NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, BENGALURU, KOLKATA, CHENNAI, AHMEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE*
Friday, January 7, 2022
mint primer
What is GitHub’s
role in the Bulli
Bai controversy?
BY PRASID BANERJEE
The first new online controversy of 2022 is very similar to one from
last year. The Bulli Bai controversy is like last year’s Sulli Deals
incident, and it brings another platform to people’s notice. It’s called
GitHub. Mint explains:
GitHub in India in 2021
5.8 mn
total Indian
developers on
GitHub
1.8 mn
new developers
joined GitHub in
the year ended
March 2021
Total GitHub repositories in 2021:
4 mn
(GitHub Octoverse Report)
What is the Bulli Bai
1 controversy?
In essence, Bulli Bai is a software
application that simulates an
online auction. However, it’s not
distributed through Google or
Apple app store, unlike most
widely apps. Instead, it’s hosted on
a code repository
and software collaboration
platform called GitHub. The
app shows photos of more than
100 Muslim women taken from
the Internet and pretends
to sell them through auctions.
While the auctions are fake,
the word “bulli” is a derogatory
local slang. A similar app, Sulli
Deals, was also hosted on GitHub
last year. Like the word Bulli, Sulli
too is a slur.
ISTOCK
4 What do code
repositories do?
Code repositories are meant to help
development worldwide. For in-
stance, developers can download
the source code for Android and
use it to build their own version. A
startup can quickly get codes that
would help them add a new feature
to their app or service through a
code repository. In March, GitHub
said India is the fastest growing
country in terms of new developers
contributing to open-source coding.
The same code that was used to
host fake auctions on Bulli Bai
could theoretically be used to make
a legitimate and useful auction app.
MINT EVENTS
Join: @livemint
livemint.com
80%
increase in open
CYBER crimes in
India increased by
source contributions
from India 0.8%
in 2020, registering
a total of 18,657
1 mn cases, according
developers in to NCRB data.
India created new
Computer-related
repositories on offences
GitHub in the year accounted for
ended March 2021
60.9%
of cyber crimes
in 2020
Source: github.blog
What is GitHub and
2 how does it work?
GitHub is the largest code
repository platform used by
developers, startups, and even big
technology companies to harness
the entire coding community’s
efforts to develop an app.
Microsoft Corp., Meta Platforms
Inc. (Facebook), and Google LLC
make their codes available on
GitHub for others to use and
develop. Microsoft bought GitHub
for $7.5 billion in 2018 in one of its
most expensive acquisitions ever.
The platform also hosts source
codes for Google’s Android
operating system. Facebook offers
the software development kit for
both its Android and iOS apps on
GitHub.
3 So, what’s GitHub’s role in
the controversy?
GitHub has rules against harassment,
discrimination, and incitement to violence.
It has taken down the accounts hosting
the app, but its hosting feature isn’t meant
for mass distribution. Apps downloaded
off GitHub are not finished products, and
can often have bugs. But unlike social
media, GitHub doesn’t have filtering
algorithms.
5 Can regulation stop
such abuse?
Regulations may not help stop such
incidents, but they can definitely
speed up the investigative process.
Since many tech firms are based
overseas, police have to use
tedious Mutual Legal Assistance
Treaty process to get information,
involving multiple foreign
ministries. This is one reason
India’s upcoming Data Protection
Bill (DPB) insists on storing some
data within the country’s borders,
so that it can be accessed quickly
when needed. That said, bills like
the DPB are unlikely to stop apps
like Bulli Bai in the future.
VOL. 16 NO.
QUICK EDIT
Double
fault?
Novak Djokovic’s bid to defend
his Australian Open title might
have come to an untimely end,
with border officials Down
Under denying him entry and
packing him off to a detention
facility for deportation to his
home country, Serbia, for his
failure to fulfil covid vaccination
requirements. Australia’s entry
rules require a double dose or
medical exemption granted by
two independent panels for
such reasons as having had
covid in the past six months.
The tennis champ, it seems,
could show proof of neither.
The matter has escalated to a
diplomatic level. Outrage has
been aired by Djokovic’s fans as
well as the Serbian government.
As the sportsman is considered
a vaccine sceptic, a reputation
he owes his own statements,
many Australian citizens have
demanded that he not be given
special treatment at a time
everyone was taking jabs to help
contain covid. The finer details
of his case are not fully known,
but if Djokovic’s shot at another
title is within the rules and he
does have a valid exemption, he
should be let in. However, if he
expects a fault call to go by his
own version of ‘in’ or ‘out’, then
that’s simply not on—neither on
the tennis court nor in the court
of rational public opinion.
MINT METRIC
by Bibek Debroy
How time flies -
Blackberry finally dies.
Having lost its place
In the technology race,
It leaves many nostalgic sighs.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
Cumulative demat accounts,
which stood at 36 mn as on
March 2019, were 77 mn as of
the end of November 2021. So,
what was achieved in over two
decades in the market has been
achieved in the last about
two-and-a-half years.
AJAY TYAGI
CHAIRMAN, SEBI
DOWNLOAD THE
MINT APP
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OUR NEWSLETTER
TOP OF THE MORNING
 PLAIN FACTS

Data wrap: Divestment

targets, record exports
CURATED BY NITI KIRAN

E very Friday, Plain Facts publishes a compilation of data-based insights, complete with easy-to-read visual charts, to
help you delve deeper into the stories from the week just gone by. The government is likely to miss this year’s disinvest-
ment targets as Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd’s (BPCL’s) stake sale seems to be in limbo. A sharp recovery in demand
is reflected in robust exports growth and strong e-way bill data. Here’s more:

Elusive Target Busy Dealmaking

Disinvestment targets vs achievement Value of private equity deals in 2021 ($ bn)
(in  crore) Target Achievement

0 50,000 1,00,000 1,50,000 2,00,000

2017-18 Consumer
Discretionary
2018-19 16.5 Financials
Information Health
2019-20 6.7
Technology Care
26.4 5.7
2020-21
3.7 Industrials
2021-22
Source: VCCEdge
Source: DIPAM, BSEPSU

THE PRIVATIZATION of BPCL appears to be in DEALMAKING ACTIVITY is expected to surge in

limbo and may be pushed to the next fiscal, Mint 2022, surpassing the bumper show last year. According
reported. The government’s plan to raise ₹1.75 trillion to EY, 2021 saw private equity (PE) and venture capital
from divestment proceeds this year now investments of $75 billion. This year, it is
hinges on the success of the initial expected to grow by 20%. This would be
public offering of Life Insurance Corp. driven mainly by continued interest in
of India. Still, this year’s target may be the technology, media and telecom
elusive as more than a third of it was sectors and a strong return of PE
planned to be met by BPCL alone. investments in infrastructure and realty.

Big Picture

1,000
THIS IS Zee Studios’ bet on the nearly 40 films it plans to
produce in 2022. In 2019, Zee released 10-12 movies, which
plunged to half in 2020 before increasing to
20 films in 2021, Mint reported. The
strategy is to balance tent-pole films with

crore mid-sized productions and small content-

driven offerings across Hindi and regional
languages.

Staying Put Record Exports

% of assets under management held for >24 months (equity schemes)
Exports ($ million)
56 54.8 38,000 37,290

52
34,000
48 46.7

44 30,000
27,221.3
40
Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep Dec Mar Jun Sep 26,000
2019 2021 Dec 2020 Dec 2021
Retail defined as individuals investing up to 2 lakh. Source: AMFI
Source: CMIE

RETAIL INVESTORS are holding on to mutual funds THE COUNTRY’S exports in December rose to a
for longer. Nearly 55% of the retail equity mutual fund record $37.29 billion, registering a year-on-year jump of
holdings as of September 2021 had stayed in the market 37%. Exports have been $30 billion or more for nine
for more than two years, compared with months in a row this fiscal. Outbound
46.7% in September 2019, Mint reported. shipments during April-December 2021
Strong market returns over the past year have already crossed $300 billion,
have drawn investors to equity schemes, exceeding the exports of the whole of
which have given double-digit returns in 2020-21, according to commerce
the last two to three years. ministry data.

Gold Binge

$ 55.7 billion
THAT’S THE record amount India spent on gold imports
in 2021 as a price-drop favoured retail buyers. This was
much more than double the $22 billion
spent in 2020 and surpassed the previous
high of $53.9 billion set in 2011. In volume
terms, India imported 1,050 tonnes of gold
in 2021, the most in a decade, far more than
double the 430 tonnes imported in 2020.

Gathering Pace Chart of the Week: Back to Work

E-way bills (in million) Current employment status of those who reported
80 losing a job last year (in %)
71.6
Lost my old job, Lost my old job,
60 but back in the 4.6 still unemployed
same job
OVERALL 8
40 JOB LOSS

20
20.3%
Lost my old job, Based on a sample
got a new job 7.6 of 9,352 respondents
0 who are active in the
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec workforce.
2021 Source: GSTN Source: YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey, Nov-Dec 2021

AROUND 71.6 MILLION e-way bills were generated INDIA’S LABOUR market appears to be improving.
in December, against 61.1 million in November, While 20.3% of urban Indians participating in the latest
reflecting a sharp recovery in demand and YouGov-Mint-CPR Millennial Survey said they lost a job
manufacturing activity. The number of in the past year, a majority of them had
e-way bills generated last month is close already found their way back into the
to the festive month of October (73.5 workforce, Mint reported.
million), which led to the second Follow us on #MintCharts on Twitter
highest goods and services tax revenue and subscribe to Mint’s Top of the Morning
collections ever of ₹1.31 trillion. newsletter for our Chart of the Day.
AHMED RAZA KHAN/MINT

PEANUTS by Charles M. Schulz

 NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, BENGALURU, KOLKATA, CHENNAI, AHMEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE* VOL. 16 NO. 6 Rs 5.00 IN DELHI-NCR; Rs 6.00 OUTSIDE DELHI-NCR. PRICE WITH HINDUSTAN TIMES Rs 9.50 (FOR DELHI & NCR) 20 PAGES

Friday, January 7, 2022

What is the future of covid Fed minutes point to possible

livemint.com vaccines? uP12 interest rate hike in MarchuP10

SENSEX 59,601.84 621.31 NIFTY 17,745.90 179.35 DOLLAR ₹74.50 ₹0.14 EURO ₹84.21 ₹0.14 OIL $82.07 $1.97 GOLD ₹47,576 ₹403

Govt okays ₹12,031 cr Centre may provide Govt spending

should go on,
DON’T MISS

infra sector sops to

in green energy push covid-hit industries
says Tata Steel’s
TV Narendran
Gireesh Chandra Prasad
Investment is for phase II of the national clean energy corridor Rituraj Baruah & Subhash Narayan gireesh.p@livemint.com
NEW DELHI NEW DELHI
Centre close to finalizing revised
Swati Luthra & Utpal Bhaskar

T G
he Union government overnment spending on foreign direct investment policy
NEW DELHI CLEAN GRID may bring more sectors
under the ambit of infra-
infrastructure should
continue until private
The Centre is close to finalizing the revised
foreign direct investment (FDI) policy, which

T
he government on Thurs-
day cleared a ₹12,031 crore
plan to set up infrastruc-
ture to transmit electricity
from renewable energy
projects as it seeks to boost the out-
put from green sources and meet
half of the nation’s energy require-
ment from them by 2030.
The investment approval by the
Cabinet Committee on Economic
Affairs (CCEA) is for the second
phase of the green energy corridor,
which will help supply 20 gigawatts
(GW) of renewable energy to the
national grid from Gujarat, Hima-
chal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala,
Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar
Pradesh.
The project is expected to help
India meet the climate commit-
ments it made at the COP-26 summit
in Glasgow.
At the November summit, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi pledged to
increase the country’s non-fossil fuel
power generation capacity to
500GW and meet 50% of its energy
requirements from renewable sour-
ces by the end of this decade.
The Central Electricity Authority
estimates India’s power requirement
will rise to 817GW by 2030.
GREEN CORRIDOR
ABOUT 10,750 circuit IT will help supply 20GW
km of transmission lines of renewable energy to the
will be added in phase II national grid from 7 states
The second phase of the green
energy corridor project will involve
adding approximately 10,750 circuit
km (ckm) of transmission lines and
27,500 mega volt-amperes (MVA)
transformation capacity of substa-
tions, the ministry of new and
renewable energy said in a state-
ment.
“This will promote ecologically
sustainable growth and contribute to
the long term energy security of the
THE green corridor aims
to maintain grid frequency
within 49.90-50.05 Hz band
country,” Union power and new and
renewable energy minister Raj
Kumar Singh said in a tweet.
“Today’s CCEA decision adds
strength to India’s efforts of achiev-
ing the target of 450GW in the
renewable energy sector. Other ben-
efits include a boost to energy secu-
rity and environment friendly
growth,” Modi said in a tweet.
TURN TO PAGE 6
structure segments eligible for
attractive tax benefits, two
people aware of the plans said,
as it aims to help industries hit
hard by the pandemic and
boost investments.
Sectors given infrastructure
status are generally included
in the finance ministry’s “har-
monized master list of infra-
structure sub-sectors”. How-
ever, they do not enjoy tax
benefits under Section 35AD
of the Income Tax Act, which
permits deduction of entire
capital expenditure.
Benefits under this section
are allowed only for ‘specified
businesses’ involved in build-
ing and maintaining infra-
structure facilities.
A proposal to bring more
sectors under Section 35AD
may form part of the Union
budget for the year starting 1
April, the people cited above
said on condition of anonym-
ity.
Gaining infrastructure sta-
tus has been a long-standing
demand for several sectors,
ranging from tourism to real
estate. Infrastructure status
Sectors ranging from tourism
to real estate have been
seeking infrastructure status
for long. MINT
usually comes with several
incentives, including cheaper
bank loans, tax concessions
and a higher flow of capital.
The move is also expected to
boost India’s infrastructure
sector, a focus area for the gov-
ernment, which has already
announced a ₹100 trillion
project pipeline.
Queries emailed to the
Union finance ministry
remained unanswered till
press time.
‘Specified businesses’ under
TURN TO PAGE 6
investment returns to the levels
seen in the past, Tata Steel Ltd
chief executive T.V. Narendran
said on Thursday in the run-up to
next month’s Union budget.
Narendran, also president of
the Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII), said the fact that
businesses are using 70-80% of
production capacities and
planning new investments
should not stop the govern-
ment from continuing to
spend.
Narendran’s appeal comes at
a time the government is pre-
paring the Union budget for the
fiscal starting 1 April against the
backdrop of buoyant revenue
collections and the fiscal deficit
position staying well under
control. The fiscal deficit in the
April-November period is 46%
of the ₹15 trillion budget esti-
mate for this fiscal, having over-
shot the full-year target at the
same time a year ago.
In an interview on Wednes-
day, Narendran said the policy
response to the pandemic’s
third wave needs to be well-co-
TURN TO PAGE 6
will facilitate the divestment of Life Insurance
Corp. of India, Anurag Jain, secretary,
department for promotion of industry and
internal trade (DPIIT), said on Thursday. >P2
BPCL to invest ₹25,000 crore to
build a renewables portfolio
Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) plans to
spend ₹25,000 crore to build a renewable
energy capacity of 10 gigawatts (GW)
comprising a mix of solar, wind, small hydro
and biomass, a senior company official said
on Thursday. >P3
Yes Bank files plea in HC seeking
disclosure of Dish TV’s AGM results
Yes Bank, the largest shareholder in Dish TV India
Ltd, has filed a petition in the Bombay high court
seeking disclosure of results of the firm’s annual
general meeting held on 30 December. The lender
argued that the high court in its earlier order did
not stay the disclosure of results of the AGM. >P6
Colour-shifting cars, mind-reading
AI interfaces steal the show at CES
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) floor has
been the birthplace of emerging tech. This year’s
event offers a glimpse into some nifty gadgets—
from a colour-shifting car to mind-reading
interfaces that can replace buttons on a gadget
—that may or may not become mainstream.>P8

Dunzo raises $240 mn BharatPe eyes

in RIL arm-led round $4 bn valuation GETTY IMAGES
Anuj Suvarna Debjyoti Roy
anuj.s@livemint.com debjyoti.roy@livemint.com
BENGALURU NEW DELHI

T B
he retail arm of Reliance
Industries Ltd has
acquired a 25.8% stake in
Google-backed hyperlocal deliv-
ery startup Dunzo, expanding
billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s
presence in the fast-growing gro-
cery delivery market.
Reliance Retail has invested
$200 million in Dunzo as it led a
$240 million funding round in
the Bengaluru-based firm. Exist-
ing investors Lightbox, Light-
rock, 3L Capital and Alteria Capi-
tal also participated in the round.
Dunzo said, in a statement on
Thursday, that it plans to use the
fresh capital to accelerate
instant delivery of essentials
from a network of micro ware-
houses while also expanding its
business-to-business (B2B) ver-
tical to enable logistics for local
Dunzo said it plans to use the
fresh capital to accelerate
instant delivery of essentials.
merchants across Indian cities.
Mint reported in October about
Reliance’s plans to back Dunzo,
along with other existing inves-
tors. Dunzo and Reliance Retail
will also frame certain business
partnerships and funding. Dunzo
will enable hyperlocal logistics for
Reliance Retail’s retail outlets,
TURN TO PAGE 6
haratPe is in talks to
raise a new round of
funding that could value
the fintech unicorn at nearly
$3.8-4 billion, two people
familiar with the development
said.
Resilient Innovations Pvt.
Ltd, which runs the BharatPe
payments service, plans to Resilient Innovations
raise at least $150 million in the co-founder Ashneer Grover.
Series F transaction, the peo-
ple said, requesting anonym- in 2018, the fintech firm oper-
ity. ates UPI QR code-based pay-
The company is in early ments app for small and
talks with several private medium businesses.
equity and hedge funds, they The company has also
added. launched BharatSwipe, a pay-
A spokesperson for Bhar- ments acceptance terminal.
atPe declined to comment on BharatPe is currently serv-
the development. ing more than 7.5 million mer-
Founded by Ashneer
Grover and Shashvat Nakrani TURN TO PAGE 6

Ratan Tata biography in record deal

MINT
Staff writer HarperCollins India declined
NEW DELHI to comment. Mathew did not
respond to text messages.

A
n authorized biogra-
phy of Tata Sons
chairman emeritus
Ratan Tata, one of India’s
best-known industrialists and
philanthropists, has set a
record in non-fiction publish-
ing in India, with HarperCol-
lins winning a keenly con-
tested global auction, accord-
ing to three people familiar
with the development who
asked not to be named as they
are not authorized to speak to
the press.
The book is authored by a
former senior bureaucrat and
retired Indian Administrative
Service (IAS) officer, Thomas
Mathew, who received access
to the private papers, corre-
spondence and photographs
of Ratan Tata over the past few
years.
It’s an authoritative biogra-
phy with rich details about the
Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata. HarperCollins has won a
keenly contested global auction to publish Tata’s authorized biography.
childhood, college years and
early influences of Tata, one of
the people cited above said,
adding that it also carries previ-
ously unreported details about
more recent episodes such as
Tata’s Nano project, Tata Steel
Ltd’s acquisition of Corus and
the ouster of former Tata Sons
chairman Cyrus Mistry.
The winning bid for the
worldwide rights of the print,
ebook and audiobook for-
mats is learnt to be upwards
of ₹2 crore. Rights for over-
the-top (OTT) and film have
been retained by the author,
who is represented by Anish
Chandy of Labyrinth Literary
Agency.
“The book saw a lot of inter-
est. It’s definitely the biggest
non-fiction deal from India,”
said a publisher, who spoke on
the condition of anonymity.
Book publishing is an
opaque business in India, and
deal figures are closely
guarded, making objective
comparisons across time dif-
ficult. Playing it My Way,
Sachin Tendulkar’s 2014
biography, is another non-
fiction book that witnessed a
bidding war.
Publishers typically pay an
advance to acquire the rights
to a book from an author.
Once they recoup that sum
from the book’s sales, the
author starts to receive royal-
ties—a percentage ranging
from 5-15% of the sale price. .
Mathew, who retired as
TURN TO PAGE 6
02 FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI ECONOMY & POLICY LIVEMINT.COM

m MINT SHORTS ‘India will safeguard agri, dairy Power PSUs

raise capex
Finance ministry releases revenue
deficit grant of ₹9,871 cr to 17 states
New Delhi: The finance ministry on Thursday released the tenth
sectors while negotiating FTAs’ to ₹40K cr in
monthly instalment of revenue deficit grant of ₹9,871 crore to 17
states. These states are: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Hima- FY22 so far
chal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram,
Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttara- Staff Writer
khand and West Bengal. SUBHASH NARAYAN feedback@livemint.com
The govt will not compromise on the interests of key sectors during trade talks, say officials NEW DELHI

MHA forms three-member panel

S
tate-run firms under the
Rajeev Jayaswal entirely on mutually beneficial items of Union power ministry
for probing security lapses letters@hindustantimes.com trade, and India has not made any offer have raised their capital
AFP
NEW DELHI at all in these (dairy or agriculture) sec- expenditure, spending
tors to Australia,” the official said. ₹40,395.34 crore till Decem-

New Delhi: The Centre Thursday formed a three-member
committee to inquire into “serious lapses” in security
arrangements during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit
to Punjab which led to the exposure of the VVIP to “grave
risk”. The home ministry panel was formed a day after Modi
had to cut short his visit in Punjab after he was stuck on a fly-
over for 20 minutes due to a blockade by some protesters, an
incident described by the ministry of home Affairs as a
“major lapse” in security.
Government to watch supply chain
functioning amid rising covid cases
New Delhi: The government has set up a control room to keep a
close watch over supply chains as part of efforts to handhold busi-
nesses amid rising cases of coronavirus infections. The depart-
ment for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) said as
a measure of precaution and for supporting our business ecosys-
tem, it will monitor the status of and issues arising from transporta-
tion and delivery of goods and essential commodities due to the
restrictions imposed by various states and UTs. STAFF WRITER
125 passengers on charter flight
from Italy test positive for covid
I
ndia will safeguard the interests of The official was reacting to a tweet by ber for FY22. Capex was 47%
its farm, dairy and fishery sectors Bhartiya Kisan Union’s national higher than the expenditure
while finalizing multilateral or spokesperson Rakesh Tikait on Satur- incurred in FY21, the ministry
bilateral trade deals, including talks day alleging that India will be signing a said in a statement, adding: “It
at the 12th Ministerial Conference deal with Australia, which will allow is to be noted that the CPSEs
of the World Trade Organization milk imports at ₹20-22 per litre, much have also collectively met 80%
(WTO) as well as ongoing bilateral lower than the retail price of locally- of the capex target of FY22, i.e.
trade negotiations with countries such produced milk, at ₹50-60 a litre. ₹50,690.52 crore.”
as Australia, said two government offi- “There is no proposal for any duty This comes in the backdrop
cials aware of the trade negotiations. concession on the import of dairy prod- of the government rolling out
New Delhi’s stand at all multilateral ucts into India with Australia under the marquee ₹3.03 trillion
and bilateral fora has been consistent consideration with the department of power discom reform scheme,
and explicitly clear for a developing animal husbandry and dairying,” Par- wherein the Centre’ share will
and populous country such as India; shottam Rupala, Union minister for be ₹97,631 crore. The funds
food security of the underprivileged is The apprehension about ongoing negotiations of the FTA with Australia involving fisheries, animal husbandry and dairy, will be released to discoms
of paramount importance as is the pro- imports of dairy and agriculture products is incorrect, an official said. BLOOMBERG said in a tweet in Hindi on Tuesday. subject to them meeting
tection of the interests of the three sec- “Regarding dairy, India has already reform-related milestones.
tors, the officials said requesting ano- ture, dairy and fisheries, are sensitive be detrimental to the health of India’s opened up some sub-sectors in its trade “The top performers among
nymity. and the government will not compro- dairy industry, he added. in goods agreement with Asean and the power sector CPSEs
PTI “India is committed to protecting its mise with it at any cost,” the official RCEP covers 30% of the world’s pop- comprehensive agreements with Japan include PowerGrid (90.6%),
agriculture sector. This was evident said. ulation, contributing $25.8 trillion or and Korea. However, Indian companies SJVN (90.19%) NTPC (86.5%)
from the prime minister’s last-minute New Delhi walked out of RCEP as it about 30% of global gross domestic are not able to export to key markets and THDC (85.38%),” the
decision on 4 November product, and accounting like the UK, EU and Australia, and they statement said.
2019 to exit the Regional TRADE TALKS for $12.7 trillion or a little face almost an entry ban as they are not This assume importance
Comprehensive Eco- over a quarter of global able to meet the export requirements,” given that the reforms-based
nomic Partnership THE negotiations NEGOTIATIONS INDIA has not made goods and services trade. said Arpita Mukherjee, professor, result-linked power distribu-
(RCEP), despite it being include talks at the
WTO as well as
with Australia have any offer at all in
focused on mutually these (dairy or
The 10-member RCEP Indian Council for Research on Inter- tion sector scheme to be appli-
one of the biggest trade ongoing trade beneficial items of agriculture) sectors to includes Australia, China, national Economic Relations. “There is cable till 2025-26 aims to
blocs,” one of the two talks with Australia trade, an official said Australia, he added Japan, New Zealand and a strong lobby in India, which is against reduce India’s aggregate tech-
officials said. South Korea. reducing tariff through trade agree- nical and commercial (AT&C)
“Whether negotiating The apprehension ments on imports from the UK, EU, loss to 12-15% from 21.83% in
free-trade agreements (FTAs) with realized that the deal could flood the about ongoing negotiations of the FTA Australia. However, this is not the view 2019-20, and gradually nar-
individual countries or at the WTO, the Indian market with Chinese goods at with Australia involving imports of of all companies, which use dairy as an row the deficit between the
government will keep Indian interests the cost of the local industry, while dairy and agriculture products is incor- ingredient in processing, and would cost of electricity and the price
first. Certain sectors, such as public cheaper imports of milk derivatives rect, the second official said. “It is clari- like this sector to have lower duties on at which it is supplied to ‘zero’
procurement for food security, agricul- from Australia and New Zealand would fied that negotiations have focused ingredients for processing,” she added. by 2024-25.
E+

Govt close to finalizing revised FDI policy ‘Bring back audit of

Gulveen Aulakh
gulveen.aulakh@livemint.com
GST annual returns’ virus and its impact on India’s
economic activity, Jain said
NEW DELHI the third wave of covid-19 was
unlikely to have an impact on Gireesh Chandra Prasad bility on taxpayers to furnish

T
he Centre is close to growth with a five to 10 basis gireesh.p@livemint.com true and accurate details in their
finalizing the revised points fall, as India was much NEW DELHI annual returns. The idea was to
foreign direct invest- better prepared with the vacci- encourage voluntary compli-

