NEW DELHI, mumbAi, beNGALuru, kOLkAtA, cHeNNAi, AHmedAbAd, HyderAbAd, cHANdiGArH*, PuNe* VOL. 17 NO.

255

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Lower prices trigger fertilizer FPI, retail outflows may extend

livemint.com subsidy cut uP1 stock market correction uP1
 New DeLhI, mumbAi, beNGALuru, kOLkAtA, cHeNNAi, AHmedAbAd, HyderAbAd, cHANdiGArH*, PuNe* VOL. 17 NO. 255

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Govt appoints BCG to prepare ‘Luxury purchasing power in

livemint.com vision 2047 blueprint uP1 India shot up after covid’ uP9
 New Delhi, mumbAi, beNGALuru, kOLkAtA, cHeNNAi, AHmeDAbAD, HyDerAbAD, cHANDiGArH*, puNe*
Thursday, October 26, 2023
Think Ahead. Think Growth.
Gaming, gambling QUICK EDIT
firms sent notices Sophist’s
for ₹1 trn GST dues choice
Gireesh Chandra Prasad
gireesh.p@livemint.com
New DeLHi
O
nline gaming platforms and
casinos have been sent show-
cause notices to reclaim over
₹1 trillion in goods and services tax
(GST), but the recovery of the amount
will depend on what the Supreme
Court decides on the dispute, a gov-
ernment official said on Wednesday.
The notices were sent by the end of
September.
The official, who spoke on condi-
tion of anonymity, said a GST audit of
these firms for FY18, the first year of
GST implementation, shows short
payment of tax which works out to
around ₹1 trillion. Some of these noti-
ces were bunched up in September
because the deadline to serve notices
for FY18 was fast approaching.
“In the case of online gaming, one
case has been decided by the Karna-
taka high court. That matter is before
the Supreme Court. They will be
deciding on the core issue. The recov-
ery (of the tax demand) will depend on
the outcome of court cases,” said the
official.
The reference was to a dispute
between GST authorities and Games-
kraft Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which
secured a favourable order from the
Karnataka high court in May on the
levy of 28% GST on online gaming.
The high court quashed the
over-₹20,000 crore notice issued by
the Directorate General of GST Intel-
ligence (DGGI). But the order was
stayed by the Supreme Court in Sep-
tember on an appeal filed by the gov-
The notices were sent by the end
of September. ISTOCK
ernment.
However, tax authorities are
unlikely to go for an aggressive recov-
ery drive as they await the Supreme
Court decision on 28% GST on online
gaming companies, bringing relief to
these platforms.
Emails sent to the spokespeople for
the finance ministry, Central Board of
Excise and Customs and Gameskraft
on Wednesday remained unanswered
at the time of publishing.
These show-cause notices for
₹1trillion cited above only concern
online gaming firms and casinos.
The official, however, did not give
an amount for the overall shortfall in
payment of GST by all the businesses,
the FY18 GST returns of which have
been audited.
Notices post the first audit of GST
returns have also gone out to sectors
like auto manufacturers and insur-
ance for dues on their tax payments.
VOL. 17 NO. 255
There we go again. First, a G20
invitation replaced “India” with
“Bharat” as the country’s name.
Now, a panel appointed by the
National Council of Educa-
tional Research and Training,
tasked with aligning learning
aids used by government
schools with the new National
Curriculum Framework, has
recommended that the same
switch be done in all textbooks.
Since the two names have been
interchangeable, depending on
the language used (English or
Hindi), this might seem like
much ado over little. That a
controversy has erupted over it,
though, is a sign of the times
we’re in, marked by a political
preference signalled by India’s
ruling Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), which faces an opposi-
tion alliance with the acronym
“INDIA” in the 2024 Lok Sabha
elections. Among the BJP’s
apparent poll ploys has been an
effort to reposition the term
“India” as a colonial vestige.
Yet, every open democracy
operates on the logic of reason-
able choice. Just as English is no
less acceptable than Hindi, with
millions of citizens bilingual or
trilingual, both names should
be perfectly fine. Indeed, they
are equally sweet to Indian ears.
So, let’s not insist on one over
the other. That’s sophistry.
 PLAIN FACTS

Why India Inc is finding

it tough to retain talent
BY NITI KIRAN, NANDITA VENKATESAN, & PAYAL BHATTACHARYA

The median attrition rate of BSE 100 firms stood at 17% in 2022-23, up from 10% in 2020-21 and 15.4% in 2021-22,
showed a Mint analysis of annual report disclosures. The figure was 19% for women.

Attrition intensifies, women are more For some employers, attrition has risen
likely to call it quits steadily over the last three years
Median turnover rate among permanent employees, Turnover rates of permanent employees, select BSE 100 firms (%)
BSE 100 firms (%)
2020-21 2021-22 2022-23
2020-21 2021-22 2022-23 AU Small Finance Bank
9.7
Axis Bank
Male 15
Bandhan Bank
16.6
Jubilant FoodWorks
12.5
Female Voltas
20
19 SBI Cards and Payment Services

Tata Consultancy Services*

10.1
Total
15.4 Hero MotoCorp

17 0 10 20 30 40 50
*For TCS, the data is for global headcount, but excludes non-wholly owned subsidiaries.
Analysis covers 73 firms in the BSE 100 index that have declared data reliably for each of the last three years. Turnover rate: the number of people who leave a firm
voluntarily (e.g. resignation) or involuntarily (e.g. dismissal or retirement) as a percentage of average strength during the year (average of strength on first and last date).

Attrition is high for both men and Most firms did well to engage returning
women in some sectors such as IT, BFSI parents, but outliers hard to ignore
Median turnover rate among permanent employees, Companies with the lowest 12-month retention rate* of permanent
BSE 100 firms, 2022-23 (%) employees who took parental leave, 2022-23 (%)

35 Men Women Voltas** 25

Tech Mahindra 51
30
Axis Bank 57.2
25
Mphasis 57.5
20 AU Small Finance Bank 58.8
Max Healthcare Institute 60
15
Zomato 61.7
10
Kotak Mahindra Bank 62.1
5 Info Edge (India) 64.8
0 SBI Cards and Payment Services 65.8
BFSI Pharma/ Auto and Metals/ Oil and
Analysis covers 83 companies in the BSE 100 index that have declared the data.
healthcare ancillaries mining gas *The share of employees who stayed on for at least 12 months after returning to
FMCG IT/ITeS Chemicals Power work following parental leave (both paternity and maternity) in the previous
Analysis covers 73 companies in the BSE 100 index that have declared data reporting period. ** For Voltas, the data is only for women employees as
reliably for each of the last three years. List excludes sectors with fewer than paternity leave was not applicable in 2021-22.
three companies in the sample. Source: Company filings, Mint calculations
PARAS JAIN/MINT

I
ndia’s top listed companies appear to have a growing FaMily-Friendly? Maybe.
crisis of retaining talent. The median attrition rate of Employers can take solace from the loyalty shown by
BSE 100 firms stood at 17% in the year ended 31 March, employees going on parental leave. In their latest annual
sharply up from the 10% attrition in 2020-21 and 15.4% in reports, companies declared two ratios related to this:
2021-22, showed a Mint analysis of companies’ annual return-to-work (the share of employees returning to work
reports. Women consistently exited more than men. after the leave), and retention rate (the share of employees
The figures pertain to a set of 73 firms that declared who stay on for a year after returning to work following
their turnover rates in each of the last three years. The the leave). Both ratios exceeded 90% for many companies.
turnover rate refers to the number of employees who There were some outliers. Among the 83 companies
leave—voluntarily or involuntarily—as a percentage of with this data, 18 had a retention rate of 75% or less. “These
the average strength during a period. A little over half of discrepancies highlight that not all organizations provide
the companies have seen two back-to-back years of the necessary support for returning parents,” Pareek said.
increasing employee exits, 42% of which have seen the “The absence of facilities such as daycare can be a
rate rise by over 10 percentage points since 2020-21. significant barrier. Returning parents often grapple with
The reasons are many. First, it was the pandemic- emotional and logistical challenges. If companies don’t
related upheaval; then the “Great Resignation”, which offer flexible hours or a gradual reintegration into the
took an ugly turn as companies handed pink slips during workplace, they risk alienating these employees.”
cost restructuring. Voluntary exits also became common, However, low retention rates after parental leave may
as work-life balance, pay disparities, workplace culture, not always reflect a lack of supportive policies and could
career growth concerns, and employee well-being took have similar reasons as high overall attrition.
centre stage. A survey by Indeed and Forrester
Consulting in March revealed that a “vast majority” of WhaT’s The Trick?
employees in India were dissatisfied, Retaining employees—whether after
stressed, and not thriving at work. parental leave or in general—will need
“It suggests a shift in employee For employers, employers to be more attentive to their
preference towards better opportunities adapting to staff’s needs—and companies are
and work conditions,” said Navneet learning this the hard way. “Flexible or
Singh, founder and chief executive evolving workforce part-time work is not the panacea to all
officer (CEO) of Avsar, a recruitment expectations is the problems,” said Nirav Patel, partner at
consulting firm. “It also reflects poor Uniqus Consultech, a consultancy. “A lot
adaptability of companies in retaining
need of the hour of CEOs are now focusing on company
talent during these challenging times.” culture. That’s where the chain starts.”
Information technology (IT), banking and financial Singh said initiatives such as competitive pay, robust
services, and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) professional development programmes, and increasing
segments suffered the worst. “This reflects industry- focus on well-being, diversity and inclusion could help.
specific challenges, such as high competition for tech All this also turns the spotlight on transparent reporting
talent in IT, market fluctuations in BFSI (banking, by businesses around matters of sustainability and
financial services and insurance), and competitive diversity. Some of the data analysed by Mint was reported
pressures in FMCG,” Singh said. by companies for the first time under new regulatory
guidelines that became mandatory from 2022-23. It’s
The gender gap clear that with mandatory disclosures, firms have begun
The median attrition rate was 19% for women in 2022-23, to focus more on employee welfare. Some large firms,
against 16.6% for men (both are up from 12.5% and 9.7%, including Bajaj Auto and Bandhan Bank, have launched
respectively, in 2020-21). “This period has seen women their paternity leave policy over the last year or so.
disproportionately impacted by layoffs and resignations Patel lauded such guidelines, describing them as
due to a combination of systemic, social, and economic comprehensive compared with international frameworks,
reasons,” said Pallavi Pareek, founder and CEO of but said there was still a lot of ground to cover. While the
Ungender, an advisory firm. “Women were also more disclosures are mandatory, what goes into them has little
vulnerable as they work more in some of the sectors hit oversight or regulation, he said. (The Mint analysis found a
hard by covid, such as hospitality, retail, and tourism.” few annual reports with incorrectly reported attrition
In addition, those who are in roles that their employers data; such companies were excluded.) Also, with just one
use primarily for diversity purposes, or for supporting, year’s data on return-to-work and retention rates, Patel
non-essential activities, are typically the first to face the said a meaningful trend would emerge only over time.
axe during job cuts, Pareek added. Considering the This is the second of a two-part series based on the
diverse challenges women face, the problem demands a analysis of BSE 100 annual reports. The first part (https://
holistic approach that ensures not just women’s bit.ly/3Q6Qx97) covered representation of women and
retention but also their growth and well-being, she said. disabled people in the workforce. niti.k@livemint.com

PEANUTS by Charles M. Schulz

 NEw DELhI, mUmBAI, BENGALURU, kOLkATA, CHENNAI, AHmEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE*
Thursday, October 26, 2023
SENSEX 64,049.06 522.82
Lower prices trigger
fertilizer subsidy cut
Cabinet approves ₹22,303 cr fertilizer subsidy for winter crops
Puja Das & Gulveen Aulakh
NEw DELHI
T
he Union cabinet on
Wednesday cleared a
₹22,303-crore subsidy
for phosphatic and potas-
sic fertilizers for the rabi
season that runs till the end of
March. While the amount is sharply
lower than the previous year, the
government assured that farmers
will remain protected since interna-
tional fertilizer prices have fallen,
reducing the need for hefty support.
The cabinet also approved fresh
rates under the nutrient-based sub-
sidy (NBS) scheme for NPK (nitro-
gen, phosphorus, potassium) fertil-
izers. The NBS scheme sets fixed
subsidies for fertilizers other than
urea, depending on their nutri-
tional content. The rates are revis-
ited annually. In last year’s rabi sea-
son, the cabinet approved total NBS
subsidies of ₹51,875 crore, includ-
ing support for indigenous fertiliz-
ers through freight subsidy.
“The subsidy will continue
because the government does not
want any increase in the interna-
tional fertilizer prices to affect
farmers of the country. For the last
two years, the government has con-
tinued to provide more subsidy to
the farmers,” Anurag Thakur, min-
livemint.com
NIFTY 19,122.15
SAFETy NET
Though the sum is less than last year, the Centre assured farmers will
remain protected as international fertilizer prices have declined.
Centre's fertilizer subsidy bill
(in ₹ cr)
127,922
81,124
70,605
2018-19 2019-20 2020-21
RE: Revised estimates; BE: Budget estimates
GOVT SPEAK
ThE move will ensure
farmers get fertilizers
at last year’s prices
ister of information and broadcast-
ing, said after a cabinet meeting.
Rabi crops are sown in winter and
harvested in spring. Wheat, barley,
mustard, chana (gram), masur (len-
til), peas, potato, tomato, beet, cab-
bage, garlic, onion, cumin, coriander,
linseed, sunflower and cauliflower
are some popular rabi crops that are
VOL. 17 NO. 255
Govt vs IIMs: A story of
deep distrust
159.6 DOLLAR ₹83.19 ₹0.00 EURO ₹87.92
FPI, retail outflows
may extend stock
market correction
Ram Sahgal
ram.sahgal@livemint.com
mUmBAI
I
ndian stocks extended their
decline for a fifth straight
session on sustained selling
by foreign and retail direct
225,220 investors amid rising bond
yields in the US, the Israel-Ha-
mas war, which is now threat-
175,100
ening to engulf other coun-
153.758 tries, and rising crude prices.
Market experts expect stocks
to fall further.
Benchmark indices Nifty
and Sensex fell more than
0.8% each to 19,122.15 and
64,049.06 on Wednesday as
foreigners offloaded shares
worth a provisional ₹4,236.6
2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 crore and continued selling by
(RE) (BE)
retail, offsetting the ₹3,569.36
Source: Budget documents
crore worth of buying by
domestic institutions. The
decline in the past five sessions
ThE Centre does not FERTILIzER subsidy
want high int’l prices has been rising for has eroded investor wealth by
to affect farmers the past two years ₹14.45 trillion.
Apart from the cash market
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
sales by foreign portfolio
sown around mid-November. investors (FPIs) and retail
“The subsidy will ensure that direct investors, particularly
farmers get fertilizers at last year’s those engaged in secondary
prices,” the minister said, answer- market trading rather than
ing a question on whether the gov- systematic investment plan
ernment should have passed on the (SIP) investments through
benefit of lower international fertil- mutual funds, the huge selling
of call options shows that
TURN TO PAGE 6 investors and traders are bra-
Rs. 10.00 . Price with Hindustan Times Rs. 15.50
₹0.20 OIL $88.46
Downward spiral
The decline in the past five
sessions has eroded investor
wealth by ₹14.45 trillion.
Sensex
66,500 66,428
66,000
65,500
65,000
64,500
64,049
64,000
17 Oct 25 Oct
Source: Bloomberg
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
cing for a sharper correction.
On a marketwide basis, net
outstanding calls’ value
exceeded that of puts by
₹4.87trillion as of 25 October,
a record high. Data for 25
October was not available until
press time. That means option
sellers have sold that many
more calls than puts in the
belief that the market could
correct more, at least until
Thursday’s monthly expiry of
futures and options, according
to Rohit Srivastava, founder of
Strike Money Analytics & Indi-
aCharts. These include index
and stock options.
A call option seller is bear-
ish, while a put option seller is
TURN TO PAGE 6
A third of smartphone buying
uP12 may be financed this year uP9
$0.35
Govt appoints
BCG to ready
vision 2047
blueprint
Gireesh Chandra Prasad
gireesh.p@livemint.com
NEw DELHI
T
he government has
hired Boston Consulting
Group (BCG) to help
prepare the Vision 2047 docu-
ment that will set India’s medi-
um-term goals and priorities
for becoming a developed
economy in the next quarter of
a century, two people aware of
the development said.
The vision document,
expected to be unveiled by the
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, will outline an eco-
nomic strategy towards
becoming a middle-income
nation by leveraging India’s
strengths in industry, services,
agriculture, trade and human
capital while improving the
governance systems and
access to public goods. Making
economic progress inclusive
will be a key element of the
vision document.
“There are different parts to
the vision document. Consid-
erable work has already been
done by the government.
Besides the government, think
tanks and other agencies are
also contributing to this major
exercise in some ways,” said
one of the two people, suggest-
TURN TO PAGE 6
22 PAGES
GOLD ₹60,311 ₹107
DON’T MISS
@BAAPOFCHART/X
Sebi whips Baap of Chart, asks to
deposit ₹17 cr in escrow account
The Securities and Exchange Board of India
(Sebi) has banned seven people who ran the
Telegram channel Baap of Chart from public
markets over alleged investment adviser
norms violation. They must also deposit ₹17
crore as refund to the defrauded. >P10
India’s steel use bucks global
slump to rise 15% in first half
Domestic steel consumption grew strongly in
the first half of 2023-24 in a clear signal that
Indian manufacturing continues on a robust
growth path despite global headwinds. Steel
consumption in April-September grew 15% to
64 million tonnes from a year ago. >P2
NCERT panel recommends
using Bharat instead of India
A high-level committee constituted by the
National Council of Educational Research
and Training to revise school curriculum has
recommended that “India” should be
replaced by “Bharat” in all textbooks, panel
chairperson C.I. Issac said. >P2
Buyers’ apathy, change in IBC
spur Go First liquidation fear
Bankrupt airline Go First is staring at a
potential liquidation or torturous recovery
given the lack of buyers’ interest, fleet
uncertainty and mounting costs, two people
aware of the matter said. Its lenders plan to
seek more time for a rescue. >P6
02 ThursDay, 26 OcTOber 2023
New Delhi ECONOMY & POLICY LIVEMINT.COM

m MINT SHORTS
Goyal, Saudi Arabia commerce
India’s steel use bucks global
minister discuss trade ties
New Delhi: Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on
Wednesday held discussions with his Saudi Arabian counterpart
Majid bin Abdullah Al Kassabi on ways to further promote trade
slump to rise 15% in first half
ties between the two countries. Goyal was in Riyadh for two days
to attend the seventh edition of Future Investment Initiative (FII).
“Discussed how the robust India-Saudi trade ties can be further Visa services in Canada to be
scaled to make global supply chains more resilient,” Goyal said Infrastructure thrust drives consumption growth; steel production rises 13.6% in H1 resumed from today. MINT
on social platform X. He also met the Saudi energy minister
Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Salman Al-Saud, investment minister Kha-
lid Al Falih, industry and mineral resources minister Bandar bin Subhash Narayan
Robust growth path tion equipment’s machinery demand, India to
Ibrahim Al Khorayef and governor, Public Investment Fund subhash.narayan@livemint.com electrical machinery, commercial vehi-
Yassir Rummayyan. PTI NEW DELHI
Despite global headwinds, domestic steel consumption grew strongly in the
first half of the financial year.
cles, and other associated facilities.
Major steel players in India have been
resume visa

D services in
Total Finished Steel (alloy/stainless + non-alloy )
omestic steel consumption investing in new capacities in line with
Law commission chief briefs grew strongly in the first April-Sept. 2023* April-Sept. 2022* (in million tonnes ) % change
the growing demand. Unlike the rest of
half of the financial year in a Production Consumption the steel- producing countries like
panel on simultaneous polls -10.1
PTI
clear signal that Indian
manufacturing continues
13.6 13.4

3.60
14.9 Korea and Japan who are export-de-
pendent, Indian producers are focused Canada
on a robust growth path despite global 3.24 55.75
on the domestic demand,” he added.
58.364 PTI
headwinds. 2.90 To be sure, despite strong domestic
According to the latest steel ministry 2.56 demand, India has also become a net feedback@livemint.com
data, steel consumption in the April- exporter of steel with the April-Septem-

I
September period of FY24 grew 15% to 64.06 ber data indicating the country exported ndia on Wednesday said it
64 million tonnes from the year-ago 3.2 mt of finished steel. Though down will resume some visa servi-
66.292
period. In H1 of FY23 too, steel con- 10% over same period last year, it ces in Canada from Thurs-
sumption was robust, growing 11.5% to remained higher than imports of 2.8 mt day.
55 mt rising from 49.7 mt in H1 FY21 (up 13.4%) in the H1 period. In a post on X, the High
when the country was in the grip of sec- Import Export On the global front, crude steel pro- Commission of India in Canada
* - provisional Source: JPC, steel ministry
ond wave of the covid-19 pandemic. duction stood at 1256 mt in January- said that services for entry,
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
“Backed by government of India’s August 2023, registering a growth of business, medical and confer-
New Delhi: Law Commission chairperson justice (retd) robust infrastructure programme, tion by 2030-31 as set out in the national activity after the government raised 0.2% on-year, according to provisional ence visas will resume on 26
Ritu Raj Awasthi on Wednesday gave a detailed presenta- India’s estimated per capita steel con- steel policy.” spending. data released by the World Steel Asso- October.
tion on the way forward for holding simultaneous elections sumption has jumped to 87 kg per capita The consumption-led growth in the “Unlike the global economy witness- ciation. China remained the leader The development comes
before the high-level committee on ‘one nation, one elec- in FY23 from 77 kg per capita in FY22,” steel sector has been achieved with an ing a slowdown due to various geo-polit- crude steel production with an output after external affairs minister S
tion’ headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind. Sour- steel secretary Nagendra Nath equally good performance on ical situations, India has shown of 713 mt in the same period, a Jaishankar said on Sunday that
ces aware of the meeting said the law panel had a long dis- Sinha told Mint earlier. production. Provisional data resilience and is moving 2.6% growth. India is looking at resuming
cussion on the roadmap and the changes required in the He said steel consump- from Joint Plant Commit- ahead with the vision of the India was the second visa services for Canadians
Constitution to hold simultaneous elections. However,
some more things are required to be done. They said the
tion also grew strongly by
13% YoY to 119.9m. The
kg per capita steel
87 tee of the steel ministry Prime Minister to make
indicates that domestic India a $5 trillion econ-
kg per capita steel
77
largest producer of crude
steel with an output of 92
“very soon” if it sees progress
on the safety of its diplomats in
law panel is yet to submit its report, PTI World Steel Association finished steel production omy in the next 3 to 4 mt in January-August Canada.
projected in April that consumption in the six-month period of years,” said Alok Sahay, consumption 2023, showing a growth Ties between India and
Indian steel demand is in FY23 current financial year secretary general, Indian in FY22 of 10.5%. Japan was the 3rd Canada nosedived after Cana-
India becomes AIIB’s top market expected to show a healthy stood at 66 mt, up by 13.6% Steel Association. He added largest producer with an dian Prime Minister Justin
growth of 7.3% in 2023 and from 59 mt in the same period that this, coupled with the output of 58 mt, down 3.8%. Trudeau alleged on September
for funding infrastructure projects 6.2% in 2024. of previous year. supporting investment push, is With crude steel production of 54 18 that there was a potential
Singapore: Given the sheer size of infrastructure development “We expect that in FY24, Indian steel Last year, production growth was just keeping growth robust, driven mainly mt (down 1.9% yoy), the US came in at link between Indian agents and
taking place across the country, India has emerged as the biggest consumption will grow to 130-132 mt. I 7.6%, but it has risen sharply in the cur- by infrastructure. number 4 while with 50.8 mt (up 3.9% the killing of Khalistani separa-
project funding market for the Asian Infrastructure Investment am confident India will achieve the tar- rent fiscal backed by demand from “The growth in infrastructure is lead- yoy) was the 5th largest producer of tist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in
Bank (AIIB), a top bank official said on Wednesday. Stating that get of 158kg per capita steel consump- infrastructure sectors amid a pickup in ing to demand growth in the construc- crude steel. British Columbia in June.
financing of a lot more new infrastructure projects is under dis-
cussion for the next year, AIIB South Asia director general Rajat
Misra said: “Lending to India will continue to grow as the bank
balance sheet will also grow.” Misra was speaking on the sidelines
of Singapore International Energy Week. PTI ADB okays $400 million India NCERT panel recommends
IOC starts producing ‘reference’
petrol, diesel for testing autos
loan to improve urban services using Bharat instead of India
MINT
Rhik Kundu mote modernisation of build- Fareeha Iftikhar
rhik.kundu@livemint.com ing bylaws, land pooling, an letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI urban agglomeration, and NEW DELHI
comprehensive urban mobil-

T A
he Asian Development
Bank (ADB) has
approved a $400 million
loan to India to support pro-
jects to improve the quality of
life in urban areas, including
the government’s Amrut 2.0
scheme to provide universal
access to tap water.
New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has begun pro- This loan will support
ducing specialized ‘reference’ petrol and diesel, which are investment planning and
used for testing automobiles, for the first time in India, reform actions at the state and
sources said.These fuels, which have higher specifications, urban local body (ULB) levels,
are critical for calibrating and testing by automobile manu- the multilateral development
facturers and testing agencies like the International Centre bank said in a statement.
for Automotive Technology (ICAT) and the Automotive “India has recognized the
Research Association of India. PTI potential for cities to be cen-
tres of economic growth and
has emphasised the need to
CCI joins steering group of global make cities livable through
inclusive, resilient, and sus-
competition network tainable infrastructure, which
New Delhi: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on is also in line with ADB Strat-
Wednesday said it has become a member of the steering group egy 2030,” said Sanjay Joshi,
of the International Competition Network (ICN). The ICN com- ADB’s principal urban devel-
prises 140 competition agencies from 130 countries. “CCI joins opment specialist.
the prestigious Steering group of International Competition One of the programmes the
Network as a member at the ICN Annual Conference 2023 at loan will support is the Atal
Barcelona, Spain after consistent efforts. ICN consists of 140 Mission for Rejuvenation and
competition agencies and is guided by its apex body, Steering Urban Transformation
Group of 18 members,” as per a post by the CCI on social media (Amrut) 2.0, which aims to
platform X. PTI provide universal access to
The loan will support
investment planning and
reforms at the state and urban
local body levels. BLOOMBERG
water supply and sanitation
and ensure urban water secu-
rity by reducing water loss,
recycling treated sewage for
non-domestic use, rejuvena-
tion of water bodies, and main-
taining sustainable groundwa-
ter levels.
The total indicative outlay
for Amrut 2.0 stands at ₹ 2.77
trillion.
“The programme also envis-
ages integrated urban plan-
ning reforms to control urban
sprawls and foster systemic
and planned urbanisation
through enhancing the entire
ecosystem of legal, regulatory,
and institutional reforms
along with capacity building of
ULBs and community aware-
ness,” the ADB said.
“Specifically, ULBs will pro-
ity planning through transit-
oriented development to help
cities become well-planned
centres of economic growth,”
it added.
ADB expects cities to
become creditworthy through
various revenue-enhancing
reforms, such as property
taxes and user charges, which
will improve efficiencies and
rationalise spending.
These measures will sub-
stantially help cities mobilize
innovative financings such as
commercial borrowings, issu-
ance of municipal bonds, sub-
sovereign debts and public–
private partnerships to bridge
the significant deficit in urban
infrastructure investments.
“ADB will continue to pro-
vide knowledge and advisory
support to the ministry of
housing and urban affairs in
programme implementation,”
the ADB said.
The bank will focus on low-
er-income states that require
support in capacity building,
institutional strengthening
and policy reforms.
high-level committee
constituted by the
National Council of
Educational Research and
Training (NCERT) to revise
school curriculum has recom-
mended that “India” should be
replaced by “Bharat” in all
textbooks, panel chairperson
C.I. Issac announced on
Wednesday, stoking a political
controversy.
Issac said the name change Other recommendations included introducing classical history
was part of the unanimous rec- instead of ancient history as a part of the NCERT syllabus. HT
ommendations by the seven-
member panel in its final posi- triya Swayamsevak Sangh. Secondary Education (CBSE)
tion paper. “The term India started and several state boards,
Other recommendations being used commonly only reaching tens of millions of
included introducing classical after the establishment of the students across India.
history instead of ancient his- East India Company and the NCERT chairperson Dinesh
tory as a component of the syl- battle of Plassey in 1757. Saklani said no decision had
labus, and highlighting Hindu Therefore, the committee been taken yet on the panel’s
victories in battles over the unanimously recommended recommendations.
centuries. that the name Bharat should “Since the development of
“Bharat is an age-old name. be used in textbooks for stu- new syllabus and textbooks is
The use of the name Bharat dents across classes,” he said. in the process and for that
finds its mention in ancient The recommendations, purpose various curricular
texts such as Vishnu Purana, which have been submitted to area groups of domain
which is 7,000 years old,” said NCERT, will now have to be experts are being notified by
Issac, who teaches history at taken up by the government the NCERT, so it is too pre-
CMS College in Kottayam and body that drafts textbooks mature to comment,” NCERT
is closely linked to the Rash- used by the Central Board of on X later.

