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

144

Friday, June 18, 2021

livemint.com

mint primer QUICK EDIT

What are India’s External

intermediary imbalance
A lot has been said about our
protection rules? foreign exchange reserves. At a
record $605 billion around the
start of June, our pile is one of
BY PRASID BANERJEE the world’s largest. It has been
The back and forth between Twitter and the Indian government has likened to a big rock of stability
put intermediary protection laws in the limelight again with its share against any economic shock
of fake news and misinformation. Mint explains what these rules that may arise from turmoil
mean, and why they are important. overseas, or a sharp reversal of
capital inflows caused by a rise
Increasing scrutiny in America’s policy interest rate,
Government requests to social media platforms have been increasing not only which is now expected to go up
in India but all across the world. Facebook received 191,013 government in 2023, or possibly even
requests, including 40,300 from India, for user data in the second half of 2020. sooner. While it’s true India’s
Government requests to intermediaries
Google Facebook Twitter
stash of hard currency offers us
an insurance cover for external
Jan-Jun 2019 906 22,684 474
instability, it hasn’t been tested.
Jan-Jun 2020 890 35,560 2,613
In a monthly research paper,
the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
Jun-Dec 2019 760 26,698 789 has noted that “levels are often
deceptive” and a better way to
Jun-Dec 2020 990 40,300 NA gauge our vulnerability is to
look at specific indicators. The
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000
Government requests include all legal requests for data, emergency and content takedown requests. country’s net international
Source: Company transparency reports investment position, for exam-
PARAS JAIN/MINT
ple, which is a measure of what’s
What is intermediary What is intermediary greater, the foreign assets we
1 status?
India’s Information Technology
2 protection?
Section 79 of the IT Act provides
hold or liabilities we owe. The
latter exceed the former in our
(IT) Act covers a broad set of protection to intermediaries from case by a figure that amounts to
companies under the intermediary being held liable for data, content, 12.9% of gross domestic prod-
status. According to Section 2 of and communication that they have uct. Our reserves are sufficient
the IT Act, apart from companies no personal knowledge of, shared to cover import bills for over a
such as Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. by users through them. The year, meet short-term repay-
and other social media platforms, protections were formulated after
ments and stabilize the rupee.
intermediaries also include firms Avinash Bajaj, the chief executive
such as Amazon.com Inc. and of auction portal Baazee.com, was But the point made by the paper
Zomato. The definition of arrested in 2004 for an obscene is worth noting. We usually run
intermediaries even covers cyber MMS clip being put up for sale on trade deficits, after all, and lend
cafes, which can be used by users the platform. This case showed less than we borrow overseas.
to access the internet. What is that platforms could be held liable
worth noting is that intermediary for allowing illegal use cases, but
status and intermediary protection, only if they did not take adequate
also called safe harbour, are defined measures to avoid such instances.
in different parts of the Act and
losing the protection doesn’t mean
These measures are defined in the
new intermediary guidelines,
MINT METRIC
losing the intermediary status. which came into effect on 26 May. by Bibek Debroy
ISTOCKPHOTO

Knowing skills have disparity,

3 What does losing the
protection mean?
An intermediary can be taken to court for
The match was for charity.
not following a government request even
Why did the entrepreneur cheat
with safe harbour, but only with respect to And resort to deceit?
that post. However, if a platform like
Twitter does not comply with the
The episode brought chess some vulgarity.
intermediary guidelines, it loses the shield
entirely, which makes them susceptible to
accusations of publishing content that
breaks the law. QUOTE OF THE DAY
The government is studying
4 Why do platforms
want safe harbour?
Platforms such as Twitter and
5 What is the argument
against safe harbour?
In contrast, there’s an argument
sectoral impact due to covid.
Facebook, which have millions of that by using ranking algorithms
We have to track impact of
users, argue that they cannot to determine what gets seen on measures announced in the
possibly be aware of every post, their platforms, these firms are
just as the managing director of making editorial judgements. So, if
budget. We are seeing a V-
Amazon does not always know all a newspaper is liable for editorial shaped recovery in the macro
the items being sold on the online decisions, then why shouldn’t
marketplace. As a result, they they? There’s also the matter of
indicators.
cannot be held liable. Removing power here, and the fact that
safe harbour protections would Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. are
mean that the platforms have to ultimately in control of their
actively police and sensor respective marketplaces and wield
whatever content is available on more power than an elected K.V. SUBRAMANIAN
their services, which in turn could government, in determining how CHIEF ECONOMIC
violate free speech and other information or utility marketplaces ADVISER
fundamental rights. work within a country.

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 PLAIN FACTS

The state capital bias in

vaccination coverage
BY RASHMI KUNDU, HOWINDIALIVES.COM

S
everal state capitals have achieved a significantly higher covid-19 vaccine coverage than other districts in their states.
Among the 15 most populous states, this gap is the most pronounced in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, shows an analysis
of district-wise data.
Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, has given 68.5 vaccine doses per 100 people, the highest among all districts in India
and more than five times the coverage in the state’s remaining districts. Similarly, Chennai district has administered 44.2
vaccine doses per 100 people, while the figure for the rest of Tamil Nadu languishes at 9.5. As many as 21 out of 32 districts
in Tamil Nadu are yet to touch 10 doses per 100 people.
The analysis assumes the coverage in each capital city to be the same as that in the district in which the city is located.
City-wise data is not available.
In eight of the 15 states analysed, the gap between the districts hosting the capital cities and other districts exceeds 10
percentage points.
Most state capital-districts have also borne a greater brunt of covid-19. In 12 of these 15 states, the capital-district’s share
in the state’s covid-19 cases in the past month has been disproportionate to its population share. Hence, there’s a case for
them to get a larger share of vaccine allotments. However, in seven states, the share of vaccines given was disproportionate
to their covid-19 case share. This is especially stark for Mumbai in Maharashtra (25.6% vaccine share versus 5.5% case share)
and Bengaluru in Karnataka (39.7% vaccine share versus 24.4% case share).

In 14 of 15 top states, the capital has better Doses per 100 population
vaccine coverage than other districts District hosting
(in %) the capital city
Share of Share of cases Share of vaccine Other districts in state
District hosting population in past month doses in state in
State the capital city in state in state past month 0 10 20 30 40
69
West Bengal Kolkata 2.9 14.3 17.0
Tamil Nadu Chennai 5.4 10.4 16.6 44
Assam Kamrup Metropolitan 4.0 9.0 19.7
Gujarat Gandhinagar 2.1 1.8 2.8
Kerala Thiruvananthapuram 9.2 12.6 12.3
Madhya Pradesh Bhopal 3.4 18.8 9.2
Odisha Khordha 5.6 13.5 11.0
Karnataka Bengaluru Urban 19.8 24.4 39.7
Jammu and Kashmir Srinagar * 6.6 16.4 12.1
Maharashtra Mumbai 11.1 5.5 25.6
Rajasthan Jaipur 10.1 18.5 12.5
Uttar Pradesh Lucknow 2.4 5.0 4.8
Bihar Patna 5.5 15.7 12.1
Chhattisgarh Raipur 9.6 5.3 12.3
Jharkhand Ranchi 9.1 11.6 10.9
*District hosting the summer capital city
Data for 15 most-populous states, arranged in descending order of vaccine coverage in district hosting the capital city.
Source: Ministry of health and family welfare, National Commission on Population

Picking up Pace Even on a high base, China was second

in increasing vaccination coverage
OVER THE past four weeks, the pace of covid-19 vaccination in Weekly change in covid-19 Cumulative covid-19
India has increased progressively. In the past week, India vaccine doses vaccinations
per 100 people (in %) per 100 people
averaged 3.3 million doses per day, nearly double of what it was 29
Japan 20.9
more than a month ago. In the past week, India registered a China 12 64.2
week-on-week growth of 7.8% in vaccine doses given. In the Philippines 12 6.4
three weeks before that, it had managed 8.3%, 7.4%, and 5% Indonesia 8 11.9
growth, according to data portal Our World in Data. India 8 18.5
Among the 10 most populous countries, the US leads in Mexico 8 29.3
covid-19 vaccine coverage. The world’s largest economy has Brazil 7 37.8
already given 93.3 vaccine doses per 100 population. This is Russia 4 22.6
followed by China (64.2) and Brazil (37.8). Despite its high base, US 2 93.3
China registered the second-highest weekly growth in the past Bangladesh 0.3 6.1
1. Data for 10 most-populous countries, arranged in descending order of
week. On this count, Japan remains the leader, registering a weekly change in doses. Pakistan, Nigeria and Ethiopia excluded due to
inadequate data. 2. Data as of 15 June or latest available. 3. Number of doses
weekly growth of 29.3%, albeit on a smaller base. India retained may not indicate full vaccination since many vaccines require multiple doses.
its fifth position on weekly growth. Source: Our World in Data, World Bank

Coimbatore has replaced Bengaluru

Urban for the maximum new cases
North-East Concerns
New confirmed cases in each district in the last seven days HIGHER VACCINATION coverage is imperative as the easing
<100 NA of curbs raises the possibility of a third wave. For now, the curve
100–500 of new reported cases continues to trend lower after peaking in
500–1,000
1,000–5,000 May second week. This week, the number of new cases declined
>5,000 by 30% over last week. A week ago, 624 districts had reported a
week-on-week drop in new cases. This week, however, 53 of
these districts reported an increase. Assam had the most districts
on this list. Golaghat reported 1,314 cases this week, 20% more
than last week. Last week, it reported a 19% decline. Similarly,
Pune Sivasagar (711 cases) reported a 35% increase after a 32% decline.
8,641 East Godavari
7,900 Several districts in the North-East are seeing spikes. West
Bengaluru Urban Kameng in Arunachal Pradesh reported 787 new cases this week,
11,213 its highest-ever weekly tally. Lawngtlai in Mizoram reported 210
Coimbatore
12,886 cases this week, against 48 last week. Meanwhile, Coimbatore
Thiruvananthapuram
12,514 (12,886 cases) replaced Bengaluru Urban (11,213 cases) as the
Latest data as of 7.30pm on 16 June. Source: howindialives.com district with maximum new cases.

Odisha Toll Deaths in Maharashtra spiked this

week as the state updated numbers
TYPICALLY, a decline in deaths follows a drop in new cases. Rolling 7-day average of deaths
Maharashtra
After two weeks of decline, India registered a 3% increase in 1,260
Tamil Nadu
deaths this week (22,428). Most states have reported a fall in 1,000 Kerala
numbers for the last two weeks, but Maharashtra and Odisha Karnataka
were exceptions. As many as 29 of 35 districts in Maharashtra and
100 West Bengal
13 of 30 districts in Odisha reported an increase in weekly deaths. Andhra
In Maharashtra, the main reason for the higher tally was the Pradesh
state classifying more past fatalities as covid-19 deaths. In Odisha, Assam
10 Odisha
Cuttack and Bargarh districts remain points of concern. Cuttack Manipur 44
has seen rising deaths in each of the last four weeks: three deaths Telangana
in the last week of May, followed by 15, 23 and 27 in the three 1 Data for top 10 states by cases
as on 16 June. The vertical axis
weeks of June. Bargarh has reported 33 deaths this month, of uses a logarithmic scale, which
makes the scale appear smaller
which 22 were this week. What is happening in Odisha also than it actually is.
underscores the need for robust vaccination coverage beyond 0.1
the state capitals. 6 Jan 2021 16 Jun
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

 BENGALURU, NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, KOLKATA, CHENNAI, AHMEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE*
Friday, June 18, 2021
SENSEX 52,323.33 178.65
Govt plans indemnity
for SII, other vax firms
US vaccine maker Pfizer has also sought similar legal protection
Leroy Leo
leroy.d@livemint.com
NEW DELHI
T
he government is consid-
ering indemnity for cov-
id-19 vaccine manufactur-
ers such as Serum Insti-
tute of India (SII) and
Pfizer, which would absolve them of
liabilities in case of adverse effects,
two people aware of the matter said.
Discussions on indemnity have
so far centred around foreign vac-
cine manufacturers but the current
thinking in government is in favour
of giving similar treatment to
domestic manufacturers as well if
foreign vaccine makers are given
the protection for legal liability.
Most developed as well as some
developing nations have offered
such indemnity so that they can
quickly immunize millions of citi-
zens without companies having to
unduly worry about the adverse
effects of a vaccine rapidly devel-
oped in the middle of the pandemic.
But, not so in India, where Serum
Institute’s plea has gone unanswered
so far. Apart from Serum, US vaccine
makers Pfizer, too, has requested
similar legal protection. Absence of
indemnity is one of the reasons why
foreign vaccine makers are reluctant
to bring their vaccines to India.
According to the people cited
livemint.com
NIFTY 15,691.40
RISK PERCEPTION
TRANSPARENT POLICY
INDIA currently does LACK of indemnity is a
not have such a mecha- reason why foreign firms
nism for adverse events hesitate to bring their vax
above, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, the second wave of cov-
id-19 that began in March has
changed the thinking in the gov-
ernment. It is, however, not yet
clear if the government would offer
blanket indemnity to all vaccine
makers, or consider them individu-
ally.
Significantly, Bharat Biotech,
which manufactures the Covaxin
vaccine, has not applied for indem-
nity, the company said on Tuesday.
“It is only logical that indemnity
VOL. 15 NO. 144
76.15 DOLLAR ₹74.08
CRITICS of indemnity
clause have called for
greater transparency
be given to Indian vaccine makers if
foreign vaccine manufacturers get it.
It wouldn’t make sense otherwise,”
said the first person cited above.
Serum Institute has since last
year demanded indemnity for the
duration of the pandemic, and only
for these particular vaccines.
“Serum’s argument is that if foreign
companies are given indemnity,
then they should be given as well,”
the second person said.
TURN TO PAGE 6
Long Story | Inside the lives of
deep-sea divers
₹0.75 EURO ₹88.54
Investors to move
SC against plan to
delist DHFL shares
Anirudh Laskar
anirudh.l@livemint.com
MUMBAI
A
section of retail investors
of Dewan Housing
Finance Corp. Ltd (DHFL)
plan to approach the Supreme
Court against a move by the
National Company Law Tribunal
(NCLT) to allow delisting of the
mortgage lender’s shares as part
of its resolution plan. In their
plea, investors are set to accuse
NCLT and the Securities and
Exchange Board of India (Sebi) of
failing to adequately inform them
about the impending delisting,
which is part of the Piramal
group’s approved resolution plan
under the Insolvency and Bank-
ruptcy Code.
A petition is yet to be for-
malized and filed in court.
Piramal group’s proposal to
delist DHFL was accepted by
DHFL’s creditors in January.
Unaware of this, many investors
continued to buy DHFL shares,
anticipating a turnaround under
its new owners. The number of
retail shareholders of DHFL rose
from 316,000 in December to
325,000 by March. On 14 June,
shares of DHFL stopped trading
on the exchanges, which
informed investors that the reso-
lution plan provides for their
delisting.
uP10
₹0.10 OIL $74.25
Shares of DHFL stopped
trading on the exchanges on
14 June. MINT
DHFL ended its trading ses-
sion at ₹16.70 on the day after
having hit the 10% lower circuit.
However, in the weeks before 14
June, the stock saw significant
trading, even hitting upper cir-
cuits after the resolution plan
was approved by NCLT, encour-
aging investors.
Now, many of DHFL’s retail
shareholders have formed joint
action groups to try and recoup
their losses. One such group
with about 250 members plans
to move the Supreme Court
with a plea to keep DHFL listed
so that they can recover at least
a part of their investments. They
feel DHFL has enough assets.
Mint spoke to more than a
TURN TO PAGE 6
Rs 15.00
Business of Life | Drawing lines
between Iran and India uP14
$0.15 GOLD ₹47,393
US Fed rate
signal may
hit FII inflow
into stocks
Nasrin Sultana
nasrin.s@livemint.com
MUMBAI
A
potential rise in interest
rates in the US by 2023
as signalled by the US
Federal Reserve could slow
down foreign fund flows into
India, even as domestic liquid-
ity is expected to provide sup-
port to stocks.
The US central bank’s hawk-
ish comments late on Wednes-
day night sent markets world-
wide into a sell-off mode, as
ultra-loose monetary policy
stances by global central banks
so far had flushed equities with
abundant liquidity, especially
during the pandemic.
On Thursday, Indian mar-
kets extended weakness for a
second straight day. The BSE
Sensex slipped 178.65 points or
0.34%, ending at 52,323.33.
The Nifty was down 76.15
points or 0.48% at 15,691.40.
Among shares in the Asia-Pa-
cific, the Nikkei in Japan fell
0.93% while South Korea’s
Kospi closed 0.42% lower.
“Weak global cues along
with weekly F&O (futures and
options) contract expiry led to a
volatile session. Metals contin-
ued to witness selling pressure
after China announced inten-
TURN TO PAGE 6
16 PAGES
₹824
DON’T MISS
Banks see 80% average haircut in
top NCLT bankruptcy resolutions
India’s bankruptcy resolution system remains
marred by meagre recoveries and protracted
delays. According to data from Insolvency and
Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), in over 363 major
NCLT resolutions since 2017, banks have taken an
average haircut of 80% in the past four years. >P5
Nazara Technologies makes its
first acquisition post-IPO
In its first acquisition after going public in
March, Nazara Technologies Ltd has signed a
binding term sheet to acquire West Asia- and
Turkey-based mobile gaming publishing
agency Publishme for $2.7 million, through a
primary and secondary transaction. >P3
CBSE, CISCE to use average of 3 yrs
to assess Class XII board results
The Central Board of Secondary Education
(CBSE) and the Council for the Indian School
Certificate Examinations (CISCE) will use the
average performance of three years,
including Class X and Class XI, for assessing
results of 1.55 million Class XII students. >P2
Flipkart and Amazon challenge
Karnataka HC ruling on CCI probe
Online retailers Flipkart and Amazon India
filed separate petitions to a division bench
challenging the Karnataka high court’s
decision last week to allow the Competition
Commission of India (CCI) to continue its
investigation against them. >P9
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02 FRIDAY, 18 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU ECONOMY & POLICY LIVEMINT.COM

m MINT SHORTS
MCA eases rules for board meets
SC accepts CBSE, CISCE plan PLI scheme
may help
conducted through virtual mode
New Delhi: Boards of companies can now approve annual finan-
cial statements and matters related to mergers, among other
things, at meetings held through videoconferencing and other
for assessing board results drugmakers
cut imports
audio-visual means. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has
amended the rules pertaining to ‘meetings of board and its pow- Neetu Chandra Sharma
ers’ under the Companies Act, 2013, in view of the pandemic. PTI neetu.s@livemint.com
Both boards will use average performance of three years to evaluate results of Class XII students NEW DELHI

Hong Kong newspaper editors

T
he production-linked
Prashant K. Nanda The method was adopted to weed incentive (PLI) scheme
arrested under security law prashant.n@livemint.com out doubts that the CBSE did not con- for companies producing
BLOOMBERG
NEW DELHI sider examinations conducted prior to high value-added pharmaceu-
covid-19 while assessing results in a tical products may help cut

T
he Central Board of Second- pandemic year. Here, the Class XI score imports of key raw materials
ary Education (CBSE) and would be crucial. One of the reasons for such as bulk drugs and formu-
the Council for the Indian using Class X scores was to ensure that lations from China by 25-35%,
School Certificate Examina- while finalizing Class XII scores, it at Icra said on Thursday.
tions (CISCE) will use the least used performance in a standard- The credit rating agency said
average performance of three years, ized test, which is the Class X board the scheme will curb import
including Class X and Class XI, for examination of these students. dependence of such pharma-
assessing results of 1.55 million Class “There are two sides to this criteria. ceutical products while boost-
XII students. One, it gives weight to consistent aca- ing domestic production and
CBSE will assign 30% weightage demic performance. However, some increasing value addition in
each to performance in Class X and students believe that the Class X board exports. Products such as com-
Hong Kong: Hong Kong police used a sweeping national Class XI, and 40% to Class XII perform- examination was largely generic and plex generics, patented prod-
security law on Thursday to arrest five editors and execu- ance in unit, mid-term, and pre-board for example, a Class XII commerce stu- ucts, and biologics tend to be
tives of a pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily on charges exams, the central board informed the dent’s performance has no link with the difficult to produce as they
of colluding with foreign powers. It is the first time the leg- Supreme Court. performance in Class X. Besides, Class require high levels of research
islation has been used against the press. Police said they had The apex court accepted the assess- CBSE will announce the results for 1.55 million Class XII students by 31 July. HT XI is generally not taken as seriously as and development, which is
evidence that more than 30 articles published by played a ment criteria but asked the board to the Class XII from the examination costly and time-consuming.
“crucial part” in what they called a conspiracy with foreign establish a grievance redressal mecha- Theory marks for Class XII will be Class XII weighted marks. point of view. Hence, some students The PLI-II scheme
countries to impose sanctions against China and Hong nism before it passes a final order on based on the performance in one or Thus, while one school may give may have some complaints. However, announced in February 2021
Kong. PTI Monday. A bench comprising Justices more unit tests, mid-term, and pre- “equal weight to pre-board exam and we are in a pandemic year,” said a focuses on the production and
A.M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Mahesh- board theory examinations, according mid-term exams” while computing school teacher in New Delhi, who diversification into high-value
wari said they have “no reservation to to an affidavit given to the court by marks, another can only use pre-board declined to be named as the case is in pharmaceutical products (for-
India working with Dominican accept the same and per- exam scores. court. mulations/ KSMs/ DIs/ APIs/
authorities to deport Choksi early mit the boards to proceed SCORING CRITERIA The Class X theory “The biggest challenge will be its others) with a thrust on exports.
on that basis”. marks will be based on implementation especially the theory It covers R&D expenses for
New Delhi: India is working with Dominican authorities to seek CBSE will announce CBSE will assign 30% THEORY marks for SC asked the board to the year-end final exami- computation system. Many private product development as part of
the early deportation of fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi, the results by 31 July. weightage each to Class XII will be based set up a grievance nation and on the per- schools may inflate marks. Execution, the eligible investments in
performance in on the performance redressal mechanism
Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on The assessment crite- Class X and Class XI, in unit test, mid-term, before it passes a final formance in three out of monitoring, and rationalisation of addition to provision to change
Thursday. Choksi continues to be in the custody of the Domin- ria was formulated by a and 40% to Class XII and pre-board exams order on Monday five key subjects. To score will be key,” said an education the initially committed product
can authorities, Bagchi said and added that legal proceedings to 13-member expert panel ensure rationalization of consultant, who also declined to be mix upto five times during the
get him to India were under way. ELIZABETH ROCHE constituted by the board marks awarded by named. scheme’s tenure.
on 4 June. CBSE. The board has given the school schools, so that it is not inflated, three On 1 June, the Union government India imported around
Each school will have a results com- committee the freedom to decide years’ performance will be taken into cancelled the CBSE Class XII board ₹25,000 crore worth of KSMs,
‘Police quizzed Twitter India MD mittee comprising the principal, two whether they wish to use all the unit, account by CBSE and six years by examinations because of the pandemic DIs and APIs in FY20, with
senior teachers, and two teachers from mid-term and pre-board results or just CISCE. CBSE also asked schools to and several other boards, including China accounting for 65-70%
on 31 May in the ‘toolkit’ case’ a neighbouring school. the pre-board marks for tabulating guard against inflating marks. CISCE, followed suit. of such imports.

