naveen Pat- individual tax refund claims to
sharing cess revenue and the expiry of naik has also urged the Centre to share process all genuine applica-
Maharashtra 11,977
GST compensation in June 2022. with states a part of the funds raised as tions by the end of May. The tax
States, which are facing a major Gujarat 9,222 cess and surcharges. It is important that authority is currently holding a
shortfall in revenue, fear that they are Punjab 8,359 states are supported in the long and refund drive to clear all pend-
New Delhi: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) inching closer to a fiscal cliff with the sustained effort required to fight covid ing dues.
said on Thursday that an internal restructure of Motherson expiry of the five-year period for GST Punjab finance minister Manpreet Tamil Nadu 6,241 so that the entire country fights as one, The CBIC reminded officers
Group has been granted deemed approval. The competi- compensation. Singh Badal said ministers of 7 states Uttar Pradesh 6,007 Patnaik had said in a letter to Union of the steps taken to help clear
tion watchdog said in a statement that it has received a Ministers of seven states that are not will put forth their demands at the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman the pending claims including
Source: Finance ministry
notice from the group under the green channel provision ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party virtual GST Council meet on Friday. HT earlier this month, Mint reported on 6 the rule changes last week
on the intra-group reorganization and that it has been have already discussed the fiscal issues May. that made it easier for busi-
deemed approved. Automatic approval is granted under and are set to make demands at the full- The Centre had borrowed ₹1.1 trillion cil on Friday, said a person briefed States and Union territories with leg- nesses to rectify their refund
green channel when a transaction is notified to CCI as per day virtual meeting, Congress leader in FY21 to transfer to states as GST about the discussions. islatures, including Punjab, Chhattis- applications. Mint has seen
specified format after a self-assessment. and Punjab finance minister Manpreet compensation under a special arrange- Badal said his understanding was garh, Delhi, Puducherry, Rajasthan, copies of the communications.
GIREESH CHANDRA PRASAD Singh Badal said at a press conference ment, but it is not part of the Centre’s that the borrowing arrangement was and Uttarakhand have large gaps The move comes at a time
on Thursday. The issue was discussed fiscal deficit. If the arrangement is con- only for FY21 and that there was no between their GST receipts and what when many small businesses
at a meeting attended by need to continue it this was guaranteed as protected revenue, are facing cash flow problems
Sun Pharma Q4 net profit zooms Badal, as well as ministers FRICTION POINTS year. “Opposition states according to an analysis prepared by due to disruption in business
from West Bengal, Tamil will tomorrow ask for an GST officials and seen by Mint. That activities and subdued
over two-fold to ₹894.2 crore Nadu, Kerala, Rajasthan, STATES fear they are THEY will demand CENTRE’S practice of outright grant and not guarantee was part of a bargain demand. Easing the liquidity
Mumbai: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries on Thursday reported Chhattisgarh, and Jhark- headed toward a
fiscal cliff with GST
compensation of the not sharing cess
GST shortfall via a revenue with states is
borrowing,” he said. between the Centre and states for GST concerns of small businesses is
a 123% year-on-year rise in its consolidated net profit for the quar- hand. compensation central grant instead also likely to feature The minister also criti- adoption. crucial for the economy to
ter ended March to ₹894.2 crore, against ₹399.8 crore in the year- T h e s t a t e s a r e expiring in June 2022 of debt financing at the Council meet cized the Centre’s prac- Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, recover, given the significant
ago period owing to an exceptional loss of ₹672.8 crore related demanding the extension tice of raising revenue by Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh role these entities play in job
to various litigation settlements pertaining to some of its subsidi- of the GST compensation way of cess, especially on were major recipients of the GST com- creation and in exports.
aries. Profit was lower than ₹1,370.70 crore estimated by a Bloom- period beyond June 2022 and compen- tinued in FY22, the borrowing require- petrol and diesel, which is not shared pensation given in the form of debt in The CBIC launched the tax
berg poll of 8 analysts. ASHWIN RAMARATHINAM sation of the GST shortfall of states ment would be ₹1.58 trillion, according with states. “We have become an FY21, the analysis showed. refund drive on 15 May that will
through a central grant instead of debt to calculations made by central govern- expensive economy because of high oil An email sent to the Union finance run till 31 May. The idea is to
financing, which is reflected in the fis- ment and state officials that are price,” he said. Neither the states nor ministry seeking comments remained process all pending GST refund
US economy grew at robust annual cal deficit of states. expected to be placed before the Coun- the economy has benefited because of unanswered till press time. claims on priority.
rate of 6.4% in first quarter of year
Washington: The US economy grew at a robust annual rate of
6.4% in the first three months of this year, unchanged from the
government’s initial estimate. The recovery from last year’s deep
recession gained steam at the beginning of this year, helped by
Didn’t delay vax import: govt Indian missions asked to source
+ vaccines to combat the virus and trillions of dollars in govern-
ment assistance. AP Neetu Chandra Sharma
neetu.s@livemint.com
black fungus drug as cases spike ulators into India in April.
“The provision has now
NEW DELHI been further amended to
PM to visit Odisha, Bengal today waive off the trial requirement Elizabeth Roche used in place of amphoteri- “The US has indicated that

T
he Centre on Thursday altogether for the established elizabeth.r@livemint.com cin),” the person said. they will have 60 million of
to assess the impact of Yaas refuted allegations of vaccines. No application of any NEW DELHI The number of mucormyco- AstraZeneca and 20 million
PTI
delay in importing cov- manufacturer is pending with sis cases in India has risen in Moderna and Pfizer vaccines...

id-19 vaccines and asserted
that it has remained engaged
continuously with all major
international vaccine manu-
facturers such as Pfizer, J&J,
and Moderna from mid-2020.
Multiple rounds of discus-
sions have taken place with
Pfizer, J&J, and Moderna,
according to a statement by Dr
Vinod Paul, member (health)
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Odi- in NITI Aayog, titled Myths
sha and West Bengal on Friday and hold review meetings and Facts on India’s Vaccina-
in the two eastern states that are affected most by cyclone tion Process.
Yaas, which made landfall on Wednesday. On Thursday, He also added that the Pfizer
the PM chaired a meeting to review the impact of the vaccine is expected to be avail-
cyclone. Officials gave him a detailed presentation on vari- able by July after they indi-
ous aspects of preparedness, assessment of damage and cated availability of vaccines .
related matters, according to a statement issued by the “The government offered all
Prime Minister’s Office. STAFF WRITER assistance to have them supply
and /or manufacture. How-
ever, it is not that their vacci-
UCO Bank gets board approval for nes are available for free. We
need to understand that buy-
₹3K-cr equity capital raise in FY22 ing vaccines internationally is
New Delhi: State-owned UCO Bank on Thursday said its board not similar to buying ‘off the
has approved raising ₹3,000 crore equity capital for the current shelf’ items,” said Paul, who is
fiscal year. The fundraise can take place through various modes, also chair of the National
such as follow on public offer (FPO), qualified institutional place- Expert Group on Vaccine
ment (QIP) and preferential issue, subject to necessary approvals Administration for covid-19.
from shareholders, government, RBI and Sebi, UCO Bank said “As soon as Pfizer indicated
in a regulatory filing. PTI vaccine availability, the gov-
NITI Aayog member Vinod Paul
said Pfizer vaccine is expected
to be available by July. MINT
ernment and the company
began working together for
the earliest possible import of
the vaccine. As a result, Sput-
nik’s trials got accelerated and,
with timely approval, Russia
has already sent two tranches
of vaccines and accomplished
tech-transfer to our compa-
nies that would start manufac-
turing very soon,” it said.
The Centre has also drawn
flak for initially not approving
vaccines available globally
after it had asked Pfizer and
other vaccine manufactures to
undergo a bridging trial. How-
ever, according to the state-
ment, the Centre has proact-
ively eased entry of vaccines
approved by foreign drug reg-
I
the drugs controller,” it said.
On criticism of decentraliz-
ing its vaccine policy and giv-
ing states the power to bargain
with the vaccine manufactur-
ing companies, Paul said that
the government is doing all the
heavy-lifting like funding vac-
cine manufacturers.
“The vaccines procured by
the Centre are supplied wholly
to the states for free adminis-
tration to people. The govern-
ment of India has merely ena-
bled states to try procuring
vaccines on their own, on their
explicit requests,” he said.
Paul said that the central
government is allotting
enough vaccines to the states
in a transparent manner
according to agreed guide-
lines, he said.
“Vaccine availability is
going to increase in near
future and much more supply
would be possible. In the non-
government channel, states
are getting 25% of the doses
and private hospitals are get-
ting 25% doses,” according to
the statement.
ndia has asked its missions patients who recovered from Let’s see how much of these
abroad to source amphoteri- covid-19 infection. High doses will come to us. Our focus has
cin-b, a drug used to treat of immunosuppressants been to get the raw material
patients with mucormycosis, administered to covid-19 and components that help us to
commonly known as black fun- patients make some of them produce (vaccines) here. How-
gus, seen in patients who have susceptible to black fungus ever, in the interim if some vac-
recovered from covid-19. infections, which could cause cines can be brought here and
Indian missions were previ- death, according to Indian enhance the availability, it will
ously asked to source oxygen health officials. be good,” the person said.
concentrators and liquid medi- On the question whether The US had set a deadline of
cal oxygen for the country, India will resume exports of 4 July to announce the start of
which has been battling a fierce vaccines espe- exports and to
second wave of covid-19 infec- cially to its neigh- Indian embassies which countries
tions, said a person familiar bours like Nepal, were also asked the vaccines
with the development. Bangladesh and to source would be sent to,
Indian embassies were also Bhutan, the per- remdesivir and the person said.
asked to source remdesivir and son cited above US exports of
tocilizumab, used to treat criti-
tocilizumab, used the AstraZeneca
said given the
cally ill covid-19 patients. Sub- requirement in to treat covid-19 vaccine are
sequently, the list was India, doses of patients expected to start
expanded to include extracor- vaccines manu- only after the fed-
poreal membrane oxygenation factured in the eral agency Food
machines, which help relieve country would be re-purposed and Drug Administration gives
stress on the lungs, the person for domestic use. its go-ahead.
said on condition of anonymity. This comes against the back- Indian foreign minister S.
Now, Indian embassies drop of neighbouring countries Jaishankar, who is in the US, is
abroad have been asked to seeking second doses of vacci- set to meet US secretary of state
source amphotericin-b, “and nes from India, which had in Antony Blinken and other sen-
we also seeing if there are January and February des- ior officials of the country to
equivalent medicines; if we patched doses of vaccines to its press India’s case for increased
could see there is a combina- neighbours as grants and on a export of raw materials to man-
tion (of drugs which could be commercial basis. ufacture vaccines in India.

Twitter flags privacy concerns, Centre says US firm ‘dictating terms’
FROM PAGE 1
plans to comply with India’s
new IT Rules 2021. The firm’s
statement came two days after
Facebook-owned messaging
platform WhatsApp moved the
Delhi high court to challenge
the message traceability provi-
sion in the new rules.
The government termed the
statement issued by Twitter as
totally baseless, false and an
attempt to defame India.
“The government also
wishes to emphatically assure
that representatives of social
media companies, including
Twitter, are and will always
remain safe in India, and there
is no threat to their personal
safety and security,” it said in
response to Twitter.
The San Francisco-based
company said it will continue to
be strictly guided by principles
of transparency, a commitment
to empowering every voice on
the service, and protecting
freedom of expression and pri-
vacy under the rule of law.
The company said it plans to
advocate changes to elements of
IT rules and would request the
ministry of electronics and infor-
mation technology to consider a
minimum of three months exten-
sion for compliance. Meanwhile,
it will continue to accept grievan-
ces from users and law enforce-
ment agencies through its exist-
ing grievance redressal channel
as per the new rules.“We plan to
advocate for changes to elements
of these regulations that inhibit
free, open public conversation.
We will continue our construct-
ive dialogue with the Indian gov-
ernment and believe it is critical
to adopt a collaborative
approach,” said a Twitter spokes-
person in the statement.
Social media platforms were
given till 25 May to comply with
the new Information Technology
(Intermediary Guidelines and
Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules,
2021, released in February.
Among significant social media
intermediaries, only homegrown
Delhi Police officers at Twitter’s
Lado Sarai office in the capital
on Monday. PTI
Koo and the government’s
MyGov have fully complied with
the new rules, while Facebook
said it requires time to discuss
issues, which need more engage-
ment with the government.
Under the rules, significant
social media intermediaries
(with a user base of above 5 mil-
lion) are required to appoint a
chief compliance officer, a
nodal contact person who will
coordinate with law enforce-
ment agencies and a resident
grievance officer. All three have
to be residents of India. They
will have to take down posts
depicting nudity or morphed
photos within 24 hours of
receiving a complaint.
Other than this, significant
social media intermediaries will
also be required to identify the
“first originator” of “mischie-
vous content” on messaging
platforms, a move that has
sparked fears of compromised
user privacy online and possible
attempt of state surveillance.
“It is the collective responsi-
bility of elected officials, indus-
try and civil society to safeguard
the interests of the public,” said
the Twitter spokesperson.
Twitter has expressed con-
cern about the need to make an
individual (the compliance offi-
cer) criminally liable for con-
tent on the platform, the
requirements for proactive
monitoring and the blanket
authority to seek information
about its customers. The com-
pany said it represents danger-
CORRECTIONS AND
CLARIFICATIONS
Mint welcomes comments,
ous overreach that is inconsist- suggestions or complaints
ent with open, democratic about errors.
principles. It urged the IT min-
Readers can alert the
istry to publish these standard
newsroom to any errors in the
operating protocols (SOPs) on paper by emailing us, with your
procedural aspects of compli- full name and address to
ance for public consultation. feedback@livemint.com.
“The intermediary rules are
vague, undefined and prone to It is our policy to promptly
respond to all complaints.
misuse. The constitutional Readers dissatisfied with the
design (Articles 14, 19 and 21) has response or concerned about
clearly been ignored. It is rectifia- Mint’s journalistic integrity may
ble in a manner that can achieve write directly to the editor by
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But the law, as it stands, needs to asktheeditor@livemint.com
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 LIVEMINT.COM DEALS, TECH & STARTUPS FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2021
NEW DELHI 03

The missing middle: fuelling

edtech M&A deals since 2020
Firms have been having conversations on benefits of ‘build vs buy’ in entering new markets
Ankit Agarwal & Debjyoti Roy
NEW DELHI Byju's tops edtech deal value chart
One-in-three M&A deals involved an edtech major acquiring a small player to

I
nvestor-backed unicorns and other
well-funded education startups
have fuelled over three dozen
merger and acquisition deals since
January 2020, driving a consolida-
tion in the K-12 education, test prep and
the higher learning spaces, a VCCircle
analysis shows.
One-in-three M&A deals involved an
edtech major acquiring a small player to
improve their basket of offerings for
existing customers. The pandemic saw
institutes, parents and students, adopting
technology faster, said Payal Jain, princi-
pal, Loestro Advisors, in an interview.
Large private equity (PE) and venture
capital (VC) firms also picked up on the
trend to help create unicorns, such as
Byju’s and Unacademy, that went on to
acquire startups in allied segments. In
all, 36 edtech firms were acquired since
January 2020 for a disclosed deal size of
$1.78 billion, according to data collated
by VCCEdge.
Jain said the M&A trend in the educa-
tion space was fuelled by the “missing
middle” with many companies having a
serious conversation around the bene-
fits of ‘build vs buy’ in entering new mar-
kets or building new verticals. “There
were either seed and early-stage deals or
mega deals in edtech companies with
muted middle stage investments, which
resulted in a perfect opportunity for
consolidation for both the acquirer and
the acquired companies,” she added.
On the other hand, Jain said tradi-
tional offline test prep institutions, and
brick-and-mortar coaching institutes
are struggling to stay afloat.
“The reason why these M&As are
happening is that adjacent categories
look very exciting and the acquirers
+ themselves want to enter those catego-
ries,” said Pankaj Makkar, managing
director, Bertelsmann India, the strate-
improve their basket of offerings for existing customers. Large private equity
(PE) and venture capital (VC) firms also picked up on the trend to help create
unicorns, such as Byju’s and Unacademy, that went on to acquire startups in
allied segments.
Rummaging in shopping cart Class action
A look at the acquisitions made by large edtech The education sector
firms since the start of last year has witnessed one
Acquirer Target M&A every fortnight
since the start of 2020
Coding Ninjas, Univariety
M&As
PrepLadder, Coursavy, Handa Ka Funda,
CodeChef, Kreatryx, NeoStencil
Aakash Educational Services,
We keep
WhiteHat Jr, Scholr 30
Impartus Innovations; (2020) delivering.
6
So life can
The Gate Academy; Rekrut
Instasolv (2021)
move forward.
Fattest marriages
Since 2020, Byju's has sealed the biggest M&A in the education sector
Target Acquirer Deal size ($ mn) We’ve kept you connected when
Aakash Educational Services Byju's
the whole world had to stay apart,
1,000
because we know the value of being able
WhiteHat Jr Byju's 300
to innovate, to collaborate and to grow.
iD Tech Eruditus Learning 200 At FedEx, we’re always looking
Schoolnet Falafal Technology 83* to the future, with you.
PrepLadder Unacademy 50 Traditional offline test prep institutions,
*According to certain media reports and brick-and-mortar institutes are
Source: VCCEdge, VCCircle
struggling to stay afloat. MINT
gic investment arm of Bertelsmann SE& Coursavy, Handa ka Funda, CodeChef, making tech-enabled teaching method-
Co., an investor in digital, education, Kreatryx, and Neostencil, which led to ologies more efficient for teachers to
media and services sector companies. upstream, vertical and downstream implementing blended forms of learn-
“The same customers can be given addi- diversifications. According to Byju’s ing aids, there is an opportunity to cre-
tional services by the acquisition of cate- chief strategy officer, Anita Kishore, a ate something in the B2B space. Also, fedex.com/in
gories in acquirer’s product basket.” “blended model of education” will be reskilling and upskilling is the need of
India’s second largest uni- the new normal. “The future the hour and edtech has the potential to
corn Byju’s made three big will see us leap from the tradi- make it more accessible,” Kishore said.
acquisitions to beef up its port- tional one-to-many approach The less talked-about trend is how
folio, including for K12 solu- to blended one-on-one learn- K-12 schools are also undergoing a shift
tions with Scholr, coding courses through ing experiences, providing students the since 2020, which is fuelling M&A, said
WhiteHat Jr., and for test-prep education best of both physical and digital worlds.” Jain. “Given the lockdowns, the need for
services via Aakash Educational Services. She said edtech was far from saturated. moving online, the stress on paying fees,
Unacademy, a Tiger Global-backed Byju’s is looking to partner with com- salaries, infrastructure costs fuelled
unicorn, has acquired half a dozen com- plementary models to expand its stress in individual schools,” Jain added.
panies so far, such as PrepLadder, umbrella of product offerings. “From ankit.agarwal@hindustantimes.com

