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Sept inflation at 5-month high DOUBLE WHAMMY

CPI
(% change, y-o-y)

of 7.41%; IIP shrinks in Aug 8

7
7.79
Apr ‘22
7.41

7
6
trade-off between growth and 6.07 Aug ‘22
Data point to yet another inflation doesn’t really exist at this 5 Feb ‘22
rate hike by RBI in Dec juncture.
4
This means the Centre’s reliance 4.35
BANIKINKAR PATTANAYAK on the Budgetary capex, as a credi- 3
New Delhi, October 12 ble growth lever, will rise substan- Sept 2021 Sept 2022
tiallyin the next fiscal aswell.States

19.7
RETAIL INFLATION INCHED up to maygettospendapartofthiscapex IIP
7.41% in September from 7% in without any stringent conditions. (% change, y-o-y)
IN THE NEWS August, official data showed on Finance minister Nirmala Sithara-

12.7
Wednesday.Also, industrial output cal authorities. man has already said growth con-

13
SC to hear Sebi unexpectedly shrank 0.8% in The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cerns would be the next Budget’s
August from a year ago, against a will now be forced to raise the top priority.

6.7
review against RIL modest rise of 2.2% in July. benchmark lending rate,yet again, While base effect will remain

4.4
4.2
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman with US treasury secretary Janet
The first contraction in indus- in December, while striving to inconducive for the computation
on October 19

2.2
2.2
Yellen during their meeting in Washington DC on Tuesday.

1.2

-0.8
trial production in one-and-a-half ensurea“soft-landing”fortheecon- of retail inflation in October, it 1 1 2
THE SUPREME COURT years in August, albeit on an omy. may turn out to be favourable for
on Wednesday did a U- LISTS OIL PRICES AS A BIG WORRY unfavourable base, and a further The government, meanwhile, the index of industrial production

Aug ‘21
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan ’22
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
June
July
Aug
turn and decided to rise in inflation to a five-month will have to scourforways to stimu- (IIP).
hear in chambers -- and peakinSeptemberjustcomplicated lategrowthwithoutstokingfurther

FM says growth
Source: MoSPI
not in open court - Sebi’s petition the tasks of both monetary and fis- price pressure.The choice of a strict Continued on Page 13
seeking a review of its August 5
judgment that had directed it to
share certain documents with RIL,
Part of HZL residual stake to Govt grants oil
reports Indu Bhan in New Delhi.
The next date of hearing is
October 19. ■ PAGE 5

Telcos, mobile firms

top priority for be sold in FY23, says Pandey PSUs `22K cr
asked to be 5G-ready
by early December
FY24 Budget for LPG losses PRASANTA SAHU
New Delhi, October 12 TUHIN KANTA PANDEY,
SECRETARY, DIPAM FE BUREAU
THE GOVERNMENT ON THE GOVERNMENTWILLsellpartofits residual New Delhi, October 12
Wednesday asked the
Inflation also needs to NIRMALA SITHARAMAN,
stake in Vedanta-controlled Hindustan Zinc The timing and
FINANCE MINISTER
telecom operators as tackled for a balancing (HZL) in the current fiscal,department of invest- tranche of HZL THE CENTRE WILL provide an additional
well as handset makers mentandpublicassetmanagement(Dipam)sec- `22,000 crore to the state-run oil marketing
to sort out glitches in 5G services
act, outlines minister "Broadly, growth retary Tuhin Kanta Pandey told FE. Besides, he stake sale will be companies (OMCs) to compensate them for the
maximum by December so that priorities will be kept said,expressions of interest (EoIs) will be invited decided in under-recoveries on cooking gas between June
user experience is seamless and FE BUREAU absolutely on the top. forstrategicsalesofContainerCorporation(Con- 2020 and June 2022.
not marred by patchy network New Delhi, October 12 Cor) and two former Air India arms – Air Trans-
consultation with The Union Cabinet approved this ‘one-time
coverage, reports Jatin Grover in
Inflation concerns will port Services andAir India Engineering Services advisers and after grant’forIndianOil(IOCL),BharatPetroleum(BPCL)
New Delhi. ■ PAGE 5 THE GOVERNMENT WILL keep also have to be by November-December. gauging the andHindustanPetroleum(HPCL).Sharepricesofall
growth concerns “absolutely on addressed. The natural “The timing and tranche of HZL stake sale
feedback to
threecompaniesroseonWednesdaywithIOCclos-
90% large cap funds top” while firming up proposals question is how to be will be decided in consultation with advisers ing1.89%higherwhileBPCLandHPCLendedwith
for the next Budget and also and after gauging the feedback to be received be received gainsof0.85%&0.05%respectivelyontheBSE.
lag benchmarks in take into account the need to able to balance the in road shows,” Pandey said.The domestic and in road “During the period from June 2020 to June
last one year tackle inflation risks, finance two…even many global road shows for HZL residual stake sale - 2022,theinternationalpricesofLPGincreasedby
minister Nirmala Sitharaman through offer for sale (OFS) route - will begin shows around 300%. However, to insulate consumers
multilateral institutions
ABOUT 90% OF the has said. this month. from fluctuations in international LPG prices,the
equity large cap funds Responding to a question on are observing that The government’s residual 29.54% stake in costincreasewasnotfullypassedontoconsumers
underperformed the the FY24 Budget during a chat India cannot be HZL, an integrated miner and producer of non- ofdomesticLPG.Accordingly,domesticLPGprices
index in the one-year with economist Eshwar Prasad weakened." ferrous metals, including zinc, lead, silver and and offered to sell a total of 60.72% stake in the have raised by only 72% during this period.This
period ending June 2022, at the Brookings Institute in cadmium is worth about `36,100 crore at cur- bank, including 30.48% (`14,400 crore at cur- has led to significant losses for these OMCs,” the
reports Ashley Coutinho in Washington DC, the minister rent market prices. rent prices) held bythe government and 30.24% government said in a statement.
Mumbai. The beginning of the also flagged elevated oil prices INSIDE The Supreme Court had, in November 2021, by LIC. Thismeansthatsubsidyexpenditureonfuels,
year was particularly tough for as one of the biggest worries for cleared thewayforsale of government's residual The government may also look at offloading which was brought down to just `241 crore in
large cap managers, with 87.5% the economy. SOVEREIGN RATING MAY stake in HZL. a part of the indirectly-held stakes through the FY22,will rise significantly in the current finan-
of the funds in the category "Specifics (of the Budget for BE HIT: S&P PAGE 2 It is believed that the proposed mid-sized Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India cial year. In the FY23 Budget, the Centre made a
underperforming in the first half FY24) may be difficult at this strategicsalessuch asthatofIDBIBankandCon- (SUUTI) in ITC and Axis Bank. SUUTI’s 7.91% provision of `5,800 crore for LPG subsidies,
of the year. ■ PAGE 9 stage because it's a bit too early. Cor will be completed only in FY24, given the stake in ITC isworth about `32,380 crore and its includingadirectbenefittransferof`4,000crore
But broadly, the growth scheduled to be presented on processes involved. 1.55% stake in Axis Bank is worth `3,850 crore for domestic use and another `800 crore for the
India-UK trade deal priorities will be kept February 1, 2023 and the A higher stake dilution in HZLwill help max- at current market prices. poor under the Ujjwala scheme.
absolutely on the top… inflation finance ministry usually starts imise revenues from disinvestment in FY23.On
on ‘verge of collapse' concerns will also have to be holding customary pre-Budget October 7, the Centre invited EoI for IDBI Bank Continued on Page 13 Continued on Page 13
over visa comments addressed. But then how would
you manage growth would be
meetings with stakeholders
from November.
THE INDIA-UK FTA is
reportedly on the
“verge of collapse” after
the natural question,” she said.
The Budget for FY24 is Continued on Page 13 Extradition can push me to suicide: Nirav
the Indian government
was angered by comments made FE BUREAU now at suicide risk and that suicide cludedthathismentalhealthwillonly depression.The arguments will con-
by UK home secretary Suella
Braverman questioning action
Wipro Q2 profit misses estimates New Delhi, October 12 riskwillbeexacerbatedifextradited.”
Modiisfightinghisextraditionto
deteriorate,according to Helen Mal-
colm,whoarguedforIndia.
tinueonWednesday.
Malcolm drew the court’s atten-
over visa overstayers from the IT SERVICES major INSIDE Revenue for the FUGITIVE DIAMANTAIRE NIRAV face charges of allegedly India has made assurances tion to a video and photographs of
country, a UK media report Wipro on Wednesday quarter grew 14.6% Modi,accusedofa`13,000croreloan masterminding the relating to prison conditions, Arthur Road Jail’s Barrack No. 12 to
claimed on Wednesday. ■ PAGE 3 said its net profit rose HCLTECH annually and 4.7% on a fraud in India, involving Punjab largestbankfraudcasein health monitoring and proper reassure Modi that he would not be
3.7% sequentially to NET UP sequential basis to National Bank,has requested a Lon- India. He has contested treatment. “This is an sequesteredinanovercrowdedcell,to
Carbon Resources `2,659 crore in the Sep- 6.28% `22,540 crore on the don court to block his extradition to his extradition ordersay- extremelyhigh profile case in which the defence then questioned
tember quarter,coming ■ PAGE 4 back of a strong demand his home country, as such a move ing concerns over his Indiaandthatmeanstherewill whether Modi would face solitary
plans binding offer inbelowBloombergesti- environment for cloud, couldpushhimtosuicide. mental health weren’t bemanyeyesonhim,”Mal- confinement. The court also heard
for McLeod Russel mates of `2,847 crore, reports fe digital engineering and cyberse-
Bureau in Bengaluru. On an curity services.The revenue nar-
A Bloomberg report quoted his
lawyer Edward Fitzgerald as telling
properly considered. His
lawyer also denied allega-
colmsaid.
The day’s argu-
that to allay fears of solitary confine-
ment. The Indian government had
CARBON RESOURCES, annual basis, however, net profit rowly missed Bloomberg esti- the court that Modi suffers a“long- tions of fraud.The Indian ments saw an also proposed that an undertrial in a
WHICH had earlier declinedabout9%duetoahigher mates of `22,581 crore. standing depressive condition”and authorities opposed extended discus- white-collar criminal case,speaking
submitted a non- one-time tax benefit in the same sending him to a “hostile environ- those arguments,saying siononthedefini- thesamelanguageasModi,wouldbe
binding letter of intent quarter of the previous fiscal. ■ REPORT ON PAGE 4 ment,”wherepeopleburnhiseffigies depression is curable tionofmild,mod- keptinincarcerationwithhiminBar-
to lenders of Mcleod Russel to couldworsenhissituation.“Heiseven and it can’t be con- erate and severe rackNo12.
acquire a controlling stake in the
debt-laden tea major, is now
planning to make a binding
proposal, reports Mithun EXERCISE TO BE SPREAD OVER SIX MONTHS
Dasgupta in Kolkata. ■ PAGE 4

FE S P E C I A L
In fresh restructuring, Byju’s to lay off 2,500 employees
FE BUREAU
Bengaluru, October 12
THE COUNTRY'S MOST-VALUED
edtechstartupByju’ssaidonWednes-
day that it will lay off around 2,500
employees–5%ofits50,000-strong
workforce – across various sub-
sidiaries including Toppr, Meritna-
tion, TutorVista, Scholr and Hash-
Learnto“avoidredundancies”inroles.
HP Spectre x360: A The edtech firm said that these
businesses,whichcametoitaspartof
good laptop for acquisitions,willnowbe consolidated
work and play asonebusinessunit.OnlyAakashand
Great Learning,whichwere acquired
Sleek and lightweight, this in 2021 and 2022 respectively,will
HP laptop has a bright continue to function as separate
OLED screen and a sharp organisations.
webcam The layoffs will be in a phased
■ Gadgets, P7 manner, spread over the next six
months.
senior leadership to further build Mohit, CEO, Byju's India business,
As a mature organisation IN THE FIRING LINE operationalstrength. said.
“There will also be retargeting of Thesemovesareexpectedtoresult
that takes its responsibility ■ The layoffs will be ■ Byju's said it plans
the marketing budget towards more insizeablesavingswithnoimpacton
towards investors and across Byju's subsidiaries to hire 10,000 more
efficient growth. Since significant growth,the company said.“None of
Toppr, Meritnation, teachers in the
stakeholders seriously, we brand awareness has been created in these measures will have any impact
TutorVista, Scholr and coming year, adding Indiaoverthepastfewyears,thereisa on our revenue run rate,” added
aim to ensure HashLearn to “avoid to its current scopetooptimisemarketingbudgets Mohit.
sustainable growth redundancies” strength of 20,000 locally and prioritise spending to Thisisthesecondroundoflayoffs
alongside strong increasebrandawarenessinoverseas atByju’sinthecurrentyearafteritini-
■ These moves ■ This is the second markets,”the statement stated fur- tially fired around 500 employees
revenue growth. are expected to round of layoffs at ther. acrossitstwosubsidiariesWhitehatJr
—MRINAL MOHIT, CEO, result in sizeable Byju’s in the current Byju's said that it will focus on andTopprback in June.However,the
BYJU'S INDIA BUSINESS savings for the year after firing growing overall profitability in the total number of layoffs in June was
edtech firm around 500 in June nextfewquarters.“Asamatureorgan- believedtobeamuchhigher.
isation that takes its responsibility Toppr,WhitehatJr, Meritnation,
towards investors and stakeholders TutorVista,Scholr,andHashLearnare
“Toavoidredundanciesanddupli- tent,media,andtechnologyteamsin atotalof10,000moreteachersinthe seriously,we aim to ensure sustain- afewofthe17companiesthatByju’s
cationofroles,andbyleveragingtech- a phased manner,” the company said coming year, adding to its current ablegrowthalongsidestrongrevenue acquired till date in what was touted
nology better, around 5% of Byju's inastatement. strengthof20,000teachers.Tofuelits growth.These measures will help us asamajorconsolidationspree.
50,000-strongworkforceisexpected Even as it continues to lay off growth, the company also plans to achieve profitability in the defined
toberationalisedacrossproduct,con- employees,Byju's said it plans to hire expand its team strength across the time frame of March 2023,”Mrinal Continued on Page 13

Pune
 2 FINANCIAL EXPRESS
Economy
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022
QUICK
VIEW S&P: A mix of factors to shake
India’s sovereign credit metrics
Visvesvaraya Iron
and Steel Plant
sale EoI annulled
THE CENTRE HAS annulled the
expression of interest (EoI) for
the strategic disinvestment of
Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel
Plant,a unit of SAIL,due to a
lack of investor interest.DIPAM
said,“Due to insufficient bidder
interest in proceeding further
with the transaction,GoI,with
the approval of Alternative
Mechanism (Empowered
Group of Ministers).has
decided to annul the EoI and
thereby terminating the
present transaction.”
FY23 growth rate to
be 6-7% : PHDCCI
PHDCCI ON
WEDNESDAY said
going by the current
trend,it is expecting
the Indian economy to grow at
6-7% during current fiscal year.
BHEL to set up 2 coal
gasification plants
STATE-OWNED BHEL on
Wednesday said it has entered
into two separate agreements
with Coal India and NLC India
Ltd to set up coal gasification
based plants.
IMF REVIEW
Global headwinds won't spare
India, other emerging markets
THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
(IMF), in its latest review, kept its 2022
growth projection for the global
economy unchanged at 3.2%, with a
gloomier prognosis for 2023 (2.7%).
The worst, it said, is yet to come, even
as it added that 2022 will be worse than
seen earlier for the US and better for the
Euro area. The prospect of a recession in
the mature economies is implicit in the
dismal 2023 forecasts for both the US
(1%) and the Euro area (0.5%).
Though the agency has borne out
“the relatively bright spot” status of
India even amid the global headwinds,
GDP GROWTH
% chg, y-o-y 2019
6 6
3.2
2.8
2.7
2.3
3
-3.4
World
CONSUMER PRICE INFLATION
% chg, y-o-y 2019
8.1
4.7
3.5
1.8
1.2
0.3
US
* For India data on a fiscal year basis (2022 is FY23)
WORLD TRADE
Volume: Goods & services,
% chg, y-o-y
2019
-7.8
2020
2021
2022 (P)
2023 (P)
Source: IMF
WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM
G20 IS KEY TO GLOBAL GOOD
Nirmala Sitharaman, finance minister
The grouping of the top 20 economies of the
world has great potential to work towards the
global public good... India stack, for instance, can
become a global stack. Efficient cross-border
payments and cheaper remittances are all the
benefits which we can derive out of it.
● FY23 ECONOMIC GROWTH FORECAST AT 7.3%
IIP growth contracts
for the first time
in 18 months
MINING MANUFACTURING
"Under more severe conditions (% change, y-o-y) (% change, y-o-y)
Rating for India kept though, a few factors could have 15 25
at lowest investment the potential to apply downward
10 20
pressure on our sovereign credit
grade of ‘BBB-’ ratings on India,"Wood added. 5
3 15
The agency said the decline in 10
0 5
1.9
FE BUREAU India’s foreign exchange reserves
to around $533 billion from a peak -5 0
New Delhi, October 12 -3.9 -0.7
of about $634 billion in 2021 has -10 -5
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug
GLOBALRATINGAGENCY S&Pon been caused,in part,by its growing
Wednesday said India is facing a
KEY PROJECTIONS current account deficit (CAD). It ELECTRICITY OVERALL IIP
“mixture of factors that may shake forecast that the CAD will hit 3%
its sovereign credit metrics”. ■ S&P forecast that the CAD will of GDP in FY23, from its estimate
(% change, y-o-y) (% change, y-o-y)
■ The agency has 25 25
Nevertheless, it conceded that
strong economic growth and
hit 3% of GDP in FY23, from its predicted retail inflation to
of 1.6% in FY22, thanks to the
surging import bill. 20 20
estimate of 1.6% in FY22 average 6.8% this fiscal, 15
external balance sheet are The agency has predicted retail 15
expected to offset risks inherent in before slowing to 5% in inflation to average 6.8% this fis- 10 2
■ It expects RBI’s policy rate to FY24 and 4.5% per year 10 1.4 5
the growing external headwinds. cal, before slowing to 5% in FY24 0.9
But if the economy witnesses a end this fiscal at 5.9%. beyond that and 4.5% per year beyond that. It 5 0
prolonged downturn in real and expects RBI’s policyrate to end this 0 -5 -0.8
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug
nominal GDP growth, “material fiscal at 5.9%. -
downward pressure on the sover- Nevertheless,the country will Source: MoSPI
eign ratings could emerge, espe-
cially if large government deficits
India's debt ratio projected to be probablycontinue to gain from the
active use of its currency in inter- like textiles and garments and
are left unchecked”, it cautioned. 84% of its GDP by 2022-end: IMF national transactions and its abil- Factory output shrinks chemicals have registered a slow-
S&P has retained its sovereign ity to fund itself via local currency 0.8% in August down, while both consumer
rating for India at the lowest INDIA'S DEBTRATIOisprojected ment, International Monetary debt markets. durables and non-durables seg-
investment grade of “BBB-” for 15 to be 84% of its GDP by the end Fund, said there's still not a However, any deeper-than- ments contracted. The growth in
years now.Its outlook forthe coun- of 2022, which is higher than whole lot of clarity on the fiscal anticipated global economic FE BUREAU capital goods, a gauge for invest-
try remains“stable”. many emerging economies, but anchor. slowdown could adversely affect New Delhi, October 12 ments, remained far from impres-
In a credit FAQ titled“Can India its debt is a little bit easierto sus- “It would be very important to the country’s economic perfor- sive. Textiles output dropped
Sovereign Ratings Withstand the tain, a senior IMF official give reassurance to people and mance this fiscal and the next, it INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT SHRANK 12.2% in August from 8.6%a year
Global Sputter”,the agencysaid the has said. to investors that things are cautioned. Tighter global mone- 0.8% in August from a year before, before, while that of garments
country, despite strong external Stressing that it is important for under control, and things are tary conditions, extended period the first contraction in 18 months, shrank 18.3% against 15.2%.Even
balance sheet, has not quite India to now have a very clear going to become less vulnerable of elevated inflation, and poor thanks to an unfavourable base, the output of chemical products
escaped the difficult landscape the medium-term objective on the over time,” Mauro, told PTI in investment or consumer senti- slowdown down in export orders grew at a slower pace of 5.3%
rest of its emerging market peers fiscal, Paolo Mauro, Deputy an interview. ment both at home and abroad and heavy monsoon downpour in against 6.9%.
have faced over the course of the Director, Fiscal Affairs Depart- — PTI pose upside risks to the economy. select regions. This also suggests a Crisil chief economist DK Joshi
year.More severe conditions could "In ourview,India's economy is credible industrial recovery is still said there are signs of slowdown
exert downward pressure on unlikely to downshift for an far away, especially due to the fact seeping to other segments as well.
India's sovereign credit ratings. and globally," S&P Global Ratings lence. "We expect these strengths extended time on this basis alone, that production didn’t improve The IIP dropped for capex-related
"India is facing a mixture of fac- sovereign analyst Andrew to help neutralise the risks inher- especially given its predomi- even in the build-up to the festive segments, such as infrastructure
tors that may shake its sovereign Wood said. ent in the treacherous global envi- nantly domestic orientation.Still, season. However, the index of and construction goods (1.7% vs
credit metrics. Amid external tur- However, it also acknowledged ronment,"it added. in the event of a prolonged down- industrialproductionwillrecoverin 3.8% in the previous month) and
bulence, its foreign exchange that India's sound economic The agency has kept its FY23 turn in real and nominal GDP September, as the unfavourable capital goods (5% vs 5.7%). The
reserves are falling,and its current growth has long been a key coun- economic growth forecast at 7.3%, growth,material downward pres- base effect wanes. The IIP had drop in the domestic-oriented con-
account deficit is rising. Mean- terbalance to its high fiscal deficit higher than the predictions made sure on the sovereign ratings grown13% inAugust 2021 butjust sumer non-durables just worsened
while, the economy is battling and debt burdens.Its strong exter- by some other agencies, including could emerge, especially if large 4.4% in September last year. to 9.9%--theworst slide sinceApril
faster inflation and tightening nal balance sheet also offers cush- the IMF and the World Bank, in government deficits are left What worries analysts are the 2020 and compared with 2.8%
financial conditions both at home ion against global market turbu- recent weeks. unchecked,"Wood said. facts that export-sensitive sectors in July.
When everyone Retail inflation hits 5-month
is slowing, India is
doing better: IMF
high of 7.41% in September
BANIKINKAR PATTANAYAK SPIKE IN PRICES
it revised down FY23 growth PRESS TRUST OF INDIA New Delhi, October 12
projection for the country by 0.6% to (% change, y-o-y)
Washington, October 12
6.8%, the steepest cut for any major 10
RETAIL INFLATION HIT a five- CPI Food 8.6
country other than the US (in April IMF WHEN EVERYONE IS slowing down in terms of month high of 7.41% in Septem- CPI
had seen India FY23 growth at 8.2%). It economic growth, India has not remained unim- ber, as price pressure in the food 8
pacted, but is doing better and is in a relatively segmentspikedtoa22-monthhigh CPI core
cites “more subdued external demand” 6.1 7.41
for the latest change in India growth bright spot compared to othercountries,a top IMF and core inflation inched up fur- 6
estimate, and puts the country in the official said on Tuesday. ther. 4.35 6.1
Just look at the global conjuncture right now, With this,inflation based on the 4
same league among the advanced
which is the overarching problem,IMFDirectorof consumerprice index (CPI) beat the
economies which would witness an Asia and Pacific Department, Krishna Srinivasan, upper band of the Reserve Bank of
year-on-year growth decline in 2023 2
said, adding that the growth was "slowing across India’s (RBI’s) medium-term target 0.68
(FY24). Notably, a sharp decline in manyparts of theworld even as inflation is rising". of 2-6% fora ninth straight month.
global trade volume growth, the Fund "We expect countries accounting for 1/3 of the This means the RBIwill nowhave to 0
Sept 2021 Sept 2022
says, will hit EMEs more than the global economy to go into a recession this year or explain to the government, for-
Source: MoSPI/India Ratings
advanced economies in 2022 (FY23). the next. And inflation is rampant. So that is the mally in writing, as to why it failed
overarching story,”Srinivasan told PTI in an inter- to keep inflation within the pre-
view. “Almosteverycountryisslowing.Inthatcon- scribed level. Retail inflation has
text,India is doing betterand is in a relative bright also remained above 7% for a sec- RBI to submit report on inflation
2020 2021 2022 (P) 2023 (P) spot compared to the other countries in the ond quarter in a row.
region,”Srinivasan said. Thanks to the latest rise in infla- AS INFLATION BREACHED its rein in price pressure within the
6.8
6.1
8.7
5.7
TheIMFonTuesdayinitsWorldEconomicOut- tion, the central bank will be con- medium-term target of 2-6% targeted band. According to the
8.1
5.2
4.4
look projected a growth rate of 6.8% in 2022 as strained to raise the repo rate in for a ninth straight month inflation-targetting framework,
3.7
3.2
3.1
2.2
compared to 8.7% in 2021 for India. Decemberaswell.But the quantum through September,the Reserve which came into effect in 2016,
1.7
1.7
1.6
1.6
1.6
The projection for 2023 slides down further to of the hike will hinge on the infla- Bank of India (RBI) will have to the central bank has to submit
0.5
1
6.1%.More than a third of the global economy will tion print in October. Any further submit a report to the govern- the report if inflation breaches
contract in 2023,while the rise in inflation in October will ment for the first time,explain- its target forthree straight quar-
-0.4
-4.6
The IMF on three largest economies -- mean another rate hike of 50 basis ing the reasons for its failure to ters. --FE BUREAU
-6.1
-6.6
Tuesday in its the United States,the Euro- points,analysts said.
World Economic pean Union, and China -- Official data released on
US Euro Area China India* Japan Outlook will continue tostall,it said. Wednesday showed that food infla- India Ratings. prints is likelyto be partlymollified
projected a "In short,theworst isyet tionroseto8.6%inSeptemberfrom Icra chief economist Aditi Nayar by the high base that lies ahead for
growth rate of
to come,and for many peo- 7.62% inAugust and 6.69% in July. said:“The excessive rainfall in early H2FY23.”
2020 2021 2022 (P) 2023 (P) ple, 2023 will feel like a Core inflation rose to a four-month October may adversely impact the DK Joshi, chief economist at
6.8% in 2022 as recession,” said Pierre- highof6.07%inSeptember,against kharifharvestanddelayrabisowing, Crisil, said: “There is pressure on
compared to
6.9
OlivierGourinchas,theEco- 5.85% in the previous month, pri- thereby posing a material upside both, the supply (from food infla-
8.3
6.2
nomic Counsellor and the marilyduetoelevatedpricepressure risk to the food inflation outlook. tion-cerealsandvegetables)andthe
5.7
8.7% in 2021
5.5
5.1
4.8
for India Director of Research of the in the clothing, footwear and hous- However,the impact of the same on demand side (recovery in demand,
IMF, in his forward to the ing segments, according to the year-on-year food inflation particularly in services).”
2.9
2.6
2.4
WEO released during the
2.2
2.2
2
1.4
1.2
annual meeting of the IMF
0.9
Cabinet clears cooperative law
0.5
-0.2
andtheWorldBank.Nowbeyondthat,therearethree
0
underlying headwinds. One, of course, is financial
Euro Area China India* Japan conditions tightening because central banks and
changes for transparency
Asianeconomiesaretighteningtoaddressinflation.
Second is Ukraine, a war which has led to an
EXPORTS VOLUME IMPORTS VOLUME increase in food and commodity prices,widening
% chg, y-o-y % chg, y-o-y
currentaccountdeficits.Andthethirdisintheregion
itself,China is slowing down,he observed. FE BUREAU broadcasting said after the Cabinet digitalecosystem.Theproposedleg-
Advanced economies Advanced economies A combination of these factors is driving New Delhi, October 12 meeting.Currently, there are islation also seeks to improve the
0.9 EM & DM EM & DM prospects down across manyparts ofAsia including around 0.8 million cooperative composition of the board and
11.8
9.5
India.Indiaishavinganeffectwithexternaldemand THE UNION CABINET on Wednes- societies ofwhich around 1,500 are ensure financial discipline, besides
11.8
8.7
coming down.Also,domestically,inflation has been day approved amendments to the MSCS.The government is planning enabling the raising of fun.
6
4.2
rising. “What the RBI has done is that it's tightened Multi-State Cooperative Societies to introduce the Multi-State Coop-
3.3
2.9
2.4
2.5
2.1
2 3 Cabinet nod to bonus for
1.2
monetary policy. Rightfully so.They have been in a (MSCSs) Act to bring in trans- erative Societies (amendment) bill,
0.5
10.1 proactivetighteningmonetarypolicy,”hesaid.“Now, parency and accountability in the 2022 in the forthcoming winter 1.1 million railway staff
what that means is there has been a bearing on governance structure. session of the parliament. The act TheUnionCabinethasapproved
-1
domestic demand.You have inflation,which affects "The amendments have been was last amended in 2002. the payment of productivity-linked
-7.8
-4.8
-8.4
4.3 consumer demand, and when you try to address introduced to improve governance, Thakur said the proposed bonus (PLB) equivalent to 78 days
-9
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
inflation,that by tightening monetary policy,it will reform the electoral process, amendments have been brought in wages to about 1.1 million non-
2.5 (P) (P) (P) (P) bearuponinvestment.Andso,bothforbothreasons, strengthen monitoring mecha- to improve the ease of doing busi- gazetted railway employees for the
you see some slowing in India, and that's why we nisms and enhance transparency ness.The bill also proposes to intro- financial year 2021-22. The maxi-
EM & DM: Emerging market & developing economies revised it to 6.8% this year and to 6.1% the next andaccountability,"AnuragThakur, duce electronic submission and mum amount payable per eligible
year,”Srinivasan added. union ministerforinformation and issuanceofdocumentsforensuring employee is `17,951.
Pune
WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022