Armenia keen to expand defence links with India as conflict festers CORRECTIONS AND
CLARIFICATIONS
Mint welcomes comments,
Shashank Mattoo to scope out potential for fur- Asryan also met the region, as well as India’s strat- ber this year. suggestions or complaints
shashank.mattoo@livemint.com ther cooperation, he added. National Security Council. egy to engage more in its Azerbaijan’s victory may be about errors.
NEW DELHI In 2020, India sold the Prior to this, defence minister neighbourhood” Safaryan a cause of concern to New
Readers can alert the
Swathi weapon-locating radar Suren Papikyan visited India said. Delhi because of the growing
newsroom to any errors in the

A
rmenia is keen to
expand its defence ties
with India, its deputy
foreign minister Mnatsakan
Safaryan said, in the aftermath
of its bitter conflict with Azer-
baijan.
“Armenia is diversifying its
defence cooperation and this
is a good opportunity to fur-
ther enhancing Armenian-In-
dian ties in this field,” Safaryan
told Mint.
The country has appointed
a defence attaché to its
Embassy in New Delhi in order
system to Armenia. After this,
a bilateral deal was struck for
New Delhi to supply Yerevan
anti-tank munitions, Pinaka
multi-barrel rocket launchers
and ammunition.
In November 2022, Kalyani
Strategic Systems, a wholly
owned subsidiary of Bharat
Forge, won a $155 million con-
tract to supply artillery guns to
Armenia, according to numer-
ous media reports citing
defence ministry sources.
The relationship developed
after Armenia lost a short but
in October 2022 to meet
defence minister Rajnath
Singh.
Safaryan also thanked India
for condemning Azerbaijan’s
“aggression” towards Armenia
and welcomed a greater Indian
role in the region.
“We would like to see
India’s increased presence in
Mnatsakan Safaryan, Armenia’s deputy foreign minister. Armenia and in our region at
large, be it trade and business
intense conflict with Azerbai- Maj-Gen Edward Asryan ties or others.
jan in 2020. visited India and met chief of “Given your country’s fast
In March this year, Arme- defence staff Gen Anil Chau- development, it will contrib-
nia’s top military commander han. ute to overall stability in our
India has taken an interest
in the conflict between Arme-
nia and Azerbaijan over the
territory of Nagorno-Kara-
bakh, where Armenians were
in a majority.
While the region is recog-
nised as a part of Azerbaijan, it
was controlled by ethnic
Armenians.
After taking back control
over large parts of Nagorno-
Karabakh in 2020, Azerbaijan
was able to consolidate its grip
over the region after a short
military campaign in Septem-
closeness between Azerbaijan, paper by emailing us, with your
Pakistan and Turkey. full name and address to
The three countries have feedback@livemint.com.
built a closer military and
political relationship in recent It is our policy to promptly
respond to all complaints.
years. Turkey and Azerbaijan Readers dissatisfied with the
have backed Pakistan on Kash- response or concerned about
mir. Mint’s journalistic integrity may
These concerns could pave write directly to the editor by
the way for greater coopera- sending an email to
tion on national security. asktheeditor@livemint.com
Armenia’s secretary of the Mint’s journalistic Code of
security council Armen Gri- Conduct that governs our
goryan and India’s national newsroom is available at
security adviser Ajit Doval met www.livemint.com
in August this year.

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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 CORPORATE ThursDay, 26 OcTOber 2023
New Delhi 03

New EPF
additions
lower than
in FY19
Rhik Kundu
rhik.kundu@livemint.com
NEW DELHI

T
he number of new
Employee Provident
Fund (EPF) subscribers—
an indicator of new formal jobs
—has recovered from the pan-
demic years but is yet to reach
pre-pandemic levels, the
National Statistical Office
(NSO) said.
New EPF subscribers regis-
tered in FY23 remain lower
than those registered during
FY19, according to payroll data
for September 2017-August
2023 released by NSO.
The data showed the new
EPF subscribers stood at 11.50
million during FY23, up from
10.87 million in FY22 and 8.55
million in FY21.
New subscribers stood at
13.94 million in FY19 and 11.04
million in FY20.
“The numbers of subscribers
are from various sources, and
there are elements of overlap.
Therefore, the estimates from
various sources are not addi-
tive,” the ministry of statistics
and programme implementa-
tion said in a statement.
“The present report gives
different perspectives on the
levels of employment in the
formal sector and does not
measure employment at a
holistic level,” it added.
In FY20 and FY21, net addi-
tion of formal jobs slowed down
due to covid-induced lock-
downs. The pandemic also led
to a decline in household
income and job opportunities.
As many as 42% of graduates
under the age of 25 remained
unemployed after the pan-
demic, while the pace of job
creation decreased following
the global slowdown, accord-
ing to a labour market report by
Azim Premji University.
04 ThursDay, 26 OcTOber 2023
New Delhi MARK TO MARKET LIVEMINT.COM

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

64,049.06 -0.81 19,122.15 -0.83 16,760.80 -0.76 43,418.65 -0.61 19,034.40 -0.81 30,920.09 -0.52 36,321.61 -0.77
PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN

64,571.88 64,619.27 19,281.75 19,286.45 16,888.70 16,912.40 43,684.75 43,762.45 19,189.10 19,196.75 31,082.03 31,231.36 36,602.75 36,770.06
HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW

64,571.88 63,912.16 19,347.30 19,074.15 16,967.10 16,677.15 44,022.85 43,144.15 19,264.90 18,977.15 31,320.99 30,640.0 37,061.06 35,868.71

m MINT SHORTS
Japan 10-yr yield hit new 10-yr
Havells, Voltas trip on valuations
high on BOJ tweak speculation Vineetha Sampath
Uneven path “Havells has clearly lost market share blurry. This segment’s Ebit loss stood at
Japan’s 10-year government bond yield touched a new vineetha.s@livemint.com in cables over the recent quarters, sug- ₹49 crore due to provision made of ₹86
decade-high on Wednesday on speculation that the Bank In 2023 so far, shares of Havells India gesting a lack of attention to the busi- crore on account of delayed collection

of Japan (BOJ) may raise its cap for the benchmark yield.
The 10-year JGB yield rose to 0.865% earlier in the session,
its highest since July 2013. The yield retreated to 0.850%,
up 1 basis point (bps) from the previous session. A recent
surge in global interest rates is heightening pressure on the
BOJ to raise the existing cap on the 10-year bond yield at
its policy meeting next week. “If the BOJ raises the ceiling
of the 10-year bond yield, that implies the BOJ’s stance to
protect its yield curve control (YCC) is different from
before,” said Naoya Hasegawa, senior bond strategist at
Okasan Securities. “When (Haruhiko) Kuroda was the gov-
ernor, they conducted relentless bond buying to contain
elevated yields. According to what media has reported, the
current administration is trying to raise the ceiling so that
the BOJ can reduce bond-buying amounts.” REUTERS
I
n a seasonally lean quarter, Havells
India Ltd and Voltas Ltd’s air condi-
tioner segments put up a good show
on the revenue front in the Septem-
ber quarter (Q2FY24). Havells’
Lloyd and Voltas’ unitary cooling prod-
ucts (UCP) segments clocked year-on-
year revenue growth of about 19% and
15% in Q2, respectively.Lloyd segment
also includes other products such as
refrigerators and washing machines.
But investors are not impressed.
Shares of Havells and Voltas have fallen
by about 7% and 3%, respectively, after
results. The muted response is under-
standable. For one, the margin perform-
ance was nothing to write home about.
Voltas’ UCP segment witnessed just 40
basis points margin expansion year-on-
year, and Lloyd continued to be in the
red. However, Lloyd’s air conditioner
market share is inching up, implying
that the gain is at the cost of profitability.
On the other hand, Voltas’ market share
dropped to 19.5% in August from 20.6%
in June. Moreover, margin pressures
continue to linger considering the
intensifying competition.
In fact, Q2 results have triggered ana-
have outperformed the Nifty 500
index but those of Voltas have lagged.
Havells India Voltas
140
130
120
110
100
90
30 Dec 2022
Margin performance was nothing to
Values rebased to 100 Source: Capitaline
write home about. HT
SATISH KUMAR/MINT
lysts to cut earnings estimates for FY24. In comparison, Polycab India Ltd’s
The pressing worry in both the compa- wires & cables revenue growth stood at
nies, which led to earnings cuts, ema- 29%. As such, the near-term outlook for
nates from their other segments. In the Havells’ cables and wires business is not
case of Havells, the cables and wires particularly encouraging. The new facil-
business was impacted by capacity con- ity for cables is expected to be commis-
straints. The segment’s revenue growth sioned only by early FY25, which would
of 8% year-on-year lagged expectations. enhance capacity by about 25%.
ness-to-business part of the segment. in overseas projects. The company said
Whether the company’s high degree of in the earnings call that the provisioning
Nifty 500 diversification has led to a loss of focus is problem would persist for another two-
a question that can be answered only three quarters. To factor in full year pro-
with hindsight,” said analysts at Kotak visioning, Kotak analysts have cut their
Institutional Equities in a earnings per share estimates
report on 22 October. pRESSURE for Voltas by 44% in FY24.
Havells is also present in REMainS Notably, this problem
switchgears, lighting and comes at a time when the loss
115.20 electrical consumer dura- SHaRES of Havells of market share in the air
bles (ECD). Switchgears saw and Voltas have
fallen by about 7%
conditioner segment per-
108.49 revenue growth in Q2, but and 3%, respectively, sists. “While absolute earn-
lighting was hurt by price post results ings may have bottomed out,
deflation and subdued the uncertainty around earn-
102.20 demand weighed on ECD. HaVELLS’ Lloyd ings recovery is high. The
continued to incur
Kotak has cut its earnings losses while Voltas’ newly added uncertainty
per share estimates for UCP segment saw a may make the (Voltas) stock
25 Oct 2023
Havells by 5-6% over slight margin rise languish in the medium
FY24-26 led by the cables term, as the market awaits
segment and to a lesser clarity on market share and
degree–ECD, switchgears and others. provisioning,” said analysts at Nuvama
In this backdrop, how consumer Research in a report on 20 October. Val-
demand pans out in the upcoming festi- uations of both the companies are on the
val season is crucial. This would also higher side. Havells shares have outper-
benefit Voltas’ products such as refrig- formed those of Voltas and now trade at
erators and washing machines. But 46 times their FY25 estimated earnings,
given that Q2 earnings were marred by which is expensive. While shares of Vol-
loss in the electro-mechanical projects tas trade at a lower multiple of 36 times,
and services segment, the outlook is near-term growth visibility is dim.

The Fed is shrinking its portfolio of government

securities at a $720 billion annual pace. AP Kajaria Ceramics banks on better volume in second half of FY24
Bond market’s ‘vicious cycle’ Dipti Sharma tions of demand picking up in from metropolitan cities. Tier 1 sustains, the company should
Muted show
risk puts spotlight on Fed’s QT dipti.sharma@livemint.com H2 due to strong growth in the
Kajaria Ceramics’ sales volume growth has been sluggish for the
and 2 cities form 30% of sales be able to meet the lowered vol-
The worst selloff of longer-term Treasuries in more than real estate sector that can ramp past few quarters.
each, while Tier 3 constitutes ume growth expectations. On

T
four decades is putting a spotlight on the market’s biggest ile manufacturer Kajaria up volumes. For investors, 22% and about 2% is from Tier 4 the operating margin front, the
missing buyer: the Federal Reserve. The Fed is shrinking Ceramics Ltd has had a Kajaria is a proxy for the hous- Sales volume (in million square meters) Year-on-year change (in %) (right-hand scale) cities, the company said in the management is confident of
its portfolio of government securities at a $720 billion dull run in the first half of ing and home furnishing space. 30 60 Q2 earnings call. meeting the upper end of its
24.8 26.5
annual pace, making the Treasury Department’s job of FY24 with year-on-year volume “In real estate projects, demand 25 50 Exports are another growth guidance of 14-16%. In Q2FY24,
funding a near-$2 trillion federal deficit all the harder. growth at a subdued 7% amid for tiles usually arises towards 20
40 driver given India’s cost com- operating margin expanded to
Quantitative tightening, as Fed’s program is known, ended weakness in demand. After the the end of completion. New 15
30 petitiveness that is helping it 16% from 12% in Q2FY23 due to
earlier than officials expected the last time it was executed, September quarter (Q2FY24) capacities commissioning and 25.2
20 become a production hub for lower fuel costs. But energy
10 6.3
and some market participants predict the same this time. results, the management has higher ad-spends could also 10 global exports. To primarily costs may play spoilsport on
5
While Fed Chair Jerome Powell and fellow policymakers toned down expectations, slash- support volume growth,” said a 0 cater to exports, many new margins ahead and that requires
have indicated the surge in longer-term Treasury yields ing volume guidance for the report by Jefferies India. 0
Q2FY22 Q2FY24
-10 plants are coming up in Morbi, closer tracking in the coming
may reduce the case for continuing to hike the central year to 9-10% from 13-15% ear- The company has laid down a key market. Kajaria has two days. Amid the demand weak-
Source: Company, Motilal Oswal Financial Services
bank’s benchmark interest rate, they’ve made no such sug- lier. Having said that, the sec- expansion plans for the bat- plants in Morbi. “Higher Morbi ness, shares of Kajaria are down
SATISH KUMAR/MINT
gestion for QT. Instead, they’ve said the process could keep ond half of FY24 (H2FY24) hware segment. In August, exports bode well for domestic about 20% from their 52-week
going even after rate cuts have begun. With 10-year yields would be comparatively better. Kajaria added capacity for ernized its ceramic tile capacity distribution network in smaller pricing and profitability, where highs seen in August. Slower
surging past 5% for the first time since 2007 this week— The company notes that vol- glazed vitrified tiles in Sikan- at Gailpur, Rajasthan. towns to bolster volume Kajaria is the market leader,” than expected demand recov-
and having climbed at fastest pace since 1982 — Fed may umes have picked up from Sep- drabad, Uttar Pradesh. In Sep- The ceramic tile manufac- growth. About 15-16% of pointed out Jefferies. ery may keep sentiments muted
come under pressure to reconsider. BLOOMBERG tember and there are expecta- tember, it expanded and mod- turer also plans to expand its Kajaria’s total revenue comes In the near term, if demand for the stock.

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

BRICS bank Country Garden defaults on dollar bond India gilt yields head down as
NDB seeks Bloomberg
crude oil prices, US peers drop ing the initial deadline of 17 market along with related

$1.25 billion feedback@livemint.com September. A default had industries accounts for about
appeared all but official after 20% of gross domestic product.
Reuters

C
hinese developer Coun- Country Garden said last week The default comes just as Chi- for net importers like India.
3-year loan try Garden Holdings
Co. was deemed to be in
that it didn’t expect to be able to nese President Xi Jinping steps
meet all offshore payment obli- up growth support, issuing
feedback@livemint.com Local inflation breached the
6% upper tolerance limit in

I
default on a dollar bond for the gations on time. The company more sovereign debt for infra- ndian government bond five of the last 12 months, but
Bloomberg first time ever, underscoring its may be headed for structure spend- (gilt) yields fell on Wednes- stayed between 4% and 6% in
feedback@livemint.com fall into distress amid a broader what will be one of The builder ing, raising the day as a drop in US peers and the other seven, including eas-
property debt crisis that’s the nation’s big- didn’t pay budget deficit oil prices from recent highs ing to 5% in September.

T
he multilateral lender
established in 2015 by
the BRICS group of
emerging-market countries is
seeking its first-ever syndicated
loan, according to people
familiar with the matter.
Shanghai-headquartered
New Development Bank (NDB)
is looking to raise $1.25 billion
via a three-year dollar-denomi-
nated loan, said the people,
who asked not to be identified
as they are not authorized to
speak. The lender was founded
by Brazil, Russia, India, China
and South Africa.
Fund uses would include
infrastructure and renewable-
energy project financing in
Brazil, China, India and South
Africa plus Egypt and Bangla-
desh, the people said. Russia,
hit by sanctions following its
invasion of Ukraine, wasn’t
mentioned in the loan’s use of
shaken the world’s second-big-
gest economy.
Country Garden’s failure to
pay interest on the note within
a grace period that ended last
week “constitutes an event of
default,” according to a notice
to holders from trustee Citicorp
International Ltd seen by
Bloomberg. That means the
trustee must declare principal
and interest due immediately if
holders of at least 25% in aggre-
gate principal amount of the
notes outstanding demand it.
NSE stock king of unlisted universe; monthly turnover tops $300 mn
Sneha Shah
sneha.shah@livemint.com
MUMbaI
The Chinese developer’s
default underscores a broader
property crisis. REUTERS
There is no indication that
creditors have made any such
demand yet.
The builder, among the
world’s most indebted devel-
opers, didn’t pay $15.4 million
of dollar bond interest by the
end of a grace period after miss-
hovers around ₹3,200 per
share in the unlisted market,
up from ₹2,750 a share a year
back owing to low supply and
gest restructur- $15.4 million of ratio and even improved investor sentiment. The decision of India’s
ings. A spokesper- dollar bond making an unpr- The 10-year benchmark monetary policy committee to
son for Citigroup ecedented visit to bond yield closed at 7.3408% reinforce the 4% retail infla-
interest by the
declined to com- the central bank. after ending at 7.3769% in the tion target follows inflation
ment about the end of a 30-day In what’s often previous session. returning to its 2-6% comfort
trustee notice to grace period a prelude to a Oil prices dipped, with the The 10-year benchmark bond zone, but does not necessarily
Country Garden broader restruc- benchmark Brent crude con- yield closed at 7.3408%. ISTOCK signal rates will remain higher
bondholders. The turing, the com- tract comfortably below the for longer, two external mem-
builder didn’t immediately pany recently hired advisers to $90-per-barrel mark, as con- tensions have not escalated bers of the committee said.
offer a comment when reached review its capital structure. Its cerns about slowing European but are just at the surface, wait- Meanwhile, the US yields
Wednesday.Helmed by one of dollar notes have been indi- demand offset worries about ing to move in any direction,” fell, with the 10-year down
China’s richest women, Yang cated near 5 cents, showing Middle East supply disrup- said Anitha Rangan, an econo- more than 20 basis points (bps)
Huiyan, the builder’s sheer size how little money investors tions stemming from the Isra- mist at Equirus Group. after rising above the 5%-mark
has made it important to the expect to recover, after some el-Hamas conflict. Falling oil prices can ease on Monday as investors
economy, where the property were near 80 cents in June. “On the global narrative, some inflationary pressures bought into the recent sell off.
rently being quoted in markets cash segment is 93%, accord- The bourse’s total income
in the range of ₹3,175 to ₹3,300 ing to an IIFL Securities increased from ₹6,202.8 crore
apiece, according to a report report. NSE is also the world’s in FY21 to ₹12,765.4 crore in
by brokerage Prabhudas Lil- largest derivative exchange FY23. Its Ebitda increased

proceeds.
Interested lenders in Asia
and the Middle East are invited
to submit their commitment by
the end of November, one of
the people said.
New Development Bank,
which sold a $1.25 billion green
bond in April, is looking to add
members and do more lending
in local currencies. There’s cur-
rently eight members, the
bank’s website said. Mean-
while, Saudi Arabia and Iran
were invited in August to join
the five-nation BRICS group.
S
hares of the National
Stock Exchange (NSE),
India’s biggest bourse,
are among the most sought-
after in the unlisted compa-
nies’ universe, with the aver-
age monthly turnover topping
$300 million in off-market
trading, wealth managers and
investment bankers said.
From family offices of ultra-
high net worth individuals to
private equity funds, investors
want a share of NSE’s growing
market share pie. The current
share price of the exchange
high demand. ladher. The face value of NSE (traded volumes) for the last from ₹4,718.6 crore in FY21 to
Private equity funds that shares is ₹1. three years. ₹10,437.2 crore in FY23, while
invested in the stock even four NSE com- As of FY22, Around 200,000 profit has increased from
years back at a price of ₹1,100 a menced opera- it has nearly real-time orders ₹3,574.2 crore in FY21 to
share have already made 3x tions in 1994 and 100% market are processed per ₹7,354.9 crore in FY23, the
returns on their investments, is today the larg- share second and it has IIFL Securities report shows.
investment bankers said. est exchange of 31.2 million active Ebitda is earnings before inter-
in the equity
Even investors, mostly HNIs India with more clients. It has 116 est, taxes, depreciation, and
and neo-rich who bought at From family offices of HNIs to private equity funds, investors than 50 million derivatives million active amortization.
₹2,200 a share two years back want a share of NSE’s growing market share pie. PTI unique investors segment demat accounts. The company’s valuation in
have managed to get their cap- registered on its NSE has 93% the unlisted market is ₹1.6 tril-
ital back with the high divi- dend of ₹80 per share. Norwest Venture Partners, platform. share in the cash lion. To be sure, there is no way
dend the company paid. In Some of the exchange’s among others, have either As of FY22, it has nearly market and 100% market of corroborating these num-
May, on the back of better early investors such as Saif fully or partially pared their 100% market share in the share in equity F&O. It has 97% bers as these are private trades
financial performance, the (Elevation Capital), Citigroup, stakes to book profits. The equity derivatives segment, market share in currency which are not documented
company announced a divi- Goldman Sachs, IIFL AMC and unlisted shares of NSE are cur- while market share in equity options. officially.
06 ThursDay, 26 OcTOber 2023
New Delhi CORPORATE LIVEMINT.COM

Essar plans
a regional Buyers’ apathy, change in IBC NFRA said to be
scrutinizing Adani
hub in
Saudi Arabia
spur Go First liquidation fear Group auditor EY
Bloomberg
Reuters feedback@livemint.com
feedback@livemint.com
All eyes on HC verdict, govt clarification; lenders to seek extension of the resolution deadline
O
RiyAdh ne of the Adani
Group’s longtime