India ranks 43 on competitiveness index ASU to partner with

Asit Ranjan Mishra
Rating economic performance
asit.m@livemint.com
six Indian varsities
The changes in ranking this year point to which countries may
development index (64), GDP
per capita (63) and foreign cur-
NEW DELHI rency reserves per capita (62)
have been better prepared for the pandemic. Prashant K. Nanda
among others. Right now, we are contemplat-
IMD World Competitiveness Ranking

I
ndia’s position has INDIA RANKING TOP 5
2020 2021
From a list of 15 indicators, prashant.n@livemint.com ing dual degrees,” Julia Rosen,
COUNTRIES
remained unchanged at 43 40 2013 (in reverse scale) respondents of the Executive NEW DELHI vice president of global aca-
New Delhi: Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari was for the third year in a row in Switzerland 3 1 Opinion Survey were asked to demic initiatives at ASU, said

A
questioned by the Delhi Police in Bengaluru on 31 May in the World Competitiveness 41 select five that they perceived rizona State University in a video interview.
connection with its probe into the ‘covid toolkit’ case, offi- Ranking by Switzerland-based Sweden 6 2 as the key attractiveness fac- (ASU), a leading US var- Douglas L. Becker, founder
cials said on Thursday. They did not divulge further Institute for Management Denmark
tors of the Indian economy. sity, is ready to partner of Cintana, said his firm will be
43 43 43 2 3
details, but said he was also questioned about the com- Development (IMD). 2021
While skilled workforce with half a dozen Indian uni- the implementation partner of
pany’s policy behind flagging tweets by users as “manipu- The annual ranking of 64 44 44 44 Netherlands 4 4 (66.4%), dynamism of the versities to offer joint degrees, this collaboration. The model
lated media”. PTI countries assesses the extent 45 economy (64.5%), cost com- make twining arrangements, is based on scale and will be
to which a country promotes Singapore 1 5 petitiveness (62.7%), high edu- and share its vast faculty and done in an affordable manner.
Note: The number of countries
the prosperity of its people by which participate in the ranking cational level (50%) and open research resources. “We are going to do this all
SAIL’s Bengal plants won’t face ore measuring economic well-be-
exercise varies each year Source: Institute for Management Development
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
and positive attitude (44.5%) The first such tie-up is hap- over India with five to six uni-
ing through hard data and sur- topped the list, effective pening with the 25-year-old versities,” Becker said.
supply issues: Pradhan tells Mitra vey responses from executives. “India’s improvements in ranking in public finance (41), labour relations (13.6%), relia- NorthCap University (NCU), They are looking at differ-
New Delhi: Union steel minister Dharmendra Pradhan has This year, the rankings the Government Efficiency business legislation (43) and ble infrastructure (14.5%), formerly ITM ent countries and
assured West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra that the two exposed the economic impact factor are mostly due to rela- societal framework (53) competitive tax regime University, in The first such designing the
plants of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) in West Bengal won’t of pandemic across the globe. tively stable public finances improved while tax policy (34) (16.4%), quality of corporate Haryana and is tie-up is implementation
face any iron ore crisis due to restructuring at the company. Prad- The report finds that qualities (e.g., despite difficulties deteriorated and institutional governance (18.2%) and strong being executed happening with strategy for ASU,
han wrote to Mitra on Wednesday explaining that there was no such as investment in innova- brought by the pandemic, in framework remained R&D culture (19.1%) were through US edu- the NorthCap he said.
merit in the concerns the latter had raised over iron ore supply tion, digitalization, welfare 2020 the govern- unchanged (45). voted to be India’s weakest cation consulting Becker said the
University,
to plants at Durgapur and Burnpur. He also clarified that staff benefits and leadership result- ment deficit Among the four The report said links. firm Cintana
formerly ITM
collaboration is
strength at the company won’t be reduced, and that SAIL will ing in social cohesion have stayed at 7%) and indices used, India’s strengths In 2021, Switzerland Education. not about degrees
continue to take care of its employees. GIREESH CHANDRA PRASAD helped countries better to the positive University
India’s ranking in lie in investments replaced Singapore (5) to top The move alone, but also
weather the crisis and thus feedbacks we reg- govt efficiency in telecoms (1), the ranking list while the US could bring down about a compre-
ranked higher in competitive- istered among mobile telephone remained stable at tenth posi- the cost of educa- hensive partner-
increased to 46
Dodla Dairy IPO subscribed 3.3 ness. Indian business
from 50 a year
costs (1), ICT ser- tion and China jumped four tion for those looking to study ship in multiple areas.
Among the four indices executives with vices exports (3), places to be at 16th position. in the US as part of the course Through such partnerships,
times; KIMS’ 56% on day two used, India’s ranking in gov- respect to the ago remuneration in The report said the changes can be offered at the Indian ASU will also allow the use
Mumbai: The initial public offering (IPO) of TPG Capital backed ernment efficiency increased support and sub- services profes- in ranking from the previous partner university. of its content and curriculum
Dodla Dairy was subscribed 3.3 times on the second day of bid- to 46 from 50 a year ago, while sidies provided sions (4) and year point to which countries “This partnership with the and provide access to
ding, led by retail investor subscription.The IPO received bids for its ranking in other parame- by the government to the pri- terms of trade index (5), while may have been better pre- NorthCap is unprecedented. its faculty.
28.05 million shares against 8.51 million shares on offer, as per ters such as economic per- vate companies,” the report its performance is the worst in pared for a global crisis, and We’re sharing syllabus. We are Cintana’s role is to “build
data available with the exchanges. Also on Thursday, the ₹2,144 formance (37), business effi- said. sub-indices such as broadband which aspects of their econo- sharing our expertise in online this strategy…and select these
crore IPO of hospital chain Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences ciency (32) and infrastructure Among the sub-indices for subscribers (64), exposure to mies appeared to be most resil- learning. We are sharing our 15 trustworthy partners”, he
Ltd (KIMS) was subscribed 56%. ASHWIN RAMARATHINAM (49) remained the same. government efficiency, India’s particle pollution (64), human ient through it. years of research trajectory. added.

India calls for vax equity as countries demand proof of inoculation for travel CORRECTIONS AND
CLARIFICATIONS
Mint welcomes comments,
Elizabeth Roche vaccine passports with greater lions of doses would be needed understand that there are con- AstraZeneca developed and suggestions or complaints
elizabeth.r@livemint.com focus on vaccine equity,” for- to vaccinate all the people in versations going on between India manufactured Covishield about errors.
NEW DELHI eign ministry spokesman Arin- the world. While the US has students and the universities. to inoculate its people along
Readers can alert the
dam Bagchi told reporters at a fully vaccinated a sizeable part We would obviously support with the indigenously-devel-
newsroom to any errors in the

T
he Indian government
on Thursday linked the
issue of countries in
Europe and Japan demanding
so-called ‘vaccine passports’ or
proof of covid-19 vaccination
along with passports, with vac-
cine equity in the developing
world where many nations
such as India are still to vacci-
nate bulk of their population.
“Many developing countries
have not yet been able to vacci-
nate a large percentage of their
population. We would favour
discussions on the subject of
weekly briefing.
The comments were in
response to queries on a Japa-
nese move announced Thurs-
day to issue ‘vaccine passports’
from next month to allow those
who have been vaccinated
against covid-19 to travel as
more countries ease curbs. The
Japanese government “is ask-
ing other countries to exempt
travellers carrying the docu-
ments that officially certify
their vaccination status from
quarantine or to shorten the
quarantine period, “ Kyodo
of its population, countries like
India have fully vaccinated only
a fraction of their population.
Responding to a query on
Indian students finding it diffi-
cult to travel to the US as they
faced issues with strictures that
only those vaccinated with
Students wait to receive a Covishield shot during a special vax WHO-approved jabs would be
drive for students travelling overseas, in Hyderabad. AP allowed to travel, Bagchi noted
that “there is no uniformity in
news agency reported. Coun- id-19, media reports said. the requirements.”
tries in Europe are also looking These plans come even as “The US government has
to issue special documents to many countries are still to clarified that vaccination is not
certify their nationals who are receive enough vaccines with a mandatory requirement for
fully vaccinated against cov- estimates suggesting that bil- our students to travel. I also
our students. I think everyone
concerned would like to ensure
that the students are able to
reach the universities and
undertake regular classes and
we hope that a constructive
solution is found,” he said.
The problems of Indian stu-
dents featured in a discussion
between India’s foreign secre-
tary Harsh Vardhan Shringla
and US chargé d’ affaires Daniel
Smith in New Delhi earlier this
month, people familiar with the
matter said. India has been
using the Oxford University-
oped Covaxin, manufactured paper by emailing us, with your
by Hyderabad-based Bharat full name and address to
Biotech. The US’ Centres for feedback@livemint.com.
Disease Control and Preven-
tion (CDC) does not recognize It is our policy to promptly
respond to all complaints.
Covaxin. Covishield has been Readers dissatisfied with the
granted an emergency use list- response or concerned about
ing by WHO, and is accepted by Mint’s journalistic integrity may
the CDC guidelines for entry of write directly to the editor by
foreign travellers. sending an email to
Bharat Biotech, said last asktheeditor@livemint.com
month that it intends to pro- Mint’s journalistic Code of
vide additional documentation Conduct that governs our
needed to secure WHO’s emer- newsroom is available at
gency use listing of the vaccine www.livemint.com
by this month.

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LIVEMINT.COM DEALS, TECH & STARTUPS FRIDAY, 18 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU 03

Nazara Technologies makes 3 startups and their quest to

ease working cap management
its first acquisition post-IPO Supriya Roy
supriya.roy@hindustantimes.com
BENGALURU
agreements onto a singular
dashboard, augment profes-
sional services of accounting
and law, as well as scenario

A
bout a year before the modelling tools for startups to
covid-19 outbreak, six evaluate investment-related
It will pick up a 69.82% stake in mobile gaming publishing agency Publishme for $2.7 million entrepreneurs, on decisions and shareholding.
three different paths, decided The 20-member team at
that the time was ripe to solve Toppeq has tried to make it
Tarush Bhalla a pertinent problem in India’s seamless for startups to adopt
tarush.b@livemint.com
Growing footprint startup and venture capital its services. “The client just
Nazara Technologies operates across key segments of premium e-sports
BENGALURU market—find an easy, trans- needs to send us a bunch of
and gamified learning and has a strong presence in North America and India.
parent way to manage capital- documents. Depending on

I
n its first acquisition after going KEY GROWTH AREAS USERS ization tables and employee Nandini Sankar, founder of how complex the client is,
public in March, Nazara Technolo- Gamified learning Kiddopia stock option plans or Esops. Toppeq, which looks to within a couple of days they
(Kiddopia)
gies Ltd has signed a binding term
E-sports
340,282 (paid subscribers) This led to the birth of three digitize cap tables at startups. are up and running live on the
sheet to acquire Middle East- and (Nodwin Gaming, Sportskeeda) Nodwin Gaming and Sportskeeda
entrepreneurial ventures— platform,” Sankar said.
Turkey-based mobile gaming pub- Toppeq, Qapita and MyStart- three set up a business in Sep- Toppeq is now engaged
lishing agency Publishme for $2.7 mil-
Freemium
(World Cricket Championship)
42.36 mn (monthly active users) upEquity. tember 2019 and in April 2021 with a US-based private
lion, through a primary and secondary World Cricket Championship The founders of these firms raised a $5 million pre-Series exchange as an exclusive cap
transaction. REVENUE DISTRIBUTION 12.73 mn (monthly active users) didn’t just chance upon the A round led by Boston-based table provider, with over 800
Nazara will pick up a 69.82% stake in idea. In May 2019, Morgan venture capital firm MassMu- investors using the applica-
the company, as it looks to strengthen STRATEGIC ACQUISITIONS Stanley acquired Calgary- tual Ventures. tion. Private exchanges are
37 E-sports
its presence in the Middle East and Nextwave Multimedia (2017) based Solium Capital and its The Singapore-based com- trading platforms that facili-
North Africa (MENA) region. (in %)
Nodwin Gaming (2018) cloud-based equity plan man- pany has now grown to 32 tate secondary transactions
“We operate across key gaming seg- 17 Telecom Halaplay (2019) agement solution for startups, employees across 13 cities. Its and buybacks of private com-
39
ments of premium e-sports and gami- subscription Absolute Sports (2019) private and public companies, product development is done pany shares among institu-
fied learning, and have a strong pres- Sports Unity (2019) Shareworks. The same entirely in Hyderabad. Qapita tional investors and other
3 4
ence in North America and India. Now, Freemium Paper Boats Apps (2020) month, Goldman Sachs was is currently focused on India, entities.
if any of these entities will have to Gamified Fantasy and real Publishme (2021)
part of a $300 million invest- Singapore, and Indonesia. From four clients in June
expand their footprint into newer geo- learning money gaming Manish Agarwal, chief executive ment round in San Francisco- “When I started my bank- 2020, Toppeq has reached 50
Source: Nazara Technologies
graphies, they would like to acquire officer, Nazara Technologies. based Carta that valued the ing career, the average time to within the first four months of
PARAS JAIN/MINT
execution capabilities. Hence, if we equity cap table management IPO was six years globally. 2021.
have to expand in MENA, we will need The company is actively looking to Sports, owner of multi-sports content With the acquisition, Publishme will startup at $1.7 billion. Today, the global average to “Having built LetsVenture
publishing and the Publishme acquisi- acquire and is expected to make inter- platform Sportskeeda; Nextwave Mul- also become a full-fledged publisher in For the founders of Top- IPO is about 12 Technologies (the
tion helps us in this strategic growth,” national buyouts to push the key offer- timedia, developer of cricket simula- the MENA region, he said. peq, Qapita and MyStartu- years, in our part parent unit of MyS-
said Manish Agarwal, chief executive ings in new markets. tion game World Cricket Champion- “MENA is a key geography for us and pEquity, it was a no brainer. of the world that is tartupEquity) since
officer of Nazara Technologies, in an “For India, we will acquire busi- ship (WCC); Halaplay, a fantasy gaming this acquisition will help us in estab- Like most successful business South-East Asia, it 2013, Shanti
interview. nesses to build capabilities, while platform; and Sports Unity, creator of lishing ourselves as a key player in the models in the US, this one too is 14-15-16 years...,” Ravula- (Mohan) and I realized that
“For the content to succeed, one has maintaining market leadership and quiz game Qunami. region. We are excited to have some- could be replicated for India parthi said. many of the early-stage or
to understand the local cultural reso- going deeper in gaming categories “We are delighted to join Nazara and one with deep regional knowledge and and Asia, with modifications Qapita aims to ultimately even growth-stage startups
nance, whether it is relating to the con- where we already have a presence. This lead the company’s foray in the MENA capabilities like Özgür and his team for the local environment. digitize the entire equity have challenges in terms of
tent itself or for marketing of the con- includes real-money gaming, cricket region. MENA is one of the fastest- join the ‘Friends of Nazara’ network,” The addressable market was structure in a private firm. Six managing their cap table, and
tent,” he added. simulation and e-sports, for instance growing gaming markets, with an esti- said Nitish Mittersain, founder and already quite significant— months from launch, the Esop allotments. In August
Publishme is a full-service games [...] While the acquisition focus is on mated size of $4.8 billion with over 160 joint managing director, Nazara Tech- India alone has an estimated startup has over 100 compa- 2019, we started building
marketing and publishing agency, nologies. In FY21, Nazara’s reve- 50,000 startups—and grow- nies—half from India and the MyStartupEquity,” said San-
which works extensively with gam- GAME ON nues surged 83% to ₹454 crore. ing. rest split equally between jay Jha, co-founder of Benga-
ing companies and brands in Tur- While gamified early learning Mumbai-based Qapita was Indonesia and Singapore. luru based LetsVenture.
key and the MENA region. At PUBLISHME works AT present, the MORE than 80% of NAZARA is present and e-sports together contributed born when a former invest- Mumbai-based Toppeq was Towards the end of 2019,
present, the company’s clientele extensively with
gaming companies
company’s clientele
includes Garena,
Nazara’s revenue
comes from North
in MENA via telecom
subscriptions,
76% to total revenues, it reported ment banker Ravi Ravula- founded in late 2019 by MyStartupEquity found early
includes Garena, My.Games and and brands in Turkey My.Games and America and India; but wants to profit at the earnings before inter- parthi, former corporate former SS&C GlobeOP Asia adopters. In October 2020, it
Lokum Games, among others. and MENA region Lokum Games MENA is next focus expand its offerings est, taxes, depreciation and amorti- investor Lakshman Gupta, Pacific managing director was servicing 100 startups
For Nazara, more than 80% of its zation (Ebitda) level worth ₹45 and techie Vamsee Mohan Nandini Sankar who set out to and by April 2021, it
revenue currently comes from crore against a loss of ₹5.6 crore in walked into a metaphorical build a tool that would help onboarded over 240 startups.
North America and India, and MENA is profitable businesses, we are ensuring million gamers (of which 100 million the last fiscal year. bar. entrepreneurs manage their Even as LetsVenture caters to
its next big focus, added Agarwal. to not over concentrate our profits and are mobile gamers). Our alliance with Nazara Technologies became the While Ravulaparthi and working capital and cap tables early-stage startups, 25% or
The company has been present in revenues on one segment,” he added. Nazara offers a unique blend of net- first Indian gaming company to go pub- Gupta once worked together more efficiently. about 60 startups were late
MENA through telecom subscriptions, At present, Nazara owns majority work, global reach and local capabili- lic, with the launch of its initial public in the Tata Group, Ravula- With Toppeq, she built a stage or Series B onwards sta-
but now wants to offer its freemium stakes in Paper Boat Apps, a kids gami- ties to further the growth of the gaming offering (IPO) on 17 March. The IPO got parthi and Mohan were business to digitize cap tables ges startup, having raised
gaming, e-sports and gamified learning fied learning platform; Nodwin Gam- industry,” said Özgür Özalp, chief exec- a good response, with the ₹583 crore batchmates at IIT Madras at startups, maintain Esops, more than $10 million in
offerings in the region. ing, an e-sports company; Absolute utive officer, Publishme. offer being subscribed 175.46 times. over two decades ago. The organize legal and regulatory funding.

Over 100 mn Indians took to e-gaming in ’20 Hybrid work model to be new norm for IT
Prasid Banerjee increasing smartphone and Ayushman Baruah home and some from office, that collaboration, ideation,
prasid.b@livemint.com internet penetration, but the ayushman.b@livemint.com Chandrasekaran said. This is in team bonding and casual inter-
NEW DELHI report noted that an increase BENGALURU sync with TCS’ Vision 25/25 actions can happen in an enrich-
in supply of world class gam- unveiled during the first covid ing way,” said Lobo.

T M
he pandemic has come
as a massive boon for
India’s gaming sector—
the industry added more than
100 million Indian users over
the past year, according to a
new report by KPMG.
The number of online gam-
ers grew from close to 300
million in 2019 to 433 million
in FY20-21. Revenue too more
than doubled from ₹6,200
crore in FY19-20 to ₹13,600
crore in FY20-21.
And while the limelight has
been grabbed by real-money
games like poker and rummy,
and online fantasy sports com-
panies like Dream11, the
growth it seems has been led
by casual games. The KPMG
report said that revenue from
casual games, which are tar-
geted at mass audiences,
amounted to ₹6,020 crore in
the past financial year, while
real-money and fantasy sports
games recorded ₹4,980 crore
and ₹2,430 crore revenue,
respectively.
While the overall online gaming segment did grow, most gamers
in India still use mobile phones to play games.
“India had the highest game
downloads in the casual
mobile gaming segment in the
world (excluding China) in
2020 with Q1-Q32020 down-
loads standing at 7.3 billion
accounting for 17% of the
global mobile game down-
loads (approximately 43 bil-
lion, excluding China) during
the same period,” the report
said.
The growth in Indian gam-
ing has been well documented
over the past year. In January,
mobile gaming company
GETTY
Octro said its TeenPatti game
saw an astonishing 800%
growth last year and was being
played by over 150 million
players at the time. South
Korea’s Krafton Inc. said its
upcoming game Battle-
grounds Mobile India received
over 20 million registrations
this month. Battlegrounds
Mobile India is the replace-
ment for popular battle royale
game PUBG Mobile, which
was banned in India last year.
Registrations began on 6 May.
Growth is being driven by
ing titles, localized content
and new features have also
helped. It said that the covid-
driven lockdown last year was
the “tipping point” for gaming
in India.
However, while the overall
online gaming segment did
grow, most gamers in India
still use mobile phones to play
games. Mobile phones
accounted for 94% of the user
base in the country, with PC
and console accounting for 9%
and 4%, respectively.
“This is important because
historically most of the gaming
used to happen on laptops and
PCs globally, whereas India
has bypassed this generation,”
said Girish Menon, partner
and head, media and enter-
tainment, KPMG.
The report pegged the value
of India’s online gaming seg-
ment at ₹13,600 crore, and
said that it will grow at a com-
pounded annual growth rate
of 21% to ₹29,000 crore, in the
next five years.
ore employees are set to
return to working from
offices instead of homes
at India’s top IT companies as
covid cases decline and vaccina-
tions gain pace.
The companies, however,
plan to follow a hybrid model
allowing some to work from
offices and the rest to continue
operating from homes. Such
decisions would hinge on fac-
tors such as criticality of the
work, vaccination status and
employee location, according
to senior company executives.
Software services firms, one
of the biggest employers in
India, currently have less than
5% of their workforce coming
to offices.
Tata Consultancy Services
Ltd (TCS), India’s top software
services firm, will ask employ-
ees to come to work once the
pandemic is over as social inter-
actions are a necessity, Tata
Sons chairman N. Chandrase-
karan said at the TCS’s annual
general meeting last week.
The decision regarding staff’s
return will hinge on factors
such as criticality of the work,
vax status and location. HT
“I do want to make the point
that people need to meet people.
It is a social necessity,” he said.
TCS, which has 97% of staff
working from home, has drawn
up a risk-assessment model to
evaluate the return of some
employees to offices. This will
assess factors such as their vac-
cination status, place of resi-
dence, risk factors in the region
and other health parameters.
However, the new normal
will be a hybrid model where
some employees will work from
wave. By 2025, only a quarter of
TCS’ workforce will operate
from offices at any time, with
associates spending only a
quarter of their time in office.
And within project teams, only
25% of staff can be co-located.
Infosys Ltd will make a small
number of employees return to
the workplace depending on
client criticality and location-
specific public health status,
said Richard Lobo, head of
human resources at the firm.
“Our approach to return to
work has been balanced, with a
tilt towards employee safety and
well-being. We continue to have
96.5% of our workforce operat-
ing remotely and we are not
envisaging a sudden shift from
this mode till the pandemic situ-
ation stabilizes and vaccines are
widely deployed,” he said.
At Infosys, too, the future of
working is expected to be
hybrid. “Technology and smart
scheduling will have a big role to
play in ensuring that the work-
places are used meaningfully so
Employees of Wipro Ltd are
expected to return to office from
August. “We will take a decision
on extending work from home
closer to date and firm up our
return to work policy in due
course after taking into account
the pandemic situation,” Wipro
said in a statement.
Nasdaq-listed Cognizant
Technology Solutions Corp.,
which has the bulk of its work-
force in India, will be looking at
a phased approach to returning
its employees to office—as
much as 99% are currently
working from home.
“We will assess and execute a
work model that will be most ben-
eficial to our clients while creating
more flexible and collaborative
work environments for our asso-
ciates. We will use a phased
approach to bring employees
back, depending on the business
requirements and, based on our
learnings, scale up operations as
needed,” said Shantanu Jha,
senior vice-president, human
resources, Cognizant India.

saving medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators to hos- Paytm hires bankers, including JP
m MINT SHORTS pitals and patients. “The QR Code-based OC Tracking platform
which was created within a span of just 72 hours has been helping
BharatPe FY21 revenue jumps
over seven times to ₹700 crore Morgan Chase, before mega-IPO
the Delhi government keep a real-time track of the donated oxy- Bengaluru: One97 Communi- MINT

Wipro IT Services to issue $750 mn
dollar-denominated notes
New Delhi: Wipro on Thursday said its step-down subsidiary,
MINT Wipro IT Services, will issue US
dollar denominated notes
worth $750 million on 23 June.
The net proceeds of the notes,
which are proposed to be listed
on Singapore Exchange Securi-
ties Trading Ltd, are to be util-
ized to refinance debt and for
general corporate purposes.
The company’s board approved
the proposal on 10 June. PTI
Blowhorn develops platform to
track delivery of medical aid
New Delhi: Logistics firm Blowhorn on Thursday said it has
developed a real-time tracking platform to aid the fight against
covid-19 in the national capital by ensuring timely delivery of life-
gen concentrators by bringing them on to a centralized plat- cations Ltd has roped in JP
form,” a company said in a statement. The platform is currently Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman
tracking an available inventory of 3,514 oxygen concentrators Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and
across 18 hospitals in Delhi. PTI ICICI Securities Ltd as official
bankers for its proposed initial
public offering (IPO), later in
CARS24 lines up $100 million to November, this year, according
to two individuals aware of the
expand international ops this year discussion. The board of One97
New Delhi: Online used car marketplace CARS24 on Thursday Communications finalized on the bankers, earlier this week, said
said it will invest $100 million (about ₹738 crore) to expand oper- one of the individuals quoted above. TARUSH BHALLA
ations in international markets this year. The company has
already forayed into Australia and the UAE and is now ready to
launch business in Southeast Asian and West Asian countries this Mumbai: Financial technology firm BharatPe has seen its Danish fund IFU, UNOPS’ S3i to buy
year. The investments will be revenue and transaction volume jump manifold in FY21,
used to build the brand in these as the pandemic has forced people and businesses to adopt
stakes in ACME’s Rajasthan project
new territories coupled with a digital transactions. The firm disbursed ₹1,600 crore in New Delhi: Danish fund IFU and United Nations Office for
strong supply of cars for the 2020-21 to 180,000 merchant customers, which was only Project Services’ S3i will acquire 39% and 10% stake, respectively,
platform, and a workshop to ₹150 crore in 2019-20, BharatPe Group President Suhail in ACME Solar’s 250 MW solar project in Rajasthan. ACME has
recondition cars to ensure top Sameer told PTI on Thursday. This helped BharatPe net signed a landmark shareholders’ agreement with UNOPS S3i and
quality, it added. The company seven-times growth in revenue to over ₹700 crore, up from IFU for developing the 250 MW solar power plant in Rajasthan,
operates in over 130 cities in around ₹110 crore in 2019-20, Sameer said. PTI ACME Solar said on Thursday. A company spokesperson said
India. PTI ACME will have an equity stake of 51% in the project. PTI
04 FRIDAY, 18 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU 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

52,323.33 -0.34 15,691.40 -.48 13,425.15 -0.63 38,519.30 -0.94 15,936.20 -0.56 22,396.07 -1.29 24,868.93 -0.58
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52,501.98 52,122.25 15,767.55 15,648.30 13,510.60 13,405.90 38,883.10 38,496.30 16,025.55 15,897.60 22,689.35 22,47275 25,015.06 24,883.97
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52,523.88 52,040.51 15,769.35 15,616.75 13,520.90 13,372.40 38,872.65 38,352.05 16,024.00 15,865.45 22,678.00 22,330.12 25,154.66 24,797.65

m MINT SHORTS
China is gradually stepping up
As US Fed flags early hikes, equity
its interventions in markets
China is resorting to increasingly forceful measures to
contain risks to the financial system, in moves that
threaten to undermine President Xi Jinping’s pledge to
markets must face moment of truth
give markets greater freedom. Authorities have in recent Harsha Jethmalani the US economy is currently seeing comfort from the US Fed’s pledge that lysts at Nirmal Bang Institutional
weeks ordered state firms to curb their overseas com- harsha.j@livemint.com will start to abate. it would remain transparent about
The fear factor Equities said in a report.
modities exposure, forced domestic banks to hold more Also, the central bank is starting a tapering, analysts said. However, A gush of liquidity during the second With the Fed meeting done, the