FINANCIAL EXPRESS ECONOMY 3

India-UK trade deal on the ‘verge

of collapse’ over visa comments
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
London, October 12
THE INDIA-UK free trade
agreement (FTA) is reportedly
on the“verge of collapse”after
the Indian government was
angered by comments made
by UK home secretary Suella
Bravermanquestioningaction
overvisa overstayers from the
country, a UK media report
claimed on Wednesday.
‘The Times' quoted gov-
ernment sources to say that
ministers in New Delhi were
“shocked and disappointed”
by the “disrespectful”
remarks made by Braverman,
who said she had concerns of
an “open borders” offer to
India as part of an FTA.
The likelihood of meeting
A report in ‘Politico' claims
that any plans of a UK visit by
PrimeMinisterNarendraModi
forDiwalitosignoffonanFTAis
also nownot likelyto go ahead.
Last week, the Indian-ori-
gin Home Secretary said in an
interview that she feared a
trade deal with India would
increase migration to the UK
when Indians already repre-
sented the largest group of
visa overstayers.
the Diwali deadline for the “Ihaveconcernsabouthav-
pact,set byformerPrime Min- ing an open borders migration
ister Boris Johnson, is now policy with India because I
believed to be diminishing. don't think that's what people
“There's still a lot of good- voted for with Brexit,” Braver-
will but if certain individuals mantold‘TheSpectator'weekly
are still embedded in the [UK] news magazine. Asked about
government it will paralyse visaflexibilityforstudentsand
the talks,” the newspaper entrepreneurs under an India-
quoted a source as saying. UKFTA,she said:“But I do have
some reservations. Look at
migrationinthiscountry–the
largest group of people who
overstay are Indian migrants.”
“We even reached an agree-
ment with the Indian govern-
ment last year to encourage
and facilitate better coopera-
tion in this regard. It has not
necessarily worked very well.”
Bravermanwasreferencingthe
Migration and Mobility Part-
nership (MMP) clinched
betweenherpredecessorinthe
HomeOffice,Indian-originfor-
merHomeSecretaryPritiPatel,
and ExternalAffairs MinisterS
Jaishankarin Maylastyear.
The Indian High Commis-
sion in London responded by
pointing out that action had
been initiated on all cases
referred to it underthe MMP.

NHAI InvIT CLASSIFIEDS

raises
`1,430 cr
HOLY Spirit thou who
NATIONAL HIGHWAYS
INFRA Trust (NHAI InvIT),
the infrastructure invest-
ment trust sponsored by
the National Highway
Authority of India (NHAI)
to monetise road assets,has
raised `1,430 crore from
domestic and international
investors through a follow-
on issuance of InvIT.
The funds will be used
to part finance the
InvIT’s acquisition of three
additional road projects
from NHAI. Launched in
November 2021, NHAI
InvIT had raised `8,011
crore for NHAI in its
maiden round,with an ini-
tial portfolio of five operat-
ing toll roads of an aggre-
gate length of 390 km.
With the acquisition of
three additional road pro-
jects, NHAI InvIT will own,
operate and maintain a
portfolio of eight operating
toll roadswith an aggregate
length of 636 km.
—FE BUREAU
PERSONAL
THANKSGIVING
makes me see every-
thing and shows me the
way to reach my ideals,
who gives me the
Divine gift to forgive
and forget the wrong
that is done unto me
and who is in all
instances of my life
with me. I in this short
dialogue want to thank
you for everything and
confirm once more that
I do not want to be
separated from you, No
matter how great the
material desire may be
I want to be with you
and my loved ones in
your perpectual glory
forever Amen. ZDS.
0070806390-1
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make necessary inquiries before sending any monies
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Janardan Bhagat Shikshan Prasarak Sanstha’s

MORU NARAYAN MHATRE VIDYALAYA &
TUKARAM NARAYAN GHARAT JR. COLLEGE Janardhan Bhagat Shikshan Prasarak Sanstha, Panvel
(ENGLISH MEDIUM)
GAVHAN- KOPAR, ULWE NODE RAMSHETH THAKUR HIGHER
Plot No.1 Sector- 8, Tal : Panvel, Dist : Raigad,
Navi Mumbai - 410206. SECONDARY VIDYALAYA, KHARGHAR
APPLICATIONS ARE INVITED FOR THE FOLLOWING Plot No- 1, Sector-33, KHAGHAR – 410210.
POSTS FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2022-2023 (SELF FINANCE - JR. COLLEGE)
• SECONDARY SECTION - APPLICATIONS ARE INVITED FOR THE FOLLOWING
1) COMPUTER LAB ASSISTANT :- POSTS FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2022-2023.
B.Sc. IT / B.Sc.Computer Science Full Time & Part Time Assistant Teachers for the Academic Year
Applica�ons with full details should reach to the 2022-2023, On Purely Temporary basis for the following subjects.
CHAIRMAN, JBSP SANSTHA, at MORU NARAYAN MHATRE Sr.
Subjects Qualifica�ons / Specializa�on
VIDYALAYA, Plot No. 1, Sector-8, GAVHAN- KOPAR, ULWE No.

NODE. 1 Physics M.Sc. B.Ed. ( Part Time)

Candidates may submit the applica�on by email to 2 Information Technology M.C.A. M.Sc. In Computer
mnmv.primary@gmail.com. on or before 5th November Science, M.Sc. IT - B.Ed.
2022.
If required Contact No. 9993023114 / 7045299876. Qualifica�ons as per university norms.
Applica�ons with full details should reach to
Shri. Ramsheth Thakur (Ex-M.P.) the CHAIRMAN, J.B.S.P. Sanstha’s, RAMSHETH THAKUR
Chairman, Janardan Bhagat Shikshan Prasarak Sanstha, Panvel SECONDARY & HIGHER SECONDARY VIDYALAYA, Plot No.
1, Sector-33, Khaghar - 410210.
• Last date for applica�on 5th November 2022
Janardan Bhagat Shikshan Prasarak Sanstha, Panvel • Candidates may submit the applica�on by email to
CHANGU KANA THAKUR ARTS, principalrthsv@gmail.com.
• If required Contact : I/C Principal Mrs. Nisha Nair -
COMMERCE AND SCIENCE COLLEGE, 9987476532 Mr. Meshram – 9821057464
NEW PANVEL (AUTONOMOUS) Shri. Ramsheth Thakur (Ex-M.P.)
Plot No.01, Sector 11, Khanda Colony, New Panvel (W),
Navi Mumbai - 410206. Chairman, Janardan Bhagat Shikshan Prasarak Sanstha, Panvel
APPLICATIONS ARE INVITED FOR THE FOLLOWING
POSTS FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2022-2023 Janardhan Bhagat Shikshan Prasarak Sanstha, Panvel
(FOR
( SELF-FINANCE PROGRAMMES) )
Full Time Assistant Professors for the Academic Year 2022-2023,
CHANGU KANA THAKUR VIDYALAYA
Plot No.8 Sector- 14, Tal : Panvel, Dist : Raigad-410206
On Purely Temporary basis for the following subjects.
Sr.
APPLICATIONS ARE INVITED FOR THE FOLLOWING
No.
Subjects Qualifica�ons / Specializa�on POSTS FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2022-2023
1 Management Studies MBA / MMS – Finance with • ENGLISH MEDIUM – PRE-PRIMARY SECTION
SET / NET / Ph.D
1) SUPERVISOR : - GRADUATE / POST GRADUATE, E.C.C.Ed,
2 Microbiology M.Sc. (Mircrobiology) with SET/
with 5 years experience.
NET / Ph.D.
3 Training & Placement MBA / MMS – Finance with • ENGLISH MEDIUM - SECONDARY SECTION :
Of�cer Experience in the �eld of 1) COMPUTER LAB ASST. : HSC / GRADUATE, Dip. in
Training & Placement Computer Hardware & MS.CIT.
4 Co-Ordinator - M.Sc. In M.Sc. (Computer Science) or 2) LADY BUS ATTENDANT. : 8th PASSED.
Data Analytics M.Sc. (Information Technology)
or MCA, M.E. in addition to • MARATHI MEDIUM :- SECONDARY SECTION :
above quali�cation, Diploma in 1) MUSIC TEACHER : GRADUATE with Sangeet Visharad
Data Analytics is required. 2) DRAWING TEACHER (PART TIME) : Graduate with A.T.D.
Qualifica�ons as per university norms.. - NET/SET/ Ph.D. • HIGHER SECONDARY : JR. COLLEGE :
will be given a preference.
Applica�ons with full details should reach to the 1) ASST. TEACHER : - MARATHI – M.A. B.Ed.
CHAIRMAN, J.B.S.P. Sanstha’s, CHANGU KANA THAKUR 2) ASST. TEACHER : - ENGLISH – M.A. B.Ed. IN ENGLISH
ARTS, COMMERCE AND SCIENCE COLLEGE, (AUTONOMOUS) 3) ASST. TEACHER :- MATHEMATICS – M.Sc. B.Ed
Plot No. 1, Sector-11, Khanda Colony New Panvel (W) - Applica�ons with full details should reach the
410210. CHAIRMAN, JBSP SANSTHA, plot no: 8, Sector-14, New
• Last date for application is 5th November 2022. Panvel, Tal : Panvel, Dist : Raigad, Navi Mumbai - 410206.
• Candidates may submit the application by Candidates may submit the applica�on by email to
email to principal@ckthakurcollege.net. jbspsanstha1992@gmail.com on or before 5th November
• If required Contact : Mr- Asmitak Bhagat – 8767764567 or 2022.
Mr. Pralhad Thakur – 9022600288 If required Contact No. 9930718675
Shri. Ramsheth Thakur (Ex-M.P.) Shri. Ramsheth Thakur (Ex-M.P.)
Chairman, Janardan Bhagat Shikshan Prasarak Sanstha, Panvel Chairman, Janardan Bhagat Shikshan Prasarak Sanstha, Panvel

Pune
 4 FINANCIAL EXPRESS WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM
ROBUST PERFORMANCE

Companies
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022
Ramon Laguarta, chairman & CEO, PepsiCo
...Our global business momentum remains
strong. Given our year-to-date performance,
we now expect our full-year organic revenue to
increase 12% and core constant currency earnings
per share to increase 10%.

● `1,245-CR NON-BINDING OFFER SENT EARLIER

At `2,659 cr,Wipro profit misses estimates
Carbon Resources plans IT major projects modest
Q3 revenue growth
THIERRY DELAPORTE,
CEO & MD, WIPRO
pipeline...As the market conditions
evolve, I believe our comprehensive
portfolio of differentiated offerings

binding offer for McLeod guidance at 0.5-2.0%

Jalan-owned firm yet
to get formal response
from lenders on offer
MITHUN DASGUPTA
Kolkata, October 12
CARBON RESOURCES, WHICH
had earlier submitted a non-bind-
ing letter of intent to lenders of
McLeod Russel to acquire a control-
ling stake in the debt-laden tea
major, is now planning to make a
binding proposal, two sources
familiarwith the matter told FE.
Both Carbon Resources and
anothercompany,MKShahExports,
are yet to receive formal responses
from the lenders on their offers for
McLeod Russel.
The carbon products manufac-
turer alleged that lenders are“drag-
ging their feet” on its `1,245-crore
offer for the troubled company,part
ofthefinanciallystressedWilliamson
Magor group. “Carbon Resources'
offer is still on the table. However,
lendersaredraggingtheirfeet...They
are stonewalling the efforts to pro-
vide documents. For around three
years, McLeod has been an NPA
account.Certain loan amounts have
already been written off from the
books,” the sources cited above said,
adding: “The company is now plan-
ning to make a bindingoffer.”
According to the offer made in
September, Jalans-owned Carbon
Resources would infuse upfront
equity of `300 crore and a debt of
`945 crore to resolve Mcleod’s out-
standingdebt.Securedlenderswould
bepaidinfull,whileunsecuredwould
have to take a 45% haircut as the
Jalans proposed to take over.
QUICK
VIEW
CUP OF WOES
■ According to Sept offer,
Carbon Resources would
infuse upfront equity of
`300 cr & `945 cr debt
for McLeod Russel dues
■ Secured lenders would
be paid in full, while
unsecured lenders would
have to take a 45% haircut
■ On the other hand, MK
Shah Exports put forward
a proposal to purchase
McLeod tea gardens to
help the company reduce
debt and realise the
restructuring plan
The lenders to the teamaker are
ICICI Bank, State Bank of India,
Indian Bank, RBL Bank, Axis Bank,
HDFC Bank, UCO Bank, Punjab
National Bank, Yes Bank and
IndusIndBank.WithpromoterKhai-
tans having only a little over 6.2%
stake in the company,debt stands at
over`1,700 crore.
Carbon Resources had picked up
a5.03%stakeinMcLeodRusselfrom
the open market last month. It said
the stake purchase was to show
lenders that it is keen to acquire the
IiAS red-flags Future
Lifestyle Fashion’s
company,whichcurrentlyhas31gar-
densinAssam and two in Dooars.
MK Shah Exports,which made a
counter offer to the lenders by
putting forward a proposal to pur-
chase tea gardens from McLeod to
help the company reduce debt and
realise the restructuring plan,is also
waiting to hearfrom them.MKShah
Exports, India’s largest producer of
orthodox varieties of tea, has pro-
posed to extend its support to exist-
ing promoters in the ongoing
restructuringplan.
“The lenders have acknowledged
thereceiptofourletterofintent.They
will call us, but all these things take
time,” Himanshu Shah, chairman,
MKShah Exports,told FE.
“If the biggest player such as
McleodRusselgetsdisruptedandbro-
ken up,the tea industry suffers defi-
nitely.Wewantedtokeeptheintegrity
andimpeccabilityoftheleadingcom-
pany.Now,they are in a problem.As
their debt restructuring proposal is
goingonandthereisanissueoffunds,
we are there to pitch in to bring back
the incumbent promoter and let
thembegivenachance.Weproposed
tobuygardensfromthem,itwillhelp
them reduce the company debt to a
sustainablelevel,”Shahsaid.
“The talks on debt restructuring
proposal,putforwardbythepromot-
ers,havebeengoingonformorethan
ayear.Becauseofthepandemic,itgot
delayed.Inbetween,lendersreceived
an offer from a company (Carbon
Resources), which wants a hostile
takeover. As a counter, this is the
actionwhichhasbeentaken,”hesaid.
Meanwhile,McleodRusselchair-
man Aditya Khaitan told sharehold-
ersatitsannualgeneralmeetingheld
on September 30 that banks have
“concluded”intermsofwhatthedebt
restructuring resolutionshould be.
FE BUREAU
Bengaluru, October 12
IT SERVICES MAJOR Wipro on
Wednesday said its net profit rose
3.7%sequentiallyto`2,659crorein
the September quarter.It was below
Bloombergestimateof`2,847crore.
On an annual basis, however, net
profit declined about 9% due to a
higher one-time tax benefit in the
same quarterof the previous fiscal.
Revenue for the quarter grew
14.6% annually and 4.7% on a
sequential basis to `22,540 crore on
the back of a strong demand envi-
ronment for cloud,digital engineer-
ing and cybersecurity services.The
revenuenarrowlymissedBloomberg
estimate of `22,581 crore.
Thecompanyexpectsrevenuefor
thethirdquarterendingDecemberto
beintherangeof$2.81-2.85billion,
which translates to a sequential
growth of 0.5-2.0%, lower than the
3-5% it had guided for the Septem-
Moonlighting: Contracts need to be respected, says CEO
FE BUREAU
Bengaluru, October 12
WIPROONWEDNESDAYreiterated
that it does not tolerate the idea of
moonlighting as it was strictly
unethical.“There are contracts and
theyneedtoberespected,inparticu-
lar when people are taking up a job
that has a conflict of interest with
Wipro’sbusiness,”ThierryDelaporte,
CEO and MD,Wipro,said.
Asked if Wipro had introduced
newpoliciestoreininonmoonlight-
ing practices, Saurabh Govil, chief
HCLTech Q2 profit at `3,487 cr;
raises full-year revenue guidance
FE BUREAU
Our ongoing
investments
in high-
growth
strategic
areas have
allowed us
to steadily
increase our
win rate...
ber quarter. Unlike Infosys, which
guides for the full fiscal,Wipro typi-
callyguides forthe quarterahead.
The modest guidance is keeping
in mind a challenging macro-eco-
nomicenvironmentandaseasonally
weakthirdquarter,saidThierryDela-
porte, chief executive officer and
managing director,Wipro, address-
ing the media in a conference.Wipro
is, however, confident of achieving
humanresourcesofficer,said“noth-
ing has changed from the past”.
Some IT companies, including
Wipro,haveopenlyopposedtheidea
of employees moonlighting. Last
month, Rishad Premji, chairman,
Wipro, had said the company had
fired 300 employees after theywere
foundworking forcompetitors.
Wipro also asked its staff to
return to the office starting October
10 at least thrice a week. Without
revealingwhatpercentagewereback
in office, it said its office was open
four days a week and “expects the
REPORT CARD
double-digitgrowthforthefullfiscal.
The IT services revenue in dollar
terms grew 4.1% sequentially and
13% on a year-on-year basis in con-
stantcurrencyto$2.80billiononthe
backofsomelargedealwinsaswellas
expansion in smaller deals. “Our
ongoinginvestmentsinhigh-growth
strategic areas have allowed us to
steadily increase our win rate and
enhance the quality of our
leadership team to come in three
days aweek”.
The company further said it had
rolled out quarterly promotions in
Julyandalsoincreasedsalaries,effec-
tive September.That likely helped it
bringdownitstrailingtwelvemonth
(TTM) attrition rate to 23%,moder-
ating from Q1FY22’s 23.3%.
It expects operating margins in
Q3FY23 to be impacted from the
salaryincreases,whilesayingthatfor
thefullyear,itexpectsstrongdouble-
digit growth.“Our margin in Q3 will
have some headwinds. That is the
position us extremely well to serve
thechangingneedsofourclientsand
help them face the challenges of an
uncertain macro environment with
confidence,” Delaporte said.
Operating margin narrowed to
15.1% in the September quarter
from17.8%ayearago,butshoweda
marginalimprovementonasequen-
tial basis from 15% in the preceding
threemonths.“Weachievedmargins
of 15.1% in Q2 after absorbing the
impact of salary increases and pro-
motions.Our margin improvement
was led by better price realisations
and strong operational improve-
mentsinautomation-ledproductiv-
ity,” JatinDalal,CFO,Wipro,said.
The voluntary attrition rate, on
thelast12-monthbasis,forthequar-
ter rose to 23% from 20.5% a year
ago,indicating that demand fortech
talent continues to outpace supply,a
trend seen across the industry.On a
sequential basis,it,however,moder-
atedfrom23.3%intheJunequarter,
indicatingthatitisgraduallycoming
down.“We expect further modera-
tion in Q3,” Delaporte said.
impactoftwoincrementalmonthsof
salaryincreases,” Delaporte said.
Wipro added 605 employees in
Q2, sharply lower from 15,446 last
quarter.“InQ1wehaddoneanexcep-
tional amount of hiring,we did that
because we had a huge amount of
demandandknewitwouldtaketime
before we utilise this talent — that is
what we have done in Q2,” he said.
“We’re also focused on hiring fresh-
ers,we have hired several thousands
offreshersandwillcontinuetofollow
this strategy over the coming quar-
ters,” he added.
Vedanta
shareholders
approve
shifting of