PharmEasy
hires two
i-bankers for
India IPO
Debjyoti Roy &
Bruhadeeswaran R

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI

P
harmEasy has hired two
investment banks to help
it prepare to go public in
India, three people familiar
with the development said.
The company appointed JM
Financial and Kotak Invest-
ment Banking for its initial
public offering, the people said,
on condition of anonymity. A
foreign bank may also be hired,
one of the three people said.
PharmEasy is also consider-
ing an indirect listing in the US
through a merger with a special
purpose acquisition company
or SPAC, a route that has been
taken by several companies in
India and abroad recently.
PharmEasy is seeking a much
higher valuation if it opts for
the US public markets, the per-
son added. PharmEasy and the
two investment banks didn’t
respond to queries.
On Wednesday, The Eco-
nomic Times reported that
PharmEasy would do a tradi-
tional IPO worth ₹3,000-3,700
crore, commanding a valuation
of nearly $3 billion. The com-
pany has also completed the
acquisition of Bengaluru-based
online pharmacy Medlife.
Earlier this month Phar-
mEasy raised $350 million
from Prosus Ventures, TPG
Growth and others as part of its
Series E round. Existing inves-
tors Temasek, CDPQ, LGT
Lightrock, Eight Roads and
Think Investments also partici-
pated in the round that pro-
pelled it into the unicorn club. Growth is
Founded in 2015 by Dharmil not just about chasing
Sheth and Dhaval Shah, Phar- success. It’s also about
mEasy connects patients with learning from failures.
pharmacies besides helping
customers avail of diagnostic Growth is...On.
tests. It delivers orders in more
than 1,000 cities and towns,
including Mumbai, Kolkata,
Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad,
Hyderabad, and Chennai. Follow us:

debjyoti.roy@hindustan- mint.live livemint live_mint livemint www.livemint.com

times.com
This PDF was originally uploaded to Mint Newspaper - ePaper (https://t.me/mint_epaper). Subscribe now to get this edition before anyone else!! Backup channel: @news_backup
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 04 FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2021
NEW DELHI MARK TO MARKET LIVEMINT.COM

S&P BSE Sensex Nifty 50 Nifty 500 Nifty Next 50 Nifty 100 S&P BSE Mid-cap S&P BSE Small Cap
CLOSE PERCENT CHANGE CLOSE PERCENT CHANGE CLOSE PERCENT CHANGE CLOSE PERCENT CHANGE CLOSE PERCENT CHANGE CLOSE PERCENT CHANGE CLOSE PERCENT CHANGE

51,115.22 0.19 15,337.85 0.24 13,066.25 0.34 37,366.50 0.47 15,564.35 0.27 21,687.47 0.54 23,591.49 0.34
PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN

51,017.52 51,128.80 15,301.45 15,323.95 13,022.20 13,052.85 37,192.85 37,363.30 15,522.35 15,552.65 21,571.42 21,571.42 23,512.62 23,621.40
HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW

51,282.90 50,891.66 15,384.55 15,272.50 13,091.35 13,007.15 37,448.90 37,125.45 15,604.50 15,500.55 21,723.13 21,533.78 23,660.79 23,522.81

m MINT SHORTS
Wild swings in commodities
Berger tracked Asian Paints closely
keep inflation debate open
Movements in commodity prices this year have been
mainly driven by risk appetite, not fundamental demand
or shortages of supply, according to a Bloomberg Econom-
in March quarter, but lost in FY21
ics’ model. In the great inflation debate, the rally in every- Harsha Jethmalani lower at 7.6%, indicating high market
listed Indian paint stock, according
thing from copper to soybeans to lumber has been a point harsha.j@livemint.com share gains for Berger and Asian Paints.
Bloomberg data. Asian Paints is the sec- Tough fight
in favour of the reflation hawks. As the recent fall from the For the whole of FY21, however, Ber-ond most expensive with a PE multiple Berger Paints almost matched Asian Paints’ growth in Q4, and did better on the

B
peak suggests, a rise in commodity prices driven primarily erger Paints India Ltd closed of around 76 times. In Q4, Berger’s
ger’s domestic business grew at a two- margins front.
2-year revenue CAGR Gross margin movement
by speculation is also prone to a sudden reversal, so the the March quarter with an operating performance was ahead of
year CAGR of 4.5%, slightly lower than (in %) (in basis points)
hawks’ argument is not as strong as it first appears, and the impressive show. While the the growth of over 6% in the case ofpeers. Gross margins expanded by 10
debate is far from over. Among prices on Thursday, copper company has not disclosed Asian Paints, the broker’s analysts basis points (bps) y-o-y to 43.7% com-
on the London Metal Exchange was up almost 1% to volume growth for Q4FY21, pared to a 260 basis points contraction
point out. This is likely because of a Berger Paints
$10,044.50 a tonne, while wheat was steady around $6.50 analysts estimate it to be around 55% for Asian Paints. One basis point is one
higher share of industrial sales for the
a bushel and corn lost 0.2% to $6.23 3/4 a bushel. Soybeans on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis. former, where the pick-up has been hundredth of a percentage point.
fell for a ninth day, heading for their worst daily run since Competitor Asian Paints Ltd posted more gradual. This could be attributed to low- Asian Paints
January 2020. BLOOMBERG 48% y-o-y volume growth. Since the Investors have sat up and taken priced inventory, better mix and price
year-ago numbers were hikes in the industrial
impacted by a nation- NECK-TO-NECK paints segment, analysts
wide lockdown, it makes said. Kansai Nerolac
Confidence dip sense to look at the two- BERGER’S domestic ALTHOUGH the gap BERGER’S domestic Berger’s Ebitda mar-
Chinese SME investment sentiment is still below year compounded business grew at a in valuations of the decorative paints gins improved by 120bps
two-year CAGR of two firms has volumes could 0 5 10 15 20 -600 -400 -200 0 200
pre-pandemic levels. annual growth rate 4.5%, slightly lower y-o-y due to a sharp drop
bridged, Berger is still moderate more than Note: Year-on-year change in gross margins in Q4. Source: JM Financial Institutional Securities Ltd
Investment confidence among Chinese small and (CAGR). than Asian Paints’ relatively pricey peers, say analysts in employee cost and
medium-sized enterprises SATISH KUMAR/MINT
60 Berger’s revenue in Q4 operating leverage bene-
56.6 grew 15.3% on a two-year fit. Ebitda is short for the benefits of inventory procured at smaller cities and towns. However,
56 53.8 CAGR basis, nearly the same as Asian notice of the slight underperformance. earnings before interest, taxes, depre- cheaper rates would wane. So, analysts with the second wave of covid infec-
Paints’ 15.7%. “The revenue trajectory Asian Paints shares have risen 57% ciation and amortization. To tackle the caution that earnings surprise, espe- tions spreading fast in rural areas, vol-
52
was better than both Kansai Nerolac compared to its pre-covid highs, while input cost pressures, most paint mak- cially on the margin parameter, is now umes growth may lose momentum in
and Indigo Paints, clearly reflecting the those of Berger have risen at 36%. This ers announced price hikes in May. behind. the next few quarters. Analysts point
48
dominance of Asian Paints and Berger has helped bridge the large gap in the But given the sharp surge of 15% in While margin pressures are a con- out that although Berger is aggres-
44 Paints in the decorative paints industry valuations of the two firms, even raw material prices, the quantum of cern, volume growth has been surpris- sively spending on advertisements and
so far,” said analysts at JM Financial though Berger remains relatively pri- price hikes may not be enough to pro- ing on the upside. Paint firms have seen promotions, given its higher exposure
40 Institutional Securities. For perspec- cey. At a one-year forward price-to- tect margins of all paint firms, analysts double-digit volume growth for the to rural markets, its domestic decora-
31 May 2015 30 Apr 2021 tive, the average growth of Kansai Ner- earnings (PE) multiple of around 83 said. In the case of Berger, the impact third quarter in a row, aided by pent-up tive paints volumes could moderate
Source: Bloomberg olac on a two-year basis was much times, Berger is the most expensive could be much higher than others as demand for economy paints from more than peers.
SATISH KUMAR/MINT

Global supply shortage may

stretch for a longer period
Eric Li’s factory making glass lampshades for companies
Post dividend payout, progress After RBI’s bonanza, New Delhi
including Home Depot Inc. is being stretched to its limits
with sales doubling from their pre-pandemic level. But like
many Chinese manufacturers, he doesn’t plan to expand
on privatization key for BPCL cannot sit out the second wave hit
+ operations—a reticence that could slow the pace of China’s Ujjval Jauhari Aparna Iyer
economic growth this year and prolong a shortage of Picking up tioned ₹404 crore worth of gold to ing as well as giving support to
goods being felt around the world as demand picks up. ujjval.j@livemint.com aparna.i@livemint.com recover money from borrowers, sectors most hit from the pan-
Surging prices of raw materials means margins are com- Improved core refining margins post inventory adjustments indicating Indians are unable to demic. In essence, the govern-
are boosting BPCL’s forward earnings outlook.

B T
pressed, explains Li, owner of Huizhou Baizhan Glass Co. harat Petroleum Corp. he Reserve Bank of India pay back even emergency loans. ment continues to do its damage
Ltd, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, Ltd’s (BPCL) shares Reported Core Gross refining margin (in $ per barrel) (RBI) has handed over a fat All these factors indicate that control for firms and also gives
which makes about $30 million in annual revenue. The scaled to a new 52-week cheque of ₹99,122 crore to consumption would be hit hard cash to Indians to spend.
6.6
combination of higher input prices, uncertainty about high on the National Stock the government through a record yet again. As pointed out in this But RBI seems to be more in
export prospects and a weak recovery in domestic con- Exchange on Thursday. A 5.8 surplus transfer for FY21. This is column yesterday, the revival in favour of capital expenditure. In
sumer demand meant Chinese manufacturing investment handsome dividend payout over 85% higher than the bud- consumption may its annual report for
from January to April was 0.4% below the same period in and strong March quarter per- geted amount of ₹53,510 crore. not be as swift as it Investment-led FY21, the central
2019, according to official statistics. BLOOMBERG formance are the reasons for 2.5 2.5 With this unexpected gain, New was after the first recovery would bank said that the
investor optimism. 1.9 1.6 Delhi can now afford to get into wave. boost both government’s focus
BPCL has announced a divi- 1.2 the spirit of a second round of eco- Meanwhile, the consumption and on capital expendi-
EU lenders must stop resisting dend of ₹58 per share. This is in 0.4 nomic stimulus. toll of the pandemic
output, the RBI ture brightens the
addition to the ₹21 per share Calls for the same are rising by has been severe outlook on the econ-
Basel III, say bank watchdogs dividend announced earlier in
Q1FY21 Q2FY21 Q3FY21 Q4FY21
the day, and the reasons are among the weaker said in its FY21 omy. It added that
Top banking watchdogs are warning European Union len- the year. Accordingly, at the
Source: Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd
aplenty. As the second wave has sections of the coun- annual report investment-led
ders to stop resisting new rules or risk weakening the current market price, BPCL’s SATISH KUMAR/MINT
put most of India under lock- t r y . E r g o , i t recovery would
financial system and undermining the bloc’s role defend- total dividend payout of ₹79 keenly watch further progress marketing gains of ₹1,810 crore down, signs of distress are becom- shouldn’t come as a boost both con-
ing global accords. The clash comes as negotiations on per share translates into almost on its privatization plans. As and ₹1,830 crore, respec- ing visible in various corners. surprise that from nobel laureate sumption and output.
stricter global capital rules move into a decisive phase in a 17% dividend yield for finan- such, expectations of privatiza- tively— said Motilal Oswal Most high-frequency indicators Abhijeet Banerjee to Kotak “A mix of policies may be
the EU. Lenders and regulators are jockeying to be heard cial year 2021. tion and the resultant value Financial Services Ltd analysts. such as toll collections, e-way bills, Mahindra Bank chief Uday Kotak, needed, as very low capacity utili-
by European Commission officials, who are gearing up to The proceeds from the trea- unlocking for investors have Going ahead, improving power supply and retail and recre- most want the government to step zation rates may leave little incen-
propose how to implement the new standards in the fall sury stock sale and Numaligarh been a key driver for BPCL’s benchmark refining margins ation have remained in the nega- up again on the stimulus. What tive for the private sector to start a
ahead of their slated start in 2023. Banks are particularly Refinery Ltd (NRL) stake sale stock, which has risen by over would augur well for the firm. tive. Unemployment rate has perhaps differs is the focus of the strong investment cycle. There-
worried because the rules, known as Basel III, would hit have been passed on to inves- 40% over the last year. “Privati- With retail price hikes continu- jumped to double digits. One of stimulus. Kotak has advocated fore, there will be a need for an
them harder than their US counterparts. European bank tors as dividend. It zation is key for ing, the outlook for the market- the largest gold loan lenders auc- increasing both the social spend- increase in public investment
executives say they are grappling with a more sluggish had completed Expectations of further upside,” ing segment is decent, too. Fur- spending that can crowd in pri-
rebound, burdened with negative interest rates and the sale of its privatization and analysts at Jeffer- thermore, with state polls over, vate investment, while private
shouldn’t have to deal with another handicap. BLOOMBERG entire 61.65% ies India Pvt. Ltd the overhang of government Big payout consumption needs to be sup-
the resultant
stake in NRL for said in a report. intervention on fuel pricing is The RBI’s surplus transfer to the government for FY21 was 73% ported through improvement in
value unlocking higher than the previous year despite a truncated financial year.
about ₹9,876 BPCL’s March also behind, although auto fuel consumer credit,” the report said,
for investors have
crore to a consor- quarter perform- volumes may get impacted. based on an analysis by the central
Unstoppable tium of Oil India been a key driver ance remained To be sure, Jefferies India Surplus transfer to government
bank staff.
(in ₹ trillion) 1.75
Chinese yuan is at its strongest level since March 2016. Ltd and Engi- for BPCL’s stock strong. Marketing analysts have cut marketing The upshot is that as India’s
Bloomberg replica of CFETS RMB Index (index points) neers India Ltd, and refining mar- volume estimates by 9-8% for 0.99 growth forecast for FY22 gets
101
99.82 and Assam gov- gins were better FY22-23 to factor in the covid- chopped by all and sundry, the
ernment. Besides, it had sold than expected, and were sup- related disruptions. While 0.5 0.57 government will need to step in to
99
97.65 treasury shares too—BPCL ported by inventory gains (car- Ebitda estimates have been cut 0.3 arrest further damage. RBI’s large
97 equity shares held by the BPCL rying over of lower-priced by 8% for FY22 and 5% for surplus transfer and its willing-
Trust for about ₹5,510 crore. inventory in a rising crude oil FY23, respectively, the earn- FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21* ness to accommodate the borrow-
95 Given that both events were price environment). BPCL ings per share is still expected Note: RBI changed its financial year from the July-June period to Source: RBI
ing through bond purchases
for paving the way for BPCL’s reported inventory gains of to rise, thanks to the company’s April-March, due to which FY21 was only a 9-month period. Annual Report should alleviate the government’s
93
privatization, the Street would ₹3,640 crore —refining and shift to a lower tax regime. worry over fiscal deficit.
SATISH KUMAR/MINT
91

89
27 Jan 2016 27 May 2021
Source: Bloomberg

SATISH KUMAR/MINT
Why Barbeque Nation’s shares are selling faster than its kebabs
Pallavi Pengonda opening,” said an analyst segment is off a low base. In it raised funds at rock-bottom
China’s yuan at its strongest pallavi.p@livemint.com requesting anonymity.
Striking recovery FY22, Barbeque Nation expects valuations in a sort of emergency
against a basket of partners On Monday, Barbeque Nation Barbeque Nation has seen a continuous improvement in
revenues in each quarter in FY21.
that segment to double. funding ahead of the IPO.

B
The yuan’s rally gathered pace on Thursday, with the Chi- usiness at Barbeque announced quarterly results for Further, the company intends Of course, the near term
nese currency climbing to its strongest level since March Nation outlets has been hit the first time since its listing. The Revenue from operations (in ₹ crore) to open 20 new stores during the remains challenging. “With the
2016 against a basket of trading partners. The yuan rose severely this quarter, numbers were encouraging and 226.3 year. The adverse impact of the onset of the second wave, subse-
0.22% versus a group of 24 exchange rates to 97.9819 because of restrictions in various management commentary was 191.0 194.8 pandemic has meant that its rev- quent lockdowns and temporary
points, surpassing its previous peak from 2018, according parts of the country due to the upbeat. Sequentially, consoli- enues have declined 40% y-o-y store closures, our dine-in chan-
to data compiled by Bloomberg. Against the dollar, the Chi- second covid wave. dated revenues for Q4FY21 rose in FY21. Of course, the recovery nel in the current ongoing quar-
nese currency was up 0.2% to 6.3775 at 3:52 pm local time. But, shares of Barbeque 16% to ₹226 crore. Revenues has been faster in the second half ter has been impacted,” the man-
It’s turning into a great year for the yuan as authorities Nation Hospitality Ltd are sell- increased by 18.5% year-on-year 76.1 of the fiscal as restrictions were agement said in an earnings call.
grow comfortable with the currency’s strength, suggesting ing like hot cakes, or kebabs, if (y-o-y). Same store sales growth 9.8 eased gradually. Investors hope Meanwhile, Barbeque
more appreciation is likely. The People’s Bank of China has you will. They have risen as high was up 20%, helped by a favoura- Q4FY20 Q1FY21 Q2FY21 Q3FY21 Q4FY21
that the same trend would per- Nation’s stock is now around
been neutral in setting its daily reference rate this week, as 40% this week. What explains ble base, as the metric had Source: Company presentation
sist once the lockdowns of the 75% higher than its issue price
tracking moves in the market rather than using it to limit the sudden euphoria? dropped 16.7% in Q4FY20. second covid wave are relaxed. during listing. To be sure, the
appreciation. While the gains are attracting inflows into “People are looking beyond During FY21, the firm SATISH KUMAR/MINT
The fact that the firm has broader rally in the stock mar-
the nation’s stock and bond markets, raising the risk of near-term concerns and for increased its focus on the deliv- cater to the rapid growth in the 20.1% in Q4FY20, while the raised sufficient funds through kets has also contributed to the
asset bubbles, a stronger yuan will dent the impact of opening up plays. Barbeque ery vertical in the light of the delivery business. The perform- delivery business has grown the IPO also means it is finan- optimism for the stock. Be that as
higher imported commodity prices. China’s producer Nation is a good candidate for pandemic. It launched a new ance of Barbeque-in-a-Box has around 6 times in Q4FY21 com- cially in a better place, compared it may, given the business condi-
price index climbed by the most since 2017 in April, as fac- that. Additionally, Barbeque’s product called Barbeque-in-a- surprised positively. “The share pared to the same period last to where things were after the tions, investors would have to
tories absorbed soaring prices for imported raw materials March-quarter results may be a Box (including starters, main of revenue from digital plat- year,” said Barbeque Nation. first wave. Back then, its financial brace for a decline in revenues in
like copper and iron ore. BLOOMBERG proxy of how things will be post course, desserts) in June 2020 to forms increased to 24.7% from True, the growth of the delivery condition was so precarious that the short run.

