NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, BENGALURU, KOLKATA, CHENNAI, AHMEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE*
312
Friday, December 30, 2022
mint primer
Why IT attrition
is high despite a
risk of recession
BY DEVINA SENGUPTA
Hiring freezes and fewer counter-offers have brought the recruitment
frenzy in India’s information technology (IT) companies to a halt. Still,
attrition in the sector for the October-December period will hover
around 20%. Mint explains why:
Exits continue
Low-ranked employees are being terminated, as IT firms are
downsizing their reserves.
Closing headcount Attrition (in %)
23.0 27.1 21.5
6,16,171
3,45,218
2,59,179
2,19,325
WIPRO INFOSYS TCS
What’s behind the
1 high attrition?
Corporates worldwide went digital
during the pandemic, fuelling
demand for IT services. IT firms,
in turn, got more hands on deck to
service the demand, and later
realized they had over-hired. Then
came the pressure on balance
sheets, leading to involuntary
attrition—or layoffs. Overall
attrition in IT will be in the 18-20%
range in the December quarter,
estimates Prasadh M.S., head of
workforce research at recruitment
firm Xpheno, which tracks the
tech sector. Attrition in the second
quarter of the fiscal year remained
high for the major players: 27.1%
for Infosys, 23% for Wipro, 21.5%
for TCS, and 23.8% for HCL.
4 What is the impact of
the exits on IT firms?
For IT services firms, wage bills are
one of the largest expenses.
During the days of hiring frenzy,
counter-offers, out-of-turn hikes
and bonus, impacted employee
costs. But with the economic
slowdown in Indian IT’s export
markets, the negotiation power of
the candidates has weakened. The
exits, voluntary and involuntary,
may now help IT companies shore
up their margins. According to the
September quarter earnings data,
wage cost as a share of revenue fell
at TCS and HCL Technologies
while at Infosys, it remained flat.
MINT PODCASTS
WHY NOT MINT MONEY?
Do you need a new financial plan that
suits your current needs or maybe
even avenues that
can fetch good divi-
dends for your
investments? Here
is a way that helps
you navigate the
tricky world of sala-
ries, taxes, insurance, mutual funds,
and more. This podcast covers ideas
that help you make and save money.
livemint.com
23.8 24.3 24.1 20.1 35.0
Total
3,49,400
20,25,660
1,63,912
50,981 21,474
HCL LTI LTTS TECHM COGNIZANT
Source: Xpheno
SATISH KUMAR/MINT
How big are the layoffs
2 and who is impacted?
The junior to middle layers of the
IT industry are the most impacted,
since during the hiring frenzy,
they were the ones to be hired on a
mass scale. And many of them got
out-of-turn promotions as a
retention measure. However,
companies are getting more
stringent with productivity now
with a slowdown and possible
recession looming in many
advanced economies, said Manu
Saigal, director for general staffing
at staffing firm Adecco. New
entrants in the lower ranks are
being terminated as IT firms
downsize their reserves—they no
longer need the bench strength
they did a few months ago.
3 Who are those leaving
voluntarily?
Ironically, the startup sector, which
retrenched 17,000-20,000 this year, still
attracts middle management employees
from IT services. They are lured into
joining with steep pay packages and stock
options. The IT sector is also losing staff to
the captive units of global corporations.
Many captives are hiring project managers
and tech experts.
5 When will voluntary
attrition ease?
Some IT firms, over the last quarter,
have rolled out measures such as
skills training, promotions and
bonuses to retain staff they want to.
The impact of these measures will
play out in the coming quarters.
The demand-supply gap is easing
and it will stabilize to pre-pandemic
levels in a couple of quarters. In
fact, some companies may even
take the risk of reducing the
expected hikes in 2023 by 150-200
basis points. The IT-enabled
services industry may settle for a
10.1% hike in 2023 compared to
10.7% in 2022.
TECH-CETRA
Here is where you can learn about all
things tech. Privacy concerns, The
new Windows 11,
virtual private net-
works, crypto cur-
rency, pegasus, the
cloud economy and
more. Tech-cetra is
a quirky little pod-
cast packed with all-encompassing
information from the ever-changing
world of technology
VOL. 16 NO.
QUICK EDIT
Desperate
fusillade
Russia on Thursday launched a
fresh strike on Ukraine, firing as
many as 120 missiles at multiple
targets, as reported, including
those in its capital Kyiv, its sec-
ond-biggest city Kharkiv and
the western city of Lviv. The lat-
est fusillade was apparently
aimed at Ukrainian infrastruc-
ture. At least three people,
including a 14-year-old girl,
have been reported injured so
far. That such a missile attack
should be mounted 10 months
after Russian forces invaded the
country is a sign of how badly
Moscow is faring in its military
pursuit. The reckless rattling of
nuclear weapons, as the Krem-
lin has done more than once
earlier, also points to Russia
staring at failure. Yet, with the
invader refusing to withdraw,
the world may be in for a long
deadlock that keeps nerves taut
and geopolitical uncertainty
high. New Delhi could use its
ties with Moscow to help it find
a way out of this quagmire. This
may involve brokering a truce
that allows Moscow to save face
while letting the will of Ukraini-
ans prevail on their freedom. All
ground accounts suggest that
the people of Ukraine want the
civil liberties of the Western
world. And the principle of self-
determination should underpin
any peace agreement.
MINT METRIC
by Bibek Debroy
As the weekend draws near,
Best wishes for the New Year.
Resolutions will be taken,
Later to be forsaken.
But may life move into high gear.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
2022 proved to be a successful
year for the residential real
estate market as
momentum of sales
and consolidation of
players continued.
ANUJ PURI
CHAIRMAN, ANAROCK
PROPERTY
CONSULTANTS
THE SKETCH
In this podcast, Mint’s editor-in-chief
Sruthijith K.K. speaks with business
leaders, not only
about the perform-
ance of their busi-
nesses but also
about their convic-
tions, their meth-
ods, their influen-
ces, and their journey. Through the
conversations, the podcast aims to
paint in the listeners’ mind, a sketch.
 PLAIN FACTS