PVR shareholders
motion to sell assets Mumbai, October 12

ITMAJOR HCLTECH onWednesday

(` crore) Q2FY21
(Sept)
cash reserves
RAJESH KURUP operations,” IiAS said in a note. posted a 6.28% rise in consolidated
24,686

approve merger Mumbai, October 12 “It is unclear how the company net profit of `3,487 crore on a seq- Q1FY22 FE BUREAU
23,464

(June)
with rival INOX will be able to operate at its current uential basis for the quarter ended Mumbai, October 12
20,655

PROXY ADVISORY FIRM Institu- scale without these assets. Further, September30,led bystrong growth Q2 FY22
MULTIPLEX tional Investor Advisory Services except that the sale of assets will be across all verticals. (Sept) LONDON-BASED VEDANTA
OPERATOR PVR India (IiAS) has advised sharehold- at least at bookvalue,there isno fur- Its net profit on a year-on-year Resources, helmed by billionaire
on Wednesday said ers against supporting Future ther disclosure on the proposed dis- basis rose 6.86% to `3,263 crore. Anil Agarwal, has received
5,425
5,023
4,975

it has received the LifestyleFashions(FLFL)motionfor posal.The board needs to provide a Revenue from operations rose shareholders’ approval of its
4,427
3,944
3,992

3,281
3,487
3,263

nod from its shareholders for
the scheme of mergerwith
rival Inox Leisure.The proposal
was passed by over 99% of the
number of valid votes cast
Tata Power’s 7MWsolar
project in Uttarakhand
TATAPOWERonWednesdaysaid
itwill set up a 7 MWsolarproject
forTata Motorsin Pantnagar.
The project once completedwill
generate 215 million units of
electricity,,mitigating over0.17
million tonne of CO2,the
companysaid.
Mercedes-Benz crosses
2021 sales in 9 months
MERCEDES-BENZ
India sold more
cars in the January
to Septemberperiod
thisyearcomparedwith the
totalvehicles sold in the
entire CY2021.
the sale of fixed assets to repaydebt plan to the company’s shareholders 5.2% to `24,686 crore on a sequen- Indian unit to move funds into its
as this would reduce its scale of on the potential continuation of the tial basis from `23,464 crore posted balance sheet.
operations.However,it business in light of the in the June quarter and a 19.5% rise The company had held a meet-
asked them to support The proxy advisory sale of a dominant por- from `20,655 crore from the same ing of shareholders of its India-list
two other motions, tion of assets,”it added. quarter of last year.A consensus esti- unit,Vedanta Ltd,in which it holds
both appointments of firm asked the In the postal ballot matebyBloombergwasexpectingthe Revenue from Ebitda Ebit PAT about 70% stake, on October 11.
independentdirectors. shareholders to notice,FLFLhadsought firm to post a net profit of `3,419 operations The special resolution by
The Future Group support two other authorisation to sell, croreonrevenueof`24,459.10crore. Vedanta was favoured with a total
firm had earliersought motions, both lease, rent, transfer or “Our services business grew revenue guidance for FY23. headcount to 2.19 lakh. Its IT ser- 99.97% ofvotes cast,ofwhich pro-
theconsentofitsmem- appointments dispose of fixed assets 5.3%q-o-qand18.9%y-o-yincon- “Our first-half growth and deal vices attrition stood at 23.8% on a moters and promoter groups
bers for the sale of in- of independent (in-store retail infra stant currency, led by strong wins leadus toincrease ourrevenue last 12-month trailing basis. approved it with 100% votes.
storeretailinfra-assets, assets)whichwerelying demand forcloud,engineering and guidance to 16-17% for services “We expect to onboard 30,000 Public institutions supported
directors
which will be used for at non-operational digital services. Our bookings and and 13.5-14.5% at the company freshers this year,” Ramachandran it with 99.98% and non-public
the repayment of debt stores. The board had pipeline continue to be strong,that level,reflectiveofourstronggrowth Sundararajan,chiefpeopleofficerat institutions with 99.97% of votes,
and other operational proposedtousethepro- augurs well for our future growth,” visibility. Our Ebit guidance is now HCLTech said. according to a stock exchange
liabilities. It is seeking approval ceeds for repayment of debt and HCLTech CEO and MD C Vijayaku- in a narrower range of 18-19%,” On moonlighting,the company update.
through an e-voting,which ends on other operational liabilities,which mar said.“We had a very good first HCLTech chief financial officerPra- said it does not approve of doing a According to a stock exchange
Thursday. would help the company reduce its half, we had excellent bookings in teek Aggarwal said. job for another company while notice convening the meeting of
“While we understand that the debt“considerably”. the first half, which will result in The company had expected rev- working with HCL Technologies. shareholders, the proposed
company will need funds to keep The board believed that with the good revenue growth in the coming enuetogrowat12-14%inconstant “Everybody who signs up to work scheme of arrangement between
itself afloat, the approval sought is remainingassets,FLFLwillbeableto quarters,”he added. currency terms and Ebit margin to with HCLTech is signing an Vedanta and its shareholders pro-
for disposal of assets worth `1,390 continue its business operations. HCLTech alsowon 11 large deals be at 18-20% for FY23. Its board employment contract which vides for capital reorganisation of
crore,whichcontributedto64.2%of IiAS has asked shareholders to (8in servicesand 3inproducts).The alsodeclaredaninterimdividendof requires exclusivity, confidential- the company. This is to provide
thecompany’srevenuesinFY21and support two other motions — to totalcontractvalueofnewdealwins `10 per share. ity and non-compete provisions for transfer of amounts standing
32%ofthecompany’stotalassetsas appoint Bharat Ram and Neelam rose 16% from the previous quar- The firm added 8,359 employ- among others. We expect our to the credit of the general reserves
ofMarch2022.Thiswillsignificantly Chhiberasindependentdirectorsfor terand 6%y-o-yto $2,384 million. ees,including 10,339 freshers,dur- employees to honour these com- to the retained earnings of
reduce the scale of the company’s fiveyears from July19,2022. HCLTechnologiesalsorevisedits ing the quarter, taking its total mitments,”he added. the company.

BNYMellontogo
electricinIndia
BNY MELLON plans to convert
its corporate vehicles fleet into
electric in India by 2025.The
company has a total fleet of
700 diesel-powered multi-
purpose vehicles (MPVs).
KettleboroughVC
closesfirst$5-mfund
KETTLEBOROUGH
VC,an early-stage
venture capital,has
raised $5 million to
invest in technology-centric
startups in their seed stage.
eBikeGotosetup
subsidiaryinSpain
ELECTRIC TWO-WHEELER
platform eBikeGo on
Wednesday announced
its plans to set up a wholly-
owned subsidiary in Spain to
cater to the demand from the
European market.
Sahyadri sets up subsidiary to raise funds, IPO also on the cards
GEETA NAIR
Pune, October 12
THE BUZZATtherecentlyheld12th
annualgeneralmeetingofSahyadri
Farmers Producer Company at the
Sahyadri campus in Mohadi, Din-
dori, in Nashik was different this
time.Thefarmerproducercompany
(FPO) has created a new subsidiary
with an aim to raise capital from
overseas to scale up their business.
An IPO is also on the cards.
The horticulture-focused com-
panyhasalreadyreceivedtheregula-
toryapprovaltohiveoffitspost-har-
vest business division into a new
corporate entity. The 100% sub-
sidiary,SahyadriFarmsPost-Harvest
Care Limited,will house all the post-
harvest business,including the pro-
cessing business,retail,logistics,and
newlines of business.
Vilas Vishnu Shinde, CMD at
SahyadriFarmers,saidthesubsidiary,
Sahyadri Farms, raised `310 crore
12 years of groundwork,
restructuring of
operations and the
recent funding will see
Sahyadri get into a
new growth phase.
VILAS VISHNU SHINDE,
CMD, SAHYADRI FARMERS
PRODUCERS COMPANY
lastmonthfromagroupofEuropean
investors who picked up a 16.6%
stakeinthefirm,whichwasvaluedat
`2,000 crore. Shinde added that
Sahyadriwould be going publicwith
anIPOplannedinthenext3-4years.
Thiscouldbethefirst-of-its-kindlist-
ing forfarmerproducercompanies.
Sahyadriisownedby731farmers
with681farmersdirectlyowningthe
company and the rest through 48
farmer producer companies (FPCs).
Shinde, a first-generation entrepre-
neur, and his family, own 52.8% in
SFPC, 32.9% is held by small and
marginal farmers, and 14.3% by
largefarmers andFPCs.
The firm’s FY22 revenueswere at
`785.7 crore, Ebitda at `66.4 crore,
and net profit at `23 crore.Around
71% revenues come from the
Sahyadri Farms Post Harvest Com-
pany and the company has set a rev-
enue target of `1,191 crore and
Ebitda of`140 crore forFY23.
Sahyadri supplies to some big
names such as HUL, BigBasket,
Mother Dairy, Del Monte,Veeba, an
Reliance.Itgotintoamanufacturing
partnershipwithHUL in2019forthe
Kissan range of products.This gave
them the confidence of making a
foray into the retail segment with
their own brand of value-added and
ready-to-eat food products.
Sahyadri currently sources from
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat,
AndhraPradesh,Rajasthan,Kashmir
and Himachal Pradesh. They will
expand into Punjab, Kerala, Tamil
Nadu,Telangana and the NorthEast.
Multiple pilots are on for a direct
retail business and to supplydirectly
to street vendors and retailers.“12
yearsofgroundwork,restructuringof
operations and the recent funding
will see Sahyadri get into a new
growthphase,” Shindesaid.
Sahyadri FPC’s corporate structure
move to set a trend for others
SAHYADRI FARMER PRO-
DUCER Company (FPC) receiv-
ing the required regulatory
approvals to split the farmer
facilitationandpost-harvestcare
business could set a trend for
FPCs. Till now, only
producers/farmers could be FPC
shareholders and capital could
only be raised from them or
through internal accruals.
Vilas Vishnu Shinde, chair-
man,Sahyadri FPC,said the new
corporate structure has enabled
farmers to continue with collec-
tive farming and be part ofvalue
creation through the subsidiary,
which could raise growth capital
from non-producer investors.
However,regulatorshavestip-
ulated that the shareholding of
the parent FPC in the subsidiary
should not fall below51%.
Rahul Rai, partner, Incofin
India, an investment firm, said
Sahyadri FPC would become a
model for other FPCs to follow,
give confidence to the sectorand
show them the pathway to scale.
Alpen Capital, strategic advi-
sors to Sahyadri Farms for the
transaction, said Sahyadri had
overcome the most difficult part
of the process and cleared all the
legal hurdles and therewould be
no roadblocks to the expansion
and growth of the FPC.
—FE BUREAU/PUNE

Pune
WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM
FINANCIAL EXPRESS
5G: Telcos, phonemakers
get deadline till mid-Nov
Apple says upgrade
in Dec, Samsung to
roll it out mid-Nov
JATIN GROVER
New Delhi, October 12
THE GOVERNMENT ON
Wednesday asked the telecom
operators as well as handset
makers to sort out glitches in
5G services byNovember15 so
that user experience is seam-
less and not marred by patchy
network coverage or device-
related issues.
In a meeting with the tele-
com operators — Reliance Jio,
BhartiAirtel,andVodafoneIdea
and all the handset manufac-
turerslikeApple,Samsung,and
others, secretary, ministry of
electronics and information
technology, said that by
December, all issues should be
sorted out by both the parties.
Both parties have been
asked to provide fortnightly
updates to the government
on the progress of their net-
works and software upgrades
on 5G devices, respectively.
“The government is focused
only on one goal which is to
increase 5G coverage for
users and these meetings are
necessary to take stock of the
situation,” an official said.
While Samsung said in a
PepsiCo posts double-digit
volume growth in India
FE BUREAU
New Delhi, October 12
GLOBAL FOOD AND bever-
ages major PepsiCo on
Wednesday reported good
double-digit volume growth
in India for the quarter that
ended September 30, amid
higher commodity prices and
rising operating costs.
Thecompany’srevenuedur-
ing the quarter was up 3.66%
year-on-year to $1.72 billion
from the Africa, Middle East
(West Asia) and South Asia
(AMESA) regionwhich includes
India.This is“primarily reflect-
ing effective net pricing, par-
tially offset by a net decline in
organic volume. Unfavourable
foreign exchange reduced net
revenue growth by 14 percent-
agepoints,”thecompanysaidin
Jio unit gets satellite
communication
licence from DoT
JATIN GROVER
New Delhi, October 12
JIO SATELLITE COMMUNICA-
TIONS,a unit of telecom oper-
ator Reliance Jio, has got a
licence from the Department
of Telecommunications (DoT)
to offer satellite-based com-
munication services in the
country.Thecompanyreceived
the Global Mobile Personal
Communication by Satellite
(GMPCS) licence on Tuesday,
according to people aware of
the matter.
With this, Jio Satellite has
become the second company
after Bharti Group-backed
OneWebtogetaGMPCSlicence
fromthegovernment.AGMPCS
licence is issued by the govern-
ment for20years,which allows
companies to offer satellite
communication services in
licensedservice areas.
Jio Satellite was expected to
complywiththelicencerequire-
ments and sign the agreement
within this week,basis which it
was to be given the licence to
operate satellite communica-
tions services in the country,FE
reported onTuesday.
In February, Reliance Jio’s
parent Jio Platforms formed a
jointventurewithLuxembourg-
based satellite communication
services provider SES to offer
high-speed satellite-based
broadband services.
Apart from OneWeb and Jio
Satellites,otherplayers such as
Elon Musk’s SpaceX-owned
Starlink are also seeing a huge
business opportunity to offer
satellite-based internet ser-
vices. One of the reasons for
the growing interest in the
satellite broadband segment is
the opportunity to provide
internet services to far-flung
GETTING 5G-READY
■ Most other Android device
makers have started rolling
out the software upgrade
and are expected to fully
meet Nov 15 deadline
■ Telcos said they are rolling
out services in a phased
manner and will continue to
do once the handset makers
upgrade the software
statement that its update
across all 5G devices will be
completed by mid-November,
Apple said that it will start
rolling out software upgrades
to its iPhone users in
December.
“We are working with our
carrier partners in India to
bring the best 5G experience
to iPhone users as soon as net-
work validation and testing
for quality and performance
are completed. 5G will be
enabled via a software update
and will start rolling out to
iPhone users in December,”
Apple said in a statement.
“We are working closely
with our operator partners
and are committed to rolling
out OTAupdates across all our
5G devices by mid-November
2022, enabling Indian con-
sumers to experience 5G
seamlessly,” a Samsung India
its earnings statement.
PepsiCo reported a mid-sin-
gle-digit growth in the conve-
niencefoodsunitvolumeinthe
Indian market, said the state-
ment. The company's conve-
nience foods unit volume in
AMESAgrew5%reflectingdou-
ble-digit growth in the Middle
East, India and Pakistan on a
year-to-date basis.
The operating profit
and hilly areas without the
need for fibre-based connec-
tivity. It is also the only
medium through which com-
munication can be established
in disasterzoneswhen normal
communication gets affected.
“We are getting interested
from other private players as
well to get satcom licence and
moreclarityonthatwouldcome
in going forward,”a senior DoT
official said, adding that Ama-
zon’s Project Kuiper has not
shown any interest to offer ser-
vices inthe countryas of now.
The satellite communica-
tion sector is currently at a
nascent stage in India,andwith
requirements of higher band-
width, lower latency require-
ment of data and demand for
such services in defence and
military sectors,the segment is
expected to seestrong growth.
According to a report by the
Indian SpaceAssociation (ISpA)
and EY,the Indian space sector
is expected to grow to $13 bil-
lion by 2025, and of that satel-
lite services and applications
segment is likely to contribute
the largest36% share.
The satellite internet ser-
vice providers are expected to
start the services from next
year as currently, the govern-
ment is yet to allocate spec-
trum in the 27.5-28.5 MHz
band for satellite services.
spokesperson said.
Most other Android device
makershavestartedrollingout
the software upgrades and are
expected to fully meet the
November 15 deadline.
The telecom operators, on
their part, said that they are
rolling out services in a phased
mannerandwillcontinuetodo
once the handset makers
upgrade the software on their
devices, customer experience
will be seamless in parts where
services are being rolled out.
Subscribers of BhartiAirtel
can now check on the Airtel
Thanks app, whether 5G ser-
vices are available in their
area. Through the app, sub-
scribers will also be able to
check whether their phones
are 5G enabled or not, and if
enabled whether it has the
upgraded software to support
5G services.
declined 14%, reflecting a 62-
percentage points impact of
higher commodity costs, pri-
marily grains and packaging
materials,certainoperatingcost
increasesandhigheradvertising
and marketing expenses, the
companysaid.
In the AMESA zone,Pepsico
convenient foods unit volume
declined 2%,primarily reflect-
ingahigh-single-digitdeclinein
South Africa,partially offset by
double-digitgrowthintheMid-
dle East and Pakistan and mid-
single-digit growth in India.
Its beverage unit volume
grew 11%, similar to the dou-
ble-digit growth in India, the
company said. The beverage
unit volume grew 17%, pri-
marily mirroring double-digit
growth in India during the
same period.
NSDL acquires 5.6% stake
in ONDC for `10 crore
LEADING DEPOSITORYNSDL
on Wednesday said it has
acquired a 5.6% stake in the
Union government’s Open
NetworkforDigitalCommerce
for `10 crore.
National Securities Deposi-
tory Limited (NSDL) invested
an amount of `10 crore in
ONDCundertheprivateplace-
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022
COMPANIES 5
Sebi’s plea
against RIL:
SC hearing
to now be
in chambers
INDU BHAN
New Delhi, October 12
THE SUPREME COURT on
Wednesday did a U-turn and
decided to hear in chambers —
and not in open court — the
Sebi’s petition seeking a review
of its August 5 judgment that
haddirectedthemarketregula-
tor to share certain documents
with RelianceIndustries(RIL).
The company claims these
records will exonerate it and its
promoters from criminal pros-
ecution initiated in a case
relatedtotheallegedirregulari-
ties in the acquisition of its
sharesbetween1994and2000.
While the casewas listed for
hearing on Wednesday in the
opencourtat3.55pm,itwasnot
takenup.However,ashortorder
was later uploaded on the
court's website stating that
Sebi’sapplicationforseekingan
open courthearingis rejected.
A Bench led by Chief Justice
Uday Umesh Lalit and justices
J.K.MaheshwariandHimaKohli
whilerecallingitsSeptember29
orderdirectedtheRegistrytolist
the review petition“by normal
mode i.e., through circulation”
on October19.
In its short order,the judges
stated that it had on September
29 directed the listing of the
review petition in open court.
“However,onminuteperusalof
the contents of the application
seeking open court hearing,we
donotdeemitappropriatetolist
thereviewpetitioninopencourt
and we are of the view that the
same should be listed byway of
circulation,” it said while reject-
ing the Sebi’s application for an
open courthearing.
So far, Sebi has not shared
the three documents — the two
legal opinions by former SC
judgeBNSrikrishnaandthefor-
mer ICAI president YH
Malegam’s reportwhich exam-
inedtheirregularities—thatthe
SC had asked it to share“forth-
with”,thuspromptingRILtofile
a contemptpetition.
mentroute,thedepositorysaid
in a statement.
“Thisstrategicdealwillfur-
ther strengthen the digital
ecosystem to take digital e-
commerce to the people of
India,” Padmaja Chunduru,
MD and CEO at NSDL,said.
ONDC is an initiative of the
commerce ministry. —PTI
Pune
 6 FINANCIAL EXPRESS WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM
CLOSED ECOSYSTEMS, TIGHT CONTROL

Opinion THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022

Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, in an interview with The Verge
In every generation of computing, there’s been an open
ecosystem and a closed ecosystem, there was Windows and
Mac, then Android and iOS. Closed ecosystems focus on tight control
and integration to create unique experiences and lock in. Although
most of that value ends up flowing to the platform over time

Cashing in on e-rupee ● BIG TECH MONOPOLY

THE GIANT DISTRIBUTION PLATFORMS THATWE NOW RELY ON POSE SERIOUS
RBI’s concept paper makes a compelling THREATTO THE FINANCIAL-ECONOMIC-POLITICAL SYSTEMS OF NATIONS
case for central bank digital currency

The global middle-men

A
STHE RESERVE BankofIndia(RBI)hasarticulatedinitsconcept
paper, among the most important uses of central bank digital
currency(CBDC)wouldbeforittoreplacecash.Tobesure,India’s
digitalpaymentsinfrastructuretodayisarobustoneandthevol-