Mark to Market writers do not have positions in the companies they have discussed here

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 +

VACCINATE OUR WORLD

If the immorality of vaccine rationing

doesn’t bother you, the grave danger
that it poses to the world should.
Join the movement.

vaccinateourworld.org

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 06 FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2021
NEW DELHI CORPORATE LIVEMINT.COM

Bank frauds
fall by 25% ‘Not really in need of money, m
MOVES
investments will be strategic’
A weekly list of C-Suiters who have moved up
in 2020-21: the corporate ladder either within or outside
their companies.
RBI report Abhinav Kaul & Neil Borate
Abhijit
Bhalerao
Appointed as chief information
officer at Nuvoco
thus very important. We did a lot of
Gopika Gopakumar NEW DELHI/MUMBAI hackathons in India. In the last 2 years, Anubhav Appointed as director-legal affairs
gopika.g@livemint.com we must have done 200-300 hacka- Kapoor at Ford India

J
MUMBAI aynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal thons in colleges, etc. We use India as a
and Anurag Arjun co-founded strength rather than a weakness. Appointed as vice president- digital
Bhavana

B
ank frauds of ₹1 lakh and
more fell by 25% in value
to ₹1.38 trillion in the
previous fiscal with the number
of such cases also seeing a
decline of 15% during the year,
showed the Reserve Bank of
India’s annual report released
on Thursday.
The share of PSBs in total
frauds, both in terms of number
and value, decreased while that
of private sector banks increased
during the period. PSBs contrib-
uted over 59% to the value of
frauds at ₹81,901 crore in FY21, a
sharp decline from 80% in the
previous year. The share of pri-
vate sector banks to total value of
frauds rose to 33% in FY21 from
18.4% a year ago. Foreign banks
and financial institutions’ share
stood at 2.4% and 4.9%, respec-
Polygon (formerly Matic), a Is Polygon more environmentally business and category head at HT
Lalchandani Digital Streams
blockchain scalability platform friendly than bitcoin?
in 2017. It was created to solve the In ‘proof of work’, which is used by Appointed as vice
problem of high fees and slow bitcoin, computers have to solve com-
Dhatri
president-marketing and
transactions on ethereum, the world’s plex math problems. In bitcoin, you Bhatt communications at Nykaa Fashion
second-largest cryptocurrency by mar- cannot be a miner on your laptop, you Jose Appointed as senior vice president
ket capitalization. Polygon rests on need huge complex computers, and and head (human resources)–
ethereum, but allows users to build this is environmentally unfriendly due
Raj
India at Worldline
applications on Polygon at a far lower to electricity consumption. In ‘proof of
cost than on ethereum. The valuation stake’ which Polygon uses, you do not
Karan Appointed as vice president–human
of Polygon’s native token, Matic, has need massive computing power. You Bajwa resources at Mamaearth
zoomed from a mere $26 million when have to stake tokens. Only a few hun- Appointed as head of
it was first issued in 2019 to over $14 bil- dred machines need to run for mining
Karen
communications and public
lion. The rise in Matic’s price has here, making electricity consumption Annunciation affairs at Janssen India
turned its co-founders into India’s first a small fraction of the usage by bitcoin. Appointed as India head of Startup
crypto billionaires, part of it stemming What is the road ahead for you? Pandurang
Solution Architects at Amazon
from their current stakes in the crypto- We are not really in need of money. Nayak Web Services
currency at around 4-5%. Billionaire Our investments going forward will be
investor Mark Cuban of Shark Tank strategic in nature where the individu- Poonam Appointed as communication lead
fame, recently invested an undisclosed met my co-founders. Kanani is also a build something on Polygon. For als coming onboard will bring larger Nikam at Snapchat India
sum into Polygon. Data in the crypto computer science engineer, who was example, the shipping documents of value than just money. We are
world is difficult to verify and there working with Housing.com as a data the Egyptian government are posted US-listed and regulated with our listing Premal Appointed as vice president–
Zaveri chairman’s office at Pittie Group
might be other Indians who have gen- scientist. He later tried to build a few on the Polygon blockchain only by on Coinbase, and this brings institu-

tively.
Data from RBI also showed
that a majority of these frauds
are in loan portfolios of banks,
both in terms of number and
value. The share of off-balance
sheet (in terms of value) has
been decreasing since 2018-19.
“Frauds have been occurring
predominantly in the loan
portfolio, both in terms of num-
ber and value,” RBI said in its
annual report. “Though the
value of frauds reported in
advances category for 2020- 21,
in percentage terms, remained
almost same as compared to the
last year, the incidence of
frauds in advances category, in
terms of number, has come
down over the previous year.”
The average lag between the
date of occurrence of frauds
and their detection by banks
+ and other financial institutions
was 23 months during 2020-21.
‘
erated significant wealth but are not apps like a prediction market for Game another vendor. tional investors to Polygon. Mark
publicly known. Mint of Thrones where he How did Polygon Cuban is a huge angel Rajiv Appointed as chief executive officer
talked to Nailwal, whose m INTERVIEW wanted a global payment Gupta at Tricolite Electrical
come into being? investor, and we are
crypto fund for covid-19 method. This is what My co-founders and We don’t build apps getting his help to
Ravi Shanker Appointed as chief finance officer
relief has so far raised over $1 billion. brought him into blockchain. Arjun is I came up with the ourselves. People build onboard entities like at Ixigo
Edited excerpts: also a serial entrepreneur. He was proof of concept in Lazy.com. Gupta
apps on top of our
working with IRIS, a software used by 2017. By April 2018, Is there a risk of Sanjay Appointed as executive vice
Can you tell us about yourself and institutions such as central banks. we had set up the com- platform. Community someone taking president-technology, Hub
building is thus Jolly
your co-founders? Arjun launched a GST-related startup pany and raised some over the Polygon Operations at Vodafone Idea
I am from Delhi originally. My before meeting us. Mihailo Bjelic, our small funds from very important. network?
co-founders are from Mumbai and fourth co-founder, who is of Serbian friends and family and In ‘proof of work’, if Shathi Appointed as vice president–human
Sandeep Nailwal resource at Reliance Retail
Ahmedabad and our head office is in origin, was working on a similar solu- started building the Co-founder, Polygon
someone wants to take Sharma
Bengaluru. I studied engineering and tion as Matic. He joined us last year as product. That round over the network, they
computer science. After that, I worked we rebranded from Matic to Polygon. was just $150,000. need to have more Siddharth Appointed as chief technology
for two years as a software engineer. Is the Maharashtra government After that, we did another small round than 51% mining power, although this Raj Jain officer at Network18 Digital
Then, I did my MBA, specializing in exploring the Polygon blockchain of around $500,000. After that, we did is not decisive. The other 49% can
information technology and then for maintaining covid test results? an initial exchange offering with reject the false blocks and fork into a Sumit Appointed as director of business
worked with Deloitte and then Wel- They are not formally working with Binance where we raised $5 million. In new chain. In ‘proof of stake’, you need Rastogi development for India at OTTera
spun E-commerce (where I was the us, but there are a few vendors who are the initial few years, I started building to have an even higher 66% mining
CTO). I then launched a website for working with the Maharashtra govern- the ecosystem in India. The whole power—this would be currently worth Vishal Appointed as head-human resource
white-collar services—think of it as a ment who are using Polygon. I think environment around cryptocurrency around $1.8 billion tokens for Polygon. Verma at Alumnus Software
Flipkart for services. The business did the government might have shared a was unfavourable. Developers were Even here, the community will reject
not scale as much as I wanted, and I mandate about having test results on a afraid of legal hassles. You see, we are a false blocks and the person attempting Zulfiqar Appointed as group chief operating
started reading about artificial intelli- public blockchain and this might be a tech platform, and we don’t build apps the takeover will risk the worth of his or Khan officer at Balaji Telefilms
gence and technologies such as block- test project. Nobody needs our permis- ourselves. People build apps on top of her tokens; they will lose value.
Source: Accord India, executive search worldwide
chain. I went back to programming and sion or needs to collaborate with us to our platform. Community building is abhinav.kaul@livemint.com

‘Rural demand to remain muted’ Adverse economic impact of

Asit Ranjan Mishra
asit.m@livemint.com
second wave has peaked: UBS vention to contain the pan-
demic and higher fatality,” the
NEW DELHI rating agency added.
India Ratings said even if Nasrin Sultana adverse impact on sequential teaued, while vehicle registra-

T
he economic impact of agricultural output and nasrin.s@livemint.com growth is less severe than in the tions have started improving
the second covid wave income remain intact, there is MUMBAI June 2020 quarter, as lock- sequentially. There has been
will be felt more through a strong likelihood that the downs are more targeted and improvement in railway pas-

T
loss of demand impulse in expenditure pattern of rural he second wave of cov- localized and households and senger traffic and toll road rev-
Condom usage in India remains extremely low at 5.6% of the rural India than in urban India, households will be muted. id-19 in India appears to businesses have adjusted to the enue collection, according to
population as people are still hesitant to use contraceptives. MINT even though the India Meteor- “With rising covid infec- have peaked, as the daily new normal,” Jain said in a UBS data.
ological Department has fore- tions, households in rural new case count and positivity report on 27 May. The labour

Condom sales drop cast a near-normal monsoon,

India Ratings and Research
said on Thursday.
Ind-Ra expects demand for
areas would be more con-
cerned about the rising or
expected rise in health
rate have fallen over the past
few days, according to Tanvee
Gupta Jain, economist, UBS.
The UBS-India The UBS-India force participa-
Activity Indicator Activity Indicator tion rate has
tracks ultra-high slipped to 78.6 slowed to 39%

in FY21 as lockdown “While demand for agricul-

tural credit and inputs such as
fertilizers and pesticides could
tractors to suffer in FY22. MINT

spread to rural India. Health

restricts socializing
Suneera Tandon
suneera.t@livemint.com
NEW DELHI
sales. It was estimated at ₹1,521
crore in FY20, with an esti-
mated 2 billion pieces sold.
Condom usage in India
remain strong in view of third
consecutive year of near-nor-
mal monsoon, the demand for
FMCG products and automo-
biles, especially tractors and
two-wheelers, is expected to
suffer,” the rating agency said.
The first wave was largely an
ministry statistics show that
the country’s 394 districts out
of 718 had a case positivity rate
of over 10% as on 20 May.
“Such a high rate of positiv-
ity is being recorded even
when the level of testing is low
in rural India. This means that
expenditure and would cut
down on non-essentials,” it
said. The rating agency said if
rural households are com-
pelled to take debt to meet out-
of-pocket expenses on health,
it can be more damaging than
other types of household debt.
The second factor that will
hurt rural demand is the
decline in non-agricultural
The UBS-India Activity Indi-
cator slipped further to 78.6
during the week ended 23 May,
frequency data
available on
weekly/daily basis
during the week and urban unem-
ended 23 May, the ployment has
slowest decline
spiked to a
the slowest weekly decline to assess how eco- 12-month high of
since end-March. The indica-
tor suggests that economic
activity contracted by an aver-
nomic activity is
evolving on the
ground.
since March-end 17.4%. Demand
for work by
households
age of 14% month-on-month The data shows traffic con- under the Mahatma Gandhi
(m-o-m) from May to date after gestion is close to 20% com- National Rural Employment
declining 7% m-o-m in April pared to the 2021 baseline on Guarantee Act rose sharply,
2021. lockdown measures. However, suggesting rural distress and

T
he nationwide lockdown remains extremely low at 5.6% urban phenomenon, despite the pandemic in many areas activities, as most of them “Our activity indicator has a the statewise trend indicates reverse migration of urban
of 2020 depressed con- of the population. the large-scale reverse labour may be spreading and/or has require high human contact. reasonably high correlation improvement in cities, includ- poor to villages. A few states
dom sales by 48% during The reasons are not hard to migration. However, during already spread without getting The third factor, according with real gross domestic prod- ing Mumbai and Pune. Power such as Rajasthan and Karna-
the first quarter of FY21, an find. Despite a significantly the ongoing second wave, the adequately captured in official to the agency that will impact uct (GDP) growth and is a good demand has continued to con- taka have indicated work under
industry body said, adding that high young population, con- highly infectious mutated statistics. This may result in rural expenditure unfavoura- lead indicator of sequential tract, but the decline in railway rural development projects will
it estimates the full-year servative attitudes towards sex strain of the virus has already inadequate government inter- bly in FY22, is rural wages. growth momentum. The freight seems to have pla- restart, Jain said.
decline at 45%. Mobility restric- and lack of public discourse
tions, social distancing norms around usage of sexual well-be-
and limited socializing are ing products has hindered the
expected to have contributed adoption of condoms in India.
to the plunge. Purchase and use of condoms is
Condom volumes grew a often seen as an awkward and
Tech needs to be leveraged to shape the hybrid work model
mere 2% CAGR over the past shameful act. Companies also
six years despite face some restric- Staff Writer panel discussion, Virtual work- puting. “Attracting talent that change,” said Ankush Tiwari,
campaigns by Condom sales tions in marketing feedback@livemint.com place 2.0, ‘Secure Digital can go digital is a very tough task global head of Digital Services,
government bod- plunged by 48% in and advertising Transformation–Unlocking for an industry like ours. Con- Quest Global Technologies Ltd.