A
ment (FDI) policy, which will nation rate picking up. ccounting rules maker ance and improve the ease of
Amritsar: A total of 125 passengers on a Milan-Amritsar facilitate the divestment of “We are much better pre- Institute of Chartered doing business. The change is
charter flight were found to be covid-positive when tested on Life Insurance Corp. of India, pared compared to the last Accountants of India applicable for FY21 and beyond.
arrival, government officials said on Thursday. According to Anurag Jain, secretary, depart- wave... I have a feeling that (ICAI) has asked the govern- In a proposal to the finance
airport director V. K. Seth, there were a total of 179 passen- ment for promotion of indus- there is nothing to be worried ment to bring back the audit ministry, the ICAI suggested
gers on the charter flight that landed at the Amritsar airport try and internal trade (DPIIT), about. We are reasonably con- and certification provisions that amendments made to the
around 11.30 am on Thursday. Since Italy is one of the “at said on Thursday. fident,” he said. relating to goods and services Central GST Act through the
risk” countries according to the union health ministry, all eli- The departments of divest- He said medical oxygen sup- tax (GST) annual returns, say- Finance Act last year should be
gible passengers were tested for covid-19 and 125 of them ment and financial services plies of nearly 19,000 tonnes ing that doing away with the withdrawn and the require-
were found to be positive. PTI will decide on the percentage The government is looking to bring the initial public offering of were ready for deployment if audit will disrupt compliance. ment of getting annual
of foreign investment in LIC, LIC by March, which is expected to be a ₹1 trillion issue. MINT the need arose. GST authorities last August accounts audited and reconcili-
before the changes are sent to Talking about the achieve- dropped the pro- ation statement
Women directors mandate is mere the Union cabinet. the disinvestment, such that it eign investor participation. ments in 2021, Jain said gov- vision for manda- ICAI suggested certified by a char-
“The way our FDI policy becomes a permissible activ- The government is looking ernment-registered startups tory audit of tered accountant
tokenism, says former Sebi chiar reads as of now, it will cause a ity. to bring the initial public offer- have created around 650,000 annual returns for
amendments
be reinstated in
made to the
New Delhi: Former Sebi chairman M. Damodaran on Thursday lot of issues for prospective According to the current ing of LIC by March, which is jobs with India becoming the businesses with Central GST Act law because GST
termed the mandate to have independent women directors on investors, due to which it FDI policy, 74% expected to be a third-largest startup ecosys- sales of ₹2 crore audit by a char-
via the Finance
company boards as mere “tokenism”, stating that firms are adher- would be difficult to proceed foreign invest- The revised FDI mammoth ₹1 tril- tem with more than 60,000 and above and tered accountant
ing to the guideline just for compliance. He also called the wording with the disinvestment. We ment is permitted lion issue, minis- startups recognized by the introduced self- Act should be ensures taxpayer
policy will be
of the regulation “humorous”, saying there is nothing like an “inde- have had rounds of discussion under the auto- try officials said. DPIIT since 2016. The DPIIT certification of a withdrawn compliance and
an enabling
pendent woman director” as the regulations state, but it should and now we are all on the same matic route in the mechanism to The Centre is aims to create two million new reconciliation helps in plugging
have been “woman independent director”, and pointed out that page. So, we are in the process insurance sector. also finalizing the jobs in the sector by register- statement for revenue leakages.
facilitate the
this is reflective of a “mindset steeped over time”. PTI of drafting those changes in However, these e-commerce pol- ing 50,000 new startups. those with ₹5 crore sales and “Doing away with the audit
the FDI policy. Once we get rules do not apply disinvestment of icy and the rough The department will also more, replacing the certifica- will lead to large scale disrup-
cabinet approval, it will be to LIC, which is state-owned LIC edges were being organize the Startup India tion needed by a chartered or tion of compliance resulting in
SC to pronounce order today on known to all,” he told reporters administered removed, Jain Innovation Week from 10 Jan- cost accountant. This self-certi- demand notices, and the tax-
during a virtual press briefing. through a sepa- said, adding that uary, which will feature inno- fied statement reconciles the payers will be burdened with
pleas related to EWS, OBC quota The commerce and industry rate LIC Act. Since the LIC Act the national retail trade policy vative startups. Select startups value of supplies declared in tax, interest, and penalties that
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce on Fri- ministry will execute the revi- has no provision for foreign will also soon be finalized. will also be meeting Prime returns furnished for the finan- could have been avoided had
day its order on pleas related to the Economically Weaker Section sions in the policy, he added. investments, there is a need to In view of the surge in covid Minister Narendra Modi on 15 cial year with the audited there been a system of audit to
(EWS) and OBC quota in postgraduate medical admissions The change will be an ena- align the proposed LIC IPO cases, and rising numbers of January, the DPIIT said. annual financial statement. Self- identify the lapses in time, the
through the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). PTI bling mechanism to facilitate with Sebi norms regarding for- the Omicron strain of corona- PTI contributed to this story. certification puts the responsi- ICAI said in its proposal.

Covid cases surge by 90,928; Centre lists measures for control rooms CORRECTIONS AND
CLARIFICATIONS
Mint welcomes comments,
PTI 200 days, that pushed its case- collate daily status report of all Referring to the letter writ- vant staff, and shall be suggestions or complaints
feedback@livemint.com load to 35,109,286, the data patients under home isolation ten by the Union health secre- equipped with ample phone about errors.
NEW DELHI stated. As many as 91,702 new in their respective jurisdictions tary on 1 January regarding lines to cater to the assigned
Readers can alert the
infections were reported on 10 and submit it to the district seamless administrative man- population.
newsroom to any errors in the

I
ndia on Thursday saw the
biggest single-day jump of
495 Omicron cases, taking
the total number of infections
of the new variant of coronavi-
rus to 2,630, according to
Union health ministry data.
Of the total cases, Maharash-
tra has the maximum at 797,
followed by Delhi at 465,
Rajasthan 236, Kerala 234, Kar-
nataka 226, Gujarat 204 and
Tamil Nadu 121.
The country reported
90,928 fresh coronavirus
infections, the highest in over
June last year.
The death toll climbed to
482,876 with 325 fatalities, the
ministry said.
The number of active cases
stands at 285,401, comprising
0.81% of the total infections, it
said. An increase of 71,397 cases
was recorded in the active case-
load in a day. The national cov-
id-19 recovery rate decreased to
97.81%, it said.
The daily positivity rate was
recorded at 6.43%, while the
weekly positivity rate stood at
3.47%, according to the minis-
administration.
In a letter to states and UTs,
additional secretary in the
Union health ministry Arti
Ahuja outlined that these con-
trol rooms must have real-time
data on availability of covid
testing centres and ambulan-
India also saw the biggest single-day jump of 495 Omicron cases ces, and should be able to guide
on Thursday. PTI a caller on the process for avail-
ing these services.
try. exceeded 148.67 crore. Dedicated ambulances shall
The cumulative doses The Centre told states and be allotted to each control
administered in the country so Union territories that covid-19 room based on areal case load
far under the nationwide cov- control rooms set up at district for transportation of patients,
id-19 vaccination drive has and sub-district levels should she said in the letter.
agement of the covid-19 situa-
tion, Ahuja said it is expected
that targeted action for re-es-
tablishment of control rooms at
district and sub-district levels
to ensure ease of access to servi-
ces such as ambulance trans-
portation and booking a hospi-
tal bed would have begun.
Based on the latest guide-
lines on home isolation issued
by the ministry, Ahuja said,
these control rooms should be
adequately staffed with medi-
cal doctors, counsellors and
volunteers, among other rele-
Enabling infrastructure in paper by emailing us, with your
terms of computers and broad- full name and address to
band must be provided to the feedback@livemint.com.
control rooms for uninter-
rupted connectivity. Depend- It is our policy to promptly
respond to all complaints.
ing on the case load, the control Readers dissatisfied with the
rooms shall remain functional response or concerned about
round the clock to provide vali- Mint’s journalistic integrity may
dated guidance and support to write directly to the editor by
the patients. sending an email to
“Control rooms must have asktheeditor@livemint.com
real-time data on availability of Mint’s journalistic Code of
covid testing centres, ambulan- Conduct that governs our
ces, and shall be able to guide newsroom is available at
the caller on the process for www.livemint.com
availing these services.

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LIVEMINT.COM
BPCL to invest ₹25K crore to
build a renewables portfolio
The company executive director said BPCL is aiming at 1 GW clean energy capacity by 2025
Kalpana Pathak
kalpana.p@livemint.com
MUMBAI
B
harat Petroleum Corp. Ltd
(BPCL) plans to spend
₹25,000 crore to build a
renewable energy capacity of
10 gigawatts (GW) compris-
ing a mix of solar, wind, small hydro and
biomass, a senior company official said
on Thursday.
“We have aspiration to reach 1 giga-
watt of renewable energy in the short
term (by 2025) and a 10 gigawatt portfo-
lio, say, by 2040 or earlier,” Amit Garg,
executive director, renewable energy,
BPCL said.
The capacity being built in the short
term would be to meet the state-run
company’s captive demand, primarily
from refineries and a proposed petro-
chemicals unit. BPCL could also sign
power purchase agreements with buy-
ers, the company said.
BPCL’s planned renewable energy
portfolio would comprise solar (800
MW), wind (100 MW), small hydro (60
MW), and biomass (40 MW). Hydrogen
could also be included in the portfolio at
a later stage. The company has collabo-
rated with Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre (BARC) to scale up alkaline elec-
trolyzer technology for green hydrogen
production.
BPCL is scouting for suitable land to
build power producing units in Uttar
Pradesh for 80-100 MW; Bina, Madhya
Pradesh (20 MW in Phase I), Rajasthan
SELLING
HAPPINESS
Along with stocks, bonds, gold, real estate and
mutual funds, Indians have found a novel
investment to pursue—happiness. Can you
actually learn how to be happy?
THINK: Nirupama
Rao on the loss of
borderlands
BPCL also plans to expand its clean energy capacity to 10 GW by 2040
(250–500 MW) and Delhi of less than 5
MW.
“We are committed to Scope 1 and 2
and aim to be net zero by 2040. We are
seeing a shift from fossil fuels to renewa-
ble energy. India would be among the
countries that will continue to grow in
fossil fuels, but we understand that it has
to eventually move to clean energy,” the
company said.
BPCL has committed to offset emis-
sions from refining operations and from
TASTE: Why CULTURE: Young
local isn’t artists to watch
always good out for this year
CORPORATE
HT
the energy it uses by 2040, referred to as
Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
Last month, BPCL tied up with the
Solar Energy Corporation of India,
under the ministry of new and renewa-
ble energy, to build 10 GW of renewable
capacity by 2040.
“These investments will make BPCL
a more investor friendly company.
BPCL’s privatization process has slowed
down as investors are cagey about
investing in a fossil fuel company when
ISSUE OUT
TOMORROW
FICTION SPECIAL:
Ranjit Lal’s The
Apprenticeship
energy companies the world over are
moving towards building a greener
portfolio,” said an analyst from a domes-
tic brokerage tracking BPCL.
The pandemic has altered the invest-
ment climate for energy companies.
Investor activism has forced these com-
panies to look at building a greener port-
folio, scaling back investments in fossil
fuel projects.
This is likely to hit plans of the gov-
ernment to divest its 52.98% stake in
BPCL for ₹60,000 crore. So far, billion-
aire Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta group, pri-
vate equity firm Apollo Global and I
Squared Capital’s Think Gas arm have
expressed interest in buying the govern-
ment stake.
The privatization is likely to be
pushed to the next fiscal. The pandemic
had last year forced the government to
extend the deadline four times for sub-
mitting preliminary expressions of
interest in BPCL. The government had
initially targeted to call financial bids by
August 2021 and get the sale and pur-
chase agreement signed by September
to complete the deal by March 2022.
The postponement of divestment
will, thus, also affect the government’s
plan to raise a record ₹1.75 trillion from
disinvestment proceeds this year, as
BPCL’s privatization is expected to
account for more than a third of its over-
all disinvestment target. Meeting the
overall divestment target now entirely
hinges on the success of the initial share
sale of India’s largest insurer, Life Insur-
ance Corp. of India.
Medical oxygen generator
supplier Airox explores IPO
Swaraj Singh Dhanjal
swaraj.d@livemint.com
MUMBAI
A
irox Technologies Pvt.
Ltd, which manufac-
tures medical-grade
oxygen generation plants for
hospitals and claims to have a
75% market share, is exploring
plans to list on domestic
bourses, said three people
aware of the development.
Apart from supplying medi-
cal-grade oxygen generation
plants to hospitals, the Auran-
gabad-based company,
founded by Sanjay Jaiswal in
2011, also sells products for
industrial oxygen applications.
“The company is engaged in
talks with a couple of invest-
ment banks and is going to be
meeting more banks as well as
law firms in the coming weeks
for the proposed IPO. The IPO
plan is at a very early stage, and
details such as the size of the
IPO and stake dilution will be
discussed at a later date when
a bank syndicate is appointed.
The plan is to explore a listing
this year,” said the first person
cited above.
According to him, Airox saw
a significant jump in business
due to the covid pandemic,
especially during April-May
2021, when the devastating
second wave and medical-
grade oxygen shortages
exposed India’s creaking
healthcare infrastructure.
The second wave, which
saw peak daily cases of over
400,000 across the country,
triggered an oxygen supply
scarcity, resulting in patients
FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI 03
Airox Tech has more than 850 oxygen plant installations. PTI
having to scour for oxygen cyl- lations across the country,
inders from private markets according to its website.
and black marketeers. While the pandemic has
India’s medical oxygen sup- helped the company scale up
ply chain was severely dis- its revenues sharply, some
rupted due to the steep rise in expressed concerns over the
demand—from 3,842 metric sustainability of its growth.
tonnes (MT) per day on 12 “The company is doing very
April 2021 to 8,400 MT per well currently, but one cannot
day by 25 April, and further up be sure how the pandemic will
to 11,000 MT per day by the pan out and if we will have var-
beginning of iants in the future
May—before Airox saw a that are not as
gradually reduc- significant jump in severe as Delta in
ing as the number the past and thus
business due to
of fresh cases fell, reduce the num-
noted Observer the covid ber of hospitali-
Research Foun- pandemic, zations. So the
dation in a June especially during future growth
report. April-May 2021 prospects can be
“The company a concern for
has revenues in investors,” said
the range of ₹100-200 crore, the second person cited above,
but is highly profitable,” the also requesting anonymity.
first person cited above said. Airox is among companies
Emails sent to promoter Jais- that have benefited from the
wal did not elicit a response till demand for products and
press time. equipment during the cov-
The company has more id-19 pandemic that plans to
than 850 oxygen plant instal- go public.
04 FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI MARK TO MARKET LIVEMINT.COM

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

59,601.84 -1.03 17,745.90 -1 15,290.10 -0.69 42,649.60 -0.26 17,985.60 -0.89 25,336.55 -0.05 29,904.78 0.01
PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN

60,223.15 59,731.75 17,925.25 17,768.5 15,396.40 15,275.75 42,760.40 42,531.05 18,147.50 17,997.60 25,348.03 25,193.59 29,901.12 29,760.00
HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW

59,781.86 59,290.58 17,797.95 17,655.55 15,315.50 15,197.10 42,678.60 42,300.45 18,025.25 17,889.75 25,348.19 25,079.25 29,937.39 29,593.79

m MINT SHORTS
Oil dips on tighter US monetary
Better Q3 show awaits Subdued demand
IT companies have delayed their leasing decisions due to
covid-led restrictions.
Share of IT sector in total office leasing transactions (in %)

specialty chemical cos

50

policy, China demand angst 40

Oil retreated for the first time in four days on the prospect 38
of tightening US monetary policy, and on signs Chinese 30
demand will weaken due to the worst covid-19 outbreak 20
27
since the initial flare-up in Wuhan. Futures in New York Ujjval Jauhari
fell to trade near $77 a barrel after rising 3.5% over the ujjval.j@livemint.com Recovery anticipated 10
past three sessions. Federal Reserve officials said a Softening of key input prices is expected to boost margins of specialty

S
0
strengthening economy and higher inflation could lead pecialty chemical manufactur- chemicals manufacturers in the second half of FY22. H1 2017 H2 2021
to earlier and faster interest-rate increases than previ- ers are likely to report a decent Q1FY22 Q2FY22 FY22E Ebitda margin (in %) Source: Knight Frank India
ously expected, according to minutes published on set of numbers for the quarter
Wednesday. China has locked down some cities to try ended December (Q3FY22). In 50 SATISH KUMAR/MINT

and stem the spread of the virus. Russia and its allies,
meanwhile, said they would send troops to Opec+ pro-
ducer Kazakhstan to help quell protests that posed the
the past few months, the sector
faced multiple headwinds, such as rising
input costs, supply chain constraints,
40 IT firms’ share in office
biggest challenge to the central Asian country’s leader-
ship in decades. Oil ended 2021 on a strong note as a roll-
out of vaccines helped economies reopen. BLOOMBERG
and higher freight costs. However, the
earnings outlook for specialty chemical
companies is expected to improve with
30
leasing is still shrinking
the gradual easing of the concerns, ana-
lysts said. 20 Harsha Jethmalani to office happening in the near term.
“The Indian specialty chemical indus- harsha.j@livemint.com “Return to office has been slow,
try, against the fear of margin squeeze 10 given the majority of the workforce is

Demand in November 2021 increased 3.7% after seeing a
decline by a revised 5.8% in the previous month. REUTERS
German factory orders rise in
boon for covid-hit economy
German factory orders increase in November 2021, giv-
ing the economy cause for optimism after another quar-
ter that was characterized by record numbers of covid-19
infections. Demand increased 3.7% after witnessing a
decline by a revised 5.8% in the previous month. Orders
from abroad helped drive that increase, while domestic
demand decreased. Germany’s rebound is under threat
from persistent supply-chain problems, inflationary
pressures, including an energy crunch and high infection
numbers. The government recently tightened restric-
tions to brace for a new outbreak caused by the highly
contagious Omicron variant of coronavirus. Automobile
sales in the country fell to the lowest level since at least
1990 last year as the industry grappled with shortages of
semiconductor-based processor chips. Manufacturers
from Volkswagen AG to Stellantis NV are hoping the
squeeze will gradually ease this year but have warned
supply will remain tight in the first half. BLOOMBERG
C
caused by elevated input prices, is all set ommercial real estate has employed in the technology outsour-
to deliver strong earnings growth,” said taken a big hit during the pan- cing sector. By Dec’21, less than 25%
analysts from PhillipCapital (India) Pvt. 0 demic. Increased adoption of of workers were likely back in offi-
SRF PI Industries Deepak Clean Science and
Ltd in their Q3 preview note. The earn- Nitrite Technology work-from-home since the pan- ces,” analysts at Jefferies India Pvt.
ings growth, according to the analysts, demic began has hurt office leasing. Ltd said in a 6 January report.
Ebitda is earnings before interest, taxes, Source: JM Financial Institutional
will be driven by a steady recovery in depreciation and amortization; E refers to estimates. Securities Ltd The upshot: contribution of infor- “Consequently, despite record hir-
demand and industrial manufacturers’ mation technology (IT), which was a ing in the tech industry, employers
ability to pass on higher input costs to SATISH KUMAR/MINT
key driver of demand for Grade A have been slow to conclude leasing
customers. The brokerage estimates to a healthy recovery in margins after a help boost earnings momentum. This, office spaces, has been on a decline. renewals/new signings. As return to
Vinati Organics Ltd, SRF Ltd, Camlin sharp squeeze in the September quarter, along with demand recovery, should Property consultant Knight Frank office gains speed from Q2, we
Fine Sciences Ltd, and Aarti Industries according to analysts. hold specialty chemical manufacturers India’s analysis of the commercial believe office vacancy levels will
Ltd to deliver strong earnings growth of Many analysts feel that raw material in good stead. realty sector showed that the share of decline but is unlikely to reach pre-
34-59% year-on-year (y-o-y) in Q3. prices have peaked and should soften. In Rising exports are yet another poten- IT industry in overall leasing transac- covid levels in 2022,” the report
It is worth noting that demand for spe- a mid-December note, JM Financial tial area of growth. The China plus 1 tions fell to 27% in the second half of added.
cialty chemicals has remained resilient Institutional Securities Ltd’s analysts strategy adoption by multinational com- 2021 (H22021) from 41% a year ago. That apart, elevated supply of
notwithstanding the covid-19 pandemic. said operating margins are likely to panies (MNCs) is a factor for optimism. Pandemic-related commercial space in
This has boosted sales of many firms, but improve and revert to normal levels over Indian manufacturers are finding favour uncertainty and mobil- Pandemic-related India means the scope
manufacturers have been facing other the next 1-2 quarters. “Several Indian for supplies from international custom- ity restrictions have uncertainty and for meaningful impr-
headwinds, especially on the cost front. chemical players have indicated that ers over China, which can support the prompted IT firms to ovement in rentals is
mobility curbs
Crude oil prices have risen, former’s export momen- postpone decisions to have prompted IT low. Against this back-
while basic ingredients and IMPROVING SIGNS tum. Here, manufacturers lease office spaces. After
firms to postpone drop, investors must
chemical prices are also offering contract research the second covid wave, track management
higher. With China sup- OPERATING A rise in exports, due ANY disruption and manufacturing servi- companies have decisions to lease commentary of listed
plies getting impacted due margins of specialty to international caused by a fresh ces or custom synthesis are adopted a hybrid work- office spaces Reits on rentals and
chemicals firms may demand, offers space surge in covid cases
to power shortages, lower normalize over the for specialty chemical globally is a key well placed. MNCs looking ing model. Although renewal of office leases
coal and gas supplies had next 1-2 quarters companies to grow monitorable at cost controls are likely to the IT industry was the in the December quar-
made matters worse, lead- resort to more outsourcing. largest contributor to total office ter.
ing to high power and fuel In general, shares of spe- transactions in H22021, the steep Meanwhile, commercial property
expenses. their customers have accepted the price cialty chemicals companies such as SRF decline in its share in just a year has developers hope demand for office
For perspective, key input prices such hikes needed to offset higher input costs. and PI Industries have appreciated impacted rentals. Rentals fell 7.6% in spaces would rise, aided by the IT
as that of crude, benzene, toluene, phe- Hence, we believe major Indian players meaningfully over the past one year, 2021, the Knight Frank report says. sector’s hiring spree. The top five IT
nol, and caprolactum, in Q3 rose by should be able to pass on the complete suggesting that investors are capturing While IT companies are inching companies in India have hired about
76-126% y-o-y. However, sequentially, price increases over the next 1-2 quar- a good portion of the optimism into the towards implementation of back-to- 0.26 million employees during April
the rise has been slow and many chemi- ters,” JM Financial analysts said. price. Investors will closely track any dis- office, limited clarity on the gravity of to September 2021, said Knight
cal prices remained steady. The above- Meanwhile, many specialty chemical ruption caused by a fresh surge in covid the Omicron variant of coronavirus Frank, which expects these compa-
mentioned chemical prices were up companies have recently either inte- cases globally. Adverse outcomes on this continues to cloud the demand out- nies to contribute incrementally to
0.7-7% sequentially. Even so, a strong grated their product portfolio or added front can have a bearing on the senti- look for office spaces. So, analysts see office space demand of around 12
sequential rise in product prices can lead downstream products, which should ments for these stocks. a low possibility of a complete return million sq.ft going forward.

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

RIL raises $4 billion Bitcoin falls to lowest since Dec Gaming billionaire’s wealth falls
in US dollar bonds by $10 billion after Tencent sale
Bloomberg
feedback@livemint.com
tumbled as well. Ether, the would not bet the farm near-
number two by market value, term on bitcoin but think there
took out its own flash-crash is an opportunity in going long
Kalpana Pathak Bloomberg

B
itcoin slumped to the bottom to reach prices not seen volatility via derivatives strate- faced profitability concerns
kalpana.p@livemint.com lowest level since its since 13 October, and Binance gies.” feedback@livemint.com amid fierce competition and
MUMBAI December flash crash as Coin dropped to October levels The recent swings in crypto- rivals’ public debuts.