G
umeofdigitaltransactionsisrisingrapidly.However,evenifitisusedinalim- ROWING INEQUALITY
itedfashion,theCBDCwouldstrengthenthepaymentssystembyproviding IN income and wealth,
coupledwiththeaccelera-
anotherlayer.Even today,cash accounts fora large share of transactions; in
FY22, currency in circulation was up nearly 10%, at over `31 trillion, and
tion of the number of bil-
lionaires,hasbeenamajor
the savings from simply printing notes,not to mention the cost of storing global socioeconomic concern in recent
and transporting them, could be enormous. Last year, RBI is estimated to times.This is attributed mostlyto hi-tech
have spent close to `5,000 crore on just printing notes.Among the reasons intermediation/aggregation platforms,
why cash is used in such large quantities is that it provides anonymity.The whicharefastemergingasaggregatorsof
central bank is right in pointing out that ensuring anonymity for a digital concern. Consequently, global debates
overtaxationofsuchplatformsandother
currency particularly does pose a bit of challenge,given all digital transac- networking entities are raging. Equally
tions would leave some trail.At the same time, it finds merit in providing vehement is the debate and regulatory
some degree of anonymity for small value transactions, as is the case with actioninvariousjurisdictionstoreinthem
physicalcash.TheCBDCcouldbedesignedtoenablesomedegreeofprivacy. in from abusing their dominance.Their
The central bank prefers the indirect CBDC model inwhich consumers powerandinfluenceoverpeopleandlives
will hold their CBDC in an account or a wallet with a bank, or a service are creating hugely complex sociopoliti-
cal and economic issues, more serious
provider.As it rightlypoints out,a direct model,inwhich the central bank
than the so-called multinationals and
interacts directly with the end customers would result in disintermedia- othernear-monopoliesin the past.
tion,somethingforwhichtheIndianbanksarenotreadyyet.Moreover,the An equally interesting angle, though
central bank too would be overburdened if it needs to manage customers not much debated,is the type of services
and operate a retail ledger.Also, such a framework could end up stifling provided by such entities. The largest
innovation in the payments system.Ultimately,financial intermediaries transport company doesn’t own a single
vehicle,the largest retailer doesn’t own a
are best-suited to cater to the needs of consumers. Even in the Universal
single retail store, and the largest food
Payments Interface (UPI) ecosystem,forinstance,it is the GooglePays and delivery company does not own a single
PhonePes that have drawn in customers onto the platform. restaurant.Most of them are engaged in
In this context,opting for a non-interest bearing CBDC would be bet-
distribution;theyrarelyproduceanything
terin today’s environment.As experts have pointed out,an interest-bear- (goods orservices).
ing instrument might make monetary policy more effective as trans- Thenetworkmediadonotevencreate
missionwould shift from the overnight moneymarket rate to the deposit thecontentontheirplatforms.Itisallcre-
ated by the users,though at times not to
rate. However, a deposit-like CBDC could result in some degree of disin- thelikingofmany.Intheprocess,theyare
termediation.In otherwords,if customers decide to hold CBDC deposits, facing requests/demand for removing
banks would be deprived of funds with which to pursue lending activity. suchcontent.Mostoftheonline/stream-
To prevent an exodus of customers,lenders would need to price deposits ing entertainment companies,which are
at rates that might make it unviable for them to run the business effi- fast becoming global oligopolies,are also
ciently without taking on too much risk. One key reason for the intro- mainly aggregators,with a few in-house
creationsthrowninbetween.Eveneduca-
duction of a CBDC is RBI’s discomfort with crypto-currencies.Given the
tion,oncethepreserveoffamedbrickand
risks that cryptos pose to financial stability, the CBDC will provide the wood/mortar universities,is being taken
public with a risk-free alternative to work with virtual currencies. over by platform models, some of them
Togetherwith the much-needed financial stability,the CBDC would also with their overblown hype and capsuled
help further financial inclusion. The blockchain technology will enable tutorial/coaching models.
offline transactions,which are needed to ensure wider usage.As the cen- Inshort,justthedistributionofgoods
tral bank has pointed out, as of now, just 825 million people have inter- andserviceshasbecomeamajorbusiness
globally.They have become colossal oli-
net access, and offline transactions would of be of immense help in gopoly platforms,disrupting global sup-
remote locations. In addition, a CBDC will make cross-border transac- ply-chain ecosystems drastically. Such
tions and even local wholesale payments a lot more efficient.
CKG NAIR
& MS SAHOO
Respectively, director, National Institute of
Securities Markets, and distinguished professor,
National Law University, Delhi
Views are personal
massive and fast changes have suddenly Monopoly usually has control over
brought enormous challenges for pro- supply:quantityandprice.However,these
ducers, producer-distributors, distrib- platforms are going one step ahead.They
uters,andsmall-andmedium-scaleoper- also have control over customers. For
ators in almost all integrated economies instance, a ride-hailing service scores
around the world,something like the tail everyrideronascaleof5,enablingdenial
wagging the dog. The macroeconomic ofservicetoariderwhoscoreslow.Itmay
effects of these changes on employment, wipe out or marginalise other taxis from
prices, and incomes, including income the market but may deny a ride to some
distribution, are massive, with huge customers. Similar AI-based algorithms
groundswell of gigs and ‘read’andevaluatethepref-
temps, predatory pricing, erence of each user or con-
and other anti-competitive Till the e-commerce sumerof theirservices and
practices. A 2018 book by lurethemtoaddictivecon-
Tom Goodwin captures giants became sumerism. Like the sirens
omnipresent, the
these new developments in attracting passers-by with
the title of his book,‘Digital melodious music in Greek
domestic
Darwinism: Survival of the mythology.
distribution chains
Fittest in the Age of Business Indian policymakers
Disruption’. were at times had been concerned about
In 1879, Henry George competitive the cost and inefficiencies
propounded that agricul- of long chains of distribu-
ture is the only productive tion intermediaries (mid-
humanactivityandadvocatedasingletax dle-men)operatinginmultipleareas,par-
systembasedonthevalueofland.Though ticularly in the primary sector.The major
nosovereignborrowedtheideainexacti- concerns were that the farmers/produc-
tude, tax systems had been fairly simple ers of agricultural and other primary
till the late 19th century.Industrial revo- products would get very low prices while
lution,andlater,the explosionof services the end consumers pay substantially
of umpteen types, created considerable higherpricesbecauseofseveralroundsof
complexity in the tax structures of mark-up by these layers of middle-men.
nations.Now,the tech platforms,practi- Given the magnitude of such collective
cally doing no “productive” activity but mark-up just in the distribution chain,it
almostfullyoccupyingthespaceofman- resulted in skewed and undesirable
aging global distribution of nearlyevery- incomedistributioninfavourofthemid-
thingasaservice,arethenewreality.Afew dle-menandagainsttheproducersaswell
global platforms for everyone,including as consumers.Even the Agricultural Pro-
for social interaction, communications, duce Marketing Committee (APMC)
and entertainment, seem to be the ulti- enactments by almost all states did not
mate destination. help solve the problem; rather, the mid-
dle-men syndrome flourished under the
APMCs too. Several committees and
experts suggested the need for substan-
tive disintermediation, and some policy
measures have been taken to bring the
producers and buyers closer.While this
domesticpolicybattleremainsprotracted
and inconclusive, it seems we have wel-
comed the aggregation-intermediation
model of the new global monopoly/oli-
gopolyin distribution.
These distribution platforms are get-
tingbiggerandmoreconcentrated;mak-
ingincomedistributionfurtherskewedin
their favour. Being the aggregator of
aggregators, they have effective control
over tributary/distributary aggregators.
Till these e-commerce giants became
omnipresent, the domestic distribution
chains were at times competitive, with
manyplayers in the system.However,the
global platforms on boarded them too
aggressively, wiping out even the sem-
blanceof anycompetition.
Such monopoly has been entrenched
throughthetraditionalmethodsofpreda-
tory pricing,M&As,sharp business prac-
tices,promotingconsumerism,etc,aswell
as through the power of new, high-cost
frontier technology. Coupled with
monopolisation in the payment system,
thesegiantdistributionplatformscancre-
ateserioussituationstothefinancial,eco-
nomic,and political systems of nations.
There are several other issues with
monopoly/oligopoly e-platforms.They
can change shape and location easily, do
not provide any direct employment
except providing fluctuating and uncer-
tain opportunity for gig workers. Anti-
labour practices, dodging taxes are very
common.Therefore,thevalueadditionof
theiractivitiestotheeconomyislowwhile
incomegenerationanddistributionshift
heavily in their favour.We wanted com-
petitive but limited layers of intermedia-
tion.What we got are a few giant global
intermediaries, crushing everything
aroundthem,perhapswithlimited,short-
run gains forsome savvyconsumers.

The rich are living in a Devolution to states: Tie it to topography

different economic world
BIBEK With improvements in technology, we can compute
Look at luxury giant LVMH’s recent results and you’ll topographical area objectively and use that as a
DEBROY
wonder how long “luxonomics” can last surrogate indicator of states’ needs
Chairman, EAC-PM

“LUXURYISNOTaproxyforthegeneraleconomy,”Jean-JacquesGuiony,CFOofLVMH
Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, has said. He could not be more right. Browsing ARTICLE 280 OF the Constitution men- differential sources of revenue.Alterna- In 1936, Otto Niemeyer faced the same sured through geographical area and
throughthethird-quartertradingupdatefromLVMH,youwouldbeforgivenforthink- tionsFinanceCommission(FC).Thereisa tively,cost of delivering that basket may conundrum.Heconcluded,itwouldbefair population,surrogate indicators that go
ing the world wasn’t facing geopolitical turmoil,soaring inflation and sinking stock history behind evolution of federal vary, across geographical zones. Over to“fix the scale of distribution partly on backtoNiemeyer.Toquotefrom15thFC,
markets.Theblingbehemothreporteda19%increaseinsales,excludingmergersand finance. The obvious bit is Section 142 time,villages of course get depopulated. residence and partly on population.”At “ThepopulationofaStaterepresentsthe
acquisitionsandcurrencymovements,inthethreemonthstoSeptember30.Fashion from Government of India Act (1935). They are reclassified, get absorbed into best, these are surrogate indicators.The needsoftheStatetoundertakeexpendi-
andleathergoodsorganicrevenuerose22%.Bothresultstrouncedanalysts’expecta- “Such sums as may be prescribed by His larger agglomerations, or disappear UnionFChasaverticaltask,dividingdivis- ture for providing services to its resi-
tions.Investorsshouldstillbecautious.Thethirdquarterwasalwaysgoingtobeablock- MajestyinCouncilshallbechargedonthe because of migration. For instance, in iblepoolbetween theUnion government dents.” “All Finance Commissions since
busterwith travel restrictions easing and manyAmericansventuring back to Europe revenuesoftheFederationineachyearas 2021Census,CurlewIslandnolongerhas and states. It also has a horizontal task, the FC-Xhave used area as anothercrite-
withastrongdollartomakethemostof.AndnowLVMHhassetaveryhighbarforthe grants in aid of the revenues of such anyinhabitants.Untilthen,theStatecan- dividing state share between different rion in the devolution formula on the
forthcomingreporting season—at a timewhen risks are growing. Provinces as His Majesty may determine not abdicate its responsibility of provid- states. Accordingly,from 1st to 15th,FCs ground of need—the larger the area,
Although Europe has shone,the most important drivers of top-end demand are to be in need of assistance,and different ingthebasket.“Itcannotbe have adopted different for- greater is the expenditure requirement
USandChineseconsumers.Andthereareconsiderableuncertaintiesaroundboth.US sums may be prescribed for different provided in such a remote mulae,with an attempt to for providing comparable services.” But
big spenders are more vulnerable to shocks than slowing economic growth, and so Provinces.” But there were reports too.To location. Therefore, also create incentives, by the point is this.ThewayI understand it,
recentstockmarketgyrationsareaaworry.DemandfromUScustomerswas“moreor name three—Indian Financial Enquiry migrate.”That would be a No Finance attaching weights to fiscal geographical area is the estimated area
less”in line with the second quarter,LVMH said.But a slowdown at Tiffany is worth Report(NiemeyerReport,1936),Krishna- most perverse argument. Commission has efficiency and even demo- ofaplane.Itisn’ttopographicalarea.Isit
watching.The company said weakness in the silver business was due to an inflation- machary Enquiry Committee Report Migration is a voluntary tried to do this yet, graphic performance.This more expensive to deliver physical and
ary environment,where customers prefer gold.But it is also possible that some mar- (1948) and Committee on Financial Pro- decision, often driven by but it can certainly leavesvariableslikepopula- socialinfrastructureonalevelplain,orin
ginalluxurybuyers are beingmore carefulwith theirbudgets. visions of Union Constitution (Sarkar pull(andpush)ofeconomic tion, geographical area, a hilly area? Clearly, the latter.There is a
LVMH’ssalestomainlandChinesecustomerswereflatamidCovid-19restrictions. Committee,1948).WhyshouldProvinces forces.Thatvoluntarydeci- be done. Australia is incomedistance,infrastruc- ranking of states by geographical area. I
That’s an improvement on the second quarter but far needassistance?Equityistheidea.Thereis sion cannot be replaced by likely trying to ture distance and forest haven’tseenasimilarcalculationaccord-
fromarecovery.Demandinthecountryremainsclouded abasketofgoodsandservicesthatshould fiat. Indeed, depopulation measure topography cover. To quote from 15th ing to topographical area, though it is
bypandemiclockdownsandadarkeningeconomicout- be delivered by the State.It is best not to isnotnecessarilydesirable. FC,“There are three broad logicallyobvioustherewillbedifferences
look.Evenwhenlifereturnstonormal,aftertwoyearsof call them public goods, since “public Think of remote villages, approaches to measuring betweenthetwo.Inthisdayandage,with
yo-yoing between lockdowns and freedom, there is no goods”haveaspecificmeaningforecono- along the border, in Arunachal Pradesh. fiscal capacity for formula-based trans- improvements in information technol-
guarantee that consumers will spend with the same mists and this basket has items that are With China forcibly populating villages fers:(a)expenditureequalisationbasedon ogy,can’twecomputetopographicalarea
gusto as they did when China reopened after the first typically collective private goods.Curlew near the border,it is strategically impor- needs/costsofpublicservices;(b)revenue objectivelyandusethatinstead,asabet-
Covidwave in 2020. IslandisinAndamanandNicobarIslands. tant that our remote villages do not get equalisationmeasuredbytheabilityofthe ter surrogate indicator? No FC has tried
Onewildcardistravel.Thestrongdollarcouldbeatail- Till 2011 Census, it had a population of depopulated.Indeed,inthelastfewyears, state to raise revenue from one or more to do that yet, but that doesn’t mean it
wind to more US spending as trips to Europe continue two.PulomiloIsland,alsoinAndamanand physical and social infrastructure in sources; and (c) macro-indicators cover- can’t be done. (Forest cover doesn’t ade-
ANDREA intothefinalquarter.Anysignificantlooseningofrestric- Nicobar, had a population of twenty in remote and border areas have vastly ing broader economic or non-economic quately capture topography.) If I have
tions in China could lead to more Chinese tourism in 2011.At the time of elections,we read of improved, countering incentive to indicators that approximate fiscal capac- understood it right,Australia’s National
FELSTED Europe—and more lavish spending in Paris or Milan— astoundingattemptsmade,sothatvoters migrate.This brings us to the question of itywheredataconstraintsmakeitdifficult Productivity Commission seeks to mea-
Bloomberg thoughthat still looks awayoff rightnow. in remote locations can vote. No one costofdeliveringthatphysicalandsocial toapplytheotherapproaches.”Let’sthink sure topography. It’s probably not used
LVMH looks best placed among the luxury compa- should be disenfranchised because of infrastructure,thebasket,andpercapita, about (a),especially the costs part.Forest forfiscal devolution,as opposed to plan-
nies. It is the biggest and has a muscular balance sheet remotenessof location. itisnotuniformthroughoutthecountry. coverisn’tnecessarilythat,sincethereare ning. However, this seems to be an idea
thatismovingtowardanetcashpositioninearly2024,accordingtoBloombergIntel- Bythe same token,a resident,regard- Union-state and intra-state devolution positiveexternalitiesassociatedwithfor- worth toying with. Think of small vil-
ligence.That gives it the clout to invest in marketing as others cut back,and possibly less of location, must be entitled to that should be a function of that. estcoverand it is an end in itself. lages in Arunachal Pradesh, at altitudes
make acquisitions.It iswell diversifiedthrough drinks andbeauty,and itowns twoof basket. Provinces, now states, can have Computingthesecostsisnoeasytask. Needs/costs are sought to be mea- of more than 10,000 feet.
the industry’s most successful brands,LouisVuitton and Christian Dior.If the luxury
shoppercutsback,theywilllikelyfocusonbrandswiththemostcachet.Theymayeven
spend more on a single item. LVMH and rival Hermes International should benefit
from this. The biggerworrywill be forlessernames.The exception here is Prada SpA.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
It is enjoying a Gen Z revival,withyounger shoppers snapping up its bucket hats and
logoed loafers.If the Italian company can translate this into lucrative handbag sales, Gujarat a pipe dream Congress went down to the wire in expansion ahead?", only recently, our without optimum utilisation of
thenit could surpriseon the upside. 2017, and elections are due later this finance minister invoked Lord existing capex, no company would
The macro environment is more challenging for Kering SA,which is managing for the AAP? year. AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal is Hanuman in the context of Indian like to invest further. And improving
Gucci’s transition to classic from cutting edge.The luxuryconglomerate should ben- The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is trying spending a lot of time in the state. His Inc's capabilities as she exhorted credit quality of customers tells a
efit from the strength of its other houses,such asYves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, to expand its footprint beyond its main hope is anti-incumbency them to invest in the India growth strong story about Indian Inc.
but reorienting its biggest brand through an industrydownturnwill be hardwork. cradle of Delhi. It is also seeking to favouring his party. But this may be a story. Data for the first half of the Despite unseasonal rains recently,
BurberryGroup Plc is also in the midst of a turnaround andvulnerable.That said, capitalize on its success in Punjab, day dream. ongoing fiscal are encouraging with which will adversely impact standing
ifnewdesignerDanielLeecancreatethesortsofwinningbagsandshoeshedelivered where it formed a government earlier --CK Subramanian, Ghaziabad that regard, because, if capacity crops, we may yet achieve a 7% GDP
atKering’sBottegaVeneta,Burberrymaybeabletonavigatethecomingchoppywaters. this year, and which boosted that utilisation is close to 75%, then we in the current financial year.
“Everyone is talking about the recession,but nobodyhad seen ityet,” said LVMH’s ambition. The party is now eyeing are reaching the desired situation --Bal Govind, Noida
Guiony.If andwhen it does arrive,the giant should be the most resilient.But if“luxo- Gujarat, where the contest between Capex thrust ahead where Indian companies start
nomics”goes in thewrong direction,even itwon’t be immune. Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) and the Apropos of the article "Capacity contemplating fresh capex. Because, ●Write to us at feletters@expressindia.com