F
ies and other Q1FY21, an these contracep- rom personal habits to growth with strong and agile struction and real estate infra- With cyberattacks becoming
institutions to industry body tives. digital needs, a lot has Digital Foundation’, powered structure as an industry is the rampant, security has become
encourage their While the con- changed for us in a post- by Livemint and Tata Commu- least invested into IT, and would a dominant feature in adoption
said, adding that
use, according to dom market value covid world where we are still nications, brings together busi- typically invest about 0.1% of to cloud computing and prove
the 2021 Con- full-year decline is has steadily trying to minimize person-to- ness leaders to discuss how the revenues towards IT as against a to be disastrous for tech-led
domology Report estimated at 45% grown from 2014, person contact. But, as busi- power of technology can be BFSI firm that would invest organizations. With remote
released Thurs- sales volumes nesses accelerated their digital harnessed to power growth and upwards of 5%,” said Subrah- work becoming the new norm,
day by the Con- dipped last year. transformation journeys, the secure organizations. manya Gupta Boda, head-IT organizations are resorting to
dom Alliance, an industry body In volume terms, the market security of data and systems The traditional enterprise and digital, Brigade Group. digital-first strategies to secure
represented by companies grew 11% (year-on-year) in posed to be a architecture is The whole world is moving the virtual workspace.
including Reckitt Benckiser, 2018-19, but shrank 1% in major chal- no longer rele- towards ‘Internet First’, “Digital attacks have become
HLL Lifecare, Raymond Con- 2019-20. The growth in con- lenge. Accord- vant. The need whether it is homes or busi- 100-fold and phishing attacks
sumer Care and TTK Health- dom market over the last year ing to esti- of the hour is a (Clockwise, from top left) Srinivasa Rao P., global MSS lead (pre- nesses. But, this basic infra- by about 70% in the last year
Care. A number of private com- has come largely from the non- mates, digital solutions sales), Tata Communications; Subrahmanya Gupta Boda, head-IT structure, which forms the with a change in working cir-
panies sell branded condoms in metro urban markets, the attacks increased 100-fold over approach to the issues that prop and digital, Brigade Group; Ankush Tiwari, global head of digital foundation for the digital trans- cumstances after the covid-19
India, apart from the central report said. the past year. up, with security embedded services, Quest Global Technologies; and Priya Kaduri, CTO and formation of any organization, pandemic. Most of these
government offering free and Condom usage in India is A hybrid work model is here right at the start and not just vice-president, cybersecurity services, Happiest Minds. is lacking. This is where the real attacks target the end-users,
subsidized condoms. almost a sixth of the figures in to stay, and technology needs bolted on later. The digital game-changing will happen. which is easier as the end-
Despite a social media boom major economies, said Brijj Bal- to be leveraged to drive this transformation needs to be tional enterprise architecture are many roadblocks along the “Today, the biggest limiting points have moved out of the
and apps that have brought aji Singh, senior vice-president, change and ensure efficiency, agile and, at the same time, sta- relevant, we need to focus on way, especially for an industry factor to digitalization is infra- perimeter, and even data is eas-
casual dating and sex into operations, TTK Protective agility and security of organiza- ble too. “The main driving fac- four fundamental pillars— like construction and real structure, not paying capacity ier to access. We have put mul-
mainstream society, young Devices Ltd. Given the sheer tions and also control tors that are needed to be suc- compute, network, collabora- estate, where projects are or anything else. For instance, if tiple layers of security—like
people are still hesitant to use size of India’s population, there employee fatigue in an age cessful in this new paradigm are tion and security,” said Sriniv- spread far and wide, and even you want to get a 1 Gbps con- preventive controls, digital
contraceptives, the report said. is a need to remove barriers, where a lot of time is being customer experience, end-user asa Rao P., global MSS lead (pre- basic GSM connectivity is a nection today at your home in controls,” said Priya Kaduri,
India’s condom market has especially psychological ones, spent on collaborative plat- experience and achieving busi- sales), Tata Communications. major issue. This leaves little Nariman point or in the heart of chief technology officer and
remained small over the last impacting condom usage, he forms. ness results at a cost which is While trying to establish a scope for an upgrade to new-age Malabar Hill, you cannot get it. vice-president, cybersecurity
few years, reporting sluggish added. The sixth episode of the affordable. To make the tradi- strong digital foundation, there technologies like cloud com- I think it’s time things should services, Happiest Minds.
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 LIVEMINT.COM
‘Focus is now on medevac services’
Rhik Kundu
rhik.k@livemint.com
NEW DELHI
J
etSetGo Aviation, a private jet
and helicopter operator and
aggregator, has shifted its
focus from operating only pri-
vate charters to offering medi-
cal evacuation flights during
the ongoing pandemic. Kanika Tek-
riwal, its chief executive and
founder, said the number of inquir-
ies for medical emergency flights has
surged, but only a fraction of those
are getting translated into actual
bookings as private flights are a
costly affair. Edited excerpts from an
interview:
How is your company dealing
with the second covid wave?
As we are experiencing the second
wave, we are yet again observing an
influx in emergency requests from
people who want to fly to another
country—majorly from New Delhi
and Mumbai—or to small cities for
covid treatment as hospital admis-
sion at hubs has been over-ex-
hausted. Also, people want to leave
the contaminated zones and go to
safer places without having any
immediate medical emergency just
to avoid the infection.
Have you recreated your offer-
ings?
With the increase in requests, our
Influencers must label promotional
content on digital platforms, says ASCI
Saumya Tewari
saumya.t@livemint.com
NEW DELHI
A
dvertisement industry
regulator Advertising
Standards Council of
India (ASCI) on Thursday made
it mandatory for online influ-
+ encers to prominently label
promotional content and do
appropriate due diligence
about products or services they
promote, starting next month.
The final guidelines for
influencers’ advertising on dig-
ital media platforms will be
applicable to all commercial
messages or advertisements
published on or after 14 June.
ASCI said disclosures about
branded content must be
clearly visible and must stay on
the content for a pre-decided
duration, depending on the
length of the video. These
guidelines are applicable for
content across blogs, apps,
websites, social media plat-
forms, video streaming plat-
forms and digital terrestrial tel-
evision, among others.
In case of a complaint, the
advertiser can ask the influen-
cer to delete or edit an adver-
tisement or the disclosure label
to adhere to the ASCI code and
guidelines.
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CORPORATE FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2021
NEW DELHI 07
FB posts saying covid
is man-made can stay
ing all their resources to get access to exempted category, our teams are
medical facilities at the right time. often harassed (by police and offi- Staff Writer ember 2019 with symptoms
From the total queries that we have cials) enroute to the airport and feedback@livemint.com similar to those of covid-19.
received to date, starting from early back. NEW DELHI Facebook had included the-
March 2021, 20% have been from Do you think more people will ories around covid-19 being
F
students living or studying abroad now prefer to fly private char- acebook is changing its man-made or manufactured in
and wanting to fly back to India, 50% ters than before due to the pan- stance towards posts that its list of false claims around the
from people looking at chartering demic? allege the covid-19 virus pandemic in February 2021.
services for medical emergencies Since the start of the pandemic was manufactured or man- “We will begin enforcing this
out of which 75% were first-time fly- last year, we have seen an exponen- made. policy immediately, with a par-
ers. We are hardly getting any tial rise in queries with people reach- The social media giant ticular focus on pages, groups,
enquiries on leisure or business ing out to us to fly to a safer place changed its policies amid and accounts that violate these
‘
travel. However, or get someone from mounting evi- rules and we’ll
only 10% of these their family medi- dence that the In February continue to
queries actually People and companies cally treated or to “Wuhan lab-leak” expand our enf-
Facebook had
translate into book- shift bases for a few theory wasn’t a orcement over
ings since flying are now looking to fly months. conspiracy theory, included theories the coming
private obviously privately due to the We have also seen according to a around covid-19 weeks,” the com-
does not come a complete mindset report by Politico. being man-made pany had said in
safety, hygiene and
cheap. We are try- shift as people today US President Joe in its list of false February. “Gro-
ing our best to convenience factors are more mindful Biden ordered an claims ups, pages and
reduce costs as that charters provide. and cautious while intelligence probe accounts on
main focus has shifted from provid- adaptation to the changing times. much as possible to Kanika Tekriwal choosing their travel into the origins of Facebook and
ing luxurious private charter experi- This year also, we are well-equipped help everyone we CEO, JetSetGo Aviation options. Whether it’s the virus on Wednesday. Agen- Instagram that repeatedly
ence to providing medevac/emer- to sustain another wave with contin- can. health risk concerns cies should “redouble their share these debunked claims
gency services to our guests while ued and dedicated efforts towards Are the restric- or just getting where efforts to collect and analyze may be removed altogether,”
continuing operations with limited catering to the market. tions imposed by state govern- they need to be, people and compa- information that could bring us the company said.
workforce (due to the pandemic). Have the bookings and enquiries ments a hindrance to your oper- nies that have the means to fly pri- closer to a definitive conclusion The change in Facebook’s
Keeping our teams safe is the first picked up or declined since ations? vately—but had eschewed it—are and to report back to me in 90 stance could raise debate
priority. Last year was a March? We are facing slight hindrance in now looking at the options due to the days”, Biden said. around how the company cre-
big learning experience m INTERVIEW We are seeing que- our operations in a few states that safety, hygiene and convenience fac- The debate around the ates its moderation policies.
for us and we managed ries go up to 900%. All have been severely impacted by the tors that charters provide. Wuhan lab-leak theory gained The firm has often been ques-
to sail through by recreating our these enquiries are purely out of virus, and have imposed lockdowns So, we do foresee a marginal steam after a report by The Wall tioned on this and the Wuhan
entire offering. We mapped the new necessity from people who fear cov- and strict quarantine rules. There increase in requests in the long term. Street Journal on 23 May said lab-leak theory could be seen as
requirements creating a ‘new nor- id-19 the most. These requests are are no other significant issues as far But since flying private is expensive, three researchers from Wuhan a sign that Facebook’s modera-
mal’ and had stringent SOPs in place not coming from our regular cus- as our operations are concerned. we are not very sure that many will Institute of Virology were tion efforts are not backed by
that allowed flexibility and quick tomers but from ones that are pool- However, despite falling under the adapt to the same. brought to a hospital in Nov- substantial research.
Nifty closes at record high on Street optimism
Ravindra Sonavane
ravindra.s@livemint.com
15,337.25, crossing its previous
high on 15 February, and is now
ened investors in the last one
week. Further, robust Q4FY21
price inflation despite the eco-
nomic contraction in the wake
MUMBAI around 94 points away from its earnings and favourable com- of the pandemic poses the risk
The influencer-related com- all-time intra-day high. mentaries from managements of a bubble, RBI said in its FY21
T
plaints will be a part of the ASCI he stock markets settled “Domestic equities have also lifted sentiments,” said report released on Thursday.
monthly consumer complaint marginally higher on been mostly resilient through- Binod Modi, head of strategy at “RBI’s warning of the risk of a
report, where it discloses the Thursday, the day of out the second wave as absence Reliance Securities. bubble in the equity market in
details of misleading advertise- monthly derivatives expiry, of national lockdown, availabil- Going forward, an expected its annual report made the mar-
ment complaints that it with the benchmark Nifty clos- ity of vaccine and continued phased withdrawal of state- ket cautious, forcing it to end
receives. ing at a record high on falling industrial/manufacturing/ level curbs in coming weeks flat on the day of the monthly
“With a steep rise in internet covid cases and positive earn- infrastructure activities albeit and recovery in activity can F&O expiry. High liquidity does
users consuming advertising ings surprises. at slow pace with favourable potentially aid market to sus- help the market and RBI has
on various digital platforms, The 30-share BSE Sensex supply chain offered comfort to tain the rally in the near to reaffirmed supportive stance
the guidelines are need of the index settled at 51115.22 points, investors. A sharp drop in daily medium term, Modi added. till the economy recovers” said
hour. I strongly believe that it up 0.19%. The 50-share Nifty caseload and improvement in The continued surge in Vinod Nair, head of research at
always pays in the long run if an ended 0.45% higher at recovery rates have embold- domestic equities and asset Geojit Financial Services.
ASCI made it mandatory for influencers to do do appropriate influencer is transparent. Add-
due diligence about products or services they promote. MINT ing a simple paid-partnership
tag will prevent an influencer’s
Noting that the line between come in the industry. These follower base from feeling
advertising and organic con- guidelines will help influencers deceived, while it will also help
tent is blurring, Subhash form trusted relationships with avoid any kind of backlash in
Kamath, chairman of ASCI, said their followers,” he added. the comment section,” said
that consumers have the right To actively monitor social Ritesh Ujjwal, chief executive
to know the dif- media platforms officer and co-founder, Koflu-
ference between The final for defaulters, ence, an influencer marketing
paid and organic guidelines issued ASCI has part- agency.
content so that by ASCI for nered with a Along with the guidelines,
they make an influencers’ French technol- ASCI is launching ASCI. Social
informed choice.
advertising will be ogy provider, platform, a one-stop destina-
“It is absolutely Reech, which will tion for all information related
critical to have applicable on or use artificial intel- to the guidelines. The digital
after 14 June ISSUE OUT
guidelines given ligence (AI) to platform will be interactive TOMORROW
how influencer scan digital con- with dos and don’ts, FAQs,
marketing busi- tent. information related to the
ness is growing in India. It is “The Reech Influence Cloud guidelines etc. Over time,
becoming mainstream, which platform uses AI to identify lack ASCI.Social aims to create a
simply means a large number of disclosure on posts of a com- community of social media
of consumers will get impacted mercial nature on social influencers, consumers, adver-
by it, and therefore a certain media,” said Manisha Kapoor, tisers, and talent management
degree of credibility needs to secretary-general, ASCI. agencies.
MANY
VOICES
Ahead of the publication
of his new book, T.M.
Krishna discusses the
politics of singing, the
classical versus modern
debate, and the problem
of privilege
LOCAL: Why SMART LIVING: A THINK: What’s CULTURE: An artist’s
Maharashtra’s Alphonso digital route to ‘appropriate ode to a submerged
growers are going online detox and relax behaviour’ for a victim? Goan village
 08 FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2021
NEW DELHI
HSBC exits bulk of US retail banking biz
The bank has reached agreements to sell its East Coast and West Coast branches to Citizens Bank and Cathay Bank as it shifts focus to wealthier clients
Frances Yoon
feedback@livemint.com
H
SBC Holdings PLC
will stop serving
mass-market individ-
ual customers and
smaller businesses in
the US, exiting the bulk of a retail
business that has long struggled to
compete with America’s big banks.
The bank said late Wednesday
that it will sell 90 of its 148 bran-
ches in the US, and plans to wind
down another 35 to 40. HSBC
agreed to sell
parts of its
business to two
US regional
banks, Citizens Financial Group
Inc.’s Citizens Bank and Cathay
General Bancorp’s Cathay Bank.
HSBC said it will retain around
two dozen locations, which will
become international wealth cen-
ters providing banking and
wealth-management services to
high-net-worth clients. A spokes-
woman said these centers would
be in cities such as New York,
Washington, D.C., San Francisco,
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X
Seattle, Los Angeles and Miami.
It will go from about 1.4 million
customers to roughly 300,000 in
the US. It will no longer service
customers with basic bank
accounts, or those with balances
below $75,000, and businesses
with turnover of $5 million or less.
The bank will keep US clients with
Jade accounts containing at least
$1 million in cash and investments
and Premier accounts with more
than $75,000.
HSBC will transfer East Coast
customers to Citizens Bank and
West Coast cus-
tomers to Cathay
Bank when the
transactions are
due to be completed in the first
quarter of next year.
HSBC services will continue
until then, the bank said, including
at its branches. Accounts of cus-
tomers who live abroad will also be
transferred unless they have
enough money to meet HSBC’s
new minimum requirements.
The shift will let HSBC focus on
its competitive strengths, HSBC
Group chief executive Noel Quinn
GLOBAL
ing about $6 billion of investment
into Asia in the next five years.
HSBC is also in talks to sell its
unprofitable French retail bank.
Cindy Wang, research director
for DBS Bank in Hong Kong, said
HSBC might unload more bank
branches in Europe, to reinvest in
Hong Kong and mainland China.
“It’s a trend for the global banking
industry—to cut offline branches
and leverage mobile and digital
banking to save costs,” Ms. Wang
said.
The bank will sell its East Coast
mass-market and retail-business-
banking operations, which include
80 branches and around 800,000
customer accounts, as well as its
online bank portfolio to Citizens
Bank. Those accounts had about
$9.2 billion in deposits and $2.2
HSBC is selling 90 of its 148 branches in the US, and plans to wind down billion in outstanding loans as of
another 35 to 40. REUTERS the end of March.
Cathay Bank will buy 10 bran-
said, adding that the bank’s US Hong Kong and mainland China, is ches, with about 50,000 customer
mass retail operations are good more than a year into an overhaul accounts, on the West Coast.
businesses but lack the scale to to refocus its operations in Asia. In The deals are subject to regula-
compete. February, the bank said that it was tory approval. HSBC said it expects
The London-based lender, considering selling its unprofita- the deals to incur about $100 mil-
which makes most of its profit in ble US retail operations and pour- lion in pretax costs, and foresees
LIVEMINT.COM
no material impact to its capital businesses it is exiting made up
base, as measured by its core-eq- about 13% of that wider business’s
uity Tier 1 capital ratio. customer loans, and 21% of depos-
HSBC established a big US its, as of end-March.
branch presence in the 1980s and HSBC said the latest pullback
1990s, first by buying Marine Mid- wouldn’t disrupt its plans to grow
land Bank Inc. and later adding in Asia, adding that many wealth-
Republic New York Corp. ier clients in the region valued the
The takeovers were part of a US as a destination for studying,
string of deals that transformed doing business, buying property or
the Hong Kong-fo- diversifying their
cused lender into a investments.
global banking giant.
The London- “The US plays a
As recently as a dec- based lender is large role in HSBC’s
ade ago, HSBC had planning to pour Asia growth strategy,
close to 500 retail out- about $6 billion of particularly in sup-
posts in America, with investment into port of our ambitions
a filing for 2011 dis- Asia in the next to become the lead-
closing 461 branches. five years ing wealth manager
But HSBC has more in Asia,” said Greg
recently retrenched. Hingston, the bank’s
In 2012, the lender regional head of
sold its US credit-card business to wealth and personal banking.
Capital One Financial Corp., and On Thursday afternoon in Hong
sold some branches, mostly in Kong, HSBC’s locally traded stock
upstate New York, to First Niagara rose 0.3% to 49.25 Hong Kong dol-
Financial Group Inc. lars per share, equivalent to about
HSBC’s broader US wealth and $6.34. As of Wednesday’s close,
personal-banking operations gen- the bank’s Hong Kong-listed stock
erated about $1 billion of operating had risen 20.5% so far this year.
income last year. HSBC said the ©2021 DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC
 LIVEMINT.COM NEWS WRAP FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2021
NEW DELHI 09

TWEETS OF THE DAY Kaushik Basu Kunal Shah Kunal Bahl

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw @kaushikcbasu @kunalb11 @1kunalbahl
@kiranshaw Today’s data (NYT Tracker) Being good at debat- As positivity rates fall across
Covid variant B1.617.2 is show India has dropped rank ing can sometimes India, we have created a short
now seeing travel bans in terms of % population elevate you to leader- window when we need to race
across Europe. It will be fully vaccinated. This is ship. However, being against time to vaccinate as
long before Indians can governance failure since very good at listening many as we can. Hopefully
travel overseas without India is one of the biggest is what makes you get enough to break the chain. We
restrictions. vaccine producers. respect as a leader. can’t have a third wave.

Amazon’s Bezos to BEATING THE VIRUS Sanjiv Kapoor joins

quit as CEO on 5 July Oberoi as president

A A
mazon founder Jeff Bezos has picked a viation industry veteran Sanjiv Kapoor
date to step down as the chief executive on Thursday took to social media
officer (CEO) of the world’s largest e- platform Twitter to announce that he will
commerce retailer. Bezos, who grew Amazon be joining the Oberoi Hotels & Resorts Group as
from an internet bookstore to an online president effective 1 June 2021.
shopping behemoth, on Wednesday said that “Oberoi is a storied brand and wonderful
Amazon executive Andy Jassy will take over the institution, a true home-grown and world class
CEO role on 5 July. “We chose that date because Indian success story. I am honoured and
it’s sentimental for me,” Bezos said during an privileged to be joining them and look forward
Amazon shareholder meeting on Wednesday. It to working with the Oberoi family from whom I
was exactly 27 years ago on 5 July 1994 that will have a lot to learn,” Kapoor said.
Amazon was incorporated, he added. The He noted that quality, brand, operational and
Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. had announced service excellence and, above all, basic human
that Bezos was stepping down as its CEO in decency are things he is truly passionate about.
February, but didn’t provide a specific date. Kapoor has previously worked as chief
Jassy, his replacement, currently runs the strategy and commercial officer at Vistara and
company’s cloud-computing business. Bezos, 57 chief operating officer at SpiceJet. An alumnus
and with a personal fortune of $167 billion, won’t of Wharton School and Dartmouth College, he
be going far. He will become executive chair at has also worked at Bain & Co., Oracle and
Amazon and focus on new products and Northwest Airlines. SAUMYA TEWARI
initiatives. PTI

Policemen wearing virus themed helmets wait to interact with people during an awareness drive to prevent the spread of covid in Hyderabad. AP

Content publishers get 15 days West Bengal, Rajasthan and Meghalaya recorded

The wearables market shrank in Q1.

Wearables market
BLOOMBERG
to share details under IT norms the sharpest decline in sales in FY21.

Liquor sales down

MINT

suffers covid blow by 12% in FY21

A
+ fter a decline in smartphone shipments,
India’s wearables market shrank in the
first quarter of 2021 following a solid
growth for three straight quarters. While the
market grew on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis, it
dropped 24.9% compared to the fourth quarter
of 2020, said a report by International Data
T
he strict lockdown in FY21 led to a 12% dip
Digital news sites, OTT platforms need to give info on language of content, mobile apps
in the sale of Indian-made foreign liquor
(IMFL), industry body Confederation of
Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC)
Lata Jha tration number, or TV channels permitted by the in the particulars has to be communicated to the said on Thursday. Net sales for 2020-21 stood at
lata.j@livemint.com ministry, contact person, grievance redressal offi- government within 30 days of the change. 305 million cases (9 litres each), nearly 12%
NEW DELHI cer in India, the self-regulatory body of which the In a letter to the ministry, the News Broadcasters lower than last fiscal, the CIABC said. West
publisher is a member and particulars of news edi- Association (NBA) has asked for exemption from Bengal, Rajasthan, Meghalaya, Puducherry and

Corporation (IDC). The wearables market in
India includes wristbands, smartwatches and
earwear products like true wireless headsets.
“The second wave of the pandemic has caused a
sudden stir across vendors and channel
partners, impacting the planned launches to
postpone and delay in deliveries. However, over
the last year, the value of wearables has rapidly
expanded and, hence, the demand for these
devices is expected to continue strong in 2021,”
said Jaipal Singh, associate research manager,
client devices, IDC. Despite the slowdown, India
recorded the highest ever first quarter shipment
numbers in 2021. The market grew by 170.3% y-
o-y in the first quarter this year, shipping a total
of 11.4 million units, driven by watches and
earwear categories such as true wireless and
other wearable audio products. PRASID BANERJEE
T
he ministry of information and broad-
casting has notified details that need to
be provided by digital news sites and
over-the-top (OTT) video streaming
platforms to comply with the new Infor-
mation Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and
Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 announced
in February this year.
Content publishers have to furnish information
within the next 15 days to comply with the new
rules, the ministry said in a statement dated 26
May.
According to the notification, digital publishers
that also publish or telecast news on traditional
media such as newspapers or television have to
provide details on the language in which content
is published, website, mobile apps, social media
accounts, Registrar of Newspapers for India regis-
tor. the new IT rules for television news media and its Chhattisgarh recorded the sharpest decline in
Other digital publishers have to notify the lan- extended presence on digital news platforms as sales over the last fiscal. The CIABC data
guage in which content is published, the website, they are already governed by other laws. NBA is the includes FY21 sale figures for whisky, rum,
mobile apps, social lobby group repre- vodka and other spirits, while excluding that of
media accounts, senting several beer. The lockdown in March 2021 led to the
month and year of The News Broadcasters Association n a t i o n a l and closure of most non-essential stores. However,
incorporation and (NBA) has asked for exemption from regional news and liquor stores were allowed to open in May with
commencement of
operations, com- the new IT rules as they are already current affairs chan-
nels in India.
the gradual easing of restrictions. Sales picked
up in the second half of 2020-21 in most parts,
pany identification governed by other laws “While NBA but states that imposed high corona cess and
number, board of appreciates the need other taxes after the first wave showed poor
directors, contact for regulations, the recovery, the CIABC said. SUNEERA TANDON
person, grievance redressal officer in India, the traditional news media need not be subjected to
self-regulatory body of which the publisher is a and/or covered under the scope of the IT Rules
member and particulars of the news editor. 2021, since it is already sufficiently regulated by
OTT platforms too must provide the same various statutes, laws, guidelines and codes, regu-
details as digital publishers besides the country of lations, and judgments set,” NBA said in a letter to
Bid for human trial
registration, in case of foreign entities. Any revision I&B minister Prakash Javadekar.
of mAbs cocktail

Z
ydus Cadila on Thursday said it is
Working closely with Jio to build affordable smartphone: Pichai Strikes on Gaza seeking permission from the drugs
controller general of India (DCGI) to
touted as war crime initiate human clinical trials for its