T
foreign currencies, considered a cap on thermal coal pri- he US Federal Reserve has discussion about scaling back bond sooner rather than later, investors will wave of the pandemic has kept focus shifts to the Jackson Hole meet-
ces, censored searches for crypto exchanges and effec- indicated speeding up the purchases. In simple terms, the pan- have to shed their complacency. volatility indices rangebound, indicating ing scheduled in August. “A statement
tively banned brokers from publishing bullish equity-in- pace of policy tightening. demic-driven liquidity flow, a key “We feel that the direction of mone- complacency among investors. in November about a tapering deci-
dex targets. A new rule will bar cash management prod- The key interest rate was driver of global equity market rally, tary policy has changed and the peak NSE VIX CBOE VIX sion in December or January is not
ucts from holding riskier securities and limit their use of left unchanged at its latest would come to an end sooner than of loose policy is behind us now. As for 40 very much of an early warning signal
leverage. On Thursday, an official said China plans to sell meet, but with rising inflationary expected. the market’s reaction, we expect these for markets that will need it to avoid a
metals from state reserves. While the measures fall short pressure and an improving US econ- Global equities markets did not like developments to start sinking in 35
taper tantrum, which brings us back to
of direct intervention, they risk reinforcing the notion of omy, the Fed is considering a mone- this, but the fall was moderate. The slowly. We may see bouts of correc- August (Jackson Hole) or September
moral hazard. BLOOMBERG tary policy turnaround. Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 265 tions or volatility as the market real- (FOMC meeting, with new projec-
The latest forecasts izes that in the next 30 tions) as potential dates to flag taper-
22.75
signal an interest rate MARKET EXPECTATIONS three-six months the ing,” analysts at US-based Rabobank
hike in 2023, one year Fed would lay out a plan said. The Fed’s hint on an early taper
Bouncing back earlier than previously WE may see bouts MONEY pumped in A potential third wave on QE tapering as it
25
does set a tone for global equity mar-
After a decade of underperforming their US peers, assumed. At least seven of corrections or by global central of covid infections wants to avoid any sharp kets, but analysts said the Reserve
European stocks are setting the pace this year. volatility in the banks has kept and worsening fiscal
members of the Federal market in the next markets buoyant deficit pose risk to reaction in financial 20 18.27 Bank of India (RBI) will not hike rates
21.10
(in %) Open Market Commit- three-six months despite covid-19 the Indian market markets,” said Sahil in a hurry.
41.75 tee (FOMC) are now Kapoor, head, products That said, there are other downside
Euro Stoxx 600 32.96 15
S&P 500
looking for the first rate and market strategy, 15.29
risks for the Indian stock market.
hike next year, up from four in March. points, or around 1%, on Wednesday. DSP. Deepak Jasani, head of retail research
10
While this is not enough to raise the The sentiment rubbed-off on Asian Money pumped in by global central 31 Dec 2020 17 Jun 2021 at HDFC Securities Ltd, flagged a
median, which remains at 0.125% for equities as well. Key Indian equity banks in the form of stimulus has Source: Bloomberg potential third wave of infections, a
13.86 next year, but now 13 members fore- market index, the Nifty, lost about helped equity markets remain buoy- weakening fiscal situation, worries
7.86 see the first hikes in 2023, up from 0.5% or 76 points on Thursday. Fear ant despite the covid-19 pandemic’s SATISH KUMAR/MINT
over inflation, and weakening asset
seven in March. gauge, the Nifty India volatility index impact on economies. “Not even half- stance by the Fed last night, we will quality of banks, as some negative
It should be noted that the Fed now (VIX), ended the day’s session up way through 2021, investors had see outflows soon because the fear of triggers. Indian investors may have
Annualized total Annualized total expects the US economy to grow 7% 2.84%. There was hardly any move- poured more money into EM (emerg- missing out (FOMO) is a form of vola- shrugged off the Fed’s shift, but as dol-
return 2010-2020 return 2021* this year. As for inflation, the central ment in the CBOE VIX as well. ing market) assets than many recent tility and fear or greed are subcon- lars begin to shrink, equity markets
*Year to date Source: Bloomberg bank said that the high inflation that For now, the market is drawing full calendar years. With the change of sciously motivated by FOMO,” ana- may see their moment of truth.
SATISH KUMAR/MINT

European stocks are no longer

laggards in the global market
It’s no secret that US stocks have whipped their European
CESC’s steady recovery in the Federal Bank’s capital looks good,
counterparts in recent years. Between the start of 2010
and the end of 2020, the Euro Stoxx 600 index gained
less than 60%, trailing the S&P 500 index’s 237%
March quarter brings respite but investors must watch for stress
increase. Even including dividends, the European
benchmark delivered a total return of just 130%, com- Pallavi Pengonda Aparna Iyer the regulatory minimum. The defaults.
Growth path
pared with more than 300% for the US measure. This pallavi.p@livemint.com aparna.i@livemint.com fresh capital will boost the tier-1 Here, the indications are
year, however, the picture is different. The prospect of CESC’s March quarter net profit saw a modest 8% ratio by roughly 150 basis points, good. For the March quarter,
year-on-year increase on a standalone basis.

S F
faster inflation has dimmed the allure of the technology hares of CESC Ltd hit a ederal Bank Ltd is beefing according to analysts. One basis gross bad loans were just 3.4% of
Adjusted net profit* (in ₹ crore)
stocks that have been the main driving force behind the 52-week high on Thurs- 300
up its capital, and how the point is one-hundredth of a per- the total book. The management
US market’s outsize gains. There’s also renewed interest day in early deals on the 270 lender deftly handles stress centage point. believes that the stress from the
in value stocks, which are more prevalent in the Euro- National Stock Exchange. 250 in the wake of the second covid Most lenders have been second wave would be managea-
pean index, after several years of growth stocks com- CESC announced its quarter wave will determine whether readying plans to raise capital ble. That said, the bank’s provi-
200
manding most of the attention. Earlier this week, the and year ending March 176 this fresh capital will go towards despite having sion coverage ratio
European Union sold €20 billion of bonds to kickstart the results on Wednesday after 150 provisioning or balance sheet healthy adequacy The lender has is a little more than
fundraising effort to finance the €750 billion pandemic market hours. Here, the per- growth. ratios. Much of this raised ₹916 crore 65%. This comes up
100
recovery programme. BLOOMBERG formance of subsidiaries and The private lender has raised has been in antici- by allotting short against some
the modest recovery in the 50 ₹916 crore by allotting preferen- pation of more pro- preferential larger peers such as
standalone business is tial shares to World Bank sub- visioning because ICICI Bank and
shares to
ECB eyes a change in strategy encouraging. 0
Q3FY20 Q4FY21
sidiary International Finance of increasing stress
World Bank
HDFC Bank, where
Overall, CESC’s reported Corporation (IFC), it said in an in the wake of the the coverage ratio is
in the middle of a pandemic consolidated net profit for the
*On a standalone basis Source: Company, Motilal Oswal Financial Services
exchange filing on Wednesday. second wave of the subsidiary IFC above 70%.
In a countryside retreat near Frankfurt this weekend, March quarter declined by SATISH KUMAR/MINT
IFC will hold 1.5% in the bank, covid-19 pandemic. The manage-
European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde and 3.6% year-on-year to ₹423 ings for FY2022E (+7.9%) and remained enthused about the while its two funds will get 1.75% Federal Bank is ment, however, has
her colleagues will try to settle the last remaining argu- crore. This was partly helped for FY2023E (+7%), factoring turnaround seen at Dhariwal. shareholding. not an outlier in the capital-rais- assured that these provisions are
ments in the biggest overhaul of their monetary policy in by a modest 8% growth in the improved profitability at Investors are now awaiting Further, Federal Bank has ing exercise. However, what may enough to manage the upcom-
almost two decades. It’s the first time since the outbreak company’s standalone net Dhariwal and lower losses at tariff orders. “The focus received the approval of its set it apart is the extent of fresh ing stress.
of the pandemic that the entire governing council will profit. Among the subsidiar- recently acquired distribution remains on the West Bengal board to raise a cumulative capital used for growth. In other Federal Bank has guided for a
meet in person, letting the 23 men and two women jetti- ies, Dhariwal Infrastructure circles,” said analysts from Electricity Regulatory Com- ₹4,000 crore capital through words, the lender’s asset quality challenging first and second
son the virtual-conferencing that they have struggled Ltd reported a profit after tax Kotak Institutional Equities in mission order on hiking tar- various routes. The bank’s capi- outlook determines how much quarter of FY22 in terms of
through in nearly a dozen previous debates. Their aim is of ₹31 crore for Q4, taking the a report on 17 June. iffs, which will improve cash tal adequacy ratio stood at capital it can use for improving growth and asset quality. The
nothing less than to retool the ECB for the 21st century, profit for finan- “A healthy ₹45 collection,” said a report by 14.62% as of March, well above its book instead of providing for lender would need to boost its
with a new inflation goal, better ways of measuring the cial year 2021 CESC will be p e r s h a r e o f Antique Stock Broking Ltd on provisions, though collection
economy, and agreement on how to treat issues such as (FY21) to ₹106 focusing on cost interim dividend 17 June. “The other catalysts efficiencies indicate that poten-
climate change and inequality. The getaway marks the crore. This com- shows the com- remain winning new distribu-
Keeping it safe tial stress from the second wave
optimization to Federal Bank has managed to keep its capital adequacy ratio from
final phase of a process that started 18 months ago, was pares favourably minimize the pany’s intent to tion franchisees and sweating of the covid-19 pandemic may be
derailed by the coronavirus, and included such moments with a loss of ₹10 falling, partly due to an increase in provisions every quarter.
impact of loss of increase the pay- of renewable assets,” Antique less than anticipated, analysts
as Lagarde banning online chatrooms. BLOOMBERG crore incurred in out ratio and pointed out. Capital adequacy ratio-Basel III Provision coverage ratio said. With a 13% increase since
FY20. sales volume due right-size the bal- Meanwhile, the CESC stock Gross non-performing assets
(right-hand scale) (in %) April, shares of the lender reflect
Further, Hal- to covid-19 ance sheet,” the gave up most of the gains seen most of its strengths, according
16 80
dia Energy Ltd analysts pointed on Thursday during trading to analysts.
Plummeting yields reported a profit out. For FY21, hours and closed just 1% 12 60 The preferential share issue
Historically low returns led investors into riskier territory. after tax of ₹361 crore for CESC has continued its focus higher by the end of the day. was done at ₹87.39 per share,
8 40
BB-rated European corporates, B-rated CCC-rated FY21, up 14% year-on-year on various cost optimization The share trades at around which valued the bank at
excluding financials
(y-o-y). On the flip side, Cres- measures to minimize the seven times estimated earn- 4 20 roughly ₹17,000 crore. Federal
60
cent Power & Surya Vidyut’s impact of loss of sales volume ings for financial year 2023 Bank will, however, need to
(in %)
net profit declined by 15% during the year because of based on Bloomberg data, 0
Q1FY20 Q4FY21
0 keep up its asset quality in the
45 y-o-y to ₹22 crore in FY21. covid-19. which does not appear too Source: Capitaline
coming quarters for further
“We have revised our earn- In general, analysts demanding. upside in valuations.
SATISH KUMAR/MINT
30

15

0
After a tough year, Lemon Tree Hotels’ woes are far from over
31 Mar 1999 15 Jun 2021
Source: Bloomberg Pallavi Pengonda Even so, revenues have grown much as 45% y-o-y to ₹2,498, “Lemon Tree operates in the
Rough patch
SATISH KUMAR/MINT pallavi.p@livemint.com by 39% on a quarter-on-quarter although the sequential drop in mid-priced market and has a
Lemon Tree Hotels’ revenues have declined year-on-year in each
basis and that is encouraging. the measure was curtailed to 1%. higher share of domestic cus-
quarter last fiscal.

F
inancial year 2021 was a
Private equity patrons are challenging one for Lemon
raising debt like it’s 2007 Tree Hotels Ltd. After all,
Europe’s private equity patrons are piling debt onto the the hotel sector was one of the
books of their companies to support dividend payouts, worst-affected due to the cov-
a move which could threaten these firms’ prospects when id-19 pandemic as demand took
the fiscal and monetary stimulus of the pandemic era a beating owing to the various
starts to wind down. Just under €13 billion ($16 billion) of restrictions to contain the
leveraged loan deals linked to dividend recapitalizations spread of the virus.
took place by early June, the highest level in 14 years, The upshot: Lemon Tree’s
according to S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Leveraged consolidated revenues have
Commentary & Data unit. That’s only €4 billion shy of the declined as much as 62% to
total for the same period in 2007, on the eve of the great ₹252 crore for FY21 versus
financial crisis. The stimulus deployed since March last FY20. There was some respite
year has kept many firms afloat amid ruinous lockdowns. in the March quarter with
Some private equity owners have seized the chance to improving consumption on the
issue more debt from their firms, potentially jeopardizing leisure front. Consequently, the
how quickly they can bounce back as economies start to drop in revenues was curtailed
open up and policymakers mull tapering. BLOOMBERG to 46% year-on-year (y-o-y).
This was helped by 1,685 basis
points improvement in occu-
pancy rates sequentially to
59.3%. One basis point is one-
hundredth of a percentage
point.
However, with the second
covid wave, the near-term path
is anything but smooth. Unfor-
tunately for investors, this also
delays the anticipated recovery
further. “Heading into FY22E,
the second wave in India has
dented the nascent recovery in
the sector and we now expect
the company’s average daily
rates and occupancies to
recover to pre-covid levels only
in FY24E versus FY23E earlier,”
However, as mentioned ear- tomers (85%), which is likely to
Consolidated revenues (in ₹ crore) Year-on-year change (in %) (right-hand scale) lier, occupancy rates have been witness a faster demand recov-
250 39 60 far better compared to the ery. It is also benefiting from a
200 30 December quarter. higher share of SME (small and
199.6 The company’s management medium enterprises) and retail
150 0
told analysts that the sequential customers, which have wit-
100 95.1 -30 pick-up was driven by the grad- nessed a faster demand revival,”
ual decline in covid cases across said analysts from Motilal Oswal
50 -60
-46 the country and also better Financial Services Ltd in a
0 -90 demand from ‘staycations’ and report on 16 June.
Q3FY20 Q4FY21
leisure. As things stand, Lemon
Source: Company, Motilal Oswal Financial Services
For FY21, Lemon Tree man- Tree’s shares are about 34%
SATISH KUMAR/MINT
aged to report an Ebitda of ₹61 away from pre-covid highs seen
said analysts from ICICI Securi- by 44-17%, respectively.” Ebitda crore, which is commendable in January 2020. The delay in
ties Ltd in a report on 16 June. is short for earnings before despite the tough business con- recovery and weak outlook on
The broker added: “Factoring interest, tax, depreciation and ditions. Going ahead, investors the earnings front may well
in the covid impact, we cut our amortization. would do well to track the keep a check on the stock’s per-
FY22/FY23E revenue estimates In the March quarter, Lemon progress on the revival in cor- formance until meaningful
by 32-14% and Ebitda estimates Tree’s average daily rate fell as porate demand. signs of demand revival emerge.

Mark to Market writers do not have positions in the companies they have discussed here
LIVEMINT.COM CORPORATE FRIDAY, 18 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU 05

Banks see 80% average haircut in India snubs Devas’

offer for settlement
top NCLT bankruptcy resolutions of arbitration row
Gireesh Chandra Prasad
gireesh.p@livemint.com
NEW DELHI
The insolvency resolution of Videocon group companies is the latest example of lenders feeling shortchanged
I
ndia has given the cold
shoulder to an offer by three
Gopika Gopakumar IBC stood at 45% during fiscal year Mauritius-based investors of
gopika.g@livemint.com Feeling the pinch 2020. Barring the top nine accounts, Devas Multimedia Pvt. Ltd to
MUMBAI According to IBBI data, in more than 360 major NCLT resolutions since the recovery rate has been just 24%, settle their dispute over a can-
2017, banks have taken an average haircut of 80%. according to Macquarie Research. celled satellite lease deal and

I
ndia’s bankruptcy resolution sys-
tem remains marred by meagre
recoveries and protracted delays,
despite attempts to fine-tune the
regime that debuted in 2017.
On Tuesday, the National Com-
pany Law Tribunal (NCLT) ques-
tioned the extensive haircut that len-
ders have agreed to take in the insol-
vency resolution of Videocon group
companies.
Billionaire Anil Agarwal’s Twin
Star Technologies has proposed to
pay ₹2,962 crore against admitted
claims of ₹64,838 crore, implying a
95.85% loss to all Videocon creditors.
The tribunal noted that this is close to
the liquidation value of these compa-
nies.
However, steep haircuts are noth-
ing new for lenders who have taken
bankrupt companies to the courts.
According to data from Insolvency
and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI),
in over 363 major NCLT resolutions
since 2017, banks have taken an aver-
age haircut of 80% over the past four
years. Some of the large haircuts
include Deccan Chronicle (95%),
Lanco Infra (88%), Ushdev Interna-
tional (94%) and Zion Steel (99%).
Among the 40 large cases referred
by the Reserve Bank of India, the
highest recovery was in the case of
Admitted Realizable amount In contrast, other modes of recov- the subsequent $1.3 billion
claims of FCs by FCs (in  cr) Haircut (in %) ery like debt recovery tribunals have international arbitration award
Deccan Chronicle 8,180 357 95 seen just 4% recovery, Securitisation they have won. The Antrix office building in
and Reconstruction of Financial The investors—Devas (Mau- Bengaluru. Antrix is pursuing
Videocon 59,132 2,884 95
Assets Enforcement of Securities ritius) Ltd, Telcom Devas Mau- multiple cases to set aside the
Synergy Dooray 972 54 94 (Sarfaesi) 26% and Lok Adalats 6%. ritius Ltd and Devas Employees arbitration award and to get
Ushdev Intl 3,292 197 94 “Banks should consider resolution Mauritius Pvt. Ltd —last month its former partner, Devas,
outside IBC also. Pre-packs (pre- offered an amicable settlement liquidated. ISRO
Reliance Infratel 41,055 4,235 89 packaged insolvency resolution) while pursuing enforcement of
Alok Industries 29,523 5,052 83 could be expanded to mid-sized the arbitration award against unanswered till press time.
cases. At some point, we need to rel- India over the cancelled deal The international arbitration
Amtek Auto 12,641 2,614 79
ook at relaxing Section 29 A if pro- with state-owned Antrix Corp. was triggered by the cancella-
Monnet Ispat 11,014 2,892 73 moters are not dishonest or diverted “Devas investors remain tion of the Devas-Antrix satel-
Aircel 19,832 6,630 67
funds. Some sectors require the sup- committed to resolving this lite capacity leasing deal in 2011
port of promoters for resolution. matter amicably. Unfortu- by Antrix citing “force
Electrosteel 13,175 5,320 59 Among the 40 large cases referred Banks should look at early warning nately, our letter has been met majeure.” Devas signed the
FC: Financial creditors Source: IBBI by the RBI, the highest recovery was signals and look at resolving the cases with silence from the Indian deal to offer mobile multimedia
in the case of Essar Steel. BLOOMBERG before Section 29 A bars the existing government,” said Matthew D. and broadband wireless servi-
PARAS JAIN/MINT
promoters to give a plan,” said R.K. McGill, a US-based lawyer at ces in India.
Essar Steel, where lenders managed ruptcy Code (IBC). Of these, 8% have delay in taking these cases for resolu- Bansal, managing director and chief law firm Gibson Dunn, lead The Antrix-Devas dispute is
to recover 92% of the outstanding seen resolution and 30% gone into tion. Do it when the default looks executive officer, Edelweiss ARC. counsel for a number of share- one of the investment disputes
dues of ₹49,000 crore. This case, liquidation, while 40% await resolu- imminent. The enterprise value of The pandemic and the consequent holders of Devas. that have dragged the govern-
which went all the way to the tion. (12% closed on appeal/review/ the company needs to be retained if it suspension of IBC proceedings for While the government chose ment into domestic and inter-
Supreme Court, saw the Ruias cede settled, 10% closed by withdrawal). has to get a good value. Early identifi- the entire fiscal year led to a sharp not to respond to the offer for national courts after the inves-
control of the firm to Arcelor Mittal. According to Macquarie Research, cation is therefore the only way for slowdown in the resolution process. amicable settlement, Antrix tors won hefty arbitration
In the case of Bhushan Power & bankruptcy resolution, which was better recovery. The courts should According to ICRA, the realization Corp. is pursuing multiple awards. These prompted New
Steel, banks recovered 41% of their initially prescribed within 180-270 also have to be more vigilant that res- for financial creditors from IBC cases to set aside the arbitration Delhi to terminate all its bilat-
dues. The resolution plan submitted days, now happens even beyond the olution happens in time,” said declined to ₹26,000 crore in fiscal award and to get its former eral investment protection
by JSW Steel included payment of extended timeline of 330 days. Abhizer Diwanji, partner, Ernst & year 2021. The rating agency expects partner, Devas, liquidated. treaties with other countries in
₹19,350 crore to lenders against out- However, experts say IBC is just Young. financial creditors could realize While the Delhi high court is 2015 and to renegotiate fresh
standing dues of ₹47,157 crore. another tool for loan recovery, and That said, IBC remains a better ₹55,000-60,000 crore in FY22, with expected to hear Antrix’s plea ones. This has not seen much
Since 2017, nearly 4,300 cases the main reason for the large haircuts option than other modes of recovery. 20% of the estimated realization com- to set aside the award in July, progress though.
have been admitted for resolution is the delay in admitting cases. According to the RBI’s Trend and ing from eight to nine big-ticket the National Company Law Devas shareholders say they
under the Insolvency and Bank- “The reason for large haircuts is the Progress Report, recovery through accounts. Tribunal’s Bangalore Bench on will continue their efforts to
25 May ordered the liquidation enforce the arbitration award.
of Devas. Its Mauritius-based “We look forward to continu-
shareholders are now contest- ing our enforcement efforts,

Govt amends cable TV rules, recognizes self-regulatory bodies

Lata Jha
ing this.
“Devas has appealed the
decision before the National
including the bilateral invest-
ment treaty award, globally,”
said McGill.
ment channels and the News tutional mechanism by way of the government said on an oversight mechanism by Court or a High Court or an Company Law Appellate Tri- India has another ongoing
lata.j@livemint.com Broadcasting Standards an inter-ministerial commit- Thursday, adding that some the central government. independent eminent person bunal (NCLAT) and the legal battle with British oil
NEW DELHI Authority, set up by the News tee to address grievances of broadcasters had also Broadcasters are to estab- from the field of media, broad- Supreme Court. NCLAT has major Cairn Energy Plc., which
Broadcasters Association, citizens relating to violation of requested legal recognition for lish a grievance or complaint casting, entertainment, child fixed the matter for hearing is trying to enforce an arbitra-

T
he central government
has issued a notification
amending the Cable Tel-
evision Network Rules, 1994,
thereby providing a statutory
recognition to self-regulatory
bodies of TV channels.
These will include the
Broadcasting Content Com-
plaints Council for entertain-
which will have to be regis-
tered with the government.
The amendments put the
rules guiding broadcasters on
a par with the IT Rules govern-
ing digital and OTT streaming
platforms, which also have to
have a three-tier grievance
redressal mechanism.
“At present, there is an insti-
the Programme or Advertising
Codes under the Rules. Simi-
larly, various broadcasters
have also developed their
internal self-regulatory mech-
anism for addressing grievan-
ces. However, a need was felt
to lay down a statutory mecha-
nism for strengthening the
grievance redressal structure,”
their associations and bodies.
A notification from the min-
istry of information and broad-
casting regarding the amend-
ment said that a three-tier
complaint structure should be
established, including self-
regulation by the broadcaster,
followed by the self-regulating
bodies of the broadcasters and
redressal mechanism and
appoint an officer to deal with
the complaints received by it.
There may be one or more self-
regulatory body of broadcast-
ers, and every such body shall
be constituted by a minimum
of forty broadcasters.
Each shall be headed by a
retired judge of the Supreme
rights, human rights or such
other relevant fields, and shall
have other members, who are
also independent experts.
The self-regulating body
will, after its constitution, reg-
ister itself with the central gov-
ernment within the next 30
days or within 30 days from
the date of its constitution.
next on 8 July. We remain
hopeful that India’s judiciary
will restore and vindicate our
rights,” said McGill.
There was no response to
emails sent to the Prime Minis-
ter’s office, finance ministry,
external affairs ministry and
the law ministry. An email sent
to Antrix Corp. too remained
tion award of over $1.2 billion it
won last year in an investment
dispute.
The government is contest-
ing this award, saying that the
arbitral tribunal improperly
exercised jurisdiction over a
national tax dispute that India
never agreed to be subject of
arbitration.

