CHENNAI, NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, BENGALURU, KOLKATA, AHMEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE* VOL. 17 NO.

80

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

livemint.com

mint primer QUICK EDIT

What to expect Not all

from changes in
competition law
BY GIREESH CHANDRA PRASAD
Parliament has given its approval to the Competition Amendment Bill,
2023, in the ongoing budget session, laying the foundation for more
effective oversight. Mint takes a look at what the competition law
reforms seek to achieve.
Why did the law need
1 amendments?
Shifts in economic activity,
including the boom in start-ups,
growth of the digital economy and
the need to improve ease of doing
business warranted updates to
legislation. The growth in new age
businesses meant that entities with
huge valuation and market
impacting power escaped the
Competition Commission of
India’s (CCI) merger regulations
because they did not meet asset
and sale based monetary threshold
for seeking CCI clearance. Besides,
a new approach to correcting
market distortions was needed
after penalties imposed by CCI
tended to end up in courts,
affecting consumers.
What are the major
2 changes?
The amendments passed by both
the Houses of Parliament seek to
expedite regulatory decisions on
mergers and acquisitions and
extend CCI’s regulatory reach to
transactions valued at more than
₹2,000 crore even if they do not
meet the conventional criteria for
merger regulation based on asset
and sales. The Bill also proposes
greater deterrence by way of
higher penalty provisions based on
the global sales of corporations. A
‘leniency plus’ scheme aims to
encourage entities facing cartel
investigations to disclose
information about other cartels.
The Bill also provides for
negotiated settlements.
smooth
The World Bank’s latest out-
look has as much for India to
cheer as to worry about. Its
broad assessment is of our
economy’s resilience to global
shocks and an imminent easing
of pain stemming from high
inflation and a wide current
account deficit, even as Indian
banks look healthy. All this
should reassure observers that
there is much going on for
India. Yet, as the world econ-
omy stares at a possible reces-
sion, ours won’t escape unhurt.
While domestic drivers might
help offset some external pres-
sures, exports may take time to
spring back. The World Bank’s
growth forecast of 6.3% for
2023-24, which it slashed from
6.6%, reflects the challenges
ahead. A plus-6% expansion fig-
ure would still stand out, no
doubt. But even this growth cal-
culus could get upset by shocks
like this week’s decision of a
global oil cartel to cut output
sharply. Since we import most
of the crude oil we consume, we
can’t rule out local price pres-
sures intensifying again, even if
cheaper imports from Russia
ease our bills to some extent.
Pricier imports could also hit
India’s external balances and
cause rupee turbulence. Indian
policymakers don’t have an
enviable task ahead of them.
MINT METRIC
by Bibek Debroy

In Midnapore, a shopkeeper,
3 When will these be
implemented?
Once the Bill receives the President’s
With ₹17,000 missing, probed deeper.
ascent, CCI plans to go for public
Before alerting the cops,
consultation on proposed regulations so he checked out the footage on CCTV,
that finer aspects of the provisions are
drawn up without any unintended
And nabbed a rat as cash reaper.
consequences. The government wants to
introduce the rules and regulations before
the year-end. Ministries have to bring rules
within six months of a change in law. QUOTE OF THE DAY
What’s the new merger What about digital
The Indian economy continues
4 approval timeline? 5 competition? to show strong resilience to
The Bill proposes to expedite CCI A separate Digital Competition Bill external shocks.
clearance of mergers and has been suggested by two
acquisitions to within 150 days, Parliamentary committees to keep Notwithstanding external
down from a maximum of 210 days an eye on the digital economy pressures, India’s service
now. CCI has to frame a first where businesses can quickly
impression of the transaction attain scale, tip the market and exports have continued to
within 30 days of it getting erect entry barriers to new smaller increase, and the current-
notified of a deal. If it misses the firms. This Bill will likely propose
deadline, the deal is deemed to be ‘dos and donts’ for large digital account deficit is narrowing.
approved. However, for this to economy firms so that market
work, CCI’s manpower needs to be tipping behaviour is nipped in the
scaled up. It’s still waiting for the bud. This forward-looking way is
government to appoint a chair. But different from the conventional
it has secured permission to clear approach in which the regulator AUGUSTE TANO KOUAME
WORLD BANK’S COUNTRY
mergers so that economic activity steps in after the deed is done.
DIRECTOR IN INDIA
does not suffer. gireesh.p@livemint.com

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 PLAIN FACTS

With Musk in charge,

Twitter gets the blues
By hoWiNdiAlivES.coM

O
n 1 April, some parts of Twitter were abuzz with talks about the rollout of the social media platform’s new verification
process. Legacy verified accounts would start losing their blue tick mark, as The New York Times did. Many public figures
said they would not subscribe. On the surface, it might seem like a mere social media fight over a status symbol. However,
for Twitter, and for Elon Musk, it represents something deeper—a change in revenue model for a path to growth and profitability.
The next few quarters will give some sense of where this is going and whether Twitter can stem the slide it finds itself in.

Under Musk, Twitter's valuation has

dropped by more than half 1 Value Discount
Twitter's valuation ($ billion) ELON MUSK recently said Twitter would offer stock options to
60 staff on a $20-billion valuation. That’s less than half the $44
billion he paid to buy Twitter in October 2022, and delist it.
50 44 When listed, the last time Twitter quoted at a $20 billion
Oct 2022
valuation was in Q1 of 2020, and that too only briefly.
40
The lower valuation reflects the maelstrom Twitter has faced
87
30 in recent months. When Musk first offered to buy Twitter in April
2022, Professor Aswath Damodaran, a valuation guru, pegged its
20 20 value at $46 per share, $4 higher than the market price at that
time, but below Musk’s offer of $54.20. Musk’s latest valuation is
10 significantly lower.
However, it need not necessarily mean Twitter is in a weaker
0
Q2 2018 Mar 2023 spot. Many early startups offer stock options at steep discounts, to
Oct 2022 figure is based on the price that Elon Musk paid to acquire benefit employees when the value goes up. In a mail to
Twitter, and March 2023 figure is based on Musk's recent statement in
the context of stock options. employees, Musk said he saw “a clear, but difficult, path to a >
Source: Trading Economics, media reports $250B valuation”.

2 The Ad Slump Twitter revenues dropped by 41% in 2022

Twitter's revenues ($ billion)
FOR ALL of Musk’s optimism, Twitter is staring at lower 6
revenues right now, led by a drop in advertising revenues,
which contributes about 90% of the total. Twitter’s total 5
revenues have plunged 41%, from $5.1 billion in 2021 to $3
billion in 2022, according to a WSJ report. Advertisers such as 4
Mondelez, Coca-Cola and AT&T paused their ads as they were
concerned about the changes Musk was bringing in. 3 3
Twitter has had little success in wooing them back. Twitter
earned $71 million in sales from its top 10 advertisers during 2
September and October last year, before Musk’s acquisition.
This has dropped to $7.6 million in the past two months,
1 0.7
according to digital intelligence firm Sensor Tower, quoted by
Bloomberg. While data licensing and other revenues increased
0
to $100 million in Q2 2022 from $84 million in Q2 2018, it’s ads 2013 2022
that drove the momentum, doubling to over a billion during the 2022 figure based on Musk's comment reported by WSJ.
same period. Ads are, now, struggling. Source: Twitter, media reports

3 Twitter Blues Nearly half of Twitter Blue subscribers

have less than 1,000 followers
MUSK TRIED to reduce Twitter’s reliance on Breakup of Twitter's 475,000 Twitter Blue subscribers
advertising revenues by launching Twitter Blue. For a 220,132
monthly fee of $8, Blue subscribers would get a verified
badge (so far offered free to some groups of people based
on an internal process) and other benefits, including 78,059
making longer tweets and higher discoverability.
However, that has had limited success so far, earning just
$11 million in mobile subscriptions in three months,
according to Sensor Tower.
According to researcher Travis Brown, Twitter has
254 million daily active users. Only around 475,000 are
paid subscribers, 46% of whom have fewer than 1,000
2,270
followers, raising questions about their stickiness. This
month, Twitter started to remove blue ticks from legacy Zero followers Less than 100 Less than 1000
verified accounts. Fewer than 6,500 of 420,000 legacy followers followers
verified accounts opted to subscribe, as of last month. Source: Travis Brown

Mastodon active user numbers down

every month since December
4 Network Effect
Mastodon's active users (million) SOON AFTER Musk purchased Twitter, many started looking
2.62 for alternatives to the social media platform. The hashtag
#TwitterMigration started trending. Mastodon, a decentralized
social network founded in 2016, seemed to be the most
promising, even as those who migrated encouraged and hand-
1.81
held others to find a home there. However, after surging to 2.6
1.42 million active users on 1 December, it dropped to 1.17 million in
1.32 April. Even at its peak, Mastodon was a fraction of Twitter’s 254
1.17
million daily active users, which drew advertisers. Paying
customers could be a bigger draw. Tom Sweeney, CEO of Epic
0.55 0.57 Games, tweeted that “making a payment is a strong non-spam
0.45 0.47
signal”. Similarly, Nassim Taleb, who has criticized Musk in the
past, tweeted, “charging for Twitter should bring cash flow and
Aug Apr eliminate NOISE.” Musk has indicated bigger ambitions for the
2022 2023 platform, including putting it at the centre of users’ financial
Source: Mastodon lives, possibly integrating payments and other financial services.

5 Cost Cuts Twitter headcount is down 70% since

Musk's takeover
BY THE time Musk offered to take over Twitter, the company was Number of employees at Twitter
8000
facing two issues, financially. One, its revenue growth had flattened
(even though it showed an uptick in 2021). Two, while it became
profitable at the operational level in 2017, it showed little sign of
6000
sustained improvement, even as its employee count went up.
Musk went on a cost-cutting spree, slashing jobs and
infrastructure costs. At a recent event organized by Morgan
Stanley, Musk said he had cut non-debt expenditure to $1.5 4000
billion (against $4.5 billion it would have incurred otherwise). 2,712
Some of the fears around aggressive cost-cutting—like it could 2,300
bring the platform down—seem exaggerated in retrospect. 2000
However, there are still concerns it might show up as lawsuits
from disgruntled contractors, partners and employees. Musk’s
big challenge of building a growing, profitable business remains. 0
Dec Jan
www.howindialives.com is a database and search engine for 2013 2023
public data. Source: Twitter
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT

PEANUTS by Charles M. Schulz

This PDF was uploade To Teligram channel_ LBS Newspaper platform (https://t.me/LBSNEWSPAPER) @LBSNEWSPAPER
 CheNNAI, NEw DELHI, MUMBAI, BENGALURU, kOLkATA, AHMEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE* VOL. 17 NO. 80 Rs. 15.00 18 PAGES

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Why India’s undertrials In test, Google chatbot churns

livemint.com continue to languish uP10 out known conspiracies uP9

SENSEX 59,106.44 0.00 NIFTY 17,398.05 0.00 DOLLAR ₹82.33 ₹0.00 EURO ₹89.34 ₹0.00 OIL $85.98 $1.03 GOLD ₹59,404 ₹0.00

RIL secures $2 bn Crude windfall tax

cut to nil, but may
World Bank
cuts India
DON’T MISS

GDP outlook
additional loan return as oil rises to 6.3%
Gireesh Chandra Prasad
Group raises $5 bn in total; largest syndicated loan in India Rituraj Baruah & Saurav Anand
Major relief gireesh.p@livemint.com
rituraj.baruah@livemint.com The price trend was NEw DELHI
NEw DELHI relatively steady on Tuesday Firms may have to file annual
Anirudh Laskar & Ranjani Raghavan

T
he World Bank on Tues- returns in web-based forms
eyeING eXPANSION Brent crude price trend

T
anirudh.l@htlive.com he Union government 110
Price ($/bbl)
day cut India’s FY24 eco- Companies may have to file their annual
MUMBAI on Tuesday cut the nomic growth forecast to returns, financial statements in new web-
windfall tax on selling 105.4 6.3% from its December esti- based forms with enhanced security features

R
eliance Industries Ltd
(RIL) has secured an
additional credit line of
$2 billion from 18 banks
after obtaining a $3 bil-
lion from 55 banks last week, three
people directly aware of the devel-
opment said.
The conglomerate has thus got a
total loan of $5 billion, making it the
largest fundraising through the
syndicated loan route in India’s cor-
porate history.
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, a
unit of RIL, secured the $2 billion
add-on facility on Tuesday with the
same terms as its recent $3 billion
syndicated loan.
The funds will mainly be allo-
cated towards RIL’s capital expend-
itures and Jio’s nationwide 5G
expansion.
“The $2 billion add-on will be
split equally between RIL and Jio
and is likely to be wrapped up by the
end of April,” said one of the three
people, requesting anonymity.
The conglomerate has emerged
as one of the most sought-after
groups by banks for syndicated
credits.
“The funding offer for Jio’s
expansion plan is phenomenal,”
said a veteran investment banker
domestic crude oil to zero
from ₹3,500 per tonne after
crude prices fell in March.
However, the duty could make
a comeback in subsequent
reviews, given that Sunday’s
Opec+ decision to cut produc-
tion has lifted prices again.
The government also
halved the export duty on die-
sel to 50 paise per litre from Re
1. The levies on the export of jet
fuel and petrol continue to be
nil. The duty cut comes after
Brent crude fell below $75 per
barrel in March on fears
STRONG SIGNAL around the banking crisis in
The funds will be RIL has emerged as IT raised $2 bn from the West and its economic fall-
used for RIL’s capex one of the most 18 banks on Tuesday out.
and Jio’s 5G expansion sought-after groups after $3 bn last week The windfall tax was first
imposed on 1 July 2022 as
crude prices soared after the
aware of the RIL deal. was launched in mid-January Russian invasion of Ukraine,
DBS is the lead arranger for Reli- through general syndication and fetching large profits for oil
ance Industries Ltd’s $2 billion was closed after months of negotia- producers. It is reviewed every
add-on credit line, having also tions. fortnight based on average oil
played the same role for the $3 bil- “Eighteen banks, including the 15 prices in the previous two
lion syndicated credit. senior MLABs (mandated lead weeks. This is the 18th fort-
The borrowing was priced at 146 arranger and book runners), which nightly revision of the windfall
bps and 156 bps for RIL and its tele- are the key coordinator of any syn- tax, technically called a special
com arm Reliance Jio Infocomm, dication of the $3 billion loan and additional excise duty (SAED).
respectively, over the benchmark others joining in the senior phase Earlier on 20 March, the gov-
secure overnight financing rate. ernment had reduced the
The $3 billion fundraising plan TURN TO PAGE 4 windfall tax on crude to
100
90
85
80
Apr 2022 4 Apr 2023
Source: Trading Economics
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
₹3,500 per tonne from Rs
4,400 per tonne.
However, the duty relief
may not last long since crude
oil prices have rebounded
after Opec+, the alliance of the
Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (Opec),
and non-Opec oil-producing
countries decided to further
cut production by 1.16 million
barrels per day. Experts said
the tax may be reimposed in
the next review.
Sabyasachi Majumdar, sen-
ior vice-president and group
head of corporate ratings at
ICRA, said: “There was a mod-
eration in crude oil prices
closer to the last revision in
SAED on 21 March 2023,
TURN TO PAGE 6
mate of 6.6%, citing slower
consumption growth and chal-
lenging external conditions.
The multilateral agency said
that rising borrowing costs and
slower income growth would
weigh on private consumption
growth, while government
consumption is projected to
grow at a slower pace due to the
withdrawal of pandemic-re-
lated fiscal measures.
The World Bank’s forecast is
close to the Reserve Bank of
India’s forecast of 6.4% eco-
nomic growth in the current
fiscal year. India is expected to
have grown 7% in the year
ended 31 March, according to
the second advance estimate
from the ministry of statistics
and programme implementa-
tion released on 28 February.
Separately, Asian Develop-
ment Bank (ADB) on Tuesday
projected India’s economic
growth to moderate to 6.4% in
FY24 from its December fore-
cast of 7.2% due to the ongoing
global economic slowdown,
tight monetary conditions, and
elevated oil prices. ADB, how-
TURN TO PAGE 6
and authentication requirements later this
year, a move that will likely deter them from
attempting to float shell companies. >P2
Tech Mahindra mandates AI,
web3 & 5G skilling for CXOs
Tech Mahindra has made it mandatory for
its top executives, including CXOs and those
who report to them, to skill themselves with
the latest techs, such as generative AI, web3
and 5G, so that they can help implement the
solutions based on such technologies. >P5
We’re still scratching the surface
in India, says Amazon’s Sreeram
The success of Amazon Prime Video’s crime
thriller Farzi, the most-watched Indian
subscription video-on-demand (SVoD )
show, according to media consulting firm
Ormax, has drawn much attention to the
platform’s India strategy. >P7
Nato at Russia’s door as Finland
joins the military alliance
Finland joined the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (Nato) military alliance on
Tuesday, dealing a major blow to Russia with
a historic realignment of the continent
triggered by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine,
representing a major change in Europe.. >P8

Contrarian bets earn LIC gains Carbon tax hurdle looms

of ₹65,500cr from top 10 firms over India-UK FTA talks
Anirudh Laskar & Ravi Dutta Mishra According to the UK’s 126-
Solid returns
Mayur Bhalerao ravi.dutt@livemint.com page-long consultation paper
LIC’s gains from investment in India's top 10 listed firms.
NEw DELHI titled ‘Addressing carbon leak-
Gain during FY23 (in  crore)
MUMBAI
20,000
age risk to support decarboni-

I
ndia’s proposed free trade zation,’ implementation of

L
ife Insurance Corp. of agreement with the UK CBAM is a “possible” carbon
15,000
India (LIC), the country’s Total could face a major road- leakage policy measure. The
largest investor in public 65,494.18 block, as the latter is consider- consultation period for the
10,000
markets, has recorded a ing imposing a carbon tax akin UK’s carbon tax ends on 22
Trump leaves Trump Tower in New York on Tuesday AP ₹65,500 crore gain in market to the European Union’s pol- June.
5000
value from its investments in icy, which proposes to levy “CBAM will result in the UK

Donald Trump the top 10 publicly traded

companies in the year ended
31 March, outperforming the
0
ITC RIL SBI HDFC
Bank
TCS L&T ICICI
Bank
HDFC Infosys
HUL steep tariffs on imports with
higher carbon footprints.
An EU-style carbon border
gradually taxing all imports at
rates much higher than the
UK’s current import tariff

surrenders; to
benchmark indices.
As of 31 March, the top 10
listed companies made up
almost 50% of LIC’s portfolio.
-5,000 adjustment mechanism India has called steps such as rates. UK’s average tariff rates
LIC's total holdings in listed space as on Source: Capital line, (CBAM) is expected to dent CBAM ‘discriminatory’ MINT are less than 2%. These may
31st March: ₹10.03 trillion Bloomberg and Mint research
India’s metal exports to the UK become zero post-India-UK
SATISH KUMAR/MINT
even if India and the UK agree a levy on imported goods FTA. But Indian exports will

plead not guilty In contrast, benchmark indi-

Associated Press
feedback@livemint.com
chan should be relatively brief
— though hardly routine — as
Trump learns for the first time
ces National Stock Exchange’s
Nifty and Sensex declined by
1.76% and 0.49% in the past fis-
cal year, respectively.
LIC’s contrarian investment
“LIC accumulated shares
during market dips when oth-
ers were selling. On the other
hand, LIC booked profits
whenever the market was ris-
ing, typically when many
cantly from its investment in
Reliance Industries Ltd, ITC
Ltd, Tata Consultancy Servi-
ces Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, Info-
sys Ltd, State Bank of India,
Larsen & Toubro, HDFC Bank
on significant tariff conces-
sions, experts said. India and
the UK have completed six
rounds of negotiations and are
expected to sign the agree-
ment shortly.
based on their carbon foot-
print.
The proposal triggered
trade tensions with EU’s trad-
ing partners, including India,
who call it a protectionist tool
still need to pay carbon tax at
much higher rates. As India is
at an advanced stage of finaliz-
ing its FTA with the UK, it
must seek clarification on this
issue,” former Indian Trade

F
ormer President Donald
Trump surrendered to
authorities Tuesday at a
Manhattan courthouse ahead
of his arraignment on criminal
charges stemming from a hush
money payment to a porn actor
during his 2016 campaign.
Wearing his signature dark
suit and red tie, Trump turned
and waved to crowds outside
the building before heading
inside to be fingerprinted and
processed — a remarkable
reckoning after years of investi-
gations into his personal, busi-
ness and political dealings and
the charges against him.
Trump will plead not guilty,
according to his lawyers, and is
expected to enter the plea him-
self, as is standard in the court.
Merchan has ruled that TV
cameras won’t be allowed in
the courtroom.
Trump, who was impeached
twice by the U.S. House but was
never convicted in the U.S.
Senate, is the first former presi-
dent to face criminal charges.
The nation’s 45th commander
in chief was escorted from
Trump Tower to the court-
house by the Secret Service and
approach has enabled the
insurer to register gains even
amid a market decline, a feat
that many fund managers
might struggle to replicate,
said a Mumbai-based analyst
who declined to be named.
Rents skyrocket in Bengaluru as engineers fight for flats
Bloomberg
feedback@livemint.com
investors bought. This ability
to take a contrarian call gives
LIC a unique advantage,” a
person close to the insurer
said, requesting anonymity.
A Mint analysis showed that
the life insurer gained signifi-
Accenture Inc. That population
was displaced during the pan-
demic, with staff moving to
Ltd and Housing Develop-
ment Finance Corp, while in
Hindustan Unilever Ltd, the
insurer made a marginal
notional loss.
TURN TO PAGE 6
However, both the govern-
ments have refrained from
announcing any deadline to
complete negotiations.
The EU carbon tax, also
known as CBAM, aims to cut
carbon emissions by imposing
that makes their goods less
competitive in the EU market.
India has opposed measures
such as CBAM and has called it
“discriminatory” in a letter to
the World Trade Organization
(WTO).
Ripu Daman Bhadoria, who
moved last year from Amazon
in Seattle to Google in Banga-
Service officer and founder of
Global Trade Research Initia-
tive (GTRI) Ajay Srivastava
said.
Srivastava added that the
TURN TO PAGE 6
ces. She and Waquar Ahmed of
Ahmed Realty — who has 35
clients looking for a home and

an extraordinary moment in
U.S. history.
He arrived at court in an
eight-car motorcade that took
him from Trump Tower in
Midtown Manhattan through
the main north-south highway
on the east side of the city, past
landmarks such as the United
Nations. Along the way, the vol-
uble ex-president posted on his
social media platform: “Head-
ing to Lower Manhattan, the
Courthouse. Seems so SUR-
REAL — WOW, they are going
to ARREST ME. Can’t believe
this is happening in America.
MAGA!”
The booking and appear-
ance before Judge Juan Mer-
R
may have his mug shot taken.
“He is strong and ready to
go,” Trump lawyer Joe Taco-
pina told The Associated Press.
Earlier, Tacopina said in a TV
interview that the former presi-
dent wouldn’t plead guilty to
lesser charges, even if it might
resolve the case. He also said he
didn’t think the case would
make it to a jury.
New York police said they
were ready for large protests by
Trump supporters, who share
the Republican former presi-
dent’s belief that the New York
grand jury indictment and
three additional pending inves-
TURN TO PAGE 6
ents in India’s technol-
ogy hub of Bangalore
have nearly doubled
since the start of last year, mak-
ing it the country’s hottest resi-
dential market.
Landlords in the city, often
referred to as India’s Silicon
Valley, now charge the highest
proportion of their property’s
value as rent, edging out finan-
cial centre Mumbai, according
to data from market research-
ers.
The capital of Karnataka
state is home to over 1.5 million
workers including those for
global firms like Alphabet Inc.’s
Google, Amazon.com Inc.,
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and
remote work or departing the
city, pushing rents down. With
Bangalore’s economy and pri-
vate sector stirring back to life,
landlords are looking to recoup
lost revenue and find them-
selves in a seller’s market.
“Rental market is too hot
right now,” said Prashant Tha-
kur, head of research at prop-
erty consultancy firm Anarock.
“Apartments had to be rented
out at very low rates during
covid as many went back to
their hometowns. Now that
people are getting back to the
office, landlords are making up
for their losses with higher
rents.”
Anarock’s data shows rents
Anarock’s data shows rents in various Bangalore neighborhoods
have jumped by double digits since 2019
in various Bangalore neighbor-
hoods have jumped by double
digits since 2019, echoing a
wider surge across India’s
major cities. But Bangalore’s
more recent cost increase is
PTI
larger because it took a bigger
hit from the pandemic, market
observers say.
The experience of securing a
home is also turning into a
highly competitive race.
lore likened his house hunt to
clearing a job interview at the
Mountain View, California-
based search giant.
“Engineers think Google
interviews are tough but this is
another level,” said the
36-year-old engineering man-
ager who has multiple people
on his team facing the rent
challenge. “The stress impacts
health, it impacts work, every-
thing.”
The shortage of supply has
led estate agents and ultra-
picky home owners to demand
LinkedIn profiles and resumes
from prospective renters, said
Arpan Batra, the owner of real
estate consultancy Anzen Spa-
no inventory to offer — both
observed a doubling of rent pri-
ces over the past year.
Multiple interview rounds,
including on Zoom, are now
commonplace.
Part of the problem is an arti-
ficial constraint on supply,
Batra said, brought on by con-
struction grinding to a halt dur-
ing the pandemic.
Bangalore only added
roughly 13,560 residential
units in the first quarter of this
year, an increase of just 3%
compared with a 55% jump in
Mumbai, according to Ana-
rock. Bangalore is now the top
TURN TO PAGE 6

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ChennAi ECONOMY & POLICY LIVEMINT.COM

m MINT SHORTS
Amitabh Kant-led committee to
Web-based returns to deter Assocham
urges stop
address stalled realty projects
New Delhi: The housing and urban affairs ministry has set up
a 14-member committee headed by former NITI Aayog chief
executive Amitabh Kant to examine issues related to stalled real
attempts to float shell cos to interest
rate hikes
estate projects and recommend ways for their completion.
According to an order issued by the ministry on 31 March, the Staff writer
committee will submit its report within six months from the date feedback@livemint.com
of its first meeting. The 14-member panel will deliberate on the The government is stepping up security and KYC requirements in the new reporting system NEW DELHI
issues of legacy stalled projects and suggest ways to complete