A
lphabet Inc and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday said the monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) cocktail for
company continues to engage closely with partner Jio on the initiative treating covid-19. “ZRC-3308, a cocktail of

of building an affordable smartphone and that work is underway on
the project. Last year, Google had picked up a 7.7% stake in Jio Platforms for
₹33,737 crore. It had also entered into a commercial agreement with Jio
Platforms to jointly develop an entry-level, affordable smartphone. “We are
focused on building an affordable phone... We are committed to making
progress on the project and we are working with them (Jio),” Pichai said in a
virtual conference with select reporters from Asia-Pacific. However, he did
not divulge other details, including a possible launch date and pricing.
Availability of affordable devices along with cheap data rates can help bring
the internet within reach for more people across the country. Google’s
investment in Jio Platforms was part of Google for India Digitization Fund
that was announced last year. In July last year, Pichai had unveiled plans to
invest ₹75,000 crore in India over the next five to seven years to help
accelerate the adoption of digital technologies in the country.
In July last year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai had unveiled plans to
PTI invest ₹75,000 crore in India over the next five to seven years.
T
he UN high commissioner for human
rights said on Thursday that Israel’s deadly
strikes on Gaza might constitute war
crimes and that Islamist group Hamas had
violated international humanitarian law by
firing rockets into Israel. Michelle Bachelet said
her office had verified the deaths of 270
Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East
Jerusalem, including 68 children, during
violence this month. Most were killed in Hamas-
controlled Gaza, where Israel fought militants
for 11 days. Bachelet was addressing a special
session of the UN Human Rights Council, held at
AFP the request of Muslim states. REUTERS
two SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing monoclonal
antibodies (mAbs) can emerge as one of the
main treatments for mild covid-19,” Cadila
Healthcare said in a regulatory filing. Cadila
Healthcare is the listed entity of the group.
ZRC-3308 has been found to be safe in animal
toxicology studies. “At this juncture, there is a
critical need to explore safer and more
efficacious treatments to combat covid. It is
important to look at different stages of the
disease progression and look at options that
can reduce patient’s suffering and
discomfort,” said Dr Sharvil Patel, managing
director of Cadila Healthcare Ltd. PTI

Paytm plans India’s biggest IPO Reserve Bank flags inflation risk, calls for govt measures
FROM PAGE 1
The company has raised
more than $4.4 billion in equity
funding so far. Ant Financial
holds almost 30% in One97
Communications, followed by
Japan-based SoftBank (20%),
Elevation Capital (18.56%), and
founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma
owning almost 14%, in the com-
pany he founded back in 2010.
“There is increased pressure
on Paytm to give an exit to inves-
tors, and follow-on rounds may
not help its cause. Further, Ant
Financial is also looking to sell
stake in Indian companies,” said
an investment banker who didn’t
want to be named.
A Paytm spokesperson
declined to comment on the
development. A spokesperson
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X
for Khaitan & Co was unavaila- crore in the previous year. Rev- FROM PAGE 1 chief executive Uday Kotak said management. Meanwhile, RBI Starting fiscal 2021, RBI
ble for comments. JP Morgan enue was almost flat from in an interview that it was time managed to repatriate nearly ₹1 changed its accounting year
declined to comment. Emails ₹3,579.6 crore in FY19. Paytm pandemic. In April, the central RBI expanded its balance sheet trillion to the government after from July-June to April-March.
sent to Morgan Stanley and Citi cut its total expenses by 20% to bank estimated retail inflation in support of the economy. higher income from the sale of In the nine months ended 31
remained unanswered. ₹6,226.31 crore in 2019-20 at 5% in the fourth quarter of Economists at Barclays said foreign exchange transactions March, RBI saw a 69% increase
Currently, One97 Communi- from ₹7,730 crore in FY19. fiscal 2021; 5.2% in the first the MPC has no option but to and lower provision, according in earnings from foreign
cations houses the firm’s travel The company housed its wallet three months of FY22; 5.2% in stay accommodative even as it to the annual report. exchange transactions to
and entertainment ticketing and payments under Paytm Pay- the second quarter; 4.4% in the monitors incipient price pres- RBI said the monetary policy in ₹50,629.18 crore from
business, its ments Bank Pvt. following three months; and sures and keeps all rates on 2020-21 had to deal with the twin ₹29,993.22 crore a year ago.
wealth manage- One 97 Ltd during its 5.1% in the fourth quarter, with hold. Barclays said since 5 May, challenge of reviving growth The accounting change
ment platform, Communications’s launch in 2017, risks broadly balanced. It had when RBI announced liquidity from the ravages of covid and adopted in 2019, as per the rec-
Paytm Money, and board may meet on with founder also projected economic measures, India’s growth out- ensuring inflation eased from ommendations of the Bimal Jalan
gaming venture, Friday to discuss Sharma owning growth at 10.5% in FY22. look has further degraded as above the upper tolerance band. Committee report, allows RBI to
Paytm Games,
details of the listing 51% in the entity The monetary policy com- inflation may remain persistent The monetary policy committee However, while the pace of eco- pass part of the profit made from
among other sub- and the rest owned mittee (MPC) will meet even in the second half of 2021. will meet between 2-4 June. MINT nomic recovery turned out to be selling foreign exchange to the
sidiaries. and seek approval by One97 and its between 2-4 June and is The government has retained faster than anticipated, RBI said government as a surplus.
One97 Com- from the directors other subsidiaries. expected to maintain the RBI’s flexible inflation target in According to RBI, the substan- the outlook is weighed down by From July 2020 to March
munications According to a accommodative stance for the the 2-6% band for the five years tial wedge between wholesale uncertainties and would depend 2021, RBI sold a total of $85.2
reported a reve- 27 May report from whole of 2021. through 31 March 2026. and retail inflation during the upon the evolving trajectory of billion of its foreign exchange.
nue of ₹3,628.85 crore for the research firm Bernstein, the next The statement comes a day While inflation measured by year pointed to the persistence infections and vaccinations. Interestingly, much of the dol-
year ended March 2020, with phase of growth for Paytm is after outgoing Confederation the Wholesale Price Index sof- of supply-side bottlenecks and “A durable recovery will be lars were sold in the last two
losses shrinking 30% to expected to be led by delivering of Indian Industry chairman tened in 2020-21, there was no higher retail margins, under- dependent on continued policy months of the accounting year,
₹2,942.36 crore from ₹4,217.20 credit tech products. and Kotak Mahindra Bank pass-through to retail inflation. scoring the importance of supply support,” it said. soon after the Budget.
 10 FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2021
NEW DELHI LONG STORY LIVEMINT.COM

REPORTAGE | TALKING POINTS | IDEAS | INSIGHT | THE BOTTOMLINE

EIGHT BOOKS TO MAKE

SENSE OF COVID TIMES
As India’s second wave shows signs of retreat, Mint shortlists books, which offer some clarity in these uncertain times.

Vivek Kaul 2) Economics in One Virus: An Intro-
feedback@livemint.com duction to Economic Reasoning
MUMBAI Through Covid-19 by Ryan A Bourne
While the title of the book sounds
inventing the vaccine is just one part of the
entire process. Getting people vaccinated
is another thing all together. All these his-
torical lessons are important in the cur-
2013 and the governor of the Bank of
mint
SHORT England between 2013 to 2020. Carney’s
STORY book is largely about how economics
needs to evolve in the days to come in
spent in clean environments! It was as if
the Age of Pandemics that devastated
India for a century had been wiped clean.”
While history may not repeat itself, it

T
he last one year, apart from slightly heavy duty for a general reader, rent context. order to stay relevant. Under this broader clearly does rhyme.
being physically, mentally, and the book clearly isn’t. It essentially uses WHAT theme, Carney dedicates two excellent
emotionally tough for many, the concept of incentives to offer answers 4) Post Corona: From Crisis to chapters to the covid-19 pandemic. 8) Doom: The Politics of a
has also been very confusing to to questions that many of us have had over Opportunity by Scott Galloway In the last few months, a spate of In these chapters, he makes several Catastrophe by Niall Ferguson
say the least. The spread of the the last one year. Here are a few of these Galloway is one of the most influential books trying to answer all kinds interesting points, including one on how Ferguson is perhaps the most famous
covid-19 pandemic has thrown up all man- questions. Why did my supermarket run and famous marketing professors of this of questions thrown up by the to go about comparing the economic cost popular historian of this era. In this book,
ner of questions. What exactly is the coro- out of hand sanitizers? Why is the guy in era. In this book, he explores the business covid-19 pandemic have been of the pandemic. The conventional way is he dwells into the collective failure of the
navirus? How does it spread? Do lock- the mask getting so close to me? Do lock- world, and how he sees it shaping up in the published. Mint has shortlisted to compare it with the state of the econ- world at large to learn from catastrophes
downs help? What about the economy? downs help? Should the government initi- post-covid world. One of the best parts of eight of them for its readers. omy that prevailed before the lockdown of the past, including pandemics. This is
Should vaccine pricing be decided by the ate them? Or should private businesses be the book is where he analyzes new-age was implemented. This, Carney feels, is reflected in how leaders and governments
free market? Or should governments give allowed to do what is best for them? companies like Uber and Airbnb and their not the right counterfactual simply across the world failed to see the first wave
vaccines for free? What does the future One of the most interesting questions ability to cut costs dramatically in a post- WHY because “many people would have volun- of the pandemic coming and refused to
hold for us? And so on. that the book answers, albeit in the Ameri- pandemic world, a luxury that taxi rental tarily reduced their external activities and prepare for it, despite multiple warnings.
Thankfully, in the last few months, a can context, is this: Why did protests and companies and airlines don’t have. In an era where many learn their therefore consumption to protect their Nevertheless, as Ferguson writes: “Yet,
spate of books, which answer most of marches not lead to a spike in covid-19? A company like Uber can take its cost covid basics from WhatsApp and health even if the lockdown had not been not all failures are failures of leadership.
these basic questions, have been pub- The reason for that lies in this fact: “As down by 60-80% simply because it rents other social media platforms, implemented.” Often, the real point of failure is further
lished. As India’s second covid surge urban protests continued, non-protestors space in other people’s cars. Galloway reading some of these books can The book is not an easy read and may be down the organizational hierarchy… Far
shows signs of retreat, Mint shortlists spent more time at home, both because of believes this is an exploitative model. As make a real difference in knowing best suited for those who have some from being well prepared for a pandemic,
eight of these books, which offer at least the curfews imposed within their cities, he writes: “The Uber model is exploitative, what is right and what is wrong. amount of familiarity about economic the US and the UK fared badly… It was
some clarity in these uncertain times. but also because they wanted to avoid any to be sure. Uber’s ‘driver partners’ still theory and the issues at the heart of it. tempting to blame Anglo-American tra-
trouble or risks associated with the virus.” have to make their car payments and vails on the incompetence of populist
1) Covid-19: Separating Fact from insurance premiums. The model is akin to HOW 7) The Age of Pandemics 1817-1920: leaders. However, something more pro-
Fiction by Anirban Mahapatra 3) Extra Life: A Short History of Liv- United Airlines telling its flight crews to How They Shaped India and the found had gone wrong. The public health
If you had the time to read just one of ing Longer by Steve Johnson bring their own (Boeing) 747 if they want For example, Anirban World by Chinmay Tumbe bureaucracy in each case had failed.”
the eight books on this list, this is the book On the face of it, this book doesn’t have to get a paycheck. But it’s a model that Mahapatra’s Covid-19: Quite a few history books tend to be What has also not helped is the rise of
to read. Mahapatra could have alternately anything to directly do with covid-19, but works. For Uber.” Separating Face from Fiction well-researched and boringly written or the internet and social media, which has
titled the book, everything you wanted to it still is a good read to better understand The book is full of interesting insights, answers all the basic questions well-written but without much research. amplified falsehood, making it difficult for
know about covid-19 but were afraid to the world that we are currently living in. particularly about unicorns and what Gal- about the virus, including why it Tumbe’s book is an exception to governments to tackle the pandemic. As
ask. The book answers all the basic ques- The basic premise of the book is to explain loway calls the Four (Amazon, Apple, is called the coronavirus. this, being both well-researched and Ferguson writes: “The advent of the inter-
tions about the virus, including why the how “all the advances of the last three or Facebook, and Google). These companies well-written. net has greatly magnified the potential for
virus is called the coronavirus. four centuries—the scientific method, the have gone from strength to strength in the In the book, Tumbe offers a detailed misinformation and disinformation to
As anyone who has seen a visual repre- medical breakthroughs, the public health post-covid world. can and do happen. He presided over the look at pandemics that hit India and other spread, to the extent that we may speak of
sentation of the coronavirus would know, institutions, the rising standards of liv- deadliest ever attack on American soil and parts of the world during the period span- twin plagues in 2020: one caused by a
the virus has spikes. As Mahapatra writes: ing—have given us about twenty thousand 5) The Premonition: A Pandemic the deadliest American natural disaster in ning from 1817 to 1920. The chapters on biological virus, the other by even more
“The spike, which is shaped like a club, is extra days of life on average.” Story by Michael Lewis a century (Hurricane Katrina).” the different kinds of plague that hit India contagious viral misconceptions and
the most prominent distinguishing fea- One of the things that has led to this If there is one book among all these After reading Barry’s book, Bush asked regularly in the past and the influenza falsehoods.” Ferguson makes many such
ture coming out from increased lifespan is the books which has the potential to be turned his advisers what the government’s strat- pandemic, which started important points across
the surface of the virus. development of vacci- into a Hollywood movie, this has to be it. egy was to handle a pandemic. The advis- in 1918, have lessons that the book, like he does in
Spikes make the virus Galloway is one of the most nes. In the past, scientists The reason is straightforward: no one tells ers gave him a document to read, to which we could have learnt and If there is one book which has almost all his books.
look like the corona of famous marketing professors have managed to invent the underdog story, which Hollywood so the president said: “This is bullshit.” Given implemented in order to the potential to be turned Nevertheless, the book
the Sun.” The book is lit- vaccines for many killer loves, better than Michael Lewis. He did this, the advisers had to come up with a tackle the current pan- isn’t exactly easy to read
tered with interesting of this era. In his book, he diseases. This leads to that with The Big Short and Moneyball. proper pandemic plan. And that’s how demic. into a Hollywood movie, this and requires serious
facts and explanations. explores the business world, the hope that vaccines And he now does it again with The Premo- pandemic planning was invented— The most important has to be The Premonition: concentration. Fer-
In fact, Mahapatra does against different muta- nition, a story about a bunch of misfits, because a president decided to read a lesson from the book is guson likes to dazzle the
not try to dazzle the and how he sees it shaping up tions of the coronavirus who try to get the US pandemic ready, but book. Like all of Lewis’ books, The Premo- around the belief about A Pandemic Story by reader with facts, and
reader with his knowl- will also be developed in run up against the indifference of the nition is a nice breezy read, which really the so-called immunity they just keep coming,
edge of the subject and in the post-covid world the future. Trump administration. makes you think about the current gov- that Indians supposedly Michael Lewis relentlessly, one after
makes sure that he Another important Interestingly, the story starts with a ernment administrative setup as it exists. had against covid-19. As another.
explains everything in simple English. point that comes out clearly in the book is book as well. It’s the summer of 2005 and Tumbe writes: “Public conversation was To conclude, in an era where many peo-
In the situation that India is currently that different people working in different President George W. Bush happens to 6) Value(s): Building a Better World filled with boasts about the special nature ple learn their covid basics from What-
in, the book’s chapter on vaccines in par- countries across different time frames read John Barry’s The Great Influenza: The for All by Mark Carney of Indian immunity against diseases con- sApp and other social media platforms,
ticular is of great importance. It should be have been responsible for the invention of Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. Mark Carney is a rare individual who tracted from growing up in unclean envi- reading some of these books can make a
made required reading for the politicians vaccines. This doesn’t go well with the As Lewis writes: “Bush was the modern has had the privilege of being a governor ronments, and that the West was suscepti- real difference in knowing what is right
and bureaucrats in charge of India’s vac- current trend of countries looking president perhaps most frequently of two central banks. He was the governor ble to pandemics because they did not and what is wrong.
cine policy. inwards in the post-covid world. Further, reminded that freakishly terrible events of the Bank of Canada between 2008 to develop immunity due to childhoods Vivek Kaul is the author of Bad Money.
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 LIVEMINT.COM MINT MONEY FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2021
NEW DELHI 11

Focus on financial aspects, Compare your bank FD rates

B ank fixed deposits (FDs) continue to be popular investment products not just
among senior citizens, who are looking for guaranteed income, but also among

not animus during divorce investors who can’t stomach risk. But overexposure to FDs is not good, and you need
to assess your asset allocation and goals to decide how much money you should
park in them. For instance, saving for your child’s
higher education that’s 15 years away through FDs
may not be effective as the post-tax interest rate
of an FD may not give you a real return (return
that’s above the rate of inflation). But if you plan to
take a holiday in two years, an FD can help. Before
choosing an FD, you should compare the interest
It is better to focus on rebuilding lives after separation than fighting over assets, say lawyers rates on offer. Here is a list of banks that offer the
highest FD rates for deposits up to ₹1 crore over
ISTOCKPHOTO
Tinesh Bhasin various tenures.
tinesh.b@livemint.com
Interest rates (%) for fixed deposits up to ₹1 crore