FT returns Bank staff seek job security

₹17,777 cr to assurance after privatization
investors of Shayan Ghosh

six schemes shayan.g@livemint.com

MUMBAI

PTI

T
he proposed privatiza-
feedback@livemint.com tion of two state-run len-
NEW DELHI ders has cast a pall of
gloom over bank employees

F
ranklin Templeton
Mutual Fund (MF) on
Thursday said it has
returned ₹17,777 crore to unit
holders of six shuttered debt
schemes till 15 June.
This amounts to 71% of
assets under management
(AUMs) as on 23 April 2020,
when the fund house shut its
six debt mutual fund
schemes citing redemption
pressures and lack of liquid-
ity in the bond market.
Further, cash to the tune of
₹580 crore was available for
distribution as on 15 June,
Franklin Templeton MF said
in a statement.
The schemes—Franklin
India Low Duration Fund,
Franklin India Dynamic
Accrual Fund, Franklin India
Credit Risk Fund, Franklin
India Short Term Income
Plan, Franklin India Ultra
Short Bond Fund, and Frank-
lin India Income Opportuni-
ties Fund—together had an
estimated ₹25,000 crore as
assets under management.
“The schemes have
returned ₹17,777.59 crore to
unitholders amounting to 71%
of AUM as on April 23, 2020,”
the fund house said in the
statement.
Under the first disburse-
ment in February, investors
received ₹9,122 crore, while
₹2,962 crore were paid to
investors during the week of
12 April, ₹2,489 crore in the
week of 3 May, and in the lat-
est disbursement during the
week of 5 June, investors were
paid ₹3,205 crore.
who fear loss of jobs and pen-
sions, with unions vowing
indefinite strikes to counter
any adverse announcement.
People who joined govern-
ment-owned banks with job
security in mind believe that
while mergers largely did not
lead to job losses, privatization
will.
Union finance minister Nir-
mala Sitharaman announced
in the FY22 Union budget that
the government will reduce its
stake in two public sector
banks apart from IDBI Bank.
To be sure, she said in March
that privatization would not
hurt the interests of employ-
ees.
Though the government
has not named any bank yet for
privatization, various news
reports have pointed to Cen-
tral Bank of India, Indian
Overseas Bank, and Bank of
Maharashtra as likely candi-
dates.
“We are not sure about what
is happening. I have a col-
league who left a cushy job to
come work at the bank and is
now worried about losing his
job,” said a banker at one of the
three lenders mentioned
above. Several bank employ-
ees have died during the two
waves of covid-19 and now the
lack of clarity on jobs is quite
frustrating, he said.
Others said that privatiza-
tion would be unfair to those
who joined these banks con-
sidering the benefits of being
in the public sector. Changing
the structure of these institu-
tions, they said, would make it
Experts said that privatization would be unfair to those who joined
these banks considering the benefits of working in public sector. HT
difficult for many to adjust to. There is also simmering dis-
“Many employees are wor- quiet among a section of
ried that even if there is no employees with regard to the
direct retrenchment, there role played by bank unions
might be large voluntary during these uncertain times.
retirement schemes, pushing However, Venkatachalam
people to leave,” said Devidas believes that while earlier agi-
Tuljapurkar, convener of the tations have not been able to
United Forum of Bank Unions stall bank mergers, it allowed
(UFBU), an umbrella body of harmonization of service con-
nine bank unions. ditions of employees after
Tuljapurkar believes that merger. The pace at which
attempts could also be made to bank branches closed because
outsource several jobs, leading of mergers has also slowed
to retrenchment down, he said.
in clerical roles. Experts have
“While officers Central Bank, said that privati-
might not bear Indian Overseas zation will face
the brunt of such Bank, and Bank of challenges. Rat-
measures, clerical Maharashtra are ing agency Fitch
jobs are at great
likely candidates has said that
risk if privatiza- political support
tion is imple- for privatization, for the required
mented,” he said. say news reports l e g i s l a t i v e
“At the changes could be
moment, we are a significant hur-
going by what the finance dle.
minister said a few months ago “There could also be more
and awaiting clarity from the resistance from the trade
government. However, I unions this time. The unions
should mention that in case will be against the withdrawal
the scheme is detrimental to of the state ownership safety
employees, we will go on net. The success of the plan
indefinite strike unless such would also require sufficient
measures are rolled back,” said interest from investors willing
C.H. Venkatachalam, general to acquire large stakes in state-
secretary of the All India Bank owned banks and run them,” it
Employees’ Association. said in a report on 7 June.
06 FRIDAY, 18 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU CORPORATE LIVEMINT.COM

Govt weighs
indemnity HDFC Bank to refund GPS m
MOVES
A weekly list of C-Suiters who have moved up
for SII, other
vax makers
device charges to customers the corporate ladder either within or outside
their companies.
Abhay Appointed as chief executive
officer at Changa
Ojha
FROM PAGE 1
Ajay Appointed as chief business
An indemnity is a form of Pareek officer at Fullerton India
insurance for legal claims The private lender had pushed auto loan customers to buy the devices for ₹18,000 to ₹19,500
made by vaccine beneficiaries Ajit Appointed as regional director for
if they face so-called serious Pillai APAC at Morphisec
adverse events (SAEs) after Shayan Ghosh
receiving a dose. If indemnity shayan.g@livemint.com
is granted, the government, MUMBAI
Anjali Appointed as chief financial officer
instead of the vaccine maker, Gupte at Havas Group

I
will compensate the affected
people.
Indemnity has been a thorny
issue, considering India does
not have a compensation
mechanism for adverse event
following immunization (AEFI)
in mass vaccination pro-
grammes. “For covid vaccines,
the indemnity is likely to come
along with a compensation
mechanism, which is also to be
discussed,” said the second per-
son cited above.
Critics of indemnity have
called for greater transparency.
“Other than sharing that
there is an ongoing negotiation
with Pfizer, the government
has not provided any rationale
for considering grant of
indemnity to the company,
which stands to make tens of
billions of dollars in sales of the
vaccine this year alone,” said
Malini Aisola, co-convenor or
All India Drug Action Network.
“The public is entitled to know
what terms are being dis-
cussed. Yet, absolutely no
details are known. For exam-
ple, what is the nature and
extent of indemnity being pro-
posed? Would it extend to wil-
ful acts, fraud or negligence?
How would the liability be
shifted from the company on to
the government?,” she said.
“The government should
most definitely be on its guard
and should take the public into
confidence because of the risk of
striking an uneven bargain for
50 million doses,” Aisola said.
ndia’s largest private-sector lender,
HDFC Bank Ltd, on Thursday said
Anup Appointed as chief information
Purohit officer at Wipro India
that it will refund commissions to
auto loan customers who had Appointed as partner-restructuring,
“availed of” a bundled GPS device Avinash IBC and structured finance practice
between FY14 and FY20. Subramanian at AZB & Partners
Mint had reported on 20 July 2020 Appointed as director of sales and
that car loan customers of HDFC Bank
Debasish
service for power quality division
were forced to purchase a vehicle track- Banerji
at Eaton India
ing device in a possible breach of guide-
lines prohibiting banks from non-finan- Girish Appointed as vice president and
cial businesses. HDFC Bank executives, Koppad head of technology at Snapdeal
Mint had reported, pushed auto loan Appointed as partner and
customers to buy GPS devices for Jaikrishnan G head-financial services consulting
₹18,000-19,500 from 2015 to December at Grant Thornton Bharat
2019. The device in question was sold by
Trackpoint GPS, a Mumbai-based firm. Jaskaran Appointed as head of marketing at
“The refund will be credited to the Singh Kapany Xiaomi India
customer’s repayment bank account as RBI had imposed a ₹10 crore fine last month on the lender after an examination of documents pertaining to allegations of
registered with the bank,” the bank said improper lending practices in its vehicle-financing operations. MINT
Manoj Appointed as vice president-sales
in a newspaper advertisement. Juneja and marketing at Timex Group India
This comes after the Reserve Bank of ments in newer technologies to scale up. the need of the hour, he said. There would be changes in customer Appointed as chief business
India (RBI) last month imposed a ₹10 “We are very focused on making “While we have seen some outages in payments and call centre experiences in Rajaram officer–Industrial at Mahindra
crore fine on the lender after an exami- these investments. Whatever it takes, the last couple of years, that does not the 15-18 month period starting at the Pai Lifespaces
nation of documents pertaining to alle- we are very focused to make these as mean we are not investing in or looking end of this year and the beginning of
gations of improper lending practices in they are the right set of technology at the whole existing technology piece. next year, he said. Sameer Appointed as chief executive
its vehicle-financing operations. investments,” said Ramesh Lakshmin- That is an area we are constantly In December, RBI had ordered HDFC Garde officer at Wadhwani Foundation
The bank had conducted an internal arayanan, the bank’s chief information improving and monitoring,” Lakshmin- Bank to freeze new digital banking initi- Appointed as business head-women
investigation into the car loan business, officer. arayanan said. atives and credit card issuances until it
Siddha
division at Bombay Shaving
after receiving a whistleblower addressed the lapses that had Jain
Company
complaint, and had taken disciplin- IMPROPER PRACTICES caused multiple glitches in its inter-
ary action against employees found net and mobile banking systems Subhra Appointed as chief financial officer
to have been involved in “personal MINT had reported THE bank conducted HDFC Bank claimed MEANWHILE, the over the past two years. Gourisaria at Rallis India
misconduct”, the then managing last year that HDFC an internal probe into to have taken strict
Bank customers were the car loan biz, after action against staff
bank said it will do
whatever it takes to
In February this year, the regula-
director and chief executive officer forced to purchase a receiving a complaint found to have been tor appointed an external firm to Swapnil Appointed as chief financial
ramp up the digital officer at McCann
of HDFC Bank, Aditya Puri, had told vehicle tracking device from a whistleblower involved in misconduct banking infrastructure conduct a special audit of the entire Jain
shareholders at the annual general information technology (IT) infra-
body meeting in July last year. structure of the bank. Vivek Mohan Appointed as head of branded
The bank also said on Thursday that it The bank is witnessing a shift in the HDFC Bank customers expect a cer- Lakshminarayanan said the bank has Sharma content at Viacom18
will do whatever it takes to ramp up the way one approaches technology, tain quality and a gold standard, which completed all assessments and the mat-
digital banking infrastructure. The pri- Lakshminarayanan said. These days, the bank probably has not lived up to, ter is with the regulator. Source: Accord India, executive search worldwide
vate lender has been plagued with digi- concepts such as elastic scaling, on according to Lakshminarayanan. The The bank’s mobile application again
tal disruptions because of a variety of demand scaling, container-ready and changes being made will soon reflect in faced an outage on 15 June, though the
reasons and said that it is making invest- cloud-native architecture have become the customer experience, he said. lender was able to fix it soon.

Investors to move
US Fed rate signal CII calls for ₹3 tn stimulus to revive growth SC in DHFL case
may hit FII inflows Gireesh Chandra Prasad
gireesh.p@livemint.com
pandemic, could grow at 8-9%
in the medium term if the gov-
cession of interest rate subven-
tion for homebuyers, a leave
FROM PAGE 1 that it will remain listed like Ruchi
Soya even after IBC, and Sebi can-
NEW DELHI ernment announces generous travel concession cash voucher dozen DHFL investors who feel not wash away its responsibility,”
into Indian stocks fiscal support, most of the pop- scheme as offered last year, and wronged. “DHFL has assets said a Gurugram-based investor

T
he Confederation of ulation is vaccinated and big- extending the Atmanirbhar worth over ₹1.05 trillion and a who lost ₹204,000 of his
Indian Industry (CII) on ticket reforms are announced, Bharat Rozgar Yojana till 31 strong loan recovery process can ₹300,000 investment.
FROM PAGE 1 Thursday called for a ₹3 CII said in a presentation based March 2022, he said. actually fetch more money than “Some brokers, too, may have
Funds inflow trillion government stimulus to on an industry survey. CII also urged the Reserve what has been projected by the mis-sold DHFL stock for earning
tions to release industrial met- In June, FIIs were net buyers of support the economy through In the absence of such meas- Bank of India (RBI) to expand Piramal group,’’ said a Telanga- commission. Investors should
als from its national reserves to Indian shares worth $1.52 billion. cash transfers to the poor, rural ures, a 5-6% growth scenario is its balance sheet to meet the na-based investor who lost his have been more careful. Until
restrain commodity prices,” Net foreign investor inflows into job creation, temporary goods also possible, the survey said. demand exigencies of the pan- entire ₹5 lakh investment in NCLT or a high court approves
equities (in $ bn)
Motilal Oswal said in a note. 12 and services tax (GST) rate cuts CII pegged GDP growth rate demic. The industry body also DHFL shares. “If any resolution, nei-
Fed officials held interest and lower fuel taxes. for FY22 at 9.5%. sought enhancement of an managed well, the Many of ther Sebi nor
rates near zero but signalled CII president T.V. Naren- He explained that normally, emergency credit scheme and stock can yield DHFL’s retail exchanges nor bro-
that it might raise interest rates 8 dran, who is also chief execu- CII president T.V. Narendran. private sector investment is inclusion of distressed sectors decent apprecia- shareholders kers can ascertain
at a much faster pace than tive and managing director of driven by two factors—demand like retail in it. tion so that small have formed joint whether the com-
assumed, sending yields and Tata Steel Ltd, said at a press Scheme, short-term GST rate and profitability. Demand, The CII survey showed that a shareholders get a
4
2.47 action groups to pany will remain
the dollar sharply higher. Indi- 1.52
conference that private invest- cuts and lower excise duty on which was a bit soft prior to the significant majority of respon- natural exit listed or not,” said
cating that broad changes in ment is beginning in some sec- fuel,” Narendran said. The pandemic, started recovering dents reported infections through a fair mar- try and recoup Sandeep Parekh,
policy may happen sooner than 0 tors, and steel makers are plan- most important thing is to sup- after the first wave, but got among staff or their family ket process,” said their losses founder of corpo-
expected, US central bank offi- ning ₹50,000-60,000 crore port demand so that we have impacted by the second. “I members and as a result, more the person. rate law firm Fin-
cials moved their first projected investments over the next three jobs and livelihoods, he added. hope we will start recovering than half of them expected “ A r o u n d sec Law Advisors.
-4
rate increases from 2024 into Jun 2020 *Jun 2021
years. Production-linked The industry body’s again, which is what we are adverse impact on production ₹40,000 crore is due to be A Kochi-based man who lost
2023. The Fed policy state- *updated till 16 June Source: NSDL
incentives and record foreign demands highlight the need for forecasting, particularly in the or sales in the June quarter. recovered from DHFL’s borrow- his job during the lockdown had
ment marked a strong vote of direct investment inflow in a major consumption boost, second half of the year,” he said. “With the majority of the ers and even if 10% of these dues ₹13 lakh in DHFL shares; a Tel-
SATISH KUMAR/MINT
confidence that the recovery of FY21 have also helped, he said. while the government has been “I think we have seen both population vaccinated by the are recovered, the court or Sebi angana-based post-doctorate
the US economy is on track. June, FIIs were net buyers of “CII estimates that there is betting on higher public (demand and profitability) end of this year, implementa- must direct Piramal to utilize a research fellow ₹5 lakh; and an
India and other emerging Indian shares worth $1.63 bil- fiscal headroom of up to ₹3 tril- spending which has a multi- coming back, and I can say that tion of big-ticket reforms in fac- part of this recovery money to army personnel in the North-
markets may face some pres- lion, being net sellers only in lion and this amount can be plier effect, such as building from the steel sector point of tor markets and the financial compensate retail sharehold- East ₹60 lakh.
sure as they can be vulnerable April when they dumped channelized towards direct infrastructure and offering view, for example, all steel sec- sector, and a large fiscal stimu- ers,’’ said another investor who Mint first reported on 21 Janu-
to the chance of early US rate shares worth $1.48 billion. cash transfers to the vulnerable incentives to set up factories. tor firm have significant expan- lus, we will be able to reach the is a Gurgaon-based brand man- ary that DHFL shares will get
hikes to contain inflation, Others feel domestic institu- people, higher allocation for The Indian economy, which sion plans,” Narendran said. critical $5 trillion mark by agement professional. delisted.
which could result in foreign tional flows are strong enough Mahatma Gandhi National contracted by 7.3% in FY21 due Demand can also be revived FY26. This is the best-case sce- “In DHFL’s case, most retail Sebi, Piramal and NCLT could
investors pulling out of riskier to support the market in the Rural Employment Guarantee to the first wave of the covid-19 through a time-bound tax con- nario that CII has estimated.” investors were of the impression not be immediately contacted.
assets, said experts. An actual absence of liquidity from FIIs.
rate hike, even if the Fed has “In the short term, the Fed
brought forward the timeline rate action may impact nega-
to 2023, still remains some tively if the dollar index crosses
time away. Thus, the impact of the level of $92. However, the
Wednesday’s policy statement current rally or current inflation
Luxury holiday home rentals rebound as second wave ebbs
may be limited in the near term. is demand-pulled and at major
Foreign institu- levels, value-pick- Sauyma Tewari number of bookings in June by ful getaway,” he said. and Piramal family offices,
tional investors An actual rate ers would enter saumya.t@livemint.com check-ins is at par with the With an average ticket size Lohono Stays manages more
(FIIs) have hike, even if the with a long-term NEW DELHI February-March numbers. of ₹60,000 to ₹1 lakh per night than 90 properties. It plans to
pumped $8 billion Fed has brought view. In the short There has been a 300% for such luxury private holiday more than double the inven-

A
into Indian equi- forward the term, we might see ffluent Indians are sequential jump in bookings in homes that can accommodate tory on its platform this fiscal.
ties so far this year
timeline to 2023, correction, but in choosing to rent pri- June amid a decline in cases. up to six people, customers are “We also ensure IT infra-
while benchmark the long run, we vate holiday homes to “July is looking good too booking them for at least four structure to support the work-
indices have been still remains some expect flows ensure privacy and hygiene as owing to the monsoon season. to five days. from-home culture,” Shah
hitting record time away because of expec- the easing of lockdowns in A large part of the population “Our clients said.
highs. “While the tations of a good many states following a is partly and also completely are looking for Safety remains Firms are also
fast normalization monsoon, a rise in decline in covid-19 cases spurs vaccinated and more comfort- homes that can the top concern getting special
of the economy and a strong job goods and services tax collec- them to start travelling again. able travelling to our fully- host all their fam- among customers requests for servi-
market can lead to a taper in the tion and consistency in the Companies such as Saffron- staffed and serviced private ily members at who are even ces such as bar-
bond-buying plan, this can lead reform process,” said Shrikant Stays, Vista Rooms and villas that are covid-ready,” he one place; ample
to tightening of bond yields, Chouhan, executive vice-presi-
willing to pay for beque, spa, pri-
Lohono Stays, who manage said, adding that safety space for kids to vate cooks and
which will impact the pricing of dent, Equity Technical luxury holiday homes across remains the top concern With an average ticket size of ₹60,000 to ₹1 lakh per night, people play, expansive covid tests of staff butlers.
equity assets,” said Vinod Nair, Research, Kotak Securities. India, said they are seeing a among customers who are are booking luxury private holiday homes for at least 4-5 days. lawn area to host at the property “Another trend
head of research, Geojit Finan- So far, Indian markets have jump in demand when com- even willing to pay for covid mini soirees and is that the
cial Services. outperformed emerging mar- pared to the period prior to the tests of workers at the booked family for a week-long break in have not stepped out in the last great connectiv- demand for well-
Typically, higher interest kets, with the benchmark index second wave of the pandemic, property. Lonavala. He booked a private year and a half. I would not feel ity all throughout including ness or spa facilities has gone
rates in the US tempt large for- Nifty rising 11% while the MSCI especially in Maharashtra, In 2020, SaffronStays luxury villa that came with an safe taking them to a hotel, the pool deck so that working up considerably. Preferences
eign funds to move money Emerging Markets index has Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar- clocked ₹20 crore in total on-site chef. The 47-year-old even if it’s a five-star property, members/guests can operate for private pools and home
there, hurting emerging mar- gained 6%. MSCI World, which akhand, Kerala and Ooty. sales, which it aims to double businessman, who deals in real where common areas are used from any part of the home that chefs are at an all-time high as
kets. The exit of long-term represents large and mid-cap Devendra Parulekar, this year. It’s adding 5-7 homes estate, finds independent by everyone. Here, it was just they wish to,” said Dhimaan well. Guests are now prefer-
money may be a cause of con- equity performance across 23 founder, SaffronStays, which each month to its network. properties secure where his six members of my family with Shah, co-founder and COO, ring to have 24/7 assistant in
cern as markets rely on foreign developed markets, has manages more than 150 luxury Mumbai-based Karnesh family can rest and recuperate. two staff who were tested cov- Lohono Stays by Isprava. the villas,” said Ankita Sheth,
fund flows for liquidity. In climbed 12% in 2021 so far. rental properties, said the Mehta, for instance, took his “I have old parents who id-19 negative. It was a peace- Backed by Godrej, Burman co-founder Vista Rooms.
LIVEMINT.COM CORPORATE FRIDAY, 18 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU 07

Pandemic pushes firms GET THE FEMALES AND BEAT THE DISEASE
the same applies to plenty of other crops and domesticated ani-
mals.

to hire more temp staff A M AT T E R

OF NUMBERS
DILIP D’SOUZA
Critics, though, say that today’s techniques of actually modify-
ing genes are entirely different from selective breeding, and
there’s definite danger there. For example, the wind can carry
pollen from genetically modified (GM) crops to fields of non-
modified crops, causing unpredictable and undesirable prob-
lems. Besides, the GM crop industry is dominated by a few large
Respond to this column at biotech firms. So, the prospect of widespread use of such crops
feedback@livemint.com raises serious concerns about monopolies, especially for small
Temporary-permanent hiring ratio is currently between 30:70 and 35:65 farmers like in India.

S
omeone I know is in the Florida Keys this week, planning The fear that genetic engineering can have unpredictable con-
MINT to board a catamaran and wander the surrounding seas for sequences is why many residents of the Keys opposed the new
Kalpana Pathak several days. “Our final destination is the Dry Tortugas,” she genetically-engineered male mosquitoes.
kalpana.p@livemint.com wrote, “look it up, quite something!” Which I did, and they are. Still, let’s look at how they were engineered and then released.
MUMBAI Naturally I’m envious. These Aedes aegypti males have had their DNA altered: scientists
But I also thought of mosquitoes. have “edited” two particular genes into particular locations in the