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Pune
 7 FINANCIAL EXPRESS
eFE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022
● DAWAA DOST: AFFORDABLE PHARMACY CHAIN
A medicine-reminder app
to make your life easier
Karma Dost improves
medical adherence
in patients
ANUJ BHATIA
WHEN A DOCTOR prescribes you
a medicine, the timings and dura-
tion of the doses can be a bit con-
fusing, especially if you have lost
the prescription or forgot to take a
pill accidentally.These are some of
the most common causes of poor
adherence which could have dra-
matic side effects if patients have
chronic issues like diabetes or
heart ailments. That’s where
Karma Dost comes in, a smart-
phone app that nudgesyou to take
medicines on time.
“Fora long time,the traditional
model has been that someone
reminds us to take medicine and if
they forget…I also forget. We
picked up that theme and said
what if we recreate that environ-
ment in a digital-first environ-
ment,” Amit Choudhary, co-
founder and CEO of Dawaa Dost,
describes the idea behind the
Karma Dost app.
Medication adherence is a less-
discussed and often overlooked
Google working towards a waste-free world
Introduces a new
accelerator for circular
economy startups
SUDHIR CHOWDHARY
EVERY YEAR, HUMANITY con-
sumes far more than what the
planet can naturally replenish.
While this linear economic model
hasledtoagreatdealofprogressfor
humanityinashorttime,ithasalso
createdenvironmentalharm,injus-
tice, and disparities — particularly
for lower-income and under-
resourced communities that are
located nearindustrial areaswhere
Gadgets
● HP SPECTRE X360 (13.5-INCH)
A good laptop for work
and play from anywhere
Sleek & lightweight, it
has a bright OLED
screen & sharp webcam
SUDHIR CHOWDHARY
IN THE AGE of hybrid work that
many of us are still in, invariably we
tend to use the same laptop forwork
andpersonaluse.Twothingscometo
the forefront. One, the machine
needstobepowerfulenoughinorder
to do everything well — play games,
watch a movie or undertake regular
officework.Fewlaptopsachievethat.
That brings us to the second point; it
isimportantthatwetakegoodcareof
our machine, for long life and trou-
ble-free operations.
The HP Spectre x360 13.5-
inchlaptop(14-ef0054TU)is
a do-it-all device, a judi-
cious mix of produc-
tivity, personal
activities, and
entertainment.
It’satwo-in-one
convertible with a
lovely OLED display,
it’s powered by Intel Evo
platforms featuring 12th
Gen Intel Core processors for
improved multitasking and perfor-
mance.It’s also said to be theworld’s
first 13.5-inch convertible laptop PC
with 5MPIR intelligent camera fora
topic in healthcare. In fact, half of
Americans with chronic illnesses
stop taking medications within a
year of the initial prescription,
according to the Centres for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention. In
India, although there is no scien-
tific data available,experts say the
adherence rate is well below 10%
which is on the lower side.
“Most people in India take a
medicine for the first three days
pollution is more prevalent, said
Mike Werner, Lead for Circular
Economy, Google Global Sustain-
abilityTeam.
Recently, the tech giant intro-
ducedanewacceleratorprogramme
thatisgearedtosupporttechnology
startups and non-profit organisa-
tions based in North America and
AsiaPacificthatfurtheracircular
economy.“At Google, we want to
support efforts to create a circular
economy and build a sustainable
future without waste,”said Werner.
Building on the success of itsAccel-
erator: Climate Change (which has
supported companies like 75F,
AmpUp, Carbon Limit and Char-
geNet),Google forStartupsAcceler-
ator:CircularEconomyisfocusedon
goodvideocall experience.
There’s more: HP Spectre x360 is
builtwithAI-poweredintelligentfea-
tures such as Auto-frame, Noise
reduction, dynamic voice leveling,
health and well-being features, AI
based privacy alert and sound
enhancement for a smooth and
seamlessexperience.Itisavailableat
`1,49,999; let us check out its key
features and overall performance.
Appearance-wise, HP Spectre
x36013.5-inchhasaslimdesign.Itis
an attractive and shiny piece of
equipment in an alu-
minium chassis
TECH TO THE
RESCUE
■ Less than 7% of Indians
adhere to their doctor's
prescription
■ The Karma Dost app is
useful for those who take
multiple medications
■ The Android app
currently has over 75,000
monthly active users
■ A large section of these
are elderly people
■ App is end-to-end
encrypted, ie, data
is secure
and then stop a 5-day course mid-
way because they are feeling bet-
ter,” he said, adding that people
often don’t stick to the prescrip-
tion plan due to fearof adapting to
a new schedule and lack of infor-
mation on when to take medicine.
The concept of a medication-
reminder app like Karma Dost is
simple: let your smartphone
remindyouwhen to take medicine
as prescribed by your doctor with-
Mike Werner, Lead for Circular
Economy, Google Global
Sustainability Team
thatlookspremiuminthehands.It’s
prettylightweighttooatjust1.36kg.
Once opened, you can see the thin
bezelsontheside,thedisplayisbright
and the keys in the backlit keyboard
areilluminatedforeaseofviewingin
dim orcompletelydark conditions.
Thanks to its pair of 360-degree
hinges, the Spectre can be folded all
the way back into a tablet. You can
even put it in tent mode orbalance it
onthekeyboardwiththestand-upto
use as a display.Basically,the flexible
360-degree design gets you in the
perfect position,while the dynamic
camerafeaturesletyoulookyourbest
when live. You can enhance your
video calls with the AI-powered
appearance filter (GlamCam)
that keeps you looking
your best while the
BacklightAdjust-
ments ensure
good lighting
to create a
lasting impre-
ssion. The smart
camera uses pic-
ture-in-pictureand
voice tracking to
automaticallykeep
you in focus. HP Dis-
playcontrol‘AutoColour’
pullsyouintoanimmersive
experience with its crisp and
accuratecolourprecision.Also,its
AI Noise Reduction and Dynamic
Voice Levelling feature lets you be
heard clearly without interruption.
Around 80 to 85% of
users who are
using the app have
opted for getting pill
reminders in the
form of calls”
AMIT CHOUDHARY, CO-
FOUNDER & CEO, DAWAA DOST
out any assistance from a family
memberand ensure the treatment
plan is followed. The app lets you
create a list ofyourmedications by
uploading the prescription or just
by typing the name of the medi-
cine.You can then schedule notifi-
cations on your phone when it’s
time to take them exactly as pre-
scribed.You can indicate the form
of medicine – tablet or capsule by
its colour and size.
using technology to solve circular-
itychallenges,he informed.
TheGoogleforStartupsAcceler-
ator is a ten-week virtual accelera-
tor programme for Seed to Series A
technology that is “designed to
bring the best of Google’s pro-
grammes, products, people, net-
workandtechnologytothosework-
ing towards a waste-free world.” In
additiontomentorshipandproject
supportontechnicalsubjectslikeAI
and machine learning, geospatial
and Google Cloud, the accelerator
will focus on product design, cus-
tomer acquisition, leadership
development, expert-led circular
economy deep dives, workshops
and leadership development.
According to Werner, each
SPECIFICATIONS
■ Display: 13.5-inch diagonal
3K2K touch display
■ Processor: Intel Evo platform
powered by Intel Core i7
processor
■ Operating system: Windows
11 Pro
■ Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
Graphics
■ Memory: 16GB onboard
LPDDRX4 SDRAM
■ Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe TLC
M.2 SSD
■ Battery: 4-Cell, 66Wh
■ Estimated street price:
`1,49,999
Its Bluetooth connection allows you
toconnectwirelesslytootherdevices
to share andtransferfiles.
There’s a fair selection of ports —
twoThunderbolt4withUSB4Type-C
40Gbps signaling rate (USB Power
Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4, HP Sleep
and Charge), one SuperSpeed USB
Type-A 10Gbps signaling rate (HP
Sleep and Charge), and one head-
phone/microphonecombo.
Keytakeaways:HPSpectrex360
is a good combination of speed,
efficiency and power, with all-day
battery life. It is sleek and compact
with a decent number of ports, a
bright screen and a sharp,high-res-
olution webcam.Browsing the web,
streaming video overWi-Fi,playing
games, or undertaking office-
relatedwork,everythingworkedlike
a breeze with no lag whatsoever.
Takemyword,it’saworthymachine
that will give you peace of mind, at
least for a fewyears for sure.
Choudhary says 80 to 85% of
users who are using the app have
opted for getting pill reminders in
the form of calls.“On an average,
between 8 am and 9:30 am,we are
doing 70,000 to 75,000 calls a
day,”he said.
The app, which went live last
year and is only available on
Android-based smartphones, has
currently over 75,000 monthly
active users.
But what makes Karma Dost
different from other medication-
reminder apps is the Karma fea-
ture and hence the name Karma
Dost. If a user takes the medicine
on time, say for the next seven
days,theyearn KD coinswhich can
be used for social causes.
Dawaa Dost, co-founded by
ChoudharywithYash Harlalka and
Anirudh Batwara in 2018, is an
omnichannel pharmacy retail
chain that aims to address India’s
mammoth healthcare problems
by making medicines available at
affordable rates. The Jaipur-based
startup primarilyfocuses on tier-2
and 3 cities and also owns plat-
forms such as Medwiki which
offers short-form videos on treat-
ments and Karma Dost.
Choudhary says the Karma
Dost app will continue to get
improvements through new fea-
tures and experiences.
Karma Dost is end-to-end
encrypted, meaning the company
can’t read or otherwise access the
data. Choudhary admits health-
care data is critical and that keep-
ing data secure is keyto protecting
patient privacy. The app will get a
two-factorauthentication feature,
which adds an additional layer of
security to the authentication
process.
cohort will comprise 10-15 organ-
isations using technology to tackle
circulareconomychallenges.These
challenges include reuse, refill,
recycling, composting, fashion,
food, safe and circular materials,
and the built environment.Partici-
pants will also be assigned a dedi-
cated success manager for even
more support that is specific to
their organisation.
Selected organisations will
receivetrainingindesign,marketing
and leadership, strategic support,
earlyaccess to newGoogle products
andtoolsandmentoringfrommore
than 20 Google teams.Applications
arenowopentillNovember14,2022
andtheprogrammewillcommence
in February2023.
● REALME 9i 5G
Cutting some corners to
stay in mid-range bracket
However, it’s fast enough
for most people & also
has a strong battery life
ANURAG CHAWAKE
CHOOSING A DECENT budget 5G
phone is not easy these days.With
mostofthedevicesverysimilar,the
realme 9i 5G is able to distinguish
itselffromtherestwithitsglittering
mirroredback.Butisthatenoughto
make it better than so many others
inthesub-`20,000category?Here’s
ourtake on thephone.
Design and build quality
The realme 9i 5G sports a CD-
likebackmadeofplasticthatreflects
light.While looks may not be that
important for everyone,the Metal-
lica Gold version is definitely eye-
catching.Butthisshinybackisalsoa
dirt and fingerprint magnet.
Coming to the build quality,the
phone has a good grip and is com-
fortable to hold at just 187 grams.
The frame of the phone looks and
feels like metal.
Performance
Powered by the MediaTek
Dimensity 810,the realme 9i 5G is
an upgrade over its predecessor
(realme 9i).Compared to the Snap-
dragon 680 4G chipset on the
realme9i,thisisfasterandhasgood
thermal management.Running on
realme UI 3.0 based on Android 12
out of the box, the phone is as
smooth as it gets when performing
daily tasks like watching a video or
messagingortakingcalls.Itsupports
both Standalone and Non-Stand-
alone5G,makingitcompatiblewith
majorIndiantelecomnetworks.
WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM
CLEAN BUSINESS
Rekha M Menon, Chairperson & Senior MD, Accenture
As businesses set ambitious ESG goals,
success will be determined by the
ability to transform via twin engines of
technology & sustainability.”
● MENTAL HEALTH
Can AI be my
therapist?
to better understand the conver-
Some people might sation between therapists and
find it easier to talk clients.Suchtoolscanhelpensure
high standards of service.
and open up to a bot
Counselling with AI
One of the main benefits of
usingAI in clinical care is its abil-
ity to collect massive amounts of
data and gather insights from it.
mental health professionals can
use these data resources and col-
lectclinicallyactionabletargetsto
■ AJAY MALGAONKAR provide more effective and per-
sonalised care to theirpatients.
THE WORLD IS witnessing a
severe mental health crisis.
AccordingtoareportbytheWHO,
around 56 million Indians suffer
from depression, and 38 million
experience some kind of anxiety
disorder. The country’s mental
health workforce is also gravely
understaffed with there being a
severe shortage of psychiatrists
and psychologists compared to
the number of people suffering
from mental illness.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can
prove to be a powerful tool in the At World Well-Being Project
fight against the mental health (WWBP) in Philadelphia, resear-
crisis.Here are its benefits: chers used anAI algorithm to col-
Reduces the burden on lectdatafromseveralsocialmedia
mentalhealthprofessionals:AI users to examine their posts for
can provide immense support to identification of linguistic cues
mental health professionals. that could predict depression.AI
Algorithmscanbeusedtoanalyse alsohasthepotentialtopickupon
and process data; suggest appro- vocalfeaturesthehumanearcan’t
priate treatments as well as track and analyse vocal cues to predict
a patient’s progress.AI and men- mental illnesses like depression,
tal health professionals can work
togethertoachievebetterresults.
Easyaccessto all: AI tools are
available24/7,atnocost,andthey
post-traumatic stress disorder
and schizophrenia.
Several companies today are
usingchatbotsthatprovidedirect
reducethestigmaaroundaccess- counsellingservicestoemployees
ing treatment. These tools can byanalysing theirusage ofwords
either be used as stand-alone in theirconversations.
treatment agents or as a supple-
ment to traditional therapy. Future prospects
Tracking progress and per- The primary results of inclu-
sonalised care: It is evident that sion of AI in mental health are
theuseofAIwithinmentalhealth promisingandthefutureoflong-
servicescanbeagame-changer.It term efficacy is yet to be deter-
not only gives a deeper insight mined. Despite it being depen-
into a patient’s needs but also dent on several factors, if the
helps track theirprogress. industry is able to overcome cer-
tain major obstacles,AI will defi-
Quality control nitely appear as an adjunct in
Several mental health clinics mental healthcare delivery.
are experimenting with auto-
mated ways to monitor the qual- The writeris offshore head of
ityoftherapysessions.Techfirms engineering,Prolifics,a digital
areworkingontoolsthatcanhelp and engineering consulting firm
graphic-intensive games like BGMI
and Call ofDuty.
What’s not so good?
Whiletherealme9i5Gdoesfea-
ture an upgraded processor, the
budgetsegmenthasevolvedalotin
thelastyear.Anditlookslikerealme
has compromised on some areas to
bring 5G support. Featuring a 6.6-
inch 90Hz IPS LCD display, the
screen is by no means bad when it
comes to colour reproduction. But
comparable models from brands
such as Motorola and Poco in this
price segment sport AMOLED
screens with similar or higher
SPECIFICATIONS refreshrates.Also,thetextishardto
readwhenunderdirectsunlight.
■ Display: 6.6-inch 90Hz IPS While you can play casual titles
like Subway Surfer and Temple Run
LCD
without any hiccups,I experienced
■ Processor: MediaTek random stuttering when playing
Dimensity 810 some graphic-intensive
■ Operating system: titles like PUBG: New
Realme UI based on YOU State and Apex Leg-
MAYALSO BE ends. Despite having
Android 12
a90Hzdisplaywitha
■ Memory & INTERESTED IN: 180Hz touch sam-
storage: 6GB RAM, Poco X4 Pro, pling rate, realmeUI
128GB storage Motorola G71, restricts games to 60
■ Cameras: 50MP +
vivo T1 5G fps,whichisreallyalet-
down since the chipset
2MP + 2MP (rear), 8MP can run some games at
front camera higherframerates.
■ Battery: 5000mAh battery + Like mostphonesin the budget
18W fast charging segment, the rear camera on the
realme 9i 5G is a little doubtful.In
■ Estimated street price: daytime conditionswith adequate
`14,999 (4/6GB), `16,999 light,you can expect the device to
(6/128GB) take some decent photos. While
the phone manages to preserve
most of the details and the colour
Witha5,000mAhbattery,the9i is on the natural side, the image
5G can easilylast one to two days of softens and loses details when
light usage and a day full of heavy zooming in. The front camera is
usage.Andthankstothepower-effi- not good either.When taking self-
cient processor, it might last a full ies,the phone loses out on most of
day even if you occasionally play the details and contrast.
Pune
 8 FINANCIAL EXPRESS
International
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022
QUICK
VIEW
BoE warns
households
face strain
THE BANKOF
England haswarned
that some UK
households mayface
a strain overdebt repayments
that is as great as before the 2008
financial crisis,ifeconomic
conditionscontinue tobe
difficult. If mortgage financing
costs continueto rise,some may
face pressure overtheir
mortgage and othercosts that
are similarto the peak before the
financial crisis,the BOE said.
ByteDance to buy
back staff’s shares
BYTEDANCE IS OFFERING to
buyback shares fromits
employees,ramping up efforts to
boost staffmorale afterplansfor
an initialpublic offeringstalled.
The Beijing-based company
informed employees on
Wednesdaythat itwill
repurchase shares at a price of
$155 perrestricted stock unit.
Mortgage interest
rates of US rise
THEAVERAGE
INTERESTrate on the
most popularUS
home loanroseto its
highest level since 2006asthe
housing sectorcontinuedto bear
the brunt of tightening financial
conditions,data fromthe
Mortgage BankersAssociation
showed onWednesday.
CPC Congress: Xi Jinping all set
to bring back ‘one leader rule’
K J M VARMA
Beijing, October 12
CHINA'S RULING COMMUNIST
Party is set to slide back to its
founder Mao Zedong’s era soon as
President Xi Jinping is set to break
the decades-old 10-year term rule
to cling in power and perhaps for
life, amid mounting pressure from
the US-led West against Beijing’s
aggressive quest to become a dom-
inant world power.
On Sunday, 2,296 delegates
“elected”undertheideologicalpara-
meters set by 69-year-old Xi, will
attendthecarefully-choreographed
Communist Party’s once-in-a-five-
year Congress which is widely
expected to endorse his continua-
tioninpower.Theoutcomeofthein-
cameraPartyCongressisexpectedto
endtwoverystrictfive-yeartermlim-
its followed by Xi’s predecessors to
There’s no recession in luxury with
sales of Dior, LV, Mercedes booming
ANGELINA RASCOUET
October 12
THE LEAP IN sales reported by
LVMH, the owner of Louis Vuitton
and Christian Dior,suggests that at
least one segment of the economy
remains immune to the crises
assailing retailers — luxury goods.
Gyrating markets,surging infla-
tionandgatheringeconomicgloom
have proven no barrier to demand
among the well-heeled for hand-
bags, watches, jewelry and cars.
That’s evident in the 22% jump in
sales of LVMH’s fashion and leather
goods last quarter.
“The relief of getting out of the
pandemic alive has trumped any
bad news, as consumers who can
embrace a ‘carpe diem’ attitude,”
Bernstein analyst Luca Solca said in
a note to clients.“Nobody wants to
be the richest person in the grave-
yard.”
That attitude has caused lines to
build up outside Christian Diorand
Chanel boutiques in Paris, Berlin
Ukraine's major general Eduard Moskaliov, Ukraine's defense minister Oleksiy Reznikov, US secretary of
defense Lloyd Austin and US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark A. Milley attend a meeting of
the Ukraine Defence Contact Group during a NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels
● WASHINGTON HAILS GAINS
West meets to pledge
more arms for Ukraine
MAX HUNDER & SABINE SIEBOLD
Kyiv/Brussels, October 12
MORE THAN 50 Western countries
met onWednesdayto promise more
weaponsforUkraine,focusingonits
need for air defences after Moscow
launched its most intense missile
strikes since the start of thewar.
Opening the meeting of the
Ukraine Defense Contact Group at
the headquarters of NATO in Brus-
sels, US defense secretary Lloyd
Austin said Russia’s huge wave of
missileattacksthisweekhadlaidbare
the“malice and cruelty”of itswar.
Ukraine had shifted the momen-
tum in the conflict since September
with“extraordinary”gains,butwould
need more help to keep fighting, he
said. “These victories belong to
Ukraine’s brave soldiers. But the
ContactGroup’ssecurityassistance,
training, and sustainment efforts
have been vital,”Austin said.
Russian attacks using more than
100 missiles have killed at least 26
peopleacrossUkrainesinceMonday,
when President Vladimir Putin
ordered what he called retaliatory
strikes against Ukraine for an explo-
sion ona bridge.
Air raid sirens sounded across
avertthedangeroftheonepartystate
becoming a country with a single
leaderdominatingthepoliticalscene.
In the century-old history of the
CPC,Maoremainedatthehelmuntil
his death in 1976, ruling the most
populouscountryandsubjectingitto
his ideological experiments like the
and London, in scenes reminiscent
of the pre-pandemic era when Chi-
nese tourists took advantage of
lower prices in Europe. Only now,
with Chinese shoppers still largely
absent due to their country’s Covid
policies, it’s Americans with strong
swathesofUkraineforathirddayon
Wednesdayandtherewerereportsof
someshelling,butnosignofarepeat
of the intensive countrywide strikes
of the previous two days.
The missiles have mostly tar-
geted civilian electricity and heat-
ing infrastructure, while some hit
busy roads, parks and tourist sites,
including in the centre of Kyiv.
NATO secretary-general Jens
Stoltenberg said Russia’s missile
attacks were a sign of weakness.
“The reality is that they're not
able to make progress on the battle-
field.Russia is actuallylosing on the
battlefield,”Stoltenberg said.
SinceMonday’sattacks,Germany
hassentthefirstoffourplannedIRIS-
T SLM air defence systems, while
Washington said it would speed up
the delivery of a promised NASAMS
airdefence system.
EU energy ministers were also
meeting in Prague to work out ways
to cope with an energy crisis caused
by the war. On Wednesday, Polish
pipeline operator PERN said it had
detected a leak in one pipe in the
Druzhbasystemthatcarriesoilfrom
Russia to Europe, though it said the
causewas probablyan accident.
—REUTERS
Cultural Revolution during which
millions of intellectuals were exter-
minated and wiped out much of the
country’scivilisationalpasttocreate
a newsocialist order.
Mao’s mercurial leadership was
markedbybrutalcampaignstopurge
the remnants of the capitalists and
traditional elements from society
and implement his brand of Com-
munism called Mao Zedong
Thought.Itendedupdisastrouslydri-
ving the communist nation to near
bankruptcy. Mao’s successor, Deng
Xiaoping, who earned the title of
ParamountLeaderforhissedateand
pragmatic leadership putting the
country on the path of economic
development reversing Mao’s hard-
linepolicies,introducedthecollective
leadership system with a ten-year
term limit and 68-year age limit to
avoid the ills of the one leader domi-
nationof the party. —PTI
dollars and Europeans who are
doing the buying.
The leap in sales reported by
LVMH, the owner of Louis Vuitton
and Christian Dior,suggests that at
least one segment of the economy
remains immune to the crises
REUTERS
Germany sends
air defence
system to Ukraine
UKRAINE SAID ON Wednesday
that Germanyhad delivered the
first of four ultramodern air
defense systems — so new that
theyhaveneverbeenusedonthe
battlefield — as Russia’s attacks
spurred a renewed effort from
Ukraine’s international allies to
speedupmilitaryaid.
Defenceofficialsfromdozens
ofcountriesgatheredinBrussels
to discuss supplying Ukraine
with more weapons, two days
afterRussiaunleasheditsbroad-
est barrage of missile and drone
strikes on Ukrainian cities since
the war began, knocking out
water and power systems and
killingmorethan20people.
Thewave of attacks came as
Ukraine’s forces have grabbed
the momentum on the battle-
field,reclaimingvast chunks of
territoryin the east and south.
—NYT
● XPENG’S FLYING CAR HITS THE SKIES
XPeng Aeroht, an affiliate of Chinese electric-vehicle maker XPeng, staged the first public flight of
its X2 flying car in Dubai this week, displaying a vehicle designed for low-altitude city trips such as
sightseeing and medical transportation.
assailing retailers — luxury goods.
Gyrating markets,surging infla-
tionandgatheringeconomicgloom
have proven no barrier to demand
among the well-heeled for hand-
bags, watches, jewelry and cars.
That’s evident in the 22% jump in
sales of LVMH’s fashion and leather
goods last quarter.
“The relief of getting out of the
pandemicalivehastrumpedanybad
news, as consumers who can
embrace a ‘carpe diem’ attitude,”
Bernstein analyst Luca Solca said in
anotetoclients.“Nobodywantstobe
the richest person in the graveyard.”
That attitude has caused lines to
build up outside Christian Dior and
ChanelboutiquesinParis,Berlinand
London,inscenesreminiscentofthe
pre-pandemic era when Chinese
tourists took advantage of lower
pricesinEurope.Onlynow,withChi-
neseshoppersstilllargelyabsentdue
to their country’s Covid policies,it’s
Americans with strong dollars and
Europeanswhoaredoingthebuying.
—BLOOMBERG
Lawyer: Credit
Suisse was
part of forex
‘conspiracy
network’
ZIJIA SONG & CHRIS DOLMETSCH
October 12
CREDIT SUISSE GROUP AG was
part of a “conspiracy network”
focused on rigging the foreign
exchange market, a lawyer said in
opening arguments in an antitrust
suit against the bank.
ChristopherBurke,who is repre-
senting a group of plaintiff pension
funds and other investors, told
jurors onTuesdaythat Credit Suisse
and 15 other banks participated in
onlinechatroomsinwhichtheycol-
luded on spreads for currency pairs
from late 2007 through 2013.
“The chatrooms gave the dealers
an edge,” Burke said in court in Man-
hattan, adding,“With the network,
the dealers win and the customers
lose.” Credit Suisse is the only one of
the banks to go to trial,which kicked
off Tuesday following jury selection.
Theotherbanks,includingCitigroup,
UBS Group AG, Barclays, JPMorgan
Chase,HSBC Holdings and Deutsche
Bank,agreedtopay$2.3billiontoset-
tle claimsagainstthem in 2017.
Burke cited several examples of
traders at the different banks dis-
cussing spreads for currency pairs
and said the jurors should ask
themselves why the banks weren’t
competing against each other.
“They know it was wrong.They did
it anyway,”he said,noting that five
banks, though not Credit Suisse,
pleaded guilty to criminal charges
over the conduct.
Edward Moss,a lawyer for Credit
Suisse,counteredindefenseopening
arguments that the plaintiffs were
trying to connect “smaller isolated
things”to allege a larger conspiracy
that never existed. “Were those
smaller isolated bad things?” Moss
asked rhetorically.“Therewere peo-
ple in this industry who did some
things theyshouldn’t do.Theywant
to mass them together and say this
is one big massive thing. It doesn’t
work that way.” —BLOOMBERG
Shanghai quietly shuts
down as Covid returns
BLOOMBERG
October 12
SHANGHAI IS QUIETLY shutting
down schools and a raft of other
venues as officials try to rein in a
flareup that’s hit the financial hub
just days before one of China’s most
importantpoliticalevents.
Several schools dotted through-
out the city have suspended in-per-
son classes as the fear of infection
spread grows, according to parents
and social media posts.At least five
districts have closed entertainment
venues,including cinemas,bars and
gyms,inanefforttostampouttrans-
mission, according to statements
Europe likely to witness another wave
ANOTHER WAVE OF Covid-19
infections may have begun in
Europe as cases begin to tick up
across the region, the World
Health Organisation and Euro-
pean Centre for Disease Preven-
tion and Control (ECDC) said on
WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM
TO UNDERSTAND SPILLOVERS
Christine Lagarde, president, European Central Bank
We need to have cooperation among ourselves —
central bankers —- to understand what the spillovers
will be, what the spill backs could be, what impact we
have on each other and what ramifications it will take
because financial markets are extremely integrated.
Intel plans to cut
thousands of jobs
ROUGH RIDE
Intel shares have been hammered harder than chip peers this year
Normalised as of 10/11/2021
30
Percentage change
20
10
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
Oct Dec Jan
2021
Source: Bloomberg
MARK GURMAN & DEBBY WU
October 12
INTEL IS PLANNING a major reduc-
tion in headcount,likely numbering
in the thousands, to cut costs and
cope with a sputtering personal-
computer market,according to peo-
plewithknowledge ofthe situation.
The layoffs will be announced as
early as this month, with the com-
pany planning to make the move
around the same time as its third-
quarter earnings report on October
27,said the people,who asked not to
be identified because the delibera-
tions are private.The chipmakerhad
113,700employees as of July.
Some divisions,including Intel’s
salesandmarketinggroup,couldsee
cuts affecting about 20% of staff,
accordingto the people.
Intel is facing a steep decline in
demand for PC processors, its main
business, and has struggled to win
back market share lost to rivals like
Advanced Micro Devices Inc.In July,
thecompanywarnedthat2022sales
would be about $11 billion lower
than it previouslyexpected.Analysts
are predicting a third-quarter rev-
enue drop of roughly 15%. And
Intel’s once-enviable margins have
shriveled:They’re about 15 percent-
age points narrower than historical
numbers of around60%.
During its second-quarter earn-
BLOOMBERG
issuedbyCovid preventionoffices.
Authorities said there’s no city-
wideschoolshutdownafterspecula-
tion rippledvia social media that the
measurewould be rolled out.But the
creeping suspensions, as well as a
rampupinotherrestrictionslikethe
lockdown of neighborhoods & indi-
vidual residential compounds have
left Shanghai’s residentson edge.
Schools, venues like gyms and
bars have shut in the Shanghai dis-
tricts of Changning, Putuo, Jiading,
Yangpu,and Qingpu.Shanghai Dis-
ney Resort said on Saturday that
some facilities have been shut and
performances canceled to followthe
Covidcontrol requirements.
Wednesday.“Althoughwe are not
where we were one year ago, it is
clear that the Covid-19 pan-
demic is still not over,” WHO’s
Europe director,Hans Kluge,and
ECDC’sdirector,AndreaAmmon,
said in a statement. —REUTERS
Intel Philadelphia chip index
Mar May Jul Oct
2022
ings call, Intel acknowledged that it
couldmakechangestoimproveprof-
its. “We are also lowering core
expenses in calendar year 2022 and
willlooktotakeadditionalactionsin
the second half of the year,” CEO Pat
Gelsingersaid at the time.
Intel, based in Santa Clara, Cali-
fornia, declined to comment on the
layoffs.Intel’s last bigwave of layoffs
occurred in 2016,when it trimmed
about12,000jobs,or11%ofitstotal.
The companyhas made smallercuts
sincethenandshutteredseveraldivi-
sions, including its cellular modem
and drone units. Like many compa-
niesinthetechnologyindustry,Intel
also froze hiring earlier this year,
when market conditions soured and
fears of a recession grew.
The latest cutbacks are likely
meant to reduce Intel’s fixed costs,
possibly by about 10% to 15%,
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst
Mandeep Singh said. He estimates
that those costs range from at least
$25 billion to $30 billion.
Gelsinger took the helm at Intel
last year and has been working to
restorethefirm’sreputationasaSili-
conValleylegend.Butevenbeforethe
PC slump,itwas an uphill fight.Intel
lostitslong-heldtechnologicaledge,
and its own executives acknowledge
that the company’s culture of inno-
vationwithered in recentyears.
—BLOOMBERG
Yen falls to
new 24-yr low
MARY BIEKERT
October 12
THE YEN WEAKENED to a fresh
two-decade lowafterBank of Japan
Governor Haruhiko Kuroda vowed
to keep monetary policy loose in
order to support an economic
recovery, fueling speculation over
whether Japanese authorities
would step in once more to prop up
the currency.
Theyenquicklyfellto146.86per
dollar after Koruda’s comments on
Wednesday, surpassing the 145.90
level that had previously prompted
Japan’s nearly $20 billion interven-
tion to buytheyen in September,the
firstinterventiontosupportthecur-
rencysince 1998.
“We have to continue our mon-
etary easing until we achieve the
2% target in a sustainable and sta-
blemanner,”Kurodasaidatanevent
at the Institute of International
Finance in Washington.“The econ-
omyisstillrecoveringfromthepan-
demic so we have to continue to
support the economy to recover.”
Earlierthisweek,JapanesePrime
Minister Fumio Kishida also sig-
naled his support for the Bank of
Japan’s ultra-easy monetary policy
despite the yen’s plunge this year,
the Financial Times reported.
The Bank of Japan is one of the
world’sfewremainingcentralbanks
maintaining rock-bottom rates
while the majority of its peers are
aggressively lifting rates to combat
inflationandkeeppacewiththeFed-
eral Reserve’s tightening regime.
Koruda’s comments re-empha-
sized the central bankwon’t be piv-
oting from its loose policy anytime
soon. That sharpens the policy
divergencebetweentheBOJandthe
Federal Reserve. —BLOOMBERG
Pune
 9 FINANCIAL EXPRESS
Markets
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022
Money Matters ● EVEN AVERAGE MID-CAP FUNDS HAVE BEATEN INDICES
G-SEC
Yield rose ahead 0.009%
About 90% large cap funds
underperform benchmarks
of domestic
inflation data
7.47 7.44
In contrast, only 27.5%
of mid/small cap funds
Oct 3 Oct 12
underperformed
ASHLEY COUTINHO
`/$ Mumbai, October 12
The rupee ends 0.01% ABOUT 90% OF equity large cap
marginally higher
funds underperformed the index in
despite outflows the one-year period ended June
2022.The beginning of the yearwas
81.88 Inverted scale
particularlytoughforlargecapman-
agers,with87.5%ofthefundsinthe
category underperforming in the
82.31 first half of theyear,the latest report
by the S&P Indices Versus Active
Funds (SPIVA) India Scorecard said.
Oct 3 Oct 12
In contrast, only 27.5% of
mid/small cap funds underper-
=/$
C formedtheirrespectivebenchmarks.
Thesefundsfaredthebestbyfarinthe
The euro ended 0.25% long run among equity categories,
lower against with53%ofthosetobeattheS&PBSE
the dollar
400MidSmallCapIndexoverthe10-
yearperiodendedJune2022.
0.98
Benedek Voros, director, index
investment strategy,S&P Dow Jones
0.97 Indices, said,“Although the Indian
mid-capbenchmarkhaditsworstH1
since 2013, active managers in the
categoryhad a great start to theyear,
Oct 3 Oct 12
with an underperformance rate of
just 35.3%, possibly benefitting by
exposure to a few larger names in
theirportfolios.”
QUICK TheSensexwasdown1.4%inthe
yeartill September.
Markets have become more effi-
VIEW cient and are far more integrated to
globalmarkets,whichiswhyoutper-
forming benchmarks has become
harderforactivefundmanagers,par-
ticularly those managing large cap
Tracxn Tech IPO funds,said experts.
A fund manager's flexibility for
subscribed 2.01x risk taking has been curtailed over
on final day the years.The regulator introduced
its diktat on categorisation of funds
THEINITIALPUBLIC in 2017, which has made the style
offeringofdata drift difficult.
providerTracxn “Thebenchmarkingofascheme's
Technologieswas returns to total return indices, the
subscribed2.01timesonthefinal
dayofbidding.Theretailportion
wassubscribed4.87times.
AU SFB hikes FD
Brokers return `32,000 crore
rates by 60 bps
AU SMALLFINANCE Bank on to clients on settlement day
Wednesdaysaidit has hiked fixed
deposit rates by60basispointsto
7.5% forregularcustomers.
FE BUREAU
Mumbai, October 12
Seniorcitizenswillget an interest
of 8%on theirfixed deposits. FUNDS TO THE tune of `31,884
crore were released to about 12.3
Dish TV,four others million clients on account of the
runningaccountsettlementcarried
settle case with Sebi out by brokers last Friday.
DISHTVINDIAand Of this, clearing corporations
fourothershavesettled released funds and fixed deposit
withmarketsregulator receipts of `30,173 crore to trading
Sebiacasepertaining members, a joint note put out by
toallegednon-disclosureofvoting brokers on Tuesday said.
resultsofthecompany'sannual Brokers expect a large portion of
generalmeeting(AGM)heldon this amount to come back in the
December30,2021. form of margin money from active
clients over the next few days.
LIC sells over2% in Around 10-15% of the money,
however, may not come back into
PowerGridin5months the system, according to industry
LICHASSOLDover2%holdingin officials.
PowerGridoverthepastfive Overall, this could result in a
monthsfor`3,079.43crore,the lower float for brokers, impacting
insurersaidonWednesday.There revenues, and will necessitate a
isadeclineof2.003%inholding higherworking capital.
duringtheperiodfromMay18, The regulator, exchanges and
2022toOctober11,2022. clearing corporations took a num-
TVS Motor overtakes Hero Moto to
become 6th most-valued auto firm
FE BUREAU MCAP (` crore)
New Delhi, October 12
1,40,000
TVS MOTOR COMPANY has
1,20,000
become the sixth most-valuable
listed automobile company,with its
1,00,000
share prices zooming 72% so far in
2022, beating the world's largest
80,000
two-wheeler maker Hero Moto-
Corp. Data from the BSE show that 60,000
TVS Motors reached a market capi-
talisation of `51,675 crore after its 40,000
shares scaled 1.9% on Wednesday 15,721.44
to `1,087.70.The stock has surged 20,000 8,749.74
over 100% since its March lows.
The market capitalisation of 0 910.98
Hero MotoCorp stood at `50,956 May 26, 2008
crore with its shares trading flat at
`2,548 and reporting a 3.77% rise
year-to-date. Reliance Securities,told FE thatTVS
Maruti Suzuki India remained Motor has strongly outperformed
the country's most-valued auto the Niftyaswell as the auto index in
company, followed by Mahindra & 2022, primarily due to strong
Mahindra, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto exports and operating margins
and Eicher Motors. touching double-digit mark for the
Mitul Shah, head of research at first time in the history of the com-
PERCENTAGE OF FUNDS UNDERPERFORMING THE INDEX
(Based on absolute return)
Category
Indian Equity Large Cap
Indian ELSS
Indian Equity Mid/Small Cap S&P BSE 400 MidSmallCap Index
Indian Composite Bond
Indian Government Bond
Source: S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, Morningstar, and Association of Mutual Funds in India
polarisation of markets in the past
few years and the higher expense
ratios vis-a-vis index funds have
made it harder for active large-cap
fund managers to outperform the
benchmarks,” said Vicky Mehta, an
independent analyst who tracks
mutual funds.
Mehta said while the disquiet
among the investor community is
understandable,thingscouldchange
going forward if the index-heavy
stocksstartunderperformingornon-
index stocks start doingbetter.
Small and midcap fund man-
agers,he said,have a larger universe
of stocks (particularly under-
researched ones) to choose from,
whichiswhytheirchancesofbeating
the benchmarks are higher. “Even
average mid-cap funds have beaten
theindices.That'smoretodowiththe
construction of the indices, more
than anythingelse.”
FUND RELEASE
■ Clearing corporations
released funds and fixed
deposit receipts of `30,173
crore to trading members
■ Brokers expect a large
portion of this amount to
come back as margin money
ber of steps in order to ensure
smooth implementation of the sin-
gle-day settlement process.
The regular cut-off time to dis-
seminate certain files by market
infrastructureinstitutionstomem-
1,04,881.07
Hero MotoCorp
Bajaj Auto
51,675.22
TVS
50,955.67
October 12, 2022
pany. Its improving brand equity
has helped TVS Motor on domestic
volume front,while betterproducts
have led to market share gain in
overseas markets, specifically
African markets.
Its earnings before interest,
Comparison index
S&P BSE 100
S&P BSE 200
S&P BSE India Bond Index
S&P BSE India Government Bond Index
Aboutthree-fourthsofELSSfunds
underperformedtheirbenchmarksin
the past year. Notably, ELSS funds
boast the highest long-term survival
ratesacrossallcategoriesintheSPIVA
India Scorecard,with 77.8% of them
stillsurvivingafter10years.
Just 22% of Indian government
bondfundslaggedtheS&PBSEIndia
Government Bond Index in the first
sixmonthsof2022.Thisputsactively
managed Indian government bond
fundsontrackfortheirlowestunder-
performanceratesincetheinception
of India SPIVAreports in 2013.
Underperformanceofactiveman-
agers for Indian composite bond
funds was the lowest across all cate-
goriesinthefirsthalfoftheyear,atjust
19.2%.Overthe10-yearperiod,how-
ever,thecategorydisplayedthehigh-
estunderperformancerateacrosscat-
egories, with 98.1% of managers
failingtobeattheirbenchmark.
bers was shortened on October 7
with a view to carry out the settle-
ment process on time.
The time window was extended
byclearing corporations foraccept-
ing release request of cash/fixed
deposit receipts from members.
The settlement of running
account of client funds was
required to be carried out by all the
trading members as per revised
guidelines that came into force
on October 7.
Brokers who don't have ade-
quate funding capabilitieswill bear
the brunt of the new norms.
According to earlierregulations,
brokers had to settle the client's
unused funds lying in the trading
accounts at least once in 90 days
(every quarter) or 30 days.
This was on a rolling settle-
ment basis and referred to as“run-
ning account settlement” or
“quarterly settlement of funds”.
The aim was to prevent misuse of
excess cash by brokers.
taxes, depreciation, and amortiza-
tion (Ebitda) margin recently
touching 10% mark and potential
forfurthermargin expansion led to
earnings upgrade and valuation
expansion over the last two quar-
ters, taking the market cap to new
highs. Despite challenging busi-
ness environment for the two-
wheeler sector during past two
quarters because of rural slow-
down, the company has recorded
healthyvolumes and all-time-high
quarterly profitability.
AnalystsbelieveTVSwillkeepon
delivering superior earnings
growth compared to other two-
wheeleroriginal equipment manu-
facturers (OEMs) due to a combina-
tion of new models, revenue
diversification as well as its com-
mitment to electric vehicles. The
demandis likelytoremainstrongat
least till the festive period in Sep-
tember-October, led by the pre-
mium segment,they said.
WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM
The one-year to five-year part of the curve has
EXPERTVIEW repriced significantly, taking cognizance of both
monetary as well as liquidity tightening.
—Amit Tripathi, CIO — fixed income investments,
Nippon Life
Stocks jump 1%
on value buying in
IT, banking, FMCG
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA SENSEX
Mumbai, October 12
Intra-day, October 12
57,750 57,625.91
BENCHMARK BSE SENSEX
rebounded nearly 1% while Nifty 57,600 57,312.49
reclaimed the 17,100 level on 57,450
Wednesday as value buying in
energy, banking, IT and FMCG 57,300
shareshelpedtheindicescutshorta 57,150 Previous close
three-day losing run. 57,147.32
57,000
Positive trends in European Open Close
markets and US stock index futures
ahead of the release of Fed meeting NIFTY BANK
minutes and inflation data also Intra-day, October 12
boosted investor sentiment. 39,200 39,118.55
The 30-share BSE Sensex 39,050 38,784.2
climbed 478.59 points or0.84% to
38,900
settle at 57,625.91.During the day,
it jumped 540.32 points or 0.94% 38,750
1-year 5-year 10-year to 57,687.64. Previous close
38,600
90.91 89.06 67.36 ThebroaderNSENiftyreclaimed 38,712.45
the17,100levelbyjumping140.05 38,450
75.61 88.37 63.89 Open Close
points or 0.82% to close at
27.45 51.11 46.88 17,123.60.
"Bears took a breather today to a strong start, which improved
29.37 77.70 98.10
(Wednesday) as markets witnessed the sector's spirits," said Vinod
34.62 75.61 88.46 a relief rally after getting ham- Nair, Head of Research at Geojit
Data as ofJune 30, 2022. mered in the past few sessions. Financial Services.
However, the recovery doesn't Among Sensex shares, Power
seem to be sustainable as multiple Grid rose the most by 3.5%. Axis
AsfrequentlyseenonSPIVAscore- negative factors are at play," said Bank rose by 2.89%, NTPC by
cards across geographies and cate- Shrikant Chouhan,Head of Equity 2.42%, IndusInd Bank 1.97%,
gories,underperformance rates gen- Research (Retail),Kotak Securities. L&T by 1.7%, and UltraTech
erallyrosewiththelengthoftheperiod "The domestic market was suc- Cement by 1.65%.
inwhichtheyweremeasured.Overthe cessfulinovercomingtheweakcues Gains in Reliance Industries,
10-year horizon,more than 60% of from global peers as it focused on HDFC, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank,
funds underperformed in all cate- quarterly earnings. HUL, and ITC helped indices
gories,exceptmid/smallcapfunds.
SPIVAIndia Scorecard reports on
“The IT earnings season got off bounce back.
theperformanceofactivelymanaged
Indian mutual funds, compared to
their respective benchmark indices
over one-, three-, five- and 10-year
investment horizons.It is not possi-
Rupee falls to 82.33 against US
dollar, bond yield up marginally
ble to invest directly in an index and THE RUPEE fell by 12 paise to and inflation data weighed on
indexreturnsdonotreflectexpenses close at 82.33 against the US the local unit.
an investorwould pay. dollar on Wednesday due to sus- Bond yields ended margin-
Someexpertssaythatneedtolook tained foreign fund outflows ally higher after a volatile trad-
atrollingreturnstogetherwithpoint-
to-pointandrisk-adjustedreturnsfor
and a stronger dollar in the over-
seas markets.
ing session, as investors waited
for retail inflation data due after
judging a scheme's performance. Besides, risk aversion senti- market hours for cues on the
What's more, not all schemes in the ment among investors ahead of central bank's interest rate
mutualfunduniverseusethebench- the release of US Fed minutes trajectory. —AGENCIES
marks used bySPIVA.
ANALYST CORNER SBI home
Margin pressure sees loan AUM
moderation for TCS crosses
COMFORTABLE NUMBERS
`6 trillion
TCS’s 15.4% y-o-y organic cc growth rate was similar to Q1 . Although
the street may continue to have legitimate concerns about FY24/25
FE BUREAU
Mumbai, October 12
growth given macro uncertainty, we remain comfortable with USD
revenue growth of 7-8% CAGR over FY24/25e
STATE BANK OF India (SBI) on
Organic y-o-y cc growth Wednesdaysaidithas added`1tril-
25.0 Accenture 15.4% lion in its assets under manage-
ment(AUM)underhomeloansdur-
18.0 Infosys ing the past 18 months. The bank
11.0 3.0% TCS now has AUM of `6 trillion in the
4.0 homeloansegment,comparedwith
`5 trillion in January 2021.
-3.0 SBIisthefirstbankinthecountry
-10.0
Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2
to achieve `6-trillion AUM in the
home loan segment, the lender said
FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 inarelease.TheloanbookofHousing
Source: Company data, HSBC estimates Development Finance Corporation
(HDFC) on an AUM basis stood at
`6.71trillionasof
HSBC get PE multiple of 26x for TTM 2Q June 30, 2022. Of
FY24e EPS. Our target valuation is this, the retail
TCS REPORTED A slight beat on now near the 5-year average (25x), home loan book
both revenues and margins in the limiting downside. wasof`5.363tril-
second quarter, but those will have That said,lowupside risk to rev- lion and the non-
little impact on FY24/25 estimates. enue expectations for the sector individual loan
It posted a revenue growth of 4% limits meaningful re-rating poten-
QoQ in CC terms and EBIT margins tial.
of 24% (vs Street estimate of 3.5%
growth and 23.8% margins).
Our estimates for FY23, FY24
and FY25e change marginally as
book stood at
`1.351trillion.
SBI's market
share in home
While the current demand envi- the decline in growth due to cross-
ronment and deal pipeline remain currency headwinds and margins
steady, the manage-
ment did admit uncer- While the current
are largely offset by
the weaker rupee
Dinesh Khara, loans is 33.3%.
chairman, SBI Banking sector
lending to hous-
ing segment,includingprioritysec-
tainties around demand against the dollar. tor, grew 16% year-on-year in
2023/FY24 growth as environment and Rating and tar- August, with total outstanding
clients face business deal pipeline remain get price: Our target being `17.8 trillion.
risks/uncertainties, price of Rs 3,330 “Weareextremelygratefultoour
steady, the
and hence mayhave to implies c7% upside. customers, comprising more than
recalibrate their tech management did We maintain our 28lakhfamilies,whohavetrustedus
admit uncertainties
budgets. 'hold' rating largely and chosen us to be their partner in
Some of the long- around 2023/FY24 due to the premium the home-ownership journey,” SBI
term deals/projects growth valuations and lim- chairman Dinesh Khara said.
have already slowed ited upside risk to the To mark this occasion, SBI will
down,and as expected, revenue growth. offera concession of up to 0.25% on
TCS is targeting more cost-trans- Upside risks: A stronger-than- home loans,0.15% on top-up loans,
formational work from clients. expected pick-up in the BFSI and and0.30%onloanagainstproperty.
Positively,margin pressures are retail segments, aggressive large The interest rate for buyers of new
moderating and TCS reiterated its dealconversion and depreciation in homeloansaswellastakeoversstarts
target to achieve 25% margins by the rupee are upside risks to our at 8.40% and the same for top-up
the end of this year, despite a sea- estimates. Increase in pricing is a loans starts at 8.80%.The bank has
sonallyweak H2. potential upside risk if TCS were also completely waived off process-
Cloud adoption remains the key able to push it across to its cus- ingfeesonhomeloansuptoJanuary
driver of tech spend and TCS tomers. 31.Earlier,SBI had said that itwould
remainswell positioned to leverage Downside risks: A deep and charge 50% of processing fees on
this trend. prolonged recession in the US and homeloansduringthefestiveperiod.
Valuation: TCS remains a Europe could plunge IT spending, Banks’ share in the home loan
leader in terms of both size and and increasing competition from segment has risen to around 62%
market positioning in emerging global competitors for digital deals as of March 2022, ratings agency
technologies.WevalueTCS on a tar- may impact the growth outlook. Crisil said in a report.
Pune
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022 WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM

10 FINANCIAL EXPRESS

Pune
WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022

FINANCIAL EXPRESS 11

Pune
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022 WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM

12 COMPANIES FINANCIAL EXPRESS

Edtech firm FrontRow lays off 75% of workforce Fireside

Tender No : 37/2022-23/SE/PHC/MVPA
JJM-WSS to Kudayathoor panchayath in Idukki District.- Supply and Laying Clear Water Pumping
Mains,Construction of sump cum pump house, construction of GLSR at various zones, Supply and erection of
Pumpsets and Supply and erection of 400 KVA Transfomer- Package I & Providing Distribution System and

Ventures
Providing FHTC to various zones- package II
EMD : Rs. 500000
Tender fee : Rs. 15000
Last Date for submitting Tender: 07-11-2022 04:00:pm
TUSHAR GOENKA off 150 employees, citing a “We’ve laid off employees that he had a runway of over
Phone : 04852835637 Bengaluru, October 12 cash crunch. Since April, the from the sales and marketing 24 months.
closes
Website : www.kwa.kerala.gov.in
www.etenders.kerala.gov.in company’s employee strength team. Over years, we have “However, our belief in the
Superintending Engineer
PH Circle LIGHTSPEED-BACKED FRON- has come down from around realised that building based on market and the need is still
KWA-JB-GL-6-899-2022-23 Muvattupuzha
TROW, the edtech startup, has 500 to 40 now. heavy marketing is not a sus- extremely strong… we’ll con-
laid off 75% of its workforce,
impacting about 130 employ-
As reported earlier,
FrontRow was also in talks to
tainable model, we are now
realigning to be a product-first
tinuetosolveforthemalbeitin
a revamped avatar.
$225-m
ees,leavingthecompanywitha
leaner team of about 40
raise a fresh round.Itwas look-
ing at a $30-40 million round
company and hence had to lay
off around 130 employees.
“We remain bullish on
the space and what we’re third fund
staffers,its foundertold FE. at a valuation of $200 million, “We are now a much leaner building and have sufficient
This is the second round of but that deal seems to have team with about 40 people,” capitalandagreatteamtocon- TUSHAR GOENKA
layoffs at the Gaurav Munjal- fallen through now, resulting Ishaan Preet Singh, IshaanPreetSingh,co-founder tinue to solve this problem,” Bengaluru, October 12
backed firm.In May,it had laid in the layoff. co-founder, FrontRow of FrontRow, told FE, adding Singh added.
FIRESIDE VENTURES, AN
early-stageventurecapital(VC)