N
ot all divorces end amica- 6 months 1 to < 2 2 to < 3 3 to < 5 5 years
bly, as it’s happening in to < 1 year years years years and above
the case of Bill and Mel-
inda Gates. Some can turn YES Bank 5.25-5.50 6.00 6.25 6.50 6.75
bitter, really bitter.
Bharat Chugh, a Supreme Court DCB Bank 5.70 5.80-6.40 6.00 6.50 6.50
advocate and a former judge, saw it
IndusInd Bank 4.50-6.00 6.50 6.50 6.50 6.25-6.50
first-hand when a man approached him
for divorce after things got out of hand. RBL Bank 4.75- 5.50 6.25 6.25 6.40 6.00-6.60
“Besides the divorce, the couple also
filed multiple other cases against each Axis Bank 4.40 5.10-5.25 5.40 5.40 5.75
other. There was one related to prop-
IDFC First Bank 4.50-5.25 5.50 5.50-5.75 5.75-6.00 5.75-6.00
erty, criminal cases of theft and sexual
assault and they had accused each Karur Vysya Bank 4.75- 5.00 5.50 5.50 5.65 5.65-6.00
other of ‘kidnapping’ their three-year-
old child,” recalled Chugh. Union Bank of India 4.30-4.50 5.25-5.30 5.30-5.50 5.50-5.55 5.55-5.60
The couple wanted separation pri- Karnataka Bank 5.20 5.30 5.30-5.55 5.55 5.55-5.70
marily because of their differences—no
one had committed adultery. Canara Bank 4.45 5.20 5.40 5.50 5.50
“Such allegations can lead to people
getting arrested on serious criminal Bandhan Bank 5.25 5.75 5.75 5.50 5.50
charges (however frivolous), there is Dhanlaxmi Bank 4.50 5.25-5.30 5.25-5.40 5.40-5.50 5.50-5.60
usually no going back and all chances of
an amicable settlement are lost. It alimony amount is usually determined maintain him,” said Chugh. Federal Bank 3.75-4.40 5.10-5.35 5.35 5.35 5.50
becomes an ego battle and such battles by the lifestyle spouses had when they Prenups are Shah said it’s best to get a one-time
South Indian Bank 4.75 5.40 5.40 5.50 5.50-5.65
destroy both the parties and everything were married,” said Kumar. settlement instead of seeking mainte-
that comes in between,” said Chugh. There is no fixed percentage of what invalid here nance. Every time a husband stops pay- Tamilnad Mercantile Bank 5.25 5.75 5.65 5.50 5.50
When a couple is seeking separation, the wife should get. “In a Supreme ing maintenance, the wife must

it’s best to settle amicably. “Both parties
should focus on rebuilding their lives
and avoid bitterness and greed. If a wife
is seeking alimony, she should take
whatever is reasonable then and move
on,” said Vandana Shah, a divorce law-
yer, who herself went through a separa-
tion more than two decades ago.
That’s the advice most lawyers offer:
focus on the financial aspect instead of
letting your ego get the better of you.
The alimony or maintenance a wife
can claim depends on many factors,
including years of marriage, children,
+ assets and liabilities of the husband,
inheritance, bank statements and for-
eign trips, said Rajat Kumar, managing
associate, Sarthak Advocates and Solic-
itors. Courts don’t go by income alone.
In many business families, the hus-
band’s stake in the company could be
much more than his salary.
“An earning wife, too, can get ali-
mony. Examples of these include a wife
who is maintaining children or her
income is inadequate to live the lifes-
tyle she had during the marriage. The
Court judgment, it did say that the wife
should get at least 25% of the money or
net worth. But it does not define the net
worth criteria, which has raised ques-
tions. For example, if a husband’s firm
is worth ₹100 crore, does that mean he
should raise ₹25 crore and give it to the
wife as alimony?” said Shah.
She advises that a wife seeking ali-
mony or maintenance should take a
reasonable settlement amount. If both
parties fight, years will pass before the
court delivers a judgment. The hus-
band can challenge a lower court’s
order in a high court, then in the
Supreme Court and file a review peti-
tion later. “If the woman loses the best
years of her life fighting a court battle
seeking a higher amount, it will mean
little in the end,” said Shah.
In recent cases, husbands have asked
courts to lower the alimony amount as
covid impacted their incomes.
While religious laws govern mar-
riage, there are provisions in the law for
a woman of any religion to seek ali-
mony. In some religions, even hus-
I
ndian law and courts believe
that a prenuptial agreement is
against public policy as it leads
to a party giving up his or her
future legal rights.
“Indian law, in all probability,
won’t give effect to something like
this and won’t recognize it. Rea-
son: A woman should not be
allowed to waive or give up her
legal rights,” said Bharat Chugh, a
Supreme Court advocate.
“In India, even though rare, it is
still more likely that business fam-
ilies enter into such agreements.
These families want to retain con-
trol and would not want to see a
split in a marriage having an
impact on their family-run busi-
ness,” Chugh added.
bands can seek alimony from the wife,
but such cases are rare. “Section 24 of
the Hindu Marriage Act allows any
spouse to claim maintenance, and that
will include a husband. Parsi law also
permits a husband to seek maintenance
or alimony from the wife if he is inca-
pacitated and the wife has the means to
approach the court to force him to pay.
With inflation, if the wife wants higher
maintenance, she will need to approach
a court again. If the wife remarries, the
husband can approach a court to dis-
continue the alimony.
Lump sum payment works out to be
better from a tax point of view, too. The
income tax department considers lump
sum alimony a capital receipt, and it’s
not taxable. Regular maintenance,
however, is taxed as income.
Joint assets can get complicated.
There is a possibility that the husband
paid for the flat but purchased it in his
wife’s name, or the wife had deposited
her jewellery in a locker that is in the
husband’s name. Such joint assets
become contentious in most cases.
Only when things land in court, each
party puts in efforts to prove their con-
tribution. Practically, the spouse who
withdraws money from a joint account
or takes possession of assets is in a bet-
ter position. The only possible way to
avoid the situation is to maintain segre-
gation all the time.
State Bank of India 4.40 5.00 5.10 5.30 5.40
Data taken from respective bank's website as on 24 May 2021; Only main entity of the merged banks are taken. Banks which merged with
its main entity are removed from the table; The list of 15 banks is based on highest fixed deposit rates available for 5 years and above
Source: www.Bankbazaar.com
Premium for health insurance
coverage will increase with age
Abhishek Bondia
ISTOCKPHOTO
I have to buy health insur-
ance for my parents who
are 53 and 60 years old. But
when I saw the premiums
and reviews of the policies,
I got confused about which
one to select. Some insur-
ance companies are charg-
ing just ₹10,000-15,000
for a coverage of ₹5 lakh,
while others are charging
₹30,000-40,000.
Is there any reliable ASK MINT Is there any difference

Are curated portfolios better for global investing? source where I can com-
pare various health insur-
ance plans?
m INSURANCE
between Mediclaim and a
health insurance policy?
—Rajesh
ISTOCKPHOTO —Sreenivasa Guptha compared to the regular plans,
Abhinav Kaul ies and asset classes. portfolio service called Globes. by global investing platforms especially if the policyholder The standard health insur-
abhinav.kaul@livemint.com Global investing platform “Curated portfolios provide is that they offer access to a It is likely that you are refer- has pre-existing conditions. ance plan is colloquially
Stockal, which had launched an attractive investment route bigger number of stocks and ring to two different sets of When considering health known as Mediclaim. The

I
ndian investors looking at
international diversification
and better returns but are
less familiar with investing in
US securities are increasingly
looking at curated portfolios of
stocks and exchange-traded
funds (ETFs) that aim to sim-
plify investment decisions.
Over the past year, there is
more attention on interna-
tional investing as people have
seen the US markets withstand
covid with more stability.
As an evolved step to do-it-
yourself global investing,
these ready-made portfolios
enable investors to build a
diversified exposure in securi-
ties across sectors, geograph-
its curated portfolio service
called Stacks five months ago,
is seeing inflows of around ₹10
crore every month.
“There is a natural tendency
to want advice. People are also
looking for advice on where to
put their money after they
have invested in known names
such as Tesla and others. It has
been five months since we
launched Stacks, and the
demand is pretty strong. Over-
all, we have around ₹35 crore
invested via Stacks,” said
Sitashwa Srivastava, CEO,
Stockal, a fintech that enables
global investing for Indians.
The investing platform has
partnered with wealth man-
agement firms to create, main-
tain and manage portfolios.
Moreover, Globalise, which
is India’s first platform for
guided global investing,
recently launched its curated
as they are designed to sim-
plify investment decisions and
avoid the research required
when self-directing their
investments,” said Viraj
Nanda, CEO, Globalise.
Apart from theme-based
portfolios such as next-gen
tech, small- and mid-caps,
Globes offers goal-based inve-
sting such as overseas educa-
tion, vacation and retirement.
According to Srivastava,
theme-based portfolios that
are more in demand among
Indian investors are electric
vehicles, US tech bluechip and
ETF disruptor.
A key benefit of investing
via curated portfolios offered
exchange-traded funds.
“By investing directly on a
global investment platform, an
investor’s assets are held in
dollars. This means that even
when they sell their invest-
ment, the cash remains in dol-
lars. This allows investors to
build a dollar corpus when sav-
ing for overseas expenses such
as education,” said Nanda.
However, investing in
curated portfolios comes at a
cost. At Globes, there is a pur-
chase fee of $2.99, and a
monthly platform charge of
0.1% of the assets under man-
agement (AUM), while for
Stacks, 1-2% of the AUM is
charged every quarter.
health insurance plans. A few
insurers offer a special senior
citizen health insurance plan
apart from their regular health
insurance plans.
The senior citizen plans
generally have a sum assured
of up to ₹5 lakh. These plans
can offer lower premiums
compared to regular plans.
However, these may carry a
few sub-limits, including cap-
ping on a few ailments such as
cataract. It may also have a
co-payment either on all
claims or on pre-existing dis-
eases or for non-network hos-
pital claims.
Generally, the issuance of a
senior citizen plan is easier
insurance, you should look for
a sum assured equal to one’s
annual income with a mini-
mum coverage of ₹10 lakh.
One more reason for you to
consider an early purchase is
that some regular plans apply
a co-pay if the entry age of the
policyholder is more than 60.
However, do note that the
premium for health insurance
plans will increase with age
and are subject to revision at
renewal.
You can refer to the Mint
SecureNow Mediclaim rating
to get a comprehensive assess-
ment of all regular health
insurance products offered by
various insurers.
Mediclaim plan or the stan-
dard health insurance plan
reimburses the cost of hospi-
talization up to a particular
limit of sum assured. There are
several other kinds of health
insurance plans. Examples
include critical illness plans,
top-up health insurance and
hospital cash plans.
Abhishek Bondia is principal
officer and managing director,
SecureNow.in.
Do you have a personal
finance query? Send in your
queries at
mintmoney@livemint.com
and get them answered by
industry experts.

HERE ARE FIVE PROBLEMS WITH BITCOIN THAT WILL CAUSE IT TO FAIL EVENTUALLY
ISTOCKPHOTO

the words “legal tender”, which means the same thing. Govern- be following suit. So no, countries will not adopt bitcoin. They
ments have the power to tax their people and businesses, the abil- will issue their own versions instead and then ban bitcoin.
POWER ity to sell public assets, issue bonds and other ways to guarantee
their currencies. These are formidable powers that give the confi-
Investing in bitcoin is not investing in blockchain tech
There are cryptocurrencies, known as stablecoins, which are
POINT dence that the value of the currency will be there. backed up by real assets (such as the US dollar) that use the very
Stocks have real value because of the companies’ ability to cre- latest in blockchain technology. These coins are much more suit-
MOH HON MENG ate profits from the goods and services that they sell. Commodi- able to be used as currencies because they only fluctuate as much,
ties have real value because industries purchase them as raw or as little, as their underlying assets. So again, no, nobody is buy-
We welcome your views and comments at materials to use in the production of goods and services. ing bitcoin because of its blockchain
mintmoney@livemint.com The only value that bitcoin has is in somebody else willing to The advantages tech because there are better options
pay a price for it. In that sense, it is like a piece of artwork. But that bitcoin available.

I’
m not saying that cryptocurrencies will fail. In fact, it is quite
obvious that the future of currencies is digital and crypto is
simply a particular way of operating a digital currency.
I’m saying that bitcoin will fail. I have seen articles that use bit-
coin and cryptocurrencies as synonyms, but that’s a mistake.
There are thousands of cryptocurrencies and bitcoin is just one
of them. It is the earliest one, so it is the most well-known, but I
believe there are serious problems with bitcoin that will cause it
to fail. Here are the top reasons.
There is no real value
Some people say that fiat money (which are the normal curren-
cies that we all use today) also does not have real value since we
moved out of the gold standard. This is incorrect. Fiat money has
the value of the guarantee of the government that issues it. In fact,
on the Indian rupee note, you will see a “promise to pay the
bearer” issued by the RBI governor. In the US dollar, you will see
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even a piece of artwork has the ability to beautify the space that
it occupies. Bitcoin doesn’t even have that.
There is no stabilizing force
Fiat money is heavily defended by the government issuing it.
Central banks go into the international monetary markets to per-
form “market operations”, which is to buy or sell their national
currencies in order to keep them stable. Without stability, a cur-
rency does not work.
Bitcoin’s volatility makes it a terrible currency. It doesn’t mat-
ter how many vendors profess to accept it. Just think of it this way:
if you have bitcoin, will you use it to purchase anything? You
won’t. You would just use fiat money. That is because you didn’t
buy bitcoin to use as a currency. You bought it as a speculative
investment hoping that it would go up in value. You wouldn’t pay
in bitcoin because your fear is that two weeks later, bitcoin’s value
goes up by 20%. For the same reason, when bitcoin starts to slide,
vendors will stop accepting it as payment, because they don’t
want the value to go down by 20% a week after.
It is in competition with national currencies
Supporters of bitcoin say that it will replace fiat money. If this
has the remotest possibility of becoming true, it means that bit-
coin is in competition with national currencies. Can we really
imagine the central banks of China, the US and the EU saying
“let’s cancel our currencies and just use bitcoin, which no one can
control”? This would be fatal to their monetary systems! As we
have seen in recent days, China has banned bitcoin trading and
mining. Various other countries have also hinted that they would
Bitcoin is a utopian dream
might have will Why are prominent people buying
erode when fiat bitcoin if it has so many problems?
money becomes Some bitcoin supporters have the
fully digital vision of a future where currencies are
fully democratized and not controlled
by governments. I am not confident
that this future will come based on the reasons above.
The massive amount of liquidity in the markets right now,
from the monetary and fiscal policies of many governments to
combat covid, is an important reason for the rise in the value in
bitcoin. This is not sustainable over the long term.
Whatever other advantages that bitcoin might have over fiat
money, such as speed of transactions, will be eroded when fiat
money becomes fully digital.
Moh Hon Meng is co-founder, iFAST Group.
 12 FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2021
NEW DELHI VIEWS LIVEMINT.COM

OUR VIEW MY VIEW | TECH WHISPERS

ANI

A blazing space race that could

bring the sky down on our heads
Ever more satellites orbiting the Earth could deliver internet access but also a crisis of space debris

lites, and he plans to take this number to
more than 12,000. The Starlinks are
bright and easily visible in the night sky;
people are reporting more ‘UFO sight-
ings’ and astronomers are often getting
surprised by groups of satellites moving
together in mega constellations, mak-
ing it harder to peer into the cosmos.
Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeff
JASPREET BINDRA Bezos has been spending a billion dol-
is the author of ‘The Tech Whisperer’, and lars of his own money every year on
founder of Digital Matters another LEO initiative called the Kuiper
Project, with more than 3,000 satellites
to be slung into orbit by his rocket com-
court. Characteristically, Musk tweeted
a picture of Bezos unveiling Blue Origin
with the words “Can’t get it up (to orbit)
lol.” Then there is ego. Mike Pence
quoted Donald Trump joking that “Rich
guys . . . love rockets”.
The real reason, however, is a hard-
nosed business imperative. The pot of
gold at the end of this satellite rainbow
is to connect the entire globe with a 5G
internet network. Three billion people
are still unconnected, many more sub-
optimally. In the post-pandemic world,
no internet access makes it impossible

Let’s not mix up health

pany, Blue Origin. There are other bil- for people to do many jobs, for children
lionaires in the fray. Bharti’s Sunil Mit- to study, or for people in remote areas to

I
n the immortal series of Asterix com- tal has teamed up with the UK govern- get medical care. Connecting half the
ics written by Goscinny and Uderzo, ment, Softbank and Hughes Network world has been a hugely profitable
the indomitable Gauls had only one Systems are sending up 650 satellites enterprise and linking the other half

dangers with sedition fear: that the sky would fall on their
heads. In a world preoccupied by covid,
even as we sought the ‘magic potion’ of
the vaccine, that fear returned as a
through their OneWeb initiative. China
is building its 13,000-satellite strong
Hongyan system. The eccentric billion-
aire Richard Branson is expectedly
promises to be even more so. Musk has
predicted that Starlink will reach $30
billion a year in revenue. Bezos is step-
ping away from his Amazon responsibil-
23-tonne booster of China’s Long March doing something different. With Virgin ities to pursue his twin passions: Blue
satellite threatened to crash back to Galactic, he plans to launch rockets Origin and his $10-billion Earth fund.
The IMA’s demand that Ramdev be charged with sedition is easy to dismiss, but not the risk Earth. That it harmlessly did so in the with satellites on them from the wings Satellite internet has multiple bene-
Indian Ocean did not allay the fear of it of Boeing 747s flying at 35,000 feet. fits: It does not involve right-of-way per-
of his words being taken seriously in a covid-ravaged country. Let’s tighten drug regulation happening again. In fact, it was the Why all this hyperactivity? It is as if missions and costs, would cause less
fourth big uncontrolled re-entry in his- the planet isn’t big enough for these environmental damage by not digging
tory. The biggest was the Soviet Skylab billionaires, so they now need space to around to lay fibre optic, and can theo-
in 1979, and I have memories of us as compete. When SpaceX won a $2.9- retically achieve speeds 40% faster than

T
he Indian Medical Association
(IMA) did itself no credit by asking
for Patanjali promoter Baba Ram-
dev to be charged with “sedition”, as
it did this week in a letter addressed
to the Prime Minister. This is an
anachronism of a ‘crime’ that should have been
dropped from our law books right after inde-
pendence. The IMA is a representative body of
doctors who practise what is popularly known
as allopathy, a system of medicine that insists on
+ clinical evidence of the safety and efficacy of
treatment (and is thus anything but outdated).
While the IMA’s contention of a “clear-cut case”
of India’s top purveyor of ayurvedic remedies
inciting an overthrow of state authority is easy
to dismiss, what has got it up in arms does
deserve a hearing. The source of its ire is the
damage that Ramdev allegedly inflicted on the
reputation of allopaths with his public dismissal
of their ability to treat covid. As exhibits, the
IMA has offered two video clips in which the
businessman is seen claiming that 10,000 doc-
tors had lost their lives despite taking both their
India to the risk of virus variants evading our school children eagerly following its billion Nasa Artemis contract to send cable. There are difficulties, however.
effort to quash covid. Even a fractional rejec- descent and plotting it on graph papers. another man to the moon after nearly Launches are expensive, require com-
There are 128 million man-made 50 years, a put-off Bezos took Nasa to plex technology, and the economics
tion of modern medicine could be dangerous. objects orbiting earth, of which 34,000 might make it too costly for people on
Patanjali’s own offer basket includes a product are greater than 10cm; 3,000 of them the wrong side of the digital divide.
marketed as Coronil, the market entry of which are live satellites, and 50 are dead Long Then there is the debris. The 3,000-
this February had alarmed allopathic doctors. March-sized boosters—circling around QUICK READ plus satellites around our planet
The company had sought to portray it as an endlessly, until they decide to fall. An threaten to explode to more than
uncontrolled fall of a large object in a It’s the pot of gold one could 30,000. They already have a hard time
ayurvedic remedy for covid, and the presence populated area could cause catastrophic strike by providing 5G internet navigating; a collision in space could
of health minister Harsh Vardhan (along with harm, though the chances of that hap- connectivity in every part of the cause a domino effect of further colli-
transport minister Nitin Gadkari) at its launch pening are one in several million. world that is luring the world’s sions; this possibility, called the Kessler
was widely interpreted as an official endorse- The odds are going to get even more most ambitious billionaires to Syndrome, could make space unnaviga-
ment. Trials of Coronil’s effectiveness were interesting, however, now that the this frenzy of satellite launches. ble and debris would rain on our planet.
world’s two richest men have made Asterix and Obelix would have solved
claimed to have been done and the World space debuts. Serial entrepreneur Elon But this will overcrowd orbits this problem of the sky falling on their
Health Organization was said to have ‘certified’ Musk has been first off the block, with and raise the risk of collisions that heads by getting under their shields and
it, but neither claim held up under scrutiny. An the Starlink satellite network, devel- could throw junk around, some glugging down some magic potion. The
uproar among doctors led the Centre to clarify oped by his rocket company SpaceX. of which might descend upon rest of us mere mortals have no such
later that it was just an immunity booster. His rockets have already launched the planet just as the remains of recourse, as we realize that what goes
nearly 1,500 LEOs, or low earth satel- China’s Long March satellite did. up must come down.
The Coronil episode highlighted a grey zone
in our drug regulatory system, under which
modern medicines must pass rigorous scien-
tific tests of efficacy to be dispensed, but tradi-
tional products that lack such clinical back-up
can sell under another schedule if they get their
recipes verified and don’t exaggerate what they www.livemint.com New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh*, Pune* Monday, May 30, 2011 Vol.5 No.127 `3.00 24 PAGES
32 PAGES

vaccine doses and allopathic medicine had led do. Since ayurveda has adherents as well as NATION: IMF succession, jet
deal on Merkel’s agenda >3
BANKER’S TRUST: Are heads of PSU banks
feudal lords, asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay >6

to lakhs of deaths. If authentic, these claims are several offerings with observable benefits, such EXCLUSIVE PARTNER
INTERVIEW: Britannia is in a
sweet spot, says Vinita Bali >6
AVIATION: GoAir may place order
for Airbus A320s at Paris Air Show >7

both false and outrageous. They cannot pass for an approach is quite pragmatic. Trouble arises,
SENSEX 18,266.10 ® NIFTY 5,476.10 ® DOLLAR `45.16 ® EURO `64.34 ® GOLD `22,565 ® OIL $115.03 ®