Data recap: Windfall at

Flipkart, exports worry
CURATED BY PRAGYA SRIVASTAVA

E very Friday, Plain Facts publishes a compilation of data-based insights, complete with easy-to-read charts, to help
you delve deeper into the stories reported by Mint in the week gone by. China’s covid-19 wave has become a cause
of concern for Indian exporters who are already under pressure from softening of demand from western countries.
Meanwhile, Flipkart has announced a one-time cash payout to holders of employee stock options.

Exports Face Headwinds Interest Rate Mismatch

Year-on-year growth in India's exports to China (in %) Weighted average rates of scheduled commercial banks (in %)
150 9 Fresh loans Outstanding deposits
125 8
100 7
75 6
5
50
4
25
3
0
2
-25 -44 1
-50 0
Jan 2021 Oct 2022 Jan Oct
Source: CMIE Source: RBI

THE COVID surge in China has become a cause for
worry for Indian exporters, who are already facing the
headwinds from a slowdown in global growth. China’s
decision to stop publishing daily coronavirus cases has
added to the worries on direct exports from India amid
already softening demand from Western countries.
This comes when India’s exports to China are already
falling at a fast pace, registering an year-on-year decline
of over 40% between July and October.
WITH HIGH inflation forcing the Reserve Bank of India
to raise the policy repo rate since May, interest rates, too,
have risen, more for credit. RBI data shows, the weighted
average lending rate of banks on new loans rose by 117
basis points between May and October. But, the rise in
weighted average deposit rates was only 46 basis points.
While credit grew at a healthy pace in 2022, deposits
languished, causing a credit-deposit mismatch, which
may force banks to increase interest rates on deposits.

Flipkart Windfall

$ 700 million
THAT’S THE one-time cash payout Flipkart is set to
award holders of employee stock options, Mint reported.
More than 25,000 current and former employees of
Flipkart are to gain from the award. Former employees
holding PhonePe shares are also eligible for the payout.
The payout comes after the transfer of Flipkart’s
ownership in digital payments unit PhonePe last week to
parent Walmart Inc.