T
growing expectations of rising as well. Tokens of popular DeFi currencies come amid a volatile he man who once was Even before Tencent’s

R
eliance Industries Ltd
(RIL) has raised $4 bil-
lion through the largest
ever foreign currency bond
issuance by an Indian enter-
prise, the company said on
Thursday. The proceeds will
be used to refinance some of
its existing debt.
RIL raised $1.5 billion for 10
years at a coupon or interest
rate of 2.875%, $1.75 billion for
30 years at 3.625% and $750
million for a 40-year term at
3.750%. The issue was over-
subscribed by three times and
will be due for repayment bet-
ween 2032 and 2062, RIL said.
“The support received from
marquee international capital
market investors is reflective
of the strength of our underly-
ing businesses with estab-
lished growth platforms across
energy, consumer and tech-
nology as well as the robust-
ness of our balance sheet,” said
Srikanth Venkatachari, joint
The proceeds will be used to
refinance some of the existing
debt, Reliance said. BLOOMBERG
tranche by a BBB-rated private
sector corporate from Asia,
excluding Japan.
RIL said the notes received
orders from over 200 accounts
in Asia, Europe and the US.
“The notes were distributed
to high-quality fixed income
accounts: 69% to fund manag-
ers, 24% to insurance compa-
nies, 5% to banks and 2% to
public institutions,” said RIL.
The interest on the notes
will be paid semi-annually in
arrears, and shall rank at par
with all its unsecured and
borrowing rates weigh on some
of the best-performing assets of
the past few years.
The largest cryptocurrency
by market value dropped as low
as $42,505 in early Asia trading
on Thursday. That pushed the
price to the weakest since it
touched $42,296 during a
weekend crash at the start of
last month. It rallied back to
about $43,200 as of 7.30 am in
London. Bitcoin has surged by
about 500% since the end of
2019 in the wake of stimulus
measures put in place during
the covid-19 pandemic.
Other cryptocurrencies
Nasdaq’s $1 trillion rout fuels worry that 2022 may be bumpy
Bloomberg
feedback@livemint.com
applications, period for finan- Singapore’s richest per- move, its ADRs had dropped
including Unis- The largest cial markets. Spik- son has had one of the 39% from the high in October.
wap and Aave, cryptocurrency ing inflation is world’s biggest wealth plunges. They fell another 6.6% on
declined. by market value leading central Forrest Li, the chairman and Wednesday to close at $184.72
“Given the cur- dropped as low as banks to tighten chief executive officer of Sea in New York.
rent macro back- monetary policy, Ltd, has lost almost $11 billion of Tencent said Tuesday it is
$42,505 in early
drop, leverage threatening to his fortune since the American cutting its Sea stake to 18.7%
within the bitcoin Asia trading on reduce the liquid- depositary receipts of the com- from 21.3%, with its voting
market, and Thursday ity tailwind that pany peaked on 19 October, Forrest Li’s wealth dipped as rights decreasing to under 10%.
recent robustness lifted a wide range according to the Bloomberg Tencent cut stake in Sea. REUTERS The move followed an earlier
seen in the altcoin of assets. Billionaires Index. After grow- statement from Sea saying it is
market, we think it’s appropri- US equities deepened losses ing competition and a wider Li became Singapore’s rich- seeking to increase the voting
ate to be overweight ethereum after minutes from the Federal profit loss, the latest blow came est person last year as the com- power of its Class B shares and
and other smart contract plat- Reserve flagged the chance of on Tuesday, when Tencent pany benefited from a surge in that Tencent would convert all
forms,” Fundstrat digital-asset earlier and faster interest rate Holdings Ltd cut its stake in the demand for gaming and online such stock into Class A shares,
strategists Sean Farrell and Will hikes. The S&P 500 fell 1.9%, gaming and e-commerce giant, shopping amid the covid-19 resulting in Li becoming the
McEvoy wrote in a note on led by real estate stocks, while driving the stock to its worst pandemic. But things soon beneficial owner of all out-
Wednesday. “We probably Nasdaq 100 slid 3.1%. slump in almost two years. started turning sour as Sea standing Class B securities.
on the S&P 500 were little the world’s largest market capi- sales reached the highest level
changed in early morning trad- talizations”, said John Ric- in dollar terms in more than 10
ing in New York, showing signs ciardi, head of global asset allo- years, according to data com-

chief financial officer, RIL.
The mega issue was the larg-
est debt capital market trans-
action for RIL, and had “the
tightest credit spreads across
each of the long-dated tenors
for any corporate in India”.
The notes have been priced
competitively at 120 basis
points, 160 basis points and
170 basis points over the
respective US treasuries
benchmark, the company said.
The issue has the lowest
coupon rate for benchmark
30-year and 40-year issuances
and is the first ever 40-year
F
unsubordinated obligations.
Rating agency Moody’s
rated the bond ‘Baa2’, while
S&P Global Rating gave it
‘BBB+’; both having a ‘stable’
outlook on the bonds.
BofA Securities, Citigroup
and HSBC were joint global
coordinators to the issue. BofA
Securities, Citigroup, HSBC,
Barclays, JP Morgan and
MUFG acted as joint active
bookrunners. ANZ, BNP Pari-
bas, Crédit Agricole CIB, DBS
Bank, Mizuho, SMBC Nikko,
StanChart and SBI were the
joint passive bookrunners.
utures signalled further
pain for tech stocks after
Wednesday’s rout, with
nearly $1 trillion in value wiped
out of the Nasdaq Composite
Index this week already as a
surge in US bond yields spook
investors.
Nasdaq 100 futures point to a
further 0.4% drop on Thursday
after the worst two-day rout
since March, with Apple Inc.,
Tesla Inc. and Netflix Inc. fall-
ing again in pre-market trad-
ing. US 10-year Treasury yields
traded near 1.75%, the highest
in about 10 months. Contracts
of stabilization.
Expensive software makers,
biotechs and newly minted
stocks fell the most on Wednes-
day, while Cathie Wood’s ARK
Innovation exchange-traded
fund, the poster-child of hyper-
growth names, tumbled 9%.
The fund was down 0.6% in
pre-market trading.
Higher rates reduce the
present value of future earn-
ings, weighing especially on
shares of highly valued, fast-
growing companies. Zscaler
Inc., Datadog Inc., Peloton
Interactive Inc. and Crowd-
cation at Deuterium Capital
Management. Since touching
an historic $3 trillion market
value on 3 January, Apple Inc.
has been in decline.
eToro Global Market Strate-
gist Ben Laidler said that while
he’s positive on 2022, the year
will see lower returns than
2022, experts say, will see lower returns and more volatility. REUTERS 2021, with more volatility.
Hedge funds, which spent
strike Holdings Inc. have lost soft Corp. December unloading high-
between 10% and 18% this The first quarter “will bring growth, high-valuation stocks,
week. Megacaps haven’t been at least a temporary reversal of began the new year by jettison-
spared either: the NYSE the technology sector valuation ing software and chipmakers at
FANG+ Index has fallen 2.8%, boom that lifted companies a furious pace. In the four ses-
led by Nvidia Corp. and Micro- such as Apple and Microsoft to sions through Tuesday, these
piled by Goldman Sachs Group
Inc.’s prime broker. A correc-
tion, however, might not be a
given. Tech stocks took a simi-
lar beating in March, but
bounced back right after.
“The dip in stocks seems a bit
overdone,” UBS Global Wealth
Management strategists led by
Mark Haefele said in a note.
“The normalization of Fed pol-
icy shouldn’t dent the outlook
for corporate profit growth,
which remains on a solid foot-
ing due to strong consumer
spending, rising wages, and still
easy access to capital.”
06 FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI CORPORATE LIVEMINT.COM

Authorized
Ratan Tata Yes files petition asking Dish m
MOVES
A weekly list of C-Suiters who have moved up
biography in
record deal to disclose AGM outcome the corporate ladder either within or outside
their companies.
Amitav Appointed as chief executive
officer, fintech business, at
Panigrahi RattanIndia Enterprises
FROM PAGE 1 Amrit Appointed as chief data officer
Thomas at Zee Enterprises
additional secretary to former Yes contends the HC in its earlier order did not put a stay on the disclosure of AGM results
President Pranab Mukherjee Anirban Appointed as chief human resources
after serving in different min- Banerjee officer at Avendus
istries, has authored two other Gopika Gopakumar
books—The Winged Wonders gopika.g@htlive.com Ankush Appointed as president sales and
of Rashtrapati Bhavan and MUMBAI Kaul marketing at Tribeca Developers
Abode Under the Dome. He is

also a regular op-ed commen-
tator.
Born in 1937, Ratan Naval
Tata, now 84, joined the com-
pany in 1964 and succeeded
his uncle, J.R.D. Tata, as chair-
man of the group in 1981.
Under his leadership, the
group acquired London-based
Tetley Tea, the truck manufac-
turing operations of the
Korean company Daewoo
Motors, steelmaker Corus
Group Plc and Jaguar Land
Rover and more.
It’s been a year of books on
the Tata group, which marked
its 150th anniversary in 2018.
In June 2021, Penguin Ran-
dom House India published
#TataStories, a collection of
inspirational stories about the
group, written by the com-
pany’s brand custodian, Har-
ish Bhat.
This was followed in July by
Harvard University Press’s
Tata: The Global Corporation
That Built Indian Capitalism,
authored by Mircea Raianu.
In August, Penguin Random
House released the authorized
biography of the Tata family,
The Story of Tata: 1868 to 2021,
by Irish-American business-
man Peter Casey.
A book from Westland, pub-
lished in July 2021, The Tatas,
Freddie Mercury & Other
Bawas: An Intimate History of
the Parsis by Coomi Kapoor,
also dwelt in detail on the
industrialist family and their
feuds.
T
he tussle between Dish TV Anupal Appointed as chief people officer
India Ltd and its largest Banerjee at FSS
shareholder Yes Bank Ltd is Appointed as executive vice
likely to stretch further, with Ashok
president and chief delivery officer
the private lender moving the Philipose at CSS Corp.
Bombay high court for an order asking
Dish TV to disclose the results of its
Balaji Appointed as chief financial officer
A.S. at Stovekraft
annual general meeting (AGM) held on
30 December.
Biswajyoti Appointed as country head
In its petition filed on Wednesday, at Dematic
Yes Bank said the high court in its earlier Mandal
order did not put a stay on the disclosure George Appointed as head of corporate
of AGM results, while declining to give communications and CSR India at
Cherian The Walt Disney Co. India
relief to the promoter entity of Dish TV,
which had questioned the legal validity Jaydeep Appointed as vice president and
of Yes Bank’s shares in the satellite-TV Shah marketing head at Sebamed
provider.
On 30 December, Dish TV in a notice Joy Appointed as chief executive
to stock exchanges claimed that the high Chakraborthy officer at Goldmines Telefilms
court had directed it to disclose voting
K.V.S. Ram Appointed as Joint managing
results after the final hearing. The court Yes Bank owns 25.63% in the satellite television provider. MINT
director and chief executive officer
is set to hear the matter on 3 February. Rao at Granules India
“It is abundantly clear from the afore- TV, which had questioned the share Bank said in its petition. shareholder in the company. Dish TV Appointed as director of
said order that the honourable court ownership of Yes Bank, which owns World Crest Advisors had pledged promoters own 5.93% of the company. Murali
communications and government
declined to grant the plaintiff (Dish TV 25.63% in the satellite television pro- the shares with Yes Bank in lieu of the Financial creditors, including Yes Sashidharan relations at Ather Energy
promoter) any ad interim relief, includ- vider. It had also urged the court to bank giving money to Subhash Chan- Bank, own about 45% of shares in Dish
ing a stay on the effect/implementation debar Yes Bank from voting at its 30 dra-controlled entities in 2016.The TV, and executives from three financial
Naarayan Appointed as chief marketing
of the decision taken at the AGM of December annual meeting. Essel Group founder is the elder brother creditors and shareholders, claim that T.V. officer at IDFC First Bank
defendant No:3 (Dish TV) held on 30 “For that, it is clear…defendant No:3’s of Jawahar Goel, chairman and manag- more than 55% of shareholders voted
December,” the lender said in its against the three resolutions, Neetan Appointed as chief digital and
Chopra information officer at Indigo
appeal. “For that, the outcome of an THE DISPUTE including adoption of financial
AGM of a listed entity cannot be accounts, the reappointment of Nidhi Appointed as country marketing
kept secret and in abeyance from its ON 30 Dec, Dish TV THE Bombay YES also said Dish’s ON 23 Dec, the high Ashok Kurien as director and Hola director at Dell
shareholders and the stock claimed that the high high court will
court had directed it now hear the
promoters had tried
debar its top share-
court did not give
any relief to World
approving the remuneration to the
exchanges in the absence of an to disclose results matter next holder from voting at Crest Advisors which auditor. Some shareholders, includ- Partha Appointed as chief operating
order of a court or other competent after the final hearing on 3 February its 30 Dec AGM had Yes’ ownership ing the City of New York Group Choudhary officer at LML
authority,” it added. Trust, abstained from voting,
Yes Bank also said Dish TV’s pro- according to a disclosure made by Piyush Appointed as business head electric
moters had made several attempts to (Dish TV) acts are at the behest of the ing director of Dish TV. the foreign shareholder, and reviewed Gahalaut vehicles at Continental Engines
debar its top shareholder from voting at promoters of the Essel Group, and are When the privately held firms of by Mint. If the resolution of approval of
its 30 December annual meeting. part of the Essel Group’s broader strata- Chandra could not pay back the interest financial accounts gets rejected, then Ramakrishna Appointed as chief business
On 23 December, the Bombay high gem of denying the applicant (Yes Bank) on the money borrowed from Yes Bank, Dish TV cannot raise ₹1,000 crore via a Bhagavan officer at Indiassetz
court did not give any relief to World its legitimate rights as the holder of the bank invoked the share pledged rights issue, which was the genesis in the Appointed as EVP and business
Crest Advisors, a promoter entity of Dish shares in defendant No: 3 (Dish TV),’ Yes with it last year to emerge as the largest fight between the two entities. Rohit head consumer and enterprise
Tandon at Vodafone Idea
Sandip Appointed as chief financial officer

Govt okays ₹12,031 cr BharatPe eyes up to Basu at VerSe innovation

Sharad Appointed as head marketing at

Vatss Apis India

in green energy push $4 billion valuation Source: Accord India, executive search worldwide

FROM PAGE 1 mentation in Andhra, Gujarat, FROM PAGE 1 small business lending arm of
Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka,
The corridor is expected to Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
help ensure that the huge injec- Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. It will
chants in more than 140 cities
and claims to process over 110
the Centrum Group, and Bhar-
atPe.
That month, Flipkart-
Dunzo raises $240 mn
tion of electricity into the national help supply around 24GW of
grid from intermittent energy renewable energy by 2022.
sources such as solar and wind The first phase will add
million UPI transactions per
month, according to the com-
pany website.
owned PhonePe sued Bhar-
atPe over the use of the ‘Pe’
suffix for the latter’s newly
in RIL arm-led round
doesn’t threaten the grid. 9,700ckm of transmission lines In addition, since its launch, launched ‘buy now pay later’
Tata Steel chief T.V. Narendran said the need of the hour is policy The corridor forms an and 22,600MVA capacity of sub- the company claims to have product, ‘PostPe’. FROM PAGE 1 recording a weekly growth rate
stability and continued government investments in infrastructure. important component of the stations at an estimated cost of disbursed loans worth ₹2,800 Startups in India’s fintech of more than 20%. It claims to
plan to maintain the grid fre- ₹10,141.68 crore, the statement crore to more than 300,000 segment have drawn signifi- enhancing the company’s omni- offer daily and weekly necessi-

Govt spending should quency within the

49.90-50.05 Hz
(hertz) band. An The project is
said. Recently,
Union ministries of
power and new and
merchants.
The fintech company has
attracted private equity fund-
cant investments in the past
few months. Uni, a credit and
payments firm, raised $70 mil-
channel capabilities. According to
the statement, Dunzo will also
help Reliance’s own JioMart’s net-
ties within 15-20 minutes.
“We are seeing a shift in con-
sumption patterns to online

go on, says Tata Steel automatic genera-

tion control
recently made
expected to help
India meet the
climate
renewable energy
approved 23 inter-
state transmission
ing. In August, it became a uni-
corn, or a startup valued at
more than a billion dollars,
lion as a part of its Series A
round led by General Catalyst
in December.
work of merchants with last-mile
delivery.
“With this investment from
and have been highly
impressed with how Dunzo has
disrupted the space. Dunzo is
operational sends system projects at after it raised $370 million at a Last month, JusPay Tech- Reliance Retail, we will have a the pioneer of quick commerce
chief TV Narendran signals to power

seconds to main-
commitments it
plants every four made at the COP-26 ₹15,893 crore.
an estimated cost of
summit in Glasgow India has achieved
$2.85 billion valuation.
The company had also
secured several rounds of debt
nologies Pvt. Ltd, which oper-
ates a payments technology
platform, raised $60 million in
long-term partner with whom
we can accelerate growth and
redefine how Indians shop for
in India, and we want to sup-
port them in furthering their
ambitions of becoming a prom-
FROM PAGE 1 sheets as favourable factors for tain frequency, its nationally deter- financing. The latest such its Series C funding round led daily and weekly essentials. inent local commerce enabler,”
fresh investments. Infrastruc- ensuring the mined contribu- infusion was in October when by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. We’re excited by the traction and said Isha Ambani, director,
ordinated between the Centre ture, he said, drives demand power grid’s reliability. tions target with a total non-fossil it raised ₹100 crore in debt In November, Slice, a fin- velocity that Dunzo Daily has Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd.
and states and the government and cost competitiveness. The project will receive central based installed energy capacity of from non-banking financial tech startup focused on mil- achieved,” said Kabeer Biswas, Morgan Stanley was the
and industry, as unprepared Industry, he said, is well pre- financial assistance of ₹3,970.34 157.32GW, which is 40.1% of the company MAS Financial Ser- lennials and operated by CEO and co-founder of Dunzo. financial adviser, and Cyril
lockdowns could cripple sup- pared to deal with the third crore, or a third of the project cost. total installed electricity capacity. vices Pvt. Ltd. GaragePrenuers Internet Pvt. The additional funds will be Amarchand Mangaldas was the
ply chains and consumption. wave, and protocols are in The transmission systems will be Of this, solar, wind and hydro- In the same month, the Ltd, turned unicorn. It raised used to expand Dunzo’s rapid legal counsel to Dunzo. AZB
The need of the hour is pol- place. But businesses would created over a period of five years power account for 48.55GW, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) $220 million as part of its lat- commerce operations to 15 cit- and Partners acted as legal
icy stability and sustained gov- like the public policy response through 31 March 2026, the gov- 40.03GW and 51.34GW, respec- issued a small finance bank est Series B fundraise led by ies from the current seven. counsel to Reliance Retail and
ernment investments in infra- to be well coordinated. “We ernment said. tively. India’s nuclear energy- (SFB) licence to the consor- New York-based investment Dunzo also debuted its quick Deloitte while Haskins and
structure, he said, adding that said there should be a coordi- The first phase of the green based installed electricity capacity tium of Centrum Financial firms Tiger Global and Insight delivery service, ‘Dunzo Daily,’ Sells LLP provided financial
private investments will follow. nated response between Cen- energy corridor is under imple- stands at 6.78GW. Services Ltd (Centrum), the Partners. in Bengaluru last year, which is due diligence services.
Citing a December CII sur- tre and states, and between
vey, he said most businesses government and industry, so
were at 70-80% capacity utili- that we find that balance of
zation and were positive about making sure lives are not
the future. Most businesses felt impacted, and at the same time,
they were at pre- livelihoods are
Centre may widen infra sector ambit to open up tax sops
pandemic levels Citing a December a l s o not
or better, were CII survey, he said impacted,” Nar- FROM PAGE 1 cited above said this is extended to more infrastruc- Kachru, vice-president of HAI,
exporting more, most businesses endran said. unlikely; however, the list may ture projects, it will encourage said that currently, the hospi-
that capacity utili- were at 70-80% Industry’s sub- Section 35AD include those be expanded, and several pro- investors to develop more tality sector pays an interest of
zation and profit-
capacity utilization mission to both laying and operating cross- jects may be made eligible for infrastructure facilities across around 11%, which can be far
ability were good, central and state country natural gas pipeline Sector 35AD benefits. the country, the spokesperson lower if it gets the infrastruc-
and they were and were positive governments has networks for distribution, Abhay Sharma, a partner at said. ture tag. Noting that the tour-
planning invest- about the future been to avoid building and operating new Shardul Amarchand Mangal- However, tax expert Ved ism sector suffers from a gap in
ments, he said. “It uncoordinated hospitals with at least 100 das and Co., said that gener- Jain said that world-class infra-
is evident in some lockdowns in beds, and developing afforda- ally, depreciation benefits are deduction under structure devel-
sectors like metals, for instance. local areas because that dis- ble housing projects. On the available to infrastructure the section might A proposal to bring opment in the
But at the same time, we urge rupts supply chains, he said. other hand, the harmonized companies in a staggered way; not be very more sectors country’s tour-
the government to continue to According to Narendran, the master list of infrastructure however, under Section 35AD, attractive, as under Section ism destinations,
spend on infrastructure. Gov- budget should continue the sub-sectors aims to guide the entire tax benefit can be availing of the 35AD may form HAI said that the
ernment expenditure should schemes introduced to support agencies responsible for sup- taken in the first year of com- deduction benefit part of the Union gap can be
not get cut as private sector the less privileged sections of porting infrastructure in vari- mencement of the ‘specified would mean the budget for the year b r i d g e d by
investment will need more society and should have ade- ous ways. business’. company would starting 1 April e n c o u r a g i n g
time to come back to the levels quate allocations for them. This list includes roads, According to a spokesper- not be able to take investments in
we have seen in the past though Lockdowns impact incomes highways, railways, power The move is expected to boost the infrastructure sector, a focus area son for industry lobby group advantage of the the hotel sector
it is already better than what it and consumption, he said. generation, transmission and for the Centre that has announced a ₹100 tn project pipeline. MINT Assocham, infrastructure lower corporate by giving infra-
was two years ago,” Narendran After the second wave, con- distribution, solid waste man- development requires huge tax rate. structure status for all hotel
said, underlining the impor- sumption has not picked up as agement, sewage treatment, nomic zones. In April, ‘exhibi- infrastructure. investments, and providing The Hotel Association of investments. It has been rec-
tance of higher spending in much as the industry would telecom, three-star hotels and tion-cum-convention centres’ Industry bodies have been deductions only for certain India (HAI) has asked the ommended to declare hotels
economic recovery. He pointed like because people are afraid above located outside cities were included in the list of seeking uniformity of projects facilities causes undue hard- finance ministry to accord the of above ₹25 crore capital
to improving demand, profita- about the income impact of the with a population of more than infrastructure sub-sectors under Section 35AD and the ship on other infrastructure infrastructure industry status expenditure (excluding land)
bility and healthier balance third wave, he said. 1 million, and special eco- under social and commercial master list. The two people projects. If the deduction is to the hospitality sector. K.B. as infrastructure.
LIVEMINT.COM CORPORATE FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI 07

‘Starbucks added 51 new MORE WOMEN THAN MEN TO TELL A STORY

almost twice the growth in the number of men.

stores in past 12 months’ A M AT T E R

OF NUMBERS
This is so startling that it practically cries out for an explanation. So
what can possibly explain such a dramatic difference in this period? For
example, were far more girls than boys born in India between 2016 and
2021?
There’s something else in the NFHS data that is relevant to that ques-
Suneera Tandon DILIP D’SOUZA tion: the sex ratio at birth. It’s invariably offered in the same way—the
suneera.t@livemint.com number of girl babies born for every 1,000 boys. NFHS-4 of 2015-16
NEW DELHI Respond to this column at reported that figure as 919; five years later, NFHS-5 reports it is 929. Cer-
feedback@livemint.com tainly that’s an improvement. Even so, what both numbers tell us is that

U
S coffee chain Starbucks on India sees fewer—not more—girls than boys being born every year.

N
Thursday announced its ot long ago, we learned that India has finally joined the ranks of Once again, we can do some calculations to underline that reality. In
foray into six new cities in “developed” countries in this particular sense: we have more 2021, India’s birth rate was 1.7377%, meaning there were about 24.15 mil-
India, marking its single-larg- women than men. lion babies (1.7377% of 1.39 billion) born through the year. Of every 1,929
est store expansion in a year. I’ll let that sink in. Meanwhile, why is this a feature of “developed” of those, 929 were girls. Thus, the year saw about 11.63 million girls and
The company, which has a joint venture countries? Because it’s just human reality that women will likely live 12.52 million boys born: close to a million more boys than girls. If we do
with Tata Consumer Products in India, longer than men. Put another way, if a boy and a girl are born simulta- the same calculations for each year going back to 2016, we will get
opened new stores in Siliguri, Nashik, neously, the girl can expect to outlive the boy: females’ life expectancy broadly similar figures. In 2016, when the birth rate was 1.8636%, 11.78
Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram, Goa and at birth is higher than males’. There are various reasons and explana- million girls and 12.82 million boys were born: about a million fewer girl
Bhubaneshwar. In an interview, Sushant tions for this that I won’t get into. But one result is that absent any other babies, again.
Dash, CEO, Tata Starbucks Pvt. Ltd, spoke relevant factors, a given country will likely have more female citizens That is, over the last five years, India added to its population by birth
about the business disruptions from the than male. alone about 58 million girls and 63 million boys: an excess of five million
Omicron variant of coronavirus, plans to Only, that absence of relevant factors is not as widespread as you boys. Yet, the sex ratio data we calculated above says that in those same
step up its retail expansion strategy and might think. The poorer and less educated the country, the greater the five years, India added to its population a total of 45 million females and
the competitive coffee retail landscape in preference for boy babies over girls, the less girls are nourished and edu- just 25 million males. Do the arithmetic to arrive at an even more star-
India. Edited excerpts: cated compared to boys, the more they can expect other forms of mis- tling discrepancy: we lost 13 million females
treatment. These are broad generalizations, of course, and ones I also Either the 2016 in those years, but 38 million males.
With fresh curbs in place, how has won’t get into. But they do hold, and their impact is enormous. NFHS number Ask again, what can possibly explain
business been affected? India has long been a poorer and less educated country than many such a dramatic difference? Was there a
We will be watching as the situation others. Thus those generalizations apply to us, and the result is that we is wrong, or the sex-selective pandemic that wiped out far
evolves. I think it’s still early days. With have long had fewer women than men. We quantify that statement 2021 number more men than women? Did we fight a
the new restrictions in different states, From August 2020, we have entered 15 potential in terms of numbers and con- with our sex ratio, usually expressed as the number of females for every is wrong. Or major war and lose millions of men, like
that is, different timings, capacities, week- new cities. In fact, in this one-month sumers, but the other is also to get the 1,000 males. For years, that number has been in the 900s. The 2001 both are wrong several European countries did between
end and night curfews, there is an impact period, from December to January, we right real estate to create the Starbucks Census showed it was 933; by 2011 it had increased to 943 1914 and 1918? Or were men suddenly dying
if I look at the store operating index from entered six new cities. So, our expansion experience. And that sometimes is a chal- (bit.ly/3EZpntl). earlier and at a faster clip than women?
where it was to where we are now, over the plans continue. We are very bullish about lenge. Let that sink in too. For given those figures, the recent headlines, Were women suddenly living even longer lives than men?
last seven to eight days. But it’s too early to the potential of organized retail here. How would you describe the competi- about more women than men, should come as something of a surprise. Any of these might have explained the difference, at least in part. But
say in terms of what the impact will be. There could be temporary blips because tive landscape we are seeing in the They are from the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, any of these would also have been major news. Only, there’s been noth-
How are you managing possible of covid-19 but long-term, we remain opti- coffee market? 2019-21, bit.ly/32LXVSZ). Among much else, the Survey says we now ing like it. No outbreak of mainly-male deaths, no war, definitely no

‘
employee shortages due to the ongo- mistic about the Indian market and will So, you obviously watch competi- have 1,020 females to every 1,000 males. To compare, NFHS-5 reminds surge in births of girls.
ing wave? continue to expand. tion closely, but I think us of the sex ratio the previous Survey (NFHS-4, 2015-16) found: 991. Which leaves us with the only reasonable conclusion: something is
As of now, we haven’t had any issues. It’s Is the aggression part there’s enough space for So we have these four data points: 2001, 933; 2011, 943; 2016, 991; amiss in this NFHS data. Either the 2016 number is wrong, or the 2021
not like we haven’t had cases but things of shift in strategy? There could be everyone. We are a 2021, 1,020. number is wrong. Or both are wrong. My guess is, both. That’s because
are still very much under control. We have I don’t think there’s a temporary blips, but growing economy and These numbers deserve, at a minimum, scrutiny and questions. Espe- much the same sex ratio calculation for the five years between 2011 and
not had any issues in terms shift in strat- we remain optimistic there is enough poten- cially when we saw a rise of just 10 between 2001 and 2011, what explains 2016—the leap of nearly 50 females—will cast much the same shadow
of where we had to close m INTERVIEW egy. It’s the tial. We are more con- that jump of nearly 50 between 2011 and 2016? What explains the rise on the 2016 number, especially when compared to the far lower increase
stores, or we had to make continua- about the Indian cerned about how we of nearly 30 between 2016 and today? But before trying to answer such of just 10 females between 2001 and 2011.
any changes in terms of timing etc. As of tion of our strategy; we market and will optimize our offering, questions, let’s look at just what these jumps actually suggest; specifi- There’s plenty more to pore over in the NFHS data, as there always is
now, at least, the numbers are very small, have obviously fast- continue to expand how we give consumers cally, the most recent one. in any detailed population data. For example, NFHS-5 reports that
so no impact. tracked expansion the best Starbucks expe- In 2016, India’s population was 1.32 billion. If the sex ratio then was 991 India’s total fertility ratio (TFR)—the number of babies a woman will give
Sushant Dash
Will the new wave impact the target because we believe in the CEO, Tata Starbucks rience that we can. females to 1,000 males, that means that of every 1,991 Indians, 991 were birth to in her life, on average—fell below “replacement level”, to 2.0.
for opening more stores? potential of this market. That’s actually our prior- female. Thus, the number of female Indians in 2016 was: 1.32 billion x Now, this is a welcome and significant demographic milestone. But it
We have been very aggressive (with Both our partners are will- ity. 991/1991, or 657 million. Which of course means the number of males does not mean what some headlines reported: “India’s population has
store openings). In fact, if there is one ing to invest and that’s a huge positive for Will you continue with this speed of in India that year was 663 million. started to decline” (bit.ly/3zueZIV). Instead, it means the growth in India’s
headline that I would look at from the last us. expansion next fiscal? Cut to today, when our population is about 1.39 billion. We can do the population is levelling off and will eventually decline to zero. Only after
12 months is the rapid expansion that we As an example, wherever we have The short answer is we will continue to same calculation with that figure and the NFHS-5 sex ratio of 1,020 that will the population itself start to decline.
have done in terms of the store count and entered, in the next tier of towns, after the expand. This is not just the strategy for the females to 1,000 males. Thus we find that the number of females is 702 Two broader points to round this off: large populations like ours don’t
the number of cities we have entered. In metros, the numbers have been very good. last 12 months. We will continue to hope- million and the number of males is 688 million. change demographic character dramatically in a time as short as five
fact, over the last 12-13 months, we have We have been welcomed, and we have fully accelerate, from the numbers that we Compare the 2016 numbers to 2021 numbers. If this NFHS data is years. Therefore, consider any startling changes with extreme scepti-
opened 51 new outlets, which is the high- found the consumer base. Sometimes, have and be more aggressive. We will accurate, the number of females in India increased by 45 million (702- cism.
est single number of stores that we have why you need to wait for the opportune open in newer catchments in existing cit- 657) while the number of males increased by only 25 million (688-663). Once a computer scientist, Dilip D’Souza now lives in Mumbai and
opened by far. time is the real estate. Because one is the ies and look at opportunities outside. That is, the growth in the number of women in those five years was writes for his dinners. His Twitter handle is @DeathEndsFun