T
he remote-working model that Now I have never been to Florida. But the state is known for its mosquito’s genome:
has gained currency because of mosquitoes. The humorist Dave Barry lives there and has often * a fluorescent “marker” gene that glows in red light, which will
the covid-19 pandemic is ena- mentioned the insects in his columns: “... as the Sun set, we expe- later be used to identify engineered mosquitoes.
bling companies to keep their rienced a sensation that I will never forget: The sensation of being * a “self-limiting” gene.
temporary and permanent hir- landed on by every mosquito in the Western Hemisphere. There When the insects reproduce, both genes are passed on to their
ing ratio between 30:70 and 35:65, against were so many of them that they needed Air Traffic Control mos- offspring. The “self-limiting” gene has no effect on males. But in
the pre-covid ratio of 20:80, said human quitoes to give directions.” larval females, it inhibits the storage of a specific protein that
resources solution providers. Companies Long story short: Florida has swarms of mosquitoes. They are would otherwise build up as the insect grows. The result is that
are now comfortable working with a wider constantly biting residents of and visitors to the state, so much so the female dies before it can mature.
talent base spread across the country and that I feel for the person I know who is going there. Still, get this: This is the theory, of course. But these engineered mosquitoes
factors such as educational background in an effort to fight the mosquito menace last April, a biotech firm have been released in Brazil, Panama and even India—in the last
and location are becoming less important, went to the Keys to release ... more mosquitoes. Hundreds of two years, over a billion of them. The British biotech company
they said. thousands of mosquitoes, brought to the Keys as eggs actually, that produced them, Oxitec, reports that in those areas, the popu-
“We have seen a spike of 9-12% in terms allowed to hatch there and live out their lives. lations of Aedes aegypti shrank by over 90%. You’d think that
of contract staff. Some of this is definitely What hare-brained scheme is this, you may wonder. Many would certainly have an effect on the incidence of mosquito-
because of the outbreak of the pandemic people have so wondered, and in the Keys, there has been plenty borne diseases.
and the learning from it. It is also about of opposition—so it is a controversial programme. Yet, it at least What of unpredictable consequen-
flexibility in the workforce model because deserves some thought, especially given that swarms of mosqui- Genetic ces? The Brazil trial suggested that the
of fixed time-based projects, the ability to toes are a feature of life in much of India too. engineering can self-limiting gene did not kill all the
keep costs under control, the influx of the Firms are comfortable working with a wider talent base spread across India, and factors The mosquitoes introduced into the Keys were genetically female offspring before they could
digital wave, and focus on increasing such as educational background are becoming less important, say HR solution providers. engineered. held reduce mate, because other genes from the
employee productivity,” said Sudeep Sen, A little background, first. There are plenty of mosquitoes in population of engineered mosquitoes appeared
business head, industrial manufacturing assess a person in real time with fewer spouse, two children and parents, get Florida, certainly, and it can’t be pleasant to suffer their bites. But disease-carrying among other local mosquitoes. What
and engineering, and general staffing, obligations, with the option to convert a insurance cover. They also have added only the species Aedes aegypti actually carries diseases—chikun- mosquitoes effect this will have on the local ecosys-
TeamLease Services Ltd. contract job into full-time employment benefits such as shorter notice periods gunya, dengue and more—and they make up only 4% of the mos- tem is not yet clear. But this is the kind
Sectors such as manufacturing, con- after evaluation of the contract period. and fewer legal obligations than perma- quito population in Florida. What’s more, only female mosqui- of fallout of genetic engineering that
struction, chemicals, energy, power, auto- “As most organizations embark on their nent workers. toes actually bite humans. Males feed on nectar and their sole worries many people.
mobile, and infrastructure are hiring tem- digital transformation journeys, they If a company wants to retain a tempo- purpose in life is to mate with females and produce more mosqui- Still, in April, Oxitec placed boxes containing eggs of the engi-
porary workers to meet seasonal spikes in undertake many short-term projects for rary worker by offering the person full- toes. None of this is meant to say that we should ignore these neered mosquitoes in six different locations in the Florida Keys.
orders and revised turnaround time to which they need quality talent for a fixed time employment, he or she can also get pests. But it does suggest a possible way to fight them that’s more Each week between May and August, about 12,000 of the mos-
meet targets. Healthcare, e-commerce, duration. This results in the creation of higher remuneration. efficient than blanket applications of insecticide: target the quitoes will hatch from their eggs and emerge into the Florida air,
and consumer sectors are also hiring more short-term roles where organizations The cost to acquire and retain talent, females. ready to find willing females to mate with. Every now and then,
temporary workers to meet rising delivery need to leverage specialized workers. especially in technology-focused areas is It’s true, the male and the female of the species do look differ- Oxitec’s researchers will collect mosquitoes and use red light to
demand. As workers with specialized skills often extremely exorbitant for an organi- ent, but that’s if you get a chance to peer closely at them. So, it’s identify the engineered ones. They want to know such details as
“Organizations are looking at their are often limited, it results in talent zation. Hiring temporary workers helps an in no way practical to visually identify only the female mosquitoes their life spans, the distance they have travelled from their boxes,
workforce planning and try- organization find the right in a given area and whack them dead. But what if there’s a way to and how many of the females who inherit the self-limiting gene
ing to be strategic about it as FLEXI-STAFFING talent in an extremely cost-ef- ensure that when a mosquito pair reproduces, the female, and have actually died. All this will shape a second and larger trial
they have realized that when fective manner for the dura- only the female, offspring die? What if such death comes early in later this year, when Oxitec plans to release 20 million engi-
events such as this occur and TEMP hiring allows IT allows firms to HIRING temp staff tion required, saving long- their lives, even before they attack humans for the first time? Car- neered mosquitoes. Data from these trials will help decide
they have a large permanent ease in scaling up
and down as
assess a staff in real-
time with the option
helps a firm find the
right talent in a cost-
term employee-related costs, nage like this means that the offspring left alive will mostly be whether it is worth releasing mosquitoes more widely across the
workforce, ramping it up or required, along with to convert a contract effective way for the especially when business is in males. They will mate with the remaining females, with the same US.
down is extremely difficult. less legal obligations job into full-time role duration required the slow lane. morbid results for the resulting female offspring. Over time, Clearly, there’s still plenty to learn about genetically engi-
So, there is a lot of planning Additionally, organizations you’d expect the mosquito population to become more and more neered mosquitoes. But till now, insecticides have been our
happening on what percent- can save on recruitment costs male. With less and less females to mate with, the Aedes aegypti weapons of choice against mosquitoes. They kill the insects, sure,
age of the workforce can be temporary, shortage and high cost for an organization and save time on human resource proc- population will naturally decline. but also other insects we would rather save, like honeybees.
permanent or gig. Usually, frontline roles to acquire and retain such talent,” esses. Genetic engineering (or genetic modification) offers a way to Consider this parallel to cancer. Our weapon of choice there
which are repetitive in nature, can easily said Shibani Patel, vice president, Colla- Flexi-staffing also allows companies to accomplish more or less this. Though with various plant species —one that’s just as blunt as insecticides—remains chemotherapy.
become temporary, whereas roles that are bera India. replace permanent employees who leave especially, plenty of controversy surrounds the process. Con- It kills cancer cells, sure, but also plenty of other cells in our bod-
supervisory and above, could easily be in There is a demand for temporary work- the organization. sider: ies. What if we instead found a way to introduce a particular kind
the permanent category,” said Yeshab ers across categories, from engineering In some cases, companies are even Proponents point out that humans have been doing such engi- of cancer cell into the body, one that would single out and kill the
Giri, director, staffing, Randstad India. and technology-focused roles to opera- looking to enhance the educational quali- neering indirectly for many millennia: breeding plants and ani- malignant cells?
Temporary hiring helps most organiza- tions and customer service. They are enti- fications of temporary staff through mals selectively for certain desirable characteristics. For exam- We don’t know of such a cell (yet, anyway), but that’s how to
tions control costs and increase focus on tled to similar benefits as permanent online learning modules, which are recog- ple, modern corn looks nothing like the grass-like Mexican plant think of genetically engineered mosquitoes. And if you think
employee productivity. It also allows ease employees, such as provident fund, group nized by the University Grants Commis- with rudimentary ears, teosinte, that it is descended from. That’s about it some more, there’s also a parallel of sorts to vaccines for
in scaling up and down, according to their insurance, health insurance, and social sion to keep attrition under control. This because we humans have for uncounted generations selected a certain virus that we are all a little too familiar with these days.
needs, along with less legal responsibili- security benefits. In certain cases, even also leads to higher productivity among plants with juicier, bigger and more succulent ears and kernels Once a computer scientist, Dilip D’Souza now lives in Mumbai
ties. Temporary hiring allows firms to the staff’s family members, including staff. —and used only those plants to generate their next crop. Much and writes for his dinners. His Twitter handle is @DeathEndsFun

Funds of
Indians in Hindustan Media Ventures Limited
CIN: L21090BR1918PLC000013
Registered Office: Budh Marg, Patna - 800001, India
Swiss banks Tel: +91 612 222 3434 Fax: +91 612 222 1545
Corporate Office: Hindustan Times House, 2nd Floor, 18-20, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi - 110001, India

jump to over Tel: +91 11 6656 1234, Fax: +91 11 6656 1270, Website: www.hmvl.in, E-mail: hmvlinvestor@livehindustan.com
(INR in Lakhs except Earnings per share data)
Extract of Audited Consolidated Financial Results for the Quarter and Year ended March 31, 2021
₹20,700 cr March 31,
Quarter ended
Dec 31, 2020 March 31,
Year Ended
March 31, March 31,
PTI Particulars 2021 2020 2021 2020
Audited Un-audited Audited Audited Audited
feedback@livemint.com (Refer Note 6) (Refer Note 6)
NEW DELHI/ZURICH Revenue from operations 16,175 16,259 17,661 54,543 79,578
Net profit for the period before tax 2,970 4,028 3,518 8,498 16,785

F
unds parked by Indian Net Profit after taxes and share of loss of joint venture 2,110 3,428 2,594 6,944 11,630
Total comprehensive income for the period
individuals and firms in [comprising profit for the period after tax and share in
2,073 3,478 2,207 7,051 11,092
Swiss banks, including loss of joint venture and other comprehensive income
through India-based branches (after tax)]
Paid-up equity share capital (Face value - INR 10/- per
and other financial institutions, 7,367 7,367 7,367 7,367 7,367
share)
jumped to over ₹20,700 crore Other equity excluding revaluation reserves as per the
- - - 151,132 144,049
in 2020. The rise was due to a balance sheet
sharp surge in holdings via (not (not (not
Earnings per share (of INR 10/- each) annualised) annualised) annualised) - -
securities and similar instru- Basic & Diluted 2.86 4.65 3.52 9.43 15.79
ments, though customer Note:
deposits fell, annual data from 1. The above is an extract of the detailed format of financial results filed with the stock exchanges under Regulation 33 of the SEBI (Listing
Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, as amended from time to time (SEBI LODR). The full format of the above
Switzerland’s central bank financial results are available on the website of stock exchanges i.e. www.bseindia.com and www.nseindia.com and on the Company’s
showed on Thursday. website i.e. www.hmvl.in.
The rise in aggregate funds 2. The above consolidated financial results for the quarter and year ended on March 31, 2021 were reviewed and recommended by the Audit
Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at their respective meetings held on June 17, 2021. The Statutory Auditor have
of Indian clients with Swiss conducted an audit of these results pursuant to Regulation 33 of SEBI LODR and have issued an unmodified opinion.
banks, from ₹6,625 crore at the 3. The financial results have been prepared in accordance with the Indian Accounting Standards (‘Ind AS’) prescribed under Section 133 of
the Companies Act, 2013 read with Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Rules as amended from time to time.
end of 2019, reverses a two-
4. Additional information on standalone financial results is as follows:- (INR in Lakhs)
year declining trend and has Particulars Quarter ended Year Ended
reached the highest level in 13 March 31, 2021 Dec 31, 2020 March 31, 2020 March 31, 2021 March 31, 2020
years. Of the total amount Audited Un-audited Audited Audited Audited
described as ‘total liabilities’ of (Refer Note 6) (Refer Note 6)
Swiss banks or ‘amounts due to’ Revenue from Operations 16,175 16,259 17,661 54,543 79,578
Profit Before Tax 3,017 4,077 3,518 8,657 16,785
Indian clients at the end of
Profit After Tax 2,254 3,568 2,762 7,465 11,897
2020, over ₹4,000 crore were Total Comprehensive Income 2,217 3,618 2,375 7,572 11,359
customer deposits, while over 5. Previous period’s figures have been re-grouped/re-classified wherever necessary, to correspond with those of the current period’s
₹3,100 crore were held via classification.
other banks. A total of ₹16.5 6. The figures of the quarter ended March 31, 2021 and March 31, 2020 are the balancing figures between the audited figures in respect of
the full financial year and the published year to date figures upto December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, being the end of the third
crore was held through fiduci- quarter of the financial year, which were subjected to limited review.
aries or trusts and nearly For and on behalf of the Board of Directors
New Delhi Shobhana Bhartia
₹13,500 crore was held under June 17, 2021 Chairperson
‘other amounts due to custom-
ers’ in the form of bonds, secu-
rities and various other finan-
cial instruments. Growth is
While the funds classified as not just about chasing
‘customer account deposits’ success. It’s also about
have declined at the end of learning from failures.
2019, money held via other
banks rose sharply in this Growth is...On.
period. However, the biggest
difference has been a surge in
‘other amounts due to custom- Follow us:

ers’ from India, which rose over mint.live livemint live_mint livemint www.livemint.com

six times at 2019-end.

08 FRIDAY, 18 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU GLOBAL LIVEMINT.COM

US, EU forge closer ties in bid

to counter Russia and China
The US and EU plan to cooperate more on technology regulation, industrial development and bilateral trade Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has called on the Japanese public
to watch the Olympics on TV to avoid spreading the virus. AP

Daniel Michaels
feedback@livemint.com
BRUSSELS
liance a national goal, and the state and
private sector are investing billions of
dollars in domestic chip-making,
Japan to ease state
although not all of its endeavors have
of emergency, focus
T
he US and European Union been successful and Chinese compa-
(EU) plan to cooperate more nies still lag far behind Taiwanese,
on technology regulation, South Korean and US counterparts.
industrial development and
bilateral trade following
President Biden’s visit, in a bid to help
Proponents of state aid for chip pro-
jects say it is necessary to level the
playing field with Asian countries that
on Games visitors
Western allies better compete with have used generous incentives to grow Reuters was to expire on Sunday.
China and Russia on developing and their industries in the past couple of feedback@livemint.com Under the “quasi emer-
protecting critical and emerging tech- decades, transforming an industry TOKYO gency” measures, bars and res-
nologies. that was dominated by the US and taurants, which are now

Central to the increased coordina-
tion will be a new high-level Trade and
Technology Council the two sides
unveiled Tuesday. The aim of the TTC
is to boost innovation and investment
within and between the two allied
economies, strengthen supply chains
and avert unnecessary obstacles to
trade, among other tasks.
“You see the possibility for align-
ment,” said European Commission
executive vice president Margrethe
Vestager in an interview.
In a sign of both sides’ aspirations
for the council, it will be co-chaired on
the US side by secretary of state
Antony Blinken, commerce secretary
Gina Raimondo and US trade repre-
sentative Katherine Tai. The EU side
will be co-chaired the Ms. Vestager,
the bloc’s top competition and digital-
policy official, and fellow executive
vice president Valdis Dombrovskis,
who handles trade.
As the EU’s top antitrust enforcer,
Ms. Vestager has gained prominence
for her cases against US tech giants
including Apple Inc., Google parent
Alphabet Inc. and Facebook Inc.
Former presidents Barack Obama and
Donald Trump both said her policies
unfairly targeted American compa-
nies.
Ms. Vestager has said her work
doesn’t single out any nationality. The
Microchips are likely to be an early focus of US-EU cooperation, potentially via the Trade and Technology Council, said
European Commission executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager.
TTC, which is slated to hold its first
meeting in the fall and oversee many
working groups, will allow the EU and
US to focus on cooperation, she said.
Both sides stressed they would main-
tain regulatory autonomy within their
respective legal systems.
Unstated in the TTC’s official remit
is a desire for the
world’s largest lib-
eral democratic
powers to draw
closer vis-à-vis China, Russia and
other autocracies that wield increas-
ing international influence. Mr.
Biden’s weeklong trip to Europe cen-
tered around efforts to strengthen ties
with Western allies and unite in
response to adversaries.
The coronavirus pandemic has
exposed weaknesses in Western econ-
omies’ manufacturing bases, resulting
in shortages of vital goods from medi-
cal masks to microchips. Straining
relations, Mr. Trump repeatedly criti-
cized Europe for its economic, secu-
rity and defense policies.
Mr. Biden has struck a contrasting
stance, seeking
compromise and
partnership with
Europe. The two
sides agreed Tuesday to suspend a
17-year trade fight over subsidies to
jetliner makers Boeing Co. and Airbus
SE, the longest and most costly fight in
World Trade Organization history.
Ms. Vestager said the trade deal
“shows the potential for real, tangible
results” from trans-Atlantic coopera-
REUTERS
tion.
Microchips are likely to be an early
focus of US-EU cooperation, Ms. Ves-
tager said, potentially via the TTC. The
EU recently announced the objective
of increasing its share of global chip-
making from 10% to 20% and pledged
more than $150 billion to the effort,
which could come from coronavirus
relief funding.
The US Senate recently passed a bill
allocating $52 billion to domestic chip
manufacturing and R&D. It needs to
pass the House and be signed by Mr.
Biden to become law.
Washington and Brussels both want
to increase domestic chip manufactur-
ing to secure supply chains exposed by
the coronavirus and to counter China.
Beijing has made technological self-re-
Europe in the 1990s. The cost of build-
ing the most advanced chip-making
plants has also skyrocketed to around
$20 billion in recent years.
“Obviously, there are important
assets on both sides,” Ms. Vestager said
of the US and EU. “I think it is a bit too
early to say what will come of it, but
clearly, the potential for cooperation
has been registered.”
The TTC will also seek to align poli-
cies on regulation and standards for
new technologies like artificial intelli-
gence. China has made international
standards-setting a national priority,
especially for emerging technologies
where norms have yet to be estab-
lished.
AI and related technologies, like
biometrics and voice-recognition,
have raised ethical issues not encoun-
tered with more traditional technolo-
gies, and where fundamental differen-
ces over privacy and human rights
divide the West and autocracies.
“I would really hope that as democ-
racies we could agree on some of the
fundamentals when it comes to stan-
dards-setting,” Ms. Vestager said.
“There’s a possibility to show that
when we say that democracies can
deliver on the basis of democratic val-
ues, there is something real in that.”
Asa Fitch contributed to this article.
©2021 DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC
J
apan said on Thursday it
would ease emergency
coronavirus curbs in nine
prefectures including
Tokyo while keeping some
measures, including limiting
spectator numbers at big
events, amid fears that next
month’s Olympics could trig-
ger a surge in infections.
Prime Minister Yoshihide
Suga called on the Japanese
public to watch the Olympics
on TV to avoid spreading the
virus, saying it was crucial to
avoid any rebound in covid-19
cases at the Games, due to start
on 23 July after being post-
poned last year.
“The important thing is to
continue with our policies
with a sense of urgency to pre-
vent the spread of infections.
At the same time we must keep
up our vaccination efforts to
prevent the collapse of the
medical system,” he told a
news conference.
Earlier, Suga said authori-
ties were lifting the state of
emergency for nine areas but
would maintain “quasi-emer-
gency” measures in seven of
them, including Tokyo, until 11
July. The state of emergency
barred from serving alcohol,
will be allowed to do so until 7
pm provided they maintain
covid precautions.
But local authorities can
choose to keep the ban if they
think it is necessary. Restau-
rants will still be asked to shut
by 8 pm.
“It’s important to hold safe
and secure Tokyo Games, curb
the spread of infections during
the period and prevent the
spread of infections after the
Games,” said Suga. “I would
like to ask everyone to support
the athletes at home, such as
by watching television,” Suga
said.
Japanese media have
reported that the government,
which has barred foreign spec-
tators, is considering allowing
up to 10,000 domestic fans
into stadiums during the
Games, in line with a plan
endorsed by health experts on
Wednesday for events.
Polls have shown most Japa-
nese people remain wary
about the possibility that the
Games will spread infections,
particularly as vaccination
rates are still lower than in
other wealthy countries.

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LOCAL: The J&K group THINK: VANTAGE: What’s keeping CULTURE:

that mentors school There’s plastic some from getting the Bengaluru, old, new Follow us

and college students in your fish covid-19 vaccine and in between mint.live livemint live_mint livemint www.livemint.com
LIVEMINT.COM NEWS WRAP FRIDAY, 18 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU 09

TWEETS OF THE DAY Martina Navratilova Henrietta H. Fore Pooja Bhatt

Indira Jaising @Martina @unicefchief @PoojaB1972
@IJaising Congress votes overwhelm- Digital technology is Now Enid Blyton’s work is
Selective prosecution is ingly to make Juneteenth a critical in today’s being termed as ‘xenophobic’
a violation of Article 14 federal holiday. The day world. Yet, there & is said to ‘lack literary
equality before law and commemorates the end of continues to be a merit’.Like millions of readers
equal protection of slavery in Texas in 1865.- now gender gap in access whose imagination was
laws. something worth celebrat- and usage. fuelled by her books,there
ing.#stepintherightdirection goes my childhood I guess.

‘Top 5 IT cos to add WET WEATHER Property demand

over 96,000 jobs’ shifts to peripheries

I A
nformation technology (IT) industry body
Nasscom on Thursday said the sector
continues to be a net hirer of skilled talent,
and that the top five Indian IT companies are
planning to add over 96,000 employees in
2021-22.The statement comes against the
backdrop of a report by Bank of America that
said domestic software companies are set to
slash 3 million jobs by 2022 as automation gains
pace across industries, especially in the tech
space.
“With the evolution of technology and
increasing automation, the nature of traditional
IT jobs and roles will evolve overall leading to
creation of newer jobs. The industry continues
to be a net hirer of skilled talent, adding
1,38,000 people in FY2021,” Nasscom said in a
statement. “With one of the strongest deal
pipeline, and strong business outlook, the (IT)
industry is on track to meet its vision of $300-
350 billion revenues by 2025,” it added.
s per a study by Anarock Property
Consultants, developers are launching
an increasing number of units on the
peripheries of cities post covid as people are
opting for these locations instead of city
centres. Of the total 149,000 units launched in
the top seven cities in FY21, 58% were in the
city peripheries compared with 51% in the pre-
covid era in FY19, said the report.
In cities like Pune, 76% of the new launches
were in peripheral areas. In FY19, new
launches in these areas accounted for 67%. In
the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, 67% of the
new supply was in such areas including Panvel,
Palghar, Vasai, Bhiwandi and Dombivli. In
FY19, 60% of new launches were in these areas.
In the National Capital Region, around 19,090
units were launched in FY21, of which 57%
were in the areas such as Sohna, Greater Noida
West and Yamuna Expressway. STAFF WRITER
PTI

Construction workers run towards a shelter during a pre-monsoon rainfall near India Gate in New Delhi. AFP

Flipkart, Amazon challenge The interim analysis of data from about 40,000
The Centre also extended validity of motor
vehicle documents till 30 September 2021.

All vehicles to have

HT
court order on antitrust probe volunteers included 134 covid cases.

CureVac falls short

AFP

a PUC certificate with 47% efficacy

T
he ministry of road transport and
highways issued a notification to make
pollution under control (PUC ) certificate
for all vehicles uniform across the country and
also to link the PUC database with the National
Register. After the changes in the Central
Motor Vehicles Rules 1989 by the road
C
ureVac NV said its covid-19 vaccine was
Both petitions are expected to be heard today in front of a two-judge division bench
47% effective, falling well short of the
high bar set by other messenger RNA
shots in a preliminary analysis of a large study
Tarush Bhalla division bench will grant them a stay on the matter. small businesses. Based on this plea, CCI directed muddied by the spread of virus variants.
tarush.b@livemint.com Both companies are expected to highlight the gaps the director general of CCI to launch a probe in The interim analysis of data from about
BENGALURU in the original claim by Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh January 2020 for alleged violation of Section 3 of 40,000 volunteers included 134 covid cases,
(DVM) and the subsequent investigation under- the Competition Act. the German firm said in a statement. CureVac

ministry, the QR code shall be printed on the
PUC form and will have details of the vehicle,
owner and the status of the emission.
“The Union ministry issued a notification
dated 14 June 2021, for a common format of the
PUC certificate to be issued across the
country,” an official statement said. According
to the statement, the new PUC will have vehicle
owner’s mobile number, name and address,
engine number and chassis number.
The Centre also extended validity of motor
vehicle documents like driving licence,
registration certificate and permits till 30
September 2021. “This covers all documents
whose validity has expired since 1 February
2020, or would expire by 30 September 2021.
It will help citizens in availing services, while
maintaining social distancing,” it said.
O
nline retailers Flipkart and Amazon
India filed separate petitions to a
division bench challenging the Kar-
nataka high court’s decision last
week to allow the Competition
Commission of India (CCI) to continue its investi-
gation against them.
Both petitions are expected to be heard on Fri-
day in front of a two-judge division bench, an indi-
vidual aware of the discussions said on condition of
anonymity.
Mint had reported earlier that Amazon India and
Flipkart were looking to challenge the court’s deci-
sion to dismiss their plea. Last week, the court had
quashed the e-commerce players’ plea to restrain
CCI from resuming its probe relating to the alleged
abuse of market dominance on their platforms.
PTI “Amazon and Flipkart are expecting that the
taken by CCI. Further, the companies believe that As a part of the recent hearings, the Flipkart declined to say how many who got the shot got
CCI has begun investigation on the matter before counsel argued that in case of preferential treat- sick or how many received a placebo. But the
even reaching out to these platforms, which led ment, no (seller) agreement has been placed before results suggest the vaccine works less well for
them to file a writ CCI for it to start the older people than in a younger population,
petition with the investigation. “The chief technology officer Mariola Fotin-
Karnataka high Both Amazon and Flipkart are battling Commission must Mleczek said in an interview Wednesday.
court,” said the per- accusations that their complex form a prima facie Though preliminary, the results throw the
son quoted above. opinion before future of the vaccine into question as nations
In 2019, DVM, a business structures let them ordering investiga- around the world move to inoculate their
group of owners of circumvent foreign investment rules tion. No agreement populations with shots available. Still, CureVac
micro, small and is placed on record. will finish its trial and plans to gain approval,
medium enter- Therefore, the Com- CEO Franz-Werner Haas said. BLOOMBERG
prises, submitted a plea with CCI against Flipkart mission did not have ‘jurisdictional facts’ while
and Amazon for abusing their market dominance considering the information. It has not recorded its
and giving preferential listing and deep discount- prima facie opinion. Therefore, the impugned
ing on products sold by select vendors in which order is unsustainable in law,” read the contention
they control indirect stakes. The body contended made by the Flipkart counsel before Justice P.S.
Venus wins 10-year
that the alleged practices by these companies hurt Dinesh Kumar.
long patent battle

V
enus Remedies Ltd, an R&D driven
Import duty cut on pharma manufacturing company, on
Ex-cop arrested in Antilia scare case Thursday won a 10-year-long legal
edible oil put on hold battle that challenged a patent claimed by
French pharmaceutical firm SCR Pharmatop
team had picked up Sharma from Lonavla for producing an intravenous paracetamol

I
ndia has put on hold a proposal to reduce
import duties on edible oils as cooking oil
prices started to fall in the world market after
hitting record highs, two government and one
industry officials told Reuters.
The world’s biggest vegetable oil importer
was considering reducing duties after domestic
soyoil and palm oil prices more than doubled in
the past year, hitting consumers already stung
by record fuel prices and reduced incomes
amid the pandemic. “We are not cutting import
duties now, a more longer term solution has to
be found. Cutting duties is not a sustainable
solution,” said a government official with
knowledge of the matter.
Former Mumbai cop, ‘encounter specialist’
Pradeep Sharma, after his arrest by NIA. PTI
near Mumbai late on Wednesday, after
which he was brought to the central
agency’s office in south Mumbai for
questioning, he said. “The NIA also
conducted a raid at his residence located
in J.B. Nagar in Mumbai’s Andheri
(West) around 6am, and the operation
continued for several hours. The officials
recovered some incriminating
documents from his house,” the official
said. After questioning him for a few
hours, the NIA placed him under arrest on
Thursday, he said, adding that Sharma
will be produced before a local court once
a medical examination is conducted on
The funds will be used to help provide oxygen
plants and to upskill healthcare workers.
Google announces
solution in India.
In a decision dated 4 June 2021, the Indian
Patent Office decided in favour of Venus
Remedies and upheld its decision for
revocation of the Indian patent on the grounds
that the process lacked any inventive step that
made it superior to other existing solutions.
Venus’s opposition was intended to remove
any Indian patent hurdle in the manufacturing
of intravenous paracetamol solution in India.
Given that the drug plays a critical role in
AP managing inflammation and fever, the patent
revocation is an encouraging development for
the healthcare sector. NEETU CHANDRA SHARMA