Market Meltdown Missing Targets

Change in index values so far in December (%) Renewable energy
BSE FTSE capacity as share
of 2022 target (%) Rajasthan
S&P 500 Sensex DAX CAC 40 ASX 200 100 STI Index
142
-0.6 20
-1.4 40
-1.8
Gujarat
75
108
-3.4 -3.3 100

Karnataka
Telangana
-5.2 Data for indices other than India's 110 254
are as on 22 December 2022
-6.3 Source: Bloomberg, Mint calculations Source: Ember, Central Electricity Authority

FEARS OF a global recession and resurgence in covid-19
cases may have disrupted the Santa Claus rally in equities
this year. In the last 43 years, December has had negative
returns only 11 times, a Mint analysis shows. On average,
December gives returns of 3.5%; it is the best month in
terms of gains. However, until 22 December, major global
indices were down 0.6-6.3%, which has diminished the
hopes of a market rally this year. Sensex and Nifty made
gains this week but are lower than month-ago levels.
AS 2022 comes to a close, some states and Union
territories (UTs) are set to meet their renewable energy
targets. The overall renewable energy installed capacity
target of 175 GW by December was split across states
and UTs, led by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. But, only
Telangana, Rajasthan, Andaman & Nicobar Islands,
Karnataka, and Gujarat have met this target until
November 2022, Mint analysis shows. Overall, India’s
installed RE capacity in November 2022 was 166.4 GW.

Equity Buyout

6,313
crore
THAT’S THE amount for which Advent International has
agreed to acquire 50.1% of Suven Pharmaceuticals Ltd from
the Jasti family. This is part of the firm’s plan to create a
contract drug manufacturing powerhouse in India, Mint
reported. Advent will also make an offer to purchase an
additional 26% of the Suven’s shares from public
shareholders to comply with the Securities and Exchange
Board of India’s takeover rules.

Smartphone Sales Chart of the Week: FPI Outflow

Shipments (million units) Growth rate (in %) Foreign portfolio investors' equity flows in emerging markets
($ billion) in 2022
2017 134 13 Brazil 17.8
2018 147 10 Thailand 5.4
2019 158 7 Indonesia 4.5
Malaysia 1.1
2020 152 -4
Philippines -1.3
2021 168 11 South Africa -5.1
2022* 160 -5 South Korea -9.2
India -17.6
2023* 175 9
Taiwan -43.3
*Estimated Source: Counterpoint Research Source: Bloomberg
Data as on 19 December 2022.
SMARTPHONE SALES were hit in 2022 by lacklustre
demand as supply-chain issues and inflation led to price AMID RISING interest rates around the world, India
hikes. India’s smartphone market is set to contract 5% in saw foreign portfolio investors pulling out a lot of funds,
2022 to 160 million units, but could see a rebound in while Brazil and Thailand were the top gainers of
2023, with 175 million units likely to be shipped. Many investment by FPIs among emerging
factors could lead to a recovery in the smartphone market economies.
market. Easing inflation and 5G network upgrades are
among the top factors that could boost sales. However, Follow us on #MintCharts (https://
the surge in covid-19 cases in China and its impact on the twitter.com/hashtag/MintCharts) on our
electronics supply chain is emerging as a new worry. social media handles.
PARAS JAIN/MINT