T
he Essar group plans to auditors is being scru-
make Saudi Arabia a hub Anirudh Laskar & Shayan Ghosh the next CoC meeting,” the banker said. tinized by the National Finan-
to drive its expansion mumBAi However, banks have maintained that cial Reporting Authority, or
locally and regionally, its chief even if Go First goes to liquidation, they NFRA, according to people

executive Prashant Ruia said
on Wednesday.
The group, built by brothers
Shashi and Ravi Ruia, is setting
up a 4 million metric tonnes
per year steel plant along with
port facilities at Ras Al-Khair
in Saudi Arabia, benefiting
from the Kingdom’s aim to
become an electric vehicle
manufacturing centre.
“Automotive will be large,”
Prashant Ruia told Reuters in
an interview at the Future
Investment Initiative (FII)
conference in the Saudi capi-
tal. The group plans to open an
office in Riyadh, he added.
“When you see the Vision
2030 and all of the projects
which are currently being
envisaged, it’s a big, big
growth, which we see (boost-
ing) demand for steel and we
want to play a role.”
Prashant is part of the sec-
ond generation of the Ruia
family that founded Essar.
Saudi Arabia has been try-
ing to shift its economy away
from oil and is aiming to man-
ufacture more than 300,000
cars annually by 2030.
The $4.5 billion integrated
steel plant will be completed in
about 3-1/2 years after obtain-
ing the necessary approvals,
Ruia said, adding final
approval could be obtained in
about six months.
Most of the funding for the
Saudi steel plant would be
arranged from Saudi banks
and financial institutions, he
said, adding the group intends
to offer a minority stake to
investors.
B
ankrupt airline Go First is have enough collateral with them. familiar with the matter.
staring at a potential liquida- Apart from pure bank loans, Go First The accounting regulator
tion or torturous recovery has also borrowed ₹1,292 crore under the has in recent weeks started an
given the lack of buyers’ Centre’s emergency credit scheme intro- inquiry into one of the member
interest, fleet uncertainty and duced during the covid crisis. “Add to all firms of EY in India, S.R. Batli-
mounting costs, two people aware of the these dues the cost to revive all the unu- boi, said the people, who asked Gautam Adani, chairperson,
matter said. Meanwhile, its lenders plan sually deteriorated aircraft in Go First’s not to be identified discussing Adani Group. PTI
to seek more time for a rescue since only fleet to make them fit to fly again. And confidential information. The
one candidate has shown interest in the then, as per Directorate General of Civil regulator has requested files Adani Green Energy Ltd, the
airline so far. Aviation’s conditions, the amount of and communications related to consumer goods firm Adani
Go First’s revival was clouded further ₹400 crore that the airline has to pay the its audits on some of the com- Wilmar Ltd and the two cement
by a 3 October government notification passengers back who had pre-booked panies controlled by billionaire makers the tycoon acquired
that said leased aircraft and engines flights on Go First before it was suddenly Gautam Adani going as far back from Holcim Ltd last year, S.R.
would not come under the bankruptcy suspended,” said the first person. as 2014, the people said. Batliboi also signed off on the
moratorium. If applied retrospectively, This person said that any intent to It’s unclear how long NFRA’s books of Adani Ports & Special
this implies a lessor can potentially take revive Go First would also require the air- inquiry could take or what Economic Zone Ltd, the con-
away its 53 leased aircraft, snuffing out Billionaire industrialist Naveen Jindal is the only one to express interest in buying line to offer better remuneration packa- repercussions, if any, could be glomerate’s crown jewel, for a
any chance of revival. Go First so far. PTI ges to attract pilots and crew. “So, the faced by the auditor and decade leading to 2017.
“Strictly going by the way the minis- potential bidder has to keep these addi- Adani’s companies. Represent- Indian law prohibits foreign
try of corporate affairs (MCA) and the desired. Will a buyer or existing stake- their expression of interest is a serious tional costs in mind while submitting any atives for NFRA and the Adani accounting firms from register-
directorate general of civil aviation holders be willing to spend that extra one. The resolution professional is also firm proposal to acquire the company. Group didn’t respond to an ing as auditors in the country.
(DGCA) are treating the situation at Go money for the already-indebted air- open to receiving bids from other seri- Essentially, we are talking about bidders emailed request for comments. That’s why Big Four firms
First, liquidation seems to be the only line?” said the first person. ous players during the period of the with ₹15,000-20,000 crore in their wal- A representative including EY
direction the airline is headed for. It’s GoFirst, according to its insolvency extended deadline,” said the first person. lets,” said the first person. for EY and S.R. NFRA has in operate through
only a matter of time,” said one of the filings, owes at least ₹11,463 crore col- A second person, who is a part of Go Meanwhile, the government is likely Batliboi declined recent weeks independently
people cited above. lectively to banks, international lessors First’s committee of creditors (CoC), to issue a clarification soon on whether to comment. started an inquiry run affiliates.
Still, creditors will first seek an exten- and vendors. As per insolvency filings, said that the 180-day insolvency resolu- lessors to Go First airline can repossess The scrutiny of into one of the Hi ndenb u r g
sion of the resolution deadline at least ₹6,521 crore is due tion deadline ends on 6 Novem- their aircraft and engines, its S.R. Batliboi— raised questions
towards financial creditors, ber, and the CoC will meet counsel told the Delhi high statutory auditor
member firms over Adani’s
after a Delhi high court ver-
dict on 3 November in a case including Central Bank of ahead of that to decide on court in a recent hearing. of five listed Adani of EY in India, accounting and
between the airline and its
lessors, the people said. 6 Nov
The day when the
India, Bank of Baroda, the next steps. He said len-
IDBI Bank Ltd. and Deut- ders plan to seek an 643 days
The average time
“The government
clearly wants India to
companies that
produce about
S.R. Batliboi audits in a Janu-
ary report that
The 3 October sche Bank Ltd. A Deut- extension of the timeline adhere to the Cape Town half of the group’s erased more than
announcement was 180-day resolution sche Bank spokesperson granted under the insol- taken to achieve a Convention so that lessors revenues—underscores the lin- $150 billion in market value at
meant to comply with the deadline ends declined to comment. vency code since they have resolution rank the country with gering questions around one point from the conglomer-
Cape Town Convention, Emails sent to Go First’s res- received only one expres- lower risks and are able to accounting and disclosures by ate’s listed firms.
control rental costs and pre- olution professional and the sion of interest so far. lease out aircraft to the coun- the sprawling conglomerate The group said in a 29 Janu-
vent higher fares. “We have to see other lenders remained unan- Although the initial deadline to try’s airlines at affordable rates. In that faced a brutal short-seller ary rebuttal that its firms are
whether this rule will be applied pro- swered till press time. complete an insolvency case is 180 days, Go Air’s case, however, the government attack in January. The Adani audited by “duly certified and
spectively or retrospectively, but the Billionaire industrialist Naveen Jindal it is extendable up to 330 days. Data so and the court should ideally make an Group, which has forcefully qualified” professionals.
government’s direction is clear,” the is the only one to place an expression of far shows that, on average, it has taken exception if they want to save the credit- denied Hindenburg’s allega- But months later, changes
first person said. interest in the airline so far. 643 days to achieve a resolution. ors from loan losses. Also, if Go First is tions of corporate malfeasance, followed. Adani Total Gas Ltd
“We have to see how the court han- “There is no serious bid yet to take “We still do not know how serious allowed to resume, it can generate is also under a court-mandated on 2 May announced the
dles the case. But, even if it is applied over the airline, but discussions with Jindal Power is about converting the EoI enough cash to repay even the lessors, the probe by the Securities and appointment of Walker Chan-
prospectively, the aircraft in Go First are Naveen Jindal’s office are on. Jindal’s into a bid, but that is the only proposal pre-booked passengers, the government Exchange Board of India. diok & Co. Llp as its new statu-
deteriorating fast, which will demand office has been asked to come up with a right now, and we would want to wait for and the vendors,” said the first person. Besides being the current tory auditor. It replaced Shah
more money than expected if a revival is concrete offer and a resolution plan if some more time. It will be taken up in anirudh.l@livemint.com auditors for Adani Power Ltd, Dhandharia & Co.

Cabinet approves Govt appoints consulting group Mkt correction may continue
₹22,303 cr fertilizer BCG for Vision 2047 blueprint FROM PAGE 1

bullish. When the outstanding

subsidy for rabi crop FROM PAGE 1

ing that multiple external

33-35% of GDP (gross domes-
tic product) so that a potential
economic growth rate in the
value of calls is more than puts,
it’s a bearish indication.
“Benchmarks like the Nifty
FROM PAGE 1 agencies may contribute to the range of 6-7% is maintained and Sensex could correct by
blueprint. throughout the period from 2-3% more while the mid caps
izer prices to farmers instead The second person said the now until 2047. We should and small caps could correct
of slashing subsidies by about suggestions and inputs from then prepare the economy for another 8-10% in the near term,
50% this year. various agencies will be inte- dealing with any cyclical for- which is justified and healthy,”
The cabinet set NBS rates grated at the government level ces that may emanate from said Samir Arora, founder and
for fertilizers for the 1 October to have a cohesive action plan. global developments so that fund manager of Helios Capital. The Nifty and Sensex could fall by 2-3% more, say experts. MINT
2023 to 31 March 2024 rabi NITI Aayog is driving the we depend more and more on The reason for FPI outflows
season rates that are substan- efforts, assisted by a panel of domestic demand for sustain- in September-October is rising cated by the fall in mid-cap and ence is that markets have fallen
tially lower rates than last top bureaucrats. ing growth and minimize any bond yields in the US, which small-cap indices. While their due to cash sales by retail direct
year’s. The new rates are ₹47.2 An external professional volatility,” said D.K. Srivas- encourages them to book prof- latest investment details will more recently, reflected in the
per kg for nitrogen (₹98 last agency has been hired to help tava, chief policy advisor at its on riskier emerging market be available only next month, Nifty Midcap 150 and Nifty
year), ₹20.82 per kg for phos- with the vision document, EY India. shares to move to the safety of the sharp fall witnessed in the SmallCap 250 shedding 3.3%
phorus (₹66.93), ₹2.38 per kg given the multi-disciplinary Srivastava also explained the dollar. On 23 October, the Nifty Midcap and Nifty Small- and 4.25%, respectively, over
for potash (₹23.65) and ₹1.89 expertise a global consulting Primer Minister Narendra that India has to ensure that we US 10-year bond yields surged cap recently points to their the past two sessions.
for sulphur (6.12). In 2022-23, fertilizer subsidies firm can bring to the table. Modi is expected to unveil the take advantage of our demo- past 5% for the first time since selling, too, said Rajesh Palv- However, given the FPI sell-
The subsidy will be pro- hit a record ₹2.25 trillion. MINT E-mailed queries to spokes- vision document. PTI graphic dividend, which 2007. Over the same period, iya, senior vice president ing in cash and the massive
vided to the fertilizer compa- people for BCG, NITI Aayog would require generating FPIs sold shares worth ₹28,940 (research), Axis Securities. shorting in call options by
nies as per approved and noti- that ended in September, and the Prime Minister’s to unveil it,” the person said. enough employment opportu- crore, including Wednesday’s This is evident if one com- traders, some analysts believe
fied rates so that fertilizers are including ₹70,000 crore Office on Monday remained Experts said India needs to nities, especially for the female provisional figure, causing the pares domestic institutional any positive news could result
made available to farmers at subsidy for urea and unanswered. address certain structural labour force, where there is a Nifty to fall 5.4% from its record investment (DII) and FPI fig- in a significant short-covering
affordable prices, an official ₹38,000 crore for DAP and The first person said prepar- issues and also invest in considerable surplus in the high of 20,222.45 in mid-Sep- ures for September-October. bounce. “The flip side is that so
statement said. other fertilizers. ing a medium-term blueprint human capital to take advan- form of employable women. tember and the Sensex by 5.7% While FPIs have cumulatively many shorts—calls over puts
The decision rationalizes Fertilizer prices showed a entails figuring out the long- tage of the demographic divi- “For this, we have to provide from its life high of 67,927.23 sold ₹28,940 crore, according sold—means a sliver of posi-
the subsidy on phosphatic and mixed trend in September. term impact of policy steps dend to achieve steady growth for their education, training on the same date. to National Securities Deposi- tive news could result in mas-
potassic fertilizers, ensuring While global average urea pri- that may not be apparent over a long period. and skilling,” Srivastava said. Retail investors who turned tory Ltd (NSDL) and Capital- sive short covering, resulting
effective and efficient utiliza- ces increased slightly on immediately. “We have to ensure that It is also critical for India to buyers of ₹21,900 crore in ine, DIIs have purchased shares in a near-term bounce,” said
tion of government resources, month to $570 per tonne in “Once the different parts of suitable savings and invest- provide for internal natural August and September, after worth ₹38,913 crore, according Kruti Shah, a quant analyst at
it added. the last week of September the vision are integrated, it is ment rates are sustained in calamities, which can also selling ₹21,400 crore in April- to Capitaline. As the DII figure Equirus. She pegs the Nifty
Di-ammonium phosphate from $563 a tonne during the up to the prime minister when the range of something like make growth unstable. July, are also selling, as indi- exceeds the FPI one, the infer- range at 18,900-19,600.
or DAP, another key soil nutri- same period of August, DAP
ent, will get an additional sub- prices fell to $703 from $730,
sidy of ₹45 per kg, so that the and the prices of potash
per bag cost would be the same declined to $508 from $518
as last year at ₹1,350 per bag. during the same period.
Similarly, muriate of potash Separately, the Cabinet
Manjit Bawa’s artwork fetches nearly ₹20 cr at Sotheby’s
(MoP) would cost Committee on
₹1,655 per bag, The subsidy Economic Affairs Varuni Khosla of the 77 lots finding a buyer. artist’s late period fetched Shemza and Zarina.
lower than ₹1,700 will be provided approved the varuni.k@livemint.com Influenced by traditional $772,382, or ₹6.4 crore. This has been a record-
per bag. NPK to the fertilizer Jamrani Dam new delhi Indian colours, Sotheby’s said Through depicting musicians breaking year for many Indian
rates will also companies as Multipurpose Bawa’s canvases are renowned with their instruments, Tagore artworks.

A
remain the same Project of Uttara- Manjit Bawa artwork for their vivid palettes. combined his pursuits of Last month, an Amrita Sher-
at ₹1,470 per bag,
per approved
khand under the has fetched a record The untitled work, painted poetry, painting and compos- Gil painting, titled ‘The Story
while single and notified Pradhan Mantri price for the artist at a in 1995, 10 years before the art- ing into one image. Painted a Teller’, signed and dated 1937,
super phosphate rates Krishi Sinchayee recently concluded auction ist’s death, reimagines the few years before fetched a stag-
or SSP will be Yojana-Acceler- held by British auction house Hindu deity Shiva in a con- his death in 1941, The auction also gering ₹61.8
available at ₹500 ated Irrigation Sotheby’s in London. temporary context. The work, it has resided at sold artist crore at an auc-
per bag, and freight subsidy for Benefit Programme, which In its Modern & Contempo- marked by a purity of form and Dartington Hall Bhupen Khakhar’s tion by Saf-
its transportation will con- will cost ₹2,584 crore. The rary South Asian Art auction, colour, reveals a creator at the for 80 years, and seminal ‘People at fronart, becom-
tinue, Thakur said. project envisages the con- the record was set for Bawa, as very apex of his career. was offered as ing the most
Mosque’ for
In 2022-23, fertilizer subsi- struction of a dam near Jam- his canvas ‘Untitled’ (Shiva) The auction also had a sale part of a group of expensive Indian
dies hit a record ₹2.25 trillion. rani village across river Gola, a realized a value of $2.3 million, of artist Bhupen Khakhar’s property from the $1.8 million, or artwork to be
In the 2023-24 budget, the tributary of river Ram Ganga, or nearly ₹20 crore. seminal ‘People at Mosque’, The untitled work, painted in 1995, 10 years before Manjit Bawa’s Dartington Hall ₹14.7 crore auctioned.
government allocated ₹1.75 in Nainital, Uttarakhand. The The entire auction raked in which sold for $1.8 million, or death, reimagines Shiva in a contemporary context. GETTY IMAGES Trust. Mumbai’s
trillion for fertilizer subsidy, dam will feed the existing Gola a collective sale of $9,948,988, ₹14.7 crore. This was one of Other high- Pundole’s auc-
and in the first five months, it barrage through its 40.5 km or ₹84.3 crore, doubling its Khakhar’s earliest painted Shown at Khakhar’s first almost half a century as part of lights included works by Sayed tion house in the same month
spent 55% of the total alloca- length canal system and 244 pre-sale estimate, the auction works, circa 1967, marking the solo exhibition in New Delhi this auction. Haider Raza, M.F. Husain, also sold a Sayed Haider Raza’s
tion. The government allo- km long canal system, which house said in a statement, with very beginnings of the that same year, the painting The auction saw another Francis Newton Souza, Ram painting titled ‘Gestation’ for
cated a subsidy of ₹1.08 trillion was completed in 1981. over 88% of lots surpassing painter’s neo-miniaturist style, was acquired soon after and record, for Rabindranath Tag- Kumar, Zainul Abedin, Jagd- ₹51.75 crore, including the
for the 2023-24 kharif season puja.das@livemint.com their estimates, and all but one the auction house said. emerged for the first time in ore, as a masterwork from the ish Swaminathan, Anwar Jalal buyer’s fee.
LIVEMINT.COM DEALS, TECH & STARTUPS ThursDay, 26 OcTOber 2023
New Delhi 07

m MINT SHORTS
Blubirch raises Series A funding
OrbiMed raises $4.3 bn Piramal Alt backs
e-bus maker PMI
from Capital2B, Cornerstone
Bengaluru: Software-as-a-service and artificial intelligence
(AI)-based reverse supply chain management platform Blubirch
has raised $6.37 million (₹53 crore) in a Series A funding round
for seed, growth bets with ₹250 crore
from Cornerstone Venture Partners and Capital2B. The startup Aman Rawat
has thus raised $10.2 million in funding, to date. The company aman.rawat@livemint.com
will use the funds to expand its presence across various retailer new delHI
marketplaces and original equipment manufacturers ecosys- Corpus to invest in healthcare, life sciences companies worldwide
M
tems as well as expand its presence geographically across India anufacturer of elec-
as well as overseas, specifically in the Middle East and North tric buses, PMI Elec-
Africa region and the Indo-Pacific region. Aman Rawat tro Mobility Solutions
aman.rawat@livemint.com Pvt. Ltd, on Wednesday,
new delHI announced that it has raised
Garuda Aerospace secures ₹250 crore from Piramal

H
ealthcare-focussed private Alternatives, the fund man-
bridge funding of ₹25 crore equity firm OrbiMed, a agement arm of the Piramal
ISTOCK
backer of reproductive diag- Group, to bolster its green PMI Electro Mobility has
nostic solutions provider mobility initiatives. manufactured 1,200 buses. HT
LifeCell and ayurvedic Piramal Alternatives has
products brand Kapiva, has raised $4.3 made the investment from its Maharashtra, West Bengal,
billion to invest in healthcare and life sci- Performing Credit Fund, a Odisha, Gujarat, Kerala, and
ences companies. sector-agnostic vehicle which the Union territory of Ladakh.
OrbiMed has raised the total corpus caters to the capital needs of “With an order book of
across three separate funds—OrbiMed companies operating in the 2,500 buses that is expected to
Private Investments IX, OrbiMed Asia mid-market segment. The constantly grow going for-
Partners V and OrbiMed Royalty & Credit investment was made in the ward, the investment from
Opportunities IV. form of convertible Piramal Alternatives
Investors in these new funds include a securities. will greatly enhance
broad range of medical institutions, uni- ICICI Securities our technological
Bengaluru: Garuda Aerospace has raised $3 million (₹25 versity endowments, foundations, pen- was the advisor to capabilities, and cat-
crore) in a bridge funding round co-led by early-stage sion funds, sovereign wealth funds and PMI Electro Mobility for this apult our growth trajectory
investor Venture Catalysts and WeFounderCircle. The family offices, OrbiMed said in a state- fundraise. manifold,” she added.
round also saw participation from Hems Angels, San ment. PMI is planning to use the Piramal Alternatives has a
Angels, Peaceful Progress Funds, and undisclosed angel “OrbiMed is deeply funds to develop innovative total of $1.5 billion assets under
investors. The funds secured through this bridge round appreciative of the OrbiMed has more than $17 billion in assets under management and invests globally solutions, bring technological management. Its recent
will be allocated towards working capital requirements and continued support across the healthcare industry. BLOOMBERG advancements to its produc- investments in Indian compa-
for ensuring execution of the strategic partnership with we’ve received from many long-standing tion capabilities and scale its nies include specialty chemi-
IFFCO and their drone order along with fulfilling the pre- partners who’ve invested in these funds,” Asia vehicle had raised $800 million. opportunities across the globe. operations, the company said cals company Harmony
booked orders from dealers across the country. Founded said Carter Neild, managing partner at SEC filings show also that OrbiMed Roy- The PE firm primarily invests in in a statement. Organics, precision engineer-
in 2015 by Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Garuda Aerospace is a OrbiMed. alty & Credit Opportunities IV had a target healthcare segments such as biopharma- PMI Electro Mobility’s chief ing company Azad Engineer-
Chennai-based drone maker that designs and manufac- OrbiMed will invest in India through of $1.75 billion while OrbiMed Private ceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics executive officer Aanchal Jain ing, and hospitality company
tures precision agriculture drones. the OrbiMed Asia Partners V fund. Investments IX, which strikes venture cap- and technology-enabled healthcare ser- said there has Impresario
In India, the firm has previously ital transactions, aimed to raise $1.9 billion. vices. It provides several financing solu- been a surge in Piramal has made Entertainment.
invested in a diagnostic chain tions to its portfolio compa- demand for the investment “The advent of
Proost Beer closes pre-Series A Suraksha Diagnostic, super- GROwTH PILL nies, including equity capi- deployment of from Performing E-bus for trans-
specialty hospital Asian Insti- tal, credit and royalty-based electric buses Credit Fund and it port, though nas-
funding round at ₹25 crore tute of Medical Sciences, SEC filings show that In total, OrbiMed THE fifth Asia fund financing. owing to the
was made in form cent now, is poised
Bengaluru: AGrano69 Beverages Pvt. Ltd which operates manufacturer of dental res- OrbiMed Royalty & was also looking
Credit Opportunities to raise $4.7 billion
had a target corpus
of $1.1 billion and
At present, OrbiMed has 21 country’s vision for rapid growth in
Proost Beer has closed its pre-Series A funding round at $3 mil- torations Laxmi Dental IV had a target of partners, and a team of 130 of net-zero emis- of convertible the coming time.
across the three had raised $650
lion (₹25 crore) through a mix of equity and debt infusion. The Export Pvt. Ltd, pharmaceu- $1.75 billion new funds million by last year professionals across com- sions goals with securities We will keep look-
round saw investments from new as well as existing investors tical firm Eurolife Healthcare pany incubation, strategy, the recently ing at potential
including Chimes Group, Dev Punj, The Chennai Angels, Fin- and hospital chain Kerala operations and finance. It has announced PM opportunities for
volve, India Accelerator, Hyderabad Angels, Mumbai Angels, Institute of Medical Sciences. In total, OrbiMed was looking to raise operations in a dozen global locations eBus Sewa scheme. investments in the EV space,
Angel List India, and Agility Ventures. The funding will be OrbiMed didn’t give a breakup of the $4.7 billion across the three new funds, across North America, Europe and Asia. PMI Electro Mobility was particularly those that create a
deployed to improve Proost’s production capabilities and amount it raised for the three funds. But up from $3.5 billion it had raised last year OrbiMed currently has more than $17 set up in 2017. The company long-term positive impact
expansion into new markets. “We are optimistic about the the PE firm’s filings with the US Securi- for the predecessors of these three vehi- billion in assets under management. It has manufactured 1,200 buses keeping in mind environment,
industry’s growth potential, driven by the consumer appetite ties and Exchange Commission (SEC) cles. invests globally across the healthcare that are operating across sev- social and governance consid-
for quality products. With this funding, we anticipate achieving show that the fifth Asia fund had a target OrbiMed said the new funds will ena- industry through a range of private eral geographies, including erations,” said Kalpesh Kikani,
300% growth,” said Vijay P. Sharma, co-founder and managing corpus of $1.1 billion and had raised $650 ble it to invest in seed-stage startups it equity funds, public equity funds and New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, chief executive officer of
director, Proost Beer. COMPILED BY K. AMOGHAVARSHA million by last year. The PE firm’s fourth incubates as well as in growth-stage royalty/credit funds. Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Piramal Alternatives.

Regd. Office: ‘Trishul’, 3rd floor, Opp. Samartheshwar Temple, Near Law Garden, Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad - 380 006.
Corporate Office: ‘Axis House’ C-2, Wadia International Centre, Pandurang Budhkar Marg, Worli, Mumbai - 400 025.
Go from CIN: L65110GJ1993PLC020769, Phone: 079-26409322, Fax: 079-26409321, Email: shareholders@axisbank.com

'How can I secure a job?'