A
and hand over these projects to homebuyers in a time-bound ssocham president Ajay
manner, the order states. PTI Gireesh Chandra Prasad within 60 days of their annual general Singh on Tuesday
gireesh.p@livemint.com meeting, which is to be held within six urged the Reserve Bank
NEW DELHI months of the financial year’s end. of India’s (RBI) Monetary Pol-
Mukesh Ambani regains status Despite the initial teething issues, icy Committee (MPC), set to

F
irms may have to file their form filings were robust on the MCA21 review the benchmark policy
as Asia’s richest person: Forbes annual returns, financial state- portal in FY22. In the case of nine new rates, to call a halt to hikes, cit-
ments and related statutory fil- web-based forms launched last August, ing uncertainties in the global
ings in new web-based forms around 2.8 million forms were filed in business environment.
with enhanced security fea- FY22, compared to 2.65 million forms in Addressing a press confer-
tures and authentication requirements the same period a year ago. ence, Singh dealt with several
from later this year, a move that will In the case of the 56 new forms rolled issues facing Indian industry,
likely deter attempts to float tax-dodg- out on 23 January this year, around including the overall economic
ing shell companies. 230,000 filings have been made so far, outlook and inflationary pres-
The government is stepping up secu- the person said. The number of financial sures. He also spoke of oppor-
rity and know-your-customer (KYC) statements and annual returns filed in tunities for young entrepre-
requirements in the new reporting sys- FY22 in the previous version of the neurs as the country leverages
tem for corporations to check the crea- forms are also higher than the filings in tech-led economic expansion.
tion of shell companies with dummy the year before. Companies have to file He said though India
directors suspected to be used in finan- Companies must file annual returns within 60 days of their annual general around 100 forms a year as part of com- remains the fastest growing
New Delhi: Mukesh Ambani has regained his spot as Asia’s cial irregularities like tax evasion, diver- meeting, which is to be held within six months of the financial year’s end. MINT pliance. LLP (limited liability partner- major economy, the growth is
richest person after rival Gautam Adani tumbled to the 24th sion of funds and money laundering. ships) filings have crossed 520,000 in uneven. Global headwinds
position, Forbes said in its Billionaire 2023 list released on The Serious Fraud Investigation with the government from previous fil- development. FY23, up from around 475,000 in FY22. from volatile energy prices,
Tuesday. With a net worth of $83.4 billion, Ambani, 65, was Office took action against a Gurugram- ings to prevent errors and enhance On average, about 7 to 7.5 million stat- LLPs have to file around 20 statutory geo-political developments
ranked at No. 9 on the world billionaire list. “Last year, based firm last September for allegedly compliance. The new filing system also utory forms are filed in a year. In FY23, forms every year. and threat of recession in major
Ambani’s oil-to-telecom behemoth Reliance Industries setting up shell companies with links to entails two-factor authentication. over 7.5 million statutory forms were There was no formal response to que- economies needed to be
became the first Indian company to surpass $100 billion in Chinese entities. The plan is to roll out about 40 more filed on the portal, a brisk pace of statu- ries emailed to the ministry of corporate watched.
revenue,” Forbes said. PTI The idea is to have tech- tory filings despite the affairs on Monday. “There are suggestions in
enabled real-time over- E-GOVERNANCE ROLL-OUT phased migration of fil- The number of statutory filings some quarters about another
sight of statutory filings by ings into the new system, reported in the just concluded financial 25 bps increase in the repo rate
Centre approves 13 task forces for the nation’s 1.5 million GOVERNMENT is IDEA is to have THE plan is to roll said one of the persons year indicates that the transition to the by the RBI Monetary Policy
registered active compa- enhancing security tech-enabled real- out about 40 more cited above who asked not new reporting regime for corporations, Committee. We feel the econ-
green steel production features and
nies as the government authentication
time oversight of statutory forms in
to be named. a major e-governance initiative of the omy has reached a saturation
statutory filings by the new reporting
New Delhi: The ministry of steel has approved the formation gears up to complete the requirements registered firms system The new forms will be government, is set to get completed in a point beyond which it may be
of 13 task forces to identify action points for all aspects of green technological upgrade of rolled out once the cur- few months. difficult to absorb any more
steel production, steel minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on its statutory filing portal rent filing process Officials of the Registrar of Compa- rate hike. Rate sensitive sectors
Tuesday. Addressing the seventh meeting of the Integrated MCA21. statutory forms in the new format under becomes more seamless. The effort is to nies had last month searched a virtual like real estate including resi-
Steel Plants (ISP) Advisory Committee, the minister emphasized The highlight of the new filing system version three of the MCA21 portal, migrate annual return forms too to the accounting firm in Chennai for allegedly dential complexes, passenger
the adoption of a participatory approach to define the roadmap is that data entered on the form before which has been built from scratch, new system in the coming filing season, using fake documents for incorporating cars, commercial vehicles may
for green steel. SAURAV ANAND submission will be verified in real-time according to multiple professional users said the person. companies, The Hindu reported on 24 see negative impact of the rate
with the information already available, of the platform who are aware of the Companies must file annual returns March. hike,“ Singh said.

Webb spots galaxy formed just

320 mn years after Big Bang
‘Eye drops exported AAI to boost hiring of air traffic officers
to US were untainted’ Anu Sharma
anu.sharma@livemint.com
all civil airports while military
airports are handled by military
NEW DELHI personnel. The sector is regu-
Priyanka Sharma DCGI is in touch with US FDA lated by the aviation regulator

A
priyanka.sharma@livemint.com and written a letter to them to s Indian aviation Directorate General of Civil
NEW DELHI furnish details,” said an official reaches record traffic Aviation.
requesting anonymity. levels, the government Shortage of air traffic con-

A
brand of Indian-made US FDA tested the eye drop has set out to address a shortage trollers in the country has been
eye drops supplied to samples in US FDA labs in of air traffic control officers a perennial problem and
the US are not contam- Bengaluru. (ATCOs) by filling 80% of authorities struggle to fill the
inated, a top government offi- “The samples were found to vacant posts in the next six gap. The situation which con-
Paris: The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered cial aware of the matter said on be free of contamination,” the months. tinues to remain grim and AAI
the four most distant galaxies ever observed, one of which Tuesday. official added. The Airports Authority of has been working to gradually
formed just 320 million years after the Big Bang when the This comes after the US The matter was also jointly India is in the process of hiring ramp up the number of sanc-
universe was still in its infancy, new research said on Tues- Food and Drug Administra- investigated by the Central 356 of the 519 ATCO vacancies tioned posts, the first official
day. The Webb telescope has unleashed a torrent of scien- tion (FDA) on 2 February Drugs Standard Control Orga- by August-September, two offi- said.
tific discovery since becoming operational last year, peer- warned consumers and nization (CDSCO) and State cials said. In the interim, to bridge the shortfall, AAI has also been hiring As of 31 January, the sanc-
ing farther than ever before into the universe’s distant healthcare prac- Drug Controller In most cases, a recruit is retired air traffic controllers as consultants. AFP tioned strength of Air Traffic
reaches—which also means it is looking back in time. AFP titioners to The US FDA on (Tamil Nadu) who required to undergo manda- Controllers in Airports Author-
immediately stop 2 February sent officials to a tory training of about nine ment is planning to expand also likely to place a large order. ity of India (AAI) was 4,211
using EzriCare warned plant located months, followed by on-the- flight operations at Tier-2,3 cit- Currently, 519 posts of air against which 3,692 ATCOs are
JP Morgan puts HCL on ‘negative Artificial Tears or consumers to about 40 km job training of 18 to 24 months. ies as well,” the second official traffic controllers are vacant as in place.
Delsam Pharma’s
immediately stop south of Chennai Record orders for planes and said. per sanctioned posts. The In the interim, to bridge the
catalyst watch’ ahead of Q4 results Artificial Tears and picked up passenger growth in the Indian India is one of the few coun- shortage of air traffic control- shortfall, AAI has also been hir-
Bengaluru: JP Morgan placed IT services provider HCL Tech- due to potential using EzriCare samples for fur- market have brought in a sense tries to witness air lers has been seen ing retired air traffic controllers
nologies Ltd on “negative catalyst watch” ahead of the earnings bacterial con- Artificial Tears ther investiga- of urgency in the government passengers sur- The Airports as a key issue as consultants in order to have
season, citing the highest near-term risks for the company. “We tamination. tion. to ensure enough controllers to pass pre-covid Authority of India which has the specialized skills for air traffic
remain cautious on the IT sector as we see downside risks to earn- It also directed “If we see guide the new aircraft. numbers with air- is in the process potential to management related matters.
ings and multiples from the weak fourth quarter prints and FY24 Tamil Nadu-based Global CDC’s report on their website, “Given the size of aircraft lines carrying a of hiring 356 of impact growth in In March, AAI issued advertise-
guidance,” the brokerage said in a note. REUTERS Pharma to recall its product it says that the contamination order that have been placed by large number of the third largest ment to engage 27 such retired
the 519 ATCO
from the US market. was found in opened eye drop Indian airlines and the growth passengers even domestic aviation personnel for one year at 10 air-
These eye drops are not sold bottles and not in sealed bot- potential, it is expected that the during the tradi- vacancies by market. ports with 11 for Delhi airport
Flights hit due to heavy downpour in India. tles and these have found neg- hiring of various key personnel tionally lean Aug-Sep An ATCO is and another five to be recruited
India’s top drug regulator ative of any contamination,” a including air traffic controllers months between responsible for for Mumbai airport. Data since
at Bengaluru airport has written to US FDA asking second official said. will be ramped up over the next January and guiding and coor- 2019 suggests that the shortage
Bengaluru: Fourteen flights were diverted and six departures for details. The health ministry and two years as they are a critical March. To cash in on the dinating the movement of air- in air traffic controllers has
were delayed due to a heavy downpour and bad weather in Deva- “Our (Indian) tests found the Global Pharma company component for aviation infra- demand, Air India has placed a craft in the air and on the built up over the years as the
nahalli on the city outskirts where the Kempegowda Interna- samples of eye drop to be of spokesperson did not respond structure. In addition, they will record order of 470 aircraft and ground. In India, air traffic government has not been able
tional Airport is located, airport authorities said. PTI ‘standard quality’. However, to queries. also be needed as the govern- Akasa Air – a new entrant – is management is done by AAI at to fill all the sanctioned posts.

Five cos in Nifty 100 did not have women directors in FY22, finds survey CORRECTIONS AND
CLARIFICATIONS
Mint welcomes comments,
Staff writer India (Sebi) chairman M Damo- said. The average age of 556 inde- IDs, it said. suggestions or complaints
feedback@livemint.com daran, Excellence Enablers is a The survey used annual pendent directors was 63.38 In FY22, the average tenure about errors.
MUMBAI specialist corporate govern- reports and website disclosures years. of 1,079 directors from the date
Readers can alert the
ance and environmental, social of Nifty 100 companies as a “Given the pace and the of first appointment was 6.63
newsroom to any errors in the

F
ive of the top 100 listed
companies, comprising
three public sector com-
panies and one state-owned
bank, did not have a woman
independent director on their
boards in FY22, violating the
Companies Act, a corporate
governance survey has found.
The number of non-compli-
ant companies was six in FY20
and 12 in FY21, per the third
edition of Excellence Enablers’
Survey on Corporate Govern-
ance. Founded by former Secu-
rities and Exchange Board of
and governance (ESG) advisory
firm.
“While the presence of a
woman independent directors
on boards has been mandated,
there is no similar provision for
women executives graduating
to board positions,” the survey
said.
This, the survey said, can
happen only if a sufficient
number of competent women
are identified and are provided
appropriate career progression
in the organization. As of 31
March 2021 and 2022, three
base to look at parameters that
impact on, and manifest, the
corporate governance stan-
dards of companies.
The top 100 companies
include 12 public sector under-
takings (PSUs), nine banks and
four insurance companies,
The survey used annual reports and website disclosures of Nifty among others.
100 companies as a base. Apart from gender, the sur-
vey also looked at age diversity
companies had women manag- focus on more women occupy- in boards. As of 31 March 2022,
ing directors, while the number ing positions of chair/manag- of the 556 independent direct-
of women chairpersons were ing director, as well as being on ors, 46 were less than 50 years
seven in FY22 and five in FY21. a number of board committees, of age, while the oldest inde-
“It is equally important to and chairing some of them,” it pendent director was 89 years.
nature of change in the econ-
omy and in the corporate
world, induction of younger
persons on the boards will
increase relevance of boards,”
the survey said.
On the tenure of directors,
the survey said that a reasona-
ble tenure is necessary for any
director, executive or non-ex-
ecutive, to contribute to the
functioning of the board. The
legal provision of two terms,
with a maximum of five years in
each term, satisfactorily
addresses the issue of tenure of
years, with the longest tenure paper by emailing us, with your
being at 53.61 years, the survey full name and address to
found. feedback@livemint.com.
“The near interminable ten-
ures of some of the chairs of It is our policy to promptly
respond to all complaints.
committees stand in the way of Readers dissatisfied with the
the committees reinventing response or concerned about
themselves to meet emerging Mint’s journalistic integrity may
challenges. What is more criti- write directly to the editor by
cal is that extended spells as sending an email to
chairs would tend to impact on asktheeditor@livemint.com
the independence of the per- Mint’s journalistic Code of
son concerned, as also to blunt Conduct that governs our
the nature of challenge that newsroom is available at
should be mounted to the man- www.livemint.com
agement,” it said.

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First published in February 2007 to serve as an unbiased and clear-minded chronicler of the Indian Dream.
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 LIVEMINT.COM DEALS, TECH & STARTUPS WednesdAy, 5 April 2023
ChennAi 03

m MINT SHORTS ‘Generative AI to drive Iron Pillar raises

InsuranceDekho acquires SME $129 million under
insurance distribution co Verak
Bengaluru: InsuranceDekho has acquired Verak, a Mumbai-
based small and medium enterprise (SME) insurance distribution
startup, for an undisclosed amount. The acqui-hire is expected
shift in cybersecurity’ new venture fund
to help InsuranceDekho, part of CarDekho group, to grow its Abhijit Ahaskar Malvika Maloo & Aman Rawat
SME insurance vertical as it expands its offerings in the micro- abhijit.ahaskar@livemint.com BENGALURU/NEW DELHI
business insurance space. MALVIKA MALOO NEW DELHI

V
enture capital firm Iron

T
here has been a growing interest
SaaS co Spendflo raises $11 mn in leveraging more mature artifi-
cial intelligence (AI) and machine
in Series A round for expansion learning (ML) models as cyberat-
ISTOCK
tacks become more frequent and
threatening. Last week, Microsoft launched
a new product called Security Copilot, which
leverages OpenAI’s generative AI model
GPT-4, to assist security experts. In an inter-
view, Terence Gomes, country head, secu-
rity, Microsoft India, spoke about the differ-
ence generative AI can make in cybersecu-
rity. Edited excerpts:
Many modern threat intelligence
solutions use artificial intelligence .
What additional
value can the
cybersecurity
Bengaluru: Software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Spend- industry derive
flo raised $11 million (about ₹90 crore) in a Series A funding from generative AI?
Pillar, which has backed
startups such as Fresh-
ToHome, Uniphore, Servify,
and CureFoods, marked the
close of its Global Cloud Fund II
with a corpus of $129 million.
The new fund is part of the
Iron Pillar Fund II series of funds,
which is likely to see several
other vehicles. “We are in the Anand Prasanna, managing
early stages of discussions with partner of Iron Pillar.
investors on one other vehicle for
Fund II,” Anand Prasanna, man- eral years, Iron Pillar has
aging partner at Iron Pillar said. focused its investments on soft-
The growth stage-focussed ware firms. Its portfolio
investor tapped existing insti- includes Uniphore, Servify,
tutional investors from the US, CoreStack, Ushur, Jiffy, Sibros,
How has the reaction of security prac- resolved anytime soon and can genera- Europe and the Middle East as and Pando.
titioners to Microsoft’s Security Copi- tive AI help? well as new investors includ- “Iron Pillar is built on a funda-
lot been? Generative AI is going to optimize the ing two undisclosed endow- mental belief that Indian

round co-led by Prosus Ventures and Accel. The round Mainstream AI is used for analytical
also saw participation from existing investors Together baselining. In almost all our security plat-
Fund, Signal Peak Ventures and Boldcap Ventures. The forms where a lot of baselining happens
San Francisco-based company plans to utilize the fresh and any anomaly gets flagged off, AI and
capital towards product development, hiring and entering ML are involved in the background. If there
new markets. K AMOGHAVARSHA are 20 different alerts, but they all are
related to one incident, we converge all that
into one single incident using AI.When you
Apple to make small number of job bring in generative AI as a co-pilot, it can do
a lot more. With generative AI you can go in
cuts in some corporate retail teams and feed your queries and it can return
Apple Inc. is eliminating a small number of roles within its corpo- answers fast. So, it helps you with a better
rate retail teams, according to people with knowledge of the mat- investigation and faster analysis. It also
ter, marking its first known internal job cuts since it embarked prompts you to take action. Generative AI
on a belt-tightening effort last year. The company is shedding can help augment what human beings can
positions in what it calls its development and preservation teams, do but at machine speed and scale. So it
said the people, who asked not to be identified because the move becomes critical in security protection,
hasn’t been announced. BLOOMBERG investigations, and response.
‘
Generative AI is going to be a game- human element, which is still required. ments and a foundation for the founders will build large tech-
changer in the industry. It is Skill shortage is still pre- new fund. Existing investor 57 nology companies, not only for
not generally available yet, dicted to continue. One Stars LLC was the only dis- India, but also for global mar-
but there is a lot of interest Generative AI can help report in India talks about closed limited part- kets,” said Prasanna,
in it in India. I am excited augment what human 1.5 million jobs opening ner for the fund. adding the global
because I’ve been in this beings can do but at up in cybersecurity. Glo- The Global Cloud cloud opportunity is
industry for the last 25 years bally, we are analyzing 65 Fund will invest in growing at an unprec-
and I can understand the machine speed. So it’s trillion signals per day, Series B and C rounds of soft- edented pace, and the fund
frustration that practition- critical in security last year, it was 43 trillion, ware-as-a-service (SaaS) firms believes Indian founders will
ers have when they’re deal- protection and a few years back, it from India that are selling servi- continue to build some genera-
ing with security alerts and was 6 trillion. You can ces globally. The deployment tional businesses in this space.
Terence Gomes
investigations. Looking at Country head, security, imagine the number of will be led by Prasanna and Founded in 2016, Iron Pillar
different signals, manually Microsoft India cyber signals that are out Mohanjit Jolly.“We are concen- leads Series B or C rounds in its
pulling out information and there that we analyzed to trated investors. We don’t invest portfolio firms, later doubling
then trying to make it work provide insights for cus- in anything more than 8-10 down on the breakout busi-
would typically take more than a day or two. tomers. Attackers are also evolving and companies. This fund would be nesses with 5-10 times of the
What is the reason for the skill shortage coming back with newer threats and the same,” Prasanna said. initial investment.
in cybersecurity? Do you see it being approaches. To be sure, for the past sev- malvika.maloo@livemint.com

BlackSoil raises $25 mn debt;

60% from existing investors
Aman Rawat Existing investors comprised that our robust portfolio per-
aman.rawat@livemint.com about 60% of the backers in the formance in the current fund-
NEW DELHI fundraise. BlackSoil said in a ing winter environment will
statement the return of a large continue to attract investors in

M
umbai-based alterna-
tive credit platform
BlackSoil Capital has
raised $25 million (around ₹
205 crore) by issuing
diverse debt products
such as bank debt,
non-convertible
debentures (NCDs), AIF (alter-
nate investment fund) commit-
ments and direct co-invest-
ments from banks, family offi-
ces, corporate treasuries, and
high net worth individuals.
investor base signifies the trust
and confidence its offerings
have gained among investors,
The capital raise is in addi-
tion to the $35 million
BlackSoil raised in
the first half of the last
financial year. Since
the latest round also closed in
FY23, the platform closed the
year with $60 million in total
fundraising. “We have wit-
nessed a strong interest from
investors, and we are confident
the years to come,” said Ankur
Bansal, co-founder, Blacksoil
Capital.
Founded in 2016, Blacksoil is
a sector-agnostic debt investor
which lends to new-age, digi-
tal-first firms. To date, it has
deployed $270 million across
135 deals. It currently manages
more than $90 million worth of
assets. “We provide a bouquet
of investment offerings across a
range of investment participa-
tion,” Bansal said.

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S&P BSE Sensex Nifty 50 Nifty 500 Nifty Next 50 Nifty 100 S&P BSE Mid-cap S&P BSE Small Cap
ClOsE 1-WEEK CHANGE (%) ClOsE 1-WEEK CHANGE (%) ClOsE 1-WEEK CHANGE (%) ClOsE 1-WEEK CHANGE (%) ClOsE 1-WEEK CHANGE (%) ClOsE 1-WEEK CHANGE (%) ClOsE 1-WEEK CHANGE (%)

59106.44 2.52 17398.05 2.43 14601.95 2.38 37891.35 1.49 17224.75 2.23 24152.47 2.58 27271.27 3.43
1-MONTH CHANGE (%) 3-MONTH CHANGE (%) 1-MONTH CHANGE (%) 3-MONTH CHANGE (%) 1-MONTH CHANGE (%) 3-MONTH CHANGE (%) 1-MONTH CHANGE (%) 3-MONTH CHANGE (%) 1-MONTH CHANGE (%) 3-MONTH CHANGE (%) 1-MONTH CHANGE (%) 3-MONTH CHANGE (%) 1-MONTH CHANGE (%) 3-MONTH CHANGE (%)

-1.17 -3.57 -1.12 -4.58 -1.17 -6.14 -0.31 -10.71 -0.93 -6.27 -1.80 -5.34 -2.07 -6.68
6-MONTH CHANGE (%) 1-YEAR CHANGE (%) 6-MONTH CHANGE (%) 1-YEAR CHANGE (%) 6-MONTH CHANGE (%) 1-YEAR CHANGE (%) 6-MONTH CHANGE (%) 1-YEAR CHANGE (%) 6-MONTH CHANGE (%) 1-YEAR CHANGE (%) 6-MONTH CHANGE (%) 1-YEAR CHANGE (%) 6-MONTH CHANGE (%) 1-YEAR CHANGE (%)

4.08 -0.29 3.02 -1.54 -0.25 -3.22 -8.50 -9.25 0.20 -3.66 -1.60 -1.19 -3.64 -4.98

m MINT SHORTS
Asia’s cash-rich companies
Focus on FY24 guidance key for IT
beat market as volatility swirls Harsha Jethmalani
Under pressure Dull quarter Analysts at JM Financial Institutional a concern. BFSI is a crucial revenue gen-
Shares of Asian companies with big cash balances are harsha.j@htlive.com Securities Ltd see Q4 numbers to be of erator for the IT industry. Investors
outperforming the broader market and analysts say the Worries over revenue visibility Revenue growth in Q4FY23 for top three Indian little relevance as the focus shifts to would be keen to know if there is a spill-

I
money will be a cushion against volatility and earnings nvestors in information technology
downgrades. The shares of the top 300 listed Asian com- (IT) stocks are edgy as they wait for
panies based on their net cash levels have risen about 9% the March quarter (Q4FY23) earn-
this year, according to Refinitiv data, compared with the ings report card. This is not because
MSCI Asia Pacific share index’s 4.6% gain. “Cash implies tech firms are poised to post block-
safety amidst the volatility we have seen to start the year,” buster results. On the contrary, analysts’
said Vikas Pershad, investments portfolio manager for estimates suggest it’s better to keep
Asian Equities at M&G Investments. “It is understandable expectations low. Seasonality, declining
that investors would be allocating more capital to compa- discretionary spending and slower deci-
nies with above-average cash balances, and would be tak- sion making are expected to adversely
ing capital away from companies with heavy balance impact revenue growth.
sheets,” he said. A balance sheet buffer can offer protec- “We expect aggregate revenue
tion against rising borrowing costs and be a ready source growth for IT firms under our coverage
of funds for buybacks, dividends or investment in future to moderate sharply by 170 basis points
growth. REUTERS in Q4 to 0.6% QoQ in constant currency
(CC) terms. This is on account of macro-
economic headwinds leading to delays
in deal ramp-ups, longer sales cycles and
slower revenue conversion due to fewer
shorter-term deals,” said analysts from
Jefferies India. One basis point is 0.01%.
The brokerage expects mid-sized IT
firms to perform better, led by Coforge
Ltd.
Global IT company Accenture has
recently narrowed its full-year CC reve-
nue guidance to 8-10% from 8-11% while
announcing its results for the quarter
ended February. This was despite stellar
have weighed heavily on the Nifty IT companies is expected to be lacklustre. Infosys’ FY24 guidance. “We expect over in the form of lower digital spend-
IT index in the past one year. Quarter-on-quarter CC revenue growth (in %) Infosys to guide for 6-8% CC revenue ing in other verticals. So, commentary
Nifty 50 Nifty IT
Tata Consultancy Services Infosys growth for FY24. Given the current on clients’ 2023 IT budgets, deal mix
110
HCL Technologies
market expectation of 8-9% (USD and deal pipeline are crucial to gauge
terms), we see this as market neutral,” the sector’s revenue visibility.
6
96.37 said a JM Financial report Meanwhile, margin per-
100
5
on 1 April. Based on a similar FUTURE formance could offer some
analysis, HCL Technologies BYTES solace. Easing supply-side
4 Ltd could guide for a 9-11% pressures, better operating
90
78.57 growth, according to JM whAT matters more efficiencies, and cross-cur-
3 Financial. In addition, than Q4 results of IT
firms is FY24 revenue
rency tailwinds may
80 Q1FY24 guidance by Wipro growth guidance by sequentially improve Ebit
2 Ltd would be a near-term key companies (earnings before interest
indicator for demand out- and taxes) margins, though
70
1
look. Among the midcaps, ThE weak outlook the extent could vary for
of the banking,
Coforge’s guidance needs to financial services, each company.
0
Q1FY23 Q2FY23 Q3FY23 Q4FY23 be closely tracked. and insurance Improving margins could
estimates
60
4 Apr 2022 3 Apr 2023 -1
“Focus would also be on vertical is a concern limit a steep cut in earnings
Values rebased to 100 Source: Capitaline Note: CC is constant currency Source: Company, JM Financial
leadership exits at Infosys estimates for FY24. Even so,
and CEO changes at TCS/ clarity in revenue growth
SATISH KUMAR/MINT
Tech Mahindra Ltd. Also, exposure to outlook is paramount. Unsurprisingly,
deal bookings in the quarter, stoking revenue visibility has been a pain point regional banks and impact on BFS verti- the mood on the Street is gloomy. In the
worries of increased demand uncer- for IT investors for quite some time now cal, nature/tenure of deals, sales/deal past one year, the Nifty IT index has lost
tainty. Accenture’s results are often seen and thus, guidance becomes even more cycles, pricing, vendor consolidation nearly 22%. Valuations have come off
as a bellwether for Indian IT companies. important this time around. and attrition would be in focus,” said but that is not enough to regain inves-
Given this, what matters more than Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) Jefferies analysts. tors’ confidence. Amid looming reces-
just the Q4 results of Indian IT firms is will kick-start the Q4FY23 earnings sea- Weak outlook of the banking, finan- sion worries and weak business pros-
the FY24 revenue growth guidance by son for the IT sector on 12 April, fol- cial services, and insurance (BFSI) verti- pects, a further downside in Indian IT
key companies. Note that the lack of lowed by Infosys Ltd on 13 April. cal in the light of recent global events is stocks cannot be ruled out.