PEANUTS by Charles M. Schulz

 New DelhI, MUMBAI, BENGALURU, kOLkATA, CHENNAI, AHMEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE*
Friday, December 30, 2022
SENSEX 61,133.88 223.60
RBI is ready to defend
financial stability: Das
Central bank recognizes global risks may affect economy, says governor
Shayan Ghosh
shayan.g@livemint.com
MUMBAI
T
he Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) recognizes that
global challenges could
affect the local economy
and is monitoring the situ-
ation along with other financial regu-
lators, governor Shaktikanta Das said.
“The international economic order
stands challenged; financial markets
are in turmoil due to monetary tight-
ening in most parts of the world; food
and energy supplies and prices are
under strain; debt distress is staring at
many emerging markets and devel-
oping economies; and every economy
is grappling with multiple challen-
ges,” Das said in the foreword to RBI’s
half-yearly Financial Stability Report
published on Thursday.
Das said the Indian economy is a
picture of resilience amid such chal-
lenges.
In its stress analysis, RBI found
that banking sector bad loans could
slightly decline to 4.9% of total
advances by September 2023 under
the baseline stress scenario, down 10
basis points (bps) from September
this year. This, RBI said, is based on
the assumption of no further regula-
tory reliefs as well as not accounting
for the potential impact of stressed
livemint.com
NIFTY 18,191.00
keePINg wAtCh
STRESS TEST
BAD loans may slightly gRoSS NPA ratios of
decline to 4.9% of total PSBs may rise from 6.5%
advances by Sep 2023 this Sep to 9.4% next Sep
asset purchases by India’s bad bank
National Asset Reconstruction Co.
Ltd.
If the macroeconomic environ-
ment worsens to a medium or severe
stress scenario, the gross NPA ratio
may rise to 5.8% and 7.8%, respec-
tively, it said.
At the bank group level, gross NPA
ratios of public sector banks may rise
VOL. 16 NO. 312
68.50 DOLLAR ₹82.81
StReSS tests show that
banks are well-capitalized
and can absorb shocks
from 6.5% in September 2022 to
9.4% in September 2023, whereas it
would go up from 3.3% to 5.8% for
private banks, and from 2.5% to 4.1%
for foreign banks, under the severe
stress scenario.
“Stress test results presented in
this issue of the financial stability
TURN TO PAGE 4
Rs 5.00 IN DELHI-NCR; Rs 6.00 OUTSIDE DELHI-NCR. PRICE WITH HINDUSTAN TIMES Rs 10.50 (FOR DELHI & NCR) 16 PAGES
Bulls beat back bears on Current account gap widens
year’s last expiry day uP9 to 9-yr high in Sep quarteruP2
₹0.05 EURO ₹88.26 ₹0.12 OIL $82.24 $0.71 GOLD ₹54,369 ₹67
Next CEO must
understand Ujjivan
Punjab Kings’
Burman keen
DON’T MISS
on women’s
objectives: Ghosh IPL franchise
Suneera Tandon &
Shayan Ghosh, Ranjani Raghavan
Gopika Gopakumar &
NEW DELHI Finance minister Sitharaman
Satish John discharged from hospital
M
MUMBAI ohit Burman, co-pro- Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman was on
moter of the Indian Thursday discharged from the All India Institute
A
fter a spate of exits and Premier League’s of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, government
churn at the top last year, (IPL’s) Punjab Kings team, said officials said. The 63-year-old minister was in a
Ujjivan Small Finance his team is interested in acquir- private ward at the state-run hospital since
Bank seems to have found some ing a franchise for the women’s 26 December with symptoms of viral fever. >P9