UNAUDITED FINANCIAL RESULTS
FOR THE QUARTER AND HALF YEAR ENDED 30TH SEPTEMBER, 2023
(` in lacs)

Axis Bank (Standalone) Axis Bank (Consolidated)

FOR THE FOR THE FOR THE FOR THE FOR THE FOR THE
QUARTER HALF YEAR QUARTER QUARTER HALF YEAR QUARTER
PARTICULARS ENDED ENDED ENDED ENDED ENDED ENDED
30.09.2023 30.09.2023 30.09.2022 30.09.2023 30.09.2023 30.09.2022

Total income from operations 31,660,26 62,304,30 24,094,33 33,122,23 65,016,43 25,173,05

Net Profit / (Loss) for the period

(before tax, exceptional and/or 7,817,30 15,596,78 7,166,43 8,313,81 16,505,43 7,572,74
extraordinary items)
Net Profit / (Loss) for the period
before tax (after exceptional 7,817,30 15,596,78 7,166,43 8,313,81 16,505,43 7,572,74
and/or extraordinary items)
Net Profit / (Loss) for the period
after tax (after exceptional 5,863,56 11,660,66 5,329,77 6,204,15 12,295,50 5,612,33
and/or extraordinary items)

Total Comprehensive Income for

the period [Comprising Profit/ (Loss)
Refer note 1 Refer note 1 Refer note 1 Refer note 1 Refer note 1 Refer note 1
for the period (after tax) and Other
Comprehensive Income (after tax)]
to Paid-up equity share capital
616,35 616,35 614,46 616,35 616,35 614,46
(Face value ` 2/- per share)
'How secure is the sector Reserves (excluding
1,24,377,87 1,24,377,87 1,14,411,51 1,28,740,25 1,28,740,25 1,17,495,94
Revaluation Reserve) as shown
I work in?' in the Audited Balance Sheet of
the previous year
(As on 31st
March, 2023)
(As on 31st
March, 2023)
(As on 31st
March, 2022)
(As on 31st
March, 2023)
(As on 31st
March, 2023)
(As on 31st
March, 2022)

Earnings per Share (Face value

`2/- per share) (for continuing
and discontinued operations) (`)
(not annualised)
- Basic 19.03 37.87 17.35 20.14 39.93 18.27
- Diluted 18.92 37.64 17.23 20.02 39.69 18.14

In every answer lies the very next question. You only grow when Securities Premium Account 52,193,33 52,193,33 51,635,32

you ask better questions. Get answers and updates on the latest Net Worth 1,29,612,14 1,29,612,14 1,16,152,45

1,85,242,38 1,85,242,38 1,81,399,99

business news and its impact on us, only with Mint
Outstanding Debts
Outstanding Redeemable
Preference Shares Nil Nil Nil

Debt Equity Ratio 1.36 1.36 1.46

Capital Redemption Reserve Nil Nil Nil

Debenture Redemption Reserve Nil Nil Nil

Note:
1. Information relating to Total Comprehensive Income and Other Comprehensive Income is not furnished as Ind AS is not yet made
applicable to banks.
2. The above is an extract of the detailed format of Quarterly/Annual Financial Results filed with the Stock Exchange under Regulation 33 of
the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015. The full format of the Quarterly/Annual Financial Results
are available on the website of the Bank (www.axisbank.com) and on the Stock Exchange websites (www.nseindia.com and
www.bseindia.com).
3. Previous period figures have been regrouped and reclassified, where necessary, to make them comparable with current period figures.

For and on behalf of the Board

Place: Mumbai AMITABH CHAUDHRY

Date: 25th October, 2023 www.axisbank.com MD & CEO
08 ThursDay, 26 OcTOber 2023
New Delhi CORPORATE LIVEMINT.COM

Axis Bank vigilant on personal TechM profit drops in Lexus bets

loan segment: CEO Chaudhry on hybrid
Shayan Ghosh
shayan.g@livemint.com
MuMbAi
worst quarter in 5 yrs till launch of
BEV in India
PTI

A
xis Bank is closely
monitoring the asset feedback@livemint.com
quality of its personal Net profit fell 29.3% sequentially, and by a whopping 62.5% from last year Tokyo
loan book, even as it expands

L
the portfolio in accordance uxury automaker Lexus is
with its risk tolerance, chief Shouvik Das betting on hybrid vehicles
executive officer Amitabh shouvik.das@livemint.com for sustainable growth in
Chaudhry told reporters on New DeLhi the Indian market till it rolls out
Wednesday. its first battery-electric vehicle

T
The private sector lender, ech Mahindra, the last of the six (BEV) in the country in 2026, a
however, does not offer per- large-cap companies in the top company executive said on
sonal credit below ₹50,000. domestic information technol- Wednesday.
Axis’ personal loan book ogy (IT) services industry to In an interaction on the side-
was up 25% from a year earlier The bank’s asset quality improved during the quarter with gross announce earnings this quarter, lines of the Japan Mobility
to ₹61,168 crore as on 30 Sep- and net NPA ratios at 1.73% and 0.36%, respectively. BLOOMBERG posted a staggering 62% drop in net profit Show here, Lexus International
tember. Chaudhry said in the September quarter, rounding off president Takashi Watanabe
growth will not come on the ing what is happening in the The bank’s provisions what was one of the worst quarters for this said the automaker would even
back of higher credit costs. economy, we are monitoring stood at ₹815 crore, though industry in the past five years, barring the look at expanding the hybrid
About 24% of its retail book where some of the stress has up 48.2% from a year ago, covid-disrupted period. technology till BEVs are intro-
was unsecured. been building up and watch- was 21% lower sequentially. Its revenues for the period were at $1.55 duced in the market. Besides,
Housing loans, a secured ing it very closely. You can Axis Bank said it has not util- billion, down 2.8% sequentially in constant the company would also exam-
asset category, accounted for expect us to do that going ized covid-19 provisions currency terms, while net profit fell 29.3% ine if more SUV body styles
31% of all retail loans, and was forward,” Chaudhry said during the quarter and held sequentially, and a whopping 62.5% from could be introduced in the
the largest retail loan segment adding that whatever pace cumulative provisions of a year earlier to $59.5 million. Indian market, which has seen
for the bank. “We have made the bank grows at will be ₹11,758 crore as on 30 Sep- Tech Mahindra’s operating margin fell huge growth in the luxury car
a statement quite clearly that based on a certain risk out- tember. 2.1 percentage points sequentially to 4.7%, The firm’s Q2 earnings were weaker than its peers through this fiscal. BLOOMBERG segment this year, he added.
we are planning to grow and look. “We do see growth This, the bank said, is over one of its lowest in recent memory. “Before we go into the BEVs,
continue to grow momentum con- and above the non-perform- The firm failed to meet Street expecta- set to take over from 20 December. continue to build on the strong founda- it is undeniable (that) the
based on the risk On Wednesday, tinuing at this ing assets (NPAs) included in tions with its September quarter earnings, Speaking at the post-earnings press con- tions, and improve from where we are.” impact which hybrid vehicles
guardrails we set the bank posted point in time.” the provision coverage ratio which were weaker than its peers through ference, the veteran said: “For the second On its profitability decline, Anand said: bring to the whole carbon neu-
for ourselves. a net profit of According to (PCR) calculations. this fiscal. An average of 29 analysts polled half of the year, our deal pipeline is very “We’re prioritizing our core business, for trality movement. So, from the
This growth is ₹5,864 crore in Sumit Bali, the Its net interest income, the by Bloomberg expected its revenue to be at strong. There could be reasons for long clo- which we’ve taken a look at product lines powertrain standpoint, we will
not coming (by) group executive difference between interest $1.59 billion during the quarter, while net sures of deals, but that’s the nature of the where we don’t have strategic leverage for be moving ahead with hybrid
Q2 on higher and head of retail earned and expended, grew
compromising profit, according to 26 analysts polled by business. I’d have loved to finish strong— the future. We’ve terminated those con- powertrains and try to even
on what we income to lending, Axis 19% from a year ago to ₹12,315 Bloomberg, was expected to be at $96.1 mil- this is the last quarter where I’m at the front tracts and stopped taking new businesses expand the technology,” Wata-
believe is the beat estimates Bank, there is crore and net interest margin lion, but was lower by over one third seat. I’m mighty proud of what we there. This created exceptional items for this nabe noted.
right kind of risk higher delin- (NIM), a key profitability met- of the expected profitability. have achieved since we went quarter, thus taking an impact on our reve- He was replying to a query
to take,” said quency in the ric, stood at 4.11%, up one This was one of the weakest public in 2016. At the same nue, profit and margins. Post-adjustment for regarding the company’s prod-
Chaudhry. sub-50,000 personal loan basis point sequentially.
Leading banks, including category but it chose to stay Its asset quality improved
quarterly performances in
the company’s history, amid 2.8%
sequential decline
time, I do know that in this that, the decline in our operating margin
quarter, I’m reporting a neg- would be 140 basis points.”
uct plan for the Indian market
before it launches a BEV.
non-bank financiers, have away from the segment. in the three months ended significant changes in its top ative growth rate and a drop One basis point is one-hundredth of one Watanabe said that the devel-
recently red-flagged emerg- “It is a segment clouding a 30 September with gross and management. Long-stand- in revenue in Q2 in margins. But, I am confi- percentage point. opment of hybrid vehicles
ing risks of small personal lot of assessment about this net NPA ratios at 1.73% and ing chief executive officer and to $1.55 billion dent about the future despite Exceptional items, included “one-time allows the automaker to be
loans or below ₹50,000. business,” said Bali. 0.36%, respectively, as IT industry veteran C.P. Gur- this decline.” actions” by Tech Mahindra to revise its flexible with its product devel-
According to TransUnion On Wednesday, the bank against 1.96% and 0.41% on nani is expected to retire and Touching upon its steep prof- “geographies, service lines and contract opment strategy.
Cibil, sub-₹50,000 loans posted a net profit of ₹5,864 30 June. hand over the reins to Mohit Joshi, itability decline, he added, “We’ve prioritizations”, Anand said. This prioriti- “...What hybrid allows us to
accounted for about 2% of all crore in the September quar- “P&L (profit and loss) per- who had a 22-year stint and was one of the also decided to take a lot of extraordinary zation of business avenues will continue do is develop the three technol-
personal loans. ter on higher income to beat formance and balance sheet two presidents at Infosys. Joshi’s former items that are indicative of difficult markets through the rest of this fiscal year, hinting ogies—the internal combus-
“Right now, in our portfo- estimates. quality of the bank is now sig- colleague at Infosys, Atul Soneja, also and contracts, and we’re working on trying at further fall in profitability, unless reve- tion engines, electric motors as
lio we do not see anything Bloomberg consensus esti- nificantly different from the joined Tech Mahindra as the chief operat- to either close them—for which we are hav- nue and growth opportunities improve well as batteries. So, that pre-
that is telling us our risk mates showed the bank would past which gives us confi- ing officer on 7 August. ing open dialogue with auditors. But, I later this year. The value of new deal wins pares us to be in a good position
framework is not working. post net profit of ₹5,754 crore dence in sustaining it across The September quarter was the last full believe in what we’re doing. Mohit and was at $640 million, down by 10% from a no matter which way the mar-
Obviously, we are monitor- in Q2. cycles,” said Chaudhry. quarter for Gurnani as the chief, as Joshi is Rohit (Anand, chief financial officer) will year-ago, but 78% higher than Q1. ket goes,” he stated.

Banks must Redcliffe leak exposed 12 million Daewoo eyes consumer electronics mkt
have two patient records, says researcher Alisha Sachdev least we are in the customer’s

whole-time Sohini Bagchi accessed the purported health

alisha.sachdev@livemint.com
New DeLhi
mind and can take customer
mind share,” HS Bhatia, man-
aging director, Kelwon Elec-
directors on
D
sohini.bagchi@livemint.com records, he added. aewoo is set to return to tronics, said.
New DeLhi The diagnostic lab refuted India but not as an auto- Daewoo had shut down its
the researcher’s claim. “At maker. In its new automotive business in India
board: RBI
M
illions of highly sensi- Redcliffe Labs, we take secu- innings, the South Korean following financial losses and
tive patient records rity of our customers’ data manufacturer of appliances the lack of commercial success
were reported to have extremely seriously. The infra- and consumer electronics will nearly two decades ago. How-
Gopika Gopakumar been exposed in a recent cyber structure is built to secure this offer power and energy storage ever, it has presence in over a
gopika.g@htlive.com breach at Noida-based diag- at the highest level. In our labs solutions, and eventually 100 countries across Europe,
MuMbAi nostics firm Redcliffe Labs. and other IT environment, expand its offerings to electri- South America, the Middle East
According to cybersecurity we’ve implemented dedicated cal products including kitchen In the first phase, the firm will also manufacture home inverter, and Asia with its range of Dae-

T
he Reserve Bank of India
has advised banks to
ensure the presence of at
least two whole-time directors,
including the managing
director and chief executive, on
their boards.
In a press release issued on
Wednesday, RBI emphasized
the need for an effective senior
management team in banks to
navigate ongoing and emerg-
ing challenges. RBI’s directive
is applicable to private sector
banks and wholly owned sub-
sidiaries of foreign banks.
“Establishment of such a
team may also facilitate succes-
sion planning, especially in the
context of the regulatory stipu-
lations regarding tenure and
upper age limits for managing
director and chief executive
officer positions,” it said.
According to RBI’s 2021 reg-
ulation on appointment of
directors and constitution of
committees of the board, the
post of MD and CEO, or WTD,
cannot be held by the same
incumbent for more than 15
years. The MD & CEO or WTD,
researcher and co-founder of
security consulting firm Cyber
Security Discovery, Jeremiah
Fowler, a non-password-pro-
tected database having over 12
million records was found on
Wednesday. The firm special-
izes in identifying and report-
ing data security vulnerabili-
ties and data leaks.
The records included diag-
nostic scans and
results of medical
tests, besides other
potentially sensi-
tive medical information,
Fowler said.
The medical database con-
tained test results, including
patients’ and doctors’ names,
as well as a wide range of other
sensitive health information. It
Microsoft beats Alphabet in cloud race with OpenAI bet, enterprise focus
Reuters
feedback@livemint.com
The breach comprised folders
with unprotected files. ISTOCK
contained 12,347,297 medical
records, adding up to 7TB, the
researcher said.
“After further investigation,
it was determined documents
belonged to India-based Red-
cliffe Labs. I immediately sent
a responsible dis-
closure notice and
received a reply
acknowledging my
discovery, thanking me for my
efforts,” Fowler said. Public
access to the database was
restricted immediately, but it
is unclear how long the data-
base was exposed, or if any
unauthorised individuals
smaller clients dampened
growth, sending the com-
pany’s shares tumbling 6%.
firewalls to secure IT infra-
structure, even in non-produc-
tion settings,” its chief technol-
ogy officer Prabhat Pankaj said.
He further emphasized that
the company has undergone
various information security
checks, VAPT and other inde-
pendent third-party assess-
ments from time to time. The
most recent audit was con-
cluded in September.
According to the Redcliffe
website, it has 2.5 million cus-
tomers. However, a folder in
its database, tagged “test
results ”, contained over 6 mil-
lion PDF documents, indicat-
ing that far more customers
may have been affected or it
had multiple test records of
repeat customers.
and home appliances, besides
e-bikes, a top company official
told Mint on Wednesday.
Daewoo, known in India for
its Matiz and Cielo cars, is now
a trademark owned by South
Korean POSCO group. It will
license its technologies to local
partner Kelwon Electronics
and Appliances, which will
invest around ₹300 crore over
three years to rebuild the brand
in India, initiate R&D activities
and stock products.
In the first phase, the firm
will manufacture lead acid bat-
teries for automobiles as well as
home inverter, uninterruptible
power supply systems and volt-
age stabilizers.
Once the Daewoo brand is
established, say with 1.5 years,
uninterruptible power supply systems and voltage stabilizers. woo-trademarked consumer
electronics products.
the company intends to intro- the last one year and some enti- India’s lead acid battery sec-
duce consumer durables, such ties were penalized. So, at this tor is estimated to be ₹70,000
as LED televisions, air purifier moment, if you take those sub- crore in annual sales, but it is a
and speaker systems, besides sidies but you’re not highly fragmented market barring a
offering e-bikes and electric localized, then you lose on couple of established giants.
cycles. incentive. If you Daewoo hopes its presence as
Kelwon’s initial Daewoo will don’t take subsi- an automotive brand in India
focus will be on license its dies you are not will create positive a recall and
meeting after- technologies to price competitive. help it stand apart. “We see an
market demand local partner So, I guess it will opportunity to establish large
for existing inter- take a year or year business here as it is the fastest
Kelwon
nal combustion and a half for the growing economy. This is why
engine vehicles Electronics and ecosystem to sta- we looked for a partner. There
(IC-engine) with Appliances bilize. Probably are many small Korean brands
lead acid batteries then it will be a which operate in India and can
before transition- good space to support some technology and
ing to electric vehicles (EVs). come in. Till that time, we will advanced technology. We can
“In terms of support of incen- work to bring the brand back. benefit from it with an Indian
tives and subsidies for EVs, We will be launching power manufacturer,” said Chan Ryu,
there were some disruptions in energy and electronics. So, at director, Daewoo India.
Parnassus Investments, an can summarize a day’s worth was 16% higher than the com-
investor in Alphabet and Mic- of emails into a quick update. pany’s premarket share price
rosoft. The results show cloud Analysts said that will fur- of $342.78. Many analysts were

who is a promoter or major
shareholder, cannot hold the
post for over 12 years. Only in
extraordinary circumstances
the director will be allowed to
continue for up to 15 years.
RBI said the number of WTDs
shall be decided by boards of
banks by taking into account fac-
tors such as the size of opera-
tions, business complexity, and
other relevant aspects. RBI said
banks currently not meeting this
requirement are instructed to
submit proposals for the
appointment of WTDs within
four months. Banks without
existing provisions for appoint-
ing WTDs in Articles of Associa-
tion must seek approvals to com-
ply with applicable statutory and
regulatory provisions, it said.
M
icrosoft is outstrip-
ping Alphabet in the
race to make money
from generative artificial intel-
ligence through early bets on
OpenAI and focus on big cli-
ents, raising worries that the
Google parent could lose
share in the cloud-computing
market.
Cloud spending by busi-
nesses preparing to roll out AI
features powered a rebound in
growth for Microsoft’s Azure
platform in its first quarter,
lifting the shares of the Win-
dows maker up 3.6% on
Wednesday.
But in a sharp contrast,
growth at Alphabet’s cloud
unit hit a near three-year low
as its higher exposure to
In the battle to tap the next
growth driver for the cloud
business, Microsoft has
focused on its core business
clients that already use many
of its software services, while
Google has turned to startups.
“Demand for artificial intel-
ligence drove Microsoft’s
growth. Demand among Goo-
gle’s larger clients was similar,
but the firm is more exposed to
high-growth and startup cli-
ents, which have been more
aggressive with cost-control
efforts,” Morningstar analyst
Ali Mogharabi said.
If share losses hold, Alpha-
bet was set to erase more than
$100 billion from its market
value, underscoring fears that
its focus on startups and
Gains in the shares of Microsoft were set to add about $90 billion
to its market capitalization.
slower roll out of AI services
was delaying the boost from
the technology. Gains in the
shares of Microsoft were set to
add about $90 billion to its
market capitalization.
AFP
“Microsoft is using its
incumbent software relation-
ships, whereas Google is com-
ing in as a little bit of a challen-
ger here,” said Krishna Chinta-
lapalli, portfolio manager at
spending is coming from ther drive up adoption of its AI also optimistic about strength
enterprise clients, whereas services. Alphabet has also in Alphabet’s core search busi-
smaller businesses are reduc- deployed AI in products such ness, but they warned the
ing their expend- as its flagship weakness in the cloud busi-
iture, he said. Strong AI use was Pixel phones and ness would continue.
Strong AI use responsible for a h a d more “It’s unclear just how wide-
was responsible 3 percentage recently tested spread Google Cloud optimi-
for a 3 percentage point boost to the adding genera- zation efforts are and how far
point boost to the
Microsoft’s cloud tive AI to its along customers are in the
Microsoft’s cloud search engine. journey, but expect these
business in the biz in September “Unlike many headwinds to persist for at
September quar- quarter others who are least a few more quarters,”
ter. CEO Satya touting their AI Bernstein analysts said.
Nadella said story, Microsoft is AI is expected to become
about 40% of the Fortune 500 capable of delivering mean- more of a growth driver in
companies were using the test ingful AI products to their cus- 2023 for Alphabet after the
version of its “Copilot” AI ser- tomers,” brokerage D.A. expected roll out of Gemini,
vice, which is powered by Davidson said. which is a collection of large-
OpenAI’s technology. At least 19 brokerages raised language models.
The company will launch their price targets on the soft- “Early results are very
the $30-a-month offering next ware giant, pushing their promising (for Gemini),” CEO
month for its 365 service that median view to $400. That Sundar Pichai said.
LIVEMINT.COM CORPORATE ThursDay, 26 OcTOber 2023
New Delhi 09

‘Luxury purchasing power A third of smartphone buying

likely to be financed this year
in India shot up after covid’ Gulveen Aulakh
gulveen.aulakh@livemint.com
New DelhI
Ravi said by easing the pro-
cess for financing, especially for
first-time consumers who are
Varuni Khosla as our new brand ambassador. She is a availing finance schemes or are

I
varuni.k@livemint.com global face and she will be used for n 2023, one-third of smart- new-to-credit, it expects
New DelhI communications around the world. We phone sales in India is pro- 25-30% rise in new customer
feel that she is the right person to rep- jected to be financed, seeing base for the brand. HMD has a

S
wiss luxury watches have had resent the brand and our new collec- a notable increase from 25% in small share of the $38 billion
a stellar run around the world tion targeted at women buyers. At 2022 and 18% in 2021, driven by Indian smartphone market, but
since the pandemic outbreak. present, we are 50-50 in terms of brands offering attractive hopes to increase its share on
In India, the import of these women and men buyers globally, but schemes in response to a surge the back of the affordability
watches during the first half we think we are under-proportionately in festive season purchases. programme.
of 2023 rose 21% from a year earlier, selling to women here and we want to “Since the post-covid time, In early October, Xiaomi,
crossing 98.5 million Swiss francs, or change that. The watch industry in the 2023 will see the highest-ever which was the market leader
₹933 crore. One brand—Rado, owned country is maturing to a level where share of smartphones that are earlier, launched its no-cost
by The Swatch Group—is looking to now more and more women are want- bought by consumers using digital monthly instalment
ride that wave. This week, the company ing to buy into timepieces. We usually finance schemes. Half of the Half of premium smartphone scheme, Xiaomi Easy Finance
signed Katrina Kaif as its brand ambas- have our associations for a longer term. sales of the premium segment segment sales is likely via easy Program, in partnership with
sador to woo more women luxury buy- For instance, with Hrithik (Roshan) as (above ₹30,000) is expected to finance options. BLOOMBERG Axio and Trustonic. “We
ers. Its revenue and presence are grow- well. It’s been over 12 years that he’s be from easy finance intend to roll out for all our
ing in India, with about 30 brand bou- been endorsing the brand and we hope options. For affordable seg- vided by other brands. models, starting with Redmi
tiques. While geopolitical issues have to have a similarly long term associa- ments (sub- ₹30,000), this will The South Korean major for 12,” president MuraliKrishnan
significantly affected some European tion with Katrina Kaif too. be the first time that the share the first-time allowed loan tak- B. had told Mint in an earlier
markets, the global CEO of Rado, Have your supply-related dis- will rise to 25% of total sales,” ers to avail the finance options interaction.
Adrian Bosshard, said India is as impor- ruptions from the pandemic eased said Tarun Pathak, research across cities, towns, and villa- The scheme for the offline
tant a market as the US is for the com- now? director at Counterpoint ges, yet managing to maintain market has helped the Chinese
pany. Edited excerpts from an interview: We are producing everything in Research. the lowest delinquency rates brand to increase its reach, and
Switzerland in our own factories; so we In 2022, about 25% of pre- among industry peers. Industry growing its share in the afford-
Two years ago, you said that India haven’t had a huge problem on the sup- mium smartphones, including executives said that finance able smartphones segment. as
was a No.3 priority market for you market. Your comment? luxury market. I definitely believe in ply side in our factories. Of course, Apple, Samsung, and OnePlus, schemes will be preferred by well as high-end devices. “We
globally. Does that still hold true? Despite the fact that globally, in the the next five to 10 years this will heavily when there are problems with raw were sold through staggered consumers following the 30% are seeing strong demand for
Have you achieved what you had luxury industry, India is still far behind change. With the ambition and intelli- material, steel or diamonds in the sup- payment plans, most at zero increase in prices premium devices
set out to do during the pandemic? China, US or also several countries in gence that the Indians have, greater ply chain, some slowdown can happen. interest or processing fee, data of smartphones in Industry insiders even after the first

‘
I must admit that even the most Europe, it’s growing and for us and it participation in the luxury market But on the production side, we were revealed. the past 12-24 said Samsung’s week of sales,
enthusiastic sales expectations at that undoubtedly is one of the top three will be an automatic fine. The trend is gaining traction months. return to market driven by financ-
time have been achieved and crossed in markets. China and UAE are leading consequence. From a geopolitical in the sub-premium segments, “Average sale leadership since ing schemes,” said
India. Despite the challenge of infla- and the US and India are neck and neck But aren’t Indi- I see that Indians are standpoint, China with brands such as Xiaomi and prices are rising, analysts at Coun-
late 2022 was on terpoint.
tion, and partially being hit after the for us. ans known to pur- purchasing more and impacted you. Did HMD Global tying up with though smart-
covid-19 pandemic, we were able to In what way has Indian consumers chase a lot of their more around the globe the Russia- war, and financing partners, including phone market is the back of its “The strong
deliver to and attract changed since the luxury abroad? now the Israel-Ha- banks and non-banking finan- shrinking, which finance scheme demand has set a
newer Indian custom- m INTERVIEW pandemic? Yes, that is also true. and are becoming very mas conflict, dis- cial institutions. means consum- cheerful mood for
ers. We see a strong We sell watches for I see that Indians are important customers in rupt business? Industry insiders said Sam- ers are asking for the festive season
increase in local con- $1,000-6,000, or purchasing more and tourist areas. Russia was a very sung’s return to India’s smart- high-end devices that are at and we believe the strong con-
sumption despite all the economic ₹85,000-₹5.1 lakh here. In the past, we more around the important country for phone market leadership posi- higher price points and that’s sumer sentiment will continue
Adrian Bosshard
challenges around the globe. We also were very strong in the price segment globe and are becom- CEO, RADO us in the past. Now, tion since late 2022 was on the where affordability plays a big in offline sales as well due to
see Indians are travelling again and of ₹85,000-₹1.27 lakh. But we now see ing very important since over one year, no back of its finance scheme role,” said Ravi Kunwar, vice parity between offline and
again and buying around the globe that the price point has shifted to customers in tourist business has been called Samsung Finance Plus, president-India and Asia online discounts,” they said in a
across tourist destinations. India is a increase to ₹1.8 lakh–₹3.6 lakh here. areas. The share of the Indian custom- done there. With the actual situation, allowing buyers to choose from Pacific at HMD Global. note on festive season sales last
huge country with a lot of potential The purchasing power is rising in India. ers around the world is increasing. especially no business in Russia, also in a variety of payment plans, The firm is offering digitally- week. Festive season smart-
customers and also with a lot of new This is the same revolution as what Are Indian women buying watches the Middle East, there are some chal- including card-based cash back approved loans without any phone sales were expected to
watch enthusiasts. happened in China 20 years back. In as well? Is this an untapped mar- lenges, so there are individual coun- plan, exchange or an 11-month paperwork under HMD Easy- grow 7% on-year in volumes
But India is for many luxury com- the last two years, we already see more ket? tries where we are under the target. But EMI option, which was longer Pay, in partnership with DMI and 15% on-year in average sale
panies, still a two or three store and more Indians participating in this Yes, we have appointed Katrina Kaif globally, we are fully on track. than the six months plans pro- Finance. prices this year, they added.
10 ThursDay, 26 OcTOber 2023
New Delhi NEWS WRAP LIVEMINT.COM

QUOTES
Sam Altman Akash Ambani Anshula Kant
Rob Bonta CEO, OpenAI Chairman, CFO, World Bank Group
AG, California I expect AI to be Reliance Jio The capital markets took another
Meta has been harming capable of superhuman 85% of the entire 5G step towards increased transpar-
our children and teens, persuasion well before it deployment in India ency and efficiency today, with
cultivating addiction to is superhuman at general is made by Jio. We World Bank as the first issuer of a
boost corporate prof- intelligence, which may continue to deploy “digital native note” on Euro-
its...With today’s lawsuit, lead to some very strange one 5G cell every 10 clear’s Digital Financial Market
we are drawing the line. outcomes. seconds. Infrastructure platform.