State Bank of Pakistan has raised key interest rate to the

highest since 1956 from when it has data. MINT Mahindra Finance’s offtake is healthy; margin squeeze a worry
Pakistan increases key rate to Bavadharini KS While rural demand recovery Motilal Oswal Financial Servi- ity, the company expects its
At a high
record 21% as it awaits IMF loan bavadharini.ks@livemint.com has seen green shoots, the possi-
M&M Financial Services’ loan disbursement during March was the
ces estimates the opex-to-aver- Stage-3 assets in Q4 at 4.6% ver-
Pakistan’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate bility of 2023 being an El Niño age asset ratio to fall to 2.8% by sus 5.9% as of December 2022.
highest in the past year.

M
to a record 21% as price gains soar and the nation teeters ahindra & Mahindra year is a risk given the company’s FY25 from 3.1% in FY23E. Fur- Stage-3 assets are loans that are
Monthly loan disbursements (in  crore)
on the brink of a default as the International Monetary Financial Services Ltd exposure to tractor financing. 6,000 ther, better customer mix should overdue for more than 90 days.
Fund’s bailout hangs. The State Bank of Pakistan’s mone- (Mahindra Finance) has “Our rural outlook is bright for help improve asset quality, Meanwhile, investors are sit-
5,000
tary policy committee increased the target rate by 100 ended FY23 on a good note. Its now, but we are watchful,” said although net interest margins ting on handsome returns. In the
basis points from 20%. The key rate is at the highest since latest business update shows Kaitav Shah, BFSI research ana- 4,000 (NIMs) may come under pres- past one year, Mahindra Finance’s
central bank data going back to 1956. “Today’s decision that the vehicle financier saw as lyst at Anand Rathi Institutional 3,000 sure. According to Krishnan shares have risen almost 44%. The
as an important step towards anchoring inflation expec- much as 80% year-on-year Equities. 2,000
ASV, lead analyst BFSI at HDFC meaningful appreciation may
tations around the medium-term target” the central bank (y-o-y) rise in disbursements in Given that the company caters Securities, “Catering to the com- well cap large upsides in the near-
said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the current FY23. This was driven by healthy to customers mainly in rural and 1,000 petitive affluent category cus- term. In any case, macroeco-
monetary policy stance is appropriate. In the near term, credit offtake in the industry. To semi-urban areas, the asset qual- 0 tomers could result in lower nomic woes have meant shares of
Apr 2022 Mar 2023
inflation is expected to stay high, it said. The financial some extent, a lower base also ity had been volatile in the past yields and as such, NIMs are the company are down 12.5% from
Source: Company data, Jefferies
sector “remains broadly resilient, while economic activ- helped. In the March quarter due to delinquencies, particu- likely to see compression in the their 52-week highs seen in Feb-
ity continues to moderate,” SBP said. The rate hike comes (Q4FY23), disbursements larly during the covid period. SATISH KUMAR/MINT
coming quarters.” It is a good ruary. “We watch out for write-
as inflation quickened by a fresh record in March, months surged by 50% y-o-y to about However, under its Vision 2025 investor concerns about its asset tomer segment mix by focusing trade-off as the quality of portfo- offs that have stayed elevated and
after authorities raised taxes and energy prices and ₹13,750 crore. In general, Q4 is plan, Mahindra Finance has quality and operating perform- on affluent rural and semi-urban lio and earnings is likely to be has to fall sustainably for return on
allowed the currency to depreciate to meet IMF condi- helped by the upcoming sowing taken multiple initiatives over ance. This includes diversifying customer, and lowering operat- stable going forward, he added. equity to improve further,” said
tions and revive a $6.5 billion program. BLOOMBERG season. the past few quarters to address product mix, changing the cus- ing cost ratios. As such, in terms of asset qual- Jefferies India analysts.

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

Rashtriya Ispat mulls RIL secures $5 bn funding in India’s largest ever loan deal
new business model FROM PAGE 1
are expected to form the syn-
PTI dicate for the $2 billion
feedback@livemint.com add-on,” the first person cited
above said.
list of lenders in the syndicate,
while another eight from
loan and is split into $1.15 bil-
lion and 48.78 billion yen
The low-fee fundraising by “Liquidity should remain
RIL indicates that banks are robust owing to the excep-
Japan took $276.36 million ($380 million) tranches with seeking top-rated companies tional financial flexibility,
combined. an average life of 5.25 years for amid the ongoing economic given the company’s resource-
The $3 billion borrowing RIL and five-year portions of uncertainty. raising ability from capital
has also been split equally $1.2 billion and 41.81 billion Lenders are comfortable markets and sizeable cash and

I
n a first, state-owned Rash-
triya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL)
is exploring a business
model wherein it will supply
finished steel products to
companies which will either
fund its working capital or
supply one or more raw mate-
rials.
RINL has invited expres-
sions of interest from compa-
nies which have interests in
steel and steel-making raw
materials to partner with it for
the supply of steel.
In the notice, RINL said the
potential partner may partici-
pate by way of supplying one
or more key raw materials like
coking coal/BF coke, iron ore,
and in turn take steel products
as per mutually agreed terms
and conditions.
The potential partner may
fund working capital and, in
turn, take steel products as per
mutually agreed terms and
conditions.
The notice stated that the
The potential partner may
fund working capital, and in
turn, take steel products on
agreed terms. ISTOCK
manufactures various special
products besides structurals,
wire rod coils, rebars, etc. The
company also manufactures
forged wheel for Indian Rail-
ways at its plant in Rae Bareli,
Uttar Pradesh.
The Cabinet Committee on
Economic Affairs (CCEA) on
27 January 2021, gave its
‘in-principle’ approval for
100% disinvestment of gov-
ernment stake in RINL, also
called Visakhapatnam Steel
The size of the add-on is also
unusually large in Asian loan
markets, especially in an
unplanned greenshoe option
for any syndicated loan.
“RIL’s decision to raise the
additional $2 billion stems
from the overwhelming
response from the market as
lenders remain hungry for the
blue-chip group that has not
been active in the syndicated
loan market in recent years,”
the first person said.
Of the $3 billion raised ear-
lier, nearly a third or $927 mil-
lion of the allocations went to
19 Taiwanese banks that domi-
nated the third and the final
BoB stops clearing payment for above-cap Russian crude oil
Reuters
feedback@livemint.com
between RIL and Jio, with the yen for Jio, the person said. extending loans liquid invest-
latter’s portion being its first ANZ Group, Bank of Amer- to RIL because of The low-fee ments of Rs
non-recourse loan. ica, BNP Paribas, Credit Agri- the group’s low 193,282 crore as
Last year, Jio secured a $750 cole CIB, Citigroup, DBS Bank, leverage and the
fundraising by on 31 December at
million five-year new-money First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC, dominance of Jio Reliance a consolidated
club loan for capital expendi- Scotiabank, Standard Char- in the domestic Industries level. Moreover,
ture. tered Bank, State Bank of India telecom market. indicates that financial flexibil-
RIL’s last syndicated off- and United Overseas Bank “Documenta- banks are seeking ity remains sup-
shore borrowing was a $1.45 Mukesh Ambani, the chairman were the senior MLABs on the tion was done on top-rated firms ported by sizable
billion dual-currency financ- and managing director of dollar tranches for both bor- Tuesday for bank lines, which
ing completed in 2020, com- Reliance Industries REUTERS rowers. around $5 bil- usually remain
prising a $1.1 billion loan with a Mizuho Bank, MUFG and lion,” according to a person moderately utilized. Sufficient
3.5-year tenure and a 38.45 based on a margin of 79 bps Sumitomo Mitsui Banking briefed on the details. Another cash accrual and cash and cash
billion yen loan for a five-year over Libor and an average life Corp underwrote the yen tran- person added that the size of equivalents should be ade-
tenure. of 3.25 years,” the first person che for Jio’s loan, with Credit the add-on is two-thirds of the quate to meet maturing debt as
“The yen loan offered an said. Agricole lending alongside the original $3 billion loan – close well a portion of the capex
all-in pricing of around 78 –81 The $3 billion credit line three Japanese banks on the to $2 billion -- which would be requirement,” a Crisil Ratings
bps, while the US dollar tran- closed last week is Reliance yen portion for RIL’s borrow- used for an ‘unplanned green report on RIL said on 23 Feb-
che paid an all-in of 101.5 bps Group’s largest syndicated ing. shoe option’. ruary.
mies, the European Union and Ukraine, Indian refiners have vate lender Axis Bank, people
Australia, set the price cap late been gorging on discounted said last month. It was not clear
last year to bar Western servi- Russian oil. if Axis Bank had also stopped

interested party must be in the
business of steel making or raw
materials used in the manufac-
turing of steel. The last date to
submit the EOIs is 15 April
2023. The EOIs will be
accepted through both physi-
cal and online modes.
RINL, under the steel minis-
try, owns and operates a steel
plant with an annual capacity
of about 7 million tonnes (MT)
located at Visakhapatnam in
Andhra Pradesh.
RINL’s Vizag steel plant is
the country’s first shore-based
plant where the company
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B
Plant or Vizag Steel, along with
RINL’s stake in its subsidiar-
ies/joint ventures through
strategic disinvestment by way
of privatization. While the
government is trying for the
strategic sale of RINL, the
trade unions are opposing the
privatization move.
Earlier this year, they had
put forward a proposal for
merging the company with the
state-owned Steel Authority of
India Ltd (Sail), but the finance
ministry rejected the idea cit-
ing the New Public Sector
Enterprise (PSEs) policy.
ank of Baroda has
stopped clearing pay-
ments for Russian oil
sold above the price cap set by
the West from this month,
three people with direct knowl-
edge of the matter said, a move
that could expedite transition
to a rupee trade mechanism.
Some Indian refiners were
paying in United Arab Emirates
dirham for Russian low-sul-
phur crude priced above $60 a
barrel cap using Bank of Bar-
oda, mainly to Dubai-based
traders, the people said.
The Group of Seven econo-
ces and shipping from trading
Russian oil unless sold at an
enforced low price to deprive
Moscow of funds for its Ukraine
war.
“Bank of Baroda is extremely
cautious in settling payments
for Russian oil bought (at levels)
above price cap,” one of the
persons said.
“They have told us no for set-
tling payments for above-cap
barrels,” the person said.
The state-run lender told
refiners in March that it won’t
settle payment from Russian
barrels bought above price cap,
Russia has replaced Iraq as
the top oil supplier to India in
the last few months, data from
trade sources showed.
The people anticipate that
prices of Russian sweet crude
such as Sokol and ESPO Blend,
which was sold near $60 a bar-
rel in recent weeks, could
Before the Ukraine war, Indian refiners rarely bought oil from breach the price cap due to a
Russia due to higher freight costs. AFP sharp spike in global oil prices
triggered by Sunday’s OPEC+
the three people said. Indian refiners rarely bought decision to cut output.
Bank of Baroda did not oil from Russia due to higher Some refiners, mainly pri-
respond to requests for com- freight costs. vate operators, have been
ment from Reuters. After Western sanctions on clearing payments in dirhams
Before the Ukraine war, Moscow for its invasion of for Russian crude through pri-
settling trades for Russian oil
sold above price cap.
Axis Bank did not immedi-
ately respond to Reuters’
request for comment.
Although Indian refiners
buy Russian oil on a delivered
basis, copies of invoices
reviewed by Reuters also show
shipping charges, which helps
in calculating the price of crude
at Russian ports.
People said problems in set-
tling trade for Russian oil could
push sellers to accept rupee
payments, at least for barrels
that exceed price cap.
 LIVEMINT.COM
Grasim gets
₹5,000 cr
credit line
from Axis
Mayur Bhalerao
mayur.bhalerao@livemint.com
A
ditya Birla Group’s flag-
ship Grasim Industries
Ltd has secured a
₹5,000 crore credit line from
Axis Bank for capital expendi-
ture requirements, and repay
some of its existing loans, the
company said in an exchange
filing on Tuesday.
Grasim Industries said it has
entered three term loan agree-
ments with the bank, totalling
₹5,000 crore, including a term
loan of ₹4,850 crore, which will
be used to fund its capex needs
and for reimbursing the capex
incurred within the past one
year, it added. The remaining
two term loans worth ₹150 crore
will be unsecured and desig-
nated for specific projects,
according to the exchange fil-
ing. Grasim Industries, prima-
rily known for its textile manu-
facturing unit, is a global major
in viscose staple fibre, and is the
largest chlor-alkali, linen and
insulators player in India. It is
also India’s largest cement pro-
ducer and financial services
provider as an NBFC, offering
asset management and life
insurance covers through its
subsidiaries Aditya Birla Capital
and UltraTech Cement.
Even though Grasim did not
specify its capex plans in the fil-
ing, it had earlier announced
plans to infuse ₹10,000 crore
into its ambitious new venture
in the paints segment. It is also
in the process of setting up six
manufacturing units for a pan-
India distribution network.
Grasim is likely to launch its
paints business commercially
in FY24. In April-December
2022, Grasim invested ₹1,800
crore for its paints business. It is
also expanding capacities in
viscose staple fibre and chemi-
cals verticals.
Urbanic to delist from Myntra, Flipkart
Suneera Tandon
suneera.t@htlive.com
neW delhI
B
ritish casual wear brand
Urbanic is delisting from
Walmart-backed Flip-
kart Group to follow its own
direct-to-consumer model,
said a top executive at the com-
pany. The move is in line with
the company’s attempts to exit
marketplaces across regions
where it operates.
Urbanic is a digital only fast
fashion brand targeting con-
sumers in Asian and Latin
American markets—it was
launched in 2019 with India as
its first overseas market of
expansion. While it initially
entered the market via its own
app; in 2021 the brand part-
nered with Flipkart Group—
selling clothes through Myntra
as well as Flipkart.
Now as part of its plan to
focus completely on its own
platforms, Urbanic is set to
launch its own website in India.
‘India’s fashion market is worth $50 bn’
Varuni Khosla
varuni.k@livemint.com
neW delhI
W
ith India remaining
the fastest-growing
major economy and
consumer sentiment at a high,
weddings are driving the fash-
ion and luxury goods business.
According to the founder and
chief executive of global fashion
media firm, The Business of
Fashion’s, Imran Amed, said in
an interview that India has
emerged as one of the world’s
strongest fashion markets, and
globally, the fashion industry is
pegged at about $2.5 trillion.
Edited excerpts:
How has the
fashion indus-
m INTERVIEW wealthier
try changed
post-covid19, and where is it were stuck at home during the
heading?
Globally, fashion is a $2.5 tril- on travelling and other discre-
lion industry, segmented in a tionary items , ending up saving
variety of different elements, a lot of money. They started
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CORPORATE WednesdAy, 5 April 2023
ChennAi 05
Tech Mahindra mandates AI, Bouncing back
Nifty rose 1.4% to 17,398.05 as of 3 April, recovering from a dip that
started 22 March.
17,500
Nifty at close
Web 3 skilling for top execs
17,300
17,100
16,900
16,700
16,500
22 Mar 23 Mar 24 Mar 27 Mar 28 Mar 29Mar 31 Mar 3 Apr
Move to help executives implement solutions based on such technologies at lower levels 2023
Source: NSE
SATISH KUMAR/MINT
Gulveen Aulakh
gulveen.aulakh@livemint.com
neW delhI
peer-group ‘carrot’ model, wherein
executives having successfully exe-
cuted the learnings into action would
FPI shorts may be
be recognized for their efforts and
hit by dovish MPC
T
ech Mahindra has made it showcased as exemplary, which may
mandatory for its top exec- encourage others to follow suit.
utives, including CXOs and The on-demand AI tool identifies
those who report to them, skill levels, research and interest Ram Sahgal Bank Nifty future contracts to
to skill themselves with the areas, based on which the executives ram.sahgal@livemint.com 140,645 on 3 April from record
latest technologies, such as genera- are subsequently trained. mumBAI highs of 196,378 on 22 March.
tive AI, Web 3and 5G, so that they can Mitra, however, clarified that non- Over the period, the Nifty has
T
help implement the solutions based performing executives undergo he bears will scurry for risen 1.4% to 17,398.05 and the
on such technologies at the lowest training and are not laid off, but their cover if the Reserve Bank Bank Nifty rallied by 2% to
levels, said Jagdish Mitra, chief strat- growth opportunities become limited of India’s Monetary Pol- 40,813.05.
egy officer and head of growth at compared to others in the peer group. icy Committee (MPC) spells out Along with the outstanding
India’s fifth largest software services Use of AI is not new to Tech Mahin- clearly that it would pause key shorts, they’ve also sold shares
exporter. dra, Mitra said, while highlighting rate hikes after one more round worth $2.9 billion so far in this
“We are definitely mandating it, in that the group’s legal team has been on 6 April, but will stay put if calendar year. To be sure, they
terms of saying that if you need to get using versions of generative AI for the rate setting committee’s have turned net buyers of 0.97
to the next level or to a better project, over a couple of years as a productiv- language on its future actions is billion in March, and 0.28 bil-
this is what you need to do. We meas- ity enhancer by removing old or tentative, said market experts. lion so far in April. “Market has
ure every unit and monitor the mana- unwanted clauses in contracts. “Our Markets have priced in a 25 priced in a 25-bps hike so the
gerial teams even at the lowest levels HR has been using a lot of image rec- basis point rate hike, but will commentary will assume sig-
on how that team is doing in terms of ognition, human interface, chatbots, closely track the commentary nificance,” said Nirmal Jain,
high tech and deep skilling. We’ve AI to be able to interact with our on MPC’s outlook. “The market chairman and founder, IIFL
taken it pretty much to a level where 160,000 employees, to be able to has discounted a 25 bps hike, Group.
we’ve asked the senior leadership, connect a lot better.” but will take cues Avendus chief
everyone, that they need to know The new technologies will be mar- from MPC’s lan- RBI’s worry executive officer
these two or three technologies and quee areas where most corporates guage,” Nilesh is core inflation, Andrew Holland
its applications,” he said. will be focusing and investing on, but Shah group presi- apart from the expects a “short
Implementing solutions based on contrary to popular beliefs, techno- dent and manag- volatile energy covering-in-
the technologies across the com- Jagdish Mitra, chief strategy officer and head of growth, Tech Mahindra. logical developments are not likely to ing director at duced” rally from
and food price,
pany’s functions and managerial take jobs away, he said. These emerg- Kotak AMC, said. the current levels
teams has been made a part of the Internet of Things (IoT) would even- will be imperative for every business ing technologies are tools to help “If the language is which stands if the MPC deliv-
review mechanism, and almost a pre- tually become critical for any indus- leader of tomorrow to understand accelerate execution and productiv- indicative of firm at 6.1% ers a dovish com-
condition to move up the corporate try as it will be needed for increasing deep tech and its usage... you need to ity and, therefore, may replace jobs pause after a hike, mentary, antici-
ladder. productivity and enabling supply be able to understand how to use gen- that have lower complexity such as shorts will scurry pating a moderat-
“Both in the company as well as testing, basic coding and data for cover, but if it is tentative ing inflation. The Australia
in the group, we are very focused WInd of chAnge capturing. then the shorts will persist.” central bank’s pause after 10
in terms of making sure our lead- “We will have a new set of jobs Since the Indian markets are consecutive rate hikes is a sign
ers, CXO minus one, minus two IMpleMenTIng use of technologies execuTIves conTrAry to that will get created and will be not driven by rates alone, fac- that rate cycles globally might
and so forth, get tech exposure on solutions based on
the technologies will
including metaverse, successfully putting
5G and IoT would the learnings into
popular beliefs,
technological
more industry-specific. Busi- tors such as crude oil price and be nearing a peak, he said.
a regular basis, and are seen talk- be a part of the become critical for action would be developments will nesses will also look for skills, and earnings performance will set RBI’s worry is core inflation,
ing about what they can do with review mechanism any industry recognized not take away jobs generative AI will be a big sup- the course, if the market feels apart from the volatile energy
it. What are you doing with it is porter of enabling your work to that the MPC’s commentary and food price, which stands at
also a very critical review conver- be easier. My belief is that it will leaves room for doubt on a rate 6.1%. Crisil chief economist DK
sation,” he added. chain, and the early adopters stand to erative AI? What to use it for apart improve productivity anywhere by pause, Shah said. Joshi said the impact of rate
On whether the move is facing a have an advantage over the laggards. from asking ChatGPT to write a poem 10-40%— 10% for complex roles, and FPIs have covered some of hikes since May last year will
backlash, Mitra said use of the tech- “Some transformational changes for me.” 25-30% on regular activities,” Mitra their cumulative bearish posi- show with a lag and core infla-
nologies including metaverse, 5G and will get a little bit of a backlash. But, it The group has been following a added. tions on the Nifty as well as the tion could moderate to 5.5%.
our platform is more than Within the first 12 hours of
enough for us,” Rahul Dayama, listing on Myntra—Urbanic
head of marketing, Urbanic sold 23,000 pieces largely tops,
India said. dresses, and jeans, Myntra said
To be sure, India accounts then.
for half of the brand’s revenues. Urbanic has since not listed
After it launched in India, on any other marketplaces
Urbanic launched in Latin such as Amazon, Ajio or Nykaa
Where every
American markets to tap Fashion.
younger shoppers
there. Urbanic Urbanic is set to
However,
Dayama said
number
sells casual west- launch its own while e-com-
ern wear clothing website in India. It merce marketpla-
such as t-shirts, already has a ces give brands
tells a story...
jeans, dresses and like Urbanic huge
mobile app that
India accounts for half of the accessories at reach and depth
brand’s revenues. MINT price points that draws significant in the market—a
appeal to younger Gen-Z traffic majority of its
It already has a mobile app that consumers. shoppers largely Introducing
draws significant traffic for the To be sure, reside in tier-1 cit-
News in
Gen-Z focussed brand. Flipkart’s fashion focussed ies; the brand now wants to
“As part of our global brief, platform Myntra has been a top control its interface with con-
we have been asked to focus contender for large foreign sumers including service and
completely on our platform brands to enter India on an communication.
and developing our own com- exclusive basis. For instance, “We were always a direct-to-
munity, developing everything
on Urbanic. In the future we
might take a few decisions but
again the speed at which we
when Urbanic first listed on consumer platform right from
Myntra in September of 2021— the start. I think partnering
it recorded one of the biggest with Myntra was something
opening day sales for a brand which we wanted to do to reach
Numbers
want to grow right now, I think on Myntra. more pin codes,” he said.
Exclusively on the Mint App
spending money online, often on luxury consumption?
engaging with luxury goods Now, there is a lot more
companies, and the growth in uncertainty about where the
the last couple of years as a result world economy is headed, and
of it, has been exceptional. we are talking about a potential
Clearly, the economy has recession in Europe and US.
entered a different phase. However, though the recession Scan to Download
Are there other luxury seg- has not materialized thus far, I
‘
ments that are doing well think consumers are being a
globally? bit more cau-
Yes, the tious.
bottom of the India is the Is that also
pyramid lux- fastest-growing true for
ury is doing major economy India?
very well. One No, India is
of the reasons and there’s quite a the fastest-
with luxury fashion at the very that’s happen- level of buoyancy growing major
top, and witnessing extraordi- ing is because here economy and
nary acceleration over the last people are there’s quite a
Imran Amed
couple of years. This is a reflec- being a lot Founder and CEO, The level of buoy-
tion of the more con- Business of Fashion ancy here. The
ments of our
seg- scious of how
they spend,
Indian cus-
tomer remains
society, who and where they spend. If they’re confident. If we define luxury
buying it, it is in the discount and fashion in India including
lockdown, not spending money segment. The middle part of the everything related to the wed-
industry is struggling the most. ding market, then we’re talking
Did the current economic about greater than $50 billion
conditions have any impact market per annum.
 06 WednesdAy, 5 April 2023
ChennAi CORPORATE LIVEMINT.COM