A second official said the decision to leave the
import duty structure unchanged was taken as
prices were now cooling in the overseas
market, pulling the domestic prices lower too.
“The idea is to keep a close watch on global
prices and supplies, and if the situation
warrants it, we’ll revive the proposal for a
T ₹113-crore grant
he National Investigation Agency
(NIA) on Thursday arrested former
“encounter specialist” police officer
Pradeep Sharma in Mumbai for his
alleged involvement in the Antilia bomb
scare case and the murder of businessman
Mansukh Hiran, an official said. An NIA
him.About two months ago, the NIA had
questioned Sharma at its office for two
days after his name cropped up in the
Internet outages hit
T
case. Sharma is the fifth person from the ech giant Google on Thursday said
police department to be arrested in the
case by the NIA. This is the eighth arrest
Google.org —its philanthropic arm—has
announced a grant of $15.5 million (₹113 access to sites, apps
in the case. PTI crore) to support procurement and installation

reduction in the duty,” the official said. REUTERS of about 80 oxygen generation plants and
upskilling of healthcare workers in rural parts of
the country in partnership with various
organizations. Google.org will support
Chinese crew enters new space station on 3-month mission procurement and installation of the oxygen
generation plants in healthcare facilities in high-
need and rural locations with new grants of
A
wave of brief internet outages hit the
websites and apps of dozens of financial
institutions, airlines and other
companies across the globe Thursday. The
Hong Kong Stock Exchange said in a post on
Twitter on Thursday afternoon Hong Kong
time that its site was facing technical issues and

T
hree Chinese astronauts arrived on Thursday at China’s new space
station at the start of a three-month mission, marking another
milestone in the country’s ambitious space programme. Their
Shenzhou-12 craft connected with the space station module about six hours
after taking off from the Jiuquan launch centre on the edge of the Gobi
Desert. About three hours later, commander Nie Haisheng, 56, followed by
Liu Boming, 54, and space rookie Tang Hongbo, 45, opened the hatches and
floated into the Tianhe-1 core living module. Pictures showed them busy at
work unpacking equipment. “This represents the first time Chinese have
entered their own space station,” state broadcaster CCTV said on its nightly
news broadcast. The crew will carry out experiments, test equipment,
conduct maintenance and prepare the station for receiving two laboratory
modules next year. The mission brings to 14 the number of astronauts China
has launched into space since 2003, becoming only the third country after
the former Soviet Union and the United States to do so on its own.
about ₹90 crore ($12.5 million) to GiveIndia and
about ₹18.5 crore ($2.5 million) to PATH. It will
also finance efforts of Apollo Medskills to help
upskill 20,000 front line health workers
through specialized training in covid-19
management and strengthen the stressed rural
health workforce and rural health systems.
Towards this, Google.org will make a ₹3.6 crore
($500,000) grant to ARMMAN to run skilling
programmes for 180,000 accredited social
health activists (ASHAs) and 40,000 auxiliary
nurse midwives (ANMs) in 15 Indian states.
ARMMAN will also use the grant to set up a call
centre to provide additional help and advice for
AP Chinese astronauts inside the Shenzhou-12 spacecraft. REUTERS ASHAs and ANMs where required. PTI
that it was investigating. It said in another post
17 minutes later that its websites were back to
normal.
Internet monitoring websites including
ThousandEyes, Downdetector.com and
fing.com showed dozens of disruptions,
including to US-based airlines.
Many of the outages were reported by
people in Australia trying to do banking, book
flights and access postal services. Australia
Post, the country’s postal service, said on
Twitter that an “external outage” had impacted
a number of its services, and that while most
services had come back online, they were
continuing to monitor and investigate. AP
10 FRIDAY, 18 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU LONG STORY LIVEMINT.COM

REPORTAGE | TALKING POINTS | IDEAS | INSIGHT | THE BOTTOMLINE

INSIDE THE LIVES

OF DEEP-SEA DIVERS
Even as oil prices soared in India, the fortunes of divers who are a key cog in the oil and gas industry have plunged.

Across the world, the oil and gas industry relies on the skills of
professional divers who manoeuvre themselves into the depths of
the sea to help large crude carriers transfer oil and oil products to
refineries through a single-point mooring system in the sea. MINT

Kalpana Pathak pre-pandemic times. According to the Nitrogen has a specific utility for div- competition and, by extension, shrinking UNDERWATER ROBOTS
mint
kalpana.p@livemint.com
MUMBAI
International Energy Agency (IEA), the
pandemic not only dented India’s energy
demand, which fell by 5% in 2020
ers—it is a fairly heavy gas and dissolves
in the blood and tissues easily, thereby
saturating the diver’s body.
SHORT
STORY
opportunities for many. A diving course
could cost ₹8-9 lakh in India and it takes
at least a year to recover the said amount,
C ovid-19 is, however, not the only
challenge that the divers are con-
fronting. Many oil and gas companies

A
t the age of 34, Birender because of the lockdowns and other Once the diver’s bloodstream has said Shanbag. have been shifting some tasks that are
Pathak took voluntary restrictions, but it also hit investment in absorbed the maximum pressure of the WHAT Many commercial divers in the oil usually performed by professional div-
retirement from the Indian the energy sector, which dropped by an gas, acclimatizing the body to the pres- industry sector burn out quickly because ers—both onshore and offshore—to
Navy in 2008 and went on to estimated 15% in 2020. sures that will be experienced underwa- The covid-19 pandemic has of the long hours and rigorous nature of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) for
become a freelance com- ter, he/she is physically ready for the job. upturned the lives of many the job. Many move on to instructing or some years now.
mercial diver. Pathak, now 47, wanted to CHALLENGING AS EVER A diver could take a maximum of eight professional divers as firms dole supervising jobs. ROVs are underwater robots, tethered
out fewer work assignments,
use his skills to take up more exciting
assignments, which would help him A cross the world, the oil and gas
industry relies on the skills of com-
hours to saturate—sometimes less, some-
times more. which, in any case, is available
only for 6-8 months a year
NO FOOLPROOF REMEDY
to a controller or an operator, who is usu-
ally above the water. An umbilical link is
travel the world, and also earn more mercial divers like Pathak, known as sat-
money. uration divers, who manoeuvre them- WORK, SLEEP, PLAY G iven that covid-19 is a highly infec- used to connect the operator and the
tious disease and the threat of its ROV, which is fitted with cameras, sen-
“I started my commercial diving career selves into the depths of the sea to help
working at Reliance Industries’ Hazira large crude carriers transfer oil and oil
project in India. Later, I moved to work products to refineries through a single-
D epending on the nature of the work,
the diver stays in the chamber for
days or weeks as the work progresses in
AND
spread is far from waning, the only sors, and tools that can collect various
option, divers say, is to isolate themselves types of data.
to avoid contracting it. Although divers The offshore oil and gas industry relies
with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Com- point mooring (SPM) system in the sea. shifts underwater. To reach the worksta- Qualified commercial divers are are mostly known to work on a freelance heavily on ROVs for drilling support and
pany in the United Arab Emirates and When a crude carrier arrives, one or tion from the chambers, the diving pro- spending more time quarantining basis, sometimes they also work in a sub-sea construction services to enable
have stayed here ever since I started tak- two divers dive into the water to connect fessional enters a pressurized diving bell offshore. This means that despite team. If one person is down with illness, deep-water exploration and develop-
ing international assignments,” Pathak the hose of the carrier to the SPM (a float- which is lowered down into the water, the challenging nature of their the entire team needs to be quarantined. ment projects worldwide. ROVs can be
said in a phone interview from Abu ing buoy or jetty anchored offshore), releasing the diver. jobs, these divers earn far less Vaccination against the disease is not used at depths of up to 3,000 metres
Dhabi, where he now works. which is connected to the tank storage Once the shift is over, the diving bell than what they used to foolproof, they have realized. below the sea level, where human divers
The onset of the covid-19 pandemic facilities of the oil refinery. This allows takes the professional back to the cham- Although many oil and gas projects can’t work. ROVs can vary in size—from
has upturned the lives of many. But the for the smooth transfer of the petroleum ber so that the body does not decompress have been signed, payments have not small units weighing a few grams fitted
upheavals within the oil and gas industry product to the oil tankers. Essentially, the before the work is over. After the comple- NOW come through due to work disruptions with a camera to a large unit weighing
have been particularly stark. The pan- oil won’t reach a refinery without the tion of the assignment, divers are taken related to the restrictions imposed in the several tonnes. They are controlled by a
demic first hit oil prices, forcing compa- intervention of a diver, making them a to the chamber to decompress. Decom- Commercial divers who work on wake of the covid-19 pandemic. And with crew of specialists.
nies that are engaged in the sector to key cog in the oil and gas exploration pression means allowing nitrogen to dis- a per day rate used to make some oil companies deferring projects Reliance Industries and ONGC use
slash capital expenditure plans and annul industry. sipate slowly and safely from the blood- $200-300 before the onset of because of the prevalent low crude oil ROVs for operations in the Krishna
contracts. That has meant fewer assign- Divers also help in assembling and dis- stream. the covid-19 pandemic. Now, price regime, 2021 may be a washout year Godavari (KG) basin on the east coast.
ments for divers like Pathak, whose work assembling offshore wells, rigs and pipe- Divers who come up too quickly could their per day rates have dropped for commercial divers. Nayara Energy uses it at its Vadinar refin-
window is typically open for only 6-8 lines, and in the maintenance of oil plat- run the risk of nitrogen being released to $100-125 a day “Since our work is only between the ery in Gujarat. The companies did not
months each year—between the onset forms and the building of underwater from the blood too fast, which could months of October and May, 2020 and reply to emails seeking comment.
and retreat of the monsoon. structures—everything from tightening potentially form bubbles in the blood- 2021 have been a washout for us. We (the Pathak was 19 years old when he joined
Worldwide, oil demand has slumped. the bolts with hydraulic jacks to hyper- stream, much like what happens to a cola Qualifications to enter the profession team of divers) are, however, putting the Indian Navy and saw a team of deep-
In India, amid the deadly surge of cov- baric welding (underwater welding). can when it is shaken. This can cause seem relatively simple—you need to be stand-by teams (in place) and cutting sea divers plunge headfirst into the
id-19 infections during the pandemic’s Those who work on a per day rate used blockages, resulting in a condition called able to swim, be physically fit, and pos- costs. We are also paying for our own ocean and then surface after staying
second wave, fuel demand slumped to its to make $200-300 before the onset of decompression sickness, which is not sess a senior secondary school certificate travel and stay (these days),” said Pathak, underwater for several minutes. He was
lowest in nine months due to restricted the covid-19 pandemic. Now, their per only painful but could be life threatening. or a graduation degree. People suffering adding that divers who were ready for intrigued because deep-sea diving
mobility and muted economic activity. day rates have dropped to $100-125 a day. The chambers on the boat keep the from claustrophobia are advised not to work under such terms were still getting seemed to defy a basic tenet of respira-
According to data from the petroleum A diving supervisor is earning as low as diver’s body pressure at roughly the same opt for a career in deep-sea diving. In assignments. tion: you exhale what you inhale. Pathak
planning and analysis cell (PPAC) of the $300 a day, against $400-500 earlier. level as the surrounding sea, removing order to take up assignments offered by In pre-covid days, when a diver was went on to join the Naval Diving School
oil ministry, fuel demand fell 1.5% to 15.1 But the challenge of the job they perform the need to compress and decompress the global oil companies, an interna- paid for an assignment, the payment was in Kochi, Kerala, from where he gradu-
million tonnes despite is as formidable as ever. every time a shift is completed. tional certification is necessary. The pro- based on the job’s entire ated as a qualified diver
the low base of May Before a diver can “Paying a diver for six days’ recovery fession has been attracting many young- cycle—travel, decom- after an intensive train-
2020 and was down by Over the past two decades, plunge into the sea, his for a day’s work is costly for oil compa- sters who choose to become saturation pression days, and the Most divers are freelancers ing that lasted for nine
11.3% when compared to the demand for divers in the body needs to prepare, nies. So, in the chambers, the divers are divers in a bid to make money. gig itself. who work on a short-term months.
the previous month. or saturate. Saturation kept under pressure for days through “Demand for experienced divers is But after the pan- Pathak says that he
Now, just as things oil and gas sector has diving ,or what is known their work, sleep and play,” said R Singh, directly proportional to opportunities in demic’s outbreak, the contract for projects. A enjoys diving as well as
seem to be improving, increased rapidly with divers as SAT diving in diving a retired commercial diver who has the offshore business. Offshore explora- divers are getting paid steady supply of divers has overseeing his team of
the onset of the mon- parlance, allows divers worked for the state-run explorer Oil and tion projects by oil companies across the only for the specific job. divers. The pandemic
soon will keep divers off from the Indian Navy being to venture beyond a Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), among world had been fuelling the demand for “We get paid for our meant more competition and may have caused a
the sea for a few more depth of 50 metres into other companies. more divers—attracting more and more time but in today’s envi- churning in the oil and
months at least. Ironi- the most in demand the sea, sometimes for candidates to the profession,” said ronment, the industry is fewer opportunities for many gas industry, but Pathak
cally, even as oil prices days and weeks, SUPPLY AND DEMAND Sudesh Shanbag, owner of Sri Bhavani not capable of paying is not fazed by the chal-
at the retail pump soared in India, the for- depending on the nature of the work.
tunes of men like Pathak have plunged. This involves breathing pressurized air
These days, qualified commercial divers in what is called a compression chamber
O ver the past two decades, as the oil
and gas industry has expanded rap-
idly, and so did the demand for divers.
Underwater Services at Visakhapatnam,
Andhra Pradesh. Shanbag’s company has
been supplying divers to exploration
you for those 14 days of quarantine and lenges posed by either covid-19 or the
another 15 days of treatment. If you travel ROVs.
to a location for a diving job, the company “Four out of 10 jobs in the oil and gas
spend more time quarantining offshore that could look like a capsule. These Industry players say that divers from the companies for nearly five decades now. that has engaged you does not pick up the industry are done by ROVs. For the rest,
and less in the sea. chambers are usually tucked inside a Indian Navy are still the most in demand, Most divers are freelancers who work tab for your travel, stay, and quarantine. divers will still be needed,” Pathak said.
This means that despite the challeng- ship—on oil platforms or diving support although many institutes have sprung up on a short-term contract for projects run So, you are giving your time but not get- “That is where our professional expertise
ing nature of their jobs, these divers earn vessels. The air in the chamber contains across the country to train and supply by various oil and gas companies. A ting paid,” said Singh, the retired com- lie. And even with covid-19, we will
far less than what they used to during 21% oxygen and 79% nitrogen. divers. steady supply of divers has meant more mercial diver. adapt,” he said.
LIVEMINT.COM MINT MONEY FRIDAY, 18 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU 11

Does momentum investing How A

much a house costs in Delhi NCR
house is probably the biggest spend for most Indians. And
with urban population increasing manifold, buying a house

make sense in MF portfolios?

in a large city, which is where most jobs are likely to be, has
become difficult—the main obstacle being cost. Determining a
property’s value is difficult. Our compilation of property prices of
prominent localities in major cities and surrounding areas across
India may help you compare and make an informed decision.
Here are the prices of some properties across three bands.

No. of Average unit Average price Approximate

Location
Its risky nature has kept momentum investing a fringe concept in India’s mutual fund sector bedrooms size (sq. ft) (₹/sq. ft) price (₹ lakh)

Under ₹50 lakh

Neil Borate
neil.b@livemint.com Not for the faint-hearted NH-24 1BHK 500 - 712 2,400-3,800 12.0 - 27.0
Momentum is not a strategy for the faint-hearted as it underperforms markets by a distance when markets correct sharply.

T
Rajnagar Extension 1BHK 600 - 740 24,00-3,600 16.0 - 26.0
he past year has been
Momentum strategies have been delivering strongly over the past year
extremely successful for
126.3 Noida Extension 2BHK 835-1,270 3,000-4,200 33.0 - 49.5
practitioners of momentum Total returns (in %)
investing. Simply put, this is Nifty Alpha 50
Sector 151, Noida 2BHK 850-1,185 3,100-4,300 30.0 - 50.0
a strategy that buys stocks Nifty 200 Momentum 30
that have done well in the recent past in Nifty 50
Indices as of 31 May 2021 Rajnagar Extension 2BHK 900 - 1,320 2,500-3,700 31.5 - 47.0
the hope that the trend will continue. 69
64.4
There are different variants and dif-
₹50 lakh-₹75 lakh
ferent indices tracking momentum
investing. For instance, the Nifty Alpha 32.7 Sectors 80 - 85,
25.7 26.1 23 2BHK 1,100-1,395 3,150-4,500 50.0 - 69.0
50 Index picks stocks with the highest 15.3 Greater Faridabad
12
alpha over the past year—alpha being
excess return over the market after Sohna, Gurugram 2BHK 1,000-1,450 3,800-5,800 50.0 - 75.0
Year-to-date 1-year 5-year
adjusting for a stock’s sensitivity to the Sectors 135, 137, 143B, 144, 168
market (beta). Another index, the Nifty 2BHK 950-1,350 4,000-5,800 50.0 - 75.0
Momentum indices can end up with heavy exposure to individual Noida
200 Momentum 30, picks the stocks corporate groups and can see huge volatility Vasundhara, Ghaziabad 2BHK 1,000-1,410 4,550-6,100 50.0 - 75.0
that have risen the most in the Nifty
200 over the past six months and one Top 5 holdings in Nifty 200 Momentum 30 Top 5 holdings in Nifty Alpha 50
Sectors 75-78, Noida 2BHK 990-1,310 4,300-5,900 50.0 - 75.0
year after adjusting for volatility as Weightage (in %) Weightage (in %)
measured by standard deviation. Both JSW Steel 7.5 Tanla Platforms 7.4
indices have done well over the past Above ₹75 lakh
Adani Enterprises 7.2 Adani Green Energy 5.2
year with the Nifty Alpha 50 up
126.26% (as of 31 May) and the Nifty 200 Tata Steel 7.1 Laurus Labs 5.0 Vaishali, Ghaziabad 3BHK 1,350-2,350 5,000-7,000 78.0-130.0
Momentum 30 up 68.95%. The Nifty Wipro 5.5 Adani Total Gas 4.6
50 itself was up 64.43% over the same Sectors 50-52, Noida 3BHK 1,300-1,850 5,200-7,600 76.0-130.0
period. Mahindra and Mahindra 4.5 Dixon Technologies (India) 4.3
Alternatives to mutual funds such as Sectors 93-104, Noida 3BHK 1,500-3,200 5,600-10,500 130.0 - 300.0
Source: NSE
smallcase also feature momentum
strategies. For instance, the Capital
PARAS JAIN/MINT Sohna Road, Gurugram 3BHK 1,580-2,720 6,500-12,900 130.0 -360.0
Mind Momentum Portfolio on small- return of 12.6% from momentum, while On the flip side, momentum invest- Value strategy works the best at high
case has given around 60% CAGR the Nifty and Nifty 500 did 8.9% and ing carries greater risk and for that rea- market valuations,” said Kirtan Shah, MG Road, Gurugram 3BHK 1,400-3,000 9,200-15,500 150.0 - 380.0
(compounded annual growth rate) 8.7% respectively,” it found. son has largely been a fringe concept in co-founder and CEO, SRE Wealth. Look out for real estate data in this space for cities such as Delhi and NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune
since its launch in January 2019. The momentum strategy, however, India’s mutual fund industry. The strat- Rushabh Desai, a Mumbai-based and Hyderabad. The list is not exhaustive. Data as on 16 June 2021.
The average price is the base rate on saleable area, and excludes infrastructure charges and government taxes.
A blog post published by Capital flies in the face of the efficient markets egy underperforms when the market mutual fund distributor, added, “There
Source: Cushman and Wakefield Research India
Mind on 10 December 2019 delved into hypothesis—a theory that cycle changes such as a are two types of momentum strate-
the past returns of momentum invest- suggests markets imme- Experts feel that sharp drop or a sharp gies—earnings momentum which buys
ing using historical data from India diately factor in all pub- momentum recovery “This is not a companies delivering consistent and
markets. It outlined a simple momen- licly available information investing works strategy for the faint- high earnings with high ROE (return
tum strategy and back-tested it before
considering more complex variants.
“On the first trading day of the
into a stock’s price.
However, Deepak
Shenoy, founder and
well in certain
phases of the
hearted. Momentum
underperforms markets
by a distance when mar-
on equity) and price momentum which
buys companies based on certain
momentum ratios of high price
Ultra-short-term debt funds are
stock markets
month, we rank all stocks based on
their absolute return over the last 52
weeks (1 year). Buy the top 30 stocks in
chief executive officer

does not set much store by

equal weight from this list. Rebalance
every month,” the post stated. “₹100 in
Jan 2007 in a simple 30-stock monthly
rebalance momentum strategy would
be ₹464 today. The same amount in the
Nifty and the Nifty 500 would be close
to ₹300. This translates to an annual
kets correct sharply,” the
(CEO) of Capital Mind, and not in others Capital Mint blog post
added.
returns. Earnings momentum is prac-
tised by some schemes such as Motilal
Oswal Flexicap Fund and these can be
the best bet for immediate goals
the theory. “We think Other experts feel that the core of an MF portfolio. Price
markets are efficient, they are not. momentum investing works in certain momentum, however, is riskier and ISTOCKPHOTO
There is always information arbi- phases of the stock market and not oth- should not be practised for mid- and Surya Bhatia re-evaluate your expenses and
trage—some people will have informa- ers. “I think momentum as a strategy small-caps. Within large caps, how- start investing for long term to
tion before others, and those before works when market valuations are low. ever, a price momentum strategy can I am 27, live in Mumbai, and buy a house in Mumbai.
even others, etc., which explains why Let’s say a momentum strategy at 7,500 be a satellite strategy in your portfolio earn ₹48,000 a month. As regards the loan, you can
stocks trend,” said Shenoy. Nifty makes more sense than at 15,000. (10-15% of your allocation).” After expenses of ₹25,000, use the existing funds for its
I have been investing repayment and start monthly
₹1,000 each in three SIPs investment for the long term in
since June 2017: Aditya an equity fund that can be an

Three good reasons to make a Will well in advance Birla Sun Life Frontline
Equity Fund - Dividend -
Regular Plan; Franklin
aggressive investment.
You are currently invested in
large-cap, flexi-cap and hybrid
ISTOCKPHOTO India Flexi Cap Fund - equity funds. All these have
Navneet Dubey exist, one has to get into the deceased.” Growth; and HDFC Pru- been good performers over the
navneet.d@livemint.com respective ‘Succession Act’ Avoids family disputes: A dence Fund - Regular Plan - last year but have been average
which can usually be chal- well-drafted Will also helps Growth. These funds come performers over the last few

M
aking a Will is a
responsibility you owe
to both yourself and
your family. It is a legal docu-
ment that lets you decide what
happens with your estate after
you die.
Basically, it is a formally writ-
ten document that tells benefi-
ciaries of your wealth after your
demise what assets you had and
how it should be distributed
—to whom, in what quantity
and in what manner.
Nowadays, people have even
started making video-graphed
Wills. The video can be used as
evidence that the concerned
person did sign the Will, in case
a claim arises after his/her
demise. The videographed Will
is also accepted in court-related
matters.
Hence, while undertaking
estate planning, you must go
for a Will. In this piece, we take
a look at three main reasons
why you should plan a Will.
Protects your family: Will
planning is an important and
essential step to ensure that all
your hard-earned money goes
to the benefit of someone you
love. A Will shields your family
and provides complete trans-
parency on how you would like
your assets to be handled and
distributed. If the children are
minor, then parents can decide
who will be the guardian or
who will care for their children
after their demise.
Helps avoid lengthy legal
processes: If a Will does not
lenged and it is typically a long avoid any dispute within the to about ₹99,000. I also ASK MINT years except for the hybrid,
process. Santosh Joseph, family. “In case of joint families, have an emergency fund of m MUTUAL FUNDS which is more consistent
founder and managing partner, or families with strained rela- ₹266,000. Based on this among the three. You may con-
Germinate Inves- tionships, the information, kindly advise sider changing the large-cap
tor Services LLP, Nowadays, absence of a Will me on the following: tial is about ₹23,000 after and flexi-cap funds with ones
said, “When people have can lead to ambi- a) Are the funds I am monthly expenses of ₹25,000. such as Canara Blue-chip
someone dies started making guity in deciding investing in performing Your savings are of ₹3,000 and Equity. Mirae Large-cap in the
without a Will, it videographed on the proper dis- well, or should I shift? loan repayment is of ₹5,000, large-cap space and Mirae
means you have tribution of b) Is it advisable to hold an which leaves a balance of Emerging Blue-chip in the
Wills, which are
died ‘intestate’. assets. Some- emergency fund in a bank? ₹15,000 that is not being saved. large and mid-cap category can
When this hap- accepted as times, it can lead c) What should be my This, too, needs to saved in an be considered for starting
pens, the intestacy evidence in court to hostile conver- financial plan for marriage investment plan. monthly investments. You can
laws will apply sations and dis- in 2022 and to buy a 1 BHK The immediate need is to also add a mid-cap, where
based on your jur- putes that can last house in Mumbai? create a corpus for your mar- Kotak Emerging Equity is a
isdiction. These laws of intes- a lifetime,” said Joseph. e) I have taken a loan of ₹1 riage expenses. As the funds are good option.
tate succession vary greatly Mint takeaway: It is a myth lakh from a friend, which I required within a year’s time, Surya Bhatia is managing
subject to whether you were that a Will is normally made am repaying at ₹5,000 per you cannot take a risk with the partner of Asset Managers.
single or married, or had kids. A when one reaches old age. The month. Is there a fund using money and can start investing
Will helps in avoiding any young and the old alike can which I can repay faster and in an ultra-short-term debt Do you have a personal
lengthy processes and delay in make a Will. The earlier you also earn some money in fund or can even start a bank finance query? Send in your
the distribution of your assets. make a Will, the better it is. You return? recurring deposit. Likewise, queries at
Having a Will eases the way for can also amend your Will as —Saikiran most of your emergency fund mintmoney@livemint.com
and get them answered by
nominees/legal heirs to get eas- and when you acquire new corpus can also be invested.
industry experts.
ier access to assets of the belongings or assets. Your current saving poten- After marriage, you will need to