‘Strong growth for MISTY FIX Jio, Plume partner

hotels to continue‘ for ‘smart’ services

H R
ealthy business accruals have led to eliance Jio Infocomm, India’s leading
improvement in credit profiles in telco, has partnered with software-as-a-
several companies, found a new report service firm Plume to provide smart
by ratings agency ICRA Ltd. home and small business services to its
It is expected that the hotel industry will subscribers across nearly 200 million premises
report double-digit revenue growth this fiscal in India through the California-based
year, supported by the sustenance of domestic company’s scalable cloud platform.
leisure travel, demand from meetings, “With this new partnership, Jio will deploy
incentives, conferences, and exhibitions ‘HomePass’ and ‘WorkPass’ consumer services
(MICE), and business travel, along with an enabled by Plume’s AI-powered and cloud-
increase in foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs). based platform, including whole-home
The industry has also benefited from the adaptive WiFi, connected device and
G20 summit and the ongoing ICC Men’s World application performance optimisation,
Cup 2023 which have taken place in India. cyberthreat protection for connected devices,
It is estimated that pan-India, the premium advanced parental controls, WiFi motion
hotel occupancy will remain at a high of 70- sensing and more,” the carrier said in a
72% in the fiscal year, after recovering to 68- statement on Wednesday. The partnership will
70% in FY23. The industry is poised for strong compliment the carrier’s JioFiber and
growth in the year with occupancy at decadal JioAirFiber networks, Reliance Jio President
highs and average room rates (ARRs) nearing Mathew Oommen said. GULVEEN AULAKH
the peak of FY08. VARUNI KHOSLA

Civic employees use a mist spray machine at Marine Drive in Mumbai on Wednesday. The coastal city’s air quality index (AQI) climbed as high as 171
on Wednesday morning, according to air quality tracker IQ Air, about 19 times the WHO annual air quality guideline figure. Delhi’s air quality was
recorded in the poor category on Wednesday. The city’s AQI stood at 238 at 10 am, worsening from 220 at 4 pm on Tuesday. PTI

As of Wednesday, five devices have been

Sebi whips Baap of Chart, asks Former Yes Bank MD and CEO Rana Kapoor has
been in jail since March 2020. MINT
certified as “network ready” by the lab.

Vi partners C-DOT
MINT

to deposit ₹17 crore in escrow Defreeze Kapoor’s

accounts: Sebi
for IoT testing lab
C
apital market regulator Sebi has ordered

I
ndia’s third largest telco Vodafone Idea (Vi)
partnered with state backed Centre for
Development of Telematics (C-DOT) to offer
a first-of-its-kind IoT Lab with the common
vision of promoting standardization and
interoperability in the IoT ecosystem.
The lab will be a facility for device testing
and certification as per oneM2M standards and
the defreezing of bank accounts as well
Every entity giving stock advice needs to be registered with the market regulator as share and mutual fund holdings of
Rana Kapoor, former managing director (MD)
and chief executive officer (CEO) of Yes Bank.
Pavan Burugula investment advice. posts on ‘courses’ of BoC, Nasir repeatedly Kapoor has been in jail since March 2020 in
pavan.burugula@livemint.com “Considering the factual matrix of the case and emphasizes providing access to live trading dur- connection with the DHFL money laundering
new delHI the prima facie conclusion of fraudulent and ing his courses. Therefore, non-interference at case.
unregistered investment advisory activities, I am this stage would result in irreparable injury to the The markets regulator, in July, sent a notice

3GPP standards for interoperability, which has
been adopted as national standard for IoT
solution design by BIS.
The lab, an initiative from Vi Business, is
equipped to test 175+ scenarios that include
network and functional testing, field testing,
application testing, compatibility testing,
oneM2M standard testing and more. This lab
acts as an IoT ecosystem orchestrator and
brings all stakeholders together to ensure
seamless IoT experience. The Vi C-DOT IoT
lab runs an exhaustive test plans on all devices
and ensures no bug goes unresolved by
collaborating with component designers.
As of Wednesday, five devices have been
certified as “network ready” by the lab.
GULVEEN AULAKH
T
he Securities and Exchange Board of convinced that the balance of convenience lies in interests of the securities market and the inves- to Kapoor asking him to pay ₹2.22 crore in a
India (Sebi) on Wednesday banned passing interim directions against the Noticee tors.” case of misselling the private sector lender’s
seven people from accessing public Nos. 1, 2 and 5 inter Markets have wit- additional tier-1 (AT1) bonds and warned of
markets for alleged violation of invest- alia for preventing nessed a steep rise in arrest and attachment of assets as well as bank
ment adviser norms related to offering the continuation of The development is part of a larger illegal stock advice accounts if he fails to make the payment within
stock market advice through Telegram channels. any further fraudu- trend where Sebi is issuing with the advent of 15 days.
The accused, who ran social media channels lent or unregistered social media. Sebi This amount includes interest and recovery
based on the name ‘Baap of Chart’, have also been activities in the prohibitory orders against rules say any entity costs. The demand notice came after Kapoor
asked to deposit ₹17 crore they allegedly collected interest of investors, unregistered finfluencers giving such stock failed to pay the fine of ₹2 crore imposed on
for giving investment advice to be deposited in an and for impounding tips needs to be reg- him by the Securities and Exchange Board of
escrow account until the markets regulator con- and retaining such istered with the reg- India in September 2022. PTI
cludes the probe. This is a temporary order, and quantified alleged illegal gains,” said Ananth Nar- ulator. However, many unregistered social media
a final confirmation order will be issued by Sebi ayan, whole-time member Sebi in the 45-page accounts have been offering stock market tips. In
once the probe concludes. The development is order. Sebi also observed that Baap of Charts was response to this, Sebi has tightened the norms for
part of a larger trend where Sebi is issuing prohib-
itory orders against unregistered finfluencers
conducting stock market courses and promised investment advisors. It has prohibited listed com-
tall returns and exposure to live stock markets. panies and Sebi-regulated intermediaries from
TV18 Broadcast
who were using social media channels to give “Further, I note that in his videos/social media hiring such unregistered finfluencers.
posts ₹65 cr loss

T
V18 Broadcast Ltd on Wednesday
KPMG, Vianai join reported a consolidated loss of ₹65 crore
New directive for ICB power plants in the second quarter ending September
hands for AI push on account of investments in sports and digital
platforms, the next vertical of growth.
to imported coal-based (ICB) plants to The company had posted a net profit of

K
PMG in India on Wednesday said it has
formed an alliance with human-centred
AI platform and products firm Vianai
Systems for AI-based conversational finance to
help finance professionals.
The joint offering will leverage Vianai’s hila
Enterprise fine-tuning and optimization
capabilities with enterprize systems of record,
according to a statement.
Targeting finance professionals,
conversational finance will allow finance users
to ask any question against their systems of
record, internal documents, public data, and
other data in natural language, with a view to
get immediate responses by way of text,
First govt directive was issued under Sec 11
of Electricity Act to ICB plants in March. MINT
operate at full capacity until 31 October
2023. The government in March this year
issued the first directive under Section 11
of the Electricity Act to ICB plants.
“After consultations with the Central
Electricity Authority (CEA), the
government decided to extend the time
period for Section 11 directive to imported
coal-based generators, up to 30 June
2024,” the ministry said in the
notification dated 23 October. Under
Section 11 of the Electricity Act, the
government may specify that a generating
company shall, in extraordinary
circumstances operate and maintain any
Renault’s market share in the Indian passenger
vehicle market is close to 1.5%.
‘India pivotal part of
₹10.28 crore in the July-September period of
the preceding fiscal, TV18 Broadcast said in a
regulatory filing.
However, its consolidated revenue from
operations was up 21.76% to ₹1,794.17 crore
compared to ₹1,473.43 crore in the
corresponding quarter a year ago.
Growth in the consolidated revenue for the
quarter was “driven by the performance of
news business, movie studio and sports
vertical,” said TV18 Broadcast in an earnings
MINT statement. TV18 Broadcast’s total expenses
were up 39.71% to ₹2,076.15 crore in the
September quarter. PTI

dashboards, charts and more, according to a
statement.
At present, the adoption of AI and the use of
Large Language Models (LLMs) in enterprises
has largely been a non-starter for business
users that require an extremely high degree of
accuracy and reliability, in particular those in
T
he government has asked imported
coal-based power plants to operate
at full capacity until 30 June 2024,
amid a surge in electricity demand and
inadequate domestic coal supplies,
according to a notification. The power
ministry had earlier extended its directive
Renault expansion’
generating station in accordance with the
directions of the government.
The notification has been sent to
GMR, units to buy
F
imported coal-based plants including rench carmaker Renault is set to invest €3
Adani Power Mundra, Essar Power
Gujarat, JSW Ratnagiri and Tata
billion in its international expansion
strategy, focusing on India as one of its 11% more in GHIAL
Trombay, among others. PTI pivotal markets outside Europe.

finance roles. PTI The move is part of Renault’s 2027 global
strategy, the carmaker announced on
Wednesday. A new modular platform, designed
for regions like India, Latin America, North Africa
Jubilant FoodWorks Q2 profit down 26%, beats estimates and Türkiye, is at the heart of its focus to drive
competitiveness outside Europe. The adaptable
platform will offer a range of customization
G
MR Airports and its affiliates will buy
an additional 11% stake in GMR
Hyderabad International Airport
from Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad’s unit,
the company said in a statement on
Wednesday.
GMR Airports hold a 63% stake in GMR

J
ubilant FoodWorks, which operates Domino’s restaurants in India, options, including varying vehicle lengths and Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL).
reported a smaller-than-expected 26% fall in quarterly earnings on alternative energy sources, from flex fuel (E100) The acquisition will raise its stake to 74%.
Wednesday, helped by its move to cut costs and launch cheaper pizzas to to mild hybrid advanced (48V) and full hybrid. The Airports Authority of India and the
attract consumers. India will be one of the hubs where the platform government of Telangana state each hold a 13%
Consumer goods makers and restaurants in India have been launching will be assembled locally. stake in GMR Hyderabad International
more affordable products—with lower input costs—to keep customers India, where Renault has a share of close to 1.5% Airport.
coming back when they are cutting back on expenses due to the high cost of in the passenger vehicle market, will be one of the GMR Airports entered into a share purchase
living. The Indian franchisee of Domino’s Pizza said its consolidated net key destinations for the carmaker’s global agreement with Malaysia Airports Holding
profit fell to ₹97.2 crore for the second quarter ended 30 September from expansion efforts, marking a strategic shift for the Berhad and its unit MAHB (Mauritius).
₹132 crore a year earlier. Jubilant, which also operates Dunkin’ and Popeyes company which is now aiming to double net The deal is likely to be completed within a
restaurants, earlier this year launched the world’s cheapest pizza at ₹49 and revenue per unit sold outside Europe by 2027 maximum of 135 days from the date of
followed it up with the roll-out of a new range of spicy pizzas starting ₹179. compared to its 2019 figures. Renault said it is execution of the agreement.
The promoters of HT Media Ltd, which publishes Mint, and Jubilant focused on offering sustainable and The acquisition would be for a negotiated
FoodWorks are closely related. There are, however, no promoter cross-holdings. Indian franchisee of Domino’s Pizza said its consolidated net profit technologically advanced vehicles tailored to aggregate consideration of $100 million, the
REUTERS fell to ₹97.2 crore for the second quarter ended 30 September. MINT local customer preferences. ALISHA SACHDEV company added. REUTERS
LIVEMINT.COM GLOBAL ThursDay, 26 OcTOber 2023
New Delhi 11

m MINT SHORTS
Google, Nvidia back startup that
Israel targets southern Gaza
helps navigate AI chip shortage
Nvidia Corp. and a Google venture fund have joined a seed round
of funding for a startup that helps developers squeeze more com-
puting power out of specialized processors used to train artificial Hundreds of thousands had earlier fled to the region after Israel said it would attack the north to wipe out Hamas
intelligence (AI), potentially alleviating a major logjam for the
burgeoning field. CentML, which builds software to help
machine learning systems work more efficiently, raised $27 mil- Reuters ing to calm an agitated, partially bur- non’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah
lion from investors including Gradient Ventures and Radical feedback@livemint.com ied man crying out his family’s group said 42 of its fighters had been
Ventures. The Toronto-headquartered startup aims to address GAZA/JERUSALEM names. killed since the start of the conflict,
one of the biggest bottlenecks in AI development, a shortage of “They are OK, I swear,” one rescuer which has spread fear among civilians

I
the graphic processor units from Nvidia and its rivals that process srael intensified its bombing of said in video footage from the scene. on both sides of the border.
the enormous amounts of data required to train and run AI sys- southern Gaza overnight, with Israeli jets also struck Syrian army “The war is being waged at the bor-
tems. Supply could remain tight well into 2024 as prices sky- officials in the Hamas-run infrastructure in response to rockets der. Maybe it’s not our turn yet but
rocket, analysts predict. BLOOMBERG enclave saying record numbers launched from Syria, an ally of Iran, you don’t know what will happen in a
had been killed again, as violence the Israeli military said. The strike few days. You just wait,” said Rabab
flared elsewhere in the region and a fuelled concerns that its war with Yousef, a 57-year-old mother who
Hong Kong announces tax cuts showdown loomed at the UN over Hamas, also backed by lost a daughter under
desperately needed aid. Iran, will ignite the Israeli jets the rubble of an Israeli
in bid to maintain global status Many of those killed were in the wider region. also struck air strike in 2006.
AP
south, Gaza health officials said on Syrian state media Syrian army The US and Russia are
Wednesday, where hundreds of said Israel had killed infrastructure in leading rival calls at the
thousands fled after Israel warned eight soldiers and United Nations for a
response to
them it would attack the north to wounded seven more pause in fighting to allow
wipe out Hamas after its killing spree near the southwestern rockets launched aid into Gaza, where liv-
in Israel on 7 October. city of Deraa, and hit from Syria ing conditions are har-
The Palestinian death toll now The Palestinian death toll now exceeds 6,500. AFP Aleppo’s airport, already rowing.
exceeds 6,500, they said. out of action. Limited deliveries of
One strike brought down several betrayal as many of those who obeyed of the Hamas battalion for southern Israel did not accuse the Syrian food, medicine and water from Egypt
apartment buildings in Khan Younis. the order to move south are also Khan Younis, Tayseer Bebasher. army of launching rockets but is sus- restarted on Saturday through Rafah,
“This is something not normal, we being killed. The Israeli military says Tunnel shafts, command centres, picious of Iran, its arch-enemy. the only crossing not controlled by
have not heard something like this that Hamas, which took control in weapons caches and launch positions Iran has sought regional ascend- Israel, which announced it had sealed
before,” said Khader Abu Odah, one Gaza in 2005, has entrenched itself were targeted, as well as a cell of ancy for decades and backs armed off the coastal enclave for good after
Hong Kong’s leader on Wednesday cut taxes for some of many stunned residents waiting for among the civilian population every- Hamas divers trying to enter Israel by groups in Syria, Lebanon and else- this month’s attack from Hamas.
homebuyers and stock traders to boost markets as the city an excavator to lift rubble so they where. sea near Kibbutz Zikim, it said. where as well as Hamas. It has warned UN agencies say more than 20
seeks to maintain its reputation as a global financial hub. could look for survivors. Israel said strikes on Gaza over the In Gaza City in the north, rescue Israel to stop its onslaught on Gaza. times as much are needed by the nar-
Chief executive John Lee said the extra stamp duties Palestinian anger over the deaths previous 24 hours had eliminated workers pulled an apparently lifeless Israel said its forces hit five squads row coastal strip’s 2.3 million people,
imposed on non-resident buyers and current local home- has been increased by a sense of Hamas operatives including the head young child out of rubble before try- in Lebanon preparing attacks. Leba- even in peacetime.
owners looking to buy additional properties would be
halved, the first easing over the past decade since property
market-cooling measures were introduced. In his annual
policy address, Lee also unveiled plans to reduce the stamp
duty on stock transactions to 0.1% from 0.13%, saying a
JUBILANT FOODWORKS LIMITED
CIN: L74899UP1995PLC043677
vibrant stock market is vital to upholding the city’s status Regd. Office : Plot No. 1A, Sector – 16A, Noida – 201301, Uttar Pradesh
th
as a financial hub. He set a goal of having the necessary leg- Corporate Office – 15 Floor, Tower-E, Skymark One, Plot No. H-10/A, Sector 98, Noida– 201301, Uttar Pradesh
islative procedures completed by November. AP Contact No: +91-120-6927500; +91-120-6935400, E-mail: investor@jublfood.com, Website: www.jubilantfoodworks.com
STATEMENT OF STANDALONE AND CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE QUARTER AND SIX MONTHS PERIOD ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2023
(Figures-INR in million, Unless Otherwise Stated)
Lufthansa plans yet another airline STANDALONE RESULTS CONSOLIDATED RESULTS
next year to cut labour costs Sr.
For the quarter ended For the six months
ended
For the year
ended
For the quarter ended For the six months
ended
For the year
ended
th th th th th st th th th th th st
Deutsche Lufthansa AG will start another short-haul airline next No. PARTICULARS 30 Sept 30 June 30 Sept 30 Sept 30 Sept 31 March 30 Sept 30 June 30 Sept 30 Sept 30 Sept 31 March
year, a strategic move intended to cut labour costs by reducing 2023 2023 2022 2023 2022 2023 2023 2023 2022 2023 2022 2023
Unaudited Unaudited Unaudited Unaudited Unaudited Audited Unaudited Unaudited Unaudited Unaudited Unaudited Audited
the bargaining power of the firm’s powerful unions. City Airlines
will take to the skies in summer 2024 and offer feeder flights to 1 Total Income from Operations (net) 13,448.29 13,096.63 12,867.72 26,544.92 25,270.37 50,959.92 13,686.32 13,345.42 13,014.89 27,031.74 25,565.85 51,582.47
2 Net Profit for the period/ year (before Tax, Exceptional 962.68 1,013.85 1,619.25 1,976.53 3,260.85 5,384.71 1,205.31 543.19 1,745.02 1,748.50 3,238.54 4,887.31
more profitable long-haul operations at Lufthansa’s Frankfurt and / or Extraordinary items)
and Munich hubs. The airline will hire staff on new contracts, 3 Net Profit for the period/year before Tax 962.68 1,013.85 1,619.25 1,976.53 2,994.46 4,918.32 1,205.31 543.19 1,745.02 1,748.50 3,238.54 4,887.31
reducing the relatively high cost structure of the airline’s existing (after Exceptional and / or Extraordinary items)
short-haul operations. “This is the only way for us to grow and 4 Net Profit for the period/ year after Tax 721.48 751.82 1,191.65 1,473.30 2,201.17 3,562.12 972.02 289.17 1,315.30 1,261.19 2,441.16 3,530.34
sustainably strengthen the hubs in Munich and Frankfurt,” Jens (after Exceptional and / or Extraordinary items)
(Refer Note 3)
Fehlinger, City Airlines managing director said. BLOOMBERG 5 Total Comprehensive Income for the period/ year
[comprising Profit for the period after Tax and Other 1,006.88 806.16 1,256.84 1,813.04 1,715.80 1,518.88 987.86 328.55 1,588.56 1,316.41 2,161.47 1,839.35
Comprehensive Income after Tax]
6 Equity Share Capital 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69

Honda, GM scrap 7

8
Reserves excluding Revaluation Reserve as at Balance
Sheet date
Earnings per share (after exceptional items)
(of INR. 2/- each)
20,135.03 19,058.21

$5 bn plan to jointly Notes :

a) Basic (in INR.)
b) Diluted (in INR.)
1.09
1.09
1.14
1.14
1.81
1.81
2.23
2.23
3.34
3.34
5.40
5.40
1.47
1.47
0.44
0.44
1.99
1.99
1.91
1.91
3.70
3.70

1. These unaudited financial results have been prepared in accordance with the recognition and measurement principles as laid down in the Indian Accounting Standards (referred to as "Ind AS") prescribed under Section 133 of the Companies Act, 2013 read with
5.35
5.35

develop cheaper EVs Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Rules as amended from time to time, to the extent applicable. The above standalone and consolidated unaudited financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and approved by the Board of Directors at their
meetings held on October 25, 2023.The statutory auditor’s report on review of interim standalone and consolidated unaudited financial results for the quarter and six months ended September 30, 2023 is being filed with the BSE Limited and National Stock Exchange
of India Limited.
2. The Company's business activity falls within a single business segment i.e. Food and Beverages in terms of Ind AS 108 on Segment Reporting.
Reuters 3. The Company has investment in its wholly owned subsidiary viz Jubilant FoodWorks Lanka (Private) Limited (JFLPL) having operations in Sri Lanka. Considering challenging economic environment of Sri Lanka with sustained inflation, depreciation of currency and
depletion of forex reserves, the management had recorded an impairment charge of INR 266.39 million in six months period ended September 30, 2022 (total INR 466.39 million in previous year) which is shown under exceptional items.
feedback@livemint.com
4. The above is an extract of detailed format of unaudited financial results for the quarter and six months ended September 30, 2023 filed with the Stock Exchanges under Regulation 33 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015.
Tokyo The full format of the unaudited financial results are available on the Stock Exchanges websites (www.bseindia.com and www.nseindia.com) and on Company's website (www.jubilantfoodworks.com).
For and on behalf of the Board of Directors of

H
onda Motor and Gen- JUBILANT FOODWORKS LIMITED
Sd/-
eral Motors (GM) are SHYAM S. BHARTIA
scrapping a plan to Place: Noida CHAIRMAN & DIRECTOR
th
Date: 25 October, 2023 DIN No. 00010484
jointly develop affordable elec-
tric vehicles (EVs), the compa-
nies said on Wednesday, just a
year after they agreed to work
together in a $5 billion effort to
try to beat Tesla in sales.
The decision underscores
GM’s strategic shift to slow the The decision underscores GM’s
launch of several EV models to strategic shift to slow launch of
focus on profitability, as it grap- several EV models. REUTERS
ples with the rising cost of
United Auto Workers strikes, spokesperson confirmed she ENJOY SEAMLESS READING
which surged to $200 million a was referring to the Honda EV
week this month.
The US automaker on Tues-
partnership.
The two firms agreed in April
OF YOUR FAVORITE
day withdrew its previous 2023 last year to develop a series of
profit outlook. lower-priced EVs based on a
“After extensive studies and new joint platform, producing
analysis, we have come to a potentially millions of cars
mutual decision to discontinue from 2027.
the program. Each company The automakers had said the
remains committed to afforda- deal was for “affordable” EVs,
bility in the EV market,” the including compact crossover
companies said in a joint state- vehicles, built using GM’s Explore the largest collection of HT Brunch
ment. Ultium battery technology. e-magazines with faster page loading, vertical
Honda said “After studying
there was no The two firms this for a year, we page scrolling, pinch-in, pinch-out feature &
change in its plan agreed in April decided that this much more.
to sell only electri- last year to would be difficult
fied vehicles by develop as a business, so at
2040.
lower-priced EVs the moment, we
GM cited a joint are ending devel-
statement that based on a new opment of an
pointed to the joint platform affordable EV,”
projects the com- Honda CEO
panies are still Toshihiro Mibe
working on together in was quoted by Bloomberg as
acknowledging the end of EV saying in an interview.
plan. A Honda spokesperson said
GM shares were nearly flat at its separate partnership with
$28.52 in pre-market trading GM and its Cruise unit would
on Wednesday. Honda closed not be impacted by a recent
up 0.8% in Tokyo before the safety incident in California
decision was announced. which led to a suspension of the
GM chief executive Mary robotaxi firm’s driverless test-
Barra said on Tuesday during ing permit in the US state.
an earnings conference call California on Tuesday
that the US automaker was ordered Cruise to remove its
shifting its EV push from efforts driverless cars from state roads, Scan the QR code to access
in the entry-level segments, calling the vehicles a risk to the HT Brunch for free.
that included a $5 billion com- public and saying the company
mitment over the next several had “misrepresented” the
years to GM’s Bolt EV. A safety of the technology.
12 ThursDay, 26 OcTOber 2023
New Delhi LONG STORY LIVEMINT.COM

GOVT VS IIMs: A STORY

Of Deep DISTruST
India’s elite B-schools desire more autonomy, while the government wants more accountability
@IIM_ROHTAK/X MINT

HT

(Clockwise from left): File photos of the campuses at IIM Rohtak, IIM Calcutta
and IIM Ahmedabad. Overall, there are 21 IIMs today.