Rising crude prices, tax cuts World Bank cuts

India’s FY24 GDP
may not help oil producers growth rate to 6.3%
FROM PAGE 1

Bangalore is now the top city ever, said that India’s growth
for rent yield with 3.9%. MINT Analysts are not enthused considering the frequent revisions in windfall taxes will rise to 6.7% in FY25 driven
by private consumption and
Rents double Ujjval Jauhari revision of windfall taxes, Yogesh Patil
private investment on the back
of government policies to
in Bengaluru ujjval.j@livemint.com
NEW DELhI
senior analyst, Centrum Broking Ltd,
said ONGC’s and OIL’s net realization
improve transport infrastruc-
ture, logistics, and the business
on the sale of crude will be in the range ecosystem.
as engineers

fight for flats
FROM PAGE 1
Indian city for rent yield with
3.9%.
Nowhere is the problem as
acute as the neighborhoods in
central Bangalore, Whitefield
and the Outer Ring Road (ORR)
area. There are about 350 com-
panies in the 17-kilometer ORR
stretch and they together
employ one million workers,
said Krishna Kumar Gowda,
general manager of the Outer
Ring Road Companies’ Associ-
ation. The concentration is
high and impacts availability of
rental homes within a reasona-
ble distance, he said. Intel
Corp., Microsoft Corp., KPMG,
Goldman Sachs and Morgan
Stanley Inc. have their offices
along the length of the road and
a new Google campus with a
capacity for housing 10,000
workers is coming up fast, said
Gowda.Ramyakh Jain, who
moved to Bangalore for a new
job, found a two-bedroom
rental home for 50,000 rupees
($600) per month in February.
It’s one-and-a-half times the
rent and only half the size of the
apartment he had in New
Delhi’s Gurgaon district previ-
ously. It took him weeks of
scouring the market with the
help of as many as 25 estate
agents. Even so, he considers it
an accomplishment.
W
hile the central gov- of $75-78 barrel till the next revision. World Bank forecasts private
ernment’s decision Windfall profit taxes were imposed consumption growth is
to withdraw windfall by the Centre on 1 July 2022, following expected to slow to 6.9% in
taxes on local crude the super normal profits being earned FY24 from 8.3% in the previous
oil could be positive by oil and gas producers and exporters year, and government con- GFCF is expected to expand at
for upstream oil producers such as Oil during a high crude price environment, sumption growth is expected to 9.3% in FY24 MINT
and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) and when Brent had crossed $130 a barrel in shrink by 1.1% in FY24 after a
Oil India Ltd (OIL), analysts are wary. June 2022, as the Russia-Ukraine war 1.2% expansion in FY23. Gross recover from the shocks,” said
The government on Tuesday slashed led to supply disruptions. fixed capital formation, an indi- Auguste Tano Kouame, World
windfall taxes on domestic crude oil to Thereafter, India joined a growing cator of investments in fixed Bank’s country director in
zero from ₹3,500 a tonne ($5.8 a barrel number of countries taxing super nor- assets, is expected to expand at India.
earlier). mal profits of energy firms. The gov- 9.3% in FY24, benefiting from The multilateral agency said
The special additional excise duty ernment’s collection from the special the government’s emphasis on that the debt level of central
(SAED) on diesel has also been cut to additional excise duty imposed on the capital spending, although and state governments
₹0.5 a litre, including cess, compared to production of crude oil and the export moderating from 10.1% growth together is set to stabilize at
₹1 a litre earlier, while those on ATF and of petroleum products from 1 July 2022 in FY23. around 83% of GDP in FY23,
petrol remained unchanged. is estimated at around ₹40,000 crore Exports in goods and servi- down from a peak of 87.5% in
The revision typically takes place The government on Tuesday slashed windfall taxes on domestic crude oil to zero for FY23, according to Icra. ces will grow at 9.2% in FY24, FY21. However, this reduction
every fortnight. from ₹3,500 a tonne REUTERS Meanwhile the likely fall in gas pri- slightly slower than the 11.5% hinges on double-digit nomi-
On 4 April, the government took into ces remains a concern for oil and gas expansion in FY23, the World nal GDP growth.
consideration declining crude price enthused on an earnings upside for the Prabhudas Lilladher, said Indian oil producers. Gas prices for domestically Bank said. However, spillovers from
during the fortnight ended 1 April to domestic oil producers, despite a rise in producers may not see a substantial rise produced gas (APM Gas) that see revi- The World recent develop-
arrive at the decision. However, con- crude oil prices. in net realizations, as the windfall taxes sions every six months, though, have Bank also expects The World Bank ments in financial
sidering that oil prices started moving Following production cuts of 1.6 mil- may eventually take away a larger por- not seen any change since 1 April and consumer price expects markets in the US
up yet again from Monday, the wind- lion barrels a day announced by several tion of their incremental profits. will continue at $8.57 per mmbtu (mil- index (CPI) based consumer price and Europe pose a
fall taxes may be reinstated if prices OPEC-plus countries, led by Saudi Ara- Kotak Institutional equities analysts lion British thermal units) on a provi- inflation to mod- index based- risk to short-term
continue to rise further. bia, and 500,000 barrels per day cut by said: “For upstream companies, there sional basis till further orders. erate to 5.2% in investment flows
inflation to
Commenting on the latest revision in Russia, (or a total of around 1.6million will not be any benefit from higher oil However, once the recommendation FY24, from 6.6% into emerging
special additional excise duty, Sab- of the government-appointed gas in the just con- moderate to 5.2% markets, includ-
yasachi Majumdar, senior vice- LIMITED UPSIDES price review committee, led by Kirit cluded financial in FY24 ing India, but
president and group head of rating Parikh, is implemented within a year, amid easing Indian banks
agency, ICRA Ltd, said there was a CRUDE prices rose THE windfall taxes INDIAN oil NET realizations for few weeks, it will reduce gas realisa- global commodity remain well-capi-
moderation in crude prices closer since the OPEC-plus
announced more
may be reinstated if
crude oil prices
producers may not
see a substantial rise
OIL and ONGC was
at $77-78 a barrel in
tions for companies, analysts said. prices and some moderation in talized, according to Dhruv
to the last revision in SAED on 21 production cuts of continue to surge in net realizations, the third quarter The panel suggested that the domestic demand. India’s Sharma, senior economist at
March, hence the reduction in 1.16 mn barrels/ day further. experts said despite high prices monthly price of gas produced financial sector also remains World Bank and lead author of
duty. However, crude prices from old blocks be fixed at 10% of strong, buoyed by improve- the report.
jumped since the OPEC-plus the monthly average of the Indian ments in asset quality and India’s growth continues to
announced additional production cuts barrels a day) Brent crude, which was prices, as windfall taxes limit oil price crude basket, with a cap of $6.5 per robust private sector credit be resilient, although there are
of 1.16 million barrels per day. There- trading at sub-$80 a barrel levels on realization to about $75 a barrel.” mmBtu and a floor price of $4 per growth, the World Bank said in some signs of moderation in
fore, SAED can be expected to increase Sunday, suddenly spiked to around $86 Net realizations for OIL and ONGC mmBtu. a statement.“The Indian econ- the second half of FY23, and
in the next revision if the crude prices per barrel. was at $77-78 a barrel in Q3 and despite Analysts maintained that incremen- omy continues to show strong the profitability of private cor-
remain elevated, Majumdar added. A section of experts said crude prices the rise in crude prices and cut in wind- tal earnings of upstream producers will resilience to external shocks porations is high, particularly
Considering the frequent revisions could even touch $95 a barrel levels. fall taxes, analysts expected net realiza- depend mostly on the rise in produc- compared to some other coun- in the services sector, Sharma
in windfall taxes, analysts are not much However, Avishek Datta, analyst at tions to remain flat. On the fortnightly tion volumes from hereon. tries that are still struggling to said.

LIC’s bets on top 10 Govt cuts windfall Former US Prez Donald Trump Red Cross to
cut 1,500 jobs
firms see gains of tax on crude oil surrenders; to plead not guilty to slash costs
₹65,500 crore FROM PAGE 1

hence the reduction in the

companies can heave a sigh of
relief, but for how long would
remain up for speculation,” he
FROM PAGE 1

tigations are politically moti-

AFP
feedback@livemint.com

FROM PAGE 1
Based on the net change in
the annual volume-weighted
average price of LIC’s equity
holdings during FY23, the
insurer accrued a net gain of at
least ₹65,494 crore from
India’s top 10 listed companies.
Insurance industry experts
suggest that LIC’s mark-to-
market gains from its invest-
ments may help provide sub-
stantial bonuses to market-
linked policyholders, higher
investment profits, and poten-
tially more dividends for LIC’s
shareholders, including the
government.
As of 31 March, the total
value of LIC’s holdings in the
top 10 companies cited above
is estimated to be at least ₹4.65
trillion. LIC’s total equity
holding (from policyholders’
funds) in about 300-odd listed
firms is estimated to be at least
₹9 trillion.
In FY23, LIC recorded sub-
stantial gains in its invest-
ments in top-listed firms.
Compared to FY22, LIC’s
investment value in Reliance
Industries rose by ₹13,121.4
crore, ITC Ltd surged by
₹17,994 crore, and TCS
reported a gain of ₹5,926.7
crore. LIC’s investment value
in ICICI Bank rose by ₹4,920
crore, while Infosys saw a gain
of ₹2,662.8 crore. Similarly,
LIC’s investments in SBI, L&T,
HDFC Bank, and HDFC also
registered notable gains. In
Hindustan Unilever, LIC’s
investment value saw a loss of
₹1,379.7 crore.
To take advantage of price
movements, LIC has been
seen to be changing its share-
holding in the top 10 firms. In
RIL, for instance, the insurer’s
holding changed from 413.54
million at the end of March
2022 to 429.75 million as of
now; in ITC, the shareholding
changed from 1.95 billion at
the end of March 2022 to 1.89
billion now.
An email sent to a spokes-
person for LIC remained
unanswered.
This PDF was uploade To Teligram channel_ LBS Newspaper platform (https://t.me/LBSNEWSPAPER) @LBSNEWSPAPER
LIC’s total equity holding in
300-odd listed firms is likely to
be around ₹9trillion MINT
LIC plans to invest a record
₹2.4 trillion across markets,
including shares of locally
traded companies this fiscal
year.Apart from supporting
markets, this will not only be
the largest ever investment by
LIC but also may help it in
maximizing returns for policy-
holders and profits for share-
holders and also work as a vital
support system for Indian
markets in FY24.
Around 35% of the total
investment, or
₹80,000-85,000 crore, could
be allocated in shares of listed
companies in India in FY24.
LIC’s record investment
plan comes at a time foreign
investors are pulling out of
most emerging markets,
including India, because of a
risk-off sentiment.
Emerging markets assets
are sensitive to US monetary
policy changes as higher inter-
est rates make riskier assets
less attractive to investors.
They also lead to a stronger
dollar, making it dearer for
emerging nations to import
goods and service debts.
In January and February,
net outflows by FPIs were at
₹28,852 crore and ₹5,294
crore, respectively.
Even though net inflows by
FPIs stood at ₹7,233 crore (due
to the investment by US-based
GQG partners in Adani Group
firms) in March, FPIs continue
to be net sellers of Indian equi-
ties to the tune of ₹26,913
crore year-to-date.
anirudh.l@htlive.com
duty. However, crude oil pri-
ces have jumped since the
Opec+ announcement of addi-
tional production cuts of 1.16
million barrels per day. Hence,
the SAED can be expected to
increase in the next revision if
the crude prices remain ele-
vated.”The government has so
far collected around ₹40,000
crore in windfall taxes so far,
Majumdar estimated.
Sumit Singhania, a partner
with Deloitte India, said:
“Withdrawal of windfall tax,
except the reduced levy on
diesel, is certainly a cheer for
oil producing companies.
Since its first levy in July 2022,
the windfall tax has made its
impact felt on the oil compa-
nies’ economics and for the
large part, this levy has been
debatable despite it being
arguably a positive step in the
net-zero journey for a nation
like India.”
“For now, the oil-producing
Carbon tax hurdle looms over India-UK free-trade talks
FROM PAGE 1
UK identified products such
as cement, chemicals, glass,
iron and steel, non-ferrous
metals, non-metallic miner-
als, paper and pulp, refining,
fertilizers, and power genera-
tion, and the list will gradu-
ally cover all products in a few
years. He added that the UK
initiated consultations to levy
the carbon border tax from
2026, the same year the EU
intends to do it, and the key
objective is to prevent carbon
leakage.
“The UK will also introduce
mandatory product standards
by 2027 to prohibit the import
of products with high emission
intensity,” Srivastava said.
Experts are of the opinion
that the CBAM proposed by
Europe and the UK runs coun-
ter to the Paris Agreement on
climate change, which saw
said.At the time of writing this
report, the June contract of
Brent on the Intercontinental
Exchange was at $85.58 per
barrel, up 0.77% from its previ-
ous close. The May contract of
West Texas Intermediate
(WTI) rose 0.88% to $81.13 a
barrel. The price trend was rel-
atively steady on Tuesday after
a 5%-plus surge on Monday.
Analysts said Opec’s total
production cut of 3.2 million
barrels per day may take crude
oil prices back above $100.
Prashant Vasisht, vice-pres-
ident and co-head for corpo-
rate ratings at ICRA, said the
additional production cut by
the major oil exporting coun-
tries could fuel inflationary
pressures on the economy.
Since imports contribute to
around 85% of the total
demand in India, the increase
in crude prices increases the
import bill and weakens the
rupee against the dollar.
developed countries agree to
bear a greater burden in cli-
mate mitigation as they are
responsible for generating
nearly 80% of the historical
carbon emissions.
“A CBAM would introduce a
carbon price on imported
products. This would reflect
both the carbon emitted in
their production together with
any gap between the carbon
price applied in the country of
origin and the carbon price
that would have been incurred
had they been produced in the
UK,” the paper stated.
Carbon leakage refers to
shifting of UK’s production to
another country with lower or
no carbon tax.
Last month, UK prime min-
ister Rishi Sunak said the UK
and EU could coordinate on
the new carbon border tax.
The UK exited the European
Union in 2020.
vated and intended to weaken
his bid to retake the White
House in 2024. Journalists
often outnumbered protesters,
though.
Trump, a former reality TV
star, has been hyping that nar-
rative to his political advantage,
saying he raised more than $8
million in the days since the
indictment on claims of a
“witch hunt.” His campaign
released a fundraising request
titled “My last email before
arrest” and he has repeatedly
assailed the Manhattan district
attorney, egged on supporters
to protest and claimed without
evidence that the judge presid-
ing over the case “hates me” —
something his own lawyer has
said is not true.Trump is sched-
uled to return to his Palm
Beach, Florida, home, Mar-a-
Lago, on Tuesday evening to
give remarks, punctuating his
new reality: submitting to the
dour demands of the American
An EU-style carbon border adjustment mechanism is expected
to dent India’s metal exports to the UK
Among the several goals the
UK aims to achieve through
CBAM is reducing depend-
ence on Russian energy
imports.
Decarbonizing the UK
Donald Trump will surrender in lower Manhattan
criminal justice system while
projecting an aura of defiance
and victimhood at celebratory
campaign events. At least 500
prominent supporters have
been invited, with some of the
most pro-Trump congressional
Republicans expected to
attend.A conviction would not
prevent Trump from running
for or winning the presidency
in 2024.Inside the Manhattan
courtroom, prosecutors led by
New York’s district attorney,
Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, are
expected to unseal the indict-
MINT
industry forms an important
part of delivering the energy
transformation needed to
achieve net zero at home and
so contributes to a further
reduction in our share of car-
T
he Red Cross announced
Tuesday that it would cut
1,500 jobs over the next
12 months in a drive to slash
costs due to to a funding
crunch.
The International Commit-
tee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said
an expected drop in humani-
tarian assistance budgets over
AP the next two years was forcing it
to make significant cuts.
ment issued last week by a “ICRC will need to be more
grand jury. This is when Trump deliberate in directing efforts
and his defense lawyers will get towards programmes and pla-
their first glimpse of the precise ces where we can have the
allegations against him. greatest impact, in line with our
The indictment contains mandate to provide life-saving
multiple charges of falsifying relief and protection services to
business records, including at people living through armed
least one felony offense, two conflict and violence,” it said in
people familiar with the matter a statement. The Geneva-based
told The Associated Press last organisation said that its gov-
week.After the arraignment, erning board on March 30 had
Trump is expected to be approved 430 million Swiss
released by authorities because francs ($474 million) in global
the charges against him don’t cost reduction through early
require that bail be set. 2024.
bon emissions globally. products to the UK as traders
“It will reduce our depend- seek to avoid new charges”.
ence on foreign energy and According to industry esti-
allow us to make Putin’s illegal mates, India has around 78GW
invasion of Ukraine a turning of installed captive power
point as we strengthen Brit- capacity, of which around
ain’s energy security and has- 56GGW is fuelled by coal.
ten the transition. If this is to The carbon tax proposal has
move from aspi- triggered trade
ration to reality, CBAM aims to cut tensions between
then UK business carbon emissions developed and
must be able to by imposing a developing coun-
invest in decar- levy on imported tries. Several
bonization..,” the countries, includ-
goods based on
report further ing India, have
added. their carbon called the meas-
Explaining the footprint ure discrimina-
need to introduce tory.
CBAM, the paper Mint had ear-
explained that it is not yet clear lier reported that India is con-
what overall impact carbon sidering imposing retaliatory
leakage measures deployed by tariffs on European Union
other jurisdictions could have exports in response to the
on UK exports; however, bloc’s proposed carbon tax
“unless the UK takes similar that could disrupt over $8 bil-
steps, they could result in a risk lion worth of Indian metal
of diversion of higher carbon exports to the EU.
 LIVEMINT.COM
‘We’re still scratching
the surface in India’
Lata Jha
lata.j@htlive.com
New Delhi
T
he success of Amazon Prime
Video’s crime thriller Farzi, the
most-watched Indian subscrip-
tion video-on-demand (SVoD )
show, according to media con-
sulting firm Ormax, has drawn much atten-
tion to the platform’s India strategy. The ser-
vice has also had many popular shows such
as Panchayat, The Family Man and Mirzapur
since its India launch in 2016. In an inter-
view, Sushant Sreeram, recently elevated as
country director, Prime Video, India, spoke
about the platform’s strategy to balance local
offerings with dubbed international tent-
pole shows, programming for the heteroge-
neous Indian audience and investing
aggressively in a market, where it is still early
days for SVoD. Edited excerpts:
Given that Prime Video has been oper-
ating in India for over six years, is there
a sense of what’s working—in terms of
languages or genres? How will that
impact your broader content strategy,
going forward?
If we were to chart our journey in the six-
and-a-half years we’ve been here, you can
see the diversity of bets we’ve made. Be it
languages, genres or formats, it is too early to
start thinking of these as choices. Indian cus-
tomer, is still, by and large, waking up to the
paid SVoD category offering, though past
two-and-a-half years have accelerated adop-
tion. But if you think of broad context of
entertain-
INTERVIEW ment
m and
viewer in
India, you
realize that it’s still Day One. Our focus is to
ensure we continue to move with speed and
agility. We will continue to build on our
learning and, hopefully, it will reflect in pro-
gramming.
How do you plan to balance local offer-
ings with the international slate in
2023?
We had about 500 titles that launched on
the service last year. This includes our local
originals, our global international shows,
local licensed movies and much more.
When we think about shows, local originals
obviously sit within the cultural milieu of the
Monitor the pulse
of the market
Explore Now
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CORPORATE WednesdAy, 5 April 2023
ChennAi 07
Sports ad spend crosses ₹14k cr in 2022
Varuni Khosla covid-induced hiatus,” Vinit
Karnik, head, entertainment,
varuni.k@livemint.com
New Delhi e-sports and sports, GroupM
South Asia, said.
T
he Indian sports indus- The industry can reach
try has registered a mas- ₹20,000 crore in 2-3 years, if
Sinha) is slated for later this year, returning sive jump in 2022 with the momentum continues, he
seasons of popular franchises and the Cita- media advertisement spend- added.
del India franchise with Varun Dhawan and ing , on-the-ground and team The 2023 cricket World
Samantha Ruth Prabhu. sponsorships, and celebrity Cup in India scheduled during
How are you looking to strategize endorsements breaching the the festive season, two big
investments as several platforms are ₹14,000 crore mark for the international racing events,
increasingly reducing India budgets? first time, signalling a massive Formula E and Moto GP, the
We made a statement on investments post-covid recovery. renewal of IPL sponsorships
doubling over next five years last year, and it According to the 10th edi- after the 2023 season, and the
holds true. At Prime Video, it feels like we’re tion of an annual report ‘Sport- title and central sponsorships
still scratching the surface. We see this as a ing Nation in the Making’ by , Cricket contributed 85% to the total sports industry revenue. AFP for the BCCI Home Series and
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build this GroupM, the sports industry’s team India sponsorship,
category with compelling storytelling so total expenditure was up 49% ICC T20 World Cup, Asia Cup, media advertising on sports besides the BCCI Home Series
there is no let up in our ambitions. There is to ₹14,209 crore last year, from the FIFA World Cup, and the stood at ₹7,553 crore, with tra- Media Rights auction, could be
no let up in customer’s appetite, too. Be it ₹9,500 crore in 2021. Out of return of emerging sporting ditional television ads having the key drivers for the Indian
customers wanting more in their preferred this, spending on sponsorships tournaments like Pro Kabaddi the biggest share, though digi- sports industry.
language, genre, or new customers. We for on-ground, team and fran- League, marquee marathons, tal media gained considerable Sports celebrities also got
don’t fear any ebb and our investments back chises, more than doubled to Maharashtra Open, and Com- ground during the year. associated with more brands
that up. ₹5,907 crore, increasing its monwealth Games 2022. “Over these 10 years, the with the endorsement value at
Has viewership or subscription stabi- share in the overall pie by 12 A little over 50% of the over industry has delivered a com- ₹749 crore, up 20% from 2021.
lized post the acceleration caused by basis points to 42%, from the all industry spending, or 53%, pound annual growth rate of This included Byju’s deal with
the pandemic? earlier 30%, GroupM said in was on media advertisements. 14%, with the 2022 scoreboard Argentina and Paris Saint-
There was an evolution in the (SVoD) cat- the report. Interestingly, despite 26% rise reading ₹14,209 crore. Cricket Germain star footballer Lionel
country. At the same time, there is an oppor- egory in terms of customers sampling it, and The rise in spending was from a year earlier, the share of played with positive intent and Messi and Indian track and
tunity to bring global stories and shows, beginning to see value in it. In that sense, primarily on the back of the media advertising shrunk by accounted for a major share of field athlete Neeraj Chopra’s
obviously by localizing them using subtitles what would have taken about five years increase in the number of 10 basis points over 2021, with the value, but emerging sports brand associations following
and dubbing, as we’re doing with Citadel (a before the pandemic, happened in a year Indian Premier League (IPL) sponsorship spending grow- had a great year from a growth his extraordinary performance
spy series starring Priyanka Chopra and and a half. And it has levelled up far higher in matches following the addi- ing at a much faster clip. perspective, with many events at the Tokyo Olympics to win
Richard Madden created by the Russo terms of propensity of customers to join the tion of two new franchises, the In terms of absolute value, making their return after the the gold medal.
brothers premiering on 28 April). We’ve service, and number of hours they spend on
seen this with shows like The Rings of Power, it. What that tells us is this behaviour is not
The Tomorrow War and The Peripheral, and temporary, it is a customer shift that is here
some non-English international shows like to stay. That gives us confidence to make
WagonR, AltoK 10 score low in safety test
‘
Maradona: Blessed Dream. With the forward-looking investments as this is
right story, set-up and behaviour customers will
localization, even our stick with and therefore,
international shows are Over 75% of Prime our investments over 4-5 PTI are almost similar to the stan- The WagonR also offered in the most popular Maruti
finding an audience. Over Video India’s years will have right divi- feedback@livemint.com dards in Europe. weak chest protection for the Suzuki models,” Global NCAP
75% of Prime Video India’s customers watch dends associated with Global NCAP rates vehicles driver despite the improve- secretary general Alejandro
V
customers watch interna- them. ehicle safety group from zero to five based on their ments in the restraint systems Furas noted.
tional shows and movies in international shows Which languages or Global NCAP on Tues- safety features and automo- by Maruti Suzuki since the Given that six airbags are
English or local languages. and movies in English categories are working day said it has given biles with a previous version becoming a mandatory
With localization in Indian or local languages best for you? one- and two-star safety rat- higher rating are Both the models of the model was requirement for new models
languages, over 25% of That is hard to say as rate ings for adult occupant protec- considered safer scored zero stars tested by Global sold in India, it is particularly
Sushant Sreeram
total viewing time of inter- Country Director, Prime Video of adoption of the category tion to Maruti Suzuki India’s for occupants. for child occupant NCAP, it added. worrying for Global NCAP that
national shows and mov- has exploded. It could have popular models WagonR and According to protection as per “We have been Maruti Suzuki does not even
ies is in Indian languages. been a little narrower to AltoK 10, respectively, after its latest test, delighted with make this requirement availa-
the Global NCAP’s
Keeping that in mind, we’ll be releasing Cit- programme in earlier days of the category conducting crash tests. Global NCAP the positive ble as a customer option, he
adel not just in English but 40-plus langua- because early adopters were similar. Next Both the models scored stated that the latest round of response from added.
ges globally; for our audiences in India, wave of adopters has, however, been very zero stars for child occupant Alto K10 showed crash tests Indian automak- When contacted a Maruti
there’s Hindi, but also Tamil, Telugu, Kan- dissimilar. We programme on the service in protection as per the Global a stable structure ers and some Suzuki India spokesperson
nada, and Malayalam. As far as local originals 10 languages but we look at more of an NCAP’s latest round of crash and marginal to global automak- said safety is a critical issue and
go, we have around 100 projects in various opportunity as far as subtitles and dubs go or tests. good protection for adult chest ers as well. Although there has is closely regulated by govern-
stages of development and production. when licensing movie titles across langua- The company, however, to head in the frontal impact been some limited improve- ments as they are responsible
Jubilee (a period drama will be streamed ges. For example, Citadel is being pro- said its vehicles meet India’s but showed weak protection to ment, we are yet to see this for the safety of the people in
from 7 April), Dahaad (starring Sonakshi grammed in five Indian languages. crash safety regulations which the chest in the side impact. safety commitment deployed their countries.
With our all-new
Market Dashboard
#BeASmartInvestor
 08 WednesdAy, 5 April 2023
ChennAi GLOBAL LIVEMINT.COM

m MINT SHORTS Nato at Russia’s door Branson’s space co

GM overtakes Ford as the second Virgin Orbit files
top seller of electric vehicles in US
General Motors Co. outsold Ford Motor Co. in electric vehicles
by nearly two-to-one in the first three months of the year as the
automakers chase market leader Tesla Inc.Ford sold 10,866 EVs
as Finland joins club for bankruptcy
in the US during the first quarter, according to a statement issued Dave Sebastian
on Tuesday. That was up 41% from a year ago, but was still well feedback@livemint.com
behind the 20,670 plug-ins GM sold in the same period. Overall,
The historic realignment was triggered by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine
R
Ford’s light vehicle deliveries rose almost 10%, while GM’s first- ichard Branson’s Virgin
quarter sales were up 17.6%. BLOOMBERG Orbit Holdings Inc. has
filed for bankruptcy, a
AP few days after the satellite-
US military says senior IS feedback@livemint.com launch venture cut the bulk of
its workforce and said it wasn’t
commander killed in Syria BRusseLs
able to secure sufficient fund- Virgin Orbit Holdings founder