DELHI JAL BOARD, GOVT. OF N.C.T. OF DELHI

OFFICE OF THE ADDITIONAL CHIEF ENGINEER (C)-4
JAL SADAN, LAJPAT NAGAR, NEW DELHI-110024
Email: addlcedr2@gmail.com, Tele: #011-29817104,#9650573355 MADHYA PRADESH METRO RAIL CORPORATION LIMITED (MPMRCL)
NIT No. 02/Dy.SE(P) SR.II/(2021-22) (A Joint Venture of Government of India and Government of Madhya Pradesh)
S. Name of Work Estimated Cost Tender Fee Date release of tender Last date/time of receipt CIN : U75100MP2015SGC034434, 2nd Floor, Smart City Development Corporation Limited
No. in e-procurement of tender through Office Building, Kalibadi Road, BHEL, Sector A, Berkheda, Bhopal-462022, Madhya Pradesh,
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1. Consultancy services Lump Sum Rs. 1000/- 05.01.2022 27.01.2022 upto 3.00 PM NOTICE INVITING TENDER (NIT) (INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVE BIDDING)
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solution
01 Replacement of old 350/450 mm dia peripherial sewer line 73,94,221/- 1,48,000/- 1000/- 19.01.2022
by P/L 400/500 mm dia SN8 Sewer Line along bloc of C, D, upto 3.00 PM
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Bagh West Under EE(west)-II A.C - 26.
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seweline network in West Punjabi Bagh (from back lane of upto 3.00 PM
road no. 75/78 to outfall at road no. 77) in AC-26 Madipur
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08 FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI DEALS, TECH & STARTUPS LIVEMINT.COM

m MINT SHORTS
Bambrew raises funds from Blue
Colour-shifting cars, mind-reading
Ashva Capital, Supack Industries
New Delhi: Bambrew, a sustainable packaging firm with a focus
on an alternative to single-use plastic, has raised pre-Series A
funding of $2.35 million led by Blue Ashva Capital and Supack
AI interfaces steal the show at CES
Industries, the company said. The round also saw participation
from Mumbai Angels and other notable angel investors. The
fresh funds will be used to build the tech-enabled platform for
sourcing green packaging, increase the supply capacity, expand Here’s a look at nifty gadgets launched at CES ’22 that may or may not become mainstream in the years to come
in multiple cities, invest in research and development of new sus-
tainable materials, and strengthen the team, it said.ANUJ SUVARNA
Shouvik Das grate its cars’ firmware with the Goo-
shouvik.das@livemint.com gle Home internet of things (IoT) eco-
Mainstreet raises undisclosed NEW DELHI system. The move will see Google
Home speakers remotely start Volvo’s
amount in early funding round

T
he annual Consumer Elec-
tronics Show (CES) show
floor has always been an
interesting hunting
ground to spot the birth of
emerging technology trends. Even as
consumer-centric gadgets take cen-
tre stage, small startups and major
technology companies alike often
take to the event to showcase what
they are building for tomorrow. CES
2022 hybrid event does not disap-
point. From a colour-shifting car to
mind-reading interfaces that can one
New Delhi: Sneaker resale platform Mainstreet Market- day replace the need for buttons on a
place has secured an undisclosed amount in a seed funding gadget entirely, here are some nifty
round, it said. The round saw participation from Kunal gadgets that may or may not become
Shah, founder of Cred, Raj Shamani, entrepreneur, digital mainstream in the years to come.
content creator, podcaster and investor, Varun Duggirala, Colour-shifting vehicles
founder of Glitch, Rohan Batra, managing director, Crava- German
tex Brands, Prashant Iyer, Rohit Raj, founder, Glitch, Bhavi- automobile
sha Dave, founder, Capsul, and Keshav Hingorani, entre- major BMW
preneur. KAUSHIKI CHATTERJEE came to CES
2022 with the BMW iX Flow concept.
It’s based on its all-electric, five-
SecureNow raises $6 mn in Series B seater M60 variant of the iX SUV and
features an e-ink exterior layer. Flick-
round from Apis Insurtech, others ing a button on the dashboard inside
New Delhi: Corporate insurance broker SecureNow has rein- will see the e-ink exterior shift its col-
forced its focus on commercial insurance by building an end-to- our—currently ranging between
end insurtech platform currently serving 25,000 small busi- black, white and a shade of grey.
nesses across 150 locations. In its last round of funding, Secure- The use case for such a technology
Now raised a total of $6 million from Apis Insurtech Fund I, is to better control the natural tem-
managed by Apis Partners LLP, and Charan Singh, founder of perature of car interiors. For instance,
SelectQuote Inc. STAFF WRITER a white exterior on a hot day could
ease the pressure on your car’s air
conditioner. This, in turn, will con-
Edtech platform Campus 365 nets sume lower amounts of energy from
your EV’s battery pack, which in turn
seed funding from angel investors gives you a longer driving range.
New Delhi: Edtech company Campus 365 Edunet Pvt. Ltd has Mind-reading earbuds
raised ₹2.15 crore in seed funding led by Bengaluru-based angel Little-known French startup Wis-
investors, the company said on Thursday, without giving any fur- ear has showcased a technology
ther financial details. NIKHIL PATWARDHAN where users can think about pausing
cars or control interior temperature.
Volvo’s cars are increasingly adopt-
ing Google’s Android Automotive OS,
which brings Android as the native
computing platform of Volvo’s in-car
screens. The latter is also exploring a
partnership with Qualcomm for its
Snapdragon digital cockpit infotain-
ment system, through which stream-
ing platform YouTube will be availa-
ble as a native feature in cars.
Besides Volvo, tech giant Amazon
and automaker Stellantis NV
announced a partnership to bring
Amazon’s Alexa-led software plat-
form to the automaker’s in-car dis-
plays. Amazon will offer infotainment
services, automobile maintenance
tracking, cloud-based navigation and
in-car payment methods, and more.
German automaker BMW’s iX Flow concept (left) and Shiftall’s Pebble Feel, which can simulate warm and cold climes. Building for metaverses
CES 2022 is not devoid of metav-
the music, and the track is simultane- rendition of humans, which sounds a researchers the ability to closely iden- erse talk but goes beyond showcases
ously paused on the plugged-in ear- bit like a 3D rendition of the old- tify potentially alarming health being made with virtual and aug-
phones. The company is calling its school human X-rays. By using myr- issues, although it is not clear how mented realities. Small ventures are
technology a neural interface, which iad sensors, Dassault seeks to create accurate Dassault’s brain-mapping coming up with devices to contribute
uses tiny electrodes placed inside ear- augmented ‘twins’ of individuals, replication technology would be. to metaverse platforms in the near
buds to record brain activity and which uses volumetric light and a Ambient computing in cars future. A case in point is the Japanese
understand facial reactions. It is host of sensors to recreate the human Ambient computing has been part company Shiftall, which showcased a
AI-trained to understand mil- tiny piece of hardware called
lions of reactions, and based on THE FUTURE IS HERE Pebble Feel, worn with a custom
what it understands, it can vest. The device can simulate
allow users to control the play- WISEAR has THE startup claims DASSAULT Systemes VOLVO has inked a breezes as warm as 42 degrees
back on earphones with mind showcased a tech in
which users can
its brain-computer
interface can be
has taken to CES 2022 deal to integrate its
to showcase an cars’ firmware with
celsius and as cold as 8 degrees.
control. The company claims pause music by using retrofitted in any augmented rendition the Google Home The startup says that this can
its consumer-centric brain- a neural interface consumer earphones of humans IoT ecosystem help developers build metav-
computer interface can be ret- erse projects to create more
rofitted in consumer earphones realistic sensory simulations in
of any make, thereby making it a brain and heart. The project is a part of the natural evolution course of cars the virtual world.
potentially emerging technology of the company’s virtual 3DExperi- for a while, and at CES 2022, compa- Qualcomm and Microsoft also
with plenty of practical use cases. ence platform. The 3D virtual replica- nies are set to take this to the next announced a partnership, where they
Augmented virtual ‘twin’ tion of human hearts and brains will level. Swedish carmaker Volvo has claim to be working on custom proc-
Dassault Systemes has taken to use embedded processing chips and announced a few partnerships, one of essing chips that would power light
CES 2022 to showcase an augmented sensors to give healthcare sector which is a deal with Google to inte- and more natural-feeling AR glasses.

BSC looks to turn profitable by FY23 Central bank’s offline payments move set to
Nikhil Patwardhan &
Debjyoti Roy
consumer brand to an estab-
lished fast-moving consumer
aggressively. For instance, the
Good Glamm Group, which
make digital transactions popular in Bharat
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI goods business, we will make owns MyGlamm, has been on
4-5 senior level recruits. We an acquisition spree to expand Moumita Deb Choudhury India are feature phones. The

S
trong growth in monthly need people in finance, mar- its online presence. It acquired moumita.choudhury@livemint.com bottleneck, however, is sec-
revenue will help Bom- keting, supply-chain and ScoopWhoop, and Miss Malini BENGALURU ond-factor authentication or
bay Shaving Co. (BSC) product development, busi- last year. UPI pin,” he said.

turn profitable by FY23, said
Shantanu Deshpande, founder
and chief executive, BSC.
“We have not turned profit-
able yet, but we are expecting
about ₹300 crore in revenue
next financial year, and if we
clock ₹25 crore a month in rev-
enues, we will turn profitable,”
he added.
“We have
cut losses
as a per-
centage of revenues by about
70% and, as of December, we
are expecting ₹150-160 crore
in revenue for FY22.”
The grooming brand,
owned and operated by Visage
Lines Personal Care Pvt. Ltd,
had recently raised ₹160 crore
through a round led by domes-
tic hedge fund Malabar Invest-
ments. It is planning to raise
another ₹300 crore to acquire
brands in adjacent categories
and content platforms, he said.
Last year, it had shelved
plans to go public and had
decided to raise capital from
the private markets, he added.
T
ness-to-consumer commerce On 5 January, the company he Reserve Bank of India Offline digital payment also
and sales,” he said. said it was picking up 100% (RBI)’s decision to allow includes solutions using NFC,
Deshpande said BSC is stakes in influencer marketing small-value offline digi- which banks and payments
focusing on increasing offline platform Winkl and content tal payments through digital providers are already working
sales, which currently contrib- and creator analytics startup channels such as cards, wallets on. “NFC is the best option for
utes 35% to its topline, to grow Vidooly. It unveiled a separate and mobile devices may offline payments. You will
the business. The ultimate platform, The Good Creator encourage innovative digital need a device to read the card
goal was to take the share of Co., under which it has consol- payments solutions without when tapped and then relay it
Shantanu Deshpande, founder offline sales to about 60% of idated both existing and internet access, experts said. to the system of record or the
and chief executive, BSC. total revenue, he said. acquired businesses. On 4 January, the central issuer to receive a debit confir-
“There are some categories Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd, bank said offline digital pay- The move may encourage new digital payment solutions. ISTOCK mation. It is something like
However, it will opt for an that are very good for online, the parent of Mamaearth and ments how a metro rail card works,
initial public offering (IPO) and some categories that are The Derma Co., too, bought of up to different companies,” he said. USSD-based UPI transactions for instance,” said Anand
once it reaches the ₹700 crore not. Products that people can content platform Momspresso ₹200 “One, SIM overlay, with which were done in December and Kumar Bajaj, founder, manag-
revenue mark, Deshpande buy whenever they want, but to back its consumer engage- will be SIM cards will get payment November, respectively. ing director and chief execu-
said. are not urgently required, and ment strategies. allowed without active inter- options. USSD, which will In November, a hackathon tive officer of PayNearby.
BSC will utilize which don’t have “Content platforms have not net connections. have UPI as the was organized by “Adoption by the merchant
the capital to add Deshpande said high engage- found ways to make money. With his move, RBI is allow- backbone.” RBI has been RBI and the Pay- ecosystem will have its own
new products to BSC is focusing on ment, don’t grow So, monetization in that sense ing payments solution provid- The technol- looking at ments Council of trajectory. While the payment
its personal care increasing offline much online. BSC is very difficult in India. What ers to ignore the second-factor ogy behind SIM enabling offline India (PCI), which of ₹200 in urban areas seems
and hair removal sales, which products are not MyGlamm is doing is, it is bet- of authentication, like the Uni- overlay expands digital payments selected seven like a small amount, in lower-
portfolio, expand high engagement ting on content to commerce fied Payments Interface (UPI) the functionali- companies to tier towns and villages even a
currently platform. Our approach is dif-
as 57% phones
offline distribu- products, so our key, said an official, seeking ties of a phone’s work out solu- payment of ₹20 is a high com-
tion channels, contribute 35% target is to reach ferent. We want to be there on anonymity. This could help SIM card, allow- in India are tions for enabling mercial value for kiranas.”
build on its inter- to its topline more shelves off- shelves of as many as 40 mil- more merchants adopt pay- ing payments and feature phones offline digital “The biggest problem is
national pres- line rather than lion shops because our focus ments solutions like Unstruc- other services payments. last-mile digital solutions,
ence, invest in online,” he said. remains offline, we are not tured Supplementary Service even without “RBI has been especially for those who buy
brand building and hire top- While BSC looks to expand focusing on building a D2C Data (USSD), SIM overlay and data plans. looking at enabling offline dig- from the public distribution
level executives, he added. its offline presence, other per- (direct-to-consumer) online near-field communication According to data from the ital payments or payments system, where wheat is ₹3 per
“We are leadership light. As sonal care brands have been brand,” said Deshpande. (NFC). “There are a few solu- National Payments Corp. of through feature phones for a kg and rice ₹2 per kg,” said the
we transform from a young looking to expand online sales nikhil.patwardhan@livemint.com tions being worked upon by India, 110,000 and 100,000 long time, as 57% of phones in official quoted above.

Startups, SMEs buying refurbished devices to sidestep chip shortage

Abhijit Ahaskar “In the past, all these compa- segment. For HyperXchange, distribution networks for B2B due to the global chip shortage, certified erasure tools before
abhijit.ahaskar@livemint.com nies used to buy new smart- though, primary customers are deals, compared with a newer refurbished suppliers were able they are sold.
NEW DELHI phones or use device farms of still individual buyers. How- company. We are seeing more to procure and supply devices Buying preferences for
Amazon Web Services (AWS) ever, the company has seen commercial buyers looking for to both individuals and busi- smaller businesses has also

S
tartups and small- and
medium-sized businesses
(SMBs) in India are turn-
ing to suppliers of refurbished
devices for laptops and smart-
phones required for their busi-
ness operations.
Delhi-based Cashify has seen
demand for laptops grow five-
fold in 2021, while demand for
smartphones has more than
doubled in the last 12 months,
especially from smaller compa-
nies with 30-40 employees. “In
laptops, 65-70% of the demand
came from the business side,”
said Mandeep Manocha,
co-founder and chief executive
officer of Cashify.
or other such services. Now
they get a refurbished device at
30-40% discount; a very signif-
icant portion of our SMB
demand is actually
coming for smart-
phones, especially
on the testing side,”
added Manocha.
According to Kolkata-based
HyperXchange, the overall
refurbished electronics market
in India is growing at a com-
pounded annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 80%. The growing
interest in refurbished laptops
and smartphones from small
businesses and startups will
further drive growth in this
demand from both corporate
and consumer segments grow
“at an unprecedented pace”.
An increasing number of
SMEs and startups
have started using
refurbished prod-
ucts, especially
under leasing and rental pro-
grammes, according to Dipan-
jan Purkayastha, co-founder
and chief executive officer of
HyperXchange. He added that
about 31% of SMEs and startups
among its customers are
focused on buying or renting
refurbished laptops, while 68%
want desktop computers. On
the other hand, 88% of the con-
Cashify has seen demand for laptops grow five-fold in 2021, while
demand for smartphones doubled in the last 12 months.
sumer segment was focused on
buying mobile phones.
Purkayastha, though, admit-
ted his company is primarily a
consumer-focused brand and
corporate business accounts
for less than 5% of its revenue.
According to Glen Cardoza,
REUTERS
senior research analyst at
Counterpoint Research,
demand can vary from com-
pany to company.
“Older companies in the
refurbished space are more
likely to have tie-ups with big-
ger companies and have the
refurbished devi- nesses. worked in favour of refur-
ces. The refur- GOOD AS Experts also bished suppliers. Unlike large
bished market has NEW pointed out that the companies that are also fussy
good supply as demand for refur- about brands, smaller busi-
many more people THE overall bished devices is no nesses typically buy products
trade in old devices refurbished
electronics market in
longer coming only with certain specifications
now,” he said. India is growing at a from metro cities, regardless of the brand.
Cardoza has a CAGR of 80% which shows a To meet the growing
point. Structured change in percep- demand for PCs in India, refur-
refurbishing busi- STRUCTURED tion towards the bished suppliers like Cashify
refurbishing with
nesses with an online presence, and use of refurbished are planning to step up their
online presence, doorstep pick-up devices for work. procurement efforts for lap-
and doorstep have helped trade Manocha has seen a tops.
pick-up options lot of demand come “We are now putting resour-
have led more peo- from cities such as ces behind increasing our lap-
ple to trade in their devices Bhopal, Mangaluru and Indore. top refurb capability, and mov-
now. Unlike the new devices His company also ensures that ing to a larger refurb centre in
market, where the supply of data stored on all the devices the next four to five months,”
several devices was disrupted are completely wiped using said Manocha.
LIVEMINT.COM CORPORATE FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI 09

Lodha nets
Markets log first decline of ’22 Jet posts P.P. Singh
pre-sales of as accountable mgr
₹4,500 cr in
Dec quarter
as Fed adopts hawkish stance to take Gaur’s place
Madhurima Nandy Rhik Kundu
madhurima.n@livemint.com rhik.k@livemint.com
BENGALURU BSE Sensex fell 621.31 points, ending at 59,601.84, and Nifty slipped 179.35 points to 17,745.90 NEW DELHI

R J
eal estate firm Lodha et Airways (India) Ltd has
Group on Thursday said Nasrin Sultana appointed P.P. Singh,
it has clocked pre-sales nasrin.s@livemint.com former Indian Air Force
of ₹4,500 crore in the Decem- MUMBAI squadron leader and Nepal
ber quarter, which includes Airlines Corporation executive,

₹2,608 crore from projects in
India and £191 million or
₹1,900 crore in the UK.
The Mumbai-based firm
said it has added six new pro-
jects with gross development
value (GDV) potential of
₹10,000 crore, and reduced its
debt to below ₹10,000 crore.
Its current net debt stands at
₹9,925 crore.
Lodha said this was the best
quarterly sales performance in
the past 12 quarters in India,
with 40% year-on-year growth
in pre-sales and 44% year-on-
year growth in collections.
“Our business performance
is a testimony to demand for
high-quality homes and the
trust reposed by consumers in
our brand. The fact that this
strong performance comes on
the back of an equally strong
Q2FY22 showcases that the
recovery in housing market
has taken root and the multi-
year upcycle in housing mar-
ket is well underway,” said
Abhishek Lodha, MD and
CEO, Lodha Group.
“On the back of the underly-
ing strength seen in demand as
well as the accelerated consoli-
dation on supply side, we
remain confident of achieving
our pre-sales guidance of
₹9,000 crore for the financial
year assuming no major
impact on account of covid,”
Lodha added.
During the quarter, the
company signed on six more
joint development agreements
for 4.8 million square feet.
I
ndian shares snapped a four-day as its “accountable manager”,
rally on Thursday, joining other replacing Sudhir Gaur, it said
equity markets in the Asia-Pacific on Thursday.
in a sell-off, after the minutes of a Singh has held several top
meeting of the US Federal Reserve positions at Jet Airways P.P. Singh has held top posts in
hinted at a faster-than-expected rise in between 1999 and 2019, Jet Airways during 1999-2019.
interest rates owing to concerns about including operations manager,
persistent inflation. It marked the first chief pilot, and vice president, when it ran out of cash.
decline of Indian equities in 2022. regulatory affairs. Last June, the National Com-
Growing concerns over rising covid The company’s monitoring pany Law Tribunal (NCLT)
cases in India, leading to partial restric- committee, which oversees the approved the insolvency reso-
tions on mobility, has also weighed on airline’s day-to-day operations lution plan submitted by a con-
investor sentiment. and management, has given an sortium comprising of UAE-
The BSE Sensex fell 621.31 points, or “in-principle” approval to the based entrepreneur Murari Lal
1.03%, ending at 59,601.84. The Nifty appointment, it said in a stock Jalan and British investor Kal-
slipped 179.35 points, or 1%, to exchange notification. rock Capital Management, pav-
17,745.90. Mint had earlier reported ing the way for the airline’s
Both Asian and European markets that Gaur, who was leading revival. However, the resump-
fell after Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nas- efforts for the airline’s revival, tion of Jet Airways’ operations
daq plunged more than 3% on Wednes- has resigned from the airline has been delayed several times
day and 2- and 5-year treasury yields, The fast spread of covid and likely restrictions to control it could keep markets volatile in the coming days. even before it despite periodic
key drivers of the global borrowing could take to the The company’s announcements
costs, surged to post-pandemic highs. would keep the market highly volatile commentary in December pointed to Analysts at Reliance Securities are skies under its monitoring by the new pro-
Japan’s Nikkei declined 2.88%, while in the coming days,” said Vishal Wagh, the preference for a gradual road optimistic that an all-round calibrated new promoters. committee has moters.
South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.13%. research head, Bonanza Portfolio Ltd. towards policy normalization. Gui- economic recovery is on the cards, On Thursday, given in-principle The consor-
Minutes from the Fed’s December As India braces for a third wave of dance reinforced that the Monetary though the timing remains highly Jet Airways said tium is yet to
meeting showed that a tight jobs mar- covid-19 infections, Radhika Rao, sen- Policy Committee’s (MPC’s) priority is uncertain. “Our year-end 2022 target
approval to the
the company has make the pay-
ket and unrelenting high inflation may ior economist, DBS Group, said an to secure growth impulses and pre- for Nifty is 20,000 at 22 times FY24 not yet appointed appointment, ments according
prompt the US central bank to raise unfavourable global environment, cou- serve policy room to meet this objec- earnings. We expect Nifty to enjoy pre- its chief executive it said in a filing to the approved
rates sooner and start reducing its mium valuation for the next one- officer (CEO) and resolution plan. It
overall asset holding, a process SPOOKED BY INFLATION two years on the back of higher that Gaur did not had said last
known as quantitative tightening earnings CAGR (before reaching hold the position of “Interim month, though, that it wants to
(QT). BOTH Asian and GROWING worry MINUTES of Fed’s ANALYSTS at stable earnings pace of growth), as CEO” of the company contrary commence payments to all
The minutes of the meeting European markets
fell after Nasdaq
over rising covid
cases in India
December meeting Reliance Securities
showed high inflation said they foresee an
India becomes a preferred destina- to a 13 September media state- stakeholders, including ex-em-
showed that Fed officials were con- plunged more than weighed on investor may prompt increase all-round calibrated tion for global manufacturing, ment that said Gaur is the air- ployees, ticket claimants, and
cerned about the persisting pace of 3% on Wednesday sentiment in rates sooner economic recovery going ahead. This trend would con- line’s “new Accountable Man- lenders of Jet Airways, as per
inflation, alongside global supply tinue over the next four-five years, ager and acting CEO”. the plan approved by NCLT.
bottlenecks “well into” 2022. supported by the China+1 policy Copies of both the stock The Jalan-Kalrock consor-
“Global markets were wounded by pled with caution over a heavy fiscal tive, diverging from the global policy and the government’s support for vari- exchange notification and the tium has proposed to pay ₹1,183
heavy selling as Fed meeting minutes borrowing pipeline, liquidity with- shifts, particularly of the US Fed. Even ous industries. Our 2022 year-end tar- 13 September media statement crore to creditors over five
pointed to faster-than-expected policy drawal, rise in oil prices and lack of as inflation risks were highlighted on get of 20,000 for Nifty implies a 13% have been reviewed by Mint. years from the proceeds of the
rate hike considering elevated US infla- direct support from the central bank, imported pressures and volatility in return from the current levels,” the Jet Airways, which was led sale of assets and cash flow. It
tion levels. Investors are also watching has driven 10-year rupee yield to a near food, ‘flexibility’ in the price stability brokerage firm said. CAGR is com- by founder Naresh Goyal for has also outlined a plan to
the fast spread of covid cases and 20-month high, past 6.5%. mandate will see the recovery path dic- pound annual growth rate. more than 25 years, was invest ₹600 crore for the first
stricter restrictions being imposed as it “The Reserve Bank of India policy tate policy direction,” Rao said. (With inputs from Reuters) grounded on 17 April 2019 two years to repay creditors.