stability, as the regulator IPL, which will kick off its inau-
recently approved extending gural season in March. About 2,400 new-age tech firms
managing director and chief The Board of Control for wound up business this year
executive Ittira Davis’ term for Cricket in India (BCCI) invited
Indian startups faced a challenging year, with 2,404
another two years. Samit Ghosh, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank bids for media rights for a five- of them shuttering in 2022, more than double the
the founder of the bank, said the founder Samit Ghosh. MINT year period ending in 2027 ear- 1,012 that had shut shop the previous year, Traxcn
lender would soon start looking lier this month. Once the media data showed. About 266 startups that shut this year
for a new CEO, and the criteria, requirement which meant that rights are sold, BCCI will auc- were funded by venture capital, family offices, angel
especially for external candi- the bank had to have 25% pub- tion the teams. investors or institutional investors, data showed. >P3
dates, will be that the applicants licly held shares, so we had to do “We would like to bid for a
need to be aligned with the pur- the capital raise. That was the last women’s IPL team as it is a Budget to propose vaccine against
pose of the lender. Edited major hurdle. All that is over, and BCCI-led initiative. All our
excerpts of an interview: now, it is just procedural. We cricketing investments will be
virus that causes cervical cancer
Are you looking to expand ? have to get approval from stock made through KPH and the In India’s biggest push against cervical cancer—
Right now, places like Bihar exchanges and then RBI, so that existing Punjab Kings brand,” one of the biggest killers of women—the Union
budget to be presented on 1 February may
are where we takes due pro- Burman said in an interview
announce a roll-out of the country’s first
are planning to
grow; then m INTERVIEW cess. We also
require the
earlier this week.
Burman owns around 48% of
indigenously made vaccine against the human
papillomavirus, which causes the cancer. >P5
Uttar Pradesh to approval of the KPH Dream Cricket Pvt. Ltd,
a certain extent. In Karnataka, National Company Law Tribunal the owner of the Punjab Kings
where we were a bit slow, we (NCLT). We are expecting the cricket team. Other promoters Ambani sets goals for children
will expand. But, generally, we merger to be completed by the include Karan Paul, actress as they step up at Reliance units
try not to exceed 20% of our second half of next year. Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia. In Billionaire Mukesh Ambani outlined his
portfolio in any one state. After the top-level exits last 2020, KPH purchased a Carib- ambitions for various businesses under his
When do you see the year, what kind of hand- bean Premier League team St flagship Reliance Industries Ltd that are now
merger between Ujjivan holding did the bank Lucia Zouks for $4 million for helmed by his three children, in a clear sign that
Financial Services and Ujji- receive from RBI? 13 years, according to a 4 Janu- leadership transition was firmly underway at
van SFB getting completed? India’s largest company by market value. >P9
The big thing was our capital TURN TO PAGE 4 TURN TO PAGE 4
02 FriDay, 30 December 2022
New Delhi ECONOMY & POLICY LIVEMINT.COM