Haryana govt asks firm,on Wednesday said it has

raised $225 million at the
close of its third fund, double

Maiden Pharma the size of its previous fund

and its largest ever.
Thecompanyplanstomake

to halt production a total of 25-30 investments

from the new fund, averaging
about7-8investmentsinayear
FE BUREAU the state government decided inthehealthandwellness,edu-
Pune, October 12 to stop production. The gov- tainment, lifestyle, and fast-
ernment has issued a notice to moving consumer companies
THE HARYANA GOVERN- the company and further (FMCG) space.
MENT onWednesdayordered action would be taken after “While we will broadly
Maiden Pharmaceuticals to receiving reports from the maintain the investment the-
stop production at the Soni- Kolkata lab,the ministersaid. sisthatwefollowedinthepast,
pat plant afterthe central and India’s drug regulatory we’ll focus on companies for
state regula- authority,the Cen- the millennial women, kids,
tors detected Contaminated tral Drugs Stan- healthcare at home and con-
irregularities dard Control sciousconsumption,”thecom-
and violations cough syrups Organisation pany said.
of good manu- made at the plant (CDSCO), has also The VC firm has already
facturing have been linked launched its inves- made five partial exits and as
processes at to the death of 66 tigations. CDSCO many full exits from its previ-
the plant. infants in Gambia has taken samples ous funds and generated a
Contami- from the same return of about 75% from
nated cough batch manufac- those exits. It has fully sold off
syrups made at tured by Maiden its stake in Pipa Bella to Nykaa,
the plant have been linked to Pharmaceuticals and sent some in Bombay Shaving
the death of 66 infants in the them for testing to the Companyto Reckitt Benckiser,
Gambia. The World Health Regional Drug Testing Lab, its holding in Azani, a sports
Organization (WHO) issued a Chandigarh. nutrition company,to CureFit,
global alert about the children TheWHO had said that the and also offloaded its stake in
in the Gambia developing kid- laboratory analysis of samples Kwik24 to BigBasket. Fireside
neyproblemsafterconsuming confirmed that they contain has also sold some stake in
Maiden's coughsyrups. unacceptable amounts of Mamaearth and boAt, both
NATIONAL STANDARD (INDIA) LIMITED The government has sent diethyleneglycolandethylene IPO-hopeful companies.
CIN : L27109MH1962PLC265959
samples of Maiden's drugs to glycol as contaminants.Apart “Less than 20% of our
Regd. Office: 412, Floor- 4, 17G , Vardhaman Chamber, Cawasji Patel Road, theCentralDrugLabinKolkata from the Gambia,these medi- holdingsincompanieswehave
Horniman Circle, Fort, Mumbai - 400 001; Tel.: 91.22.67737373; Fax: +912223024420 for further analysis.According cines could have been distrib- sold and continue to hold the
SANATHNAGAR ENTERPRISES LIMITED Website: www.nsil.net.in; E-mail: Investors.nsil@lodhagroup.com
to Haryana's health minister, uted, through informal mar- rest for value creation,” Vinay
CIN : L99999MH1947PLC252768
Regd. Office: 412, Floor- 4, 17G , Vardhaman Chamber, Cawasji Patel Road,
EXTRACTS OF UNAUDITED FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE QUARTER AND HALF
YEAR ENDED ENDED 30-SEPTEMBER-2022 (Rs. in Lakhs)
Anil Vij, authorities found 12 kets, to other countries or Singh,partner at Fireside Ven-
Horniman Circle, Fort, Mumbai - 400 001; Tel.: 91.22.67737373; Fax: +91.22.23024420
Website: www.sanathnagar.in; E-mail: Investors.SEL@lodhagroup.com Sr. Particulars For the For the For the
violations by the company so regions,WHOsaid. tures,told FE.
No. Quarter Quarter Half year
EXTRACTS OF UNAUDITED FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE QUARTER AND HALF ended ended ended
YEAR ENDED ENDED 30-SEPTEMBER-2022 (Rs. in Lakhs)
30-Sep-22 30-Sep-22 30-Sep-21
Sr. Particulars For the For the For the
(Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Unaudited) ''IMPORTANT''
No. Quarter Quarter Half year
1 Total Income from Operations 349.17 702.92 1,600.25
ended ended ended
2 Net Profit/(Loss) for the period before Tax (before Whilst care is taken prior to
30-Sep-22 30-Sep-22 30-Sep-21 Tax, Exceptional and / or Extraordinary items) 129.80 355.54 1,359.02 acceptance of advertising
(Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Unaudited) 3 Net Profit/ (Loss) for the period before Tax
(after Exceptional and / or Extraordinary items) 129.80 233.40 1,035.46
copy, it is not possible to verify
1 Total Income from Operations - 29.18 0.22
4 Net Profit/(Loss) for the period after Tax (after its contents. The Indian
2 Net Profit/(Loss) for the period before Tax (before
Tax, Exceptional and / or Extraordinary items) (7.34) 15.42 (4.55)
Exceptional and / or Extraordinary items) 77.02 233.40 1,035.46 Express (P) Limited cannot be
5 Total Comprehensive Income for the period
3 Net Profit/ (Loss) for the period before Tax [(Comprising Profit / (Loss) for the period (after held responsible for such
(after Exceptional and / or Extraordinary items) (7.34) 15.42 (4.55)
4 Net Profit/(Loss) for the period after Tax
tax)and Other Comprehensive Income (after Tax)] 77.02 233.40 1,035.46 contents, nor for any loss or
6 Equity share capital (Face Value of Rs.10 each) 2000.00 2000.00 2000.00
(after Exceptional and / or Extraordinary items) (6.20) 13.01 (4.55) 7 Reserves (excluding Revaluation Reserve) as damage incurred as a result of
5 Total Comprehensive Income for the period shown in the Audited Balance Sheet of the transactions with companies,
[(Comprising Profit / (Loss) for the period (after
tax) and Other Comprehensive Income (after Tax)] (6.20) 13.01 (4.55) 8
previous year
Earnings Per Share (Face Value of Rs. 10 each)
21,615.10
associations or individuals
6 Equity share capital (Face Value of Rs. 10 each) 315.00 315.00 315.00 (not annualised)Basic and Diluted 0.39 1.17 5.18 advertising in its newspapers
7 Reserves (excluding Revaluation Reserve) as shown
in the Audited Balance Sheet of the previous year (1,485.55) NOTE or Publications. We therefore
8 Earnings Per Share (Face Value of Rs. 10 each) 1 The above is an extract of the detailed format of Quarterly Financial Results filed with the Stock Exchange recommend that readers
(not annualised)“Basic and Diluted (0.20) 0.41 (0.14) under Regulation 33 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, make necessary inquiries
2015. The full format of the Quarterly Financial Results are available on the websites of BSE Limited i.e.
NOTE www.bseindia.com and of the Company i.e. www.nsil.net.in before sending any monies or
1 The above is an extract of the detailed format of Quarterly Financial Result filed with the Stock Exchange For and on behalf of the Board entering into any agreements
under Regulation 33 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations,
2015. The full format of the Quarterly Financial Results are available on the websites of BSE Limited i.e.
For NATIONAL STANDARD (INDIA) LIMITED
Sd/- with advertisers or otherwise
www.bseindia.com and of the Company i.e. www.sanathnagar.in. Smita Ghag acting on an advertisement in
For and on behalf of the Board
Place : Mumbai
Date : October 12, 2022
(Director)
DIN : 02447362
any manner whatsoever.
For Sanathnagar Enterprises Limited
Sd/-
Sanjyot Rangnekar
Place : Mumbai (Director)
Date : 12-Oct-22 DIN : 07128992

POST-OFFER ADVERTISEMENT FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE EQUITY SHAREHOLDERS OF

QUEST SOFTECH (INDIA) LIMITED

IN TERMS OF REGULATION 18(12) OF THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE BOARD OF INDIA (SUBSTANTIAL ACQUISITION OF SHARES AND
TAKEOVERS) REGULATIONS, 2011, AND SUBSEQUENT AMENDMENTS THEREOF.
REGISTERED OFFICE: C-75/76, 7TH FLOOR, PLOT NO-224, C WING, MITTAL COURT, JAMNALAL BAJAJ, NARIMAN POINT, MUMBAI - 400021.
Tel. No.: +91-022-67522050; E-mail: info@questprofin.co.in; Website: www.questsoftech.co.in
CIN: L72200MH2000PLC125359
This Post Offer Advertisement is being issued by Kunvarji Finstock Private Limited (‘Manager to the Offer’) on behalf AV AC DC Renew Private Limited
(‘Acquirer’) in connection with the Open Offer made by the Acquirer to acquire 26,00,000 Equity Shares having face value of Rs. 10/- each (“Equity Shares”)
of the Target Company at Rs. 4/- (Rupees Four Only) per Equity Share, representing 26% of the Equity Share Capital of the Target Company (“Offer”),
in compliance with Regulation 18 (12) of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011,
and subsequent amendments thereof. The Detailed Public Statement (‘DPS’) with respect to the aforementioned Open Offer was made on 06th July
2022 in Financial Express (English) (All Edition), Jansatta (Hindi) (All Edition) and Mumbai Lakshadeep (Marathi) (Maharashtra Edition).
1. Name of the Target Company : Quest Softech (India) Limited
2. Name of the Acquirer : AV AC DC Renew Private Limited
3. Name of the Manager to the Offer : Kunvarji Finstock Private Limited
4. Name of the Registrar to the Offer : Purva Sharegistry (India) Private Limited
5. Offer details GENNEX LABORATORIES LIMITED
a.) Date of opening of the Offer : 13/09/2022 (Tuesday) CIN : L24230TG1990PLC011168
b.) Date of closing of the Offer : 26/09/2022 (Monday) Regd. off. : Survey No. 133, Bollaram, Jinnaram Mandal,
6. Date of completion of payment of consideration and communication of Rejection/Acceptance : 10/10/2022 (Monday)
Sangareddy Dist - 502 325, Telangana, India.
Corporate Office: Akash Ganga, 03rd Floor, Plot No.144, Srinagar
Details of Acquisition: Colony, Hyderabad-500073, Telangana, India.
Sr. Particulars Proposed in the Letter of Offer Actuals Phone: 040-67334400; E-mail: investorrelations@gennexlab.com
1. Offer Price (in Rs.) Rs.4 (Rupees Four) Rs.4 (Rupees Four) website: www.gennexlab.com
2. The aggregate number of Shares tendered 26,00,000 Equity Shares 18,00,000 Equity Shares Contact Person: Mr. Rajesh Vankadara, Company Secretary and
3. The aggregate number of Shares accepted 26,00,000 Equity Shares 18,00,000 Equity Shares Compliance Officer
4. Size of the offer (Number of Equity Shares multiplied Rs. 1,04,00,000/- (Rupees One Rs. 72,00,000/- (Rupees Seventy FOR THE ATTENTION OF REGISTERED MEMBERS OF PARTLY PAID-UP
by Offer Price per Equity Share) Crore and Four Lakh Only) Two Lakh Only)
EQUITY SHARES ON PAYMENT OF FIRST AND FINAL CALL
5. Shareholding of the Acquirer before Public Announcement
• Number 0 0 The Board of Directors at its meeting held on Monday, September 26, 2022
• % of Equity Share Capital 0.00% 0.00% decide the following:
6. Shares agreed to be acquired by way of a Share Purchase a) Fixed the record date as Friday, October 07, 2022 for the purpose of
Agreement (‘SPA’)
• Number 43,00,000 43,00,000 determining the shareholders to whom the call notice will be sent for
• % of Equity Share Capital 43.00% 43.00% payment of First and Final Call on 5,25,06,534 partly paid-up equity
7. Shares acquired by way of Open Offer share (Partly Paid-Up Equity Shares) issued and allotted by Gennex
• Number 26,00,000 18,00,000 Laboratories Limited (Company) on Friday, August 26, 2022, pursuant to
• % of Equity Share Capital 26.00% 18.00%
rights issue offer vide letter of offer dated Saturday, July 16, 2022.
8. Shares acquired after Detailed Public Statement (‘DPS’)
• Number Nil Nil b) Further, in accordance with the disclosures included in the Letter of offer
• % of Equity Share Capital Nil Nil dated Saturday, July 16, 2022, the Partly Paid-up Equity shares in
• Price of the Shares Acquired Not Applicable Not Applicable
respect of which the call payable remains unpaid, shall be forfeited at any
9 Pre Offer Post Offer
time after the last date of payment of call money due.
No. of % of Equity No. of % of Equity
Shares Share Capital Shares Share Capital In continuance to the above, at the meeting held on Wednesday,
Pre & Post offer Shareholding of the Acqirer 0 0 61,00,000 61.00 September 26, 2022 of the Board of Directors with reference to the LOF,
Post-offer shares held by existing Promoter/Promoter group 43,81,397 43.81 81,397 0.81 has decided the following:
10 Pre & Post offer Shareholding of the Public Pre Offer Post Offer i) The Call Money for the purpose of making the balance money payment
No. of % of Equity No. of % of Equity by the Partly Paid-up Equity Shareholders will commence on Friday,
Shares Share Capital Shares Share Capital October 14, 2022 and ends on Friday, October 28, 2022.
56,18,603 56.19 38,18,603 38.19 ii) The Trading of Partly Paid-up Equity Shares of the Company (BSE
The Acquirer accepts full responsibility for the information contained in this Post Offer Advertisement and also for the obligations under SEBI (SAST) Scrip Code: 890171; ISIN: IN9509C01016 suspended with effect from
Regulations, 2011.A copy of this Post Offer Advertisement will be available on the websites of SEBI and BSE Limited. Capitalized terms used in this
advertisement, but not defined herein, shall have the same meanings assigned to such terms in the Letter of Offer dispatched on 06/09/2022. October 08, 2022.
ISSUED BY THE MANAGER TO THE OFFER ON BEHALF OF THE ACQUIRER iii) Further Separate email intimation sent to all the Partly-paid Equity
KUNVARJI FINSTOCK PRIVATE LIMITED shareholders of the Company along with the detailed Call Money
Block B, First Floor, Siddhi Vinayak Towers, Off S. G. Highway Road, Mouje Makarba, Ahmedabad, Gujarat - 380051 Notice and payment methods has been dispatched by e-mail on
SEBI Reg. No. : MB/INM000012564
Email Id : niraj.thakkar@kunvarji.com;
Tuesday, October 11, 2022 to all the holders of the partly paid-up equity
Website: www.kunvarji.com shares of the Company as on the record date i.e. Friday,
Contact Person: Mr. Niraj Thakkar/ Mr. Ronak Dhruve October 07, 2022.
Tel. No. : 079- 66669000
For and on behalf of the Acquirer For Gennex Laboratories Limited
Sd/- Sd/-
Date: 13/10/2022 ______________________________ Date : 12.10.2022 Arihant Baid
Place: Vadodara AV AC DC Renew Private Limited Place : Hyderabad Managing Director

Pune
WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM
FINANCIAL EXPRESS
FM says growth
top priority for
FY24 Budget
SEVERAL INDEPENDENT
agencies have scaled down
their FY23 growth projec-
tions for India in recent weeks
after the June quarter
recorded lower-than-
expected economic expan-
sion of 13.5%, even on a
favourable base amid grow-
ing external headwinds and
tightening interest rates
across the globe.
The International Mone-
tary Fund has cut its FY23
growth prediction for the
country by 60 basis points to
6.8%, while the World Bank
has pegged it at 6.5%, the
gloomiest forecast by any
multilateral body for the cur-
rent fiscal. The forecast by
most others is in the range of
6.7-7.3%. Only the United
Nations Conference on Trade
and Development has pre-
dicted a lower 5.7% growth
for India but that is for calen-
dar year 2022. The minister
also said that India is talking
to different countries to make
Rupay acceptable outside the
country also.
Inresponsetoaquestionon
startups, which are contem-
plating moving overseas,
Sitharaman said the govern-
mentisreadytotalkwiththem
andaddress theirissuestohelp
them stay in the country.
Meanwhile, consumer
price inflation inched up fur-
ther in September to 7.41%
(from 7% in August) and
remained above the upper
band of the central bank’s
medium-term target of 2-6%
for the ninth straight month.
The minister indicated
that the Budget proposals will
hold the clue as to how India
is “going to be able to balance
the two” (growth and infla-
tion) and make sure the econ-
omy grows at a healthy pace.
Even multilateral institu-
tions, which have recently
trimmed their growth fore-
cast for the country, have
observed that “India cannot
be weakened,” she added.
"So, it will have to again be
a very carefully structured
Budget in which growth
momentum will have to be
sustained," she said.
India’s growth momen-
tum has been affected in
recent months, as a demand
slowdown in key markets hit
its exports. Even industrial
recovery has remained
patchy. The escalating
Ukraine war and the recent
decision of Opec+ to reduce
production from November
to prop up oil prices pose
fresh risks to the Indian econ-
omy. A weak rupee, too, has
made imports more expen-
sive. Of course, any sharp
slowdown in global demand,
thanks to the interest rate
hikes, will ultimately weigh
down commodity prices
(most of them have already
eased from their peaks this
year).
Sitharaman said the gov-
ernment is closely monitor-
ing external headwinds,
including elevated commod-
ity prices. But it has made
sure that the poor and the
vulnerable sections in India
are protected from high
energy, fertiliser or food
prices.
The excise duty on fuel
Union Bank hikes
MCLR by 15 bps
FE BUREAU
Mumbai, October 12
UNION BANK OF India onWednesdayincreased
marginal cost of funds based lending rates
(MCLR) by 15 basis points (bps) to 7.90%. The
newlending rates are effective October11,as per
information on the lender's website.
The bank has set the shorter-term MCLR in
the range of 7.15-7.70% while two-year and
three-year MCLR is set at 8.10% and 8.25%,
respectively.
Earlierthis month,private sectorlenderICICI
Bank raised MCLRby10 bps to 8.10%,while PSU
banks, including Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of
India, Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Bank of
Baroda increased their cost-based lending rates.
Banks are consistently increasing their lend-
ing rates after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
increased policy repo rate.
FROM THE FRONT PAGE
In fresh restructuring, Byju’s to lay off 2,500 employees
THE EDTECH giant’s biggest
M&Adeals include the $950
million purchase of Aakash
Learning, the $600 million
acquisition of Great Learn-
ingandToppr’s$150million
purchase, all of which were
reported in 2021.
Theseacquisitionweremade
during the height of a fund-
ing frenzy into various con-
sumer internet segments,
which saw the edtech star-
tups alone raising a record
$4.2 billion across 310
rounds in calendar year (CY)
2021. This was higher than
the $2.3 billion raised across
220 rounds in CY2019.
Since most Indian schools
and educational institutions
remained shut during 2020,
edtechs saw a tremendous
uptick in registrations and
subscriptions. However, by
2022 growth lost momen-
was cut and the government
has extended a free ration
scheme for the poor by three
months through December.It
will shell out greater fertiliser
subsidy to farmers. The gov-
ernment’s additional spend-
ing pledges could cost it `2.6
trillion more than the Budget
estimates for this fiscal,
mainly on account of food,
fuel and LPG subsidy.
"That is one way in which
we're making sure that those
of the vulnerable sections
don't get hurt...," she said.
"Empowering is the principle
rather than entitlement," the
minister said in response to
another question.
Sept inflation at
5-month high of
7.41%; IIP
shrinks in Aug
THE IIP,therefore,will stage a
recovery in September, while
inflation may remain sticky.
The incremental price
pressure has mostly origi-
nated from elevated food
inflation, which climbed by
almost two percentage points
over the past two months to
8.6% in September. It may
force the government to con-
sidermore measures --includ-
ing curbs on hoarding and on
exports of spices and certain
other non-basmati varieties
beyond the broken rice - to
ease domestic supplies.
Key monitorables for
authorities would be the deci-
sion of Opec+ to cut oil out-
put from November, the pace
of commodity price modera-
tion in the wake of the inter-
est rate hikes across the globe,
the rupee depreciation and
the domestic demand sce-
nario during the key festival
season.
Govt grants oil
PSUs `22K cr
for LPG losses
THE THREE state-run retail-
tum, shaking up the seg-
ment. This resulted in mas-
sive layoffs in firms such as
Byju’s,Vedantu and Unacad-
emy, while multiple smaller
start-ups shuttered opera-
tions.
On June 19, SoftBank-
backed Unacademy also
reportedly sacked about
2.6% of its workforce, or
around 150 employees, in a
ers – IOC, BPCL and HPCL –
which account for over 90%
of domestic fuel supplies
have suffered a combined loss
of `18,480 crore due to ero-
sion in the marketing margin
on petrol,diesel and domestic
LPG in Q1FY23. ICICI Securi-
ties has estimated that these
three companies will see
operating losses at about
`23,000 crore in Q2FY23 due
to weak refining margins,
marketing margins and
inventory losses.
“Average cracks for gas oil
declined $8.7/bbl q-o-q to
$35.1/bbl and after adjust-
ment for excise duty, net gas
oil cracks were $15.4/bbl.
Average gasoline product
cracks saw a decline of
$26.6/bbl q-o-q to $9.02/bbl
while net gasoline crack was
$7.02/bbl,” ICICI Securities
said in a note on October 9.
Even though no LPG sub-
sidy has been transferred to
the bank accounts of house-
holds since June 2020, an
incomplete pass-through of
costs to consumers has
inflated the state-run OMCs
under-recoveries on this
front. Also, the re-introduc-
tion of LPG subsidy under the
Ujjwala Yojana –under which
up to 12 LPG cylinders a year
are given to 90 million people
at the rate of `200/cylinder —
in May 2022 is seen to cost
`6,100 crore in FY23.
Budgetary LPG subsidy
came down from `24,172
crore in FY20 to `11,896
crore in FY21. The subsidy
was just `241 crore in FY22.
Given that other fuels,
including petrol and diesel,
are decontrolled,the Centre’s
Budget was almost com-
pletely freed from the burden
of fuel subsidy in FY22,mark-
ing an end to a sticky and
politically-sensitive item of
revenue expenditure it strug-
gled long to get rid of.
Since June 2020, the sub-
sidies on domestic LPG have
been limited to small
amounts of freight subsidies
for far-flung regions. The
higher fuel subsidies may put
further stress on the govern-
ment finances,already under
pressure due to about `2.4
trillion in additional subsi-
dies announced for FY23,
mainly for food and fertiliser.
It had also cut excise duty on
petrol and diesel which will
likely result in about `85,000
cost-saving exercise. It had
also fired 600 workers in
April.Unacademy is the only
edtech unicorn — after
Vedantu — to have laid off
staff twice in just a few
months between April and
June 2022.
Byju’s reported a loss of
`4,564 crore in the 2021 fis-
cal.Lastmonth,thecompany
released audited financial
statements for fiscal 2020-
21 (April 2020 to March
2021) after a delay of more
than 17 months. The finan-
cial statement revealed that
the net loss of the company
jumped to `4,564 crore as
promotion and employee
expenses rose. Revenues
dipped 3.3%to`2,428crore
as it deferred about 40% of
its revenue to subsequent
years due to its new revenue
recognition model.
crore revenue loss.
Part of HZL
residual stake to
be sold in FY23,
says Pandey
WHILE DIPAM is trying to
mobilise as much as possible
from disinvestment of gov-
ernment equity in many
CPSEs and other entities, it is
dependent on market
appetite and conditions,
which are unpredictable.
Since the Narendra Modi
government came to power in
2014, it has mobilised about
`4 trillion through disinvest-
ments. With the government
stake in many large CPSEs,
such as Indian Oil and NTPC
is at around 51%,there is not
much scope to further dilute
minority stakes in these firms
as it would like to retain a
majority stake in some large
companies in key sectors as
per policy. Strategic disin-
vestment is also not turning
out to be easy given all kinds
of obstacles including legal
challenges.
“There is many a slip
between cup and lip,” Pandey
said referring to the with-
drawal of the strategic sale
process of fuel retailer-cum-
refiner BPCL in May due to
uncertainties in the petro-
leum sector. The Centre’s
52.98% stake sale in BPCL
could have fetched `40,000-
50,000 crore, helping the
government to easily exceed
FY23 disinvestment target of
`65,000 crore. Disinvest-
ment receipts stood at
`24,544 crore so far in the
current fiscal or 38% of the
FY23 target.
The government will come
out with EoI for Air India Air
Transport Services (AIATSL)
and Air India Engineering
Services (AIESL), former sub-
sidiaries of now disinvested
Air India. There are plenty of
potential buyers for AIATSL
(ground handling firm) and
AIESL (engineering services),
Pandey said.
Non-core assets of Air
India and its subsidiaries
(book value of `14,718 crore
as on August 31, 2021) were
not a part of the AI disinvest-
ment transaction and were
transferred to Air India Asset
Holding Company (AIAHL),
100% owned by the Centre.
RBI, Sebi announce SOPs
for regulatory sandbox
FE BUREAU
Mumbai, October 12
THE RESERVE BANK of India
(RBI) on Wednesday
announced a standard operat-
ing procedure (SOP) for inter-
operable regulatory sandbox
to regulate newer fintech
productsandservicesfallingin
the ambit of more than one
regulator.Themoveisaimedat
developing a clear jurisdiction
where there are overlapping
areas involving multiple regu-
lators,including the RBI,Secu-
rities and Exchange Board of
India(Sebi),Insurance Regula-
toryandDevelopmentAuthor-
ity(Irdai),Pension Fund Regu-
latory and Development
Authority (PFRDA).
Sebi also came out with an
SOP for inter-operable regula-
tory sandbox in a bid to facili-
tatetestingofinnovativeprod-
ucts falling within the
regulatoryambit of more than
onefinancialsectorregulators.
Under the RBI framework,
the dominant feature of the
product will determine the
influence of the regulator and
No entity to RBI cancels registration certificates of 8 NBFCs
obtain fresh FE BUREAU
Mumbai, October 12
ratings from THE RESERVE BANK of India
Brickwork: RBI (RBI) on Wednesday cancelled
certificates of registration of
FE BUREAU
Mumbai, October 12
THE RESERVE BANK of India
(RBI)onWednesdayrestrained
banks andotherfinancial enti-
ties from appointing Brick-
work Ratings India for obtain-
ing fresh rating with
immediate effect. The central
bank also said itwill separately
issue instructions on the
existing ratings issued by the
rating agency.
The RBI directive comes
after the Securities and
Exchange Board of India (Sebi)
cancelled Brickwork Ratings'
licence to operate as a credit
rating agency for allegedly not
following proper rating
process,procedural lapses and
conflict of interest. Sebi has
directed Brickwork Ratings to
wind up operations in six
months.
Brickwork Ratings, which
received licence in 2008,is one
of the seven credit rating
agencies registered with Sebi.
The others are Crisil, ICRA,
CARE, Fitch, Infomerics Rat-
ings and Acuite Ratings &
Research.The markets regula-
tor had conducted a joint
inspection with the RBI of the
records and documents of
Brickwork Ratings between
January 20 and 24,2020.
The Sebi action on Brick-
work Ratings is seen possibly
as the first instance bythe reg-
ulatorof cancelling the licence
of a credit rating agency.
In its order dated October
6, Sebi highlighted several
violations by Brickwork,
including failure to follow a
proper rating process and
exercising due diligencewhile
according ratings.
Sebi has barred the agency
from taking any new clients.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022
MARKETS 13
not registered with the mar-
ketsregulatorwillhavetopart-
REGULATING FINTECH nerwith Sebi registered entity
■ The move is aimed at under its norms. Separately,
developing a clear International Financial Ser-
jurisdiction where there are vicesCentresAuthority(IFSCA)
overlapping areas involving will be the principal regulator
multiple regulators in cases where Indian fintech
is looking to launch products
■ The dominant feature abroad or foreign fintechs
will be determined based planning to initiate products
on the number of relaxations in India.
sought for the product The SOP is prepared by the
and the type of the inter-regulatory technical
product group on fintech, which is
chaired by chief general man-
ager of the RBI's fintech
the regulator under whose based on its framework. The department and representa-
jurisdiction such feature will latter will have the final say in tives of Sebi, Irdai, IFSCA,
be the principal regulator and admitting a product or service PFRDAandthecentralgovern-
otherswill be associate regula- in the sandbox and otherregu- ment.
tors.Thedominantfeaturewill lators will provide their inputs A month ago, the RBI
be determined based on the in 30 days. launcheditsfifthcohortunder
number of relaxations sought The test design will be the regulatory sandbox, with-
forthe product and the type of finalisedbythe principalregu- out a specific theme and has
the product. lator in consultation with invited applications forinnov-
The initial scrutiny of the other regulators. The fintech ative products related to its
product or the service will be selected for the sandbox will regulatory domain. A regula-
done by the coordination
group, which is the fintech
seek permission of the princi-
pal regulator for relaxations
tory sandbox is live testing of
new products or services on a
department of the RBI while before launching the product. pilot basis with some relax-
detailed examination will be In cases where Sebi is ations for the limited purpose
donebytheprincipalregulator involved, a fintech applicant of the testing.
Separately, the RBI suo-
moto cancelled certificates of
another four NBFCs — SRM
Properties and Finance Com-
pany Pvt Ltd, North East
Region Finservices Ltd, Sow-
eight non-banking finance jenvee Finance Ltd and Opel
companies (NBFC). Finance Ltd.
Four NBFCs surrendered “Theabovecompaniesshall
their certificates of registra- not transact the business of a
tion to the RBI, the central
bank said in a release.The four
non-bankingfinancialinstitu-
tion, as defined in clause (a) of
NBFCs are — Ashwini Invest- Section 45-I of the Reserve
ment Private Ltd, RM Securi- vate Ltd and Matrix Merchan- Bank of India Act, 1934,” the
ties Pvt Ltd,AmityFinance Pri- dise Ltd. central bank said.
POST-OFFER PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE PUBLIC SHAREHOLDERS OF
INDERGIRI FINANCE LIMITED
Corporate Identification Number: L65923MH1995PLC161968;
Registered Office: Office No 327, 3rd Floor, Goyal Trade Centre, Near Sona Talkies, Shantivan, Borivali (East), Mumbai – 400066, Maharashtra, India;
Contact Details: +91-22-22016956; Website: www.indergiri.com; Email Address: info@indergiri.com.
Open Offer for acquisition of up to 13,15,860 (Thirteen Lakhs Fifteen Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty) Equity Shares representing 26.00%
(Twenty-Six Percent) of the Voting Share Capital of the Target Company, Indergiri Finance Limited, at an offer price of `10.30/- (Rupees Ten
and Thirty Paise Only) per offer share, made by Roshan Shah (Acquirer 1), Anand Devendra Tiwari (Acquirer 2), Wunnava V Shanker (Acquirer
3) and Mohit Agarwal (Acquirer 4) (Collectively known as 'Acquirers') in accordance with the provisions of Regulations 3 (1), 4 and such other
applicable provisions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011,
and subsequent amendments thereto, ('SEBI (SAST) Regulations') ('Offer').
This Post-Offer Advertisement is being issued by CapitalSquare Advisors Private Limited ('Manager'), for and on behalf of the Acquirers and pursuant
to the provisions of Regulation 18 (12) of the SEBI (SAST) Regulations, in respect of the Offer in Financial Express (English daily) (All Editions), Jansatta
(Hindi daily) (All Editions) and Mumbai Lakshadeep (Marathi daily) (Mumbai Edition), wherein the Detailed Public Statement dated Monday, March 14, 2022
was published on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, in accordance with the provisions of Regulation 14 (3) of the SEBI (SAST) Regulations ('Newspapers').
This Post-Offer Public Announcement should be read in continuation of, and in conjunction with the:
(a) Public Announcement dated Wednesday, March 09, 2022 (‘Public Announcement’) ;
(b) Detailed Public Statement dated Monday, March 14, 2022, which was published on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, in the Newspapers (‘Detailed
Public Statement’)
(c) Draft Letter of Offer dated Tuesday, March 22, 2022 (‘Draft Letter of Offer’);
(d) Letter of Offer dated Monday, May 16, 2022, along with the Form of Acceptance-cum-Acknowledgement and Form SH-4 Securities Transfer Form
(‘Letter of Offer’) ;
(e) Corrigendum to the Letter of Offer dated Monday, May 16, 2022, which was published in the Newspapers on Tuesday, May 17, 2022
(‘Corrigendum to the Letter of Offer’) ;
(f) Recommendations of the Committee of Independent Directors of the Target Company dated Saturday, May 21, 2022, which was published in
the Newspapers on Monday, May 23, 2022 (‘Recommendations of IDC’) ;
(g) The dispatch confirmation of Letter of Offer advertisement dated Monday, May 23, 2022, which is being published in the Newspapers on Tuesday,
May 24, 2022 (‘Dispatch Confirmation Advertisement’) ;
(h) Pre-Offer Advertisement cum Corrigendum to the Detailed Public Statement dated Monday, May 23, 2022, which was published in the Newspapers
on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 (‘Pre-Offer Advertisement’) ;
(i) Intimation of Extension of Offer Period Advertisement dated Saturday, June 18, 2022, which was published in the Newspapers on Monday, June
20, 2022 (‘Extension of Offer Period Advertisement’) ;
(j) Corrigendum to Offer for Revision of Offer Price dated Thursday, September 29, 2022, which was published in the Newspapers on Friday,
September 30, 2022 (‘Corrigendum to the Offer for Revision of Offer Price’), and
(k) Joint Public Notice pursuant to RBI Approval dated Monday, October 03, 2022, which was published in the Newspapers on Tuesday, October
04, 2022 (‘Joint Public Notice’)
The Public Announcement, Detailed Public Statement, Draft Letter of Offer, Letter of Offer, Corrigendum to the Letter of Offer, Recommendations
of IDC, Dispatch Confirmation Advertisement, Pre-Offer Advertisement, Extension of Offer Period Advertisement, Corrigendum to the Offer for
Revision of Offer Price, and Joint Public Notice are hereinafter referred to as the ‘Offer Documents’.
1. Name of the Target Company Indergiri Finance Limited
2. Name of the Acquirers and PACs Mr. Roshan Shah (Acquirer 1), Mr. Anand Devendra Tiwari (Acquirer 2), Mr. Wunnava V
Shanker (Acquirer 3) and Mr. Mohit Agarwal (Acquirer 4).
3. Name of Manager to the Offer
There is no person acting in concert with the Acquirers for this Offer.
CapitalSquare Advisors Private Limited
4. Name of Registrar to the Offer Link Intime India Private Limited
5. Offer Details
5.1 Date of Opening of the Offer Wednesday, May 25, 2022
5.2 Date of Closing of the Offer Tuesday, June 07, 2022
6. Date of Payment of Consideration Tuesday, October 04, 2022*
*Due to delay in receiving RBI approval, payment to shareholders was delayed and same was made
on Tuesday, October 04, 2022. However, the payment of interest to the shareholders was delayed
by 5 (Five) working days and the interest payment was made on Wednesday, October 12, 2022.
7. Details of the Acquisition
Particulars Proposed in the Offer Documents Actuals
(Assuming full acceptance in this Offer)
7.1 Offer Price `10.30/- `10.60/-#
7.2 Aggregate number of Equity Shares tendered 13,15,860 1,97,671
7.3
7.4
Aggregate number of Equity Shares accepted
Size of the Open Offer (Number of Equity Shares
multiplied by Offer Price per Equity Share)
13,15,860
`1,35,53,358.00/-
1,97,071
`20,88,952.60/-
7.5 Shareholding of the Acquirers before the Share Purchase Agreement/ Public Announcement
a) Number of Equity Shares 7,80,894 7,80,894
b) % of fully diluted Equity Share capital 15.43% 15.43%
7.6 Equity Shares acquired by way of Share Purchase Agreement
a) Number of Equity Shares 20,69,620 20,69,620
b) % of fully diluted Equity Share capital 40.89% 40.89%
7.7 Equity Shares acquired by way of Offer
a) Number of Equity Shares 13,15,860 1,97,071
b) % of fully diluted Equity Share capital 26.00% 3.89%
7.8 Equity Shares acquired after the Detailed Public Statement
a) Number of Equity Shares acquired Nil Nil
b) Price of the Equity Shares acquired Nil Nil
c) % of Equity Shares acquired Nil Nil
7.9 Post-Offer shareholding of the Acquirers
a) Number of Equity Shares 41,66,374 30,47,585
b) % of fully diluted Equity Share capital 82.32% 60.22%
7.10 Pre-Offer and Post-Offer shareholding of the Public Shareholders
Particulars Pre-Offer Post-Offer Pre-Offer Post-Offer
a) Number of Equity Shares 29,40,780 8,94,626 29,40,780 20,13,415
b) % of fully diluted Equity Share capital 58.11% 17.68% 58.11% 39.78%
8. The Acquirers accept full responsibility for the information contained in this Post-Offer Public Announcement and for their obligations specified under
SEBI (SAST) Regulations.
9. The Acquirers will consummate the Share Purchase Agreement transaction in accordance with the provisions of Regulations 22 (1), and 22 (3) read
with 17 of the SEBI (SAST) Regulations and will make an application for reclassification of themselves as the promoters of the Target Company in
accordance with the provisions of Regulation 31A (10) of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure
10.
Requirements) Regulations, 2015, including subsequent amendments thereto (‘SEBI (LODR) Regulations’).
A copy of this Post-Offer Public Announcement will be available and accessible on the websites of Securities and Exchange Board of India at
www.sebi.gov.in, BSE Limited at www.bseindia.com, Manager at www.capitalsquare.in, and the registered office of the Target Company.
11. The capitalized terms used in this Post-Offer Public Announcement shall have the meaning assigned to them in the Letter of Offer, unless otherwise
specified.
#
Note- Offer price is `10.30/- and since there was delay in receiving RBI approval, interest payable to the public shareholders is `0.30/- amounting
to total offer price of `10.60/-
ISSUED BY MANAGER TO THE OFFER
CAPITALSQUARE ADVISORS PRIVATE LIMITED
205-209, 2nd Floor, Aarpee Centre, MIDC Road No 11, CTS 70, Andheri (East), Mumbai – 400093,
Maharashtra, India
Contact Number: +91-22-66849999
Email Address: mb@capitalsquare.in
Website: www.capitalsquare.in
Contact Person: Mr. Viveka Singhal
SEBI Registration Number: INM000012219
Validity: Permanent
Corporate Identification Number: U65999MH2008PTC187863
On behalf of the Acquirers
Date: Wednesday, October 12, 2022 sd/-
Place: Mumbai Mohit Agarwal
Pune
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022 WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM

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18 BACK PAGE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

Meet Alia Bhatt, the ‘humanpreneur’ ● GOVT PUSH TO DEFAULT-WARY BANKS

Actor says she invests in

stories and people who
will tell them
SHUBHRA TANDON
New Delhi, October 12
ALIABHATTISN’T just picking up meaty
roles on-screen; she has extended that
skill and passion to herbusiness-woman
avataraswell.The actor,who has been an
investor in different stage startups
and businesses for almost five years
now, says her strategy is simple: She
needs a buy-in to the stories and people
who are going to tell them.The numbers
would follow.
“I invest in people, I am a storyteller,
I feel if your story is good and told the
right way the consumer,or the audience
will buy. I invest in a story, and if the
story is right the numbers will follow,”
Bhatta said in an interview to FE. So she
doesn’t put her money into a business
that she doesn’t fully understand.
Bhatt who admits that she is not a
“business student”and“not an expert in
finance”,launched herown fashion label
called Ed-a-Mamma for kids aged 4 to
14 years at the peak of the pandemic in
October 2020.
She says she learns the rules of the
business game by“observing people”.
In terms of revenue,the sustainable
kids wear brand,as it projects itself,has
registered a 300% top-line growth in
FY22 over FY21.
The range of kids wear has grown
from 160 options at the time of launch
to 1,800 options in the year 2022, see-
ing a multi-fold increase.
Ed-a-Mamma touched `1-crore top
line in the first month of its launch
despite being exclusivelyavailable only
on FirstCry.
Starting off as a purely online
brand,it has clocked some good sales
numbers on other platforms as well.
The sales of Ed-a-Mamma have
increased 10x over the past three
months on a platform like Ajio.
The brand is also going offline
now,and will be available across 40
Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop out-
lets by the end of next month.
The companyis nowlaunching
Ed-a-Mamma maternity wear on
October 14.The country’s mater-
nity wear market is pegged at
`2,000 crore.
❝
I invest in people, I am a
storyteller, I feel if your story is
good and told the right way the
consumer, or the audience will
buy. I invest in a story, and if the
❝ the health of the business is required,
story is right the numbers will
follow.
Apart from Ed-a-Mamma, which is
her own venture, Bhatt is currently
invested in a start-up called phool.co,
which is into recycling floral waste that
goes into waterbodies, the beauty-tech
platform Nykaa and a personal styling
platform called Style Cracker.
Defining her investment philosophy,
Bhatt says that while understanding
she “needs to understand the company
philosophy and ensure it aligns with
my vision”.
And no short-term way of looking
into things:“When I invest in a business,
I am not looking for quick short term
results,”she said.
Bhatt,who has done financial invest-
ments and not restricted herself into
putting only sweat equity said, that
while there is a return expectation like
anybusiness,she understands that there
will be “risks” at whatever stage the
investment is made.
“Any business, whether it is a film-
making business,or investing in a brand
or a start-up,or a tech idea,there is a risk
involved. Even when you come in as
an early stage investor, and genuinely
investing in an idea, there is a risk.
When you come as a late stage investor
in a company where everything is
put together, numbers are in
place and business is doing
really well, there is risk there
as well,because you never know.
That’s just the nature of a busi-
ness or market which is unpre-
dictable,”Bhatt said.
It is the same belief that
seems to be guiding hercurrent
investment strategies as well,
when start-ups are talking
about funding winter and valua-
tions are moving south.
“One of the things I believe is
that whether it is your invest-
ments, or your belief, or your
system,oryourbrand,oryourcom-
pany, it needs to stand the test of
time,”Bhatt said.
The actor also highlighted that
the dips being seen across industries
and businesses is“just levelling down
post pandemic and lockdown”, and it
will take sometime for the system to
recover from this.
Bhatt said that while she is not
worried as an investor at present, her
way of dealing with the slowdown in
the start-up space, if it so starts
concerning her, would be to stop
investing.
Education loan: Guarantee
cap may be hiked to `10L
Complaints of
delays in sanction
and rejection of
loan applications
MIHIR MISHRA
New Delhi, October 12
THE CENTRE IS likely to
increase the guarantee limit for
education loans from `7.5 lakh
to `10 lakh — a move that
comesinthebackdropofaGov-
ernment-led push for public
sector banks (PSBs) to increase
disbursements amid com-
plaintsofdelaysinsanctionand
rejection of loan applications.
Currently, education loans
up to `7.5 lakh are backed by a
credit guarantee fund, which
means that banks do not seek
any collateral for loans up to
the guaranteed amount.
TheIndianExpresshaslearnt
thatthedepartmentoffinancial
services in the finance ministry
hasinitiatedconsultationswith
the ministry of education on
hiking the guarantee limit by
33%.Such a move would bring
the limit on parwith the overall
cover in some regions, such as
THE GREAT LEARNING CURVE
Delhi and West Bengal, where
stategovernmentschemesoffer
additional cover to increase the
total guarantee to `10 lakh.
The Indian Express had
reported on September 1 that
with PSBs wary of disbursing
low-value education loans cit-
ing an increase in defaults, the
governmenthadaskedthemto
ramp up disbursement, point-
ing to multiple complaints of
a borrower of collateral-free
loans — currently up to `7.5
lakh — has to paya nominal fee
■ Education loans
for insurance of the loan. This
up to `7.5 lakh are fee could be increased margin-
backed by a credit ally to fund an increase in the
guarantee fund
loan limit,sources indicated.
The finance ministry
■ In this case, banks
spokesperson and DFS secre-
do not seek any tary Sanjay Malhotra did not
collateral for loans respond to emails and a mes-
up to guaranteed sage sent byThe Indian Express
amount seeking comment on the pro-
posed move.
The Indian Express had ear-
“delays”insanctionsanddenial lier reported that banks had
of loans on“flimsygrounds”. slowed lending on education
An increase in the guaran- loans leading to complaints
tee limit is expected to nudge frommultiplequarters,includ-
banks to overcome any reluc- ing“VVIP references”.This had
tance in lending amid a surge ledtotheDFScallingameeting
in low-value education loans of all the 12 government-
turning into Non-Performing owned banks on August 25 to
Assets (NPAs). discuss education loan disbur-
According to the procedure, sal targets.
Form No. INC-26
(Pursuant to Rule 30 of the Companies(Incorporation) Rules, 2014)
Advertisement to be published in the newspaper for change of registered office of the
Company from one state to another
BEFORE THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT (REGIONAL DIRECTOR, WESTERN REGION) In
the matter of the Companies Act, 2013, Section 13(4) of the Companies Act, 2013 and Rule 30(5)
(A) of the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, 2014
AND
In the matter of YLM TUBE SOLUTIONS AND SERVICE PRIVATE LIMITED having its
registered office at “604, Jogani Complex, Manipada Road, Off. CST Road, Santacruz (East)
Mumbai Mumbai City MH 400098” …………., APPLICANT COMPANY
Notice is hereby given to the General Public that the Company proposes to make application to
the Central Government, power delegated to Regional Director under Section 13 of the
Companies Act, 2013 seeking confirmation of alteration of the Memorandum of Association of the
Company in terms of the Special Resolution passed at the Extra Ordinary General Meeting held
on 1st April 2022 to enable the Company to change its Registered Office from "State of
Maharashtra" to the "State of Haryana”
Any person whose interest is likely to be affected by the proposed change of the Registered Office
of the Company may deliver either on the MCA-21 portal(www.mca.gov.in) by filing investor
complaint form or cause to be delivered or send by registered post of his/ her objections
supported by an affidavit stating the nature of his/ her interest and grounds of opposition to the
Regional Director, Western Region at the address- Everest 5th Floor, 100 Marine Drive,
Mumbai - 400002 within fourteen days from the date of publication of this notice with a copy to the
Applicant Company at its Registered Office at the address mentioned below:
"604, Jogani Complex, Manipada Road, Off. CST Road, Santacruz (East) Mumbai Mumbai
City MH 400098" For and on behalf of
YLM TUBE SOLUTIONS AND SERVICE PRIVATE LIMITED
Sd/-
Atma Prakash
DATE : 13.10.2022 DIRECTOR
PLACE : Mumbai DIN - 05290489

Fans can now buy

NBA merchandise (A GOVERNMENT OF INIDA UNDERTAKING)
ARM-II BRANCH, MUMBAI: 3rd Floor, Canara Bank Building, Adi Marzban Street, Ballard

from Reliance
Estate, Mumbai - 400 001. •Tel.: 022-22651128 / 29, •Email: cb6289@canarabank.com
SALE NOTICE
E-Auction Sale Notice for Sale of Immovable Properties under the Securitization and
Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 read

Retail stores
with provision to Rule 8 (6) of the Security Interest (Enforcement) Rules, 2002.
Notice is hereby given to the public in general and in particular to the Borrower(s) and
Guarantor(s) that the below described Immovable Properties Mortgaged/ charged to the
Secured Creditor, the Symbolic Possession of which has been taken by the Authorized
Officer of Canara Bank, will be sold on “As is where is”, “As is what is” basis on 29.10.2022
SLAM DUNK ■ Merchandise is for recovery of Rs.18,48,60,757.16 (as on 30.06.2022 plus further interest and charges
thereon) being dues to Canara Bank ARM II Mumbai Branch from M/s. SPIRO LIFECARE
■ Reliance Retail available for fans at PRIVATE LIMITED, B-208/209, Classique Centre, Plot No. 26, Mahal Industrial Estate, Off
introduced a select Reliance Mahakali Caves Road, Andheri (E), Mumbai - 400093, represented by its Directors/ Guarantor
selection ofNBA Retail stores and Mr. Sanjeev Anant Gupte, Mr. Rajesh Shripad Ghangurde, Mr. Vinod Anant Dali and
on Reliance Mr. Hitesh Parmanand Asrani:
team and league- Reserve Earnest Money
branded products, Retail’s e- Description of the Property
Price Deposit
including adult and commerce
All part and parcel of Land and Building measuring
youth apparel, platforms 12000 Sq. Mtr. built up area of 3132.73 Sq. Mtr. at Plot
accessories, toys, under a No. F- 1/2, MIDC Jejuri, Additional Jejuri Industrial
collectibles, etc multi-year Area, Near Shalina Laboratories, Jejuri Nira Road, Rs. Rs.
deal with Village Jejuri, Taluka Purandar, Dist. Pune - 421303, 11,15,00,000/- 1,11,50,000/-
NBA Maharashtra along with plant and machineries
■ Fans who visit installed therein in the name of M/s. Spiro Lifecare
Pvt. Ltd.
the stores will get
The Earnest Money Deposit shall be deposited on or before 28.10.2022 upto 5.00 p.m.
interactive NBA Details of EMD and other documents to be submitted to service provider on or before 28.10.2022
experiences, upto 5.00 pm. Date up to which documents can be deposited with Bank is 28.10.2022 upto
including NBA 5.00 pm.
Date of inspection of properties with prior appointment with Authorised Officer is 25.09.2022
game highlights For detailed terms and conditions of the sale, please refer the link “E-Auction” provided in
and related Canara Bank’s website (www.canarabank.com) or may contact Mr. Paritosh Kumar, Chief
content on Manager, Canara Bank, ARM II Branch, Mumbai (Ph. No. 022 22651128/ 29/ Mob. No.
in-store 8828328297) or Mr. Smit. Jaiswal, Manager, (Mob. No.: 7223002272) E-mail id:
cb6289@canarabank.com during office hours on any working day or the service provider M/s.
TVs C1 India Pvt. Ltd., Udyog Vihar, Phase - 2, Gulf Petrochem Building, Building No. 301, Gurgaon,
Haryana. Pin-122015,Mr. Haresh Gowda Mob. No. 9594597555 (Contact No.+911244302020/
21/ 22 / 23 / 24, support@bankeauctions.com, hareesh.gowda@c1india.com.
Date : 12.10.2022 Authorised Officer
Place : Mumbai Canara Bank, ARM-II Branch

FE BUREAU NBA has a longstanding

Mumbai, October 12
RELIANCE RETAIL AND The
National Basketball Associa-
tion (NBA) have announced a
multi-year collaboration to
launch the latter’s merchan-
dise in India.
Aspartofthecollaboration,
Reliance Retail,a subsidiary of
Reliance Retail Ventures
(RRVL), introduced a selection
of NBA team and league-
branded products, including
adultandyouthapparel,acces-
sories,back-to-schoolsupplies,
toys, collectibles and more, to
fans in India.
In addition,Reliance Retail
will provide fans and cus-
tomers who visit the stores
with interactive NBA experi-
ences, including sweepstakes,
Reliance Foundation Jr. NBA
activations, NBA game high-
lights and related content
on in-store TVs and more,
the company said in a press
release.
The new merchandise is
available for fans at select
RelianceRetailstoresacrossthe
country and on Reliance
Retail’se-commerceplatforms.
relationship with Reliance
which includes the Reliance
Foundation Junior NBA pro-
gramme — a school-based
youth basketball programme
since 2013,multi-yearbroad-
cast and streaming agree-
ments with Viacom18 and
Reliance Jio, and a collabora-
tion with the Lakmé Fashion
Week that offered fashion
designers from across India
the opportunity to create
exclusive NBA capsule collec-
tions.
“The NBA is one of the
most followed sports leagues
globallyand Reliance Retail is
excited to offer an extensive
range of merchandise to NBA
fans in India,” said Reliance
Retail president & CEO (fash-
ion and lifestyle) Akhilesh
Prasad.“Our goal is to ensure
that Reliance Retail stores are
the go-to destination for NBA
fans across the country.”
At the 45th annual general
meeting of Reliance Indus-
tries held inAugust,chairman
Mukesh Ambani had said that
he is hopeful that Reliance
Retail would become largest
segment within the group.

Pune