Devina Sengupta han told Parliament that the Bill was
devina.sengupta@livemint.com meant to bring in “management account-
mumbaI ability” at the IIMs, and in the same breath
emphasised that the government had “no
When Sharma was picked as one of the
nominees, he submitted soft copies of all
the documents required in March 2016,
including a bachelor’s degree certificate
first woman director of IIMC. She was the to discuss it within the board,” he added.
mint
SHORT unanimous choice of the search cum
STORY selection committee and the BOG (board CULTURE FEARS
of governors),” Kulkarni had said in a
L ess autonomy could potentially erode

I
t is difficult to run the Indian Institutes intention of interfering with their auton- from Delhi University and a masters’ cer- statement when she was appointed. a B-school’s culture, fear some aca-
of Management (IIMs) from Delhi,” omy”. But he pointed out the lapses as tificate from Agra University, according to What Announcing the appointment of Uttam demics. “The bureaucrats do not under-
Prakash Javadekar, the former human well. “Over the past three-four years, it has a writ petition filed by his lawyers, Vibhav Kumar Sarkar as director of IIM Calcutta, stand that the culture of each IIM is differ-
resource development minister, told been observed that these institutes did not Jain and Uday Agnihotri, in the high court The government had imposed Kulkarni wrote: “He articulated in the ent and it is essential to have a board that
the Lok Sabha in 2017. comply with several constitutional obliga- of Punjab and Haryana. The following faith in the autonomous running clearest terms an understanding of what understands it and plays the key role in
The IIMs, India’s premier management tions—such as providing reservations to month, Sharma handed over the hard of the IIMs in 2017. Now, it has needs to be done and how it must be done selecting the best leader, someone who
schools, are centrally-funded. But for dec- backward categories during the appoint- copies of the documents to the secretary, swung the other way. An to help IIM Calcutta achieve its global can address the needs of that institute,”
ades, many of them had been clamouring ment of teachers or being accountable to department of higher education, who was amended Act seeks to bring in aspirations. To this end, he presented a Chandra told Mint.
for more autonomy. That year, their wish the government’s General Financial Rules then a member of the search-cum-selec- management accountability. compelling and pragmatic agenda for his ‘Culture’ isn’t very easy to define. It
was partly fulfilled—Parliament passed (GFR) as well as its service conduct rules. tion committee and was on the interview term as director. He appreciates and roughly translates to understanding the
the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) These things have not been followed,” panel, the petition stated. understands the complexities of the role strength and weaknesses of an IIM, where
Bill, effectively freeing the elite B-schools Pradhan told the Parliament. Further, the petition stated that the gov- Why and the expectations.” it stands globally, why students would
from government interference. GFRs are a compilation of rules and ernment’s department of personnel train- Sarkar was appointed director on 18 select it over other IIMs, the unique spe-
Javadekar said that from then on, the IIMs orders issued by the government of India. ing checked with the education ministry if There are alleged discrepancies August 2021 but quit earlier this year. Like cializations that it offers, and the expertise
would be “board-driven, with the chairper- Any entity has to follow these rules while Sharma met all the criteria. In 2017, he was in the hiring of a director. High Seth, Sarkar also never completed his the faculty brings in.
son and director selected by the board”. But dealing with matters involving public appointed as the director for a five-year fees charged to students and term. For instance, IIM Calcutta is regarded as
the truce between the government and the finances. term, after all the boxes had been ticked. non-adherence to constitutional IIM Calcutta did not respond to Mint’s a leader when it comes to grooming future
IIMs started unravelling sometime in 2018. While the government said that it Within two years, trouble started brewing obligations are reasons why the queries. Neither did Sarkar, who was executives in finance roles. IIM Ahmeda-
And today, the same government that had doesn’t want to “interfere”, some IIMs sus- for Sharma. In 2019, two employees of IIM government wants more control. approached for comments through bad, on the other hand, is known for the
imposed faith in the autonomous running of pect the worst. They are afraid that in the Rohtak, who according to the court papers, LinkedIn. Mint wasn’t able to get in touch teaching of strategy. The selection of the
the IIMs in 2017 now swung the other way. garb of keeping tabs, the government will were retrenched by Sharma for “inefficiency with Seth. The director’s message page on teaching faculty, therefore, has to be fine-
The beginnings of the fracture can be interfere in their efforts to mould global and incompetence”, filed a petition in the NoW the institute’s website remains blank. tuned as per the needs of each IIM.
traced back to a case filed by Amitava business managers. At some level, perhaps Punjab and Haryana high court seeking his There are also concerns around IIMs
Choudhury, a right to information (RTI) the IIMs have only themselves to blame removal from office. The petition claimed Some board members, directors IS A VISITOR NEEDED? losing their connect with alumni. On 24
and academics are worried
activist, and other people, challenging the for finding themselves at this sorry pass,
appointment of Dheeraj
Sharma, the director of
given the allegations of
lapses at some of the
that the director did not have the documents
required for the post and that he didn’t pos-
sess a first class degree.
that in the garb of keeping tabs,
the government will interfere
T he government resolved to have bet- October, Hindustan Times reported that
ter oversight and
this led to the IIM
an independent expert
committee that
IIM Rohtak, in the Pun- ‘Our students are heading institutes. Meanwhile, the position of director in their efforts to mould (Amendment) Bill. The ‘Do we have a choice in who reviewed IIM Ahmeda-
jab and Haryana High abroad for management opened up again in 2021, after Sharma global business managers. amendments have been our boss is? No. So, why bad has listed key chal-
Court. The petitioners THE ROHTAK ROW completed his five-year term. He reap- welcomed by some aca- lenges faced by the
courses because of the high should IIMs be given that
alleged that there were
many discrepancies in
the appointment of
fee structure in IIMs. They A n IIM director is
appointed from a
panel of names recom-
plied, and was appointed for a second
term, as per the rules of the Indian Insti-
tute of Management Act, 2017. The Act
why was the second term granted, won-
dered Bakul Dholakia, a former director at
demics, too.
“IIMs have done well
for more than four dec-
option? Their authority
institute. The commit-
tee criticized the IIM
for changing its logo
Sharma to the institute’s may have to relook at mended by a search- had been in force from 31 December 2017 IIM Ahmedabad. “One cannot ask for ades when they were has not been snatched and demolishing dorms
top job. Sharma, they cum-selection commit- and, according to Sharma’s lawyers, a first autonomy without accountability,” he under government con- without consulting its
held, did not meet the the fee structure.’ tee constituted by the division at the bachelors’ level was not a told Mint. trol,” said Ram Kumar away. Why the fear?’ alumni. “The review
eligibility criteria board. The chairperson prerequisite under the new rules. The legal case is far from over but Kakani, director of IIM panel, without naming
required for the job (more of this later). of the board is also the chairperson of the Nonetheless, the legal battle dates back observers said that this controversy Raipur. “This is a welcome step aiming to anyone, said the institute director
Over the next five years, the fracture search-cum-selection committee. Others to his first term when a first division was caused the government considerable improve supervision and accountability, should be first among equals rather than
worsened. The government became a in the panel could include administrators, essential. In March 2022, the government embarrassment. both of which are essential components of an all-powerful CEO,” the report men-
party to the case and the legal dispute con- industrialists, educationists, scientists, told the court that the director had never effective institutional governance,” he tioned.
tinues to this day. technocrats and management specialists. submitted his documents, and therefore, EXITS AT IIMC added.
This dispute, however, was just one of The nominated names are then sent to the
the inflection points in the government Appointments Committee of the Cabinet,
wanting to claw back control over the pre- which usually gives the nod to the first
had concealed his qualifications.
The government also issued a show
cause notice to Sharma on 28 March 2022.
T he second controversy involves IIM
Calcutta. The institute has had two
directors quitting in quick time because of
But there are others that fear the quality BATTLE OF FEES
of education will be impacted. “A political
motive is to maximize votes. And that of an T here is one niggling issue that many
professors, directors and IIM board
mier institutes. A few more battle fronts person picked for the job. In case that does “... Whereas you joined as Director IIM a clash with the board and its chairperson, institution like IIM is to maximize learn- members talk about—a comparison with
have opened up recently—over the swift not work out, the next shortlisted candi- Rohtak on 15 March 2017 thereby continu- Shrikrishna Kulkarni. ing. A government looks at equity as a the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
exits of IIM Calcutta’s directors, the high date is selected. The government, there- ing to misrepresent your educational qual- “Uttam Sarkar put down his papers driver, while IIMs look at excellence,” said There are 23 IITs today offering engineer-
fees charged to students, and the appoint- fore, is part of the decision-making pro- ifications and concealing the fact that you before his term got over. Before that, Anju the director of one IIM, who did not wish ing and masters courses to batches, in
ment of teachers. Things could be better cess. Its representative is part of the board do not possess a first class degree at bache- Seth did the same. Why were no reviews to be named. “Just because a few went numbers ranging from a few hundred to
with more government oversight, India’s that appoints the selection committee. lor’s level, which was a prerequisite for the done by the board when director after rogue does not mean we should all get the thousands. They are government
ministry of education believed. So, what sparked the dispute over the said post,” the notice from the ministry of director is resigning,” asked Dholakia. blamed,” he contended. funded, and unlike the IIMs, are not
In August, the Lok Sabha passed the appointment of Dheeraj Sharma as the education, reviewed by Mint, stated. Seth was appointed the director of IIM “Having a visitor in an IIM is not exactly known for asking hard questions
Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) director of IIM Rohtak? The government further stated that Calcutta in 2018 and quit in 2021, before needed. Too many ceremonial positions around autonomy.
(Amendment) Bill 2023. The new Act According to court papers accessed by Sharma had not heeded requests to sub- her term ended. She held the position of only create pathways for governments to “The IITs are among the best colleges in
makes the President of India a ‘visitor’ to Mint, an advertisement for the director’s mit self-attested degree certificates. Pamplin Professor of Management at Vir- intervene,” said Pankaj Chandra, a former the world. They do not complain. Then,
the IIMs. The visitor may appoint one or post for IIM Rohtak was put out in 2015. However, according to Sharma’s law- ginia Tech, US, and prior to joining Vir- director of IIM Bangalore. He is now the why should the IIMs?” asked a govern-
more people to review the work and The advertisement carried a list of eligibil- yers, all the documents the government ginia Tech, she was a professor of business vice chancellor of Ahmedabad University. ment official, who didn’t want to be identi-
progress of any institute, hold inquiries, ity criteria. One of the prerequisites was had sought had been submitted. Sharma administration at the University of Illinois. “In fact, we should do away with the fied. “Do we have a choice in who our boss
nominate the chairperson of the board of “outstanding academic credentials did not respond to Mint’s queries, sent on Seth completed her Ph.D. from the Uni- position of a visitor for Indian institutions. is? No. So, why should IIMs be given that
governors in all IIMs, and oversee the throughout, including a Ph.D. degree his official email ID. versity of Michigan and has an academic The selection committee always had option? Their authority has not been
appointment and removal of directors. from a reputed institution with first class Even if one assumes that Sharma’s first- career spanning over 25 years. members from the government and if
Education minister Dharmendra Prad- degree at bachelor’s and master’s level”. term appointment fell through the cracks, “We are delighted that Anju will be the there was any issue, they had every right TURN TO PAGE 13
LIVEMINT.COM MINT MONEY ThursDay, 26 OcTOber 2023
NeW Delhi 13

How InvITs can add yield to MINT 20* MUTUAL FUND

SCHEMES TO INVEST IN
your investment portfolio 20
We have hand-picked 20 mutual funds for your portfolio that have jumped
through hoops of good returns, low risk, good portfolio hygiene and our own
qualitative research. We have restricted the choice universe to 10 categories out
of the total 37 and given you at least two options to pick from each.

3-years return 5-years return Corpus

EQUITY (%) (%) (₹ cr)
LARGE-CAP
InvITs can help investors diversify their portfolios and enable a regular source of income UTI Nifty Index Fund - Growth 19.04 14.60 12,597
HDFC Index Fund - Nifty 50 Plan 18.86 14.37 9,829
Akshat Rohatgi Category average 18.51 14.18
akshat.rohatgi@livemint.com
Should you invest in InvITs now? EQUITY FLEXICAP

A
n escalating Middle East Canara Robeco Flexi Cap 18.26 15.99 10,308
conflict, the worsening Types of listed InvITs currently in India (based on underlying assets) Parag Parikh Flexi Cap 22.99 20.45 42,785
property crisis in China, Power Transmission InvITs Highway InvITs Category average 21.16 15.74
and heightened recession Power Transmission InvITs invest in Highway Infrastructure Investment Trusts
fears in the euro zone, electricity transmission assets, such as (Highway InvITs) invest in road and highway EQUITY SMALL AND MIDCAP
besides rising inflation levels globally, power lines and substations, earning infrastructure assets, including toll roads and Axis Midcap 22.55 19.04 22,656
don’t augur well for investment portfo- income from long-term contracts with power bridges. These assets generate income through SBI Small Cap 32.48 22.95 21,320
lios. Investors need to manage these producers who pay fees for electricity transmission. toll collection from users and government payments. Category average Midcap 28.84 19.60
risks by diversifying their portfolios. Eg: IndiGrid InvIT, PowerGrid InvIT Eg: IRB Infra InvIT Category average Smallcap 36.55 22.57
Financial experts say InvITs and Reits
could be a good choice. How distribution is bifurcated (in %) EQUITY (TAXSAVER)
Both InvITs and Reits have been in Canara Robeco Equity Tax Saver 19.77 17.60 6,140
the spotlight recently, with mutual fund InvIT Listing date Dividend Interest Capital repayment Issues that are Mirae Asset Tax Saver 21.69 17.77 17,985
houses advocating for a dedicated cate- IndiGrid Jun 2017 1 90 9 hurting InvITs Category average 22.16 15.64
gory for these investment vehicles. prices
While capital markets regulator Sebi is PowerGrid Apr 2021 27 66 7
yet to take a decision on this, it has been  Failure to acquire HYBRID
IRB Infra InvIT May 2017 70.3 29.7 new and healthy BALANCED ADVANTAGE
contemplating the introduction of
assets Edelweiss Balanced Advantage 14.01 12.71 9,475
norms for follow-on public offers
(FPOs) by InvITs and Reits.  Higher cost of ICICI Prudential Balanced Advantage 14.32 11.99 49,976
InvITs are short for infrastructure How yields look like InvITs since inception CAGR vs raising new debt Category average 13.39 11.03
investment trusts and Reits stand for January October BSE India Infra Index annd refinancing
earlier debts ARBITRAGE
real estate investment trusts. (in %) Price returns Total returns Yield/DPU (in %)
12.1 12.3  Increase in Kotak Equity Arbitrage 5.12 5.23 27,412
While hybrid and multi-asset funds 11.4
have some exposure to these asset 10.0 BSE India Infra Index* interest payments Tata Arbitrage 4.81 NA 7,445
9.3 9.3 on existing debt due
classes, they are increasingly viewed as Category average 4.77 4.92
IndiGrid InvIT to flexible rate debt
stand-alone categories deserving spe-
cialized schemes. The significance of  Revenue/toll Returns since Date of Corpus
Reits and InvITs has grown substan-
PowerGrid InvIT projections way too OUT OF THE BOX launch launch (₹ cr)
tially over the years, with mutual funds optimistic, BHARAT Bond ETF - April 2031 4.61 23 Jul 2020 12,908
IRB InvIT construction of
currently having an exposure of ₹8,416 Motilal Oswal S&P 500 Index Fund 13.97 28 Apr 2020 2,743
alternate highways
crore to these instruments as of 30 Sep- IndiGrid PowerGrid IRB Infra InvIT -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 Returns as on 20 October 2023; Corpus data as of September 2023; Growth option in regular plans has been used
tember. Calculated by dividing DPU by current market price *5 Year CAGR, Data as of 29th September 2023 Absolute returns for 'Out of box', CAGR for the rest. For detailed methodology refer to:
InvITs were launched in 2017 but Keep a smart, flexible and minimalist MF portfolio
https://www.livemint.com/money/personal-finance/keep-a-smart-flexible-and-minimalist-mf-portfolio-11638378827521.html
remain somewhat unfamiliar to many How key metrics have evolved in the last year Download mint app for latest in Business News - https://bit.ly/32XEfFE
investors. These innovative financial *Debt funds can be viewed in the full table online
instruments are designed to raise capi- IndiGrid PowerGrid IRB Infra Data and analysis by CRISIL Research Compiled by Neil Borate
tal by issuing units to investors, which Q1 2023-24 Q4 2021-22 Q1 2023-24 Q4 2021-22 Q1 2023-24
Q4 2021-22
are then channelled into infrastructure 17 5 5 5 6+2
assets. InvITs are a crucial means of No. of assets 14
27 years 29+ years 3-19 years
funding, enabling individuals to collec-
tively invest in and benefit from various
infrastructure projects.
Residual life
Net debt/AUM
30 years
56%
132
60.10%
130.5
35 years
4.80%
100
0.91%
NA
4-20 years
31.97*%
101
30%
103
Government versus the IIMs:
NAV
InvITs are diverse in their asset port-
folios, owning and managing com-
pleted or under-construction projects
Taxation
Interest Income Dividend Capital/loan Capital gains
It’s a story of deep distrust
that encompass an array of critical infra- Taxable at slab rates Income repayment STCG@15%,LTCG@10% after
structure sectors. These assets may applicable to unnitholders Taxable/exempt* Taxation is complex# 36 months (over ₹1 lakh in gains) FROM PAGE 12
include highways, power transmission *Taxable, if SPV opted for special tax regime #Modified tax treatment for 'loan repayment' income in InvITs and REITs; read online version of the story
networks, telecom towers, fibre optic snatched away. Why the fear?”
networks, and more. Notably, there are he questioned.
22 Sebi-registered InvITs in India, but development experience. If owned by a an attractive investment avenue. increased from 101 to 103. The education ministry did
only three are publicly listed and liquid: non-Indian, the investments are con- Key metrics over the past year Near-term challenges not respond to Mint’s queries.
IndiGrid InvIT, PowerGrid InvIT, and sidered foreign. The trustee holds assets IndiGrid has over the past year As yields go up, the interest payments While the IIMs are Central-
IRB InvIT. The former two focus on for unit holders, while the project man- increased its number of assets from 14 on flexible-rate debt within the InvIT ly-funded business schools,
power transmission assets, while the ager ensures timely project completion. to 17. The residual life of its assets has can surge, leading to higher expenses some of the older ones no
latter invests in a portfolio of road Hybrid investment avenue decreased from 30 years to 27 years. Net and a potential reduction in DPU. Fur- longer rely on government
assets, collecting tolls over the residual Investors should seriously consider debt as a percentage of assets under thermore, rising debt costs can result in funding to run operations.
life of the asset. adding InvITs to their portfolio for sev- management (AUM) also saw a slight increased refinancing expenses when They are self-sufficient, gener-
How InvITs are structured eral compelling reasons, say experts. increase, rising from 56% to 60.10%. maturing debt needs replacement. ating enough money through
InvITs are akin to mutual funds in InvITs promise a steady However, the net asset Effective interest rate risk manage- fees, project work sourced
their structure and function. They stream of cash flows InvITs serve as a value (NAV) showed a min- ment, such as diversification and hedg- from the industry, and alumni
aggregate investments from numerous thanks to Sebi’s regulation gateway for imal decline from 132 to ing strategies, is vital for InvITs to navi- grants. There are seven first-
individual and institutional investors, that mandates at least 80% investors to 130.5. gate these challenges and sustain generation IIMs—Calcutta The campus of IIM Bangalore.
which are then strategically deployed of assets to be allocated to participate in In contrast, PowerGrid attractive yields for investors. (established in 1961), Ahmeda-
into infrastructure projects. Expert completed, income-gen- maintained a consistent Vishal Chandiramani, managing bad (1961), Bangalore (1973), abroad for management IIMs have ranked among the
fund managers oversee InvITs, just as erating projects and
India’s partner-products and chief operating
number of assets at 5, with Lucknow (1984), Indore courses because of the high fee top institutes for higher stud-
they do for mutual funds, ensuring effi- restricts investments in infrastructure a negligible change in officer of TrustPlutus Wealth Managers, (1996), Kozhikode (1997) and structures in IIMs. Going ies in the world and that hap-
cient management and a potentially under-construction pro- growth story residual life from 35 years attributes the recent performance Shillong (2007). ahead, the IIMs may have to pened after decades of work
steady income stream for unit holders. jects to 10%. Moreover, to a little more than 29 decline of Infrastructure Investment The younger IIMs, such as relook at the fee structure,” done by highly qualified sub-
These trusts serve as a gateway for Sebi stipulates a minimum years. The ratio of net debt Trusts (InvITs) partly to their inherent Rohtak, were established said the government official ject experts as faculty mem-
investors to participate in India’s infra- distribution of 90% of net distributable to AUM decreased significantly from quasi debt nature. As yields rise, other from 2009 onwards and are quoted earlier. bers. They need to be paid
structure growth story while allowing cash flows, leading to a robust distribu- 4.80% to 0.91%, showcasing improved fixed income instruments become still reliant on government According to a senior fac- well,” said a senior professor at
them to enjoy the benefits of regular tion per unit (DPU) and substantial divi- financial health. Although the NAV for attractive thereby diminishing the funding. Overall, there are 21 ulty member at one of the one of the top IIMs. The pro-
income and portfolio diversification. dends for investors. PowerGrid wasn’t available, there has appeal of InvITs. Specific to InvITs like IIMs today. older IIMs, the higher fee fessor did not want to be iden-
To establish an InvIT, there can be up What makes InvITs even more been a reduction in debt ratio and this is PowerGrid, delays in asset acquisition as With funding comes the structure helps in getting good tified, either.
to three sponsors, each with a minimum appealing is their unique blend of char- indicative of a positive financial trend. compared to market expectations may question of fees and this is faculty, provide better infra- The larger fear: if there is a
net worth of ₹100 crore and at least five acteristics. They offer the predictability IRB Infra InvIT witnessed a growth in have also led to the recent correction. another battlefront between structure, and run the institute re-look at fees and a cap, going
years of experience in infrastructure of debt-like payments while also pro- assets, expanding from 5 to 6+2 (imply- Chandiramani maintains a long-term the IIMs and the government. without the support of the ahead, the eventual impact
development or fund management. viding opportunities for investors to ing 6 operational and 2 under-construc- positive outlook on InvITs, believing While the IITs charge about government. The person will be on the quality of stu-
Sponsors must hold a minimum 15% participate in the company’s growth tion assets) and a decrease in the resid- that over the next 3-5 years, they will ₹8 lakh for a four-year engi- didn’t want to be identified. dent output. The government,
stake in the InvIT. The investment journey, potentially resulting in capital ual life of these assets from 4-20 years to regain momentum, offering a promis- neering programme, a two- “By talking about IITs and however, may not be in the
manager overseeing asset activities, gains, higher DPU, and the acquisition 3-19 years. The net debt-AUM ratio ing accumulation opportunity. year MBA degree at an IIM IIMs in the same breath, the mood to relent. That’s because
should have a net worth of ₹10 crore and of new assets. This harmonious mix of remained relatively stable at 31.97% and (For an extended version of this story, can cost ₹30 lakh. government is homogenising a few bad eggs in the system
5 years of advisory or infrastructure stability and growth positions InvITs as later decreased to 30%. Their NAV go to livemint.com) “Our students are heading these two institutions. The may have queered the pitch.