m MINT SHORTS
India will add $1 trillion to GDP
Current account gap widens Covid tests
for flyers
every 12-18 months: Adani
New Delhi: Industrialist Gautam Adani said credit metrics at his
businesses are improving and a deeper understanding of his rap-
idly expanding conglomerate would allay any concerns around
to 4.4% of GDP, a 9-year high from six
countries
borrowings. “Greatly surprised by the conversations about our
debt,” Adani said. “In the past nine years, our profit has been grow- Priyanka Sharma
ing at twice the rate of our debt.” Asserting that the ports-to-power priyanka.sharma@livemint.com
conglomerate is “financially very strong and secure,” Adani said CAD increased to $36.4 billion in Q2FY23; RBI data cited widening merchandise trade deficit NEW DELHI
that the strong profit trajectory had helped pare the Debt-to-Eb-

R
itda ratio to 3.2 from 7.6 in the same time period. BLOOMBERG T-PCR tests have been
Shayan Ghosh made mandatory for fly-
shayan.g@livemint.com ers coming from China,
EC develops remote voting MUMBAI Hong Kong, Japan, South
Korea, Singapore and Thailand
machine prototype

I
ndia’s current account deficit from 1 January 2023. They will
(CAD) widened to a nine-year high have to upload their reports on
of 4.4% of gross domestic product the Air Suvidha portal before
(GDP) in the three months to Sep- travel, health minister Man-
tember, up from 2.2% in the June sukh Mandaviya said in a tweet
quarter, primarily due to a widening on Thursday.
goods trade deficit and an increase in This is in addition to the 2%
net outgo under investment income. random testing of all interna-
The CAD increased to $36.4 billion tional passengers on their
in the September quarter of FY23 arrival at an Indian airport.
against a deficit of $18.2 billion in the The health ministry said,
preceding three months, showed “International passengers trav-
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data elling from China, Hong Kong,
released on Thursday. In Q2 of FY22, Japan, South Korea, Singapore
New Delhi: In a major move to increase voter participation, the current account balance had and Thailand to India will be
the Election Commission on Thursday said it has developed recorded a deficit of $9.7 billion, or 1.3% mandatorily required to
a prototype of a remote electronic voting machine (RVM) for of GDP. undergo RT-PCR tests before
domestic migrant voters and has invited political parties for A Reuters report said that while in The size of the deficit has exceeded even the upper end forecast range of experts. MINT their departure from these
a demonstration on 16 January. If implemented after stake- absolute terms, the current account countries/destinations and
holder consultations, migrant voters do not need to travel to deficit was at its highest in more than a ment (FPI) recorded inflows of $6.5 lion,” said Aditi Nayar, chief economist, to around $25-28 billion in Q3 of upload the covid negative
their home district to exercise their franchise. PTI decade, as a percentage of GDP, it was billion, up from $3.9 billion during Q2 Icra Ltd. FY23, Nayar said. Icra expects a cur- RT-PCR test report on Air Suv-
at the highest since the June quarter of of the previous fiscal. Nayar said that negative surprises in rent account deficit of $25-30 billion idha portal from 1st January
2013. “While it was expected that India’s the merchandise trade deficit and pri- in Q4 FY23. 2023. The test should have
Not wearing seat belt claimed Private transfer mary income outweighed According to RBI, net external com- been conducted within 72
16,397 lives in road accidents receipts in the Septem- SURGING DEFICIT the higher-than-ex- mercial borrowings by India recorded hours of undertaking the jour-
ber quarter, mainly rep- pected services surplus an outflow of $0.4 billion in Q2 of ney to India.” More than 6,000
New Delhi: A total of 16,397 people were killed in road accidents resenting remittances IN Q2 of FY22, the NET FDI THERE was a and secondary income 2022-23, compared to an inflow of $4.3 international travellers have
in 2021 due to not wearing seat belt. Of them, 8,438 were drivers by Indians employed current account decreased to
balance had recorded $6.4 billion,
depletion of forex
reserves to the tune
flows. billion a year ago. been randomly tested for covid
and the others 7,959 passengers, according to a report by ministry overseas, stood at $27.4 a deficit of $9.7 bn, or from $8.7 billion of $30.4 billion With a fall in the aver- Non-resident deposits showed net at Delhi airport in the last two
of road transport and Highways (MoRTH). The report titled ‘Road billion, an increase of 1.3% of GDP a year ago in Q2 FY23 age trade deficit in Octo- inflows of $2.5 billion, as against net days, of whom 39 tested posi-
accidents in India—2021’ further said 46,593 people were killed in 29.7% from the same ber-November, relative outflows of $0.8 billion in Q2 of FY22. tive.
road accidents due to not wearing a helmet, of whom 32,877 were period last year. In the to the previous three That apart, there was a depletion of for- Government officials
drivers and 13,716 were passengers. PTI financial account, net foreign direct current account deficit would widen to months, and a robust services trade eign exchange reserves, on a balance of warned that the next 40 days
investment (FDI) decreased to $6.4 an all-time high in Q2 FY23, the size of balance in October, Icra is cautiously payments basis, to the tune of $30.4 bil- would be crucial in determin-
billion, from $ 8.7 billion a year ago, the deficit exceeded even the upper optimistic that the size of the current lion in Q2, compared to an accretion of ing the possibility of a resur-
5G smartphone shipments to while net foreign portfolio invest- end of our forecast range of $31-34 bil- account deficit will recede appreciably $31.2 billion a year ago. gence of covid-19 cases in India.
cross 4G shipments in 2023