F
AP
inland joined the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (Nato) mili-
tary alliance on Tuesday, dealing a
major blow to Russia with a his-
toric realignment of the continent
triggered by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Finland’s membership represents a
major change in Europe’s security land-
scape: The country adopted neutrality after
its defeat by the Soviets in World War II.
But its leaders signalled they wanted to join
the alliance just months after Russian Pres-
ident Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
Beirut: A drone strike carried out by the American-led coa- sent a shiver of fear through Moscow’s
lition in northwestern Syria has killed a senior member of neighbours.
the Islamic State group who was in charge of planning Finland shares a 1,340 kilometre (832
attacks in Europe, US military said on Tuesday.The man mile) border with Russia, so its member-
killed Monday in the strike was identified by a US military ship doubles Russia’s border with the
statement as Khalid Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri. The military world’s biggest security alliance.
statement added that his death “will temporarily disrupt The move is a strategic and political blow
the organization’s ability to plot external attacks”. AFP to Putin, who has long complained about
Nato’s expansion towards Russia and partly
used that as a justification for the invasion.
Dogecoin jumps as Twitter’s blue The alliance says it poses no threat to Mos-
cow.
bird is replaced by Shiba Inu dog Russia warned that it would be forced to
Dogecoin’s Shiba Inu dog replaced Twitter’s blue bird as the take “retaliatory measures” to address what
social media company’s logo on Tuesday, helping the meme it called security threats created by Fin-
coin add as much as $4 billion to its market value. The token, land’s membership. It has also warned it
born as a satire of a cryptocurrency frenzy in 2013 and has no will bolster forces near Finland if Nato
fundamental use, surged to 10 cents around 1500 EST from 7 sends any additional troops or equipment
cents as Elon Musk indicated in a tweet on Monday he had deliv- to what will be its 31st member country.
ered on his promise of changing the social media app’s logo to Neighboring Sweden, which has
dogecoin’s dog. REUTERS avoided military alliances for more than
200 years, has also applied. But objections
from Nato members Turkey and Hungary
Tesla to warn of data privacy have delayed the process.
Alarmed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
risk from car cams in Germany last year, Finland applied to join in May,
REUTERS
setting aside years of military non-align-
ment to seek protection under the organi-
zation’s security umbrella.
Finland’s membership became official
when its foreign minister handed over doc-
uments completing its accession process to
US secretary of state Antony Blinken. The
ing.
The company on Tuesday
said it was working to sell itself.
Just three months ago, it was
poised to make history deliv-
ering the first satellites into
orbit from the billionaire’s
home country of the U.K.—
before the high-profile launch
ended in the destruction of its
satellite payload.
“While we have taken great
efforts to address our financial
position and secure additional
financing, we ultimately must
do what is best for the busi-
ness,” Virgin Orbit’s chief
executive, Dan Hart, said in a
The flags of Finland and Nato fly on the courtyard of the foreign ministry in Finnish statement.
capital Helsinki, on Tuesday ahead of Finland joining the organization.. AP Virgin Orbit, which filed for
chapter 11 with the U.S. Bank-
US state department is the repository of country “will be forced to take military- ruptcy Court in the District of
Nato texts concerning membership. technical and other retaliatory measures to Delaware,
The head of the military alliance said counter the threats to our national security said it
Tuesday that no more troops would be sent arising from Finland’s accession to Nato”, received a
to the Nordic country unless it asked for the foreign ministry warned in a statement. $31.6 mil-
help. It said Finland’s move marks “a funda- lion commitment from Virgin
“There will be no Nato troops in Finland mental change in the situation in Northern Investments Ltd. in the form of
without the consent of Fin- Europe, which had previously so-called debtor-in-possession
land,” NATO Secretary-Gen- Russia warned of been one of the most stable financing. The company said
eral Jens Stoltenberg told retaliatory action regions in the world”. that financing would help it
reporters at the alliance’s after Finland Earlier on Tuesday, Krem- fund its operations while it
headquarters in Brussels a few joined Nato, but lin spokesman Dmitry Peskov finds a buyer.
hours before the country said that Finland’s member- The bankruptcy filing deals
joins.
said it had no
ship reflected the alliance’s a blow to Mr. Branson’s ambi-
But he refused to rule out territorial dispute anti-Russian course and tion to compete in the rapidly
the possibility of holding with that country warned that Moscow will growing market for commer-
more military exercises there respond depending on what cial-satellite launches. Last
and said that Nato would not weapons Nato allies place week, the six-year-oldcom-
allow Russia’s demands to dictate the orga- there. pany said it was slashing its
nization’s decisions. But Peskov also sought to play down the head count by about 675
“We are constantly assessing our pos- impact, noting that Russia has no territorial employees in an effort to
ture, our presence. We have more exer- disputes with Finland. reduce costs.
cises, we have more presence, also in the It’s not clear what additional military Mr. Branson worked on his
Nordic area,” he said. resources Russia could send to the Finnish space ambitions while his
The Russian foreign ministry said the border. closely held Virgin Group—a
Richard Branson. REUTERS
business empire that includes
airlines and cruise ships—took
a hit during the Covid-19 pan-
demic shutdowns and travel
restrictions.
Virgin Orbit went public by
combining with a U.S.-listed
blank-check company in
December 2021, a deal that
valued the business at more
than $3 billion. Virgin Group
and Mubadala Investment Co.,
a United Arab Emirates sover-
eign-wealth fund, earlier
invested around $1 billion in
the business.
It is the latest company that
took this route to the public
markets to file for bankruptcy.
The grocery courier Boxed
Inc. said on
Sunday it
filed for
b a n k -
ruptcy. It had completed its
merger with a special-purpose
acquisition company in the
same month and year as Virgin
Orbit. SPACs are shell firms
that raise money from inves-
tors and list on a stock
exchange to merge with a pri-
vate company, bringing it pub-
lic.
Virgin Orbit said in a regula-
tory filing this week that it
hadn’t generated positive cash
flows or enough revenues to
fund its operations. It also said
it expects to report $1 billion in
accumulated losses as of the
end of 2022.
©2023 DOW JONES & COM-
PANY, INC.

US jobs below 10 mn Israel’s shadow war with Iran heats up

Berlin: Tesla will warn that its ‘sentry mode’, which
records a car’s surroundings, risks infringing data privacy
laws in Germany after consumer group vzbv sued the man-
for first time since ’21 Bloomberg
feedback@livemint.com
targeted Syrian air defences.
Iran’s accelerating nuclear
but not formally. Netanyahu
sacked Yoav Gallant for urging
ufacturer for failing to mention this in advertising. The case program has deepened the ten- a halt to the contentious legisla-
Bloomberg

I
is the latest in a series of disputes in countries from China remains a key hurdle for the srael’s shadow war with Iran sions between the two coun- tion, and warning that the
to the Netherlands over the cameras in Tesla cars, which feedback@livemint.com Fed as it seeks to bring inflation in Syria escalated on Tues- tries. Israel suspects Tehran political strife could affect the
the company says are to protect from theft or vandalism but down to its 2% goal. day, with Syrian state-run aims to build bombs—a charge military’s operational capacity.

V
authorities worry lead to filming without consent. REUTERS acancies at US employ-
ers dropped in February
to the lowest since May
Google workers in London stage 2021, suggesting a cooling in
labour demand in some indus-
walkout in protest against job cuts tries but still indicative of a job
London: Hundreds of Google employees staged a walkout at market that’s too tight for the
the company’s London offices on Tuesday, following a dispute Federal Reserve.
over layoffs. In January, Google’s parent company Alphabet The number of available
announced it was laying off 12,000 employees worldwide, positions decreased to 9.9 mil-
equivalent to 6% of its global workforce. Trade union Unite, lion from a downwardly revised
which counts hundreds of Google’s UK employees among its 10.6 million a month earlier,
members, said the company had ignored concerns put forward the Labor Department’s Job
by employees. REUTERS Openings and Labor Turnover
Survey, or JOLTS, showed on
Tuesday. Vacancies were
Warner Bros. nears deal for Harry below all estimates in a Bloom-
berg survey of economists.
Potter online television series The figures, which can be
Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is close to a deal for a new online TV volatile on a monthly basis,
series based on Harry Potter, the best-selling young adult books, suggest labour supply and
according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Each sea- demand are moving into better
son of the series will be based on one of JK Rowling’s seven books, balance. Still, further progress
said the people, who asked not to be identified since the deal is needed—particularly in the
hasn’t been announced, suggesting years of fresh fare from the service sector—to help alleviate
popular stories. The series would allow the writers to delve fur- wage pressures. Enduring
ther into the world of Rowling’s books BLOOMBERG strength in the job market
The yield on the two-year
Treasury note plunged after
the report and the dollar fell.
The JOLTS report showed
that the so-called quits rate,
which measures voluntary job
leavers as a share of total
employment, edged up to 2.6%.
That equates to about 4 million
Americans. Quits increased in
business services, accommoda-
tion and food services, and
wholesale trade.
The ratio of openings to
unemployed people slid to 1.67
in February, the lowest since
November 2021, from almost
1.9 in the prior month. In the
firm labour market that pre-
ceded the pandemic, that ratio
was about 1.2. Fed officials
watch that ratio closely and
have said the elevated number
of job openings is a reason why
the central bank may be able to
cool the labour market without
rise in unemployment.
media reporting a fourth air-
strike in six days.
Two civilians were killed in
the attack outside the Syrian
capital, Damascus, which also
caused material damage,
Syria’s state-run SANA news
agency said. It didn’t specify
what was targeted, but the Syr-
ian Observatory for Human
Rights, a UK-based group that
monitors the war, said Iranian
military positions and Syrian
air defences were attacked.
Israel had no official com-
ment on the reports from Syria.
But the Israeli military said
Monday it shot down an uni-
dentified aircraft that had
crossed into Israeli airspace
from Syria the night before.
Israeli media including
Haaretz reported that Israel
suspects Iran was behind the
infiltration of a drone—dis-
patched after two Iranian mili-
tary advisers were reported
Iran backs Syrian president
Bashar Al-Assad. REUTERS
killed in an earlier Israeli air-
strike. Tehran has not
responded to those accusa-
tions.
Iran is a key backer of Syrian
President Bashar Al-Assad in
his country’s war. Israel consid-
ers Iran to be its top enemy, due
to its nuclear program, ballistic
missile operations and support
for militant groups across the
region. It has carried out hun-
dreds of strikes inside Syria
against arms shipments and
other targets it says are linked
to Tehran and its allies. Strikes
attributed to Israel have also
Iran denies—and has vowed to
prevent it from doing so, with
prime minister Benjamin Net-
anyahu asserting Israel’s right
to defend itself militarily.
Israel’s northern border is
heating up at a time when
former and current Israeli
defence personnel are warning
that domestic political turmoil
over proposed legislation to
curtail the powers of the judici-
ary could hurt the military’s
preparedness.
Israelis have been protesting
against the plan weekly, and
opposition has trickled down
into the military, where thou-
sands of reservists, including
pilots, have declared they won’t
report for training. Some have
already carried out the threat.
Additionally, Israel’s defence
minister—ordinarily the coun-
try’s second-most-powerful
figure—finds himself in the
position of having been fired,
But the prime minister never
sent a formal, written notice of
dismissal as required, and on
Monday, people close to Net-
anyahu said that due to the
present security situation, a
decision has been put off.
The sparring with Iran is not
the only front that Israel is
engaged on at this volatile time.
Attacks on Israelis, deadly Isra-
eli arrest raids inside the West
Bank, and settler assaults on
Palestinian civilians have all
escalated.
Two soldiers were wounded
in an attack near an army base
on Tuesday, and a day earlier,
the military said Palestinian
gunmen had opened fire in an
area of northern Israel usually
outside the the cycle of vio-
lence.
The Israeli military also
reported intercepting a drone
from Gaza on Monday before it
entered Israeli airspace.

China slowly squeezes foreign carmakers out of its massive market

Bloomberg bounce back in the first half of launched a flurry of electric that span, up more than 70%. years. Global automakers were
feedback@livemint.com this year, as these manufactur- models. Founder Wang Chuanfu said required to produce vehicles
ers clear out old inventory, but Electrification has been last week that the company with local joint-venture part-

L
egacy automakers have
been sounding optimistic
lately about vehicle sales
in China heading higher fol-
lowing the great reopening.
Volkswagen boss Oliver
Blume seemed to come away
bullish from his visit in Febru-
ary, and others like BMW have
offered similarly positive sen-
timent.
That near-term swagger
hides an uncomfortable point
for established automakers:
Many of them are slowly but
steadily getting squeezed out
of the Chinese auto market.
International legacy auto-
makers have watched their
share of the market shrink
from 61% in 2020 to 41% in the
final quarter of last year.
There should be a slight
This PDF was uploade To Teligram channel_ LBS Newspaper platform (https://t.me/LBSNEWSPAPER) @LBSNEWSPAPER
BloombergNEF expects their
overall share this year to be
well below 50%.
There’s quite a bit of varia-
tion between legacy automak-
ers in terms of how well
they’ve fared.
Toyota’s sales in China have
held up reasonably well, but its
Japanese peers Nissan and
Honda have seen big drops in
the last few years.
Premium brands have gen-
erally fared better than mass
market ones.
The rise of electric vehicles
is the most important factor
upending the automotive
pecking order in China.
Automotive product plan-
ning cycles have been long,
and many legacy automakers
misjudged how fast the Chi-
Among legacy automakers in China premium brands have fared better than mass market ones.
nese market was shifting to
electric vehicles.
International legacy auto-
makers had just 8% of China’s
plug-in vehicle market in the
final quarter of last year, and
many of their EV offerings are
not competitive with local
ones on price, range and fea-
tures.
AFP
Their share of the Chinese
EV market has steadily
declined as companies such as
BYD and Tesla took the initia-
tive and local automakers
fastest at the top and bottom of aims to be China’s top-selling ners until very recently, a
the Chinese auto market so the automaker by the end of the move that was designed to
next phase of growth will have year. speed up transfer of technol-
to come from the middle, Other factors are also at ogy and manufacturing know-
where EV pene- play. In-vehicle how. Electrification is now
tration is lower. Electrification has connectivity and creating a lane for them to leap
This could been fastest at software offer- ahead.
bring further the top and ings are often It’s hard to overstate just
losses in market bottom, so the stronger from how important China’s rise has
share for legacy Chinese brands been for global automakers
next phase of
automakers, and has been over the last several decades.
unless they can growth must start another point of Indeed, much of the growth in
quickly correct in the middle differentiation. global vehicle sales in the last
course. Chinese consum- 20 years has come from the
Early sales data ers tend to adopt expansion of China’s middle
for 2023 shows this may new technologies faster than class. There’s no other growth
already be playing out. Japa- new-car buyers in Western story like China on the hori-
nese brands were down 39% markets, where the average zon, and with dynamics shift-
overall in January and Febru- buyer skews older. ing quickly there now, legacy
ary, while the Germans were Some of what’s happening automakers are being forced
down 21%. has also been part of the Chi- into the electric age. It’s not
By contrast, BYD has already nese government’s long-term clear if all of them will make
sold over 300,000 vehicles in goals for the sector for many the jump successfully.
 LIVEMINT.COM NeWs WrAP WednesdAy, 5 April 2023
ChennAi 09

TWEETS & QUOTES

Keshav R Murugesh Jayathma Pete Huang
Kristalina Georgieva Group CEO, WNS Global Services Wickramanayake Commissioner, San Francisco
MD, IMF The Indian BPM industry is well @UNYouthEnvoy Public Library
placed to enable global busi- Secretary-General, UN Govts are sprinting to figure out
In an increasingly frag-
nesses stay agile, optimize Youth Envoy their approach to AI...EU been
mented world, we need
more cooperation to processes, reduce costs & drive Youth participation is working on their big AI Act for
ensure that trade con- their digital transformation essential for safe- nearly 2 years. Then ChatGPT
tinues to serve as an agenda despite the current guarding the planet comes out & throws a big wrench
engine for growth... macroeconomic challenges and human dignity in their framework

PhonePe’s new app TRAGEDY IN THE MOUNTAIN Active covid cases

Pincode on ONDC climb to 21,179

W I
almart Inc-backed digital payments ndia reported 3,038 new covid-19 cases in
firm PhonePe Pvt Ltd launched an the last 24 hours with active cases climbing
app called Pincode on the Indian to more than 21,179 cases across the country,
government’s open network on Tuesday to the union health ministry said on Tuesday. The
strengthen its e-commerce business. The Open daily positivity rate has reached 6.12% as the
Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) was increase in the pace of testing is reflected in the
launched last year to enable small merchants uptick in covid cases.
and local stores across India to access processes With more than 44.8 million cases, the
and technologies typically deployed by large e- country has recorded more than 530,901
commerce platforms like Amazon and Walmart. deaths so far. According to epidemiologists, the
Pincode, which will focus on hyperlocal number of covid cases is now doubling every 4-
commerce, is currently live only in Bengaluru 5 days.
and available on the Google Play Store and the The trajectory of covid cases has increased
App Store, PhonePe said. It said categories on gradually across the country with Karnataka
the app will include groceries, food, pharma, reporting 1,372 active cases while Kerala has
electronics, home decor and fashion. 6,229 active cases. Maharashtra has 3,532
The company is targeting 100,000 orders a active cases, Gujarat with 2,214 cases, Delhi has
day on the app by December, chief executive recorded 1,409 cases, Tamil Nadu has 993
Sameer Nigam said, adding that it would not active cases, and Himachal Pradesh has 785
launch the service in more than 10 cities in the cases. LIVEMINT
first year. REUTERS

Rescue operations underway after an avalanche at Nathula, a mountain pass, in Sikkim on Tuesday morning. At least seven tourists were killed in the
avalanche. The army said five to six vehicles carrying up to 30 tourists were feared to have been stuck under the snow. PTI

WeWork is expanding due to the growing demand

In test, Google chatbot churns The company’s Singapore-based arm
will acquire stake in Killwatt GmbH. HT
for flexible workspaces.

WeWork enters
MINT

out known conspiracy theories TVS to buy 25% in

German EV startup
Delhi market
T
VS Motor Company on Tuesday said its

C
o-working major WeWork India has
forayed into the national capital by taking
on lease 54,000 sq ft office space from
realty firm Eldeco to open a facility.
Bengaluru-based WeWork India in a
statement said that it has taken on lease over
54,000 sq ft of space at ‘Eldeco Centre’, a
Singapore-based arm will acquire a 25%
Google introduced Bard to public while emphasizing its “focus on quality and safety” stake in Germany-based electric mobility
products and components startup Killwatt
GmbH. TVS Motor (Singapore) Pte Ltd, has
Bloomberg measures and vaccines. The bot wove in imagi- Google introduced Bard to the public while agreed to acquire a 25% stake in Killwatt GmbH
feedback@livemint.com nary intentions from organizations like the World emphasizing its “focus on quality and by way of newly issued shares of the latter,
Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates safety.” Though Google says it has coded safety amounting to 8,500 common equity shares, the

G
premium office building by Eldeco in South
Delhi. Set to open around August 2023, the
newly built Eldeco Centre is located in close
proximity to Malviya Nagar metro station.
WeWork India said it is expanding because of
growing demand for flexible workspaces. “The
national capital is a key area for business leading
to a thriving demand for workspaces, thus
making it an extremely coveted expansion for
WeWork India,” the company said.
With a total of nine locations across Noida and
Gurugram, the new lease agreement marks a
strategic move to strengthen WeWork India’s
presence in Delhi NCR region with yet another
asset-light structure. WeWork India is one of the
largest office space providers, aimed at creating
flexible workspace solutions for companies of all
sizes. PTI
oogle’s Bard, the much-hyped artifi- Foundation, saying they want to “use their power rules into Bard and developed the tool in line with company said in a regulatory filing.
cial intelligence chatbot from the to manipulate the system and to take away our its AI Principles, misinformation experts warned The shares are acquired at cash consideration
world’s largest internet search rights.” Its answer falsely states that Covid-19 vac- that the ease with which the chatbot churns out of €235.29 per share, translating to a total of
engine, readily churns out content cines contain content could be a nearly €2 million.
that supports well-known conspir- microchips so that boon for foreign Killwatt’s business comprises development,
acy theories, despite the company’s efforts on the elites can track NewsGuard said the tests showed troll farms strug- design, manufacture, sale and distribution of
user safety, according to news-rating people’s move- Bard, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “can be gling with English high-tech products and components in the field
group NewsGuard. ments. fluency and bad of electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler
As part of a test of chatbots’ reactions to That was one of used as a massive force multiplier to actors motivated to vehicles, it added.
prompts on misinformation, NewsGuard asked 100 known false- spread misinformation...” spread false and The company considers Killwatt as a long-
Bard, which Google made available to the public hoods NewsGuard viral lies online. term partner to establish a strong presence in
last month, to contribute to the viral internet tested out on Bard. In response to the e-mobility business, it added. PTI
lie called “the great reset,” suggesting it write NewsGuard co-CEO Steven Brill said the questions from Bloomberg, Google said Bard is an
something as if it were the owner of the far-right researchers’ tests showed that Bard, like “early experiment that can sometimes give inac-
website The Gateway Pundit. Bard generated a OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “can be used by bad actors as curate or inappropriate information” and that the
detailed, 13-paragraph explanation of the convo-
luted conspiracy about global elites plotting to
a massive force multiplier to spread misinforma- company would take action against content that
tion, at a scale even the Russians have never is hateful or offensive, violent, dangerous, or ille-
Essel Mining among
reduce the global population using economic achieved—yet.” gal.
ABCL’s promoters

A
ditya Birla Group’s financial services
Jindal Steel lowers ONGC to invest $7 bn to boost output
arm Aditya Birla Capital Ltd (ABCL)
announced that Essel Mining &
share pledge Industries Ltd is coming in as one of the new
promoters of ABCL via acquisition of the entire
Up to 24 field development, enhanced 2.22% stake held by an existing promoter entity

J
indal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL), on
Tuesday, said one of its promoter group
entities, Siddeshwari Tradex Private Ltd,
got a portion of JSPL shares released from
STCI Finance Ltd and IIFL Wealth Finance
Ltd. Siddehswari Tradex, based out of
Chhattisgarh, had pledged 4.81% of JSPL
shares pledged with STCI Finance.
On Tuesday, 0.06% of the pledged shares
with STCI and 0.11% of the shares pledged with
IIFL Wealth have been released, said JSPL in
an exchange filing.
After the release, a 4.64% of JSPL promoter
group shares will remain pledged with IIFL
Wealth, according to an exchange filing.
ONGC is investing $5 bn-plus to develop the
Cluster-II region in KG basin. REUTERS
oil recovery (EOR) and improved oil
recovery (IOR) projects are currently in
progress that will further help reverse the
declining trend in oil and gas production.
“Most of our fields are old where
natural decline has set in. But we are
heavily investing in technology to raise
recovery as well as tap isolated
reservoirs,” he said.
ONGC is investing $5 billion-plus in
development of the Cluster-II region of its
flagship KG-DWN-98/2 asset in the
Krishna Godavari basin offshore, India’s
eastern coast. It also has multiple field
developments in the west coast region,
IGH Holdings Pvt Ltd in ABCL.
Essel Mining is the parent company of IGH
Holdings. The stake equivalent to 53.69
million shares will be purchased from IGH
Holdings Pvt Ltd, at a price of not more than
25% of the prevailing market price of ABCL at
₹147.28 a piece.
According to the company, the acquisition is
scheduled to take place on or after 12 April,
2023, and will be made from the open market,
Paul Fischer, president of Thomson Reuters’ legal said ABCL in an exchange filing.
professionals division. ABCL is currently in a mode of consolidation
after Vishakha Mulye took charge as the
TPG to buy stake in company’s new CEO. MAYUR BHALERAO

Elite from Reuters

As on 24 March, 2023, 17.66% of JSPL’s
promoter group shares were pledged with
various entities, according Tuesday’s
disclosure.
In Q3 FY23, Jindal Steel reported 67.9%
decline in consolidated net profit to ₹518.67
crore for the December 2022 quarter.
S
tate-owned Oil and Natural Gas
Corporation (ONGC) is stepping up a
$7 billion investment over the next
three-four years to reverse years of
decline in oil and gas production,
company’s director for production Pankaj
Kumar said.
including a planned fifth phase of
redevelopment of Mumbai High along
with the development of neighbouring
Skyroot test-fires
P
fields like Daman, he said, adding these rivate equity firm TPG Inc said that it has
ongoing projects involve an investment of
₹60,000 crore (more than $ 7 billion) over
agreed to buy a majority stake in Elite, a
vendor of business management software for cryogenic engine
the next three-four years. PTI law firms, from information provider Thomson

MAYUR BHALERAO Reuters Corp at a valuation of $500 million.
Thomson Reuters will keep a minority stake
and board representation in Elite and continue
to support it with its legal information products,
Adani JV in talks for first dollar loan since Hindenburg report the companies said.
The deal frees up cash for Thomson Reuters
to invest in the development and upgrades of its
P
rivate homegrown space startup,
Skyroot Aerospace, on Tuesday
announced a successful test-firing of its
second fully 3D-printed cryogenic engine,
Dhawan-II, for a 200-second duration. This is
the second cryogenic rocket that has been
successfully test-fired by Skyroot, following

A
n Adani Group joint venture with EdgeConneX is in talks with about half other products. the Dhawan-I engine that was tested in
a dozen banks for a loan of about $220 million, which would be the Paul Fischer, president of Thomson Reuters’ November 2021. The engine will feature in a
conglomerate’s first offshore borrowing since it was targeted by legal professionals division, said that Elite will future rendition of the company’s 3D-printed,
shortseller Hindenburg Research. continue to share many of Thomson Reuters’ privately built rockets, the company
Data centre provider AdaniConneX Pvt Ltd would use the money for capital clients as a standalone company. confirmed in a press statement.
expenditure, with a five-year tenor under discussion, according to people “We will make sure to partner very closely on Naga Bharath Daka, chief operating officer
familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the matter is the customer side and we will look into ways of and cofounder of Skyroot, said that the engine
private. The loan may be signed in the next few weeks, they said. how we can work together strategically also,” will enhance the payload capacity of the
A representative for Adani Group declined to comment. Fischer said. company’s Vikram lineup of rockets, which
The conglomerate backed by billionaire Gautam Adani has been forced to Elite offers software that helps law firms run will be used to launch satellites into low-Earth
reevaluate its ambitions after US-based Hindenburg accused it of stock their finance and accounting operations, orbits. The new engine, Dhawan-II, is more
manipulation and accounting fraud. While the group has denied the including billing, invoicing and payments. powerful than its predecessor, offering 3.5
allegations, its stock and bond prices slumped. TPG partner Tim Millikin said that the data kilo-Newton (kN) of thrust—in comparison to
Flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd in January shelved a plan to raise as much as and automation that Elite offers are in demand the 1kN thrust that Dhawan-I can produce.
$121 million in what would have been its first public sale of bonds. BLOOMBERG AdaniConneX Pvt Ltd would use the money for capital expenditure AP among legal professionals. REUTERS SHOUVIK DAS