France fines Google, Facebook millions The emergence of Omicron will impact
AP
feedback@livemint.com
hotel operations in March quarter: ICRA and we continue to develop
and improve these controls,”
LONDON the company said.
Google said: “People trust Varuni Khosla ratings for the sector are on the

F
rench regulators on us to respect their right to pri- varuni.k@livemint.com negative outlook currently. It
Thursday fined Google vacy and keep them safe. We NEW DELHI has witnessed about 27 down-
LLC and Meta Platforms understand our responsibility grades in the sector since the

Inc. (Facebook) a total of more
than €200 million ($226 mil-
lion) for not making it as easy
for people to opt out of online
tracking as it is for them to
accept it.
The CNIL data privacy
watchdog said its investiga-
tions found that while the US
online giants gave French
users a single button to imme-
diately accept cookies, there
wasn’t an equally simple way
for them to decline because
“several clicks are required to
refuse all cookies”.
Cookies are snippets of
code used to target internet
users for digital ads and other
purposes. European govern-
ments have stricter regula-
tions than the US that require
websites to ask for permission
before tracking a user’s activ-
ity. That means people face
pop-up menus when they visit
new websites, but there’s
been growing concern that
many are configured to make
it confusing or tedious if they
don’t want to give consent.
T
to protect that trust and are he unfolding third wave start of the pandemic.
committing to further of covid and accompa- This despite the fact that
changes and active work with nying restrictions have there was steady demand
the CNIL in light of this deci- prompted many Indians to around Christmas and the
sion.” cancel hotel bookings for Jan- New Year’s Eve weekend in
Cookies have been a long- uary and make fewer bookings 2021. Besides, the hotel indus-
standing source of privacy and enquiries for the weeks try had been recovering post
concerns because they can be ahead, a new report by credit the second wave of covid in
The French watchdog slapped Google with a €150 mn ($170 mn) employed to track users ratings agency ICRA Ltd said. India in April last year, aided
penalty and Facebook with a €60 mn ($68 mn) fine. AFP across the internet. They can While the situation is still by easing restrictions, high
be used to help remember evolving, there was strong The hotel industry saw strong demand till December 2021. HT pace of vaccination and
Visitors to Facebook, Goo- it simpler for users in France someone’s website log-in demand till December 2021, pent-up demand.
gle’s French homepage and to refuse cookies within three details or more controver- and there was only some pan-India occupancy by four prolonged lockdowns—will Demand for hotel stays in
YouTube were being nudged months. sially, to record someone’s reduction in discretionary percentage points,” said Vinu- balance out. the last few months has come
to say yes, which meant they Facebook, which has been web-browsing history to tar- business travel, ICRA said in a taa S., assistant vice-president For the third quarter, oper- primarily from staycations,
weren’t freely giving their renamed Meta, said it’s get personalized ads. report. Leisure travel largely and sector head at the agency. ating margins of hotel compa- weddings, travel to driveable
consent, a viola- reviewing the The French penalty under- remained unaffected until As infections nies are expected leisure destinations and spe-
tion of French Cookies have decision and is scores a broader shift in the December. The third quarter and restrictions Demand for hotel t o witness cial purpose groups. Bisca-
data protection been a source of committed to digital ad industry as Google of FY22 was significantly bet- limit travel, the stays in the past sequential tions (working from a resort)
rules, the CNIL privacy concerns working with and Facebook, which domi- ter than the agency’s previous March quarter is few months has improvement, too, saw traction in the second
said. because they can authorities. nate the market, and regula- projections. expected to see come primarily with better oper- quarter and early part of Q3.
The French “Our cookie tors in Europe and the US “With the emergence of the fewer bookings
from staycations, ating leverage
Leisure destinations like
be employed to
w a t c h d o g consent controls work on phasing out more Omicron variant and sharp than expected due to the spurt in Goa and Jaipur witnessed
slapped Google track users across provide people egregious data collection rise in infections, several states earlier. However, weddings, special travel. It said that healthy occupancy, with Goa’s
with a €150 mil- the internet with greater con- practices. Google has have imposed partial lock- ICRA clarified purpose groups the return to pre- occupancy being higher than
lion ($170 mil- trol over their announced plans to phase out downs. This will curtail travel that there is no covid levels for pre-covid levels in the last few
lion) penalty and data, including a so-called third party cookies over the next few weeks. We revision in its ear- the sector is still a months. Mumbai and Delhi
Facebook with a €60 million new settings menu on Face- used by advertisers from its are witnessing cancellations lier expectations for FY22 few quarters away. also witnessed over 60% occu-
($68 million) fine. It also book and Instagram where Chrome browsers, though it and hotel enquiries have since the strong third quarter ICRA said it continues to pancy since August 2021,
threatened daily fines of people can revisit and manage will still be able to track users dropped. A month of complete demand and the downward maintain a negative outlook on while Pune and Bangalore
€100,000 if they don’t make their decisions at any time, of its own services. lockdown will impact FY22 bias for Q4—if there will be the industry. About 52% of its remained laggards.

Indian cinema sees spike in crossovers as actors breach language barriers

Lata Jha their forays have been spo- ing crossover titles. spite of the fact that this was Film critic Manoj Kumar R. owners said, because the
lata.j@livemint.com radic and the films barely pro- “Audiences in the north his first movie in the Hindi said there is no real distinction actors enjoy some kind of
NEW DELHI moted in the north. have seen these southern market and the film was rele- between north and south brand equity and fanbase in
The trend is much stronger actors on streaming platforms ased without any marketing. Indian films any longer—it’s the north even though they

A
ctors are set to breach
linguistic and geo-
graphical barriers to
debut in films not made in their
native tongue in what could
become a major cross-cultural
trend in cinema this year.
South Indian actors Vijay
Deverakonda, Vijay Sethupa-
thi and Rashmika Mandanna
will be seen acting in Hindi
films; and Bollywood stars Alia
Bhatt, Kriti Sanon and Deepika
Padukone are working in Tel-
ugu films.
To be sure, actors like Rajin-
ikanth and Kamal Haasan have
long acted in Hindi films, but
now—the transition is part of a
move to create films for pan-
India audiences made either
by Bollywood or southern film
studios but to be released in
multiple dubbed languages for
all markets.
While Hindi film actors
have realized the appeal of
large-scale southern films,
south Indian actors are also
keen to look beyond their core
base. Prabhas’ Radhe Shyam,
Adipurush and the untitled
Padukone-starrer, Devera-
konda’s Liger produced by
Karan Johar and S.S. Raja-
mouli’s RRR are a few upcom-
and know what they bring to
the table. The actors, on the
other hand, have saturated
their home markets and want
to increase recoveries for their
films,” said independent
exhibitor Vishek Chauhan.
South Indian stars feel their
films will do well in the north,
he said. Deverakonda is a
major star in the making and
Ram Charan and Jr NTR, both
of whom feature in RRR, are
definite crossovers, he added.
Rajamouli’s Baahubali fran-
chise paved the way for Telugu
and Tamil films to penetrate
the Hindi heartland, including
Released in late December, the dubbed Hindi version of Allu
Arjun’s Pushpa had made more than ₹70 crore at last count.
small towns in Bihar and Uttar
Pradesh, Chauhan said, and
more recent films have built
on the trend. Released late
December, the dubbed Hindi
version of Allu Arjun’s Pushpa:
The Rise - Part One had made
over ₹70 crore at last count,
with Maharashtra and Gujarat
driving the business. This, in
Film producer, easy for any film to aren’t as popular as Bollywood
distributor and NEW reach every part of stars. Kannada period drama
exhibitor Sunny FRONTIERS the country. KGF, whose second instal-
Khanna said the “South Indian ment is due for release in April,
earnings of Pushpa S. Indian actors Vijay actors enjoy great was the first film in the lan-
have demon- Deverakonda,
Sethupathi and
Vijay appeal among the guage to clock impressive
strated to audien- Rashmika Mandanna masses and have an numbers in the Hindi market
ces in the north the will act in Hindi films emotional connect with a dubbed version. Lead
kind of scale that with audiences, star Yash gained instant fol-
southern films and BOLLYWOOD stars which they can tap lowing.
Alia Bhatt, Kriti
actors can bring. Sanon and Deepika into. Every indus- “It’s a good sign for exhibit-
“We will see more Padukone will be try, including Kan- ors too because we would have
debuts (of actors in seen in Telugu films nada that would more content to play,” said
new languages). never dub films Rajendar Singh Jyala, chief
It’s how Holly- earlier, is looking at programming officer at INOX
wood decided to take over multilinguals now,” he said. Leisure Ltd, referring to the
more of the world through Most of these perform like numbers that dubbed south-
dubs and subtitles,” he added. regular Hindi films, cinema ern films are bringing in.
10 FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI GLOBAL LIVEMINT.COM

Société Générale
Fed minutes point to possible bets $5.5 billion on
interest rate increase in March car-leasing business
Julie Steinberg
feedback@livemint.com

S
ociété Générale SA’s
Federal Reserve officials also are considering an earlier timetable for shrinking their $8.76 trillion bond portfolio vehicle-leasing business,
ALD SA, agreed to
acquire rival LeasePlan Corpo-
Nick Timiraos criteria the central bank has laid out The minutes also provided more ration NV in a cash-and-share
feedback@livemint.com to justify raising rates. detail around preliminary discus- deal worth €4.9 billion, equiva-
The minutes showed that most sions officials had last month over lent to $5.54 billion, the French

F
ederal Reserve officials at
their meeting last month
eyed a faster timetable for
raising interest rates this
year, potentially as soon as in
March, amid greater discomfort with
high inflation.
Minutes of their 14-15 December
meeting, released Wednesday,
showed officials believed that rising
inflation and a very tight labour mar-
ket could call for lifting short-term
rates “sooner or at a faster pace than
participants had earlier anticipated.”
Some officials also thought the Fed
should start shrinking its $8.76 tril-
lion portfolio of bonds and other
assets relatively soon after beginning
to raise rates, the minutes said. Inves-
tors would see the move as another
way for the Fed to tighten financial
conditions to cool the economy.
Stocks turned sharply lower after
the minutes were released Wednes-
day afternoon. The blue-chip Dow
Jones Industrial Average fell 1.1%,
while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Com-
posite Index lost 3.3%.
Meanwhile, government bond
yields rose Wednesday. After the
minutes were released, trading in
interest-rate futures markets implied
a roughly two-thirds probability that
the Fed would raise rates in March,
according to CME Group.
Julia Coronado, founder of eco-
nomic-advisory firm MacroPolicy
Perspectives, said the minutes
prompted her to move up her forecast
for rate increases to begin in March,
instead of June.
“The Fed is on a glide path to hik-
ing in March,” said Neil Dutta, an
economist at research firm Renais-
sance Macro. “It is hard to see what is
going to hold them back.”
Stocks turned sharply lower after the minutes were released Wednesday
afternoon.
Most central bank officials, in pro-
jections released after last month’s
meeting, penciled in at least three
quarter-percentage-point rate
increases this year. In September,
around half of the group thought rate
increases could wait until 2023.
For months, Fed leaders stuck to a
view that higher price pressures in
2021 were caused primarily by sup-
ply-chain bottlenecks and would ease
on their own. But Fed Chairman Jer-
ome Powell had
before the meet-
ing signalled
much less convic-
tion about that forecast, and other
officials last month broadly shared his
views. “While participants generally
continued to anticipate that inflation
would decline significantly over the
course of 2022 as supply constraints
eased, almost all stated that they had
revised up their forecasts of inflation
AP
for 2022 notably, and many did so for
2023 as well,” the minutes said.
One immediate sign of their con-
cerns could be seen from plans they
approved at that meeting to more
quickly scale back, or taper, their
asset purchases. The program is now
on track to end in March instead of
June. The Fed wants to end the bond-
buying program, a form of economic
stimulus, before it lifts short-term
rates to curb inflation. “The whole
point of accelerat-
ing the tapering
was…so the March
meeting could be a
live meeting” to raise rates, said Fed
governor Christopher Waller in
remarks on 17 December. “That was
the intent.”
Officials in their post-meeting
statement described their goal of
inflation moderately exceeding their
2% target as being met, one of two key
officials believe they could “fast
approach” their second goal of
achieving labour market conditions
consistent with maximum employ-
ment if recent hiring progress contin-
ues. Several officials said last month
that higher inflation pressures could
force the Fed to raise rates before the
employment goal had been met, and
some officials thought it had already
been met, according to the minutes.
The shift is the latest sign of how an
acceleration and broadening of infla-
tionary pressures, amid a tight labour
market, have reshaped officials’ eco-
nomic outlook and policy planning.
Fed officials’ decision to take their
foot off the gas more quickly reflects
a shifting calculus about the potential
for stronger demand to push up pri-
ces—such as wages and rents—even
after supply-chain bottlenecks and
shortages of items such as cars abate.
Brisk demand for goods, disrupted
supply chains and various shortages
have pushed 12-month inflation to its
highest readings in decades. Core
consumer prices, which exclude vola-
tile food and energy categories, were
up 4.7% in November from a year ear-
lier, according to the Fed’s preferred
gauge. That is well above both the
Fed’s 2% target and officials’ stated
desire to have inflation run slightly
above that target.
“There’s a real risk now, I believe,
that inflation may be more persistent
and…the risk of higher inflation
becoming entrenched has
increased,” said Mr. Powell at a news
conference on 15 December.
While officials last month cited the
Omicron variant of the coronavirus as
a risk, the minutes suggest officials
didn’t see it as a serious headwind for
the economy.
how and when to shrink their $8.76
trillion portfolio of Treasury and
mortgage securities, which doubled
in size amid efforts to stabilize the
economy over the past two years.
The bond-buying programs stimu-
late the economy by holding down
long-term interest rates, encouraging
consumers and businesses to borrow
and spend. In theory, doing so should
also spur financial markets by driving
investors into stocks, corporate
bonds and other assets.
Once the Fed stops buying assets, it
could keep the holdings steady by
reinvesting the proceeds of maturing
securities into new ones, which
should have an economically neutral
effect.
Alternatively, the Fed could allow
its holdings to shrink by allowing
bonds to mature, or run off, which
would be a form of policy tightening.
Last decade, the Fed kept its hold-
ings steady for around two years after
it first raised interest rates before
gradually shrinking its holdings in
2017. Most officials last month
thought they should start shrinking
their holdings sooner this time
because the economy is stronger,
inflation is high and the asset portfo-
lio is much larger, the minutes said.
Officials also thought it would be
appropriate to shrink the asset port-
folio faster than they did at the end of
the last decade.
The minutes suggest shrinking the
Fed’s asset portfolio “will be a more
prominent feature of tightening than
last time,” said Ms. Coronado.
Fed officials could resume deliber-
ations over their portfolio run-off tac-
tics at their next meeting, 25-26 Janu-
ary.
©2022 DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC
bank said Thursday.
The deal shows how Euro-
pean banks are plumbing fur-
ther-afield businesses to gener-
ate revenue in an era of peren-
nially low interest rates. Chief
executive Frédéric Oudéa said
the new unit would eventually
become a third pillar alongside
the bank’s retail-banking and
insurance business lines, as
well as its corporate and invest-
ment banking units.
Société Générale said the new
combined entity, which will
have a fleet of 3.5 million vehi-
cles, would be well positioned to
take advantage of trends includ-
ing the rise of car sharing and
more widespread use of electric
vehicles. ALD manages and
leases out vehicles to compa-
nies. Pri-
vately held
LeasePlan
competes in
similar areas but also caters to
individual consumers.
Société Générale over the
past few years has been focused
on shoring up profitability,
especially in the wake of the
pandemic, when it notched
losses related to its specialty of
creating and selling complex
structured products. The bank,
one of France’s largest, said in
2020 that it would take less risk
in its investment bank.
It also recently sold its asset-
management arm, Lyxor Asset
Management, to French asset
manager Amundi SA for €825
million. The efforts have been
paying off: The bank nearly
doubled its profit in the third
Frédéric Oudéa, CEO, Société
Générale.
quarter from a year earlier and
its share price rose more than
77% last year. The bank’s stock
was up nearly 2% in midmorn-
ing trading after the LeasePlan
deal was announced. It is
expected to close by the end of
the year. Société Générale listed
ALD in 2017, hoping to give
investors a better view into the
growing business. ALD’s share
price rose 8% on news of the
deal Thursday, but traded at
roughly the same level as it did
after its IPO nearly five years
ago.
Société
Générale
will retain a
53% stake in the combined
group. The tie-up is expected to
add 5% to Société Générale’s
earnings and around 80 basis
points to its return on equity, a
measure of profitability, start-
ing in 2024, the bank said. It
will also reduce its group capi-
tal by around 40 basis points.
ALD will pay €2 billion in
cash to acquire LeasePlan from
a consortium led by private-eq-
uity firm TDR Capital. Lease-
Plan shareholders will also take
a nearly 31% stake in ALD. TDR
and its partners bought
Amsterdam-based LeasePlan
€3.7 billion in 2015, later aban-
doning plans to list it.
©2022 DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC

Tech selloff sparks bets against North Korea claims it tested hypersonic missile
US stock market supremacy Dasl Yoon
feedback@livemint.com
flew about 310 miles and
landed outside Japan’s exclu-
Ministry urged North Korea to
respond to its efforts to resume
sive economic zone. dialogue and reach peace.
Joe Wallace

N
the rest of the world for four orth Korea said it hit a North Korean leader Kim Washington and Seoul have
feedback@livemint.com consecutive years and some target with a hyper- Jong Un didn’t attend the called on North Korea to sur-
investors say it will extend that sonic missile, as the launch, according to state render its nuclear weapons and

U
S stocks beat shares
elsewhere in the world
by the widest margin in
almost a quarter-century last
year, powered by big technol-
ogy companies. Some investors
are betting that rising interest
rates and a tech swoon could
bring America’s winning streak
to an end in 2022.
A glimpse of how that might
pan out emerged Wednesday
when Federal Reserve meeting
minutes pointed to a possible
rate increase in March. Inves-
tors dumped tech stocks, push-
ing the Nasdaq Composite
Index to its worst loss since
February. Futures on Thursday
pointed to further losses in tech
shares. The selloff came after a
gangbuster year for the US
market. The victory for US
stocks was, by one gauge, the
biggest since 1997. Including
dividends, the MSCI USA index
posted a return of 27%. That is
19 percentage points more than
the total return on an MSCI
index that tracks stocks in 49
developed and emerging mar-
kets, excluding the US, when
measured in dollar terms.
Hammered by a regulatory
clampdown on tech companies
and worries about the property
sector, Chinese stocks trailed
the pack. As measured by
MSCI, the market returned
minus 22% in dollars.
Europe fared better but, for
US-based investors, was held
back by a weakening euro. The
total return on European stocks
was almost on level pegging
with that on US stocks in local-
Investors dumped tech stocks,
pushing the Nasdaq
Composite Index to its worst
loss since February. BLOOMBERG
der tech,” said Daniel Morris,
the firm’s chief market strate-
gist. The direction of govern-
ment-bond yields will help
determine whether the US
market streaks ahead again this
year, investors and analysts say.
US stocks pulled away from
European stocks at the start of
last summer after the Delta
wave of coronavirus, among
other factors, dragged down
Treasury yields.
Rising interest rates ding the
share prices of companies with
profits far in the future, by mak-
ing bonds relatively more
attractive to own than more
speculative investments. The
Fed has positioned itself to raise
rates faster than most other
rich-world central banks,
which some investors and ana-
lysts say could boost yields in
the US and puncture tech valu-
ations. Andrew Sheets, chief
cross-asset strategist at Morgan
Stanley, sees Europe and Japan
outperforming this year.
streak to a fifth despite the
obstacles. The main reason:
The tech companies such as
Apple Inc. and momentum
stocks like Tesla Inc. that prolif-
erate in the US are lesser-spot-
ted species overseas.
When Apple crossed $3 tril-
lion in market value this week it
had roughly the same valuation
as all the companies on Lon-
don’s FTSE 100 combined.
“I think they can continue to
outper-
form,” said
Shep Per-
kins, chief
investment officer for equities
at Putnam Investments, of US
stocks. “The earnings under-
pinning the fundamentals have
been very good. If the earnings
were to slow materially it would
be a different story.”
Although energy stocks
were the best performers on
the S&P 500 in 2021, the sector
has shrunk to a sliver of the
broad market and large tech
companies led the year’s gains.
“Huge mega caps outper-
formed the S&P 500, and that
helped drive the S&P 500’s
performance,” Perkins said.
US investors who stuck with
domestic stocks were
rewarded. Vanguard Group’s
FTSE Europe ETF, which
trades in New York and counts
Nestlé SA and ASML Holding
NV among its biggest holdings,
rose 13% in 2021, according to
FactSet. The SPDR S&P 500
ETF rose 27%.
Ronald Temple, co-head of
multiasset at Lazard Asset Man-
country seeks to put itself in the
small club of countries devel-
oping the technology.
Pyongyang made that claim
in state media on Thursday a
day after the launch, which was
its first weapons test since
October.
Hypersonic weapons are
some of the latest technology
being developed by the U.S.,
China and Russia. Hypersonic
missiles fly at least five times
the speed of
sound and
closer to the
Earth than
ballistic missiles, making them
difficult to detect on radar.
Japanese and South Korean
officials had described the mis-
sile on Wednesday as a sus-
pected ballistic missile.
However, photos released by
North Korean state media on
Thursday matched a model the
country put on display at an
event in October, which weap-
ons experts have identified as a
liquid-fueled maneuvering
re-entry vehicle, one of North
Korea’s hypersonic models.
The launch of the missile on
Wednesday would be the sec-
ond test by North Korea of
hypersonic technology, after
Foldable smartphones look poised to go mainstream in ’22
Jacky Wong
feedback@livemint.com
The launch of the missile would be the second test by North
Korea of hypersonic technology, after one in September. REUTERS
one in September.
Last year, China carried out a
hypersonic missile test, raising
alarms in Washington over
rapid advances in Chinese
weapons technology that could
be used to target American
ports or installations in the
Indo-Pacific region.
China’s technology enables a
rocket carrying a hypersonic
glide vehicle to orbit space
before cruising down toward
its target, making it harder to
intercept.
North Korea’s hypersonic
technology appears to be in the
early stages of development,
weapons experts said, and
would need some time before
any practical deployment.
To deploy a credible hyper-
sonic glide vehicle, such as the
one deployed by China, longer-
range tests would be required
number of foldable devices it
sold in all of 2020. In 2021 as a
whole it shipped four times as
many foldables as in the previ-
over at least a few years, the
experts said.
“North Korea’s message is
that their goal is to use weapons
like hypersonic missiles to
incapacitate missile defenses in
the U.S. and South Korea,” said
Park Won-gon, a professor of
North Korean studies at Ewha
Womans University in Seoul.
North Korean state media
said Thursday that the missile
was a “hypersonic gliding war-
head,” an apparent reference to
the use of high-speed gliders to
carry warheads past missile
defenses.
The weapon’s warhead
detached from its rocket
booster and maneuvered about
75 miles before it hit a target
around 430 miles away,
according to state media.
Japanese officials had said
Wednesday that the missile
than its predecessors. The
original Galaxy Fold sold for
around $2,000 in 2019. Sam-
sung has also ironed out some
media.
During a year-end speech,
Mr. Kim vowed to pursue high-
tech weapons to counter what
he called military instability on
the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea hasn’t tested
nuclear bombs or long-range
intercontinental ballistic mis-
siles since 2017, but in recent
years the country has devel-
oped a range of more maneu-
verable weapons.
These weapons are aimed at
overcoming missile defenses
wielded by South Korea and
the U.S., North Korea analysts
say.
U.S. Secretary of State
Antony Blinken, in a call on
Wednesday with Japanese For-
eign Minister Yoshimasa Haya-
shi, condemned North Korea’s
missile launch and discussed
cooperation to achieve com-
plete denuclearization and last-
ing peace on the Korean Penin-
sula, the State Department said.
Shortly after the launch on
Wednesday, South Korea’s
National Security Council
expressed concerns over the
missile test and called for
resuming dialogue, according
to the presidential office.
South Korea’s Unification
ments were nearly three times
those of the year before, and
Counterpoint expects them to
triple again to 25.7 million in
return to talks, which have
stalled since a series of summits
between Mr. Kim and then-U.S.
President Donald Trump.
Talks collapsed in 2019, and
North Korea has brushed off
calls to revive dialogue.
President Biden’s adminis-
tration has continued to say it is
open to talking with North
Korea “any time, anywhere.”
Pyongyang has largely ignored
Washington’s overtures and
called on the U.S. to withdraw
its “hostile policies,” such as
military drills with South Korea
and sanctions.
Hours after the missile
launch, South Korean Presi-
dent Moon Jae-in, whose term
ends in May, visited the South
Korean east coast city of Gose-
ong, where he attended a cere-
mony for a new rail line that he
called a “stepping stone for
peace and regional balance” on
the Korean Peninsula.
“North Korea’s military
capabilities will continue to
advance while there’s no sign
they are willing to return to
talks,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a
professor of North Korean
studies at South Korea’s Dong-
guk University.
©2022 DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC
the growth in foldables. Fur-
ther out, the challenge will
come from other smartphone
manufacturers: Chinese

currency terms. After convert-
ing into dollars, it fell 10 per-
centage points short.
BNP Paribas Asset Manage-
ment is positioning itself to
benefit from a revival in stocks
outside the US tech sector. The
Paris-based fund manager has
allocated more money to small-
cap US stocks and shares in
Europe and Japan.
“If we’re expecting US rates
to go up, in particular that
should, on a relative basis, hin-
“When investors look at those
markets they don’t see them as
markets that should be pun-
ished if interest rates were
higher,” he said. Real yields on
10-year Treasury notes, which
factor in the effect on inflation
on investor returns, ended
2021 almost unchanged. In
2018, the last time they rose,
MSCI’s gauge of US stocks
dropped but by less than shares
in Europe, Japan and China.
The US market has outpaced
agement, said timing when to
deploy money in the US or shift
into overseas stocks is tricky.
Temple prefers to hunt for
what he calls high-quality com-
panies, or those with high and
rising returns on capital. He
finds more in the US, partly
because of the country’s bigger
tech sector. “Because there are
so many more quality compa-
nies in the US, you tend to pay
less for them,” Temple said.
©2022 DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC
W
ill 2022 be the year
when foldable
smartphones go
mainstream?
Despite years of marketing
effort by Samsung Electronics,
foldable smartphones can still
seem like niche toys. But there
are signs that is starting to
change. Samsung said the
number of Galaxy Z Fold 3 and
Z Flip 3 phones it sold in the
month after their August
launch exceeded the total
ous year. Samsung had around
84% of the foldable market,
according to Counterpoint
Research.
A lower
price point
has likely
attracted consumers: Sam-
sung’s Galaxy Z Flip 3 goes for
around $1,000, in line with
other high-end smartphones
like the iPhone 13 Pro. The
Galaxy Z Fold 3 costs around
$1,800, but that is cheaper
of the earlier problems, mak-
ing sturdier screens and better
hinges.
Foldable
smart-
phones
r e p r e -
sented just 8.6 million of last
year’s total smartphone ship-
ments of around 1.4 billion,
Counterpoint estimates. But
the flip side of being small is
that the market could grow
fast: Last year’s foldable ship-
2023.
Their higher prices mean
foldables also contribute more
to profits. Credit Suisse esti-
mates that last year their share
of Samsung’s operating profit
from smartphones was 8%,
which could rise to 16% in
2023. As it grows harder to
persuade consumers to pay up
for a new phone, a foldable
version could be a way.
In the near future, supply
constraints could hold back
brands like Oppo and Honor
are getting into the market.
That will eat into Samsung’s
market share, but also drive
wider adoption, likely lower-
ing costs. Samsung also bene-
fits from supplying other
phone makers with the flexible
screens, a market it is likely to
continue to dominate.
Samsung will surely hope it
is finally the year to flip the
flop in foldables.
©2022 DOW JONES & OMPANY, INC
LIVEMINT.COM NEWS WRAP FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI 11

TWEETS & QUOTES Ganesh Ananthanarayanan Brijesh K Agrawal Nischal (WazirX)

Charlie Bilello COO, Airtel Payments Bank director, IndiaMART @NischalShetty
@charliebilello With a higher number of Merchants across I believe Blockchain will play a
The market is now pric- people preferring private India have increas- crucial role in disrupting tradi-
ing in a >67% probability vehicles to travel these days, ingly started to real- tional news. But even with
of the 1st Fed rate hike Fastag based parking solu- ise the importance of Blockchain, how do you
occurring in March. A tions will enable customers adopting various ensure that the content is
month ago that proba- to save time and smoothen online sales chan- indeed true and not fake
bility was at 27%. their travel experience. nels... news?