TAX DEPARTMENT MUST INTROSPECT ON FAILURE IN TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION

MINT

ing of appeals being disposed of if submissions were not received tax department and the software developer for the complete failure
in time. They were left hapless and wondering how the govern- of the new portal. The compliance burden has not been eased.
B E YO N D T H E ment could threaten them with consequences for failure to com-
ply, while compliance was impossible.
Taxpayers definitely appreciate how computerization has
speeded up the process of tax refunds, and eliminated a large part
TA X B O O K This has been the unfortunate tale of taxpayers in relation to tax of the discretion that tax officers used as leverage over taxpayers.
compliance in the past as well. Compliances are increased without But they certainly do not appreciate being test users for software
G AU TA M N AYA K regard to the difficulties taxpayers face. The budget amends tax that is not fully functional, resulting in wastage of time on rectifica-
laws every year with new provisions to punish taxpayers dispro- tion applications, appeals, or figuring out how to file return forms
We welcome your comments at: portionate to the offence committed. that do not fully and correctly reflect
mintmoney@livemint.com Honest taxpayers are often penalized for small offences. A tax Taxpayers do the legal position, or simply how to get
deductor may make thousands of tax deductions correctly, pay tax not appreciate credit for taxes that appear online but

T
he launch of the new income tax portal has brought home
the truth about how the tax department has made taxpayers
dependent on technology in fulfilling their income tax obli-
gations. The existing website was made non-functional from 1
June, and the new website was launched on 7 June. While the web-
site became accessible only late in the evening on 7 June, even till
15 June, logging in remained a challenge, and even if one surmoun-
ted that, none of the functions worked.
Taxpayers wanting to make foreign remittances could not
upload the prerequisite forms to make these. All such remittances
were held up from 1 to 14 June, till the government clarified that
these forms could be submitted manually to banks first, and
uploaded online later. Meanwhile, taxpayers also received noti-
ces—those asking them to furnish details for assessment which
would otherwise be completed ex-parte; show-cause notices
threatening levy of penalty unless responded to; or notices warn-
in time, file tax deduction returns in time and generate tax deduc-
tion certificates. But if he forgets to make one tax deduction, he is
penalized by having the expenditure disallowed, resulting in his
having to pay income tax higher than the tax deduction involved,
besides having to pay interest and penalty for non-deduction.
Taxpayers are penalized by not allowing carry forward of losses
if they file their tax returns even one day late, and even if such delay
may be due to unfortunate circumstances such as a serious illness.
Charitable trusts are worse off—they lose their tax exemption for
the year if they file tax returns late even by a day. Late payment of
provident fund dues by a day (even if the PF website is down) can
result in huge income tax liabilities. There are numerous other
such provisions, which are totally unjust.
Can such compliance be a one-way traffic, with 100% compli-
ance expected from taxpayers, but no reciprocation from tax
authorities? Is there no such thing as accountability for the tax
department? During covid times, many taxpayers were upset that
tax officers were given much more time to complete assessments
(15 months), than what taxpayers were given to file tax returns (less
than 6 months). Was the impact of the lockdown and the pandemic
lesser on general taxpayers than tax gatherers?
In fact, rather than the tax department being supportive and
assuring taxpayers that they will not suffer because of this non-
functional portal, one sees a blame game taking place between the
being test users do not appear in their tax assessments
(even almost 20 years after this was
for software that computerized). Can amended return
is not fully forms, new software, new portals, etc.
functional undergo thorough and rigorous testing
for various situations, before being
launched on hapless taxpayers?
We boast of some of the world’s best software firms. If even these
firms are not able to achieve the desired results, something is defi-
nitely wrong. Is it the specifications, the testing methodology, the
manner in which implementation is rushed or simply the
extremely complicated tax law provisions that have resulted in
such failures? The tax department definitely needs to introspect,
and address the root of the problem. It is only then that taxpayers
and tax gatherers will both be happy with the results.
Gautam Nayak is partner, CNK and Associates LLP.
12 FRIDAY, 18 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU VIEWS LIVEMINT.COM

OUR VIEW MY VIEW | FARM TRUTHS

A faulty fertilizer subsidy policy

will worsen India’s farm distress
Price-led distortions of demand could damage the environment and also leave farmers worse off

round consequence was a rise in black
marketing of urea and an increase in its
prices. Total fertilizer consumption
declined from 28.1 million tonnes in
2010-11 to 24.5 million tonnes by
2013-14. While it had recovered to 27.4
million tonnes by 2018-19, it is yet to
reach pre-NBS consumption levels.
What recovery did take place was also
HIMANSHU largely due to a 1-million tonne rise in
is associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru consumption of nitrogenous fertilizers
University and visiting fellow at the Centre (mainly urea) against a matching
de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi decline in phosphatic fertilizer con-
sumption and a 0.74-million tonne fall
DAP, prices of which rose the most. The
subsidy hike has restored the prices that
prevailed before the price hike. But
since the subsidy is limited to DAP, it
has caused distortions in the relative
prices of various complex fertilizers.
Those such as muriate of potash con-
tinue to witness an increase in prices
introduced this February.
Given the price sensitivity of Indian
farmers, these distortions will not just
lower demand for fertilizers, but also
encourage the adoption of an adverse
fertilizer mix, in turn damaging the soil

Spectacular self-goals
in consumption of potassic fertilizers. and environment. Recent data on fertil-
But perhaps the biggest consequence izer sales after the government’s inter-

O
n 19 May, a high-level commit- was the worsening of the fertilizer mix. vention is not yet available. But past
tee chaired by Prime Minister The recommended ratio of the nutri- experience suggests the likelihood of an
Narendra Modi decided to ents N (nitrogen), P (phosphorous) and imbalance in the use of fertilizers by

in this game of eyeballs increase the subsidy for di-ammonium

phosphate (DAP) fertilizer from ₹500
to ₹1,200 per bag. This was in response
to an increase in prices of complex
K (potassium) is 4:2:1. In 2010-11, it was
4.7:2.3:1. It worsened to 8.0:2.7:1 by
2013-14, before improving slightly to
6.3:2.5:1 by 2018-19. The bad fertilizer
farmers having occurred.
It’s not just harm done to the environ-
ment by the government’s intervention
in the input market and the effect it has
fertilizers under the Nutrient Based mix is harmful for the soil and environ- on input costs that is worrying. But also
Subsidy (NBS) regime in February-April ment in the long run, and a decline in the impact such ad-hoc decisions are
Footballer Ronaldo’s snub of Euro 2020 sponsor Coca-Cola was seen to have cost it $4 billion 2021 that was driven by a rise in interna- soil fertility will also raise input costs. likely to have on the broad profitability
tional prices of phosphoric acid and While the disastrous consequences of of farming. The wholesale price index
in market value, but the normalcy signalled by packed stadiums could yet prove far costlier ammonia, which are used as inputs. The NBS 2010 are still being felt, the latest (WPI) data released earlier this week
decision followed months of protests by decision will aggravate these problems. showed a decline in farm-gate prices.
farmers against rising fertilizer prices. Fertilizer producers have hiked prices Wholesale inflation in cereals was nega-
Although it will help reduce the input of complex fertilizers by almost half tive for the eighth consecutive month.

T
he game that sells on beauty, with
football positioned in global mind-
space as ‘the beautiful game’, has
seen three self-goals scored in Euro
2020 so far. Or is it four? On Tues-
day, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo
roused fans across the globe to raptures by
playing Hungary on its home turf, a day after
he casually seemed to knock $4 billion off a
championship sponsor’s market value by
pushing aside a fizzy drink for water at a press-
meet in Budapest. Whether it was causation or
correlation (an action replay offers no clarity),
an open snub of its top brand live on millions
of screens appeared to have tripped The Coca-
Cola Company’s share price, leaving it red-
faced enough to issue a statement saying
everyone was entitled to their preferences.
As audiences fragment, sports extravaganzas
offer a special chance to attract eyeballs for ad
messages, but the antics of players that make
them such big stars can and also backfire on
sponsors. Ronaldo scored twice in that match,
took his team to victory and leapt past France’s
is officially called, was originally scheduled to costs of farmers, this immediate relief since 1 April on account of higher raw Vegetable prices have also seen a
be played last year, before covid got in its way. may be outweighed by the problems it material prices. Its immediate effect has decline on a year-on-year basis for the
would create in the long run. been a nearly 75% decline in the sale of last six months. On the other hand, most
It was duly pushed forth. But this was a busi- The origins of the problem are traced input prices, including those of diesel,
ness involving competition among a string of to actions by the United Progressive have seen a sharp increase. At a time
fixtures on a sports calendar, last year’s ripping Alliance government, which introduced when the economy is experiencing a
up of which spelt a novel rivalry to converge the NBS regime in 2010 with the goal of QUICK READ sharp demand compression and a
eyeballs at the earliest to mop up ad budgets gradually reducing India’s burgeoning decline in crop prices in the domestic
fertilizer subsidies. While it decon- India’s latest move to raise our market, a rise in input prices is a sure
lying in wait for a re-kick-off. Euro 2020’s trolled prices of complex fertilizers, it DAP fertilizer subsidy will ease recipe for agrarian distress.
organizers have been quick at the draw. They continued administering the price of short-term pain but worsen Whatever the compulsions of such
also did well to retain its title, which has a look urea, the most commonly used one. The market distortions that began ad-hoc decisions, their consequences
and sound to it that simply can’t be matched. immediate effect of the move was that with a flawed effort to reduce on agriculture and farmer incomes are
But if the year 2020 is one that history won’t prices of complex fertilizers rose to the budget burden back in 2010. likely to hurt the Indian economy. Agri-
reflect higher input costs. What policy- culture helped absorb the shock of the
forget, it is for the outbreak of a pandemic that makers seemed to forget was that the The freeing of prices for all covid pandemic last year and drove
in hindsight may look more and more like a Indian farmer is very price sensitive. As fertilizers but urea resulted in a economic growth when all other sectors
tragedy of our own making. The most striking a result, not only did the consumption shift in the mix of fertilizer use were declining. Now that the pandemic
part of Euro 2020 has been the crowds it has of complex fertilizers decline, there was that is not just harming the soil has begun to devastate India’s rural
huddled together, and that too, with little to also a shift in demand to urea, whose but also hurting agricultural economy, the last thing farmers need is
prices were still regulated. A second- incomes in the country. a crisis driven by flawed policy.
restrain the roars generated by the frenzy of
such mass gatherings. Noisy people help the
airborne virus spread even faster. Is our beauti-
ful game, then, on the verge of scoring a far
more morbid sort of self-goal?
Europe may have bent its infection curve,
with its daily count down from a recent peak www.livemint.com New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh*, Pune* Monday, June 27, 2011 Vol.5 No.151 `3.00 24 PAGES

Michel Platini as this tournament’s all-time top of over 288,000 on 1 April to just over 42,000 CHARTICLE: Identifying those
below the poverty line >4
CAPITAL CALCULUS: UPA failing to gauge
aspirations, says Anil Padmanabhan >4

goal scorer. Yet, it was his Coke clip that went
cases on 16 June, but it has not seen covid off EXCLUSIVE PARTNER
BANKER’S TRUST: How bad are our
banks, asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay >6
NATION: Bengal government plans cash
payments for some Singur landowners >5

viral, as one may expect of a celebrity with yet. Another worry for the rest of us should be SENSEX 18,240.68 ®

LOSING OUT
NIFTY 5,471.25 ® DOLLAR `44.99 ®

Combustible mix
EURO `63.85 ®

We may not
GOLD `22,065 ®

QUICK EDIT
OIL $105.12 ®

NMDC fails require more To greener

nearly half a billion followers on Instagram, the demonstration effect of such a raucous to acquire
tightening,
says YV Reddy
B Y A NUP R OY
pastures

anup.r@livemint.com
·························
D windling foreign
direct investment
(FDI) flows into India are
by now a staple of the A brand is no longer
Facebook and Twitter combined. return to normalcy (as we knew it). Euro 2020
country’s souring as an
MUMBAI
investment destination.

Kolmar Coal I nterest rates may have peak- Not only are foreigners
ed in the country, though shying away from India,

what we tell the consumer

the full impact of monetary
tightening by the Reserve Bank
of India (RBI) is not felt yet,
former governor Y.V. Reddy
said.
Russian company sells
but Indians, too, are going
abroad in droves. Data
released by the Reserve
Bank of India shows that
in 2010-11, outward

If it was any consolation for Coca-Cola, Tues- has viewers in various covid-stricken regions,
OVERSEAS BID
51% stake to oil trader
Gunvor International
in a deal valued
at around $400 million
“The interest rate already
has increased and, therefore,
we have to see how much more
THE NEWS monetary action is required or
NMDC fails to acquire mines
of Kolmar Coal, 51% stake
is it required at all. I will put
this as a question mark,” Red-
direct investment was
nearly $44 billion while
FDI inflows were only
$25.8 billion, down by
25% over the previous
year. Outward flows, in

it is—it is what consumers

sold to Gunvor International. dy said in an interview in the contrast, had gone up
THE BACKGROUND Banker’s Trust programme on from $17.9 to $44 billion.
B Y U TPAL B HASKAR With plans of setting up steel plants Bloomberg UTV to be telecast This fiscal, too, the FDI

day’s action on the field produced a roaring many of them restless and raring to let them-
utpal.b@livemint.com
·························
NEW DELHI
in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka, the this week. trend is disappointing.
iron ore miner has been scouting for “RBI has acted pretty well. There are, no doubt,
The monetary policy transmis-
stakes overseas as it requires coking many factors in these

S tate-owned miner NMDC

Ltd has failed to acquire
the mines of Kolmar Coal
Co., with the Russian firm sell-
ing a 51% stake to oil trader
coal which is in short supply in India.
THE IMPLICATION
The firm may have to step up its
effort to secure coal supplies for
sion will take time and, hence,
one has to be careful whether
any further tightening is re-
quired at this stage,” he said.
Since its monetary tighten-
trends but one cause
stands out loud and
clear: the policymaking
logjam in India and the
its steel manufacturing plants. downright hostile

tell each other it is.

Gunvor International BV. ing process started in January environment for many

stadium of spectators seen in ripples of red, its selves go. Carefree signals could catch on in
NMDC, India’s largest pro-
ducer of iron ore, has been
eyeing the deal since last year
and was set to appoint Deloitte
Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt.
Ltd as a financial adviser for
the acquisition, valued at
around $400 million (around
`1,800 crore today).
comment on the matter.
A Deloitte executive con-
firmed the development and
said: “Since someone else has
bought it, there was no reason
for appointing Deloitte.” He
declined to be named.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY PTI 2010, the Indian central bank big investors in the
Public messages: The move to hike prices of kerosene, LPG and diesel has hiked banks’ cash reserve country. The case of
has drawn a sharp response from the public, already reeling under the ratio, or the portion of deposits Posco steel in Orissa is
pressures of inflation that is currently above 9%. A defensive United that banks need to keep with just one example. The
Progressive Alliance (UPA) responded by inserting advertisements RBI, by 100 basis points (bps) Union government needs
in newspapers explaining the logic of its actions. Coming as it does and the policy rate by 425 bps to wake up to this
in the backdrop of allegations of corruption, it has only added to the through 10 incremental hikes. situation before it
political problems faced by the UPA. gets out of hand.
TURN TO PAGE 2®

brand colour, which was worn by Hungarian as countries that lag the West on vaccination and
“The deal is off for NMDC,”
said a person aware of the de-
velopment who did not want to
be identified.
“Fifty-one per cent of Kolmar
Coal Co. has been sold to Gun-
vor Holdings,” said a second
person familiar with the matter
who also requested anonymity.
NMDC, with its iron ore pro-
duction capped under 30 mil-
lion tonnes, is setting up steel
plants in Chhattisgarh and
Karnataka, which will help it Mayawati
gain a toehold in the steel
business where demand out-
strips supply. The company
holds edge,
plans to leverage the easy
despite cracks

well as Portuguese supporters, a sight that need to stay alert, apart and masked, not to
Kolmar Coal is owned by
Intergeo, a mining subsidiary
of Russian billionaire Mikhail
Prokhorov’s Onexim Group.
Gunvor International is an in-
dependent energy company
with a significant presence in
Russian hydrocarbon sector.
A Gunvor International
would have left a subliminal imprint on many mention quiet, till an acceptable level of safety
spokesperson said in an email
that “nothing has yet been for-
availability of iron ore from its
mines to meet domestic steel
demand that continues to rise in vote base
as the economy expands.
To make steel, NMDC also
needs coking coal, which is in
short supply in India.
NMDC is also a part of Inter-
national Coal Ventures Pvt. Ltd
mint SERIES
B Y A PPU E STHOSE S URESH
appu.s@livemint.com
SCOT T COOK
set up by state-controlled ·························
firms, including NTPC Ltd, LUCKNOW

mally announced,” and de-

clined comment “on this po-
tential transaction”. Questions
emailed to an Onexim Group
spokesperson remained unan-
swered at the time of going to
press.
Steel Authority of India Ltd,
Coal India Ltd and Rashtriya
Ispat Nigam Ltd, to secure coal
assets overseas. The firm has
been unable to close any deal.
Global coal consumption
grew 7.6% to 250 million
L ohati is no regular village.
The hamlet, located in the
north-east corner of Uttar
Pradesh in Balrampur district,
represents the core vote bank
of the Bahujan
Samaj Party

viewers across the world. The spectacle of it, is achieved. In India, especially, we must do
Mint had reported on 24 tonnes of oil equivalent (BSP) that was
March that NMDC was looking (mtoe), according to the BP key to Mayawa-
at the acquisition. Statistical Review of World En- ti’s surprising
An NMDC spokesperson ergy, with China and India in- sweep to power
didn’t respond to a query seek- creasing their consumption by in the state as-
ing comment and a Deloitte 10.1% (54.1 mtoe) and 0.8% (27 sembly elections
spokesperson declined to mtoe), respectively. in 2007.
INDIA Not surpris-
VOTES ingly, it has once

however, was startling for another reason too: our utmost to resist self-goals. It would help if
INSIDE again figured
prominently in chief minister
MFIs try a different track Mayawati’s plan to return for
what will be a record consecu-

A few large microfinance institutions (MFIs) are trying to

cope with a funding squeeze that followed a crisis after
Andhra Pradesh introduced a stringent law governing mic-
tive second term in the elec-
tions to the state assembly in
2012.
rolenders, which saw assets of some MFIs drop by at least The chief minister had
one-fourth. Microlenders such as SKS Microfinance are launched the Ambedkar Vil-

the conviviality of the revival on display. The stadiums are kept empty everywhere until the
planning to diversify their business and start offering gold lage Programme immediately
loans. Others are focusing on fee income. >P3 after being elected; a flagship
scheme, it is meant to intro-

Mint is also available for R5.50 with Hindustan Times under a combo offer TURN TO PAGE 10®

UEFA European Football Championship, as it pandemic is given a final red-card send-off.

THEIR VIEW

The non-consumption barrier to our vaccination drive

might well be baffled by those who, despite
RITA MCGRATH & M. MUNEER the increasing availability of vaccines (in
India during the campaign’s initial phase and
in the US now), aren’t moving quickly to get
them. This is a problem hiding in plain sight.
Many Indians were hesitant to embrace vac-
well-intentioned posts on any number of offi- challenge of non-consumption must get due the company has worked hard to eliminate
cial websites, the eligibility message is attention. The essence of the problem is that barriers. In many cases, price barriers too.
unlikely to cross the consciousness of those even if someone wants your product or ser- Even for those people who want to avoid
who don’t own a smartphone, don’t have vice because it meets an important need, bar- doing business with Amazon, it’s hard.
broadband access, or don’t ‘doomscroll’. riers of access to that offering leave that need What’s needed is the elimination of fric-
Now consider those who aren’t working unmet, the deal unconcluded, and the poten- tion. Once you work out how to tackle non-

are, respectively, professor at
Columbia Business School and
founder of Valize; and the co-
founder and chief evangelist of
Medici Institute.
M
ost chief executive officers (CEOs)
think of competition as the biggest
challenge for getting customers to
buy their products and services. But a much
bigger challenge is non-consumption—espe-
cially when the reasons people aren’t buying
have more to do with friction than with what
one is selling. A recent article in The New
York Times points out how clueless busi-
nesses often are of barriers in the way of
prospects becoming actual customers. It
describes a big population of those who
haven’t gotten a covid vaccine yet, but aren’t
hesitant. They’d gladly get vaccinated and
put covid behind them if they could, but the
barriers are too high and the people trying to
‘sell’ the idea to them don’t get it.
From a pleasant perch at a work-from-
home office, with a schedule flexible enough
to jump for a vaccine appointment when it
opens up and drive for an hour if need be, the
task of getting vaccinated might be modestly
inconvenient, but it is certainly doable. It’s
understandable why people in that situation
cination for a multitude of reasons. For start-
ers, the World Health Organization’s vaccine
advisory group had expressed complacency
on the part of both the government and vac-
cine makers in India. Not all trials were done
with the rigour expected, and many continue
to have reservations on India’s accelerated
speed of approvals and lack of transparent
data. The government increased the gap
between jabs from 4 weeks to 6, and then to 12
and now 16, in a manner that seemed arbitrary,
which did little to quell rumours. Relentless
talk that India’s fatality was much lower than
the global rate also led some people to miscal-
culate the risk-return ratio in favour of no-vax.
How do we combat vax non-consumption?
Start with the basics: How does one even
know if one is eligible for a jab? By one study,
about 3 in 10 people didn’t know if they were
eligible in their state or not, and whether it
was free or not. As any good marketer will tell
you, even if I’m aware I have a problem, if I
don’t know that there’s a potential solution,
I’m unlikely to take action. And despite the
from home. Perhaps they’re in critical roles tial transaction unconsummated. consumption, it’s difficult to go back to put-
that require workplace attendance. Or they For those making decisions on products, ting up with friction.
run small service businesses, as plumbers, services, channels and offers, the barriers that Indian health authorities must work on
electricians, home healthcare workers, home hold off consumption are often invisible. that. In the US, the levelling off of its rate of
delivery agents, etc. For them, matching time Decision-makers can often swipe away chal- vaccination was initially framed in terms of
availability with appointments is a challenge, lenges of cost, access, timing and conve- vaccine-hesitancy, or its more virulent
especially when the website is cranky and nience with superior resources. And yet, an cousin, anti-vax disinformation. That made
hangs on overload. And incredible range of blind for great headlines. When public health offi-
what about lost pay for spots persists, limiting the cials and other observers started digging in,
the hours it might take to QUICK READ reach of even an attractive however, it turned out to be a problem of
get to a centre for a jab? offering. non-consumption, primarily.
And what of time lost to Like many CEOs, policymakers A company that really The response to that learning, while piece-
recovery from vaccine also need to recognize that the counters this well is Ama- meal and slow, is encouraging. Celebrities are
side-effects? Add to that real challenge of success often zon. As Geoff Colvin of endorsing vaccines and often sharing videos
the task of finding some- lies in addressing various friction Fortune admiringly of getting vaccinated. New Jersey Transit, in
one to look after the kids points that get in the way of a remarked, “Amazon is the partnership with Novartis, has begun offer-
while you’re gone, or the good offer being taken. world champion at taking ing free rides to vaccine sites. Pop-up vaccine
trouble of reaching a vac- out friction.” From one- sites are targeting hard-to-reach migrant
cination site without pub- To get our jab numbers rising, click buying to ‘buy it workers where they live and work. Vaccine
lic transport available we must flatten the hurdles that again’ and instant reports centres are shifting from appointments to a
under a lockdown. impede even those ready to on item availability to walk-in/drive-through model. And the con-
India’s CoWin vaccina- get vaccinated. As in America, suggestions that are versation is shifting from seeing the unvacci-
tion access system offers we might find that vaccine indeed relevant, all the nated as anti-vaxxers to simply lacking
an illustration of how the resistance is exaggerated in India. way to doorstep delivery, access. India has lessons to learn from this.
LIVEMINT.COM VIEWS FRIDAY, 18 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU 13

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

Reflections on the pandemic and The Adani Group ought to get

a wider base of equity investors
our preparations for a third wave Its juggernaut will roll on but it should expand its capital sources

Niti Aayog could set up a coordination committee for rural healthcare capacity expansion that draws upon urban learnings

AP

ANDY MUKHERJEE
is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering
industrial companies and financial services

SUDIPTO MUNDLE
is a distinguished fellow at the National Council
of Applied Economic Research.