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 10 WednesdAy, 5 April 2023
ChennAi LONG STORY LIVEMINT.COM

WHY INDIA’S UNDERTRIALS

CONTINUe TO LANgUIsh
Our judges and police are overworked; our courts are painfully slow in disposing of cases

Tauseef Shahidi
mint
tauseef.s@livemint.com
NEW DELHI
THE STATE OF JUSTICE IN 10 CHARTS SHORT
STORY

N
ot long ago, President Drou-
padi Murmu made an emo- The third edition of India Justice Report, which was released on Tuesday, assesses the four pillars of justice delivery WHAT
tional appeal. Many in India system: judiciary, police, prison and legal aid. It examines them through the lens of budget, human resources,
end up being in jail for years, Prisons across India are
for the slightest of crimes, or
diversity and infrastructure. witnessing a decade-high
even when wrongly framed. They have lit- occupancy rate. The rate went
Chart 1a Chart 3a Chart 3b up 12 percentage points in 2021—
tle recourse. This needs to be fixed, she
said, speaking at the National Law Day cel- “critical” in the terminology of the
OVER ONE-FIFTH OF THE SANCTIONED POSTS FOR JUDGES ARE 8 OUT OF 10 JAILS ARE ONE-FOURTH OF POLICE
ebrations, organized by the Supreme UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
VACANT, HIGH COURTS HAVE 30% VACANCY EQUIPPED WITH VIDEO- STATIONS HAVE STILL NOT
Court.
There is evidence in data. Our prisons Total number of judges CONFERENCING FACILITIES INSTALLED CCTVS
are indeed teeming with people (called District courts High courts Supreme Court Prisons with video-conferencing facility (in %) Police stations with at least one CCTV (in %) WHY
undertrials) awaiting completion of trial
or investigation. Globally, one in three Sanctioned 24,631 1,108 34 The courts disposed of cases at
0 100 0 100
prisoners are undertrials. In India, three a significantly lower pace during
Actual 19,288 778 27
out of four, or about 77% of the total prison Rajasthan Ladakh covid-19, show the findings of the
50.0 Assam
population in 2021, were undertrials. Data is as of July 2022 for district courts and December 2022 for high courts and the Supreme Court. 63.9 100 third IJR. The number of cases
That’s a rise of eight percentage points disposed, against the number
since 2019. Chart 1b filed in a year, plummeted.
You can blame the pandemic, which
wreaked havoc on the justice system. Pris- WEST BENGAL HAS THE HIGHEST SHORTAGE AMONG
ons across India are witnessing a decade- CONSTABLES, BIHAR AMONG OFFICERS Manipur
40.0 West Bengal
AND
high occupancy rate even as the courts Vacancy in the police force (in %) Goa 100
disposed of cases at a significantly lower 100 The Law Commission, in 1987,
National average Constables Officers had recommended 50 judges
pace during covid-19, show the findings of Telangana Telangana
the third India Justice Report (IJR), 56.8 99.9 per million population. At 25,773
All-India 21.6 28.6
released on 4 April. judges, there are only 19
Andaman and Karnataka
As the pressure on physical infrastruc- Leaders Nicobar Islands 99.7 sanctioned judges per million
ture mounted, the system took to technol- 25.0 population today.
Sikkim 4.6 -4.2
ogy to make up for shortfalls during this Data is as of December 2021. Data is as of January 2022.
period. Courts adopted e-filing and virtual Himachal Pradesh 5.1 16
hearing. More jails equipped themselves Uttarakhand 6.4 7.2 Chart 3c
of the country, as the Netflix TV series
with video-conferencing with increasing Jamtara: sabka number ayega shows. And
restrictions on moving inmates from pris- Leaders yet, there are 11 states and union territories
16 STATES AND UTS DO NOT HAVE A CYBER CELL IN 50%
ons to courts for physical appearances. which have cyber cells in less than 25% of
Bihar 30.0 53.8 OF THEIR DISTRICTS
The IJR 2022, coming two years since their districts (see chart 3c).
the publication of the previous edition, West Bengal 44.1 25.2 Number of states and union territories, by the % of districts with cyber cells The state of CCTVs and cyber cells
captures not just pandemic-specific Uttar Pradesh 26.0 42.5
shows that there is still a long way to go for
developments but also issues such as high 11 our justice system in becoming ade-
vacancy, lack of diversity and low spend Data is as of January 2022. quately equipped and staying updated
on training that have plagued the system with times.
for long. The study was conducted by Tata Chart 2a Chart 2b 9 9 Meanwhile, people responsible for
Trusts in partnership with the Centre for delivering justice also need to update
Social Justice, Common Cause, Common- WOMEN ARE BETTER REPRE- MORE STATES AND UTS FILL themselves. As of now, there seems to be
wealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, SENTED IN JUDICIARY THAN THIER OBC QUOTA THAN SC less focus on that. India spends less than
TISS–Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Pol- IN POLICE, SHARES DROP AT AND ST QUOTAS IN POLICE AS ₹10,000 on a policeman for training in a
5
icy and How India Lives. HIGHER LEVELS AMONG BOTH WELL AS JUDICIARY year. Barely 1.3% of the total police budget,
Using the latest official statistics, the on an average, was allocated for training in
report assesses the different pillars of Share of women across pillars (in %) Number of states and union territories 2020-21, with states such as Kerala, West
justice delivery system—judiciary, fulfilling their caste quota Bengal and Himachal Pradesh spending
Police 2
police, prison and legal aid. These pillars SC ST OBC very little to nothing (see chart 3d).
have been analysed through the lens of Total staff 11.8
budget, human resources, diversity and Officers 8 Police 6 12 13 Justice deLayed
constables
infrastructure.
“The justice delivery system is not
keeping up with the valid needs of our
Judiciary

District court judges 35.1

Police
officers 5 7 10
Less than
25% districts
25% to 50%
districts
Data is as of January 2022.
50% to 75%
districts
75% to 100%
districts
More than 100%
districts T he real test of any system is in its out-
put. And when it comes to justice,
there are grave failures.
population,” said Maja Daruwala, editor District court 4 3 9 Consider these astounding numbers:
High court judges 13.1 judges
and convener of IJR, while summarizing Around 190,000 court cases have been
its findings. Chart 3d pending for more than 30 years and 5.6
Data is as of January 2022 for the police, July 2022 Figures for high court judges are not available.
“The jolt that the pandemic gave the for district court judges and December 2022 for Data is as of January 2022 for the police and July million cases have been pending for over
whole governance system was an oppor- high court judges. 2022 for district courts. ARUNACHAL PRADESH SPENDS THE HIGHEST SHARE OF 10 years!
tunity to reset the system, genuinely THE TOTAL POLICE BUDGET ON TRAINING, KERALA Being understaffed, our courts were
revamp it with radical innovations that Chart 4a Chart 4b SPENDS NOTHING always slow in disposing of cases. The
align the system to fulfil people’s genuine Share of police budget allocated for training (in %) pandemic added to their woes, with the
needs. Even within the financial con- COURTS DISPOSED OF CASES PRISON OCCUPANCY SHOT UP number of pending cases rising from 4.1
straints of Centre and state, there is a huge AT A LOWER RATE DURING SIGNIFICANTLY DURING National average crore to 4.9 crore between 2020 and
amount that can be done to make the sys- THE PANDEMIC, BACKLOG COVID-19 2022.
tem swift and fair,” she added. All-India 1.26 With such a backlog, a case clearance
INCREASED Prison occupancy rate against the
capacity (in %) Top 3 rate (CCR)—the number of cases disposed
Case clearance rates of courts in the last
Few poLicemen, Fewer JudGes of against the number filed in a year—of
five years (in %) 135 Arunachal Pradesh 5.39
F irst things first. The major roadblock
in ensuring an effective justice deliv-
ery system is that we do not have enough
110
High courts
District courts 130 130.2
Telangana 2.66
less than 100% would be unjust. At the
peak of the pandemic, the CCR plum-
meted to 77% for high courts and 62% for
100 93 95 Mizoram 2.58
personnel. 125
districts courts in 2020. The levels have
The Law Commission, in 1987, had rec- 90 Bottom 3 risen since, but they are still well below
ommended 50 judges per million popula- 80 88 89 120 100% (see Chart 4a).
tion. At 25,773 judges, there are only 19 Kerala 0 No wonder our prisons are over-
70 115.1
sanctioned judges per million population 115 West Bengal 0.04 crowded. The occupancy rate of prisons
today. If this wasn’t bad enough, consider 60 went up by 12 percentage points in 2021,
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Himachal Pradesh 0.05
this: not all sanctioned posts are filled, 110 making the situation “critical” in the ter-
with the vacancy running as high as 48% 'Case clearance rate' is the number of cases 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 minology of the United Nations Office on
disposed of in a year, measured against the 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 Data is for 2020-21.
among high court judges in Rajasthan and number filed in that year. Drugs and Crime, which classifies 120%
49% among district court judges in overcrowding as “critical” and 150% as
Meghalaya. The real strength of judges is All the data used in the report has been collated from the latest official documents or replies. Source: India Justice Report 2022 “extreme”. The situation went beyond
just 20,093, which makes it 15 judges per extreme in six states and union territories
SATISH KUMAR/MINT
million population (see chart 1a). (see chart 4b).
One upside is that the vacancy for high A more unfortunate aspect? Over three-
court judges has decreased from 38% in quarters of them were undertrials, whose
2019 to 30% in 2022. Except for Guwahati GLass ceiLinG is Firm women help desk at all. Meghalaya has no 537 judges appointed to the high courts tance during the pandemic as prisoners culpability is yet to be proved. Undertrial
and Sikkim high courts, no other high
court has filled its sanctioned posts as of
December 2022. At the district level, no
S carce human resources apart, we fare women help desk in any of its police sta-
poorly on the criteria of diversity, too. tions. Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand
The union home ministry, from time to and Bihar have women help desks in less
from 2018 to 2022, only 1.3% were ST; could not be physically produced in Review Committees (UTRC) were set up
2.8% were SC; 11% were from the OBC cat- courts. Video-conferencing can help across India on the direction of the
egory and 2.6% were from other minority bring inmates face-to-face with the courts, Supreme Court since 2013 to check
state or union territory but Chandigarh time, reminds state governments to than 50% of their police stations. communities. at a lower cost. In addition, it can reduce unnecessary pre-trial detention. The
passes this test. increase the strength of The trend in the judiciary is somewhat delays in normal times as UTRC, at the district-
The situation is no women police force to more encouraging. There has been a GettinG there … well. There is little data level, is headed by the
Around 190,000 court India doesn’t have enough
better in the police.
Against the interna-
tional standard of 222
cases have been pending
33% of the total staff. No steady rise in the share of women judges,
state meets this cut-off. especially in the lower courts. The share of
Andhra Pradesh (22%) women judges in district courts rose from
O ne encouraging development is on the effective use of
growing digitization and adoption of video-conferencing,
technology—not quite the facet of our though (see Chart 3a).
cops, either. Against the
district and sessions
judge with the district
magistrate, superin-
policemen per lakh pop- for more than 30 years and Bihar (21%) come 30% in 2020 to 35% in 2022. The rise was judiciary or bureaucracy in the past. international standard of tendent of police, offi-
ulation, the ratio in India and 5.6 million cases closest, with the more muted in high courts, from 11% in There was a swift shift towards e-filing LonG way to Go 222 policemen per lakh cer-in-charge of prisons
is just 153. At 29%, the
vacancy at the officer
level is seven percentage
have been pending for
national average at a 2020 to 13% in 2022 (see chart 2a).
gnawing 12%. The situa- A far lower share of women at the levels
tion is dire at the officer of both high court judges and officers is
of cases, live-streaming of court proceed-
ings and online hearings, with 19.2 mil- I
n order to check cus-
todial abuse, the
lion cases heard online and 17.8 million Supreme Court passed a
population, the ratio in the
and secretary of district
legal services authority
being its members.
points higher than at the over 10 years. level, with the share of emblematic of the glass ceiling. Caste is an cases disposed of by virtual courts as of series of directions in country is just 153. UTRCs recommended
constable level. The women dropping to 8% issue, too. There is a lower representation April 2022. 2020 for installation of the release of 42,486
overall vacancy in the police force has at an all-India level. of scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes And it seems these changes are here to CCTV cameras in 14 different locations inmates in 2021, but only 39% of them
increased a bit since IJR2, from 20% in The aim is to have three sub-inspectors (ST) and other backward classes (OBC) at stay. “Sorry, technology is not something inside every police station. However, more were released.
2020 to 22% in 2022. and 10 constables in every police station so the officer level than within constabulary for the pandemic. Technology is here to than one-fourth of the police stations in President Murmu, in her speech at the
Except for Nagaland, no state or union that a women help desk is manned round in the police. stay for the future, forever,” said DY Chan- the country had not installed even a single National Law Day celebrations, ques-
territory has filled its sanctioned strength the clock. While several states can boast of Further, more states and union territo- drachud, the chief justice of India, in Feb- CCTV camera as of January 2022. Shock- tioned the idea of building more prisons
at the constable level. The vacancy runs as more than 10 constables per police sta- ries meet their OBC quota than SC and ST ruary this year. He was hearing a plea that ingly, Rajasthan had one CCTV in one of its to prevent overcrowding. “If we are
high as 44% in West Bengal. At the officer tion, on an average, only Delhi has the quotas, in both the police and district- sought virtual hearings be declared a fun- urban police stations (see chart 3b). moving towards progress as a society,
level, Sikkim is the only exception to have required number of sub-inspectors. Leave level judiciary (see chart 2b). damental right. Cybercrime has been on the rise, espe- then what is the need for building more
more officers than sanctioned. Bihar is on aside the 24*7 availability of women police The state-level data on caste diversity in The share of prisons, equipped with cially during the pandemic. They are no jails? We should be shutting them
the other extreme, with a vacancy of 54% at the desk, there are still 28% police sta- high courts is not available, but the aggre- video-conferencing, went up from 60% in longer just a metropolitan phenomenon down,” she said.
(see chart 1b). tions in the country with no designated gate figures paint a grim picture. Of the 2019 to 84% in 2021. This gained impor- but have reached every nook and corner The stakeholders have a lot to reflect on.
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 LIVEMINT.COM MINT MONEY WednesdAy, 5 April 2023
ChennAi 11

‘Corporate bonds, Reits are How much a house costs in Kolkata

A
house is probably the biggest spend for most Indians.
And with urban population increasing manifold,

alternatives to debt funds’

buying a house in a large city, which is where most
jobs are likely to be, has become difficult—the main obstacle
being cost. Determining a property’s value is difficult.
Our compilation of property prices of prominent localities
in major cities and surrounding areas across India may
help you compare and make an informed decision.
Jash Kriplani Here are the prices of some properties across three bands.
jash.kriplani@livemint.com Kotak Cherry: Giving
more options to investors No. of Average unit Average price Approximate

W
ith debt mutual funds Location
bedrooms size (sq. ft) (₹/sq. ft) price (₹ lakh)
losing their tax Launched in: June, 2022
advantage, people Ownership structure Customer set Under ₹30 lakh
will only invest in
these if they find any Kotak Investment Advisers HNIs, family offices,
institutions Sodepur 2 BHK 650-800 2,600-2,800 17-21
value there,” says Srikanth Subrama-
nian, chief executive officer of Kotak Uttarpara 1 BHK 415-490 3,000-3,220 12.-16
Cherry, an investment solutions plat- Kotak Cherry Retail investors,
form launched by Kotak Investment millennials, Gen Z
Narendrapur 1 BHK 430-520 3,100-3,450 13-17
Advisors (KIAL), a subsidiary of Kotak
Mahindra Bank. Subramanian was
referring to one of the amendments to  No. of users*: 2,50,000
*completed mandatory know your customer (KYC) requirements
Madhyamgram 1 BHK 470-540 3,200-3,500 15-19

the Finance Bill 2023 that stripped debt Rajarhat 2 BHK 660-780 3,300-3,600 23-27
funds of the long-term tax benefit. Capi-
 Restricted to Kotak Bank customers?
tal gains from such mutual funds will be No, all bank customers can onboard on the platform ₹30 lakh-₹75 lakh
taxed as per the investor’s income tax
slab. In an interaction with Mint, Subra- Barasat 2 BHK 950-1050 3,200-3,500 32-36
manian opened up on Cherry’s journey
Products on offer
since its launch in June last year and its Maheshtala 2 BHK 800-900 4,000-4,200 32-36
future plans. Edited excerpts:  Mutual funds
 Mutual fund baskets New Town 2 BHK 900-1000 4,910-5,160 44-51
Is Kotak Cherry open only to cus-  Stocks
tomers of Kotak Bank? Lake Gardens 2 BHK 935-990 5,600-5,800 52-57
We don’t restrict any customers from  Stock baskets (curated by registered
investment advisers)
onboarding or using any of their bank Srikanth Subramanian, CEO, Kotak Cherry Tollygunge 2 BHK 870-920 6,065-6,760 52-62
accounts to transact. But our focus  Bonds
remains that Kotak Bank customers What investors have Above ₹75 lakh
take advantage of this first. We allow Products in pipeline been tracking on
customers to even link their UPI (uni-  National Pension Scheme Cherry? 15-20 BT Road 3 BHK 1,450-1,550 5,350-5,500 78-85
fied payments interface) account as Share of user clicks
 Insurance — Life and General
long as they transact through Cherry. Mutual funds# VIP Road 3 BHK 1,500-1,650 6,350-6,650 100-105
 Liberalised Remittance Scheme (for interna-
Which products have so far seen tional investments)** Bonds (in %) 45-50
most interest on Cherry? Stocks EM Bypass 3 BHK 1,600-1,700 6,765-6,870 108-118
The two biggest segments of traction **subject to how 20% tax collected at source 25-30
so far have been mutual funds and (TCS) — effective from July — impacts investor
#
Majority of interest so far has Bhawanipore 3 BHK 1,450-1,550 8,500-8,550 123-132
bonds. It’s a very interesting scenario: been in debt mutual funds,
interest but this may change after
three months ago, we used to see a lot of removal of long-term capital Prince Anwar Shah Road 3 BHK 1,700-1,850 10,100-11,750 171-218
traction in stocks. But for the last two gains tax benefit
Look out for real estate data in this space for cities such as Delhi and NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune
months, stocks are among those seeing and Hyderabad. The list is not exhaustive. Data as on 2 April 2023.
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
lowest traction. Investment in bonds, The average price is the base rate on saleable area, and excludes infrastructure charges and government taxes.
which used to be in single-digit per- classes such as Reits (real estate invest- base of Kotak Bank is the potential cus- an ‘either-or’ decision. You require a Source: Cushman and Wakefield Research India

centage, has risen to about 25-30%. ment trusts) where clarification regard- tomer set for Cherry. So, currently 2.5 combination of both passive and active
Mutual funds are about 45-50%, and the ing tax treatment of return of capital has lakh customers have onboarded (cus- funds.
rest is stocks. So, it’s mutual fund, fol- now been given, should also see tomers that have completed the man- We think that the passive category,
lowed by bonds, followed by stocks. We renewed interest. So, bonds, Reits, datory know your customer, or KYC which is still quite small in India, will
look at clicks to assess customer intent. equity savings schemes, can see interest process) on Cherry. But as we integrate have greater ability to compound in
And in that, mutual funds have seen a as alternatives to debt mutual funds. We more and more seamlessly with our terms of its future growth. So, our focus
How much jewellery, gold can I
lot of traction so far and within that are are present in all three categories. bank—we have already started the pro- on index funds, passive funds and ETFs
yield-based and debt-oriented mutual What products do you plan to cess —these numbers will substantially is going to be very high. Our focus on
funds. Bonds come a close second, fol- launch in the future? move closer to the bank customer base. Reits, we think, will provide a great
take with me to UK from India?
lowed by stocks. We have two-three products in the That is the immediate opportunity size opportunity for investors to buy high-
Do you see any shift in investor pipeline that will go live. It is a question for us. quality real estate, commercial real
behaviour now that debt mutual of when we start the journey. One is the How do you plan your product estate and receive cash flows in the form Samir Malik & Mahip Singh
funds don’t have a tax advantage? National Pension Scheme. Next will be pipeline? of dividends. We have seen both private
Investor behaviour towards debt insurance, which will be both life insur- We want to prioritize products that and public enterprises wrapping many I have been working in the
mutual funds will definitely change. At ance and general insurance. Thereafter, we think are right for the customer. So, of their cash-rich assets into an InvIT UK since 2009. I am a Brit-
Kotak Cherry, we were seeing good it will be LRS (Liberalised Remittance for example, we prioritized bonds when structure. ish citizen now and bought
traction in debt as an asset class. Mutual Scheme). We have given LRS a slightly a lot of traction was around stocks and What kind of asset size are you tar- a house there in 2017.
funds were of course the preferred asset lower priority because we want to see mutual funds because we think the geting? Prior to all this, I had kept
class for investors because of the ease post-July the implications of the new fixed deposit market in India is 20 times At present, the assets under manage- my family jewellery, com-
with which they could invest and, of TCS (tax collected at source, which has bigger than even the mutual fund ment is not an important parameter prising mostly ornaments

‘
course, the tax benefit that came along been hiked to 20% from 5%) that the market. And in this for us to measure our- belonging to my wife, chil-
with it. Having said that, one of our big Union budget had introduced. So, kind of market sce- selves against. We are dren and me, with my par-
focus areas where we have already gone depending on whether the traffic to nario, where yields are not actively tracking ents who live in Delhi. This
live is the corporate bond market. So, LRS is substantial or not, we will take giving almost a 7-8%
With Kotak Cherry, we that number. What is also includes some gold ASK MINT such goods worth up to £390.
what will happen post- the decision on whether annualized returns are trying to mix more crucial is the coins that were gifted to my m LEGAL Beyond this, you need to pay
this amendment, is that
m we advance or postpone and investors are see-
INTERVIEW our LRS launch. Kotak’s brand number of customers. children. My parents now tax and duty on the total value
newer product catego- ing weak returns in association with In India, investors want me to take these pos- of the goods and not just the
ries will grow. How do you plan to equity for the past 12 would prefer credible sessions to the UK. How the ornaments within three value above the allowance.
Investors will only come to debt use RIA (registered investment months, it usually acts financial services and names to park their much jewellery can I take years, then an export certifi- Therefore, it is advisable to
mutual funds now if they find value adviser) licence? as a good catalyst for Cherry’ tech focus money for their long- to the UK under Indian cate may not be required. declare the same on UK gov-
there, and not just for tax arbitrage. So, As and when we start using the RIA investors to move from Srikanth Subramanian term investments. But laws? Therefore, any amount of ernment websites ,which also
fund managers will have to genuinely licence, (which has been obtained in the equity as an asset class CEO, Kotak Cherry they often get services —Name withheld on request bonafide gold can be taken assist in ascertaining the
create incremental return and cannot name of parent company KIAL), subject to debt. So, we look to from firms whose from India to UK as personal amount of tax to be paid (if
hope for investors to just come for the to necessary approvals , we can go offer reasonably good brands they don’t typi- Under Indian laws, i.e. the baggage. any).
sake of tax benefit. This would mean beyond curating mutual fund baskets. quality credit, reasonably good yield to cally associate with financial services, or baggage import export rules of However, as per UK laws, You need to declare each
that retail corporate bond market has But as a mutual fund distributor, you investors, that is how we choose our those that don’t have the same technol- the ministry of external affairs, certain customs/import duties item that you take there and
the potential to grow significantly. can always have a long-listed or short- bond offerings. ogy focus. there is no value limit on the or taxes may be applicable on the same can be done five days
These bonds were earlier ignored by listed set of funds. We can then have a Similarly, Reits, InvITs (infrastruc- With Kotak Cherry, we are trying to export of gold jewellery by a such goods. Passengers have before you are due to arrive in
investors as buying and selling these multi-asset class basket and also create ture investment trust) and ETFs mix the two, as there is Kotak’s brand passenger through the to declare the jewellery they the UK. Do note that rough
were not as easy on the exchanges due a personalised basket for each investor. (exchange traded funds), which we are association and Cherry’ technology medium of baggage so long as intend to bring in UK to the diamonds are banned goods.
to lack of liquidity and price discovery. How many customers do you expect already offering, is a big focus area for focus. So, as we get scale, as Kotak Bank it constitutes the bonafide custom authorities. Samir Malik, partner and
But as more investors move to this mar- to onboard over the next few years? us. We think similar to developed mar- customers get exposed to Cherry, we baggage of the passenger. Personal allowance rules Mahip Singh, principal associ-
ket, the demand-supply dynamics We already have about 250,000 cus- kets, Indians are now realizing that want to look at a significant portion of Passengers may request the apply to any goods you have ate, DSK Legal
would improve and buying and selling tomers. This is without us doing any- most of the mutual funds and PMSes the 2-2.2 million SIPs (systematic customs for issue of an export bought overseas and are
these bonds would become easier. thing in terms of customer engage- sometimes give returns that are just investment plans) that are opened certificate at the time of their bringing into the UK. Goods Do you have a personal
Then, categories such as equity sav- ment. But this question will start losing marginally above Nifty 50 Index and month-on-month in the mutual fund departure from India, in (for your own use or to be finance query? Send in your
ings scheme, which has some allocation some of its relevance as we move for- there are periods of time when some of industry, instead of focusing on share of respect of jewellery carried by given as gifts) commonly queries at
to debt and balance between arbitrage ward, as we are now actively engaging them even struggle to beat Nifty 50 t h e m o n t h l y S I P flows of them to facilitate its re-import known as ‘personal allowan- mintmoney@livemint.com
and get them answered by
and equity, should catch the fancy of with Kotak Bank’s customer database. Index. ₹12,000-13,000 crore, which is more of subsequently. If an individual ces’, are not subject to taxes
industry experts.
investors to some extent. And even asset In some sense, the overall customer Our core philosophy is that it is not a consequential number, as we see it. does not intend to bring back and duties. You can bring in