Aurobindo Pharma BACK-UP PLAN Omicron to reduce

launches Molnaflu GDP growth in FY22

A T
urobindo Pharma Limited has launched he concern relating to covid-19 and its
covid-19 treatment drug Molnupiravir impact on the ongoing economic
under brand name “Molnaflu” in India. recovery has once again resurfaced in
Molnupiravir is for treatment of adult view of the spread of Omicron. Curbs in various
patients hospitalised with covid-19, under forms such as reducing the capacity of market/
certain conditions, a press release from the market complexes and night/weekend curfews
city-based drug maker said. to check human mobility/contact have begun
Earlier last year, Aurobindo had signed a bi- to impact economic activities posing adverse
lateral non-exclusive voluntary licensing impact on 4QFY22 GDP, India Ratings and
agreement with Merck Sharpe Dohme, Research (Ind-Ra) said on Thursday.
Singapore (MSD), a subsidiary of Merck & Co. As per the ratings agency estimates, GDP
(US) to manufacture and supply Molnupiravir growth in Q4 FY22 will now come in at 5.7%
to over 100 low and middle-income countries YoY, which is 40bp lower than the agency’s
(LMIC), including India. earlier estimate of 6.1%. For the entire FY22,
K. Nithyananda Reddy, vice chairman and the GDP is expected to clock a growth rate of
managing director, Aurobindo said, “We are 9.3% YoY, 10bp lower than our earlier estimate
delighted with the timely permission from of 9.4%. Although Omicron is spreading much
DCGI for the licensed version of Molnupiravir faster than earlier covid variants, indications so
(Molnaflu) as it opens up access to an affordable far suggest that the infections are milder and
treatment option for covid-19 patients and mostly not life threatening. SUBHASH NARAYAN
enable us to help battle the pandemic.” PTI

Workers stack oxygen cylinders at a covid care centre in the Commonwealth Games Village, New Delhi, on Thursday, PTI

India sees triple-digit growth in The partnership aims to develop and build 1,000

CII called for coordinated actions.

CII suggests actions

PTI
sales of electric two-wheelers MW of green hydrogen production facilities. AFP

Hero Future ties up

to contain Omicron with Ohmium

H
ero Future Energies and Ohmium

A
mid fears that the new coronavirus
variant may disrupt normal business
activity, industry chamber CII on
Thursday pitched for coordinated actions by
the Centre and state governments to minimize
the impact of Omicron on the economy.
“There is obviously some concern about
Omicron but I think the general feedback we
International on Thursday announced
SMEV said in a report sales rose 132% and 233,971 electric vehicles were sold in 2021 a strategic partnership to set up 1,000
MW of green hydrogen production facilities
in India, the UK and Europe.
Abhijit Ahaskar tion. According to SMEV, low-speed electric two- changes in EV policy through FAME 2 were Hero Future Energies (HFE), a leading
feedback@livemint.com wheelers were in demand until 2020, when they game-changing for the EV industry. developer of solar, wind and hybrid/BESS
NEW DELHI accounted for 70% of sales. However, interest “In the last 15 years, we collectively sold around projects, and Ohmium International have
waned in 2021, especially in the October-Decem- 1 million electric two wheelers, e-three wheelers, announced a strategic partnership to develop

have is, it is spreading fast but the health
impact is milder,” CII President T. V.
Narendran said. The economic impact of the
third wave can be minimized if there is a
coordinated response between the central and
the state governments, he said.
The CII President observed that overall, the
recovery in 2021 has been strong for most
sectors. However, sectors like hospitality,
travel, MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises) and some services were
significantly affected by the first and second
wave of covid. Sharing estimates for economic
growth, he said CII’s view is that this financial
year’s growth will be 9.5% and next financial
year’s growth will be 8.5%. The current fiscal
ends on 31 March.
S
ales of electric two-wheelers in India
increased 132% in 2021, the Society of
Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles
(SMEV) said in a new report.
A total of 233,971 electric two-wheel-
ers were sold during the year as compared to
100,736 a year ago.
Hero Electric, with 34% of the market share,
was the top seller, followed by Okinawa (22%) and
Ather (12%)—the other two companies with a dou-
ble-digit market in the top ten.
Electric two-wheelers that can go beyond
25km per hour and require a full drivers licence,
grew at an even higher 425% as compared to low-
speed counterparts which grew only by 24%.
Low-speed electric two-wheelers move at
PTI under 25kmph and require no licence or registra-
ber quarter when their market share dropped to e-cars, and e-buses, and we will most likely sell the and build 1,000 MW of green hydrogen
less than 15%. same 1 million units in just one year beginning production facilities in India, the UK and
SMEV has attrib- January 22,” said Europe, a joint statement said.
uted this to the sub- Gill. He believes According to the statement, Ohmium will
sidies given to high- Interest in low speed electric vehicles that in the next 12 be responsible for the design, construction,
speed electric two- waned in 2021, especially in the months, sales will and operations and maintenance of the
wheelers under the
FAME 2 policy that Oct-Dec quarter when their market grow more.
5 to 6 times hydrogen production facilities. Hero Future
Energies will be the build-operate-own
have made them share fell to less than 15%. “Customers have partner, generating green energy to power
more affordable now started shifting the production facilities and assuming overall
than low-speed two in large numbers ownership of the assets. PTI
wheels. FAME 2 or Faster Adoption and Manufac- from petrol two-wheelers to electric ones due to
turing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India is an attractive prices, lower running costs, and lower
incentive-based scheme by the government to maintenance. A significant percentage of custom-
subsidise the making and buying of electric vehi- ers also factor in the environment and sustainabil-
cles including two-wheelers. According to Sohin- ity in their decision to buy an electric two-
Wockhardt board
der Gill, director general of SMEV, the recent wheeler,” he added.
nods fundraise plan

P
harmaceuticals firm Wockhardt Ltd on
Airtel Bank joins Thursday said its board has approved a
Simpliwork opens 64k sq ft centre proposal to raise up to ₹1,000 crore
hands with Park+ through a rights issue. The objective of the
issue is to meet the company’s financing needs
The transaction was facilitated by for repayment of subordinated debt due,

A
irtel Payments Bank on Thursday
announced a collaboration with Park+ to
offer FASTag-based smart parking
solutions to marquee commercial and
residential properties across the country.
Backed by Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners,
Park+ is engaged in automating parking spaces
through FASTag. “The collaboration aims to
leverage the deep distribution reach and digital
payments stack of Airtel Payments Bank to
digitize the parking ecosystem using FASTag
associated with the vehicle. Park+ will offer its
entire suite of FASTag services including
issuance, acquiring, recharge, and technology
support to Airtel Payments Bank,” it said.
The firm aims to double its inventory across
the country to 6 million sq. ft. MINT
property advisory JLL India.
The Bengaluru-based firm also aims to
double its inventory across the country to
6 million sq. ft by the end of 2022.
“Chennai, our latest addition, is a strong
economic centre. The city offers immense
potential that attracts large enterprises
across industries. Simpliwork, with its
supply of Grade A flex offices, is looking to
capitalise on this trend and set new
benchmarks in the outsourced office
sector,” said Kunal Walia, founder and
chief executive officer, Simpliwork.
Rahul Arora, head of office leasing
advisory, India (regional managing
The acquisition covers IAIL’s manufacturing unit
in the industrial area of Bhiwadi.
Jindal Aluminium
financing research and development initiatives
and general corporate purposes, among others,
permitted by law, Wockhardt Ltd said.
The board of directors in its meeting held on
Thursday considered and approved the issue of
equity shares by way of a rights issue to the
existing shareholders of the company for an
amount not exceeding ₹1,000 crore, it added.
Wockhardt further said its board has also
authorised the Capital Raising Committee to
decide on the terms and conditions of the issue,
BLOOMBERG including the rights entitlement ratio, the issue
price, record date, timing of the issue and other
related matters. PTI

M gets assets of IAIL

Airtel Payments Bank said it is among the top
five issuers of FASTag in the country. Ganesh
Ananthanarayanan, chief operating officer,
Airtel Payments Bank, said, “With a higher
number of people preferring private vehicles to
travel these days, these solutions will enable
customers to save time and smoothen their
anaged office space provider
Simpliwork has opened a 64,000
sq. ft centre in Chennai at a
property developed by K. Raheja Corp.,
and leased the space to credit card and
payment solutions provider SBI Cards
Ltd.
director, Karnataka and Kerala), JLL said,
“While the Indian flex space market has
seen monumental growth over the last
Ujjivan SFB secy
A
few years, what is pertinent to note is that luminium products maker Jindal
the current flex market penetration in
total office stock stands at approximately
Aluminium Ltd on Thursday said it has
acquired the assets of Indo Alusys Kumar resigns
3.5%.” MADHURIMA NANDY Industries Ltd (IAIL) for ₹100 crore and

travel experience.”
‘MSME credit guarantee scheme saved 1.35 million firms’
STAFF WRITER announced the start of production at the latter’s
revived Bhiwadi plant.
The acquisition of IAIL’s assets covers its
manufacturing unit located in the industrial
area of Bhiwadi, Rajasthan. Once fully
operational, Jindal Aluminium’s extrusion
capacity is expected to increase from 1.25 lakh
U
jjivan Small Finance Bank on Thursday
said Chanchal Kumar has resigned from
the position of company secretary and
compliance officer of the bank.
In a regulatory filing, Ujjivan Small Finance
Bank said Kumar resigned on 5 January 2022.
“His resignation would be effective from 4

E
mergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) launched by the
government in 2020 to provide relief to million micro, small and
medium enterprises (MSMEs) impacted by covid-19 pandemic has saved
1.35 million firms from going bankrupt and consequently 150 million jobs,
claimed a report.The scheme is the biggest fiscal component of the ₹20
trillion Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package announced by finance
minister Nirmala Sitharaman in May 2020, to mitigate the distress caused by
the covid-19-induced lockdown by providing credit to different sectors,
especially MSMEs.
“We estimate almost 1.35 MSMEs accounts were saved due to ECLGS
(including restructured). Almost 93.7% of such accounts are in the micro and
small category,” SBI Research said in a report. In absolute terms, the report
claimed MSME loan accounts worth ₹1.8 trillion were saved from slipping
into NPA during the period and this is equivalent to 14% of the outstanding
MSME credit being saved from becoming NPA.
MTPA to 1.39 lakh MTPA. Jindal Aluminium
started production at this newly acquired facility
on 6 December, with an initial capacity of 1000
metric tonnes per month, and the company
plans to increase it to 4000 metric tonnes per
month by the end of March 2022.
“With the growing use of engineered
aluminium products in the Indian economy, this
acquisition will allow us to better service the
needs of the market and build capacity,” said
Pragun Jindal Khaitan, vice chair and managing
director of Jindal Aluminium. The firm is
focused on new opportunities in domestic
manufacturing and is continuously increasing
PTI Atleast MSME loan accounts worth ₹1.8 trillion were saved. MINT its share in the export market. STAFF WRITER
April 2022 (close of business hours) after
serving the applicable notice period.
Consequently, he shall also cease to be a Key
Managerial Personnel of the Bank in terms of
Section 203 of the Companies Act, 2013 and
other Applicable Laws,” the filing said.
Kumar has mentioned in his resignation
letter that he is resigning to pursue his
professional aspirations outside the Bank. He
has also confirmed that there is no other
material reason for his resignation other than
stated above, it added.
The board of directors of the bank has taken
note of his resignation, Ujjivan Small Finance
Bank said. PTI
12 FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI LONG STORY LIVEMINT.COM

REPORTAGE | TALKING POINTS | IDEAS | INSIGHT | THE BOTTOMLINE

WHAT IS THE FUTURE

OF COVID-19 VACCINES?
New emerging variants have shown that the quest for an effective vaccine against covid has only just begun.

Teenagers await their turn at a vaccination centre in Mumbai. India has begun vaccinating teens in the age group of 15 to 18, as more states are enforcing tighter restrictions to arrest a surge of infections stoked by the omicron variant. AP

Divya Rajagopal tazzi, who developed the Corbevax vac-
feedback@livemint.com cine in partnership with Biological E, told
TORONTO Mint that they see the potential for their
vaccine as a standalone, booster as well as
Omicron variant in particular—even as a
booster dose—doesn’t seem to be very
high. “This is why you don’t go into a
global pandemic with an all-new technol-
ing renewed for SARS/MERS pan corona-
mint VAX PIPELINE
SHORT virus vaccine, we got a response saying it
Chart 1 has no innovation, and that (it) was not a
STORY The hype around mRNA vaccines made by
Moderna and Pfizer seems to be fading priority,” Dr Bottazzi said. Now, the

M
erely 13 months after a
90-year-old grandmother
in Britain became the
world’s first person to be
inoculated against the
SARS-CoV-2 virus, the slate of covid-19
vaccines—developed and approved in
record time—have already had their
moment of reckoning. With the onset of
new Omicron-fueled waves in multiple
countries, soft lockdowns have returned.
January 2022 seems like a déjà vu of
2021: citizens exhausted with covid
restrictions; healthcare workers pleading
with those suffering from mild symptoms
to stay at home and leave hospital beds for
those who really need them. In quick time,
the definition of a fully vaccinated person
has changed to someone who has received
three doses. Many countries are exploring
a fourth dose for the elderly and the
immuno-compromised. So, what really is
the future of covid-19 vaccines?
If the vaccines of year 1 of the pandemic
were approved based on their efficacy in
reducing the possibility of infection,
severe disease and death, the next genera-
tion of vaccines would likely be judged
based on their ability to offer longer pro-
tection against infection. Specific vaccines
for the pediatric population is another area
of emerging interest where multiple com-
panies are racing towards the finish line.
Over 9 billion doses have been admin-
istered over the past year using eight dif-
ferent vaccines. Data from the World
Health Organisation show that there are
60 vaccine candidates currently in phase
3 of clinical trials—an
indication that the quest
for an improved and Specific vaccines for the
for pediatric use.
“Only 40% of India is (fully) vaccinated.
So, there’s still a long way to go,” Hotez
said. “As a booster vaccine, this (Corbevax)
can help particularly because in certain
instances you cannot give adenovirus-
based vaccines (AD) (like Covishield) as a
booster… because you make antibodies to
the AD virus.”
Dr Bottazzi believes that Corbevax
might also hold up against the Omicron
variant and might offer longer spells of
protection, which most of the current vac-
cines—including the much-hyped
mRNA-based vaccines—have not been
able to do.
“We are learning that after the initial
excitement about the mRNA vaccines,
there may be issues with long-term per-
formance and long-term durability of pro-
tection. We are seeing that within a couple
of months after a booster shot, the protec-
tion against the Omicron variant plum-
mets significantly—from 70% to 30%”,
explained Dr Hotez. “Now, we have to see
if there is an inherent problem with the
mRNA platform or is this is a variant-spe-
cific concern that could be fixed as the
mRNA technology matures.”
Covovax and Corbevax are second-gen-
eration protein-based vaccines, which are
made using specific particles of a virus—
known as antigens—that can then gener-
ate an immune response. The antigens are
combined with an ‘adjuvant’ to trigger the
immune response. Existing vaccines used
to prevent diseases such as Hepatitis B are
among the most common examples of this
platform.
ogy and that is why we always felt the need
to balance it with more traditional tech-
nology, such as the recombinant protein
vaccine which has that track record of
durability”, Hotez said.
There is no definitive data yet on
booster effectiveness as it has only been a
couple of months since countries in the
West started their booster policy. The
modelling data from UK’s Imperial Col-
lege of London indicates that boosters are
85% effective against Omicron in prevent-
ing severe disease. But what is becoming
clear with emerging breakthrough infec-
tions is that Omicron evades the humoral
response even in doubly vaccinated indi-
viduals
As a result, vaccine experts are now
coming to a consensus on the fact that
some traditional vaccine approaches
could be needed to fight future variants
that seem to be inevitable and unknown
for now.
“Maybe these (mRNA-based) vaccines
had a role (to play) at the beginning of the
pandemic. It would have been nice if we
had (a) balance (right) from the start so
that we did not have to come (in) late in the
picture”, said Dr Bottazzi. “The pandemic
is very different than what it was last year,
but it is shifting. Maybe, we do have to rely
on conventional technology, but look at
not just how they work but also how they
are recalling (the) memory (of infection)…
and how they can be made in a cost-effi-
cient way.”
FUTURE PIPELINE
WHAT
In quick time, the definition of a
vaccinated person has changed
to someone who has got three
doses. Many countries are
exploring a fourth dose. So, what
is the future of covid-19 vaccines?
NOW
If the vaccines of year 1 of the
pandemic were approved based
on their efficacy, the next
generation of vaccines would
likely be judged based on their
ability to offer longer protection.
MOREOVER
There are 60 vaccine candidates
currently in phase 3 of clinical
trials—an indication that the
quest for an improved and
effective vaccine against
covid-19 has only just begun.
ment, there will be three approaches.
Besides developing vaccines that reduce
overall infection, a variant-specific vac-
cine similar to the seasonal flu shots and a
pan-coronavirus vaccine that would work
against all seasonal coronaviruses could
become the new frontiers of research.
Efficacy in trials Real world effectiveness (in %) researchers in her organisation are work-
Pfizer 96 ing on new strategies such as multivalent
(Comirnaty) 53-70 vaccines that combine proteins from dif-
ferent lineages.
Moderna 98
(Spikevax) 53-70 But as the array of vaccines expands,
questions on what the public will trust will
AstraZeneca 82
(Vaxzevria/Covishield) 61-67 remain.
79 The debate on vaccination and its lim-
Bharat Biotech
(Covaxin) Unknown ited role in ending the pandemic has
Sinovac 77 already gained momentum with the rise in
(CoronaVac) 59
new infections. After mandating vaccina-
Dr Reddy’s
(Sputnik V) Unknown
95 tion for travel and employment purposes,
with Omicron and the call for further
*Efficacy is different than effectiveness. While efficacy booster doses, governments face an uphill
looks at how vaccines worked in a randomized clinical
trial, effectiveness is real-world data on how vaccines task in keeping the public health message
worked once they were administered in the population.
effective and simple.
Chart 2
“The public is losing trust in vaccines
Most vaccine candidates that are currently in
phase 3 trial are protein-based vaccines but I feel certain that over time trust will
build and most people will be vaccinated,”
Vaccine platforms under
47
preclinical & clinical
development 
said Lawrence O. Gostin, Faculty Director,
O’Neill Institute for National and Global
20
23
Health Law, in an email to Mint. “The
18 problem was that public health officials
15 promised that vaccines would prevent
infections, but the Omicron variant has
shown that vaccines don’t do a particu-
Protein Viral DNA  Inactivated RNA larly good job at preventing breakthrough
subunit vector virus
infections. We have to change the public
Source: WHO, Lancet, CDC, NHS 
health message.”
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
Gostin added that in future, govern-
ments should not promise that vaccines
companies—MigVax and Vaccines and will significantly reduce covid-19 cases.
Infectious Disease Organization of the Instead, the message should be that the
University of Saskatchewan—to provide crucial value of vaccines is in preventing
proof of concept for a “variant proof” vac- the vaccinated people from getting very
cine that can tackle ‘beta coronaviruses’. sick, being hospitalized, or dying.
These attempts are in the initial stage of The message that seems to be echoing
proof-of-concept but the idea is to find across the public health field is that vacci-

THE HYPE FADES

T he tepid interest in scaling up the
mRNA platform is also showing up in
the future pipeline of covid-19 vaccines.
“I won’t be surprised if companies start
looking at Omicron-specific vaccines.
Covid19 is not over as long as (the) variants
means to protect
humans against new var-
iants of concern. Last month, Indian drug
nation alone is not
enough to end the pan-
demic; they prevent
effective vaccine against
covid-19 has only just
begun.
paediatric population is an
area of emerging interest
A year ago, mRNA-
based vaccines
manufactured by Pfizer
Most vaccine candidates that are currently
in phase 3 trial are protein-based vaccines,
followed by the adenovirus vector-based
are still around,” said Davinder Gill,
former CEO of Hillman Labs, the organi-
zation that uses innovative tech to develop
“The threat of new regulators approved Covovax deaths but remain inad-
variants emerging which
can evade the protection
equate in cutting the
and Biological E’s Corbevax, chain of transmission
Last month, Indian where multiple companies and Moderna became ones and then comes the mRNA-based vaccines for global health. “The next vari- of our current vaccines taking the total number and hence we need
drug regulators the benchmark for cov- vaccines. ant (will) most likely be built off Omicron and set the global other interventions like
approved Covovax and are racing towards the id-19 vaccines. Their Omicron has inevitably changed how and it is possible that with those variants, response back to square of vaccines approved antivirals along with
Biological E’s Corbevax, technology did not use companies look at vaccine development. we will have to go back to drawing rooms”, one continues to hang vaccines.
taking the total number finish line. any real virus particles, Though the current crop of vaccines is Gill added. over all of us”, Richard in India to eight. “By the end of 2022 or
of vaccines approved in which made them one of holding up against severe disease and Ultimately, the holy grail in covid-19 Hatchett, chief executive early 2023, covid-19 may
the country to eight. Despite having one of the safest platforms to use. deaths, the elusive goal of stopping trans- vaccine research is developing a pan/beta officer, CEPI, said in November last year become like seasonal influenza in some
the largest baskets of locally available cov- The over 95% efficacy in clinical trials— mission remains the target of vaccine coronavirus vaccine that could potentially while announcing the funding for the beta countries. We will probably have to vacci-
id-19 vaccines, India has until now used considerably higher than adenovirus vec- makers. protect against all emerging variants. The coronavirus vaccine research. “That’s why nate at least seasonally and rely on our
only two—Covishield and Covaxin—in its tor or inactivated whole-cell vaccines— “The primary metric should be to look idea is to target coronaviruses that cause developing globally accessible vaccines health system to have good treatments for
national immunization program. For the made the mRNA vaccines a coveted shot. at vaccines that (can) prevent severe dis- severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) which are broadly protective against cov- those who do get ill,” said Gostin.
developers of Covovax and Corbevax, the The hype around them led governments eases. But we should also aim to manufac- and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome id-19 variants is imperative for global However, the end game, he says, is that
challenge would be to convince govern- in the West to stockpile these vaccines ture vaccines that (can) reduce overall (MERS). health security.” we just stop caring and live our lives as
ments that their offering can deliver supe- resulting in revenues of over $40 billion to infection or (even) mild infection”, said Dr Baylor College of Medicine, too, is normally as we can.
rior performance compared to the exist- Pfizer and Moderna in the pandemic year. Sanjay Pujari, director and chief consult- BLANKET PROTECTION working on a pan coronavirus vaccine “Remember, after the Great Influenza
ing vaccines, either as a booster or as a
standalone dose.
But as Dr Hotez points out, the euphoria
over the mRNA platform seems to be fad-
Dr Peter Hotez and Dr Maria Elena Bot- ing as the level of protection against the
ant, Institute of Infectious Diseases, in an
interview with Mint last month. Pujari
added that for future vaccine develop-
N orway-based Coalition for Epidemic
Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)
has already announced funding to two
now that there is a renewed interest in the pandemic of 1918 came the ‘Roaring 20s’.
space. “We were working on it pre-covid. Humans are social animals and we will
But when we were trying to get our fund- return to doing all the things we love.”
LIVEMINT.COM MINT MONEY FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI 13

What are your chances of Compare your bank FD rates

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

retiring with ₹100 crore? investors who can’t stomach risk. But overexposure to FDs is not good, and you need
to assess your asset allocation and goals to decide how much money you should
park in them. For instance, saving for your child’s
higher education that’s 15 years away through FDs
may not be effective as the post-tax interest rate
of an FD may not give you a real return (return
that’s above the rate of inflation). But if you plan to
take a holiday in two years, an FD can help. Before
choosing an FD, you should compare the interest
In 2001, about one in three stocks gave returns that can be described as unicorn returns rates on offer. Here is a list of banks that offer the
highest FD rates for deposits up to ₹1 crore over
various tenures.
Neil Borate
neil.b@livemint.com Chances of catching a 'unicorn' Long term returns vary significantly
An astonishing one third of companies gave more than 25% CAGR returns, depending on whether you invest at Interest rates (%) for fixed deposits up to ₹1 crore
the right time

A
popular video of a speech if you had invested 20 years ago. However this was during the dot com
given by market guru Ram- bust and the ratio dips significantly if you use other starting points. Percentage of stocks that gave returns 6 months 1 to < 2 2 to < 3 3 to < 5 5 years
more than 25% CAGR
esh Damani, titled ‘how to 60
to < 1 year years years years and above
Unicorn zone If you invested
make ₹100 crore by invest- (in %)
Out of 621 companies 10 years ago (2012) 20 YES Bank 4.75-5.00 5.75-6.00 6.00 6.25 6.25
ing ₹10 lakh’, shows him 50
from the start of the 15 years ago (2007) 5
saying that money invested in equities period under study - IDFC First Bank 3.25-4.75 5.25 5.25-5.75 5.75-6.00 6.00
26% of companies 20 years ago (2020) 34
can double 10 times over a span of 30 40 34% of companies beat gave returns
years. This translates to a CAGR (com- the hurdle of 25% CAGR between Index Index DCB Bank 5.25 5.30-5.95 5.50 5.95 5.95
pound annual growth rate) of 26%. To be 30
Returns of 15% and return
Returns (in %)

hurdle of 25% CAGR 15% CAGR 10% of companies RBL Bank 4.50-5.25 6.00 6.00 6.30 5.75-6.30
sure, Damani caveats his statements by
gave returns
saying that it is not simple or easy and 20 between 0% and Axis Bank 4.40 5.10-5.25 5.40 5.40 5.75
rests on finding great businesses. Index Returns of 15% Balance 30% of
A tweet by another market commen- companies gave
10 negative returns Karur Vysya Bank 3.75-4.25 5.15 5.25 5.25 5.60-5.75
tator and social media influencer says or are not in
that a monthly SIP (systematic invest- existence anymore Federal Bank 3.75-4.40 5.10-5.35 5.35 5.40 5.60
0
ment plan) of ₹10,000 to ₹20,000 can
compound to ₹100 crore in 30 years. Catholic Syrian Bank 4.25 5.00 5.00 5.25 5.50
-10
Such a growth implies a CAGR of 24%
South Indian Bank 3.80-4.50 5.10 5.10-5.35 5.50 5.50-5.65
on the SIP. Mint looked at some num-
-20
bers about how realistic such projec- IndusInd Bank 4.25- 5.50 6.00 6.00 6.00 5.50-6.00
1 100 200 300 400 500 609
tions are, with the help of Anish Teli, No. of companies
founder of QED Capital. Source: QED Capital ICICI Bank 3.50- 4.40 4.90-5.00 5.00-5.20 5.20-5.40 5.40-5.60
The Sensex value was 982 on 2 Janu-
ary 1991 and it is currently (as of 5Janu- PARAS JAIN/MINT Karnataka Bank 5.00 5.10 5.10-5.20 5.40 5.40-5.50
ary 2021) at 60,223. This translates to a The compounders and non-performers while others will stagnate and this will
Union Bank of India 4.30-4.40 5.00-5.10 5.10-5.30 5.30-5.40 5.40-5.50
CAGR of 14.7%. However, before extra- skew your portfolio and make it lop-
polating this figure into the future, one 20 year CAGR (2002-2022) sided and risky. You must then have
Returns (in %) Dhanlaxmi Bank 4.25 5.15 5.15-5.30 5.30-5.40 5.40-5.50
must remember that the past 30 years either the expertise to rebalance or the
TOP 5 BOTTOM 5 State Bank of India 4.40 5.00 5.10% 5.30 5.40
have seen an unprecedented level of confidence to let your winners com-
economic growth in India, as the coun- Bajaj Finance 56 -5 TechIndia Nirman pound,” he added. Data taken from respective bank's website as on 4 January 2022; Only main entity of the merged banks are taken. Banks which merged
try benefited from a series of reforms IFB Industries 48 -6 Mahanagar Teli also highlighted the impact of with its main entity are removed from the table; The list of 15 banks is based on highest fixed deposit rates available for 5 years and above
launched in 1991. Proponents of the Telephone Nigam market cycles and valuations of the Source: www.Bankbazaar.com
₹100 crore dream often argue that you Alkyl Amines Chemicals 47 -7 Jain Studios starting point of your investment. “The
can do better than the index by picking 20-year period starts in January 2002
the right stocks. In our study, we looked
Deepak Nitrite 47 -8 Rolta India
which in hindsight was as well one could
at this claim in depth. We took a look at
just how many individual stocks have
crossed the 25% threshold over the past
Lupin 45 -10
Market cap data used to calculate returns, thereby capturing total returns data
Creative Eye have timed the market post the dot com
bust. In this period, almost a third of
companies hit this hurdle of 25%. The
Do health insurers have specific
10, 15 and 20 years. Our results also
account for the companies that were
listed in those respective periods but no
a sample of 918 listed companies, 53
have given a return of more than 25%.
1990s. Inflation eventually feeds into
nominal GDP growth and hence pushes
second period starts from January 2007
which in hindsight was close to the peak
prior to the global financial crisis. If one
products for cancer patients?
longer exist (survivorship bias). This translates to about 1 in 20 (5% of up the stock prices of companies. Third, invested in this period, only 5% of com-
Three scenarios surviving listed companies) that have there is the problem of your own behav- panies met the hurdle of around 25%.” ISTOCK
Going back 20 years takes us to the delivered unicorn returns. Finally, ioural biases and weaknesses. Taxes can also affect returns. In his Abhishek Bondia than try to predict future claims
start of 2001. This was at the end of the going back 10 years gives us a set of 291 According to Kirtan Shah, founder speech, Damani said investors like him and match that with no-claim
dot com bubble, when the stock market companies out of 1,445 beating the 25% and chief executive officer, Credence made big returns when long-term capi- Is there any insurance for bonuses, you should just buy a
was available at mouth-watering valua- hurdle or 1 in 5. If your chances are Wealth Advisors, “Firstly, most inves- tal gains (LTCG) on stocks was zero. In cancer patients or those higher sum assured through a
tions. Out of a sample of 621 companies, somewhere between 1 in 3 and 1 in 20 of tors cannot identify the right stocks or 2018, this was upped to 10% and future who have already been top-up insurance. Another
209 gave a return of more than 25%, a making a 25% plus return, the ₹100 they do not buy at the right valuations. governments could increase it . Lastly, diagnosed with cancer or option is to increase the sum
startling figure. In other words, about crore dream seems rather plausible. Second, when market downturns hap- ₹100 crore in 30 years translates to ₹17.4 have been treated for it? assured in your existing policy
one in three stocks gave returns that Teli However, a host of factors do not find pen, very few have the stomach to see crore in today’s money assuming a 6% —Name withheld on request on renewal. Many insurers
described as unicorn returns. Going their way into past data. India’s inflation hefty drops in their portfolio value. rate of inflation. This is still a large cor- offer this facility without addi-
back 15 years took us close to the peak of rate has been gradually coming down Third, not all stocks will do equally well. pus, but not the mouth-watering sum Disease management prod- tional underwriting. Another
the 2003-07 bull run. In this case, from from the double-digit levels of the Some will generate outsized returns that initially seems to be the case. ucts are rare in India. Histori- reason why you should not
cally, insurers have been reluc- hold back from filing a claim is
tant to issue even normal that no-claim bonuses in health
health insurance products to insurance generally does not