INDEXATION AND COST OF ACQUISITION OF AN UNDER-CONSTRUCTION PROPERTY

term, one has to consider the date of allotment of the property as each year in which the payment was made.
the date of acquisition. Right way to arrive at indexed cost Many of these decisions were rendered at a time when the cor-
B E YO N D T H E However, there is still some confusion in the matter of deter-
mining the indexed cost of acquisition. In calculating long-term
If you bought under-construction house… rect date of acquisition for determining the long-term or short-
term nature of the capital gains was a disputed issue. Therefore,
TA X B O O K capital gains, one has to deduct the indexed cost of acquisition Cost of acquisition = Date of booking/allotment in a sense, as against the argument of the tax authorities that
instead of the cost of acquisition. The definition of “indexed cost Indexed cost of = Indexation to be calculated indexation would be available only from the year of completion
G AU TA M N AYA K of acquisition” as per the plain reading of the law is that the cost acquisition from year of booking of construction of the property (which according to them was the
of acquisition of the asset has to be indexed by applying the cost Mr X booked property
year of acquisition), the tribunals and court, in a sense, provided
We welcome your comments at: inflation index of the year in which the asset was first held and worth 1 crore in 2008 and relief to the taxpayer by allowing
mintmoney@livemint.com considering the cost inflation index of the year in which the asset paid 5 installments of There is no indexation from the respective years of
is being disposed of. This clearly suggests that the entire cost of 20 lakh each between clarity from the payment. Given the fact that there is

H
ow is capital gains calculated on transfer of an under-con-
struction property? This question arises both when the
property is sold before taking possession of the same, as
well as when the property is sold after possession. There are pri-
marily two issues here, both relating to the date of acquisition.
One, from what date is the holding period to be considered for
treatment of capital gains, either as long term or short term?
Two, how is the indexed cost computed, since the payments for
acquisition of the property would have been made over a number
of years linked to the progress of construction.
When one sells a property that is under construction, the date
on which the property has been acquired—date of booking or
allotment—is the date of acquisition. Even in a case where one is
selling the fully built property after having taken possession of
the same, various high courts have now made it fairly clear that
for determining whether the capital gain is long-term or short
acquisition, irrespective of the year in which such cost is actually 2008 and 2012. now some clarity on the date of acqui-
paid, is to be indexed from the year in which the asset was tax authorities sition of the property, and that there is
acquired. Therefore, logically, if one considers the date of book- yet on how a circular from the central board of
He sold property in 2023
ing or allotment of the property as the date of acquisition of the indexation is direct taxes (CBDT), clarifying a simi-
property, the entire cost of acquisition is to be indexed from the
To calculate capital gains,
calculated lar issue in the context of acquisition of
year of booking or allotment. a particular type of property, the posi-
cost of acquisition to be
To illustrate, let’s assume a property costing ₹1 crore was tion as to the cost indexation of the
indexed from 2008 till 2023.
booked and allotted in 2008-09, and payment for the property entire cost from the year of acquisition is much clearer.
was made in instalments of ₹20 lakh each year, over the period This is also evident from the fact that each instalment is a part
of five years from 2008-09 to 2012-13, in which year the property of the cost of acquisition agreed to be paid for the property, and
was built and transferred. If the property is being sold in the cur- at best, from the respective years in which the payments were is not a part of cost of improvement (for which indexation is avail-
rent year, the entire cost of acquisition of ₹1 crore should be made for acquisition of the property. While most tribunal deci- able from the year of improvement). It is therefore perhaps time
indexed from 2008-09 till 2023-24. sions have taken the view that the indexation of the entire cost that the CBDT clearly clarifies the correct position in law, so as
Unfortunately, however, the issue has been the subject of liti- should be available from the year of booking or allotment of the to reduce unnecessary litigation on the issue, which affects so
gation since tax authorities often seek to grant the benefit of property, a few tribunal decisions (and one high court) have taken many taxpayers.
indexation only from the year of completion of the property, or, a contrary view that indexation of cost would be allowable from Gautam Nayak is partner at CNK & Associates LLP.
14 ThursDay, 26 OcTOber 2023
New Delhi VIEWS LIVEMINT.COM

OUR VIEW MY VIEW | OThER SPhERE

BLOOMBERG

Developing a school culture can

do much to mould students well
The NCF lays special emphasis on it to foster a good learning environment and boost performance

development values, including the role
of school culture.
Culture can foster different learning
environments—characterized by con-
straint, compliance and control, or ena-
bling individuals with trust and self-dis-
cipline, motivating them to try harder
and take charge of themselves. The
former is much easier to do; the latter
ANURAG BEHAR requires concerted effort by teachers
is CEO of Azim Premji Foundation. and the whole school. Lack of structure
and direction can be as problematic for
learning as fear and mistrust. A fear-
free, motivating and supportive envi-
play boards speaks directly to what is
valued. Often, there are ‘sayings’ or
‘quotes’ written on school walls—these
are also direct descriptors of what is
valued. There are pictures of important
and famous people, even idols, in the
principal’s rooms, staff room, class-
rooms or school corridors. The choices
and arrangements of physical objects
often have large symbolic value. For
example, the principal’s chair is often
much better than that of teachers. The
arrangement of furniture in classrooms
can communicate the school’s beliefs

India’s growth must not

ronment, with appropriate direction about teaching-learning processes: Do
and clarity for students, is most effective students mostly listen to the teacher

T
he curriculum in a school includes for learning. lecturing, or is it arranged as a space for
everything that directly shapes To understand how schools can shape collaborative work? Any celebration or
the learning of students. Not only the learning environment and develop- commendation at the school assembly

be taken as inevitable learning goals, subject content, text-

books, pedagogy and assessment, but
also the school’s culture and processes.
Narrow views of a curriculum often
ment of values appropriately, let us con-
sider what school culture is. It has two
interrelated aspects, the first being
values, norms and beliefs. The second
or its public functions has deep sym-
bolic value. All these symbols need to be
thoughtfully and carefully aligned with
curricular objectives.
determine the design and even more so comprises behaviours, relationships and Third, arrangements and practices
its practice, ignoring or paying lip ser- practices. For the school to shape these related to classroom and school processes.
S&P Global Market Intelligence has published an impressive forecast for our economy in vice to the central role that school cul- experiences, three kinds of manifesta- Key classroom practices include seating
ture and processes play in education. tion of culture can be worked on. arrangements; it could be gender
2030, but policymakers must take care not to squander advantages of labour and capital The National Curriculum Framework First, relationships among the people mixed, or with no preference for
for School Education 2023 (NCF) gives in and involved with the school: That is, academically sharp students. It also
culture and process their due impor- students, teachers, principal, support- includes availability and accessibility of
tance by not limiting itself merely to staff, parents and others. For example, teaching-learning-material, ensuring

A
s anxieties over growth grow
globally amid geopolitical and
economic threats, the trajectory
of India’s economy appears
relatively secure. According to
new projections by S&P Global
Market Intelligence, we will jump from our fifth
spot to become the world’s third biggest by
2030, moving past Germany and Japan, with
only China and the US ahead of us. At $7.3 tril-
lion, our nominal GDP in 2030 would be more
than double the $3.5 trillion figure for 2022. To
a significant extent, S&P’s optimism stems from
our young demographic profile and growing
incomes, which make the country a vast market
for businesses to serve. With about two-thirds
of our population below the age of 35, we have a
potentially vast workforce that an ageing China
will soon be unable to match. Of course, the
country will need to create jobs at scale, on
which we have been falling short, to make the
most of our youth bulge. And that’s just the
labour part. We face challenges of capital too.
One problem has been the lopsided expan-
and monetary excess; a big US debt overload well-intentioned statements. It con- teachers being collaborative and colle- that enough is available, and how what
associated with its covid fiscal loosening is verts statements of intent and principle gial versus competitive, the principal is available is shared. Also, giving own-
to behaviour and practices, which is being consultative versus always direct- ership and responsibility to students in
partly to blame for its earlier inflation spike and how culture is experienced by students. ive, and students resolving differences the learning process and responsibility
recent surge in Treasury bond yields (the Fed’s Instead of merely stating that respect through dialogue. Functional relation- for tidiness of the class. Some other key
over-easing had a starring role too). Back home, for all is important to develop values ships in the educational context are school processes include the school
our economy’s growth has been supported by like pluralism, empathy and inclusion, it characterized by mutual trust and assembly, the management of and
a decline over recent years in the real cost of distills the statement to its manifesta- respect, openness, communication and arrangements during meal-time, the
tion in everyday school life, such as the collaboration, as also by the care taken distribution of work for sports, assem-
capital. This wasn’t just on account of a pan- treatment of parents when they come to and responsible behaviour. bly and functions, the upkeep of the
demic stimulus. With the Reserve Bank of India meet the principal or teachers, the Second, symbols of what are considered school, practices in sports and their
(RBI) mandated in 2016 to keep inflation in behaviour of teachers with students worth displaying and celebrating in the handling, and the school’s engagement
check, cheaper credit was an expected benefit, struggling academically, the celebra- school: Most schools have a range of with parents and the local community.
and while RBI’s record on price-stability has tion of students’ acts of support to symbols—both explicit and implicit. Most of us have personal experience
others, and a lot more. Display boards emphasize what they of the deep impact of organizational
been rather patchy, we have escaped US-style School culture plays two kinds of feel is valuable, for example, featuring culture on performance of every sort.
nerve-fraying volatility so far. Yet, we must stay roles in student learning—in creating an pictures of students who secured top Schools are no different. The NCF
watchful of the capital story’s underlying risks. effective learning environment with ranks in Board examinations or awards gives its due to school culture in
Should RBI’s effort to contain inflation go motivated and engaged students, and in that the school has won, or pictures of achieving educational goals, and that
awry and its credibility suffer a jolt, then a sig- developing values. My last column visitors to the school. The kind of work too in a practical and relatable manner
detailed the approach of the NCF to done by students that appears on dis- for the educator.
nificant aspect of the optimistic narrative would
be squandered. A flare-up of hostilities in West
Asia that sends oil prices—already around $90
per barrel—soaring could spell trouble on this
front. So RBI needs to maintain a strict price
vigil, lest we end up with a spiral that leads to
costlier credit in time to come. Capital could www.livemint.com
New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh*, Pune* Saturday, October 26, 2013 Vol.7 No.256 `5.00 in Delhi­NCR/`6.00 outside Delhi­NCR 12 +124 PAGES
+ 24 PAGES LOUNGE

sion of our economy. In recent years, much of also get more costly if lending rates harden glo-
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GOLD `31,840 Æ `55

Modi launches QUICK EDIT

OIL $106.66 æ $0.71

by Bibek Debroy
Cigarettes attack on Rahul Another

investment was expected to join the game (or savings chasing investments, a reversal of this drive up
Gandhi at rally subsidy
in Bundelkhand t is widely believed
B Y G YAN V ARMA
gyan.v@livemint.com
·························
I that the recovery in
capital inflows into the
Indian stock market has
been the main reason

get ‘crowded in’), but a prolonged slump that’s dynamic has been spied by some financial ana-
NEW DELHI
why the Indian rupee has

ITC profit T he Bharatiya Janata Party’s recovered in recent

(BJP’s) prime ministerial weeks. There is no doubt
candidate, Narendra Modi, that foreign investors
launched a direct attack on have once again begun to
Congress vice-president Rahul pour money into riskier
Gandhi on Friday, referring to emerging market shares,
Revenue, though below

A Chennai cop commits a cardinal sin,

him derisively as shehzada but dollar inflows into
estimates, rises 8.8% to Pricier (prince) and coupled it with a the Indian financial

proving too slow to reverse has left the eco- lysts, even as US bonds are seen to be in such
promise to transform India if markets have been
`7,862.53 crore from
a year ago, slowest cigarettes he is given just five years at the
helm of the nation.
The tirade against Gandhi
modest when net buying
in shares is balanced
with the net selling in
growth since June ’09 hit demand came at an election rally in
Bundelkhand, one of the most
bonds.
Of far more importance
B Y M ANISH B ASU MARK TO MARKET backward regions in the coun- has been the innovative
manish.b@livemint.com try that sprawls over Uttar swap facility offered by
························· RAVI ANANTHANARAYANAN

nomic momentum at risk of flagging off. With heavy oversupply (relative to demand) that
Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. the Reserve Bank of India
KOLKATA

Dumping the tricolour in a garbage bin.

In a nearly hour-long speech on non-resident deposits

C igarette and consumer

goods maker ITC Ltd
said on Friday that net
profit rose by more than one-
fifth in the quarter ended 30
September from a year earlier
on higher income from its ciga-
A sharp and sustained
hike in cigarette
prices, to pass on higher
taxes, is taking its toll on
demand, especially given
before an estimated 200,000
people in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh,
the Gujarat chief minister not
only picked on the shortcom-
ings of the Congress-led United
collected by banks. The
Indian central bank said
this week that $10 billion
of deposits have already
come in through this
weak macroeconomic Progressive Alliance, but also route. That is an
conditions. ITC Ltd’s questioned claims made by impressive policy

the Centre’s fiscal thrust nearing exhaustion, their yield hardening may acquire durability.
rette business and a write-back
of provisions, helping it offset
the slowest pace of sales growth
in 17 quarters.
Net profit rose to `2,230.53
crore from `1,840 crore a year
earlier. Net revenue rose 8.8% to
`7,862.53 crore from `7,226.3
crore—the slowest pace since
cigarette sales rose by Gandhi. The estimate of the success.
just 10% over the year- crowd size was provided by the But there is an implicit
ago quarter, even as BJP, and Mint could not inde- subsidy of 2.5 percentage
analysts estimated that pendently verify it. points that is being
volumes fell by about
5%—more than the
expected decline of 2-3%.
But ITC continued to
use its pricing power to
Big day: The Chaudhary Bansi Lal cricket stadium in Lahli, Haryana,
is readied ahead of Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy match against Haryana,
starting 27 October. This will be Sachin Tendulkar’s last Ranji match
before he retires from all forms of cricket in November. See Page 6-7
“The people of the country
gave Congress 60 years. Give
the BJP 60 months (five years)

TURN TO PAGE 3®
offered on every dollar
that comes in. So the
subsidy is already close
to $250 million.
An officer of the law
we will have to let private enterprise lead the Although India has not had much trouble
the quarter ended June 2009. squeeze profits from
ITC’s net profit exceeded the cigarettes, which held up
`2,120 crore median forecast of profitability during an
31 analysts’ estimates compiled
by Bloomberg. Its revenue fell
otherwise bad quarter.
Cigarette prices were ICICI Bank BITTER TASTE
short of the estimate of `8,110 higher by an average of
surprises Rising global cocoa prices to

expansion at some point. How soon that hap- attracting capital inflows, higher rates overseas
crore in the same poll.
The company’s shares fell
sharply after the announcement
of second quarter earnings, but
recovered from their intra-day
low of `336.20 to close at `340
each, down 2.55%, on BSE, while
the benchmark Sensex lost 0.2%.
The weakest economic growth
17% over the year-ago
quarter, according to
Edelweiss Research. That
explains why sales
growth was higher
against 7.1% growth in
the June quarter, despite
a slowdown in volumes.
The economic
on margins
MARK TO MARKET
RAVI KRISHNAN
hurt Indian chocolate buyers
B Y S UNIL B .S .
sunil.s@livemint.com
PRADEEP GAUR/MINT
Reveals the flaw,
in 10 years has taken its toll on
consumer confidence, especial-
slowdown is affecting the
company’s FMCG (fast- L ike in the past several
quarters, ICICI Bank Ltd’s
·························
MUMBAI

B
With the rot stemming from within.
ly in the cities, causing house- moving consumer goods) net profit trumped consensus iting cocoa prices have left a

pens is hard to say, though some businesses are would exert upward pressure on rates here too.
holds to cut back on spending
and switch to cheaper home and
personal care products. The
economy grew 5% in the year
ended March and is forecast by
international agencies to slow
further in the current fiscal year.
ITC, India’s largest cigarette
maker, also runs hotels and
business, too, whose
TURN TO PAGE 2®
wheat in the corresponding
quarter of fiscal 2013.
Pre-tax profit from cigarettes
for the September quarter was
estimates for the three months
ended September. It is an all the
more strong showing since the
bank has fully absorbed a
`278.84 crore mark-to-market
loss on its bond portfolio
instead of spreading it over
three quarters.
ICICI Bank’s focus on the
bitter taste in the mouths of
chocolate makers such as Nestlé
SA and Cadbury in India ahead
of the Diwali festival, when de-
mand for confections peaks.
The price of cocoa, which ac-
counts for more than half of the
input costs for making choco-
lates, has surged 21.5% since

ready for it. Should the shift not happen and the All said, we don’t just face a challenge of labour
makes soaps, packaged foods,
and clothing and accessories.
Sequentially, the company’s
revenue in the September quar-
ter was up 6% despite what it
called a “marked slowdown in
consumption expenditure”.
In a press statement on Fri-
day, ITC admitted to facing a
23.5% higher y-o-y at `2,569.61
crore, but this included a non-
cash exceptional item—the
write-back of a provision to-
wards disputed taxes, no longer
required, of `157.91 crore. Ad-
justed for this item, pre-tax prof-
it from the segment grew 15.9%
from the same period last year.
retail business and profitability
is again evident in the
September quarter numbers.
First, the bank has actually
improved its net interest
margins to 3.31%, up four basis
points from the previous quarter
and close to its highest.
That was possible owing to a
March as production shrank in
West Africa, squeezing the mar-
gins of chocolate makers.
To make matters worse, the
prices of other raw materials Festive season: Demand for chocolates may be sustainable even if prices
such as milk have also risen. rise because of Diwali, according to analysts.
Chocolate makers fear that
raising the price may dampen would be seen in lower (priced) in 2013.
demand and encourage con- segments,” said Rachna Nath, Chocolate prices are estimat-

government’s fiscal bloat get extended much utilization, capital instability could pose its own
“challenging business environ-
ment” while claiming that its net
revenue grew 15.2% year-on-
year (y-o-y) if adjusted for a
one-off exceptional export of
NOTE TO READERS
There is no Mint Markets
Net revenue from cigarettes
grew 10% from last year to
`3,723.81 crore in the Septem-
ber quarter, which was short of
Street expectations.
“Weak growth in revenue, es-
pecially from cigarettes, is likely
to have an adverse impact on
ITC’s valuations in the near
17% rise in low-cost current and
savings account (Casa) deposits
and, of course, an increase in
the base rate. ICICI Bank’s
average Casa deposits as a
proportion of the total improved
to 40.3%, well over the 39% in
the June quarter. The bank’s
management said that
sumers to make gifts of tradi-
tional Indian sweets and nuts—
rather than chocolates—during
Diwali. Chocolate sales, esti-
mated by market researcher
Mintel at `6,007 crore in 2013,
typically receive a boost during
the festival season.
“Large manufacturers like
leader of retail and consumers
at consulting firm Pricewater-
houseCoopers in India.
Cadbury and Nestlé have in
the past successfully used ad-
vertisements and promotions to
position chocolates as an alter-
native to traditional gift options
such as Indian sweets and dry
ed to rise 9.84% to `574.70 per
kg in 2013 from an average of
`523.20 per kg in 2012, accord-
ing to Mintel.
Prices may rise even faster in
the coming days if the produc-
tion of cocoa continues to
shrink. Still, demand for choco-
lates may be sustainable even if

too far, we could find the going getting harder. complexities too. We must neither take 7% plus
with today’s edition.
Mint is also available for R9.50 with
Hindustan Times in Delhi-NCR only
term,” Ritwik Rai, an analyst at
Kotak Securities Ltd, said in a
statement.
TURN TO PAGE 2®
wholesale deposits were less
than 30% of its funding sources,
enabling it to deflect the impact
TURN TO PAGE 5®
Cadbury may increase prices in fruits during Diwali. prices rise because of Diwali, ac-
niche premium segments like Chocolate sales rose to `4,914 cording to analysts.
Silk and Bournville, where con- crore in 2012 from `1,011 crore “Chocolate manufacturers
sumers might not mind rising in 2005, according to Mintel.
prices, but the real impact Sales are expected to rise 22.24% TURN TO PAGE 2®

America offers a cautionary example of fiscal growth for granted, nor let our guard down.

MY VIEW | WORld APART

There is no easy escape from the middle-income trap

to grow in a shrinking space.” For economies
RAHUL JACOB as large as India, that is bad news. It turns out
that getting from $1,000 per capita to
$10,000 is much more of a multifaceted
challenge than getting from $100 to $1,000,
which relies on using low labour costs and
the total volume of global FDI inflows was rates compared with our Asian peers. India Even with steady economic management,
down by almost 40% from the 2007 peak.” now has public debt at 83% of GDP and com- however, there is no easy way to escape the
By contrast, in the first seven years of the bined fiscal debt (states and Centre) in dou- trap. East Asian economies such as Taiwan
2000s ahead of the great financial crisis, ble digits, among the highest fiscal deficits in and South Korea had energetic bureaucra-
trade grew by more than 10%. Asia. No wonder even leading contenders in cies fine-tuning industrial and trade policy,
But the problems are still wider. As Gill the growth stakes such as China, India and while their education systems (including the

N
o semi-final play-offs happen and no
trophies are awarded to the winners.
More than 1 billion people compete
over decades. It is the most difficult endur-
ance and entrepreneurial challenge of our
times. Last week, one of its chief referees was
in New Delhi to speak about it, but few
reporters were in the audience. Graduating
putting more people to work.
And the economic backdrop has rarely
looked less promising. The trade environ-
ment is much more protectionist than
before, while many large US and UK retailers
have gone bankrupt. A New Delhi-based
exporter told me recently that rather than
haggle with the new owners of retailers,
put it in a tweet this month: “Too much pub- Turkey now look as if they are stuck in a mid- primary level, crucially) churned out just
lic debt. Too little private dle-income trap. Turkey’s what their economies needed to jump hur-
investment. And the slow- revolving door of finance dles in the way of becoming developed. If
est recovery in global trade Optimism over ministers over the past few improving school education matters, so does
in the past five decades.” years resembled a soap boosting the speed and predictability of
Private investment is not how many more opera. India’s demonetiza- bureaucratic and judicial decision-making.
proving much help in pro- tion was a first for a large India still struggles in these mission-critical
viding the financing
countries will economy not experiencing areas, as seen in everything from our Annual

is a Mint columnist and a

from middle income to developed world sta-
tus is the greatest prize in development eco-
former Financial Times foreign
correspondent.
nomics. Only a handful of East Asian and
Central European countries have made the
transition so far, along with a few fortunate
resource-rich countries.
World Bank chief economist Indermit
Gill’s assessment was worrying. The devel-
oping world has a much harder task ahead of
it than countries such as South Korea and
Taiwan did. “There’s no reason to believe
that the next couple of decades will be better
than the last two for global development,”
said Gill, who is also the co-author of a book
that 15 years ago coined the term ‘middle-in-
come trap’. “Middle income economies have
often private equity funds that have bought
distressed assets, exiting the business
seemed a preferable option. Even large and
mid-sized MNCs are losing heart: Foreign
direct investment (FDI) is plummeting in
tandem with global trade. Net FDI into India
fell to $3 billion in the five months through
August, compared with $18 billion in the
same period a year earlier, the Reserve Bank
of India reported last week. China has seen
an even steeper fall as the country turns
inward. In a recent blog co-authored by Gill
and M. Ayhan Kose, they observed: “Global
trade is expected to grow less than 2% this
year—not even half the annual average that
prevailed in the 2000s. At the end of 2022,
needed by developing
countries for green transi-
make the leap runaway inflation. Now,
Beijing’s abrupt sacking of
Status of Education Reports to the mind-
numbing revising of revisions of rules gov-
tions. They also have
higher foreign and fiscal
to rich-world senior ministers, which
started with the disappear-
erning the import of computers.
Governments seeking to transition their
debt than before. status is scarce ance of its foreign minister nations to developed-world status need to
In a telling moment, months ago and then its resist crafty lobbyists (usually influential
Indonesia, one of the for good reason defence minister and donors to political parties) and the urge for
countries seeking to finally the dismissal of the fiscal populism that democracies with deep
escape the middle-income finance and defence minis- disparities demand, while improving educa-
trap, was forced last week to hike its bench- ter and culminated with a change in finance tion and R&D. This is perhaps why many
mark rate to 6% to keep in step with the Fed’s minister on Tuesday (which was tele- middle-income countries’ growth rates start
higher rates, even though its inflation rate at graphed in late September) raises big ques- slowing after they achieve merely a fraction
2.3% is at the bottom end of its central bank’s tions about the country’s governance. A of the US per capita income. Compared to
target band. The reason it did so was that the former White House official quipped that it East Asia’s track record, India looks “down-
rupiah was under pressure, despite having, seems like an Agatha Christie novel, but it right mediocre,” Gill said last week. Sadly, so
along with China, the highest real interest alarmingly harks back to Mao Zedong’s era. does most of the developing world.
LIVEMINT.COM VIEWS ThUrSDay, 26 OcTOber 2023
New Delhi 15

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

The digital economy in India may The US Fed can help stabilize
the market for Treasury bonds
not be such an unmixed blessing America’s central bank could reduce volatility if it wants to do so

Cases like the rise and fall of Byju’s show that e-businesses have classic economic realities to face as the covid shock wears off

ISTOCKPHOTO

MOhAMED A. EL-ERiAn
is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist.

MAnOJ PAnt
is visiting faculty at department of economics
of Shiv Nadar University.