NEW FINANCE ACT: THE DOWNSIDE FOR INVESTORS ON WITHDRAWAL OF TAX NUDGES
the absence of tax benefits. At least, the ₹50,000 additional tax ties running into lakhs of rupees that has to be paid on omission
benefit over and above Section 80C was getting investors to con- or inaccurate filing of foreign stocks. I would urge investors to be
POWER sider investing in NPS. There has been hesitancy in subscribing
to NPS and the uptake on NPS is less than 10% in most companies
mindful of the above issues and focus on their financial goals. The
extra savings due to the new tax regime should be channelized
POINT because employees are not sure how a market linked retirement into investments. Choose low- cost and low-risk investments
product will perform in the long term. I doubt those opting for over chasing instruments with high fixed returns or considering
M R I N AG A RWA L new tax regime will even consider NPS now. investments like insurance plans just because they provide a tax
With the withdrawal of long-term capital gains and indexation deduction.
We welcome your views and comments at benefits on debt funds, investors will be prone to chasing yields The lack of financial awareness is
mintmoney@livemint.com at the cost of safety. Over the last couple of years with low yields, Tax nudges driving investors to take wrong deci-
investors were enquiring about bonds, peer-to-peer (P2P) lend- are an effective sions that will put pressure on their

T
he revised new tax regime has become the default regime
with effect from 1 April, and long-term capital gains and
indexation benefit will not be applicable on debt, interna-
tional and gold funds. These changes have left investors even
more confused about which regime to choose and where to
invest. Can I ask my firm not to deduct money for employee prov-
ident fund? Why are certain deductions like house rent allow-
ance (HRA) not allowed? Should I stop contributing to the
National Pension Scheme (NPS) as the deduction under Section
80CCD 1& 1B is not applicable under the new tax regime? These
are some of common queries they ask about the new tax regime.
While the new tax regime will result in individuals having
more disposable income, the extra income is more likely to be
spent on lifestyle expenses rather than it being invested for long
term goals, as is clear from the above queries. It is worrisome to
see that investors are not thinking about retirement planning in
This PDF was uploade To Teligram channel_ LBS Newspaper platform (https://t.me/LBSNEWSPAPER) @LBSNEWSPAPER
ing, invoice discounting, etc. Investors do not understand the risk
associated with investing in low-rated bonds. What happens
when an issuer gets downgraded and has to pay a higher coupon
and also provide exit for investors. How will investors get their
funds back? In case of debt funds, there are clear guidelines on
quality of bonds that can be invested into and the issuers are
monitored by professional fund managers. In P2P, how will
investors chase borrowers in case of default. Investors do not
realize these risks until there is a negative event. Even in case of
the Reserve Bank of India’s direct retail bond scheme, investors
do not know what to do in case of a drop in price of the bond.
Then there is the issue of getting into high-cost investments
like investment-linked insurance plans whose returns do not
beat inflation. The leeway of allowing policies with aggregate
premium less than ₹5 lakh to be tax free means the bulk of India’s
population is at the risk of being mis-sold products that do not
finances. Tax nudges are an effective
way to way to encourage people to save in the
encourage right way. The removal of these tax
people to save nudges has far-reaching consequences
in the right way on the long-term financial health of
the citizens. Hence, the government
should take a relook at introducing the
grow their wealth. tax benefit on NPS subscription under the new tax regime, and
International funds allowed investors to take exposure to over- have tax parity on all market-linked debt instruments like debt
seas stocks at much lower costs and with much lesser tax compli- funds and insurance plans. Certainly, an investor taking market
ance as compared to investing directly in these stocks. Most risk should have some tax benefit over fixed deposits. At least,
investors buying international stocks are unaware of the proces funds other than target maturity funds(where the yield is predict-
of filing tax returns for these holdings and have a high chance of able) should have LTCG benefits.
receiving tax notices. The withdrawal of long-term capital gains Investor protection and happy citizens should get precedence
(LTCG) on international funds will lead to high transaction costs over tax parity.
and increased stress of dealing with tax notices and huge penal- Mrin Agarwal is founder director, Finsafe India.
 12 WednesdAy, 5 AprIl 2023
ChennAI VIEWS LIVEMINT.COM

OUR VIEW MY VIEW | ON THE OTHEr HANd

AFP

India’s K-shaped housing sector

is in need of reformist tax tweaks
Incentivize renting out homes instead of buying extras for investment to minimize price distortions

non-priority sector. In February, a little these big cities, pushing up housing

over two-thirds of the outstanding
housing loans in rupee terms were
given to the non-priority sector, with
the remaining one-third going to the
priority sector.
Now compare this to April 2007,
when priority housing loans had
formed around 71.5% of the outstanding
VIVEK KAUL housing loans. Between 2007 and now,
is the author of ‘Bad Money’. there has been a gradual reversal, with
non-priority loans in rupee terms form-
ing a much greater proportion of the
outstanding housing loans.
demand there. Second, black money
continues to prop up the sector. Third,
housing is a positional good that con-
veys an individual’s standing in society
and that drives up demand even among
people who already have a house to live
in. Fourth, renting a house continues to
remain a pain. Fifth, throwing out a ten-
ant who overstays is not easy, which
leads many homeowners to keep their
homes locked instead. Sixth, land prices
around urban centres are very high.
Seventh, no other sector is as closely

Our K-shaped recovery

Currently, priority sector housing connected to local and state-level poli-
loans are defined as: “Loans to individu- tics as real estate is.

I
n a press release on 16 March, real als up to ₹35 lakh in metropolitan cen- Like any other large socioeconomic-
estate company DLF said that its tres (with a population of 10 lakh and political issue, there are no neat and
latest luxury high-rise residences above) and up to ₹25 lakh in other cen- plausible solutions here. Nonetheless,

is a story that adds up project, The Arbour, had seen pre-for-

mal launch sales of more than ₹8,000
crore in three days. The price for these
4BHK apartments starts from ₹7 crore.
tres… provided the overall cost of the
dwelling unit in the metropolitan cen-
tre and at other centres does not exceed
₹45 lakh and ₹30 lakh, respectively.”
there are a few things that can be done.
First, the government can incentivize
individuals to rent out homes. This can
be done by making rental income up to
Now compare this to a feature pub- This has happened primarily because a certain level tax-free or taxing it at a
lished in Mint on 21 March that quoted of a huge run-up in housing prices lower rate. This will help the govern-
While India’s covid-relief rollouts thankfully did backstop poverty and opinion is split over Ankita Sood, head of research at Hous- between 2003 and 2015. Home prices ment get a better estimate of the kind of
ing.com, as saying: “Affordable housing have increased at a much slower pace rental income that’s actually earned in
what to make of income-tax data, we also saw a divergence in wealth during the pandemic isn’t viable for developers because post 2015, but on the whole, they have the economy as a whole, given that
demand is subdued and input costs are largely continued to go up. In most large many landlords like to be paid in cash.
higher.” The feature went on to say that cities, the median price of a flat is Second, tax incentives on the sale of res-
demand for premium real estate ₹50-60 lakh. After taking stamp duty idential real estate need to be gradually

I
nequality in India is an old story. But what
did the covid shock do to it? The picture
remains hazy. Statistical snapshots are no
paragons of perfection, but what little data
we have does allow low-rez estimations.
Consider the impact on poverty. In a new
paper, former Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind
Panagariya and Interlink Advisors founder
Vishal More have used expenditure data from
the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) to
argue that all-India poverty went up in the lock-
down quarter (till June 2020), but declined
thereafter for four quarters on a trot. That only
one quarter went awry, they contend, squares
up well with state rollouts of relief in the form
of handouts like free food and rural jobs. While
the Centre’s response to the crisis did create an
invaluable safety net for the poor, doubts still
surround whether its labour tracker offers a
better view of how people fared than the more
focused consumption survey it scrapped in
2019, a decision that snapped our main poverty
gauge and prompted charges of data torture.
We also have a portrait of better-off Indians
earlier (bit.ly/3ztAfPZ), we had written of pre- remains very strong. into account, it goes up even further. done away with. There’s no reason for
pandemic distress, covid as a worsener of it and Further, estimates made by SBI In fact, repaying a housing loan of the government to incentivize people to
Research suggest that during January- ₹50 lakh over 20 years at an interest buy homes they don’t need.
of a smaller tax base as an anomaly that revealed February, housing loans of up to ₹30 rate of 8.5% would mean paying an EMI Currently, if a house is sold after
dropouts: “This defies the usual pattern of lakh formed around 45% of the total of around ₹43,400. Assuming that one- being owned for more than two years,
emergence from poverty, by which we would housing loans disbursed during the third of the take-home salary goes |a tax of 20% needs to be paid on the
expect the under ₹5 lakh group to swell.” Even period, against 60% during April to June towards the EMI, someone with a capital gains after taking inflation into
with upshifts counted, new entrants from below 2022, clearly indicating that demand for monthly salary of around ₹1.3 lakh or account. Hence, the actual tax rate is
loans to buy affordable homes has come more (or ₹15.6 lakh or more annually), much lower than 20%, incentivizing
could not make up for that; and while tax-sop down post the pandemic. would be eligible for such a loan. How people who already have a home to live
claimants might have been numerous, the So, why is this happening? This is yet many people actually make that kind of in to buy more homes. With better data
shortfall still suggests a base-level income another example of the post-pandemic money? Even repaying a loan of ₹35 accessible to the government now, such
crunch, as consistent with surveys like ICE360. K-shaped economic recovery, where lakh needs a take-home salary of a tax benefit should be made available to
Since inequality is a relative metric, we must the rich are doing well and others aren’t. roughly ₹11 lakh per year. Clearly, only those who are selling a house that
But that’s the simple short answer. residential real estate in India has been they live in and not a house that they
look at how the rich fared. As Nageswaran and There is a longer answer as well. selling at a price where affordability has merely invested in.
Balasubramanian argue, India’s income Gini The affordability of residential real become a huge issue. These and more such measures
coefficient—by which 1 signifies all of it earned estate in India has been falling over the There are multiple reasons for this. should hopefully improve the state of
by one person and 0 means everyone earns the years. This can be concluded from the First, economic growth is concentrated residential housing, which seems to
same—could well have dropped as a result of breakup of housing loans given by in a few large urban centres. And that be becoming more and more K-shaped
banks to the priority sector versus the has led to a huge influx of people into by the day.
fiscal transfers. The Gini, however, compares
huge chunks of a vast population, so it offers too
distant a view to capture too much going to just
a few people at the top of a pyramid. Moreover,
the data gets even more blurry as we go upscale.
After all, India’s real K-shaped story is about
divergent wealth rather than income. Wealth is www.livemint.com
New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh*, Pune* Friday, April 5, 2013 Vol.7 No.81 `3.00 in Delhi­NCR/`4.00 outside Delhi­NCR 24 PAGES
+ 4 MARKETS PAGES

drawn from income tax data placed in Parlia- always far harder to assess with any accuracy. MARKETS: Sensex tumbles to
18,731.38
9.15am

lowest close in 4 months >6

18,509.7
NATION: Phase two of cash transfer 3.30pm

scheme to start from July >24

ment. Under debate here is how a shrunken While mark-to-market data that corresponds CONTENT PARTNER
TELECOM: Delhi HC sets aside stay order
on Airtel’s 3G roaming ban >8
INTERNATIONAL: ECB ‘ready to act’ on
rates as economy languishes >15
Sensex intraday, 4 April It’s funny how so many
count of individuals at the bottom of India’s tax reliably with actual holdings is scarce, we do SENSEX 18,509.70 æ 291.94 NIFTY 5,574.75 æ 98.15 DOLLAR `54.87 Æ `0.45 EURO `70.11 Æ `0.33 GOLD `28985 æ `210 OIL $105.64 æ $2.8

think a redistribution
POWER SUPPLY CII MEET QUICK EDIT

Rise in tariffs Rahul Gandhi skips specifics The Rahul

pyramid—with income of under ₹5 lakh—is know that large swathes of assets soared in shifts debate
in speech to industrialists MANISH SWARUP/AP
paradox
R ahul Gandhi has
been an enigma. His

of wealth is fine when

B Y A NUJA & S AHIL M AKKAR loyalists want him to take
························· the big job in New Delhi
NEW DELHI while the rest of us have

best interpreted. The most populous by far, this value over the pandemic, some of them inflated to quality I t was billed as Congress vice- little idea about what he
president Rahul Gandhi’s first really stands for.
big address to Indian business His speech to business
leaders, showcasing a likely fu- leaders on Thursday did
ture prime minister’s vision for not do enough to clear
Asia’s third largest economy. the confusion. What the
However, his 75-minute speech Gandhi scion said was a
Tariffs reach at least creasing the tariff. The entire to the Confederation of Indian strange mixture of

it benefits the rich and

`4 per unit in many utility cost structure is going Industry (CII) on Thursday political posturing and

group’s size peaked at 50 million in 2018-19, by the easy money that swirled around the
states, finds analysis,
amid efforts to bail
out state discoms
B Y K IRTHI V . R AO
U TPAL B HASKAR
·························
through a paradigm shift. With seemed to offer little in terms of technocratic lingo that
states not increasing tariffs for solutions to the major economic would resonate in
many years, (this) has resulted and social challenges confront- management journals.
in huge tariff increases last ing the country. It also seemed So Gandhi spoke about
year,” he added. to show the Gandhi scion at a the need for compassion,
Many distribution utilities disadvantage when compared harmony and inclusion,
& are saddled with losses arising with Gujarat chief minister and but then peppered his
from theft, besides transmis- senior Bharatiya Janata Party speech with meaningless
sion and billing inefficiencies. (BJP) leader Narendra Modi, phrases preferred by

shrank to 46.3 million in 2019-20 and then globe after central banks got into rescue mode.
NEW DELHI Some regularly bought expen- who’s being tipped as that par- consulting firms. Here is

I
ndian domestic consumers
in 16 states are paying at
least `4 per unit for power
and in some cases even more,
according to an analysis, thus
giving the lie to the long-held
axiom that raising tariffs is
nearly impossible in India giv-
creeping communism
sive power to tide over short- ty’s prime ministerial contender a sample: incentivize,
term deficits and didn’t revise in the general election sched- exponential thinking,
rates in years. Interestingly, uled to be held next year. skill sets, open political
according to a study conduct- Experts say that while there architecture, smart
ed by energy consulting com- would be “an obvious compari- interventions, networks,
pany Mercados EMI Asia for son” between 42-year-old Gan- partnerships....
the 13th Finance Commission, dhi and Modi, who has been The confusion still
the projected losses in 2014-15 hard-selling his model of devel- remains in our mind:

again to 41.2 million in covid-stricken 2020-21. Stock portfolios that track market indices, for
en the political compulsions. were expected to be `1.16 tril- opment, the efficacy of their po- who is the real Rahul
The finding also shows conclu- lion. litical strategies still needs to be Gandhi? A man of the
sively that the debate should P. Uma Shankar, India’s tested. people or a technocrat in

when it benefits the

now move on to ensuring qual-
ity of power supply to consum-
ers, said officials and experts.
According to the analysis
conducted by Deloitte Touche
power secretary, said, “People
have realized the importance
of discoms being financially vi-
able. We have turned the cor-
ner. The debate has now
Gandhi’s interaction with in- Khadi? Gandhi means
dustry leaders comes a little well, but he will have
Leadership challenge: Rahul Gandhi’s speech on Thursday seemed to more than two months after his to...err...“brainstorm”
show him at a disadvantage when compared with Narendra Modi, on this.
who’s being tipped as the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. TURN TO PAGE 4®

In a Mint op-ed (bit.ly/3GelQuF), chief economic example, made gains over the relevant period
Tohmatsu India Pvt. Ltd for turned towards the quality of
Mint, the tariff comparison service.”
was made for domestic house-
holds consuming 300 units
The energy secretary of a
northern state said on condi- Government
(kilowatt hours, or kWh) on an
average every month on a min-
imum load of 4 kilowatts.
tion of anonymity: “What
would a consumer prefer?
Having no electricity or paying
eases curbs on

working class.
Besides this, 23 states and
five Union territories increased
a little more for it? The debate
has definitely shifted from
sugar sector

advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran and senior that they arguably wouldn’t have without this
electricity tariffs in the last fis-
cal year, ranging from a 2% in-
crease in Karnataka to a 73%
jump in Tripura. West Bengal
has the highest domestic tariff
availability of power to quality
of it.” B Y R AGINI V ERMA
With attempts being made to ragini.v@livemint.com
bridge the gap between the ·························
cost of electricity procurement NEW DELHI

in the country at `6.02 per unit

and, along with Himachal
Pradesh, Daman and Diu, and
Dadra and Nagar Haveli, re-
and tariff realization, the Un-
ion government announced a
bailout plan in September
P ushing ahead with long-
pending reforms of the sug-
ar industry, the cabinet on
2012 for discoms, which in- Thursday approved the disman-

bureaucrat K. Balasubramanian point out new episode of asset inflation. This boom lends cre-
duced tariffs in the last fiscal.
Experts say the tariff revi-
sions are a positive for the sec-
tor, coming in the backdrop of
efforts to bail out beleaguered
state electricity distribution
companies (discoms) through
a restructuring of their short-
term loans, one of the most
cluded regular tariff revisions
as part of the conditionalities
to be met.
The cumulative losses of the
distribution utilities increased
from `1.22 trillion in 2009-10
to `1.9 trillion as of March
2011. The tariff revisions until
were inadequate as the aver-
tling of rules requiring sugar
mills to sell the sweetener at be-
low-market prices through the
public distribution system
(PDS) and abolished curbs on
open market sale.
The cabinet committee on
economic affairs cleared the
recommendations made by a

tax benefits at this level of income and upward dence to studies by Oxfam and others that said
important policy initiatives of age increase fell behind power panel headed by C. Rangarajan,

the government. Discoms owe
`2 trillion to banks and finan-
cial institutions.
“It was a seminal year for the
domestic tariff increase in the
country. This is very encourag-
ing. Along with agricultural
tariff, the domestic tariff was
purchase costs. The poor fi-
nancial health is also on ac-
count of non-payment of sub-
sidy reimbursements by state
governments.
Experts said domestic tariff
increases have been accepted
because the mechanism for ra-
THOR B E N SON
chairman of the Prime Minis-
ter’s economic advisory council,
in a move that was welcomed by
the `80,000 crore sugar industry
in India. The report was submit-
ted in October last year.
Mills have been losing up to
`3,000 crore a year by supplying

mobility to the next slab as likely explanations, India’s wealth gap widened after covid. All said,
subsidized and it was political-
ly tough to implement any tar-
iff increase,” said Debasish
Mishra, senior director at
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu In-
dia, an audit and consultancy
firm.
“Realization has set in that
with power purchase costs in-
tionalization has been per-
ceived as democratic and
transparent.
A senior government official,
requesting anonymity, said,
“The earlier protests were or-
ganized by rival political fac-
TURN TO PAGE 5®
sugar at a discounted price to
PDS. Until now, they have been
required to sell 10% of their an-
nual production to the govern-
ment at cheap rates for distribu-
tion through so-called ration or
fair price shops. The govern-
ment till now also curbed the
sale of sugar by mills in the

with the earlier enlargement explained by a big that ‘K’ looks highly plausible. Perhaps further
creasing, there is no way that open market.
they can be met without in- ALSO SEE The dismantling of the PDS
requirement means the Centre
Mint is also available for R7 with >Haryana to challenge Adani Power tariff
Hindustan Times in Delhi-NCR only ruling: minister >P4 TURN TO PAGE 5®

formalization drive. In ‘Our View’ published findings will clarify what exactly happened.

MY VIEW | EX MACHINA

Our digital journey is at another major inflection point

operational in the financial sector and, with
RAHUL MATTHAN 1.1 billion accounts, is the world’s largest
open banking rollout. Having processed
over 5 million transfer requests in the short
time that it’s been around, it is transforming
the way Indians avail of financial services.
guage will no longer be the barrier that it have a long way to go when it comes to today. AI will bring about a similar orbit shift
once was. What this means is that we will improving learning outcomes. Today, AI in the pace at which development takes
now be able to give every person in the makes it relatively trivial to build adaptive place in the country.
country, regardless of their literacy levels or education systems that can meet the specific That said, our use of AI will not be without
familiarity with digital technologies, access needs of individual learners—in whichever challenges. We already know of biases
to all that AI can do for them through a sim- language the student is comfortable. This implicit in AI decisions and the privacy chal-

I
am fortunate to have been present on at
least two occasions when Nandan Nilek-
ani made speeches about the future direc-
tion of technology that turned out to be
remarkably prescient. The first was in 2005,
at the ITechLaw conference in Bangalore,
where, well before any of this was obvious,
he predicted that because of the falling costs
Last week at the People Plus AI event in ple conversational interface. will allow us to discard the one-size-fits-all lenges that will come from using conversa-
Bangalore, it felt like I was listening to a third We are already seeing approach we’ve used so far tional AI. We will have to address these
such speech. examples of what this sort for more bespoke educa- issues as we go down the path of using AI
While delivering his keynote address, of innovation might look AI advances tion. A project like this is more fully in our lives, and if we want to
Nandan suggested that this current moment like. The Jugalbandi currently being piloted in ensure that this technology conforms with
in artificial intelligence (AI) will, when we project uses GPT to build could prove the Kuthulam district in our democratic values.
look back in history, be counted as the next WhatsApp or Telegram Tamil Nadu with consider- Around the world, courts and regulators
big inflection point in the digital transforma- chatbots that citizens can
transformative able success. have begun to crack down on AI, invoking

is a partner at Trilegal and also

has a podcast by the name Ex
Machina. His Twitter handle is
@matthan
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of data storage and the rapid acceleration in
availability of bandwidth, there would be a
shift in products and services from the desk-
top to the cloud. At the time, a good two
years before Apple launched its iPhone, we
were chained to our desks, and the conve-
niences of our ‘always online’ lives today
seemed like an impossible dream.
The second was in 2017, when he first
shared the idea of Data Empowerment and
Protection Architecture (DEPA) with the
world. That was the first time I’d heard him
say that Indians would be data-rich before
they became economically wealthy, and that
we had to find a way for them to unlock the
value inherent in their data. Today, DEPA is
tion of the country. Despite all we have
achieved with Digital Public Infrastructure
(DPI), there were, he pointed out, numerous
challenges that remain insurmountable
using our current approach. Thanks to
recent AI advances, this is about to change.
His optimism came from the fact that dif-
ferent and disparate efforts have, through a
happy coincidence, matured at roughly the
same time. On the one hand, advances in
generative AI have made it possible for us to
interact with information in a far more
human way than was previously possible. At
the same time, thanks to the AI-powered
language translation capabilities that India
has built with its Bhashini AI engine, lan-
use to ask questions about
their eligibility for a gov-
if we take a Dozens of similar exam-
ples abound across a range
new interpretations of existing laws to cur-
tail its use. It is only a matter of time before
ernment scheme or bene-
fit. When coupled with the
balanced view of different sectors in the
country. The fortuitous
we too are called upon to decide on these
issues. When we do, it will be important to
language translation capa- of its benefits congruence of these two AI arrive at a regulatory approach that appro-
bilities of Bhashini, what developments has sparked priately reflects our own circumstances so
this will mean is that every and risks a wave of innovation, the that any decision we take strikes the right
last person in the country likes of which I have not balance between protecting individual
will be able to avail this seen before. rights and liberties while ensuring that we
facility in the language one is most comfort- Unlike other countries where AI is being are able to extract as much as possible out of
able speaking—by just asking a question out seen as a threat either because of the jobs it all that these new technologies have to offer.
loud into the app. will displace or the exclusions it will cause, Whenever I have heard Nandan prog-
While we have made considerable for India AI represents a new opportunity to nosticate about the future direction of tech-
progress in the field of education, getting accelerate development objectives. DPI nology, the predictions he made have come
content to the remotest parts of the country made it possible for us to leapfrog traditional true. I have a good feeling that his latest one
using digital public infrastructure, we still development cycles to get us to where we are will as well.
 LIVEMINT.COM VIEWS WednesdAy, 5 April 2023
ChennAi 13

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

It’s time for the world to address The UK could take lessons on
climate prep from Bangladesh
dangerous deficits of democracy It can learn from a country that’s ahead on the adaptation curve

Authoritarianism affects all in a globalized world and so we may need global rules like term limits to ensure accountability

ISTOCKPHOTO

LARA WILLIAMS
is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering
climate change

KAuShIK BASu
is a professor of economics at Cornell
University and a former chief economic adviser
to the Government of India.