Should you invest in Nifty Next 50 Index funds? people who have suffered a
major critical illness. However,
of late, some insurers are exper-
m ASK MINT
INSURANCE
become zero when you make a
claim. So, in case of a claim,
your bonus will come down by
imenting with products for one level. Such a loss would be
Abhinav Kaul formance of the heavyweight 50 Index has failed to beat people with specific ailments accrued on my insurance, I restored in the following year, if
abhinav.kaul@livemint.com index is highly dependent on returns delivered by the Nifty such as cardiac or cancer issues. do not want to forego my there is no claim. Unless the
one particular sector. 50 Index during calendar years Some standalone health insur- bonus insurance now. Am I medical cost of the hospitaliza-

O
ver the past year, at
least five asset man-
agement companies
(AMCs) have launched
schemes based on the Nifty
Next 50 Index, which tracks the
performance of 50 companies
from the constituents of the
Nifty 100 Index after excluding
the constituents of the Nifty 50
Index.
“The whole premise for the
Nifty Next 50 is that these are
the next large-cap companies
that you will see becoming part
of the mainline indices, and
usually, these are the compa-
nies that are available at a much
better valuation,” said Munish
Randev, founder, Cervin Fam-
ily Office.
Data shows that out of the 75
stocks that have graduated to
the Nifty 50 Index in the past 19
years, 51 have been from the
Nifty Next 50 Index.
The Nifty Next 50 is well
diversified with financial servi-
ces having the biggest weight-
AP
age at 19.07%, followed by con-
sumer goods (16.91%), metals
(10.97%), consumer services
(10.25%) and pharma (7.91%).
Compared to this, the finan-
cial services sector has the
highest weightage in the Nifty
50 at 36.94%, meaning the per-
On the outlook, experts
believe that the Nifty Next 50
might have an edge over the
traditional Nifty 50. “In a polar-
ized market, like we’ve been
seeing around for some time,
the Nifty 50 is a much better
option over the Nifty Next 50.
However, I believe that mar-
kets are probably going to be
slightly more non-polarized
going forward. So, the Nifty
Next 50 index can be looked at
if it fits somebody’s asset alloca-
tion,” said Kirtan Shah, founder
and chief executive officer,
Credence Wealth Advisors.
However, despite advanta-
ges, the Nifty Next 50 Index can
go through phases of under-
performance. The Nifty Next
2018, 2019 and 2020.
“When the market goes
through a boom cycle, wherein
the money is narrowly focused
on just 10-15 stocks, then there
the mainline indices tend to
perform better than Nifty Next
50 Index,” said Randev.
As per the expert, investors
putting money on the Nifty 100
Index would be better off with
splitting allocation between a
Nifty Next 50 Index fund and a
Nifty 50 fund.
Investors should keep in
mind that any investment, be it
in a Nifty 50 fund or Nifty Next
50 scheme, should be as per
their risk profile, asset alloca-
tion and investment require-
ment.
ers have specific products for
cancer patients. This would
work similar to a regular health
insurance. So, it will not cover
pre-existing ailments including
cancer for a specific waiting
period. The principal advan-
tage of this plan is that it is
much more likely to get issued
to a person with a history of
cancer, than a regular health
insurance plan.
I hold one health insurance.
I will be hospitalized. I do
not want to make a claim on
my insurance now; how-
ever, if it occurs again after
3-4 years, I will go for a
claim. I want to do this to
safeguard the bonus
doing something wrong?
I want to know if I will
still be required to inform
the insurer of this hospitali-
zation and treatments?
In the year 2025 (I will
still be paying my premi-
ums) what will happen
when I make a claim on my
insurance for the same
treatment/disease? Will my
claim be rejected because I
did not inform the insurer
now about it?
—Name withheld on request
Unlike in a motor insurance,
the no-claim bonus in health
insurance is offered by virtue of
higher sum assured, and not
reduction in premium. Rather
tion is very low, my recommen-
dation would be to file a claim.
Insurers generally require you
to disclose all medical condi-
tions before policy issuance.
There is no specific require-
ment to inform the insurer
about medical issues after you
have bought the insurance, if
you do not intend to make a
claim.
Abhishek Bondia is principal
officer and managing director,
SecureNow.in.
Do you have a personal
finance query? Send in your
queries at
mintmoney@livemint.com
and get them answered by
industry experts.

MIS-SELLING IN LIFE INSURANCE: HERE ARE SOME KEY THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR
ISTOCK
illustrations based on two different assumed rates of return in a recommended to fill your own forms and thoroughly check the
prescribed format. While the regulator plays an active role in details before signing the policy.
POWER safeguarding the interest of policyholders, here are four guide
rails to help you make an informed decision:
• Do check if your policy requires a full-body medical test or
intimation of any prior medical history. If the seller fails to share
POINT 1. It is often an over-enthusiastic seller who exaggerates fea- this information with the insurer, it can negatively impact the
tures or promises attractive returns to pique customers’ interest future claim process for you/nominee (claimant).
M A N U L AVA N YA in purchasing a life insurance policy. If the promise sounds too • Make sure to read the policy details and seek clarity by asking
good to be true, it is advisable to get a second opinion. One can relevant questions that are not entirely comprehensible.
We welcome your views and comments at also undertake online research to double-check on the promised In case a policy is mis-sold, you can:
mintmoney@livemint.com benefits. It is always important to fully understand the give-get Make sure to • Reach out to your insurer who can
proposition before committing to a life insurance policy. read the policy help with quick query resolution

I
magine buying your first vehicle based on a salesperson’s rec-
ommendation. You trust that the vehicle will perform, meet
your needs and sustain over the long term. But soon, you real-
ize that the vehicle doesn’t have the features you were sold. With
complex terms and conditions, you may not be able to return or
replace the vehicle without losing a chunk of your money. This
is a pure case of mis-selling, which leaves a customer dissatisfied.
Similar instances occur when financial products are mis-sold,
especially life insurance plans. It is a major setback for customers
who have purchased a policy based on false or partial informa-
tion. Being sold an unsuitable policy hence leads to grievances
and post-purchase dissonance. To ensure greater transparency
and lower instances of mis-selling, IRDAI has directed insurers
to mandatorily provide clear policy-related communication to
prospective customers. For instance, a mandatory directive
issued by the regulator has instructed insurers to issue benefit
2. Be cautious if at any time a seller tries to bundles life insur-
ance with fixed deposits, locker, mutual funds or other financial
instruments. The fundamental purpose of life insurance prod-
ucts is different, as they serve different needs and should not be
bundled.
3. Life insurance covers varied types of product offerings, and
hence one should be very clear of their future goals before invest-
ing in a life insurance instrument. It is better to research and
gather information before you meet a seller to have an informed
discussion, and choose the right life insurance that is mapped to
your future needs.
4. The sum assured, premiums, policy terms and conditions
and payout terms are crucial aspects of a life insurance policy.
Buyers should not decide basis any exaggerate information that
might have been provided to make the policy attractive. It is
advisable to read the policy document carefully before making
• In case of any grievance, you can
details and seek connect with the insurer via varied
clarity by asking customer service portals including
relevant website, email, or WhatsApp
questions • You can also swiftly access policy
through multiple DIY modules to eas-
ily modify details and file quick claims
Being mis-sold a life insurance policy can be a strenuous situa-
a purchase. tion. With thorough measures from insurers, IRDAI and
Further, one can follow these thumb rules in the policy-pur- informed decisions from customers, mis-selling related grievan-
chase journey to prevent mis-selling of policies: ces can be reduced. Upon realizing that you have been mis-sold
• Ask the seller to illustrate all crucial aspects of the policy. Offi- a product, do immediately gather your documents and contact
cial illustrations from the company are best suited for such situa- your life insurer independently to ensure the correct resolution
tions. to your concerns.
• Often customers skip the terms and conditions, but it is the Manu Lavanya is director & chief operations officer, Max Life
most critical component when purchasing a policy. Hence, it is Insurance.
 CORONA ISN'T OVER
REMEMBER TO FOLLOW
ALL COVID PRECAUTIONS

Wear a mask properly

Wear your mask before
stepping out of the house.

Wash your hands frequently

Wash your hands regularly with
soap or use sanitizer for atleast
20 seconds.

Practice social distancing

Avoid going to crowded places,
and remember to maintain a
minimum distance of 6 feet.
DIP/SHABDARTH/D/0176/21-22

"According to experts, Omicron spreads very rapidly, but

there is no need to panic. Continue to wear your mask and
remember to follow all covid norms."
- Arvind Kejriwal

Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of NCT of Delhi

16 FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI VIEWS LIVEMINT.COM

OUR VIEW GUEST VIEW

MINT

Pandemic preparation: It’s time

for us to spotlight public health
Policy enablers and funding could turn India into a global hub for innovative healthcare solutions

demand is increasing in India as a result The transformation of manufacturing,

of reports of these being administered
abroad. The vaccine advisory board of
the World Health Organization
recommends that people with immuno-
deficiency or those who have been
vaccinated with an inactivated vaccine
receive a booster. Industry leaders are
nudging the government to administer
SWATI PIRAMAL booster shots in view of a third wave, as
is vice chairperson, Piramal Group. providing maximum vaccine coverage is
one of best ways of future-proofing.
The covid pandemic has had a large
impact on the Indian healthcare sector,
backed by advanced technology, supply
chain management and efficient opera-
tions, will help build a healthy supply
and logistics ecosystem in India.
It is important to build a transparent,
connected and agile network to track
drug delivery from start to finish. The
system should be able to monitor and
warn of potential bottlenecks and detect
over-stocking of drugs nearing the end
of their shelf life. We must determine the
desired inventory level for each drug at
each location as an input for schedules

Liberalize the funding

leaving it in urgent need of solid financial and forecasts, and simulate scenarios to
backing. To address this, the government improve forecast accuracy.

T
he covid pandemic has demon- announced a 137% increase in healthcare The price of a drug is an important
strated how vulnerabilities in the expenditure in the budget for 2021-22. factor to consider for all countries, espe-
healthcare system can have serious Going ahead, health and safety must be cially within the context of medicines

of non-profit ventures implications on public health, economic

progress, government trust and social
cohesion. As we felt that the lethality of
the pandemic was fading, the second
the top-most priority. The prescription
for an innovative and healthy India will
include multi-stakeholder collaboration
between the government, private sector,
needing to be commonly affordable. We
also need to incentivize innovators to
price drugs for the recovery of signifi-
cant discovery costs and risks involved in
wave ravaged the country last year. In universities, technology and healthcare investing money to meet unmet needs
the midst of it all, the healthcare industry startups, experts and other stakeholders, and address new diseases.
India’s clean-up efforts in this field threaten to choke foreign inflows for do-gooder projects had to rise to the occasion with constant to create a concrete action plan and take The effects of covid and its mutations
innovation, come up with new ways to steps towards the development of a highlight the necessity of a global legal-
that we need. Let’s relieve non-profits of recently-stiffened rules that’ll likely leave us worse off address needs of the hour and provide patient-centred and technology-enabled ly-binding solution to ensure that patho-
patient care. Dependency on healthcare healthcare system. The roles of health- gens are available to scientists for the
services increased multifold and con- care workers will need to evolve through development of vaccines, treatments
sumers were quick to adopt digitized dramatic technological changes that and diagnostic tools. We must learn from

T
alk of the multiplier effect. After
more than 6,000 privately-run
non-profit organizations across
India lost their licences for foreign
funding, the bigger loss was to Indi-
ans in need of their help. The policy
liberalization in this field that went alongside
our embrace of an economy open to global
capital, with a push made to lay colonial-era
suspicions of external influence to rest, has
never had an easy run. While inflows were wel-
come in most business sectors, security and
other concerns kept such money for non-profit
endeavours under close watch, not least to foil
any wicked plots hatched abroad against our
interests and funded under the cloak of social
work. Under the current government, which
recently brought ‘self-reliance’ back as a slogan
after decades, our rules have been tightened.
About half a decade ago, the Centre amended
the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, an
Emergency-era law that saw a milder version
enacted in 2010, to require the renewal of non-
profit funding permits every five years. Most
to show administrative costs no higher than services, demonstrating a significant could empower health workers with our responses to this catastrophe in
20% of their foreign intake. The reduction of behavioural shift. Pharma research and the requisite skills for better judgement order to remove barriers for future gen-
development (R&D) roared to life in and decision making. erations faced with public health crises.
this cap from 50% earlier threw the finances of unprecedented ways by developing new Now, more than ever, is the time to join
several in jeopardy, especially think-tanks and drugs, vaccines and tests for covid. together to share pathogens in a timely
others with payrolls and service bills. In any According to our health ministry, the and predictable manner for monitoring,
commercial field, such curbs would’ve been total number of covid vaccine doses QUICK READ epidemiology and research.
scandalous. But non-profits face stiff norms. administered in India has surpassed 1.3 India has the potential to become a
billion. However, a new covid variant is Covid offers lessons for us global hub for R&D, clinical research,
Meanwhile, acclaimed do-gooders have had upon us now, and about half of India’s to prepare better for future manufacturing and knowledge-based
their activities frozen. In 2015, Greenpeace, population is yet to be fully immunized. pandemics. Given their impact services. Investments in innovation will
whose activism against a nuclear power plant With a surge in covid cases due to the on public health, the economy, boost India’s position as a world leader
was frowned upon by our previous regime, had new strain Omicron spreading rapidly social cohesion and trust in in pharmaceuticals and present us an
its FCRA licence revoked. The trend since has and the threat of a third wave, there is governance, planning is a must. opportunity to become self-reliant in the
renewed interest in booster shots for pharmaceutical industry. Despite a few
not been edifying. Last month, not long after those already vaccinated. Booster doses Technological advances can challenges, digital technology would be
being accused of a role in illicit religious con- are especially needed to safeguard the empower health workers and a game-changer in healthcare. More-
versions, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of healthcare and frontline workers who turn production as well as supply over, digitization and automation can
Charity lost its permit for an alleged failure to were vaccinated way earlier than the chains more efficient, even as create new opportunities for integrating
meet renewal conditions. Oxfam and Indian rest. Private hospitals are inundated global data-sharing on pathogens and safeguarding patients’ health and
with requests for booster doses, and aids research and development. overall well-being.
Medical Association have reportedly joined the
list. Even if legally-valid reasons are cited, it’s
hard to deny that non-profits on the whole have
been dealt an unfair blow.
While corporate social responsibility funds
would be available to do-gooders, what’s not
easy to get is why India took a policy stance that www.livemint.com New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh*, Pune* Monday, January 9, 2012 Vol.6 No.7 `3.00 24 PAGES + 20 PAGES24LOUNGE
PAGES
+ 16 PAGES MEDIA MARKETING INITIATIVE

FCRA licence losers reportedly failed to apply could deprive many of the country’s needy of LEADING THE NEWS:Ygcome
in two lines kl >23fgh
IN-DEPTH: Text will come here in two lines
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It’s inevitable that given
for it in time, despite reminders, but nearly foreign aid. With state support often patchy in EXCLUSIVE PARTNER
WSJ:Text will come here in two lines
in white letters >23gh
MINT MONEY: Text will come here
in two lines in white letters >23gh
how Oxfam and the
180 applications were rejected on account of remote parts, all endowments that can help us SENSEX 15,867.73 ® NIFTY 4,754.10 ® DOLLAR `52.71 ® EURO `67.09 ® GOLD `27,700 ® OIL $113.06 ®

others work among

DECEMBER QUARTER OVL to resume QUICK EDIT
Headline
A new low comes later
drilling in South Caste

alleged “violations”. In earlier exercises billed relieve distress should be welcome. It’s all the In the course of the fiscal year, China Sea economics
the government has had to
B Y U TPAL B HASKAR

on earnings
continuously downgrade its
own assessment of the Indian
economy's growth prospects as
utpal.b@livemint.com
·························
NEW DELHI
T he Bharatiya Janata
Party’s political
gymnastics over the Babu

the poorest of the poor,

increasing evidence of a
slowdown materialized.
A s part of its efforts to assert
India’s presence in the
Singh Kushwaha episode
is a pointer to the

as clean-ups, in 2015 and 2017, over 15,000 more pressing in pandemic times, with hard-
On Sunday, Prime Minister
South China Sea, state-owned desperation among

front likely
Manmohan Singh said the
ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) will political parties to “win”
economy is expected to grow resume drilling in the disputed Uttar Pradesh (UP). In
by about 7% this fiscal year hydrocarbon block No. 128. this mad rush, they have
“despite the adverse “We are going ahead with wiped out any remaining
international environment”. our drilling plan,” said a top distinction between
Private sector economists, executive at Oil and Natural means and ends.
meanwhile, have already Gas Corp. Ltd, who declined to Cynics can say this is
High interest costs, Analysts predict profit started paring their growth be named. OVL is the overseas what all elections are

entities had lost their FCRA registration; dupli- scrabble lives being led. Likewise for worthy
elevated raw material
prices and forex-related
losses will hit profit
growth, analysts say
B Y P RAMIT B HATTACHARYA
pramit.b@livemint.com
the most deprived
growth for Sensex firms will be
in single digits and companies
projections to below the 7%
mark for the financial year.
arm of the Indian explorer.
The drilling was suspended
about. Not really. UP is a
good example of how
in the broader market will see last year after the exploration chasing votes on the
a sharp decline for the second team was unable to tether the cheap leads to poor
consecutive quarter. The con- drill. economic results in the
sensus among analysts is that
February 2011
China, which disputes sov- long run. Once such
Economic Survey: Economy to grow at 8.5% +_ 0.25%
profits for firms in the broader ereignty over the waters with leaders come to power,
market will fall by at least 10%. Vietnam, had earlier objected they have a constituency
August 2011
Profits of Sensex firms grew to the presence of an Indian to “nurture”. Over time,

cate numbers were held as a scandal back then, purposes like education and research, among
PM's Economic Advisory Council's economic outlook:
························· at an average pace of 11% in Economic growth is unlikely to exceed 8.2% vessel surveying the area. this decisively shifts
MUMBAI the first six months of fiscal OVL has now identified a government expenditure

E
arnings of Indian firms
are likely to hit a new
low in the December
quarter, with margins con-
tracting by 1.5-2.5%, and the
troubled times, analysts ex-
pect, will continue a while.
communities, their reports
2012 over the year-ago period, December 2011
suitable technology to anchor towards subsidizing
while profits of firms in the Finance ministry's mid-year economic review: the rig to the seabed. consumption, leaving
BSE-500 index declined at an Growth could slow to 7.5% +_ 0.25% “We are scouting for a rig for little for investment. This
average pace of 17%. the same to drill one well in is one reason for the
The Sensex comprises 30 14 December 2011 the block that will require a long-term decline of UP.
stocks traded on BSE. The PM Manmohan Singh in an interview to Bloomberg: window of 45 days,” an OVL So, the argument that
BSE-500 index accounts for Gross domestic product to grow at 7.5% executive said, requesting ano- pursuing caste politics is

but some observers hinted at duplicitous aims. others. Fund misuse can be policed without
The March quarter may not
be any better than the previous
three months as companies
continue to struggle with the
93.5% of market capitalization nymity. a low-cost method of
on the bourse. 8 January 2012 OVL’s presence in Vietnam mobilizing electoral
The December earnings sea- Singh at Pravasi Bharatiya Divas: Indian economy is expected to is through 45% and 100% support is not really true.
son that kicks off on 12 Janu- grow by about 7% this financial year. stakes in blocks 06.1 and 128, It has huge long-term

on India will not show

overhang of a depreciating ru- ary, when Infosys Ltd will de- respectively. It was also earlier costs. The sooner parties
pee, slowing economic growth, clare its results, comes in the GDP growth in 2010-11: 8.5% present in block 127 after ac- realize it, the better it will
policy inaction and high inter- wake of the second worst an- be for the country.
est rates. Sales growth, robust nual fall the Indian market has TURN TO PAGE 3®

In 2020, those who argued that the Centre harsh rules, surely. As for self-sufficiency,
so far, is expected to moderate
in the ongoing final quarter of
fiscal 2012, impacting profits.
“Though the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) has hinted at a soft
monetary policy stance on
moderating inflation, concerns
remain over rupee deprecia-
tion, a pick-up in the invest-
was out to clamp non-profits were vindicated although we have many non-profits funded
ment cycle, policy inaction
and the twin deficits amid high
crude prices,” Tirthankar Pat-
naik, strategist and economist
at Religare Capital Markets,
wrote in a 4 January note to cli-
ents. “These overhangs would
weigh on earnings, going
ahead.”
seen in a decade.
The Sensex was among the
worst-performing indices
globally, falling 25% in 2011
owing to deteriorating funda-
Faculty shortage SPECIAL CELLS
mentals. High inflation, rising
interest rates and a lack of ef- may pose hurdle Non-performing assets may
the government in
fective policies to spur invest-
ments led to a slowdown in to four-year
course plans give law firms good business
economic growth and earn-
ings, spooking investors.
Growth of India’s gross do-
mestic product fell to a two- B Y P RASHANT K . N ANDA &
year low of 6.9% and profits of J ACOB P . K OSHY B Y S NEHA S HAH & OPPORTUNITY IN DISTRESS Mandal, said the firm will in-
BSE-500 firms fell by 39% in ························· K HUSHBOO N ARAYAN crease team sizes as and when
the three months ended 30 NEW DELHI ·························  Some law firms expect asset such mandates rise. “Current-
September, which was a five-
year low. Net profit margins T o prime college students
for careers in research and
MUMBAI

S ensing a business opportu-

restructuring to emerge as a major
business area, while others are
ly, we are working on a couple
of mandates, but are yet to see

when the FCRA was revised to insist that over- locally, including an active network run by our
The December quarter earn-
ings will determine the extent
of downgrades analysts make
to earnings forecasts for fiscal
2013. While the consensus
2011-12 earnings estimate for
firms on the Sensex, the BSE’s
benchmark equity index, fell
by about 9% in the first nine
fell to 7.3% and operating mar-
gins to 16%, the second-lowest
level in five years.
Net profit margins had
dropped to 7% and operating
profit margins to 14% during
the September 2008 quarter, at
the peak of the global financial
crisis.
make undergraduate educa-
tion more eclectic, top univer-
sities in India are tweaking
their three-year bachelor’s de-
gree programmes, in some in-
stances introducing four-year
courses, closely modelling the
US system.
Experts, however, say that
nity with bad loans, or non-
performing assets (NPAs), on
the rise across sectors in a
slowing economy, at least half
a dozen law firms, including J.
Sagar Associates, Nishith De-
sai Associates, Wakhariya and
Wakhariya, and FoxMandal are
in the process of setting up
counting on M&A opportunities.
 Law firms are setting up special
teams and expanding existing ones
to handle mandates related to
distressed assets.
 More companies are expected
to approach corporate debt
restructuring cells this year.
a good light.
a steep rise in such assign-
ments, though there are indi-
cations of an increase in bad
assets in the industry next
year,” he added.
Poor asset quality (loans
that run the risk of turning
bad) was the biggest concern,
even ahead of market volatility

seas funds flow only into accounts held with ruling party’s ideological mentor, the market
months of the financial year,
forecasts for fiscal 2013 have
corrected only by 6% over that
period, leaving room for disap-
pointments.
The consensus per-share
earnings estimate for Sensex
firms stands at `1,147.82 for
fiscal 2012 and at `1,177.28 for
Margins may move close to
those levels in the December
quarter. The number of firms
seeing a fall in profits is also
expected to rise substantially.
Edelweiss Securities Ltd, in a
4 January note, said almost
one-third of the 186 compa-
nies in its coverage are expec-
given an all-round deficit of fac-
ulty across universities in India,
such initiatives are unlikely to
yield significant benefits unless
more funds and faculty are ear-
marked for such programmes.
Last week, Dinesh Singh,
vice-chancellor, University of
Delhi, said his institution will
special cells to handle such
cases.
This even as other law firms
such as Majmudar and Co.,
Economic Laws Practice (ELP)
and Ara Law, which have exist-
ing teams, are preparing for in-
creased activity in this space.
While some law firms expect
ence in banking- and finance-
related law mandates, and
have now created a cell within
the organization to handle
these cases.”
Wakhariya and Wakhariya,
too, is exploring “a couple of
situations, and within the fi-
and global risks, of respond-
ents to a survey in the Finan-
cial Stability Report published
by the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) in December.
Bad assets have grown con-
siderably in the recent past
and are slated to increase
manifold in future, the report

State Bank of India’s main branch in Delhi, rationale of better outcomes obtained from
fiscal 2013, according to
Bloomberg data.
Firms are likely to post
strong revenue growth of at
ted to post an earnings decline begin a four-year programme restructuring of assets to nancial services group in the said. “If the economy slows,
of more than 20%. The cover- next year. In August, the Indian emerge as a major business organization some people will there could be a downstream
age universe of brokerages typ- Institute of Science (IISc), Ban- area, others are eyeing oppor- take care of such distressed impact on asset quality,” the
ically includes 100-200 firms in galore, will enroll the second tunities that may arise for sale and restructuring man- report added, identifying agri-

least 20% in the December
quarter. But high interest
costs, elevated raw material
prices and foreign exchange-
related losses will drag down
PA R SA V E N K ATE SHWA R R AO JR
the BSE-500 index. batch for its four-year bachelor mergers and acquisitions dates”, according to Neeta culture, power, real estate and
of science programme. (M&As) related to companies Sanghavi, a partner with the telecom as the sectors respon-
TURN TO PAGE 3® While four-year courses are that are under financial stress. firm. According to her, oppor- sible for most bad loans.
the norm in programmes such as “With the economy slowing tunities will emerge from the An 11 November analysis by
ALSO SEE engineering, the new pro- and key sectors taking a hit, we restructuring of foreign cur- Mint, based on the results of 36

no sub-contract jobs be farmed out, and that multiple players with diverse ideas is applicable
profit growth, analysts said. grammes are aimed to be more are expecting bad assets in the rency convertible bonds and listed banks, showed that gross
The rupee fell nearly 16% >MARK TO MARKET: Earnings revisions flexible, diverse and research- system to rise considerably,” overseas debt repayments by NPAs, or bad loans as a per-
against the dollar in 2011. for next fiscal continue unabated >P16 oriented and will do away with said Dina Wadia, partner at companies. centage of loans disbursed,
Mumbai-based J. Sagar Associ- Shuva Mandal, managing
Mint is also available for R6 with Hindustan Times under a combo offer TURN TO PAGE 2® ates. “We have a strong pres- partner, south India, at Fox- TURN TO PAGE 2®

expense sheets be submitted four times a year in this field too. Let’s not cramp good work.