SECURING FUNDS QUICK EDIT

First date
University Puffed

freedom of speech. Given Ramdev’s influence however, if falsehoods begin to pose health
A couple at a seaside promenade
in Kochi on Sunday. Annual
monsoon rains have hit Kerala away

The Earth is the cradle

two days earlier than expected,

fees may rise

weather officials said on
Sunday. The monsoon generally
hits the mainland around 1 June
C ome 1 December and
tobacco products
will have to display
and covers the rest of India by harsher, gory images of
mid-July. The weather office their deadly impact on

over our multitudes, not to speak of the Centre’s risks. In a covid-hit country where quackery is every 3 years
had predicted earlier that respiratory organs.
the monsoon would arrive Were this a simple
in Kerala on 31 May. REUTERS matter of educating
persons and then

Govt to push for 10%
periodic hike; proposals
to be placed before
of humanity, but
weaning them away from
the toxic stuff, perhaps
ing at the current financial pictures would have done
condition of the universities,”
said one of the officials.
the trick. It is not.
Economists have said

approval some of his firm’s products are seen to rampant, we need to tighten our standards of
apex education body,
state ministers on 7 June
B Y P RASHANT K . N ANDA
He rejected the notion that for long that tobacco
fee increases would add to the consumption and use of
financial woes of families la- narcotics are deviations
bouring under rising inflation. from rationality that
“Looking at the current situ- pictures and information
ation, a 10% hike is unlikely to ACTION PLAN about dangers in their
burden families as university use cannot prevent.

mankind cannot stay

prashant.n@livemint.com
·························
NEW DELHI
education is not very expen-
sive,” he said. ED to recast itself, fast-track cases Clearly, there is a case
for better and tighter

enjoy, they could worsen the covid pandemic. approval. A bold move in 2018 by the ayush T he Central government
will push for a 10% hike
in university fees every
three years in a bid to nurse
these institutions to financial
health—a move that could
have a far-reaching impact on
India’s resource-strapped
higher education system.
A student pays on average
between `6,000 and `12,000 as
annual tuition fee. Authorities
say this is too low. Universities
can charge market rates for so-
called self-financing courses,
where there is no government
aid involved. For example, a
self-financing course on cor-
B Y K HUSHBOO N ARAYAN
khushboo.n@livemint.com
·························
MUMBAI
I ndia’s Enforcement Direc-
torate (ED), which probes
foreign exchange violations
cials said, without elaborating.
They requested anonymity,
given the sensitivity of the
matter.
“ED has drafted a new strat-
egy to clear many important
cases on a priority basis,” one
lion money laundering case
against Pune realty consultant
Hasan Ali Khan.
Apart from this, in the past
two years, ED has been han-
dling several important cases
involving the Indian Premier
regulation here than is
seen in India. It is not a
matter of interfering with
individual choice: risks
from passive smoking are
well known. Ban on
smoking in public places
is at best a partial
remedy. The other

There is no quarrel with Ramdev’s legal right ministry to ban the publication of advertise-
The move, which is likely to
face strident opposition from
students as well as rival politi-
cal parties, follows a govern-
ment-appointed panel’s rec-
ommendation of an increase in
fees charged by the Indian In-
stitutes of Technology (IITs).
Fees at colleges that have gov-
porate finance at Orissa’s
Utkal University costs students
at least `40,000 a year.
“Universities are getting less
than 10% of their revenue from
student fees and this can be in-
creased up to 15%,” said the
second ministry official.
A 10% fee hike may not look
and money laundering, plans
an organizational recast to in-
crease efficiency and speed up
some of its high-profile inves-
tigations.
This was decided at the di-
rectorate’s annual meeting in
Delhi last week, two ED offi-
of them said.
The agency is stuck with at
least 1,200 cases, but has no
time to clear the backlog as it
has been busy with key cas-
es—alleged wrongdoing in
second-generation (2G) spec-
trum allocation and an $8 bil-
in the cradle forever.
League cricket tournament, externality, the cost
the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth incurred by the public
Games, a `400 crore fraud at health system—however
Citibank and an alleged money small it may be—is
laundering case against Mad- another factor. Other
hu Koda, former chief minister more intrusive solutions
must be explored.
TURN TO PAGE 2®

to do business and promote traditional prod- ments claiming specific cures offered by ayush
ernment funding are nominal
and increases are rare, given
that such moves are fraught
with political risk.
Universities are the key to
higher education in India with
over 80% of around 15 million
students pursuing courses un-
like much in bigger cities such
as Delhi or Mumbai but would
pinch students in smaller INVENTORY PILE-UP
towns, said Gayatri (who uses
only one name), a student at
Utkal University.
“When your father is earning
Showroom stockpiles signal slump in car sales
`5,000-6,000 a month, a 10% MADHU KAPPARATH/MINT

ucts within the constraints of Indian law. But it products, unfortunately, was thwarted by a
der the system. The proposals
on increasing college fees will
be introduced at two meet-
ings—one of state education
increase in the course fee is
definitely going to impact the
family budget,” she added.
“These days the common
B Y A MRIT R AJ & R EMYA N AIR vious year and the perfor-
························· mance of small cars are re-
NEW DELHI sponsible for the impact on
A s far as India’s car makers sales, but this trend hasn’t had

KON STA N TI N TSI OL KOVSKY

ministers and another of the
Central Advisory Board of Edu-
cation, the apex education
body that helps the Central
government formulate poli-
man is the worst sufferer,” said
Gayatri, whose father works in
a small business in Orissa.
“Whether it is food or fuel pric-
es, it’s the common man who
are concerned, what you much effect on its bigger vehi-
see is not what you get. While cles, said Arun Malhotra, se-
they maintain that all is well, nior vice-president (sales),
data of actual purchases by Mahindra and Mahindra.
consumers reveal that there “Last year’s growth was not

is truly scandalous to scoff at proven medical stay issued by the Delhi high court soon after.
cies. Both meetings are to be
held in Delhi on 7 June.
“Central and state universi-
ties may be statutorily re-
quired to adopt revision of fee
structure payable by the stu-
dents by at least 10% for every
three-year period,” said the
agenda note for both the meet-
has to accommodate” the in-
creases.
Syed E. Hasnain, former
vice-chancellor of University
of Hyderabad, said some uni-
versities are charging just a few
hundred rupees per course for
a semester, which is irrational.
“When the demand for edu-
are substantially fewer passen- sustainable. What I have learnt
ger cars on the road than those from the industry is that there
supposed to have been sold. has been a slowdown in the
The trend, first reported in a small car segment. But we
Bloomberg-UTV investigation have not been affected by this
broadcast on 19 May, shows so far,” he said. “We have four
that there is a vast difference models in the passenger ve-
between month-on-month pas- hicle segment and three of
senger car sales numbers issued them—Scorpio, Bolero and

solutions such as vaccination at a time like this. This order needs a review. So do our drug
ings, a copy of which has been
reviewed by Mint.
Since a majority of the uni-
versities in the country are un-
der the control of the states,
local governments have to be
taken on board for the move to
succeed, said two senior offi-
cials of the human resource
cation is growing, you cannot
be irrational. A 10% hike every
two or three years will help
universities get some amount
of extra funds,” he said. “And
in five years time the course
fee will be rational.”
Instead of a one-size-fits-all
solution, the fee hike should
by the Society of Indian Auto-
mobile Manufacturers (Siam)
and the total number of vehi-
cles registered at various re-
gional transport offices (RTOs).
Citing data on Maharashtra,
the single biggest market that
accounts for 13% of car sales in
the country, the channel
Left behind: With companies increasing sales targets and fewer buyers Verito—have long wait lists. So
placing orders, dealers are facing backlogs of up to 1,000 cars. far, we haven’t been affected.”
An Andhra Pradesh-based
months ended April with sales required number of vehicles.” Maruti Suzuki India Ltd dealer
seeing a dramatic fall due to The dealer said demand for admitted that inventory levels
the twin impact of rising fuel vehicles such as the Scorpio were rising.
prices and costlier bank loans, and the Bolero is usually very “Our sales target for this year
resulting in a pile-up of inven- high, so there may not be addi- has been increased by 15-20%.
tory. All the dealers spoke on tional supply for those models. But the sales have really fallen

Resistance to jabs is high in the countryside, regulations. Indeed, the advocacy of such
development (HRD) ministry,
who didn’t want to be named.
There are some 525 universi-
ties in India, of which 450 are
funded by the government. Of
these 450, only 40 are Central
universities and the rest are
state universities.
“A couple of months back, a
be left to individual universi-
ties, he said. “If a student in a
metro can afford a car to come
to classes, why can’t he afford
`30,000 per semester to study
a course which has a lot of
market demand.”
The Anil Kakodkar panel set
up by the HRD ministry had
showed that RTO numbers in
fiscal 2010-11 for Maharashtra
indicate that 293,673 cars were
registered, while Siam data
pegs sales at 327,655, implying
that dealers were left holding
33,982 cars. Siam gives whole-
sale data of cars released by
the companies to the dealers.
condition of anonymity as they
are not authorized to talk to
the media.
According to a Bihar-based
Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd
dealer, sales have almost
halved this year. “The stock is
piled up. The company has in-
creased the sales target this
“But a vehicle like the Lo-
gan, which has no demand in a
place like Bihar, is being sent
in plenty. It gets difficult for us
to clear the inventory,” said
the dealer. “The company has
also increased the sales target
for this year, which at this
point of time seems to be
in the past four-five months.
We try and keep an inventory
for 30 days, which is compara-
tively higher than other dealers
as we consider the transit time.
But this has gone up signifi-
cantly to 40-45 days.” This
dealer sells at least 600 cars per
month but is holding a stock of

not least for their momentary side-effects, and reforms is what the IMA should focus its energy
meeting of vice-chancellors
had suggested a fee hike look-
Mint is also available for R5.50 with
Hindustan Times under a combo offer
A survey of 12 dealerships
TURN TO PAGE 3® across the country conducted
by Mint confirmed the trend
ALSO SEE and found that the situation
>OurView: The hard road to quality >P30 has worsened in the first four
year. The start has been really
bad,” said the dealer. “Most of
the time the company gives a
fixed target but sometimes
they also send more than the
huge. Last year, we sold
around 2,000 cars in Bihar.
This year the company has
raised the target to 3,500.”
The growth surge in the pre-
at least 1,000 cars.
Several dealerships of firms
such as Hyundai Motor India
TURN TO PAGE 3®

immunization delays have already exposed on. Not on an offence that isn’t one.

THEIR VIEW

Let’s not deceive ourselves by blaming just the pandemic

diets. Years later, he was recognized as a pio-
PRADEEP S. MEHTA neer in the field. This points to inter-linkages
of public health and economic policies.
In this regard, those who presume urbani-
zation to be a road to salvation may like to
read noted historian R.J. Evans’ 1987 book
ern development models need a rethink. seized children from their mothers in immi- footnotesque mentions in pandemic studies.
Pandemics have also had a huge impact on grant neighbourhoods, but allowed middle- While a 2007 report by the Federal Reserve
the powers of governments in maintaining class, native-born families to tend to their sick Bank of St. Louis on Economic Effects of the
law and order. Governments often seize children in their homes. Indian states and its 1918 Influenza Pandemic highlights a few case
excessive discretionary power in imposing federal government have also liberally used studies of merchants indicating a decline in
quarantines and forcing themselves into powers to impose quarantines without con- business of 40-70%, a 50% decrease in coal-

H
istory teaches us that like death and
taxes, pandemics are also certain.
Tragically, many don’t learn. How
well we manage them depends on our prepa-
ration. Pandemics stress-test our health infra-
structure, but also our assumptions of admin-
istrative efficiencies and growth models, and
the status of equality and poverty.
As witnessed in India, such deficiencies
is secretary general of CUTS across sectors have been bundled and thrown
International. at us like a challenge to be dealt with together.
It’s easy but incorrect to blame the pandemic
alone for the carnage, and not our inherent
inefficiencies, which we have either chosen
to ignore or presumed to have addressed.
Joseph Goldberger, an American epidemi-
ologist, advocated the scientific and social
recognition of links between poverty and epi-
demics. In 1915, he highlighted the impor-
tance of a healthy diet in recovery from a pel-
lagra epidemic. However, Goldberger faced
extreme resistance from political leaders who
refused to believe that the epidemic was
linked to widespread poverty and unhealthy
This PDF was originally uploaded to Mint Newspaper - ePaper (https://t.me/mint_epaper). Subscribe now to get this edition before anyone else!! Backup channel: @news_backup
X
Death in Hamburg. It dealt with society and
politics during a cholera pandemic, which
killed nearly 10,000 people in six weeks in
the German city. He held a lack of effective
public-health policy and miserable living
conditions of the urban poor responsible for
the tragedy. Evans highlighted the major role
played by a failure to supply clean water,
fresh air and hygienic food. Thus, our claims
linking urbanization to economic growth
may need to be revisited.
In the West, epidemics have prompted
long-term public health responses aimed at
improving sewerage, water supply and gar-
bage-disposal systems. Like trickle-down
economics, it is usually presumed that such
measures will eventually benefit the poor.
However, as in economics, trickle-down
health seems to be a myth, and the benefits
are captured mostly by the elite. That covid
is disproportionately impacting people of
colour and the poor in rich countries flies in
the face of their sustainable development
claims. Those of us blindly promoting West-
homes on the pretext of stopping a pan- sidering the fate of the poor. mine production, and service and entertain-
demic’s spread. In 1875, the Public Health In addition, embargos on trade, economic ment businesses suffering double-digit
Act of the UK mandated local councils to activities and employment have been com- losses, it concludes that most of these effects
employ inspectors to enforce strict laws. In mon measures to prevent the spread of pan- on the economy were ‘short term’ in nature.
1890, its Housing of the Working Classes Act demics. As evident from the suffering of Such studies disregard the long-term impact
allowed councils to demolish overcrowded migrant workers, these disproportionately on widening inequities and injustices.
and dirty slums, presumably without making impact the poor. Historian Cindy Ermus, as Many in India have spotted ‘green-shoots’
alternate housing provi- part of her ongoing book of an economic recovery, but any celebration
sions. The British made project on the Plague of of this does injustice to the idea of India and
similar laws for India, QUICK READ Provence in 1720, high- the spirit of fraternity that our citizens have
including the Epidemic lights that during the shown in fighting the pandemic after leaders
Diseases Act of 1897, It’s incorrect to blame the plague, the rich, alarmed all but abandoned people to their fate. Laura
which is still in force. carnage all around us on the by the danger of infec- Spinney, in Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918
J.W. Leavitt and L.A. covid pandemic alone. It is our tion, fled the infected and How it Changed the World, speaks of simi-
Leavitt, professors at the failure to prepare for such crises areas, which resulted in a lar cooperation among Indians during that
University of Wisconsin- despite the knowledge that they stoppage of trade and flu; it contributed to resistance and the cause
Madison, US, argue that will recur that is chiefly at fault. employment, thus cut- of independence from misrule.
such laws were often used ting off the means of sus- History often repeats itself, and our leaders
arbitrarily and dispropor- We must recognize the links tenance for the poor. This will only have themselves to blame, and not
tionately against the poor. between public health and reduced thousands of the pandemic, should they fail to identify and
They point out that dur- economic policies to understand families to misery. address the structural deficiencies that make
ing a smallpox epidemic why it is always the poor who are Unfortunately, the eco- pandemics so difficult to bear for the poor.
in Milwaukee in 1894, the worst hit. History may not nomic adversities faced Amol Kulkarni of CUTS contributed to this
health officials forcibly forgive those who don’t. by the poor find only article.
 LIVEMINT.COM VIEWS FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2021
NEW DELHI 13

THEIR VIEW M I N T C U R AT O R

How trust in governance varies The US dollar and a Fed-issued

digital version needn’t be equal
by the level of affluence in India Curbs on conversion to a CBDC would distort its exchange value

The better-off display less trust in institutions than the poor but we need more of it across groups for the country to prosper

HT

TYLER COWEN
is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and
professor of economics at George Mason
University
VANI S.KULKARNI &
RAGHAV GAIHA
are, respectively, lecturer of sociology,
University of Pennsylvania, USA; and (Hon.)
professorial research fellow, Global
Development Institute, University of

A
Manchester, England digital currency issued by the US
Federal Reserve would revolution-
ize the US financial industry. Yet,