G
reater stability in US Treasuries is
needed for the smooth functioning
of other segments of the financial
market, housing and the economy more Markets await Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s
Another one bites the dust, and another one gone, broadly, both in America and beyond. Such statement of 1 November AP
and another one gone”—Queen stability is unlikely to be anchored anytime
soon by either clarity about economic lizers have been offset by short-term stabi-

I
n the 2021 T20 World Cup championship, or
even in the more recently concluded Indian
Premier League cricket tournament, if anyone
were to pick one name as a constant, it would
have to be neither Virat Kohli nor Shubman
Gill, and not Aaron Finch nor Rashid Khan,
but Byju’s. With its logo plastered in the back-
ground and its representatives at award ceremo-
nies, Byju’s dominated our screen time as the
major new ‘sponsor’ of cricket games in India.
Yet, cut to 2023, and the same image is replaced
by stories of an edu-tech company whose auditors
resigned along with some board members, a busi-
ness faced with loan-repayment trouble, and an
employer that had so many rounds of layoffs that
its chief honcho had to personally offer words of
assurance to the employees who remained. As
Shakespeare’s protagonist Mark Antony might
well have said today, “Oh what a fall was there my
countrymen!”
What I will argue here is that the alleged failure
of Byju’s (and similar aggregator companies) may
reflect the fact that there is a disconnect between
real and financial markets which was accentuated
by the covid pandemic. Now, as the pandemic
recedes from memory and the economy returns to
normal, pandemic-boosted aggregators may find
their business models unsustainable. The recent
loss of momentum in the information technology
sector may reflect this phenomenon.
The story begins with the disastrous pandemic,
which brought face-to-face human interaction
beyond the walls of our homes to an abrupt end
and then kept it minimal for almost two years.
Countries like India, where labour-based produc-
tion accounts for a large number of livelihoods,
were the hardest hit. At the same time, digital
technology got a tremendous boost in developing
countries, and India was no exception. As covid
constraints persisted, technology came to be seen
as the great white hope, as commerce—transac-
tions of services in particular—could be conducted
at close to zero cost. While that was a welcome
response to a once-in-a-century ‘black swan’ event,
the danger was in not seeing the implications of
operating on the assumption of a lasting shift to the
‘New Economy.’
At the outset, it may be noted that the pandemic
was an exogenous and temporary shock to econo-
mies worldwide, but not an economic phenome-
non that needed to be incorporated by analysts as
part of a long-term structural change. As econo-
mists have long been aware, if an exogenous shock
is a one-off, its impact on long-term economic
behaviour is minimal. So, today, as data becomes
available, we are slowly gearing up to compare
movements in recent economic variables with the
‘pre-pandemic’ period. And that’s where the story
gets complicated.
Consider the adoption of digital delivery of
services. In most developed countries, this had
already started two decades ago in response to
higher labour costs, and the pandemic just has-
tened the process. In developing countries, while
the digital economy was important in areas like
delivery of services directly to the poor for leakage
prevention, in most other areas, its adoption was
forced by the peculiar circumstances of the pan-
demic. One significant example was education.
The combination of zero digital costs of delivery
and the necessity (till recently) of continuing edu-
cation by any means implied that online education
models rapidly gained traction. To understand the
implication of this for Byju’s and a host of others, it
is useful to refer to a classic paper by Koopmans
and Beckman (Econometrica, January, 1957). In this
paper, the authors argued that zero delivery costs
plus perfect competition will never lead to a stable
industry equilibrium. Zero establishment cost
(unlike manufacturers, service aggregators have
almost no fixed costs of establishment) and perfect
competition (an infinite number of players can
possibly enter the market as there is no entry cost
barrier) would lead to a merry-go-round, as every
player would face continuing competition and can
only survive by buying up competitors. As a conse-
quence, the theoretical ‘zero profit’ condition of
text-book perfect competition becomes a reality,
and hence no firm can survive. Although many
online players have sought the advantages of ‘net-
work effects’ and/or hoped to win in a so-called
‘winner-takes-all’ market, whether such benefits
can sustainably accrue to businesses that operate
in fields other than social networking (and a few
others) has never been clear. Hence the Koop-
mans-Beckman frame of analysis is more relevant
than they may have assumed. The case of Byju’s,
shorn of brand recognition gained through adver-
tising, would reveal such market characteristics.
At the base of the problem is the reality that no
economy can outpace the growth of its consumer
base, as production and demand must match.
While digital economy aggregators have been
multiplying the production of services rapidly, all
of them together can only sell a particular product
(be it education, food, cars, etc) to the same set of
individuals. As many fight for the eyeballs of the
same consumer, only one will succeed (so ‘winner
takes all’ is still plausible), and the rest will fail.
Another symptom of the problem is the downsiz-
ing of many companies in the IT sector.
The bottom-line is clear. While the size of the
manufacturing sector is actually limited by the
fixed costs of setting up industrial units, which
keeps the number of contenders low, in the case of
technology-driven aggregators, the very source of
growth (low delivery costs) can also be the cause of
their downfall. Maybe Freddie Bulsara, the star
performer of the rock-band Queen, was prophetic.
As we go along, many more digital companies are
likely to bite the dust.
prospects or an abundance of volatility-re-
pressing financial flows. What is needed is
a policy anchor that, at this stage, must
have a major monetary policy component.
To say that the US government bond
market has been unusually unstable would
be an understatement. Recent weeks have
seen eye-popping intra-day moves in
yields, uncertain auctions and periodic
concerns about liquidity and financial sta-
bility. The Fed’s Financial Stability Report
released on Friday addresses the issue of
Treasury market liquidity, noting that it “is
important because of the key role these
securities play in the financial system.” The
analysis documents how liquidity has been
below historical norms and “may be less
resilient than usual.”
Treasury yields serve as benchmarks for
the pricing of a whole range of borrowing
and lending. They influence mortgage
rates and the housing market. They impact
the stability of financial institutions and the
system as a whole. And their moves spill
over to other countries’ financial markets
and economies. The recent bond volatility
reflects both a loss of secular anchoring
and a gradual weakening of short-term sta-
bilizers. Specifically, the growth outlook is
uncertain, and there are questions about
readily available buyers for Treasuries in
the face of much higher supply occasioned
by large budget deficits and mounting debt
servicing. Together, they fuel periodic
concerns about the health of regional
banks and certain segments of the non-
bank financial sector. In such a scenario,
we would look to the Fed’s policy guidance
to serve as an anchor.
Unfortunately, Fed communication has
tended to impart volatility rather than sta-
bility in recent years. Look at last week’s
event at the Economic Club of New York
where, within less than an hour, comments
by Fed Chair Jerome Powell drove the
yield on the 10-year bond to fall below
4.90%, only to reverse course and surge up
to 4.99% and subsequently change course
yet again. Such volatility during episodes of
intense Fed communication has been
shown by a Centre for Economic Policy
Research study to be a substantial multiple
of what occurred under prior Fed chairs.
Fortunately for the bond market and
beyond, the absence of longer-term stabi-
lizers. But, here too, things are far from
reassuring. Some investors have been will-
ing to step in and buy on sudden surges in
yields, looking to lock in for longer a stream
of higher income. But this willingness is a
function of the availability of funds and the
ability to repeatedly overcome the fear of
“catching a falling knife,” both of which
diminish the more often such surges occur.
On the other side, sudden dips in yields
have enticed those sitting on large bond
losses to reduce their excessive exposures
at more attractive price levels. While it is
far from clear how their risk appetite will
evolve, the threat of large distress sales
increases the higher yields go.
All this results in a configuration that
calls for a stabilizing force in this crucial
market. It will not come from greater eco-
nomic clarity, given the competing winds
buffeting the US economy. Nor will it come
from assurances of large buyers for the
increasing government bond issuance:
The Fed is reducing its balance sheet, insti-
tutional buyers are nursing large losses and
foreign buyers seem hesitant.
What is needed is for the Fed to pivot
from being volatility-inducing to being sta-
bility-enhancing. This will not happen
unless, at the minimum, the world’s most-
powerful central bank does three things:
Pivot its forward policy guidance from its
excessive dependence on backward-look-
ing data to combining data dependency
with a more clearly articulated economic
vision; accelerate the revamping of an out-
dated Monetary Policy Framework to
reflect the shift in the macroeconomy from
a world of insufficient aggregate demand to
one where supply is insufficiently flexible;
and be more open-minded about the
appropriate inflation target, which, under
current and expected conditions, may be
closer to 3% than 2%.
The Fed will next have an opportunity to
provide signals in these areas on 1 Novem-
ber when it issues its policy statement and
Chair Powell holds his regular press con-
ference. Let us hope that this time around,
such communication helps reduce bond
market volatility in a meaningful and dura-
ble manner. After all, this fundamentally
speaks to both the central bank’s dual
mandate and its responsibility to promote
financial stability. ©BLOOMBERG

THEIR VIEW

Go the full length on women’s financial empowerment

used their account for savings, and 40%
SOWMYA DHANARAJ accessed formal credit. In the case of India,
direct benefit transfers under various gov-
ernment schemes into PMJDY accounts
hold significant potential to improve
women’s economic empowerment. For
ment and received minimum wages as set by
the government every month. All of them
received their wages through direct deposits
by employers into their bank accounts. The
average age of these women was 31 years,
and a majority of them had completed edu-
surprisingly, despite 90% of respondents’
households having access to smartphones,
only 15% of the women had ever made pay-
ments through UPI or internet banking.
Moreover, the sample’s women not only
underutilized their accounts for making
money from friends, family and coworkers,
and fewer than 10% having taken a bank
loan. More worryingly, financial resilience
among these women appeared to be quite
low, with over half of them expressing the
view that accessing emergency funds (of

E
nhancing financial inclusion, particu-
larly among women in low-income
segments, is a pivotal government
commitment. With its Aadhaar-based iden-
tification system, India has made significant
strides in bridging the gap in bank account
ownership through the Pradhan Mantri Jan
Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), which stands out as
those in paid work, the practice of employers
depositing wages directly into bank
accounts not only encourages account hold-
ers to maintain their funds in these, it also
facilitates their access to financial instru-
ments offered by banks. The report explains
how this is achieved. Money that resides in
an account is easier to preserve than cash
cation up to the 8th grade or beyond, with payments, but also for storing or saving ₹5,000) within a span of 30 days would be a
virtually all of them having money. A mere 20% of considerable challenge. Nearly 85% of the
attained at least primary women chose to retain respondents indicated that accessing such
education. Jan Dhan has their wages in their bank funds within a week would be difficult or
Although these bank accounts for storing extremely challenging.
accounts were equipped created a base money. In contrast, cash It’s important to underscore that this low
with debit card features, remained the primary usage of financial services is despite women
only half of the surveyed
of accounts but choice, with 30% of women being in regular salaried employment and

is a senior research fellow at

Good Business Lab.
a remarkable success story that other
nations could replicate. Account ownership
empowers women to make payments and
send and receive money securely and afford-
ably, store and save money in an easy and
safe way, and access credit and insurance,
improving their incomes and agency.
Moreover, receiving payments into a bank
account acts as a catalyst for the utilization of
various financial services, raising women’s
capacity to save, borrow and efficiently man-
age funds. The Global Findex Report 2021
has numerous examples of this from various
countries. It shows that among those who
received digital payment in developing
countries, 83% made a digital payment, 40%
held otherwise. Receiving payments into an
account, especially when these flows can
substantiate a regular income stream over
time, eases the formal borrowing process.
Nonetheless, the report highlights that indi-
viduals, especially financially inexperienced
women, may not fully harness the benefits of
account ownership if they lack an under-
standing of how to optimize financial servi-
ces and minimize associated risks.
As an illustration of the challenge, con-
sider the results of a survey conducted by
Good Business Lab on financial services
involving over 900 women employed in a
garment factory in Karnataka. These women
were engaged in formal salaried employ-
women reported a famili-
arity with using a debit
its beneficiaries keeping cash at home. Less
than one in four women
having access to the banking system. One
can only imagine how much worse it could
card to withdraw money
from ATMs. Even among
need to utilize utilized formal savings
instruments like a fixed or
be for women working in informal settings
and rural areas. In summary, having enabled
those who were aware of other financial recurring deposit offered access to account ownership for millions of
how such withdrawals by their banks. As is well individuals, further financial empowerment
could be done, less than services too known, women over- for women among the low-income groups
half actually conducted whelmingly preferred requires a collaborative effort by govern-
these transactions by informal savings groups, ments, financial institutions, private
themselves. More than half of them relied on such as chit funds organized by their family employers and fintech companies. Further
their husbands or children or other trusted and friends networks, or semi-formal insti- research is also needed for informed deci-
people to carry out these transactions. tutions like microfinance or self-help sion-making, evidence-based policy devel-
Several factors contributed to this pattern, groups, when it came to saving money. opment and the creation of tailored solu-
including concerns about losing money The disparity was even more pronounced tions to ensure that more women are not
from their accounts, mobility constraints, in the usage of formal credit services, with only fully aware of financial services, but also
and a lack of control over their earnings. Not most women still relying on borrowing actively use them for their well-being.
16 ThuRsDay, 26 OcTObeR 2023
New Delhi BUSINESS OF LIFE CULTURE LIVEMINT.COM

ISTOCKPHOTO

Playing with miniature

painting traditions
Honouring the
lives of India’s
LGBTQ icons
Aditya Tiwari’s book makes accessible
the lives of India’s queer icons
Rush Mukherjee
feedback@livemint.com

(left) Large-scale projections of 28 rarely seen south Indian miniatures from the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; (right) Riyazuddin shows gods at play, such,as Ganesha enjoying the rain. PHOTOS:KAASH
An ongoing show creates expressions and hand gestures are just so
unique,” she adds.
a new visual language To me, the most significant of Hagar-
gundgi’s creations are his line drawings. They
within the miniature don’t just offer keen insights into his process
but are significant works of art in their own
painting traditions, and right. Lyrical and poetic, they demonstrate an
blurs the line between unparalleled and steady rhythm of the hand.
The highlight is his ink on paper drawing,
art and design titled Bhagirathaprayatnam, which shows the
penance of Bhagiratha and his endeavours to
bring the Ganges to Earth.
Avantika Bhuyan
avantika.bhuyan@htlive.com AN IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE
Hagargundgi’s colour works are juxtaposed
W
hen I was 13, during a pre-social media age, queer
lives (seemed to) exist in a hidden parallel universe,”
says 25-year-old Indian queer poet Aditya Tiwari.
Now based in the UK, Tiwari grew up in Jabalpur in Madhya
Pradesh. This was a time when small towns did not offer much
support for a young gay boy, and he recalls being bullied repeat-
edly at school, once even beaten up and left bleeding after a
homophobic attack.
Creative expression became an outlet, and eventially, in 2019,
Tiwari self-published a book of his poems, April is Lush. The title
even found mention by the Lambda Literary, a three decade
organisation based in the US that champions LGBTQ books and
authors . The writer and activist’s latest book Over the Rainbow:
India’s Queer Heroes, published last month by Juggernaut, sets
out to honour and make accessible the lives and stories of India’s
queer icons—just what Tiwari had needed when he was younger.
Divided into 15 short chapters and arranged so as to form a
timeline of the history of queer rights movements in India, it cov-
ers the stories of 19 important figures who propelled the queer
rights movements in India over 25 years. This includes academics
Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai; the mayor of Raigarh, Chhattis-

W
hen you think of minia-
ture paintings, vibrance
and luminosity come to
mind. You find yourself
transported to royal
courts of Rajasthan or Kangra, with proces-
sions, festivities and hunting scenes rendered
beautifully by the artists during the 17th-18th
centuries. However, Kaash, a cultural institu-
tion in Bengaluru, is offering a departure from
the idea of ‘vintage’ when it comes to minia-
tures by showcasing some rather unique con-
temporary interpretations of visual traditions
from the Surpur and Rajput school of Pahari
paintings. Titled Play: Experiments with
Indian Miniatures, the show features works by
artists like Riyazuddin, Vijay Siddramappa
Hagargundgi, and Gargi Chandola. The idea is
not just to create a new visual language within
the miniature painting traditions but also to
blur the lines between art and design by creat-
ing ‘collectible craft’.
DESIGN INTERVENTION IN CRAFT
Play turns the concept of illumination in minia-
tures on the head in Riyazuddin’s painted
leather works. Traditionally, miniatures, espe-
cially the Mughal ones, have had a legacy of
exquisitely illuminated margins or hashiyas.
Kaash offers a design intervention by placing
the Jaipur-based artist’s works in lit-up boxes,
offering a different kind of luminosity to the
miniatures. Placed against a black background,
these intricate works painted directly on
untreated leather become gleaming story-
boards, showcasing gods and deities at play. So,
you have Radha-Krishna lighting up phuljhadis
and Ganesha enjoying the rain.
The show is an extension of Kaash’s ethos of
working with artists and craftspersons, who are
with large-scale projections of 28 rarely seen
south Indian miniatures from the Victoria &
Albert Museum, London. The intention was to
create a connection between tradition and
modernity. “The V&A presentation is one
aspect of the custom-designed world that’s been
created around the works of each artist in the
PLAY show. It is part of KAASH’s continued
Placed against a black background, these intricate works by Riyazuddin painted directly on effort to create immersive experiences around
untreated leather become gleaming storyboards its exhibitions, so there is a multi-sensorial qual-
ity that allows viewers to understand and appre-
hands-on with indigenous material. “Craftsper- Play offers a series of revelations as well, such ciate works more wholesomely,” states the exhi-
sons are fantastic at carrying forth centuries-old as through Vijay Siddramappa Hagargundgi’s bition note. One of the highlights is the painting
legacies. The gap lies in bringing in a certain work. The 66-year-old artist and scholar, based of Ardhanarishvara from 1850, which stands
design intervention within their practice,” says in Gulbarga, Karnataka, trained in techniques of out for the use of colour. The exhibition has
Rajan. Having done a show on leather puppetry miniature painting in Jaipur and later been designed by architect David Joe Thomas.
in the past, Kaash wanted to further its engage- researched the Surpur murals, done in the style According to Rajan, for each exhibition, the
ment with the material. “And that’s how the idea of Vijayanagar murals. In his practice, he has team works with guest designers to create an
of illuminating leather came about. You turn on brought elements from the two together, thus environment around the artworks.
the lights in the box, and it is a piece of design creating a visual language of his own. His work The exhibition ends with Gargi Chandola’s
and a functional object. You turn them off, and is now part of museum and private collections works. A self-taught artist, who lives in New
you have a lovely miniature—a work of art. We across the world. Delhi, and works on paper, zines and murals,
see ourselves as catalysts for craftspersons, who Poddar was visiting a friend when he came she is currently training under the masters of
are willing to experi- across Hagargundgi’s the Pahari school of painting to combine those
ment,” she adds. work and urged him elements with the flights of her imagination. In
The show—the ‘Play’ turns the concept of to visit Kaash in Ben- one of the works on display, Peeps and Peels, you
most challenging yet illumination in miniatures on galuru. “Vijay ji had can see a woman lying in a bed of peels in the
at Kaash—also hopes stopped doing colour middle of a forest, with monkeys peeping out
to change the colonial the head in Riyazuddin’s work some years ago. from behind the trees. “She has used metaphors
perception of craft, painted leather works. We asked him to from traditional miniature paintings and made
which is ascribed a come to Kaash to see if them contemporary in a fun, sensual way. The
lower value than art he could relate to the narrative is so fresh and modern. This is where
and design. “When it comes to craft, thanks to space,” says Rajan. He ended up staying for a the possibilities lie—you don’t have to tell old
the colonial gaze and lack of patronage, there two-month-long residency and creating some tales but today’s stories that connect with femi-
has been a break in the progression of innova- rather significant works of art. “When you see nism, man versus nature, power of sensuality,
tion, which could have taken place otherwise. the work, you don’t need anyone to tell you why sexual energy using age-old techniques that
Hence, through Play, we want to assure artists it is so important. In a video, which plays in the have so much provenance,” says Rajan.
like Riyazuddin to express freely, while we fig- gallery, you can see him applying tiny squares of Play: Experiments with Indian Miniatures is
ure out the design technology. This has led to a gold leaf on gesso. It takes four weeks, and more, on view at Kaash, Shanti Nagar, Bengaluru, till
great partnership,” elaborates Rajan. to produce a single work. The characters, facial 15 November
garh, Madhu Bai Kinnar; film director Rituparno Ghosh; and
singer and matchmaker Reshma—all of whom contributed to
asserting the demand for equal rights for LGBTQ people in India.
“I wrote this book for people to learn about queer history and to
educate others about it…,” says Tiwari.
Over a phone call, Tiwari talks to Lounge about some notable
misses in his book, the inspiration to get started, and the difficul-
ties of getting published as a queer per-
It covers the son in India. Edited excerpts.
stories of 19 How did you come up with the idea
for the book?
figures who It was after the death of Arvey Mal-
propelled the hotra, a student of Delhi Public School
queer rights Faridabad (the student reportedly took
movements his own life in 2022 due to homopho-
bic bullying). This happened with me,
too, and it continues to happen. We are
failing young, queer kids! I started talking about it last year but
had never imagined a book coming out of it. My publisher Chiki
Sarkar reached out to me about writing a book during the conver-
sation about marriage equality in India.
How did you choose the people you’ve included in the
anthology? I see some big misses.
I handpicked the names, making sure to include lesser-known
people like Madhu Bai Kinnar and Reshm. I wanted them to
reflect the complexity of queer lives in India. All are equally
important, and they are all heroes in own ways. To me, a hero is
also a hijra on a train, or a 17-year-old kothi who wants to live his
life authentically. There are also countless people that I wanted
to see in the book–Sushant Divgikar, Bobby Darling, Akkai Pad-
mashali, and Hoshang Merchant, for example. I would like to
apologise that we couldn’t.
How did you think through and research this book?
I think the main thing I wanted to highlight to young readers
was that our queer movement was very different from the one in
the West. I also wanted to portray the complexity of queer and
trans lives. So, it involved a lot of research of documentaries, like
the Indian LGBT oral history archive Project Bolo’s interviews
of various activists, and news reports.
Rush Mukherjee is a writer based in Kolkata.

WILCO’S JEFF TWEEDY IS CONSTANTLY INNOVATING AND PUSHING IN NEW DIRECTIONS

WIKIPEDIA

Tweedy and Co. collaborated with the Welsh musician, Cate Le Country, Wilco embraced their country roots more wholeheart-
Bon, who not only produced the album but also played instru- edly in what is perhaps a demonstration that Tweedy and his
FIRST ments on several tracks,
Back in 2002, O’Rourke helped Wilco change their musical
bandmates have not lost links with their origins. The composi-
tions on the album are simpler (as country music songs typically
B E AT style--from a style rooted in country music to an indie rock are) with some dark themes but are still buoyant. It’s a long mag-
style that was more experimental. In Cousin, the inclusion of num opus of an album on which Tweedy explores themes such
S A N J OY N A R AYA N Le Bon, who is known to always push the boundaries of tradi- as mortality, politics, history, and despair. On the title song, set
tional guitar rock, gives the album a feel that harkens back to to familiar country chords, he sings: “I love my country like a little
Respond to this column at when Wilco first moved out of its early era alt-country and boy/ Red, white, and blue/ I love my country, stupid and cruel/ Red,
feedback@livemint.com made albums such as YHF. white, and blue/ All you have to do is sing in the choir/ Kill yourself
‘Cousin’ is an Wilco, formed by Tweedy in 1994 every once in a while/ And sing in the choir with me.”

T
here are times when the feeling of nostalgia is a balm. It
soothes, it calms, and heck, it can even make you happy.
Sometimes it’s other people’s nostalgia that can also do the
trick. I guess everyone has their own thing about what triggers
that feeling. One of mine is when I pick up a 21-year old album by
Chicago’s alternative rock band, Wilco. The album is the
renowned Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and the song that does the trick
is titled Heavy Metal Drummer.
On it, Jeff Tweedy, Wilco’s bandleader, singer, and songwriter,
reflects on his teenage years when he would go to see local bands
playing heavy metal covers at gigs nearby where he grew up and
the song contrasts the innocence and fun of those days with the
cynicism and boredom of his present life. The song also admires
the drummer of one of those bands--he was more popular with the
girls than the singer--and is also a bit of a homage to the band, Kiss,
whose songs those local cover bands often played. Heavy Metal
Drummer is one of Wilco’s most upbeat songs and every time I lis-
ten to it, it never fails to trigger happy memories of my own.
Jeff Tweedy, Wilco’s bandleader, singer, and songwriter
At the end of September, Wilco released their 13th album,
Cousin. When I played it for the first time, it reminded me of Yan-
kee Hotel Foxtrot. Perhaps because of the way the two records
were made. Departing from their usual practice of fully control-
ling how their music is engineered or mixed, for Yankee Hotel, the
band recruited Jim O’Rourke, an alum of the legendary New York
City band, Sonic Youth. Likewise, for the more recent Cousin,
album that with a lineup of other band members On the new album, Cousin, though, Wilco have gone back to
that changed frequently during their being experimental. The Welsh musician Le Bon adds her quirky
shows how first decade , evolved out of his earlier touch to the album and Tweedy, now 56, explores themes of
Wilco can band named Uncle Tupelo, which was uncertainty, tiredness, connection, and protest. His voice is more
challenge among the pioneers of the genre that muted and introspective and the music quite unexpectedly
listeners critics call alt-country. It is a genre that adventurous. On Infinite Surprise, there is synth noise and guitar
combines elements of traditional crackle; Ten Dead is about mass shootings in America but deliv-
country music with influences from ered in a resigned way; and A Bowl and A Pudding is like a folk
other styles, such as alternative rock, punk, folk, or blues. While song about what could seem like lost love.
alt-country artists often have a more independent and experi- Cousin is an album that reflects the era we live in; where hope
mental approach to their music, and they may explore themes and despair often coexist; it is an album that shows how Wilco
that are not typical of mainstream country, with Wilco, Tweedy (read Tweedy) can reinvent and challenge listeners, evolving
became even more experimental, constantly innovating and constantly. Diehard fans of Wilco and Tweedy will exult because
pushing in new directions. of exactly that. Yet there is something for others too. It is also an
By the time YHF came out, Wilco became one of indie rock’s album that can be a perfect starting point for anyone who has not
most acclaimed bands. Subsequent albums continued in the explored the remarkable music that this band makes.
same exploratory vein. Yet Wilco has also delved back into more First Beat is a column on what’s new and groovy in the world of
country-infused music. In 2022, with their twelfth album, Cruel music. Sanjoy Narayan posts @sanjoynarayan.