MY VIEW | TECH WHISPERS

Seven rings of technology that could do Tolkien proud

lion-dollar investments, Coinbase listed
JASPREET BINDRA itself for its shares to be traded on a real-
world stock exchange, and meme coins
reigned. To me, the most profound revolu-
tion that this has ignited is the rise of the cre-
ator economy, where ‘individuality is mone-
technology and Deep Learning could make crossed $1 trillion, more than the next nine Delta recovery severely strained the supply
that happen to become “the one Ring to rule carmakers. Tesla’s success drove Musk to of semiconductors. The lack of these chips,
them all.” become the richest man in the world, but its which are used beyond electronics and
Closer home, a mythical creature gal- influence went beyond that: Every car- computing, in cars and consumer durables
loped across techdom, more specifically the maker, country and vehicle customer has and everything else going smart, hit the pro-
startup world. Unarguably, the startup eco- embraced electric as the future of personal duction and availability of almost every-

is the chief tech whisperer at
Findability Sciences, and
learning AI, Ethics and Society
at Cambridge University.
I
wish it need not have happened in my
time,” said Frodo the Hobbit, in JRR
Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings (LOTR).
Frodo was reflecting upon what all of us
have been undergoing for the past two
years, as the covid pandemic sweeps over us
in successive waves. Gandalf the Wizard
replies: “So do I, and so do all who live to see
such times. All we have to decide is what to
do with the time that is given to us.” While
some of us chose to feel helpless, many in
the world of technology decided that this
really was the time to change the world. As
we enter the third year of the pandemic,
here are seven big things that happened, or
shall we say the “seven Rings presented to
the Dwarf Lords” of Tolkien’s Middle Earth:
Year 2021 of the Common Era was one in
which crypto came into its own, not only as
a trading instrument, but also as a real cur-
rency—if not of the real world, at least of this
alternate reality on the internet called the
Metaverse. Facebook Inc changed its name
to Meta Inc, a16z and others introduced bil-
tized’ and artists, writers and other creators
can carve out careers of their own. This will
have a profound impact on jobs, organiza-
tions, and work in general. The Metaverse of
course is new and uncertain, and as Tolkien
says, “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo,
going out of your door. You step onto the
road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s
no knowing where you might be swept off
to.” The Metaverse, crypto and the creator
economy that it has unleashed together
promise to sweep us off to another world
and a new reality.
The past year was also one that saw artifi-
cial intelligence (AI), specifically Deep
Learning, make great strides. The year
before, DeepMind, an Alphabet-owned
company, unveiled Alpha Fold, which pre-
dicted how proteins fold in our body, some-
thing that could revolutionize medical sci-
ence. In 2021, DeepMind spun off a subsidi-
ary called Isomorphic Labs that will focus on
using AI processes to develop new drugs. AI
has been hailed for long as a path-breaking
system in India has not seen a boom year mobility, with most automobile firms thing. It also pushed semiconductors to the
like 2021. By 29 December, India had dou- declaring that they will stop making con- top of the list of strategic industries, eliciting
bled its unicorn population to 81 startups ventional vehicles soon. massive investments by countries and even
with valuations of $1 billion or more, making The other place where Musk’s outsize the fear of war over this scarce commodity.
us the world’s third largest unicorn country. influence made a mark was outer space. His Finally, the future of work suddenly came
This unprecedented boom in tech entrepre- SpaceX has overtaken countries to become closer. The creator economy, gig work and
neurship reflects how the old order is a dominant player, launching the biggest entrepreneurship boom, combined with
changing and speaks of rockets, bringing them work-from-home (or anywhere) forced by
the courage of our young back to earth, and blan- the pandemic, showed workers that there
people who believe in QUICK READ keting the sky with satel- could be other ways to make a living. This
venturing out to change lites to connect the resulted in large swathes of white-collar
the world for the better. Seven of the major changes planet. Rivals Jeff Bezos workers quitting jobs or contemplating leav-
Globally, if there was and tech trends of 2021, from and Richard Branson are ing in what was dubbed The Great Resigna-
one company that argua- AI being used for drug-making trying to catch up, and a tion. Nowhere did this have a bigger impact
bly changed the course all the way to Tesla reshaping billionaire’s space race than in the tech sector, leading to raw nerves
of history, it was Tesla; multiple sectors, echoed the has begun. “Not all those in companies and skyrocketing salaries.
2021 was the year that seven rings of ‘Lord of the Rings’. who wander are lost,” The past year had many more big tech
Tesla and its creator Elon said Tolkien. Perhaps he events, but I had to choose seven. This year
Musk single-handedly Semiconductor shortages held had them in mind. promises to be even bigger, as the pandemic
reshaped the automo- tech back, but the future of work While tech roared shows signs of weakening.
bile, technology and came closer, crypto boomed, the ahead, much of it got “All’s well that ends better,” said The Lord
energy industries, and Metaverse beckoned, creator impacted by the Great of the Rings, and my seven predictions for
thus the world. The com- economy got going, and Indian Semiconductor Supply this year will follow in my next column a
pany’s market value unicorns and dreams multiplied. Chain Crisis, as the post- fortnight from now.
LIVEMINT.COM VIEWS FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI 17

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

Reformist laws for trading in farm Elizabeth Holmes’s trial: Was

she held to an unfair standard?
output are best enacted by states No, but our image of an ideal woman leader remains straitjacketed

An excellent 2017 model law for states protects farmers from any conceivable abuse of a move towards greater freedom of sale

PTI

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL

is an editor with Bloomberg Opinion.

INDIRA RAJARAMAN
is an economist

E
lizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos,
commanded headlines and magazine
covers as an executive worth billions.

T
he repeal of India’s central farm laws is
seen so widely as gravely negative for
prospects of further economic reform
that it might be opportune at the start
of this New Year to set the record
straight. The good news is that farm
reform, defined as opening up marketing channels
for farm produce, was already well underway
before the three central laws were enacted.
The bad news is that there is still a great deal of
avoidable confusion as to the exact state of play
in that process.
The states were the appropriate jurisdiction for
legislating on trade in farm produce, since in any
case it was state laws enacted 50 years ago that had
limited the purchase of farm produce to licensed
traders in Agricultural Market Produce Committee
(APMC) market yards. A model act for doing away
with the APMC-controlled regime was drafted for
states in 2017 by the Centre. The 2017 model is an
admirably comprehensive and carefully-worded
legal provision, protecting farmers as it does from
every conceivable abuse of the move towards
greater freedom of sale.
In December 2019, the 15th Finance Commis-
sion, in its interim report, incentivized states to
enact legislation based on the 2017 template,
with a promised reward in their final report. Since
Ramesh Chand was a member of both the Finance
Commission and the Niti Aayog, the Centre quite
clearly agreed that states were the appropriate
legislating authority. That thinking seems to
have changed in 2020, with enactment of three
central laws.
How many states had already gone with the 2017
template by 2019? The Union ministry of agricul-
ture, at a conference of state agriculture ministers
in July 2019, presented a detailed tabulation
showing that 22 states had provided freedom for
farmers to sell their produce to private traders,
the key element enabled by the 2017 model law.
Kerala and Manipur had never enacted an APMC
law, and Bihar repealed its APMC law in 2005.
That left only three states of the present Indian
total of 28 which did not give farmers freedom to
sell to private traders: Haryana, Madhya Pradesh
and Tamil Nadu.
Sadly, we cannot conclude that the freeing of
farmers from the clutches of the APMC monop-
sony was complete, barring those three states,
because in the same July 2019 presentation, only
four states are named as having fully followed the
2017 template: Arunachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh and Punjab. It could be that the other
states had not followed the 2017 template in every
detail. Another explanation could be that those
states had not followed enactment with a notifica-
tion of rules. But without notification (the point at
which any law is administratively recognized), how
Just convicted for financial fraud, she is no Theranos’s former CEO was found guilty of
less spellbinding in defeat. Hers is the story fraud in a high-profile trial in the US REUTERS
that launched a thousand articles—as well as
several podcasts, books and movies. She’s women’s mistakes incur stronger penalties,
fascinating because we can’t decide what to especially in male-dominated fields. But
make of her. A manipulative villain? A cred- that doesn’t make Holmes—a specific
ulous ingenue? A perpetrator or a victim? woman in a specific set of circumstances—
Public opinion may never be settled. But an example of the phenomenon. It stretches
one notion I’d like to see fizzle is that prose- the definition of euphemism to call
cutors held Holmes to an unfair standard Holmes’s decade of lies a “mistake”.
because she’s a woman. It’s true that Silicon That’s not to say that sexism played no
Valley has a well-established fake-it-till- role at all in the Theranos saga. Without the
you-make-it culture. Some male entrepre- startup world’s sexism, Elizabeth Holmes
neurs do engage in puffery to attract invest- may never have become the darling of mag-
ments for their startups. azine covers or the TED stage. In a world
But that doesn’t make Holmes’s convic- where female founders get funded at the
tion for fraud evidence of a gender-based rate they deserve, her success would not
double standard. If anything, it’s a reminder have been so unusual, and therefore not so
that there are justifiable limits to what exec- newsworthy. In a world where racism and
utives can say—especially in industries such ageism were not rampant, other female
as healthcare. founders—those not young, blonde and
For another, it’s possible that the narrow [Caucasian] and whose products actually,
result of the jury’s decision—convicting her you know, worked—might commandeer
on only four of 11 charges—indicates that more magazine covers. In a more merito-
Holmes still managed to catch a break. Cor- cratic world, the kind of tokenism that led to
porate history is littered with male execu- Holmes’s meteoric rise, outstripping her
tives who went to jail for wrongdoing, from product’s utility, would not exist.
could 22 states have been listed as having freed The equivalent central law of 2020 is much Jeffrey Skilling to Bernie Madoff to Martin The lesson to take from her conviction is
farmers to sell to private traders? The issue shorter than the 2017 model, because it does not go Shkreli. And prosecutors in the Holmes trial not that women face a double standard—we
remains mired in confusion. into the kind of painstaking detail as the 2017 tem- presented ample evidence that she know- already know that—but that the image
I should explain why I rate the 2017 model act so plate does in order to secure the rights of farmers. ingly lied about her product. Holmes managed to convey was a mirage.
highly. Many laws at both the Centre and states There were also two major departures in the But Holmes’s lawyers—and Holmes her- It’s the old double bind of male-domi-
leave details about procedures to the rules, which 2020 act. One was that it explicitly ruled out the self, on the witness stand—did an impress- nated jobs: To seem competent, a woman
can easily be changed by administrative notifica- levy of market fees. That was most puzzling, since ive job of softening her image and blunting has to dial down her femininity. But if she
tion, without having to refer a lot of initial investment and the prosecution’s impact. To do this, wants to be likeable, she has to emphasize
back to the legislative body for a maintenance is needed for Holmes and her team played on sympa- that femininity, and to be successful, she
change in the law. The 2017 tem- QUICK READ agricultural market yards. If no thetic gender stereotypes, portraying her must be liked. That creates what’s known as
plate was exceptional for having market fees are levied, invest- variously as an ingenue who didn’t under- the warmth-competence paradox: For a
inserted procedures for setting Our farm laws were repealed ment and maintenance have to stand the limitations of her company’s tech- woman to succeed, likability is essential. For
market fees, and specifying uses but reforms need not suffer, as a be fully borne by either govern- nology, a victim of sexual and emotional men, it’s optional.
to which the revenue from these 2017 central model act exists that ment or private traders. If it’s abuse and a young mother. (Holmes’s Holmes mastered that warmth-compe-
fees could be put, right in the law states can adopt to give farmers the latter, an agricultural market defence lawyers invoked these gender tence tightrope walk. She created a public
itself without being waved away greater choice while shielding could easily degenerate into archetypes much more skilfully and subtly persona that was a perfect blend of mascu-
to the rules. them from exploitation. a local monopsony. That possi- than did the legal team of Ghislaine Max- line and feminine, adopting black turtle-
There was no compulsion on bility was what the 2017 model well, which ham-fistedly compared her to necks and a baritone voice, while sporting
states to enact their own legisla- The model law is unique for the act guarded against. the biblical temptress Eve. It didn’t work.) red lipstick and being publicly vulnerable
tion based on the 2017 template. extent it goes to protect farmer The second departure was Of course, human beings are complex, about her fear of needles. In hindsight, it
There are prior and very suc- interests, even laying down how that the central law required all and Holmes may in fact be all of those may look hopelessly contrived. How could
cessful instances of states having market fees should be set as traders in farm produce, barring things. She is also now a former chief execu- anyone have believed it? But the more
voluntarily followed a standard regulatory insurance against a farmer organisations, to have a tive officer convicted of misleading inves- important question is: Why are so many
template on which to base their private monopsony taking hold. permanent account number tors about her company. It is infantilizing to women still expected to walk this tightrope?
own legislation. The Fiscal (PAN) for income taxation. Quite suggest that she didn’t know what she was It was wrong to hold up Elizabeth Holmes
Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) aside from the merits of that requirement, it should doing, or that she was a corporate figure- as an exemplar of female leadership when
acts, enacted by states starting in 2005, was one have been in a finance bill rather than a farm bill. head without any real agency or knowledge she was a darling of investors. It would be
such. Another example was the model VAT law I have dealt only with the marketing law, of the of the company she founded. wrong now to make her an example of how
offered to states that same year. In the case of farm three enacted, for lack of space. The essential point Yes, it’s true that women as a group are women are held to an unfair standard. Let
laws as well, it was only a matter of time before all is that the 2017 model is still in place, providing held to higher standards in business and her story instead remind us that our image
states would have seen the advantages of enacting a secure legal basis for opening up markets to that their errors are judged more harshly. of the ideal female leader has all the subtlety
(and notifying) laws based on the 2017 template. farmers in a non-exploitative way. Several academic studies have shown that of a straitjacket. ©BLOOMBERG

GUEST VIEW

It’s the year to turbocharge our renewable-energy drive

needs to be catapulted higher to hit the
SUMANT SINHA country’s stretch climate targets, including
cutting the economy’s carbon intensity by
45%. The challenge is tangible now that the
government has revised its target for 2030
to 500GW of non-fossil-based installed
job so far and the programme it runs should results-linked, Revamped Distribution Sec- Green light for green hydrogen: For meeting
be expanded immediately, as India would tor Scheme is expected to improve the oper- climate goals, green hydrogen is the exciting
need at least 15-20 auctions for at least ational efficiency of discoms by providing new frontier. If developed rapidly, it can
30-40GW annually for years to come. financial incentives tied to performance. slash India’s huge reliance on polluting and
Also, battery storage systems will go a long Protect contracts: Ensuring contractual expensive fossil fuels used in hydrogen pro-
way in addressing the challenge of intermit- sanctity is critical to ensure certain states duction (95% of global hydrogen output till

is the chairman and chief
executive officer of ReNew
Power
T
he year 2021 was a landmark one for
climate change and for those working
to mitigate its increasing effects. The
world saw an intensification of climate disas-
ters, such as forest fires in North America,
cyclonic storms in India and the recent
Typhoon Rai that wreaked havoc in the Phil-
ippines. All of this has propelled climate
change to the top of the global agenda like
never before. We witnessed world leaders,
including Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
gather in Glasgow for CoP-26 and saw 29
more national commitments of net-zero by
the summit’s close, bringing the total to 74
countries, representing 90% of global gross
domestic product (GDP).
In 2022, all renewable energy (RE) players
will have to double down on the hard work
already done to achieve steeper RE targets
set at CoP-26, such as India meeting half its
overall energy needs from renewables by
2030 and achieving net zero by 2070.
So, if 2021 was a revamped launching pad,
then 2022 is the year in which RE growth
capacity, up from 450GW. The current year
will indicate how our accelerated drive
towards these stretch goals plays out.
For its part, ReNew Power has been pitch-
ing in. We have added 1.5GW of operational
RE capacity in 2021-22 to date, taking our
total installed capacity to 7.4GW. We’re on
track to reach our aspirational goal of 18GW
by 2025. Yes, this is about meeting business
targets, but it is also about being part of an
‘all hands on deck’ national effort to meet
India’s climate goals. Clearly, ReNew and its
RE industry peers have a mammoth task
ahead. In view of this, I would like to suggest
a few key measures in 2022 to enable the RE
sector to accelerate its capacity expansion
and innovate rapidly.
More auctions: Given the challenges of
intermittency in renewables, grid resilience
must improve through more auctions of firm
round-the-clock RE projects by Solar
Energy Corporation of India (SECI). This
will ensure flexible, on-demand power ena-
bled through storage. SECI has done a stellar
tency of RE sources and improve the genera- don’t question signed power purchase 2020 was grey hydrogen, with green hydro-
tion profile of renewable energy projects. agreements (PPAs) or inordinately delay gen a minuscule 0.1%). This will be critical in
Moreover, as the share of renewables in payments to RE players. If PPA contracts are decarbonizing the hard-to-abate chemical,
the country’s energy mix increases, there not honoured, it impacts the business cli- industrial and transportation sectors.
will be a need to improve grid flexibility and mate in any sector. While substantive legal It’s encouraging to see that the Centre has
enhance transmission networks. precedents exist in the power sector for been prescient in spotting the potential of
Discoms health check: The fiscal health of enforcement of contracts, the Centre can green hydrogen and launched the National
power distribution com- work more closely with Hydrogen Mission last year. But greater
panies (discoms) needs to states to ensure greater investments in electrolyzers, as well as tar-
be addressed urgently, so QUICK READ adherence to contracts. geted policy interventions such as clear-cut
that they invest more in Taxes and duties: As RE green hydrogen obligations, will help the
grid upgradation for the While 2021 saw the world joining players need to boost cause.
absorption of 500GW of hands to mitigate climate risks, their efforts, rationaliza- In this context, ReNew has partnered with
non-fossil fuel capacity. 2022 will need a doubling down tion of duties and taxes L&T for developing green hydrogen capac-
Delicensing of the sector of our efforts to achieve the will certainly help. If ity. On a broader level, multi-stakeholder
is a close-to-ideal solu- renewable energy targets that import duties are not kept partnerships involving scientists, industry,
tion. It would enhance were recently reset by India. low for the next 3-5 years multilateral institutions and investors will
consumer choice, for battery storage and play a key role.
increase RE demand and Better technology for battery green hydrogen equip- Our RE goals for 2030 are both beckoning
raise investor confi- storage to plug intermittency ment, it would be chal- and daunting. The coming year will be criti-
dence. The government of power, delicensing to spur lenging to develop a local cal for India’s once-in-a-lifetime clean
has taken some positive investment and tax incentives manufacturing ecosys- energy transition and in determining
steps. The government’s can help speed up the country’s tem. GST on RE should whether we reach those life-saving climate
reforms-based and transition to clean energy. be a maximum of 5%. goals for the sake of future generations.
18 FRIDAY, 7 JANUARY 2022
NEW DELHI BUSINESS OF LIFE
Men’s tailoring gets a fun makeover
Black-tie evening
jackets and tuxedos
are passé. Celebrities,
influencers and
models are going for
an edgy look
Manish Mishra
T
here was a time when
men’s red-carpet fashion
was synonymous with old-
school tuxedos and suits.
Quintessentially bespoke
and aligning with the spirit of the Savile
Row tailoring, the suit at a fashion night-
out symbolised elegance and simplicity.
Picture a young Tom Cruise arriving in a
tux at the Golden Globes or Brad Pitt in
black-tie at Cannes. While the silver
screen goddesses would be rocking floor-
sweeping gowns and fluttery cocktail
dresses, men were happy to be in muted
blacks, pale greys, pristine whites and
midnight blues. Men’s styling was decid-
edly pared-back, clean and minimal with
maybe just a pair of sunglasses or a dia-
mond watch to finish off the monochro-
matic ensembles.
Cut to the present, when the likes of
singers Maluma and Nick Jonas, and
actors Dan Levy and Jake Gyllen-
haal have warmed up to tailoring
in striking tones, from mauve to
cobalt blue. At the Oscars last year,
Leslie Odom Jr. collaborated with
stylist Avo Yermagyan to create a
bespoke Brioni suit, which was
threaded with real 24-karat gold. Jus-
tin Bieber leaned in favour of off-kil-
ter tailoring with his choice of attire
at the September Met Gala—he off-
set a pair of wide-legged trousers
with a cropped blazer from his
own label, Maison Drew. Even
singer Shawn Mendes looked
chic in a monochrome relaxed-
fit suit, which he wore over a
tank top. At the Brit Awards
2021, Harry Styles looked sensa-
tional in a retro print Gucci suit worn with
70s-style flared trousers and a bamboo
bag. The list is endless.
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Actor Dan Levy during the 2019 MTV Movie and TV Awards; and (extreme left) model Gagandeep Plaha.
Back home, celebrities are also trying to
push the envelope. Actor Ranveer Singh,
for instance, has been rewriting rules in
subversive suit styling for some time now.
From shirtless suiting to layering his blaz-
ers with necklaces, he’s pushed the men-
swear code with almost each outing.
“A statement suit has made its way to
the top of the wish list of the well-dressed.
It is not limited by gender and has long
surpassed its classical, more formal itera-
tion. Today, we see brides in sharply tai-
lored jackets and the men of the moment
in pastel-hued blazer co-ord sets,” says
designer Hemant Sagar of label Genes
Lecoanet Hemant. “The suit is truly living
its moment.”
Crafted in luxe velvet and embroidered
with three dimensional elements, they are
a nod to the indulgent style of dressing
that has become a hit during the pan-
Avinashr
Mudalia
on htschool.hindustantimes.com or scan the QR Code
INDULGE LIVEMINT.COM
REUTERS
make and uplift iconic looks due to which
design houses choose to dress them. This
helps translate a brand’s design ideology,”
says Tanna, adding: “A suit is a timeless
classic silhouette and creating variations
of it by using different design elements is
the best way to innovate. Fabric and tex-
ture manipulations with accessories are
time-tested methods to modernise this
quintessential garment structure.”
Recently, designer Tarun Tahiliani
showcased Tasva, an affordable men-
swear label in Varanasi, featuring a pared-
back, edited approach to traditional men-
swear styling. From cropped bandis and
knee-length waistcoats to lightweight
sherwanis and free-flowing kurtas, real-
ised in brocade, jacquard and Khadi, they
were all peppered with tone-on-tone
embroidery and texturing. “Tasva means
all that is me, all that is mine. Of course, it
caters to the millennials, but it has offer-
ings for everyone, from young to old,”
says Tahiliani.
Actor-model Amit Ranjan believes
modern-day tailoring resonates with the
changing sartorial philosophy of individu-
alistic dressing. “Designers and stylists
have made the suit more democratic by
breaking it up and mixing with separates
like the safari blazer or a crew neck tee. I
love Harry’s style. Gucci has given us a
male version of Twiggy,” he says.
Model T.J. Gill, too, prefers the Harry
Styles school of suit pairing. “Whether it’s
Gucci’s 70 style printed suit or Valentino’s
tone-on-tone ensemble, I’d wear it with
demic. “We move on to more casual inter- the tuxedo and inspiring grooms to take it either a pair of sneakers or Chelsea boots
pretations, where the suit set plays canvas up a notch with their personal style,” says and accessorise with a handbag. If I were
to abstract artistic prints. The icy land- Sandeep Gonsalves, founder of the label to leave the jacket open, I’d wear a crop
scape finds a voice in the jackets and the Sarah & Sandeep. “Power lapels are always top inside or something sheer with multi-
result is a visually arresting ensemble. It a go-to for many, so seeing them being ple necklaces,” Gill says.
can be styled in many ways. Layer it over embraced in the relatively safer menswear The likes of Styles and Maluma have
a classic tee realm speaks made gender-fluid dressing rather main-
or the signa- of a strong stream and it’s no longer about the dated
ture crisp ‘Designers, stylists have made the future for the gay, straight or trans categories.
poplin for a suit more democratic by breaking it neoteric man. Model Gagandeep Plaha, known for a
more sarto- We’re seeing gender-fluid personal style, is upbeat
rial essence,” up and mixing with separates like a lot of jewel- about the suit’s modern iterations, which,
adds Sagar. the safari blazer or a crew neck tee’ lery in styling, he believes, lends scope for fun styling. “I
The ques- with personal like pairing a suit with a corset instead of
tion, though, style referen- a shirt and layered chains,” he says.
remains: is tailoring going topsy-turvy? ces from the wearer, which makes it a From broken tailoring to inculcation of
“Today’s suits are turning to couture. great conversational piece for breaking strappy details to addition of zipper
The more unique the handwork, the inno- archaic barriers.” accents and embellishments, suiting
vative surface ornamentation, the off-beat Designer Kunal Anil Tanna believes the today is anything but classic and formal.
silhouettes, the better. Red carpets, before once-static menswear space is no longer
omicron hit us, were seeing men step up chained by dated elements. “Celebrities Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com
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