Uzbek deaths linked Centre to revive hydro projects

to Indian drug firm Rituraj Baruah
rituraj.baruah@livemint.com
to PSUs. “Around 100 projects
in the state are under the scan-
with

NEW DELHI ner, and the projects will be Editor’s Note

Priyanka Sharma ’Marion Biotech Pvt. Ltd’ in our taken up for resolution in a

W
priyanka.sharma@livemint.com country were registered in ith several hydro- phased manner,” the official Dear Reader,
NEW DELHI 2012 and went on sale in the power projects in added. I have a request.
same year. To date, 18 out of 21 Arunachal Pradesh Queries sent to the union We want to

T
he government on children with acute respiratory remaining stalled, the Centre ministry of power and the understand your
Bengaluru: India’s 5G smartphone shipments will exceed Thursday ordered a disease have died as a result of has identified around 10 to be department of power, govern- needs better so we can
those of 4G shipments by the end of next year, driven by the probe into the deaths of taking Doc-1 Max syrup.” taken over by state-run power ment of Arunachal Pradesh tailor our offerings to
mass adoption of the high-speed network and the rise in sale 18 children in Uzbekistan, Preliminary studies showed developers soon. remained unanswered till better serve you.
of handsets in the lower-price bands, market research firm allegedly from drinking Indian- that this series of Doc-1 Max Two officials aware of the press time. We have prepared a
Counterpoint said on Thursday. Although India’s overall made cough syrup. Uzbekistan syrup contained ethylene glycol, developments said tripartite In March this year, Chowna short interview that
smartphone shipments are estimated to see a yearly decline said the children died after con- it said, adding, “This substance is agreements will be soon be Around 100 projects in Mein, the deputy chief minis- will help us know you
this year due to component supply issues and macroeco- suming Doc-1 Max syrup made toxic, and about 1-2 ml/kg of a signed between the public sec- Arunachal Pradesh are under ter of Arunachal Pradesh better: https://
nomic factors, 5G will continue to push smartphone demand by Noida-based Marion Bio- 95% concentrated solution can tor units, the government of the scanner. informed the state legislative livemint.typeform.co
in 2023 as well, Counterpoint added. REUTERS tech, and withdrew the product cause serious changes in the Arunachal Pradesh and the assembly that the state gov- m/qnawithmint (takes
from all stores. patient’s health, independent power develop- “Ten such major sites have ernment has terminated 44 3-5 minutes) or scan
Health minis- Uzbekistan has such as vomiting, ers that were originally been identified for tripartite agreements with private this QR code:
Government introduces ter Mansukh alleged that 18 fainting, convul- awarded the projects. agreements. The CPSE, such power developers.
Mandaviya sions, cardiovas- The plan is to take over the as NHPC or NEEPCO, will pay This assumes importance
national geospatial policy directed the Cen-
children died
after consuming cular problems stalled projects and allow an the money to the original given China’s 14th five-year
New Delhi: The ministry of science and technology on Wednes- tral Drugs Stan- and acute kidney exit for the companies which developer to whom it was plan proposing building a
syrup made by
day published the National Geospatial Policy, 2022. After liberaliz- dard Control failure.”“Cur- have made an investment and allotted and the latter will massive dam over the Brahma-
ing the use of geospatial data under the draft Geospatial Data policy Organisation Noida-based rently, tablets and want their money back, exit,” the official added. Some putra river, known in China as
in February last year, the central government has now outlined a (CDSCO) to initi- Marion Biotech syrups of the drug through a litigation-free set- of the projects being consid- the Yarlung Tsangpo, a devel-
13-year guideline for the development of the geospatial data indus- ate an investiga- Doc-1 Max are tlement, they said. ered for takeover by a public opment that has raised con-
try in the country, developing a national framework to use geospa- tion into the mat- withdrawn from “For the last 10-15 years, sector hydro power major are cerns in India because of the
tial data for improving citizen services, and more. SHOUVIK DAS ter, which follows a similar con- sale in all pharmacies of the there has been no progress at Kalai-1, Tato-1 and Tato-2. strategic ramifications. If you would like to
troversy over the deaths of 66 country,” it said. Calls made to a all, so there was suffering on Another official said the Recent India-China clashes share thoughts, ideas
children in Gambia. Marion Biotech landline num- the hydro side. In some cases expenditure incurred by the after Chinese incursion in the or feedback, please
Eicher Motors to invest in Uzbekistan’s health ministry ber posted on LinkedIn private parties have invested original developer would be Tawang sector of Arunachal write to feedback@
said on its website, “We remained unanswered. some money...prepared the evaluated by a committee of Pradesh has worsened ties. livemint.com.
Spanish electric bike maker reported the occurrence of side The incident comes close detailed project report or took the power ministry. In a bid to strengthen its the Looking forward to
Bengaluru: Eicher Motors Ltd will buy a nearly 10.35% stake in effects in children as a result of on the heels of a similar case in up some other development. Further, the state govern- hydro infrastructure in the your response,
Spanish electric motorcycle maker Stark Future SL for 50 million taking the drug Doc-1 Max in Gambia, where deaths of 66 They would want to exit, but ment is also looking at taking strategic state, the Centre has
euros ($53.22 million), it said on Thursday, the latest such invest- the city of Samarkand. Tablets children were linked to con- would also like to get back the over the projects where no accelerated efforts to both Sruthijith KK
ment by an Indian company amid rising demand for electric vehi- and syrup Doc-1 Max manufac- sumption of India-made money they spent,” said one of investment has been made, revive stalled projects and Editor-in-Chief
cles (EVs). REUTERS tured by the Indian company cough syrup. the two officials. which will later be transferred build new dams.

PM Gati Shakti portal likely to be opened up to private companies CORRECTIONS AND

CLARIFICATIONS
Mint welcomes comments,
Ravi Dutta Mishra & sector companies which at assisting projects has over on the proposed changes in both people and goods, and suggestions or complaints
Subhash Narayan would share information on 2,000 layers of information. the Gati Shakti architecture location of projects. about errors.
the availability of land and With GIS mapping being com- remained unanswered till the Finance minister Nirmala
Readers can alert the
NEW DELHI clearances required to take pleted for the entire country, time of going to press. Sitharaman had earlier asked
newsroom to any errors in the
projects forward. along with information on The Pradhan Mantri Gati the Niti Aayog to map various paper by emailing us, with your