F
or anyone who has sweated through
record-high temperatures or waded
through floodwater, it will come as no

L
ast week, the International Criminal
Court (ICC) indicted Russian President
Vladimir Putin for war crimes, alleging
that he is responsible for the forceful
removal of Ukrainian children to Russia.
This means that the ICC’s 123 member
states now have an obligation to arrest Putin if
given the chance. It is a groundbreaking develop-
ment. Although diplomatic engagement with
Putin has always been difficult, he has now evolved
fully into a ruthless and unbridled tyrant.
Worse, Putin’s conduct is symptomatic of a
broader trend. Around the world, democracy is
increasingly under siege. The latest report on
The Global State of Democracy, issued by the Inter-
national Institute for Democracy and Electoral
Assistance, documents an alarming erosion of
democratic institutions worldwide. Over half of
the 173 countries investigated in 2022 registered
significant assaults on democracy. From Afghani-
stan to Nicaragua, “almost half of all authoritarian
regimes have worsened,” the authors conclude.
In the Asia Pacific region, only 54% of people
live in a democracy, and almost 85% of those live in
countries where democracy is weak or sliding
toward authoritarianism.
This is a worrisome trend. In a globalized world,
the task of containing rising authoritarianism
cannot be left to individual countries. As we can
see from recent global supply-chain disruptions—
with Russia’s war in Ukraine exacerbating food
shortages and inflation in Africa—the fallout from
authoritarianism can be felt far and wide. The
question, then, is what international organizations
like the ICC can do about it.
So-called strongmen who are actually full of
insecurities have a natural propensity to morph
into tyrants. From Hugo Chávez in Venezuela to
Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan in Turkey, recent history features many
leaders who may have come to power with good
intentions, but turned worse over time, often
ending up with blood on their hands.
I was alerted to this danger first-hand following a
meeting with Nicaragua’s dictator, Daniel Ortega,
in Managua in September 2013. Having admired
his overthrow of Anastasio Somoza’s corrupt
regime during my student years, I had long wanted
to meet him. When given the chance, I enjoyed a
long discussion about the Sandinista revolution
and the challenges facing Nicaragua. Since
then, however, sordid revelations about Ortega’s
tyranny have emerged. I did not realize it at the
time, but the man I met was no longer the man who
had overthrown Somoza. He had become the very
thing he had once opposed.
How did this happen? We know from political
science and economics that answers to big macro
questions are often embedded in micro factors,
and Ortega’s case is no exception. If you are a
political leader, there comes a time when you
must decide whether to try to prolong your time in
office. And since politics is a nasty game, no matter
who you are, there is always a temptation to cross
an ethical line—whether by raising money from
cronies with the promise of favours, using official
agencies to target opponents, or other nefarious
means.
The decision depends on the gap between the
utility that the leader gets from remaining in office
and the utility the leader gets from being out of
office. The wider the gap, the greater the leader’s
effort to stay in office.
As I argue in a recent paper, however, this
calculation involves a serious but common mis-
take, which behavioural economists often refer to
as “dynamic inconsistency.” The problem lies in
omitting a longer-term perspective. The more
political leaders indulge in intrigue and evil to
remain in office, the worse their exit option
becomes. Prolonged abuse and intrigue increase
the likelihood of law-enforcement investigations
of the leader’s behaviour (or violent retribution
from opponents) when the leader is out of office.
That brings us back to the ICC’s arrest warrant.
Putin tested the limits of international justice for
many years, and now there is an official effort to
hold him to account. For that reason, he will now
be even more desperate to hold on to power.
In today’s interconnected world, such behaviour
has a global fallout and thus needs to be addressed
by the United Nations (UN) and organizations like
the ICC. Determining precisely what to do will
require much deliberation, but the need to expand
the scope of international law—or even enshrine it
in a global constitution—is obvious, as is the need
for a UN that can uphold minimal principles.
While there is much to discuss in the future, one
immediate imperative is term limits. Whether to
institute them should no longer be considered a
question to be decided by the country concerned.
Given the global dynamics of unchecked power
within any given country, we all have an interest
in using international law to change the incentives
that lead some politicians down the road to
authoritarianism. There is significant variation
in term limits across countries. It is time to create a
uniform standard with which to hold countries
accountable. ©2023/PROJECT SYNDICATE
surprise that Britain is “strikingly unpre-
pared” for the effects of climate change.
That’s the conclusion of a recent report
published by the Climate Change Commit-
tee, the UK’s independent advisory body on
climate policy to the government.
It might feel surprising that a rich country
like the UK is so unready for the challenge.
We often hear about adaptation— changes
in processes and structures to cope with the
current and future impact of the climate cri-
sis—in relation to developing nations whose
vulnerable populations will bear the brunt
of change, such as extreme weather events
becoming more frequent. But Lisa Schip-
per, professor of developmental geography
at the University of Bonn, warns against
that. “Many people in the global north have
been painted a picture in which climate dis-
asters happen in poor countries,” she told
me. That’s led to a complacency that we’re
perhaps just waking up from.
Poorer nations have had a clearer focus
on adaptation for longer. In response to
Germany’s catastrophic floods in 2021,
which killed 196 people, Saleemul Huq,
director of the International Centre for Cli-
mate Change and Development in Bangla-
desh, wrote an op-ed explaining how rich
nations could learn from his home country.
Though regularly struck by cyclones and
floods, Bangladesh invested in minimizing
the loss of human lives when disasters strike
and now boasts “one of the best disaster
warning systems, with evacuation plans and
shelters.” That’s not to say developing
countries don’t need more help with sus-
tainable development, or that the UK is
uniquely ill-prepared in the rich world. As
the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Cli-
mate Change report summarized, policy
gaps are holding back climate resilience
everywhere. While investment in adapta-
tion measures is increasing, it still repre-
sents a small portion of total green finance
and is insufficient for the huge task at hand.
It’s also being held back by the very prob-
lems we’re trying to cope with. As losses pile
up, more money is directed at repairing the
damage than safeguarding the future.
The UK’s situation is serious. The heat-
wave in summer 2022 contributed to wild-
fires, a prolonged drought and the highest
rate of heat-related excess mortality that
England has ever seen. It also demonstrated
the risk of cascading impacts, when extreme
temperatures caused two data centres—
back ups of each other—to fail. That, in turn,
took down most of the clinical IT systems at
The UK’s preparation for climate instability
may need to play catch-up ISTOCKPHOTO
several London hospitals and community
services, causing widespread disruption to
patient care. The country has also already
been affected by changing conditions else-
where: Unseasonably cold weather in Spain
led to salad shortages in the UK just a few
weeks ago. Worryingly, what we’re cur-
rently witnessing is just the start. “Every
increment of temperature brings escalating
effects and the temperature won’t stop ris-
ing until we hit net zero,” Julia King, chair of
the CCC’s adaptation committee, said in a
press conference. We face roughly three
more decades of increasing climate risks. It
won’t be long before exceeding 40° C in the
summer becomes somewhat normal.
King refers to a “lost decade” in preparing
for and adapting to known risks. Public
spending in the UK has been low for years
now, meaning that infrastructure and servi-
ces are outdated and vulnerable. A govern-
ment plan to boost energy investment and
accelerate the deployment of renewable
power contained little new spending.
Globally, marginalized groups suffer the
most. Schipper emphasizes that equality
has to be at the heart of all adaptation plans,
or else you’ll only help a small section of
people, and possibly make things worse for
others. A study in Bangladesh, for example,
found that eliminating floodplains pro-
tected male livelihoods, but cut off food
and economic opportunities for poor,
landless women. People in the UK are
largely aware of risks—many live on flood-
plains or in houses that overheat—and are
seeking a response, according to Chris
Stark, CCC’s chief. The CCC recommends
cross-governmental structures to ensure
all-round adaptation.
Research shows that the best measures
are transformational rather than incremen-
tal. Done well, you can solve other issues
with adaptation. Including trees in urban
design, for example, can reduce the risk of
flooding, help keep cities cool, improve
well-being and health and reduce air pollu-
tion. That beats making flood barriers a bit
higher.
The British government is set to publish
its third national adaptation programme in
mid-2023. Let’s hope it takes the CCC’s rec-
ommendations to heart, and learns from the
experiences of those poorer countries that
have been compelled by circumstances to
become exemplars. ©BLOOMBERG

THEIR VIEW

India’s role in the world order is keenly being watched

Fumio Kishida to India last month also high-
HarsH V. Pant light how nations in the Indo-Pacific region
are swiftly moving to configure the regional
security environment.
Taking his predecessor Shinzo Abe’s ambi-
tions forward, Kishida unveiled a new plan in
hi-tech cooperation, so as to effectively
respond to the challenges they are facing.
Japan and South Korea also made a strong
beginning in normalizing their fraught rela-
tionship earlier last month when the leaders
of the two nations met—the first such meet-
platform that just a few years ago had been
dismissed as a non-starter. Continuing to
underscore their commitment to the rule of
law, sovereignty, territorial integrity and
peaceful settlement of disputes, the Quad
members have laid out an ambitious agenda
governance agenda. While the US-led Nato
says its doors are open to India for enhanced
engagement, Russia has identified India and
China as its main allies on the world stage in
its new foreign policy strategy.
Yet, the current fracturing of the global

I
n the last few days, global engagements
have underscored the rapidly evolving bal-
ance of power in the international order.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to
Russia has sparked a lot of commentary about
the implications of the two nations coming
together in unprecedented ways. What had
once seemed a distinct possibility to many is
India for a “free and open Indo-Pacific” with
four pillars that include: (1) principles for
peace and rules for prosperity, (2) addressing
challenges in an Indo-Pacific way, (3) multi-
layered connectivity and (4) extending efforts
for security and safe use of the sea and air.
Practically, this would entail Japan’s assist-
ance to emerging economies, support for
ing in 12 years. It resulted in Tokyo agreeing guided by priorities of the Indo-Pacific power balance will likely constrain India’s
to lift its restrictions on region to act as a “force for options, as the tussle between the West on
exports of semi-conductor regional and global good.” one side and Russia and China on the other
materials, even as Seoul ‘Dogmas of This agenda today takes on an ever more challenging dimen-
decided to withdraw its includes health security, sion. China’s rise and its aggression continue
complaint to the World Delhi’ mustn’t climate change and the to transform India’s security environment.
Trade Organization (WTO). clean-energy transition, And with Russia now facing a serious crisis
South Korea is now rede-
beat our ability critical and emerging tech- and defining itself as China’s junior partner,

is professor of international
relations, King’s College
London, and vice president for
studies at Observer Research
Foundation, New Delhi
This PDF was uploade To Teligram channel_ LBS Newspaper platform (https://t.me/LBSNEWSPAPER) @LBSNEWSPAPER
now fast becoming an indisputable reality
that can no longer be ignored. The tectonic
plates of global politics are shifting rapidly,
and with it ushering in changes that have long
been talked about, with many hoping against
hope that they can be avoided. But a Russia-
China axis is likely to bring a transformative
effect on the international system. This can-
not be denied.
Yet, while this coming together of the
world’s two most potent autocracies has gar-
nered a lot of attention, other changes in the
global milieu are less noticed, though they
also carry equally significant ramifications.
Visits of Australian Prime Minister Anthony
Albanese and Japanese Prime Minister
maritime security, a provision of coast-guard
patrol boats and equipment and other infra-
structure cooperation.
Albanese’s India visit was also aimed at
strengthening ties with like-minded nations,
even as Canberra has been trying to reach out
to China. First Albanese ensured that India
was on board with Australian policies and
then he went to the US to finalize the Aukus
pact signed along with the US and UK in 2021
for the supply of nuclear powered subma-
rines to Australia. This pact, however, is
about much more than just nuclear subma-
rines; it is about strengthening ties between
three traditional security partners that must
urgently upgrade their intelligence and
fining its place in the wider
Indo-Pacific after shunning
to innovate and
the idea initially for fear of
offending China. But under
experiment
Yoon Suk Yeol, Seoul wants at the level
to play its part in the evolv-
ing strategic dynamics in of big ideas
the region. It wants to be
seen as more than just a
saner, more stable part of the Korean penin-
sula. Of all the regional countries in the Indo-
Pacific, South Korea has been the most
enthusiastic about the Quadrilateral Security
Dialogue—the Quad.
Quad leaders will meet in Australia this
May to reinforce the growing vitality of a
nologies, sustainable,
transparent and fair lend-
ing and financing practices,
infrastructure and connec-
tivity and terrorism.
India is at the heart of this
global churn. As the Eura-
sian security order gets
transformed under the
pressure of the Ukraine conflict and as the
Indo-Pacific emerges as the centre of gravity
of global geopolitics and geoeconomics, New
Delhi’s role and its choices are coming into
sharper relief across the world. India is being
wooed by key powers and it has also been
playing a central role in shaping the global
New Delhi is perhaps confronting one of the
most serious shifts in its strategic milieu
since the end of the Cold War.
With the global and regional order in flux
and key players moving rapidly to shape
their environment, India too will have to
work simultaneously on a number of fronts.
The country must strengthen its domestic
political, economic and military sinews as
well as develop strong partnerships with
other like-minded nations.
But, most significantly, it will be critical
that ‘dogmas of Delhi’ do not continue to
overrule the ability of India to innovate and
experiment at the level of ideas as it seeks its
rightful place in the comity of nations.
 14 WednesdAy, 5 April 2023
ChennAi BUSINESS OF LIFE SPORTS LIVEMINT.COM

IPL 2023: The overseas

impact player riddle
There are still a lot of ifs
PTI AP

and buts on the most

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin.
novel ways of using the AP

impact player in this

year’s IPL. Coaches will
Ceferin poised
have to be on their toes
By Sumit Chakraberty
for new term as
feedback@livemint.com
Uefa president
T
he Indian Premier League (IPL)
2023 has given a twist to the T20
game with the introduction of an
impact player. Debates on its
The 55-year-old Slovenian lawyer is
pros and cons began long before assured of four more years in the role
the tournament. But now that the cricket has
begun, focus shifts to how best to use this new
element. By AFP
All 10 teams in the league had an outing over feedback@livemint.com
the weekend and Friday’s opener. One thing

became immediately clear: it’s not going to be a
one-size-fits-all strategy. It will depend a lot on
squad composition and ground conditions.
How the coaches and captains leverage the
12th player will evolve through the tournament.
But in the first round of matches, we got a
glimpse of the initial gameplan in each camp.
Before we go into that, here’s a quick encap-
sulation of the impact player situation. A captain
goes to the toss with two lists of playing 11s, one
for batting first and the other one for bowling
first. When you bat first, you load up on bats-
men, with the option of substituting one of them
with a bowler as the impact player in the second
half – and vice versa when you bowl first.
But that’s just for starters. An impact player
can replace anybody from the playing 11 at any
time, which means other more interesting
options may arise. For example, a death overs
specialist bowler could replace a new ball expo-
nent, or an extra batsman could come in to halt
a batting collapse. So it need not always be a
bowler replacing a batsman and vice versa, and
coaches will have to be on their toes to see all the
possibilities.
HOW CSK MISSED A TRICK
Perhaps the trickiest aspect of the new rule is
how to use an overseas impact player smartly.
The rule maintains a cap of four overseas play-
ers in the playing 11. Logically, it would seem
that if one overseas player replaces another, the
total in the playing 11 remains four and meets
the requirement. But, in effect, it would mean
five overseas players getting to play in the game,
even if all five are not in the 11 at the same time.
And the IPL has disallowed that, presumably to
create more chances for Indian players to come
into the game and showcase their talent.
Be that as it may, in terms of reasoning, the
twist in the rule means that a team can have only
three overseas players in the starting 11 to be
able to bring in an overseas impact player at a
later stage. For example, Mumbai Indians (MI)
left out overseas pace bowler Jason Behrendorff
to accommodate an extra batsman, when they
batted first in their opener against Royal Chal-
lengers Bangalore (RCB). The extra batsman
gave MI a lifeline at 48/4, and Behrendorff
replaced a batsman in the second half.
That’s a pretty straightforward way of using
an overseas player in that role. A slightly more
complicated use case went abegging in the very
first game of this IPL season between title-hold-
ers Gujarat Titans (GT) and Chennai Super
Kings (CSK).
CSK batted first with all four of their overseas
grounds like the Chepauk in Chennai.
It’s surprising that no other team has given
itself the overseas impact player option. All nine
of the other teams have started with four over-
seas players, which means the impact player can
only be an Indian. Delhi Capitals (DC), for exam-
ple, had four overseas batsmen in their starting
11 when they bowled first against the Lucknow
Super Giants (LSG). With Mitchell Marsh play-
ing as a specialist batsman, because of injury
worries, it meant they had to rely on five bowl-
ers to complete their full quota. Could a sixth
bowling option, like leg-spinner Pravin Dubey
in place of one of the four overseas batsmen,
have made a difference?
LSG’s tall score of 193 came from the exploits
of two left-handed batsmen from the West
Indies who are not known for their prowess
against spin – Kyle Mayers and Nicholas Pooran.
Lucknow Super Giants batsman Kyle Mayers during an IPL match against the Delhi Capitals in Mayers might not have found a leg-spinner as
Lucknow; and Mitchell Santner, who plays for the Chennai Super Kings. easy to tonk as left-arm spinner Axar Patel. And
the DC overseas batsman left out at the start
players. They replaced a batsman, Ambati Ray- overs, it was anybody’s game. Another wicket could have replaced leg-spinner Dubey in the
udu, with a pace bowler, Tushar Deshpande, in there might have tipped the scales in favour of second half. Instead, DC chose a straight swap
the second half, which was elementary. CSK. Magala might well have turned out to be between bowler Khaleel Ahmed with batsman
But what if Deshpande had been included in the impact player of the tournament so far, if Aman Khan. That did give them an extra batting
the starting 11 itself in place of overseas bowler CSK had thought out of the box to play him option, but perhaps the extra bowling option
Mitchell Santner? That would have kept the instead of Santner, after seeing how the pitch could have made a bigger impact.
option open of fielding South African speedster behaved when they batted first. There are still a lot of ifs and buts on the most
Sisanda Magala instead of the left-arm spinner novel ways of using the impact player, and
Santner. THINK OUT OF coaches have to be on their toes to be alert to the
Normally, Santner THE BOX possibilities. So far the coaches have been too
would make the cut An impact player can replace In fact, the only team conservative in using the overseas option.
for the playing 11 anybody from the playing 11 at to have started with The only time an impact player has caught
because of his experi- three overseas players the eye in the first stage of the tournament is
ence in Indian condi- any time, which means more in the starting 11 to bowling all-rounder Krishnappa Gowtham
tions. But as it turned interesting options may arise keep options open in who came out to face the last ball of the LSG
out on a fresh Ahmed- using an overseas innings against DC and hit it out of the park for
abad track, where impact player is Mum- a six. Instead of replacing batsman Ayush Bad-
pace bowlers accounted for 9 of the 12 wickets bai Indians. Their modus operandi is simple - oni in the second half, he came out immedi-
that fell, Magala may have been the bowler bet- Behrendorff sits out if they bat first. It remains ately at the fall of Badoni’s wicket even though
ter suited to the conditions. And although Sant- to be seen if an overseas batsman will similarly only one ball was left in the innings. In the end,
ner is handy with the bat, Magala can tonk the sit out when they bowl first. DC’s batting collapse meant Gowtham’s last
ball too. Mumbai Indians’ injury woes mean they ball six was inconsequential, but it could have
Santner was wicketless in the match which don’t have great bench strength to exploit the been the difference between a win and a loss in
went down to the wire. When GT were five impact player role fully. But they have kept a close contest.
down for 156, with Rahul Tewatia and Rashid open the option of fielding an extra spinner, like Sumit Chakraberty is a writer based in Benga-
Khan at the crease and 23 to get in the last two Kumar Kartikeya, instead of Behrendorff on luru. Write to him at chakraberty@gmail.com
A
leksander Ceferin stands unopposed for a new term as
president of Uefa when European football’s governing
body meets in Lisbon on Wednesday.
The 55-year-old Slovenian lawyer, elected in 2016 following
the downfall of Frenchman Michel Platini, is therefore assured
of a further four years in the role despite a turbulent second term
overshadowed by the breakaway European Super League
project.
The Uefa Congress in the Portuguese capital comes just a few
weeks after Gianni Infantino was re-elected as president of Fifa,
also unopposed.
Ceferin has had his differences with Infantino, with the Uefa
chief notably one of the main voices against Fifa’s proposals to
host the World Cup every two years instead of the current four.
That idea has been abandoned by Infantino, but the European
Super League is not dead and buried, with Real Madrid, Barce-
lona and Juventus continuing to pursue the project.
A lawsuit has been launched against Uefa and Fifa at the Euro-
pean Court of Justice, accusing the governing bodies of abusing
their power by threatening to expel clubs and players interested
in joining a breakaway league.
A final ruling is expected in the coming weeks, although the
court’s advocate general, whose opinions are often followed by
judges, provided a first ruling favourable to Uefa in December.
Assuming that decision goes Uefa’s
Ceferin was way, Ceferin will be able to focus on
elected in 2016 pursuing the planned introduction of
new Financial Fair Play rules, which
following the will see clubs forced to limit spending
downfall of on player and staff wages, transfers and
Frenchman agents fees to 70 percent of total reve-
Michel Platini nues by 2025/26.
He will also oversee the introduc-
tion of a new format for the Uefa
Champions League starting in 2024, which will see the so-called
“Swiss system” model adopted for a group stage featuring 36
clubs, up from the current 32.
Ceferin, who has also recently hinted at softening rules that
currently prevent clubs with the same owners facing each other
in European competitions, can expect to face questions on these
issues when he speaks to the press following Wednesday’s
meeting.
He may also be asked about the refereeing scandal involving
Barcelona that could have serious implications for the Catalan
club and for La Liga.
“The situation is extremely serious. So serious that, in my view,
it is one of the most serious cases in football since I have been
involved in it,” Ceferin told the Slovenian daily Ekipa on Monday.
Prior to Ceferin’s re-election, Uefa will hold an executive com-
mittee meeting in Lisbon on Tuesday in which it will name the
hosts for the 2025 Women’s Euro.
A joint Scandinavian bid from Denmark, Finland, Norway and
Sweden goes up against bids from France, Poland and Switzer-
land.
Belarus will also be on the agenda, with the country in danger
of being excluded from Uefa competitions due to its support of
Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

Saweety Boora, Nitu Ghanghas punch their way to glory

In Ghanghas and Boora, gold in light heavyweight (81kg) category. Boora. “She was hoping that I would start It will help towards my training. I can help
The two of them fight in weight catego- attacking head-on, but I didn’t do that. I solve my family’s financial problems. And
who won at the recent ries that are poles apart and are at different took my time to settle into the bout. I can focus on my training.”
World Championships, stages of their careers – the 22-year-old Whenever she tried to attack, that’s when The eldest of the three siblings, Ghan-
Ghanghas is just getting started in seniors I went on the offensive too. I played a very ghas is now looking after her sister, who is
Indian boxing has two and Boora, 30, has had an eventful career. different game against all three (oppo- pursuing an MBBS degree, and her
But the boxers from Haryana each have nents). I succeeded in doing well with dif- brother, a sport shooter.
more stories to celebrate their stories of struggle. ferent punches, different combinations.” In the ring, the southpaw has boxed her
“On the day of the final I wasn’t even If experience was Boora’s trump card, opponents into submission. Having won
By Deepti Patwardhan feeling well; I had a cold and fever,” Boora Ghanghas was young and fearless. back-to-back youth world championships
feedback@livemint.com told Mint a few days after her triumph. Ghanghas, who hails from India’s box- in 2017 and 2018, she announced her
“But I had the confidence. Now I am at a ing cradle Bhiwani, took up, and stuck to, arrival at the senior level by winning the

C
ompeting on home turf, Indian
women’s boxing flexed its muscle
by raking in a record-equalling
haul of four gold medals at the World
Championships held in New Delhi, which
concluded on March 26. While star boxers
Nikhat Zareen (2022 world champion in
52kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (Tokyo
Olympics bronze medalist) justified the
faith put in them by capturing gold in the
50kg and 75kg, respectively, two more –
Nitu Ghanghas and Saweety Boora –
punched their way into the spotlight.
Ghanghas, the former youth world
champion, clinched India’s first gold at
the 2023 World Championships as she
secured a unanimous 5-0 verdict against
Lutsaikhan Altantsetseg in the minimum-
weight (48kg) final. Later in the day, Boora
proved that Indians could pack a punch in
the higher weight classes as well when she
defeated Wang Lina to win India’s first
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stage in my career where I don’t get too
anxious about my bout. I concentrate on
the strategy and how to apply it. Nothing
else. I just have to give my best; and I know
my best is good enough.”
It is a realization she has arrived at after
years of grind. In 2014, Boora was down
with typhoid and too weak to even walk.
She defied the doctor and her parents and
ran away from the hospital to attend the
national championships, the winner of
which would gain a spot at the world
championship. Not only did she win the
national title, but returned with a silver
medal from the 2014 world event in Jeju
City.
Since then, a gold at the world champi-
onship and an Olympic medal have been
on top of her priority list. Her pursuit suf-
fered a blow a few years ago when she
failed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olym-
pics. She didn’t touch her gloves for a few
India’s Saweety Boora, in red, has had an eventful career.
months and even flirted with resuming
her kabaddi career – Boora had started her
sporting journey with the sport and is
married to kabaddi star Deepak Hooda.
She almost played for the Haryana state
team in the kabaddi nationals during the
pandemic, but as soon as the boxing
schedule was announced she was drawn
back to it, sparked to life.
The rejuvenated boxer has been almost
unstoppable in the ring since. She won the
BOXING FEDERATION OF INDIA
Asian Championship gold in November
2022. At this year’s World Champion-
ships, though the 81kg category didn’t
have the most number of competitors, she
came through three tough rounds to
emerge victorious. Boora defeated Viktor-
iya Kebikava in the quarterfinal, Austra-
lia’s Emma-Sue Greentree in the semis
and 2018 world champion Wang Lina in
the final.
“Lina is very good at counter,” added
the sport mainly because of her father Jai
Bhagwan. A class III employee at the Har-
yana Vidhan Sabha at the time, Bhagwan
invested all of his time and money in her
boxing future. Bhagwan would not only
ferry Nitu 40km on his scooter every day
to training, but also took three years of
unpaid leave from his government job so
he could personally focus on her diet and
training. He worked on a small patch of
land and took a loan to the tune of Rs 6
lakh to help the family survive.
Only 22, Ghanghas has turned her and
her family’s struggle to gold. She claimed
her biggest title to date and a prize money
of Rs 82.7 lakh by winning the world
championship last month.
“My family has also supported me a lot,”
the soft-spoken Ghanghas told the media
after her win. “I have been boxing since
2012, I have worked hard for this title. I am
glad that we got this prize money as well.
2022 Commonwealth Games gold.
During the world championship, Ghan-
ghas won the first three bouts through
RSC – referee stops contest. Her toughest
battle was in the semi-final, when she took
on two-time Asian champion Alua Balkib-
ekova. But Ghanghas, who had fallen to
the Kazakh in the world championship
quarter finals last year, edged to a 3-2 win
to avenge that defeat. With her idol Vijen-
der Singh in the audience, Ghanghas
quashed Altantsetseg’s challenge in the
final and claimed the crown.
Her emphatic win set the tone for a his-
toric haul. With four gold medals, India
equalled the 2006 World Championship
tally and recorded another milestone for
women’s boxing in the country. In Ghan-
ghas and Boora, India now has two more
successes, two more stories, to celebrate.
Deepti Patwardhan is a sportswriter
based in Mumbai
 CHENNAI, New deLHi, mumbAi, beNGALuru, kOLkAtA, AHmedAbAd, HyderAbAd, cHANdiGArH*, PuNe* VOL. 17 NO. 80

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