G
autam Adani’s debt-fuelled empire
received a jolt this week when a
newspaper reported that three of

H
ad Preeta not rushed me to Indrapa-
ratha Apollo hospital, New Delhi,
with the help of some friends, on 24
April, I am certain I would not have
been here to write this column.
Even as I lay prone in the covid
intensive care unit, attached to a non-invasive ven-
tilation machine that was pumping oxygen into my
lungs, intra-veinous pipes delivering different
drugs, and wired to heart and oxygen saturation
monitors, it was clear to me that I was a very lucky
man and the discomfort of all these attachments
actually reflected my privileged situation.
I was at one of India’s leading hospitals, there
was no shortage of oxygen or the critical drugs that
were desperately needed, and a highly competent
team of doctors was managing my case. This at a
time when news was filtering in of a grim situation
in the chaotic world outside. There was a critical
shortage of everything, from vaccines to hospital
beds, ambulances, ventilators, concentrators,
essential drugs and, above all, oxygen. Severely
infected patients were simply dying because they
could not get the oxygen they needed to breathe
and stay alive.
The many days I spent in the covid section of
Apollo, an unusual ivory tower if I may call it that,
gave me a lot of time to reflect on what had gone
wrong. Why did the country have to suffer this
nightmare, and, more importantly, what needed to
be done to avert another one if and when the next
covid wave struck?
The interval between India’s first and second
waves gave us time to prepare for the second wave.
Instead, we became complacent as the first wave
subsided. The warnings of several experts were
ignored. The Prime Minister even announced tri-
umphally at Davos that India had defeated covid.
Soon after that, the second wave struck like an
awesome tsunami with four times the ferocity of
the first, leaving much death and devastation in its
wake. As critical shortages of hospital beds and
oxygen eased in Delhi, the virus ravaged the small
towns and villages of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and else-
where where there was little or no medical care for
hapless citizens. Images of countless funeral pyres
and shallow graves on the banks of the Ganga satu-
rated our television screens.
Completely overwhelming an unprepared
administration and creaking healthcare system,
the second wave focused global attention on the
dramatic failure of the government. In all fairness,
though, it is not just the government, but also the
public which has failed itself. Without widespread
public failure to comply with covid-appropriate
behaviour, avoid large crowds, maintain social dis-
tance and wear masks, the spread of the virus
would not have been nearly as rampant.
However, while apportioning blame for what
the six Mauritius-based funds that have Gautam Adani’s business empire has been
invested most of their money in the Indian expanding rapidly REUTERS
billionaire’s stocks had seen their accounts
frozen by the national share depository. The that doesn’t have enough of them. Now he
Adani Group refuted the report as “bla- wants to expand into cement, presumably to
tantly erroneous”, helping to put a floor use the fly ash produced by his power
below plunging share prices. But not plants. An initial public offering for the air-
before $6 billion of wealth was lost on Mon- port business may also be on the cards.
day. The jitters returned the next day with It would be a typical move. To grab the
an announcement that the accounts for capital-guzzling opportunities that have
Cresta Fund, Albula Investment Fund and come its way, the original firm, Adani Enter-
APMS Investment Fund are in “suspended prises Ltd, has spun off several units into the
for debit” status as per a Securities and public market. But the list of shareholders of
Exchange Board of India regulation. Adani these stocks, which have risen 200%-900%
Total Gas Ltd, Adani Power Ltd and Adani in value over the past year, needs some
Transmission Ltd all fell by their 5% daily explaining. Take Adani Green Energy Ltd,
limit in Mumbai on Tuesday. which aims to be the world’s top renewable
The selling continued on Wednesday. A energy producer by 2030. Earlier this year,
temporary bout of nervousness in the stock the firm sold a 20% stake to Total SE. That’s
market won’t shake Asia’s second-richest a solid name. As are Vanguard Group and
man, who has managed to sustain—without Blackrock, which have small shares.
any visibility on future profit—a decade- Sandwiched between them, however, are
long entanglement in a controversial and the likes of Elara India Opportunities Fund.
costly coal mine investment in Australia. The $4 billion investment vehicle seems to
has happened, it is more urgent now to ensure that trations rapidly adding to their hospital bed capac- Behind that confidence lies the workhorse have found most of its opportunities in
it does not happen again—that is, to prepare for a ity and even organizing their own production of of the group. Adani Ports & Special Eco- Adani group shares. Look beyond the 97%
third wave. Enough experience has been gained on oxygen. nomic Zone Ltd is spewing $1 billion of cash of the fund’s assets that are parked in five of
how to contain the pandemic’s spread as well as the There is no reason why such best practices can- annually, a nine-fold jump from 2014. them, and it does not hold even a $1 million
treatment of those infected. That experience not be scaled up and replicated throughout the The coming together of the different pie- stake in what other fund managers would
should feed a strategy to cope with the next wave. country. But this will need effective coordination ces in Adani’s sprawling infrastructure jig- typically buy in India—for example, a major
To contain the spread, the first priority is vacci- and leadership. Perhaps Niti Ayog could set up a saw has mirrored the rise of Narendra Modi, bank, a top-tier software exporter, or Reli-
nation. The government target of vaccinating 10 coordination committee, led by public health who has been India’s Prime Minister for the ance Industries Ltd, the country’s largest
million persons daily is not experts and experienced admin- last seven years. All that the businessman company by market value.
impossible to achieve, since istrators, with corresponding needs to make his bets pay off is a decade- Elara isn’t alone. Six Mauritius-based off-
about 3 million persons per day QUICK READ state-level committees, to lead long dream run in which India goes from shore funds, the biggest holders within the
on average were already being this effort. It is unlikely that such lower-middle-income economy to higher- foreign investor pool, have put more than
vaccinated in April, till we ran We must take lessons from the a coordination committee could middle-income nation. That jump in per 95% of their assets ($2 billion to $4 billion)
short of vaccines. The key ques- second wave that struck us like a completely revamp the nation- capita income may have been delayed even into Adani’s firms, Bloomberg Intelligence
tion is whether the government tsunami soon after India waxed wide PHC network within a few before covid. Still, when the growth spurt strategists Gaurav Patankar and Nitin Chan-
can ensure enough supplies of triumphal over having beaten months. But at least it can move eventually comes, it should trigger a hunger duka noted last week.
vaccines to achieve the 10 mil- covid and work out what must be the policy needle to channelize for commodities similar to what China wit- In an interview with CNBC yesterday,
lion daily goal. On the treatment done to mitigate a third wave. massive resources in that direc- nessed between 2006 and 2016. By supply- Jugeshinder Singh, chief financial officer of
front, we need to massively step tion, thereby helping to contain ing electricity to 1.4 billion Indians when Adani Group, said that more high-quality
up the supply of oxygen, availa- Our large cities may be able to the death and devastation that a they’re sleeping, providing them with piped institutions will come as the firms establish
bility of hospital beds, ventila- cope but rural India presents a third covid wave would other- gas when they’re sitting down for breakfast, a longer track record in public markets. He
tors and other equipment as bigger worry. Healthcare facilities wise leave behind in rural India. and hosting their data when they’re brows- also argued that the questions that are being
well as of essential drugs cannot pop up overnight but One of former president A.P.J. ing the net and waiting for a flight to take off asked of him about obscure fund managers
required for covid treatment. Is central efforts could move the Kalam’s principal contributions from one of his airports, Adani will collect should ideally be answered by the investors
this doable? needle on bridging the divide. to policy thinking was the ‘provi- the cash that will justify the estimated $20 themselves. Trouble is, where do we find
Perhaps our large cities and sion of urban amenities to rural billion debt in the group’s listed companies. them? I could have asked analysts, but I
towns can cope better with the next wave, based areas (PURA). It was unfortunately forgotten after That’s why the turbulence this week isn’t could not find a single one who covers the
on the experience gained, if they start preparing his term in Rashtrapati Bhavan. Through this con- entirely without significance. In case of lin- Adani Green stock which the market values
now. The challenge is far greater in the rural hin- cept, president Kalam was attempting to address gering damage to investor confidence, the at $25 billion.
terlands. Delivery of health services, including the one of the fundamental inequities of our society, conglomerate may need to taper its breath- The Adani juggernaut will roll on. But as
cold chain for vaccines, depends entirely on our that between urban India and rural Bharat. A mas- less expansion, lest financiers turn skittish the group gets bigger and more covetous of
primary health centres (PHCs), the foundation of sive rural campaign to contain the third covid wave as well. And that won’t do for Adani. In less cash-generating assets, it would need larger
our public healthcare system, which are near could mark the beginning of a strategic policy shift than three decades, his low-key trading firm dollops of outside equity. It would be helpful
collapse in many states. But there are also cases of towards containing that inequity. has transformed itself into a massive owner if it comes from investors who at least have
some municipal authorities and district adminis- These are the author’s personal views. of energy and transport assets in a country a website. ©BLOOMBERG

MY VIEW | PEN DRIVE

Covid and the Stockdale Paradox of realism and faith

pline to confront the most brutal facts of
RAJ RAGHUNATHAN your current reality.”
I believe that the best way out of the dark
night we currently face is to practise what
Stockdale preached: Confront the brutal
reality while also having the faith in the end-
improve one’s chances of surviving covid. To me, ‘confronting the brutal reality fac- in the endgame; simple things that improve
At a more general level, confronting bru- ing us’ while also ‘having the faith in the positive mood will work. For instance, limit-
tal reality means following the science. In endgame’ means taking advantage of both ing exposure to the news (which is mostly
this regard, it is important to recognize that science and spirituality. Specifically, while negative) and social media (which has been
science is not the opposite of spirituality. If science can help confront the brutal reality, shown to make one feel negative) will
anything, science can promote spirituality. spirituality can instil faith in the end-game. improve mood and hence optimism. Like-

is Zale Centennial
professor of business,
McCombs School of
Business at The University
of Texas at Austin, and
teaches consumer
behaviour at the BITS
School of Management
(BITSoM)
C
ovid has literally affected a close
family member—a parent, aunt or
friend—of every Indian I know. If the
past few months have been horrific, it
appears that the future may be worse—with
many experts predicting a third wave of
infections. How does one keep hopes up in
times like these?
The Stockdale Paradox has something to
teach us. Jim Stockdale, after whom it is
named, was an American soldier imprisoned
by the Vietcong and one of the vanishingly
few to survive eight long years of imprison-
ment and torture.
Stockdale attributes his survival to being
able to accept the harsh realities of his situa-
tion while, at the same time, having faith that
he would one day be free. By contrast, pris-
oners who were overly optimistic—and
dreamt of being free by the upcoming
Christmas—died of broken hearts. As Stock-
dale puts it, “You must never confuse faith
that you will prevail in the end with the disci-
game. Confronting brutal reality means
practising safe behaviour—wearing masks,
exercising social distancing, getting vacci-
nated, and, if needed, getting admitted to a
hospital. Practising safe behaviour is obvi-
ously important to avoid covid and minimize
its spread. Yet, a surprisingly large number
of Indians appear averse to safe practices.
One of my own relatives resisted getting
tested for covid, despite her husband con-
tracting the disease, because she was afraid
to “find out the truth.” As it turns out, she
tested positive and was admitted to a hospi-
tal. But because of the delay in getting tested,
she couldn’t find a hospital bed for over 24
hours and couldn’t share a room with her
husband. And all of this caused unnecessary
stress for her family.
Confronting brutal reality also means
resisting delusional thinking, like believing
in quack remedies such as inhaling steam or
imbibing cow urine. While these quack
remedies may not be harmful, they won’t
At a conceptual level, scientific findings Consider placebo effects, the finding that wise, limiting interactions with people
(such as quantum entanglement, or a light subjective beliefs about curative properties (especially complainers) who make you feel
flash at conception—YouTube them) help of a drug increase the objective probability angry, sad or anxious, will help.
us recognize that the universe is mysterious of being cured. Extrapolating placebo A final way to foster ‘faith in the end-
beyond belief, thus promoting spirituality. effects from medicine to ‘life’ suggests that game’ is to actively prepare yourself for the
At a more mundane level, science permits those who believe that ‘covid will end and future. What skillsets might the world need
the dissemination of good things will follow’ a year from now? For instance, it seems very
spiritual information are more likely to experi- likely that more of us will be working from
(say, via the internet). So, QUICK READ ence positive outcomes. home even in a post-covid era. Upskill your-
science and spirituality It is in this way that spiri- self to take advantage of that future. So,
go together. Yet, many We should recall Jim Stockdale’s tuality can foster ‘faith in don’t fritter away your most productive
resist following science prison survival advice not to the endgame’. That is, times of the day by binge-watching Netflix
in the name of spiritual- ‘confuse faith that you will prevail those with a spiritual or responding to ‘urgent’ (but not impor-
ity. A close friend of in the end with the discipline to belief—such as the belief tant) emails. And take good care of your
mine is an ‘anti-vaxxer’ confront the most brutal facts that ‘everything that health by eating healthy, exercising and
because he believes that of your current reality’. happens is for a reason’— getting sufficient sleep.
religion does not sanc- are more likely to enter- As we struggle through this very difficult
tion vaccination. My An appropriate balance of tain a positive outlook time, many will experience untold misery
friend doesn’t realize realism on the need to minimize about the future and thus and sadness. But through this dark night, let
that if religion were covid risk and faith in positive more likely to experience us, like Jim Stockdale, resolve to confront
invariably opposed to outcomes at the end of it should positive outcomes. the brutal reality—whatever that may be—
science, we would not see us through the most trying But you don’t have to while also harbouring an unshakeable faith
have Ayurveda. of pandemic circumstances. be spiritual to have faith in the endgame.
14 FRIDAY, 18 JUNE 2021
BENGALURU BUSINESS OF LIFE INDULGE LIVEMINT.COM

Drawing lines between

Iran and India
London’s Victoria and
Albert Museum is
hosting ‘Epic Iran’, an
exhibition that covers The Pride Edition Apple Watch APPLE.COM

5,000 years of history,

and pays homage to its The best bling in
storied links to India
Avantika Bhuyan
rainbow colours
avantika.bhuyan@htlive.com Whether it’s for pride or just fun, the
rainbow trend is storming wrists
he Victoria and Albert Museum

T (V&A) in London is hosting a

seminal exhibition—one that
looks at 5,000 years of Iran’s rich
cultural legacy. Titled Epic Iran,
the show presents over 300 objects such as
sculpture, paintings, ceramics, photography
and film from ancient, Islamic and contempo-
Bloomberg
feedback@livemint.com

rary Iran, taking the viewer on a journey that
starts in 3000 BC and ends in the 21st century.
And there are interesting connections to be
made between Indian and Iranian art as well.
India and Iran have a long history of cultural
exchange, which the show reflects. “From the
11th century onwards, there was a continuous
interaction which is so close that it is sometimes
difficult to tell whether an object is Iranian or
from South Asia,” says exhibition curator Tim
Stanley, citing the example of Persian literature
in South Asia. On display is a copy of a work by
the great 13th-century poet Sa’di of Shiraz. The
manuscript was copied in the 17th century by
the greatest calligrapher of Isfahan in this
period, Mir Imad. “Later it was taken to India,
where the manuscript was given new borders,
which were decorated with patterns in gold, and
it was re-bound in fine gilded covers. Nothing
could better express the honour paid to Sa’di in
South Asia,” he says.
Author and historian William Dalrymple fur-
ther elaborates on this cultural connection
between India and Iran. One of the earliest
exchanges took place during the Ashoka period,
when early Buddhist art featured a lot of gry-
phons and winged beings, inspired by Iranian
art. “One can then see a marked influence in the
period after Humayun, who brought a lot of art-
ists back from the Safavid court. This Persian
influence became obvious not just in Mughal art
but in Deccani art from that period as well,” he
says. While in ancient times, the artistic influen-
ces percolated from Iran to India, in the later
periods this was a two-way street. In fact, when
the Company School paintings became popular
in India, one could see their influence on Qajar
painting—the Iranian equivalent—as well. “The
size and scale of some of the paintings from the
medieval period are similar to that of the Ham-
zanama paintings commissioned by Akbar,”
explains Dalrymple.
There are some striking artefacts on display
such as the Cyrus Cylinder, the detailed illumi-
nated manuscripts of the Shahnameh, 10m long
paintings of Isfahan tilework and Shirin Alia-
badi’s photograph of a young woman blowing
bubblegum. “It’s a spectacular show and a very
ambitious one,” says Dalrymple. “They had
planned it on an even larger scale, with loans
from the National Museum, Iran, which sadly
never came in. But the exhibition is still aston-
ishing.” This mammoth exhibition has been
organised by the V&A with the Iran Heritage
Foundation, in association with The Sarikhani
Collection.
(Above) Installation view of ‘Epic Iran’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; (below) a group of two figures, about 1500-1100 BC from the
exhibition section, ‘Emerging Iran’.
Qaran Unhorses Barman, a folio from the
Shahnameh of ShahTahmasp, Tabriz, about
1523-35. Exhibition section ‘The Book of Kings’
The Sarikhani Collection,I.MS.4025.Photo: ©
The Sarikhani Collection
Though the V&A has been collecting art of
Iran ever since it was founded 150 years ago,
loans from private collections have added depth
to the show. “It is for the first time that a major
collection of art belonging to the Sarikhani fam-
ily, a Britain-based Iranian family, has been dis-
played. While the collection has been on show
for specialists at their home for the past 20
years, it has been unveiled to the public for the
first time,” adds Dalrymple.
The show has been divided into 10 sections,
set within an immersive design created by Gort
Scott Architects, reflecting the time and period
F
or decades, the market was dominated by stainless-steel
sport watches and rose gold dress pieces with white dials
and clean stylings. In recent years, that’s changed as watch-
makers have embraced their creativity and designed models that
allow wearers to express their personal style. Watches can feature
wild motifs, unusual materials, and bold colours, including those
of the rainbow. Once considered outré and flashy, rainbow gradi-
ents on watches are de rigueur—especially during June, which
is Pride Month. Here are four watches at
various price points in rainbow hues.
PARMIGIANI FLEURIER
TONDA METROPOLITAINE
RAINBOW OPAL
PHOTO © THE SARIKHANI COLLECTION This beauty from Swiss brand Par-
migiani Fleurier has a delicate blue
that the objects hail from. For those who can’t ernist movements and artistic movements opal dial with a striking play-of-
travel to London owing to the pandemic, the based on local, Iranian sources flourished under colour. The left side of the dial
Epic Iran section on the V&A website features Mohammad Reza Shah (who ruled from 1941- appears more blue and purple, and
highlights and in-depth features related to the 1979), and how artistic production, almost the colours change to green, red, and
exhibition. “Of all the sections, the ones that silenced by the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and orange on the right. It’s surrounded by
blew me away were those dedicated to ancient Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88, sprang back into life an elegant ombré rainbow composed of
material from Persepolis and the Achaemenid in the late 1990s. Among the most impressive 36 perfectly set baguette-cut gemstones
period. There are some pre-Persepolis objects works is the video installation called Turbulent, and has applied gold hour markers and
too—often very simple but very beautiful pots,” by Shirin Neshat (2002), which evinces the skeleton-leaf-shaped hands that allow the
says Dalrymple. challenges faced by women in Iran in the 21st opal to peek through. Price: $85,000
It is not a usual occurrence for the V&A to put century,” says Stanley.
up exhibitions that cover 5,000 years of history, The contemporary arts section is particularly ROLEX DAY-DATE 36
but the team felt it was necessary in the case of interesting for the representation of women art- For a more discreet rainbow, Rolex’s Day-Date 36 is the way to
Iran. According to Stanley, the study and pre- ists from the country. go. This fabulous jewelled watch has a diamond-pavéd dial (we
sentation of Iranian art is bro- According to Ina Sarikhani said the rainbow was discreet, not the watch) with 10 fancy-col-
ken up into different disci- Sandmann, curator of the oured sapphires as hour markers. The center link of the 18K white
plines, even in Iran itself. Modern and Contemporary gold president bracelet is also set with diamonds, as is the bezel.
Archaeologists study section of the exhibition, what The watch displays the day of the week at 12 o’clock and the date
pre-Islamic Iran, and art is interesting is that within at 3 o’clock. It’s powered by the in-house Calibre 3255, which has
historians dominate the the confines of modern a 70-hour power reserve. Price on request
period after the mid- Iran, these women are
7th century. “We testing the boundaries of GUCCI RAINBOW PLEXIGLAS WATCH
wanted to celebrate censorship and control. This colourful, playful watch has a 40mm rec-
Iranian art as a coher- “For example, Shadi Ghad- tangular plexiglass case with rainbow hues,
ent tradition that irian juxtaposes the experi- including a band of gold glitter. The narrow
stretches over this vast ence of being female in 19th plexiglass bracelet is studded with coloured
period. We have put Ira- century Iran and under the crystals on the back, as well as Gucci’s sig-
nian art back together Islamic Republic now, nature bee motif. The watch has a white
again, as it were. Our reclaiming the female gaze. mother-of-pearl dial and is powered by a
aim is to give our audi- Or else, Azadeh Akhlaghi’s quartz movement. Price: $920
ences a picture of the cinematic renditions of his-
great civilization of toric assassinations cannot PRIDE EDITION APPLE WATCH
Asia,” he says. help but make us question Every year, Apple releases a limited-edition
The 10th and last political oppression and the band for the Apple Watch in honour of Pride
section is concerned freedom of the individual. Month. The one for 2021 braids together the
with the modern They have so much to colours of the rainbow, as well as hues from addi-
and contem- say,” says Sandmann. tional Pride flags honouring the larger LGBTQ community,
porary art of including transgender and non-binary individuals and the Black
Iran, “show- Epic Iran is on view at and Latinx communities. The band is made from recycled polyes-
ing how the V&A London ter yarn braided around silicone thread, making it soft, durable,
interna- till 12 September. and water-resistant. If you already have an Apple Watch, you can
tional View online at buy the band separately or download the matching watch face for
mod- www.vam.ac.uk free. Price: $449

How to get started on your art collection

Jewel Group of Hotels’ I see it, art is a way for me to connect with to know more about the artworks on offer
Roop Pratap Choudhary MY FIRST ART this heritage and culture.”
For Choudhary, nothing is off limits.
and chalk out your strategy. But partici-
pating in an art auction is very engaging
doles out advice on the PURCHASE “My collection has art objects from around
the world but I tend to lean towards pieces
and a lot of excitement builds up before it
starts,” says Choudhary.
fascinating and complex Roop Pratap Choudhary gets which personify India’s royal cultural her- About auctions going digital, Choud-
into exhaustive detail itage. The real value of an artwork lies in hary says, “Digital auctions have made the
world of collecting art while talking its superior craftsmanship and its whole process convenient but I prefer the
about the first story,” he says. atmosphere of the live event. The whole
art piece Reading about art is one thing, process of being there and sensing the
Mahalakshmi Prabhakaran he acquired. collecting it is a whole different excitement of fellow art enthusiasts is dif-
feedback@livemint.com “It was an world. There are no primers or ferent. Art should be felt and lived.”
18th century dummy guides for a novice. The Indian art collectors’ community,

F
or art collectors, there’s never a bad
time to invest in art. Probably why, in
spite of everything, the past 15
months have been quite busy in the art
auction world. Not only did all the major
auction houses go online, making digital
bidding a thing, there were a few record-
breaking bids made as well.
An insider to this extravagant world,
Roop Pratap Choudhary knows a thing or
two about navigating it. He is also used to
bidding wars that take place. “I have expe-
rienced competition on a few occasions to
acquire a piece and have outbid,” says
Choudhary, who’s currently in London
busy setting up luxury restaurant Colonel
Saab. The restaurant is part of Choud-
hary’s family-owned business Jewel
Group of Hotels’ $20 million investment
in London’s hospitality business.
Much like in his family-owned hotel
A Burma teakwood vintage door decorates a presidential suite in hotel Noor Mahal,
Karnal; and (right) a vintage jewellery box that belonged to the Nepalese royal family.
Noor Mahal in Karnal, Colonel Saab,
expected to launch in July, will exhibit
pieces from Choudhary’s exhaustive art
collection. “Colonel Saab is our way to cel-
ebrate the greatness of Indian cultural
heritage and we have procured more pie-
ces for the property,” he says.
One of the pieces the restaurant’s clien-
tele can look forward to is a vintage jewel-
lery set bought from heritage jewel brand
Jagdish Jewellers of Patiala. “The pieces
vintage bar
trunk that
belonged to
Maharaja
Bhupinder Singh
of Patiala. It is a
trunk that was tailor-made
in London for the maharaja,”
Choudhary says. Fashioned
from with Burma teak and
are the most recent, expensive additions burl veneer, the trunk, he says,
to my collection,” he says. came with custom-crafted
Choudhary’s indulgent hobby goes all crystal ware, classic bar
the way back to his childhood. Being born accessories and even a custom
in a family that belongs to the lineage of brass water outlet sink. “The
Maharaja Ranjit Singh certainly helped. “I detailing, craftsmanship and
have been interested in art since I can genius functional design of fine
remember. Growing up in a family that quality luxury left me awe-
has a long-standing history tends to prof- struck. This trunk is a unique
fer one with information and stories about collectible.”
heritage, legacy and heirlooms. The way
In-depth research into the according to Choudhary, is nominal.
subject is the best way in. “There are only a few millennials who
Choudhary concurs. “The are actively building their collec-
world of art is magnifi- tions,” he says, before signing
cent but massive; it is off with some advice for new-
easy to get lost. If one wants bie art collectors: “The best
to own works of great qual- and the worst thing about
ity and meaning, then it is the world of art is that there
important to do research is no roadmap, one has to
and have a finger on the find their way for every
pulse of the market. I artwork. While partici-
keep up with what pating in an auction, be
international art prepared. Do your
auction houses are research, understand
up to,” he says. the way it works, learn
Navigating through the technical terms, and
art auctions isn’t a cake- you will then find the expe-
walk either. “There is a lot rience enjoyable. It may
of competition for a few look like a competition but
artworks, so you need to in reality, it’s an individual
put in a bit of preparation journey.”
 Touch up and join Telegram Chennal
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