K
enneth Arrow (1921—2017), a 1972
Nobel laureate, was emphatic: “Virtu-
ally every commercial transaction
has within itself an element of trust,
certainly any transaction conducted
over a period of time. It can be plausi-
bly argued that much of the economic backward-
ness in the world can be explained by the lack of
mutual confidence.” Most of the benefits from
specialization will not be realized without trust-
dependent trades (i.e., trades that occur over time
or across space). Creditors loan money to debtors
on the promise of future repayment. Investors rely
on assurances by firms (and governments) that they
will not expropriate their assets. Hence, trust and
economic well-being are closely intertwined. Even
subjective well-being is closely correlated with
trust in the government, judiciary and police.
Draconian lockdowns, inept handling of the
covid pandemic’s second wave, self-glorification of
the leadership, wasteful public expenditure (such as
the Central Vista project) and an apparent dip in
investor confidence appear to have plunged the
Indian economy into a deep recession with only
flickering hopes of a revival. Raising trust in
+ national institutions is thus vital to an economic
recovery. While an accommodative monetary
policy has not been effective, the fiscal stimulus
announced so far has been too little, too late.
Our focus is on the association of trust in institu-
tions with per capita income/expenditure as a
measure of affluence. To check general patterns,
we use the all-India panel data of the India Human
Development Survey 2015 (IHDS), covering 2005
and 2012. A unique feature of the survey is that it
asks a question on trust in public institutions. Trust
is measured in ordinal levels of confidence: a great
deal of confidence, only some, and hardly any. Per
capita expenditure is taken as a proxy for income,
with India grouped into terciles, comprising the
first/extremely poor, second/middle class and the
third/affluent. To avoid circularity, we examine the
association between trust in 2012 and terciles of
expenditure in 2005. An important question is
whether trust is related to affluence.
A striking pattern emerges for trust in the state
government by expenditure tercile. On the whole,
over one-third of households reported a great deal
of confidence, well under half only some confi-
dence, and over one-fifth hardly any. The share of
those with a great deal of confidence fell from the
extremely poor to the affluent sharply; of those
with only some confidence also fell, but moder-
ately; and of those with hardly any confidence rose
moderately with rising expenditure/income. Seg-
ments of the extremely poor benefited from quotas
in education and public employment and thus were
dependent on state governments, while the afflu-
ent had other options. Besides, if the latter judged
while economic and financial digitization is Market pressure may force the Fed to issue
crucial, as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell a digital dollar of its own REUTERS
says, it cannot also be universal. The result
is that major economies are going to end up tions, intermediation and resources to flow
with at least two different kinds of money. into the CBDC-linked sector? Current
The most common worry is that a central debates about open-market operations or
bank digital currency, or CBDC, would lead interest on reserves will become arcane and
to disintermediation, with individuals or outdated. The regulations roping off the
wholesalers putting their money into a CBDC sector from the retail-dollar sector
CBDC system rather than commercial would become truly significant, and would
banks. The result would be fewer loans and give the central bank (and other regulatory
less private-sector economic activity. parties) much greater influence over sec-
CBDC proponents typically say regula- toral allocation.
tion can fix this problem. They favour some Over time, the CBDC financial sector
combination of issuance limits on CBDC would become much larger, as more of the
units, CBDC access for wholesalers and economy digitizes and demands the hyper-
major players only, or penalty interest rates modern CBDC payment and settlement
or fees on CBDC holdings. system. That would mean that the domi-
Yet all of these ideas create barriers—you nant US currency—the digital dollar—
might even call them ‘capital controls’— would be fully separate from the main-
between ordinary dollars and Fed-issued stream accounting unit currently, namely
digital dollars. If there are limits or barriers the retail dollar.
governments on wider criteria, such as progressive police is not surprising. What comes as a surprise, to dollar-to-CBDC conversion, dollars and Whether some other currency might
income taxation, they would have been unlikely to however, is that the extremely poor did not report CBDC units will not sell for the same price. replace the US dollar as the world’s reserve
report a great deal of confidence and also likely to much lower levels of trust, as they are subjected to Why should they? They perform different currency is a perennial debate. Maybe the
express hardly any. Essentially, what is resented, it bribes, arbitrary arrests and often unprovoked vio- functions for different clienteles. Of course, real alternative to the dollar is… well, a Fed-
seems, is that they bear the brunt of a redistributive lence. This raises the question of whether their if the Fed allows unrestricted conversions, issued digital dollar.
policy agenda. responses were subdued by fears of police reprisal. a one-to-one price would be enforced by Another question is whether privately
In contrast with state governments, the judiciary The IHDS data, which reveals relative responses arbitrage. But such open and unfettered supplied digitized currencies can coexist
emerged as an institution with the highest trust. A by income, is from before 2014, when the Bharatiya privileges are precisely what policy advo- with a Fed-issued CBDC. The likely answer
large majority, just under 70%, displayed a great of Janata Party (BJP)-led government took charge at cates are seeking to limit. is yes. A Fed-issued CBDC, no matter how
confidence, overall, while a tiny the Centre. Recent reports sug- The result would be a bit like the Chinese well run, will not serve all purposes. Market
fraction of under 7% reported gest a loss of trust in central and system. The yuan has for a long time had participants might also desire digital cur-
hardly any confidence. Shares of QUICK READ state governments for a variety one value within China and another in rencies with greater privacy and anonym-
those with a great deal of confi- of reasons. Two defining charac- world markets, with the difference being ity, digital currencies subject to different
dence fell sharply across terciles; While we look at how best to teristics of the BJP-led regime— enforced by capital controls. And with a regulations, or digital currencies designed
as also of those with only some emerge from this pandemic, we excessive centralization and Chinese digital currency on the way, China to transact with foreigners, including
confidence; while those with don’t seem to be paying enough relatively submissive state may soon have (at least) three different cur- countries with illiquid, non-convertible
hardly any varied little. This high attention to the role that trust administrations—have altered rency prices. currencies. After all, it is unlikely that the
level of trust is surprising, given in public institutions plays in the dynamics of trust in several In this new world, people will ask Fed will allow all foreigners to partake in its
the overload of cases and conse- economic development. ways. Religious minorities and whether the US dollar unit of account refers CBDC system, in part because of regulatory
quent delays in judicial verdicts. historically downtrodden groups to ‘ordinary dollars’ or to Fed-issued digital requirements and in part because of fear of
Also surprising is the fall in the The findings of a study that are reported to show a sharp dollars. There might be two competing global runs. There might also be a ‘basket’
share of those with a great deal of show higher trust displayed by decline in the trust they impose ‘dollar units of account’—or, more plausi- of CBDCs at the global level.
confidence from the extremely the poor are striking, but this in various organs of the state and bly, retail prices would continue to be It might also be the case that only ‘whole-
poor to the affluent, despite the cannot be taken for granted as institutions of governance. The denominated in terms of ordinary dollars salers’ are allowed to partake in the CBDC,
fact that the latter are better able the ground situation worsens for events around the controversial and the CBDC would have a floating but banks issue stablecoins to give their
to afford legal costs. Whether the country’s most vulnerable. Citizenship Amendment Act in exchange rate with respect to these ‘retail depositors indirect access to the Fed’s
perceptions of judicial fairness 2019 are a case in point. There dollars’. underlying CBDC system. Banks might try
are independent of legal costs needs further study. have also been allegations of extra-constitutional Given the sophistication of US business to peg those stablecoins at one-to-one to
No less striking is the contrast observed between authority being exercised by those in power at the and the widespread distribution of smart either retail dollars or CBDC dollars, just as
the judiciary and police. While barely 18 % of over- central and state levels, and of biases against the phones, which can enable ready calcula- money market funds peg shareholdings. In
all households reported a great deal of confidence, socially vulnerable. The scars left on the psyche of tion, I don’t find this scenario troubling. either case, there would be yet more mon-
the majority expressed only some confidence, and those at the receiving end could not have helped Nonetheless it would be a revolution of ies and additional floating prices.
just under one-third hardly any. By tercile, one- the cause of strengthening trust. At this juncture of sorts. In particular, the price of the CBDC There is also the possibility that the US
third or less expressed a great deal of confidence in India’s rapidly deteriorating economy, it is espe- dollar would become both a major policy Fed will take no action on a CBDC. In that
each group; as for those with some confidence, the cially important that this vital element of develop- variable and a major indicator of where case, other central banks will. So no matter
largest share was among the extremely poor, and ment be safeguarded. To conclude, revival of trust central bank policy is headed. To what where the policy lands, it is time to fasten
the lowest among the affluent. Lack of trust in the is key to revival of the Indian economy. extent does the Fed wish to allow transac- your seatbelts. ©BLOOMBERG

MY VIEW | PEN DRIVE

Our mental healthcare systems need no less of a boost

wave. Our policymakers were misled into
ALOK V. KULKARNI believing that the endgame was near when
less than 1% of the country was vaccinated.
Instead of augmenting the existing health-
care infrastructure, centres dedicated to
covid care were dismantled after the first
equipped that most go for private options, inputs from epidemiologists and virologists and manpower. These PHCs could have
which account for the vast majority of health to counter the pandemic is the need of the clinical collaborations with medical colleges
services. The country has world-class talent hour. Vaccine hesitancy remains high and to ensure adequate staffing. Every district
in the form of its doctors, but inadequate should be countered with awareness pro- should have a 500-bedded tertiary care pub-
infrastructure is gnawing at its healthcare grammes. The public should be given incen- lic hospital. Postgraduate seats should be
sector from within. tives to get vaccinated. The country needs increased to at least 1,00,000 per year in liai-

I
is senior consultant
psychiatrist, Manas
Institute of Mental Health,
Hubli
have lost count of the people who are
reaching out to our organization for men-
tal health help amid the covid pandemic.
I have been attending to increasing cases of
delirium, psychosis, depression, phobia,
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and
dementia during this crisis. India has less
than 9,000 psychiatrists to cater to a popu-
lation of 1.3 billion. One patient came to our
hospital with recurrent flashbacks of his
traumatic ICU stay. He was easily irritable,
had crying spells, and avoided reading or
discussing anything related to covid. I made
a diagnosis of PTSD, and started him on
therapy and low-dose medication. His story
is largely generalizable, and reflects the
shadow pandemic of mental health disor-
ders accompanying covid.
A reliance on intuition instead of data,
lack of attention paid to experts, and a lacka-
daisical attitude by the bureaucracy have
contributed in equal measure to the second
wave. The Centre and states continue to
blame each other, while the reality is that
neither stopped the other from dismantling
covid care centres. To add to India’s woes,
hospitals ran out of beds and oxygen. No
attempt was made to stock up on these even
after the first wave. All political parties had
immersed themselves in election rallies.
India’s largest religious congregation, the
Kumbh Mela, also saw covid spreading amid
pilgrims. Experts believe that it should never
have taken place during the pandemic.
The healthcare system in India has been
fragmented from its original state. India
spends an abysmal fraction of its gross
domestic product (GDP), estimated at under
2%, on healthcare, while the UK spends 12%
of its GDP on healthcare and the US spends
17.7%. Previous governments have done lit-
tle to strengthen India’s healthcare infra-
structure. Primary health centres (PHCs) are
the nerve centres of a country’s system to
look after people. India’s PHCs are so poorly
It is difficult to govern India in the best of vaccination at an unprecedented scale and son with corporate hospitals and those
times, let alone during an emergency. In the at very high speed to break the chain of viral attached to the railway sector. India also
first wave, covid was largely restricted to our transmission. needs to reverse its brain-drain in the field of
cities. It has now spread its tentacles to rural Above all, we must learn from our follies, medicine to the extent possible. For this, pay
India, where most of India resides. The coun- and invest more in the healthcare sector. Ill- scales of doctors have to rise significantly.
try has seen overflowing mortuaries, decom- planned policies over the last 70 years have India’s National Mental Health Survey of
posed bodies with no one created an acute dearth 2015-16 identified a mental-health treat-
to attend to them, and of healthcare workers. ment gap of 70-92%. This should open our
soaring cremation and QUICK READ India has an estimated eyes to the importance of integrating mental
burial prices. Our covid shortfall of 600,000 doc- healthcare with the general healthcare sys-
mortality numbers are The surge in cases of psychosis, tors and 2 million nurses. tem of the country. Even before covid, we
probably undercounts. delirium, depression and other Medical education is key. had a looming pandemic of mental health
We need to prioritize ailments since the outbreak Data from the ministry of problems. It is only now that attention is
the restructuring of our of covid offers evidence of a human resources and being paid to this problem.
public health systems shadow pandemic that we must development shows that Chronic underfunding has plagued men-
into two broad catego- pay far more attention to. India currently has only tal health systems globally. It is now time to
ries. Right now, we need 88,000 MBBS seats per change this narrative in the direction
a triage-based manage- We need to raise investment year, and this needs to required. Since I am an incurable optimist,
ment plan for cases, and in our health system, bolster increase to 150,000 seats I can only hope that our leaders will invest
for the future, a long- primary health centres, link them per year at least. The enough time and energy in improving over-
term vision for existing with medical colleges, train more PHCs of India should be all healthcare in our country. It is heart-
structures. A data-driven doctors and paramedics, and all enabled with proper breaking to see underserved segments of
approach incorporating this goes for mental health too. infrastructural back-up our country suffer in silence.

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 14 FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2021
NEW DELHI BUSINESS OF LIFE INDULGE LIVEMINT.COM

In India, there’s always thirst for beer

More brands, growth in the last one and a half decades.
From a total industry consumption of
easy as it was a familiar drink: “The wine
industry had to fight, explain grapes and
gory as gin, vodka or whisky needs to
change.” With such changes, “we can
homegrown as well as about 100 million cases in 2005, the con-
sumption crossed 300 million cases in
wine styles, as we’re not a wine-drinking
nation. On the other hand, everybody has
grow exponentially over the next 10
years,” Varshnei says.
international, are 2019,” states the report from market had beer while growing up so it was easier Beer has a separate fanbase when it
leader UBL, which counts Kingfisher, Hei- for us to experiment in the craft space.” comes to spirits. “Beer remains versatile in
making a beeline for neken and Amstel Bier in its portfolio. “With our warm climate, chilled beer is terms of age and lends itself easily to day
“Barring the covid-19 impact—both in the perfect afternoon or evening drink,” drinks, post-work, mid-week drink,” says
the country terms of revenues and sales volume, says Saumya Khona, co-founder of Bhakti Mehta, co-founder of Tapped
which may last during the current year— Tapped Flight, a monthly beer subscrip- Flight.
the market is expected to grow.” tion and delivery service that covers Craft beer, however, will find it hard to
Priyanko Sarkar “The right target audience is here,” says Mumbai and Pune. scale up to the level of commercial beers
businessoflife@livemint.com Karan Jain, co-CEO, Brewdog India (Ace To make a craft brewery work, says because of the differences in production.
Aloha Group) of the company’s India Nayan Shah of Drifters Breweries, a retail Shah of Drifters Breweries says, “You need

T
his would have been the
summer of beer, if not for
the second covid-19 wave
tearing through India.
Scottish giant Brewdog
opened its first brewpub in Mumbai in
February. Ironhill soon followed with “the
world’s largest microbrewery” in Benga-
luru, and as the now-suspended IPL got
underway, M.S. Dhoni announced his
association with a new beer brand, Copter
7, named for his famous helicopter shot
and his jersey number 7.
India, it seems, can’t have too much
beer—whether it’s the good, old bottled
stuff bought from the corner store or the
more upscale craft beer that’s sold as an
entire experience.
And there’s always room for more, as
United Breweries (UBL) notes in its
2019-20 annual report released in June.
“Beer industry has registered robust
plans. The pub chain has “plans to open 10
by December, and increase our footprint
to 100 over the next five-six years.”
In Bengaluru, Pawan Kumar, the bar
manager of Ironhill, says they had repeat
customers during the month they were
open, proving there’s always a thirst for
beer. Ironhill, which opened on 27 March
and is spread over two acres of an old gar-
ment factory, is currently closed owing to
the lockdown. “Our outlet is located in
Marathahalli and sees a mixed crowd. The
only other option similar to ours was Byg
Brewski but its location means it primarily
caters to the IT crowd,” Kumar adds.
Around the time craft breweries started
making their mark in India, a decade ago,
the food and beverage industry was seeing
a few other vital changes. Going out for
coffee had started gaining acceptance,
with brands like Café Coffee Day and
Barista, and international firms suddenly
Scotland’s Brewdog opened its first brewpub in Mumbai in February.
woke up to India’s younger demographic.
“Any boardroom meeting that includes
India as a market will turn heads because
of our population. That’s what led to many
international beer brands to look at India
while craft beer was taking off,” says
Abhishek Chinchalkar, co-founder and
head brewer of Bombay Duck Brewing.
Jain of Brewdog, which is the latest
international entrant, says, “India has seen
a huge increase in craft beer sales in recent
years. Consumers’ changing tastes and
willingness to experiment has allowed
them to appreciate craft beers versus mass
produced bottled commercial beer. At the
same time, the craft beer industry has
restricted itself to a few styles, staying
away from innovation in style, taste and
aroma profiles. We intend to disrupt this
market and fill this gap by having 20-24
beers on tap wherever we go.”
Chinchalkar says beer makers had it
presence is paramount. “Every craft brew-
ery must have a retail outlet to connect
and create memories for the customer. It
helps in expansion. Since opening our
growler stations in Mumbai suburbs like
Thane, Andheri and Powai, apart from
Bandra, we’ve seen consumption go up
four-five times.”
One of the challenges to entering new
markets as a craft brand are the laws
regarding alcohol sales in India, with each
state having different rules and regula-
tions. “In India, bureaucracy restricts our
growth,” Shah says.
Echoing the thought, Aditya Ishan
Varshnei, co-founder and CEO of Latam-
barcem Brewers that makes Maka Di beers
in Goa, gives the example of taxation.
“Beer should be taxed on ABV (alcohol by
volume) and not overall volume. Beers
and wines are different from high ABV
spirits and taxing them in the same cate-
to find your niche and settle there if you’re
a craft brand.”
Varshnei believes craft beers will never
find crores of consumers. “We should be
happy with a couple of hundred thousand
people. If your beers are good and of high
quality, you will find that audience.”
Beer comprises 12% of the total alcohol
consumed in India, the UBL report notes,
and adds that “while the alcohol beverages
industry in India has been dominated by
spirits, beer remains the preferred alco-
holic beverage for young Indians.”
Despite this, craft beer makers believe
there’s scope for greater growth.
“The beer consumption in India is just
1.2 litres per person per year, as compared
with China (32 litres) or Vietnam (20 litres)
or the US (35 litres),” says Jain. “This is just
the beginning. India has a huge, young
demographic looking for a better product
as well as experience.”

REUTERS

+
Rolls-Royce Chief Executive Officer Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes

Rolls-Royce to
go electric with
Silent Shadow
The 116-year-old luxury carmaker is
also giving clients a chance to
commission cars to specifications

Bloomberg
feedback@livemint.com

L
uxury carmaker Rolls-Royce has confirmed that it is
working on an all-new vehicle, Silent Shadow, as the
iconic British brand prepares to offer a fully electric car to
its ultra-wealthy clientele this decade. The BMW AG division
last year filed a trademark with the German patent office for the
name Silent Shadow, a nod to the Silver Shadow model sold
from 1965 to 1980. Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes
has not mentioned a potential launch date. “That is still a
secret,” he said. “But it will of course obviously be a brand-new
Rolls-Royce, rest assured.”
Regulation is catching up with super-luxury carmakers
worldwide. U.K., for instance, is planning to ban the sale of
combustion engine vehicles. While some of the cachet of a Fer-
rari derives from its growling engine, Mueller-Oetvoes said the
quieter tones of Rolls-Royces couple well with battery power.
“Electrification fits perfect to Rolls-Royce—it’s torque-y, it’s
super-silent,” he said. “We are not known for roar-y, loud
engines and exhaust noises, and that’s a big benefit.”
While the pandemic suppressed vehicle demand in many
regions, Rolls-Royce’s production run is booked out for the
year. Orders started to rise strongly from the fourth quarter of
last year as the pandemic unleashed a free-spending attitude,
Mueller-Oetvoes said of the company’s clients. “Many have
witnessed how quickly life can end, and so it’s good to enjoy life
today and not to postpone it,” he said.
The 116-year-old luxury brand is working to balance out
increasingly high sales volumes by indulging its clients’ pen-
chant for rarity and exclusivity. He also announced Rolls-
Royce Coachbuild, a new programme that will allow its most
elite customers to commission a car of their own. “We have
seen quite a lot of clients approaching us asking if they could
do something [unique],” he said. “Coachbuild in its truest form
is: the client comes, tells us what kind of body he would like to
see, and we do it. That is what is happening here.”
They have made three individual cars, in a style they are now
calling the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail. Each has been custom-built
as an open-air four-seater with a rear portion designed to evoke
the deck of a J Class yacht—a single-masted racing boat like
those used in the Americas Cup. Each car is unique in colora-
tion, trimlines, interior flourishes and specific requests, while
other basic details may be familiar to those who already own
bespoke Rolls-Royce coaches: a refrigerator to hold cham-
pagne bottles cooled to precisely six degrees Celsius, for exam-
ple, and an aluminum-and-leather glove box sized to hold a
special pen.
Meanwhile, Ferrari, which is preparing to unveil its first all-
electric model in 2025, has said that sustainable mobility has
become central to its philosophy. The commitment puts Fer-
rari ahead of Lamborghini, one of its main rivals, on the road
to electrification, as the Volkswagen-owned supercar brand is
not planning to launch a fully electric model until the second
half of the decade.
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