T
he union government
may throw open its digi-
tal infrastructure tool
PM Gati Shakti Master Plan to
the private sector in order to
fast-track implementation of
key infra projects, two officials
aware of the said.
The PM Gati Shakti plat-
form is currently accessible
only by government depart-
ments, state agencies and pub-
lic private partnership (PPP)
projects. Now, the plan is to
give limited access to private
“The PM Gati Shakti
National Master Plan is cur-
rently designed to aid infra-
structure planning. It has a
centralised portal that united
the infrastructural initiatives
planned and initiated by 16
central ministries and depart-
ments, including railways,
roads and highways. Several
private sector project propo-
nents could also gain a lot from
this initiative. So, certain
changes in Gati Shakti archi-
tecture are being worked upon
markets, demand centres and
transport logistics, the portal
would enrich a project propo-
nent’s experience and help in
better planning of projects, the
official added.
The platform would also
Gati Shakti master plan provides for infrastructure and logistics work out the entire logistical
synergy among different modes of movement. HT planning for any infrastruc-
ture project and point out the
that would provide even pure The digital infrastructure gaps that could be fixed with
private sector projects to get developed by the Bhaskara- separate intervention of the
the advantages of planned charya National Institute for central and state governments.
infra development,” the offi- Space Applications and Geo- Queries sent to the minis-
cial added. informatics (BISAG-N) aimed tries of commerce and finance
Shakti National Master Plan is
a central government project,
aimed at revolutionising infra-
structure in India. Prime min-
ister Narendra Modi
announced the launch of the
Gati Shakti Yojana, a ₹100 tril-
lion project for developing
‘holistic infrastructure’ in
India on the 75th independ-
ence day. The touchstone of
the master plan is world-class,
modern infrastructure and
logistics synergy among dif-
ferent modes of movement of
Infra projects in the country full name and address to
including industrial corridors, feedback@livemint.com.
freight corridors, PM Mitra
Parks, and defence corridors It is our policy to promptly
respond to all complaints.
and bring them under the PM Readers dissatisfied with the
Gati Shakti scheme for opti- response or concerned about
mum utilization of resources. Mint’s journalistic integrity may
India’s logistics sector is write directly to the editor by
largely unorganized and frag- sending an email to
mented, making logistics costs asktheeditor@livemint.com
in the country as high as Mint’s journalistic Code of
14-15% of the GDP compared Conduct that governs our
with 7-8% in Singapore and newsroom is available at
the US . www.livemint.com
ravi.dutt@livemint.com

FOR ANY QUERIES/DELIVERY ISSUES

CALL: 60004242, Monday-Saturday, 10am-6pm (Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune and Chandigarh) MAIL: delivery@livemint.com TO SUBSCRIBE: Give a missed call on 7039035039 or visit www.mintreaders.com or write to us at subscription@livemint.com

First published in February 2007 to serve as an unbiased and clear-minded chronicler of the Indian Dream.
SRUTHIJITH KURUPICHANKANDY (EDITOR); PUBLISHED/PRINTED BY MANHAR KAPOOR ON BEHALF OF HT MEDIA LTD, 18-20 Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi 110001
Printed at HT Media Ltd presses at •Plot No. 8, Udyog Vihar, Greater Noida, Distt Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh 201306; •MNSPrinters Pvt. Ltd, 345/4, Bhatrahalli, Near KR Puram RTO, Old Madras Road, Bangalore 560049; •Saraswati Print Factory Pvt. Ltd, 789, Chowbhaga (W), Near China Mandir, Kolkata 700 105; •MNSPrinters Pvt. Ltd, 76/1, Poonamallee High Road, Velappanchavadi, Chennai 600077; •
Bhaskar Print Planet, Survey No. 148P, Changodar Bavla Highway, Sanand (Tal), Distt Ahmedabad, Gujarat. •Jagati Publications Ltd, Plot No. D75 & E52, APIE Industrial Estate, Balanagar, Rangareddy Distt. Hyderabad 500037 *Also available in Chandigarh and Pune.
RNI Registration DELENG/2007/22485; Mint welcomes readers’ responses to all articles and editorials. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. Send in your views to the editor at letters@livemint.com. ©2021 HT Media Ltd All Rights Reserved
LIVEMINT.COM DEALS, TECH & STARTUPS FriDay, 30 December 2022
New Delhi 03

m MINT SHORTS 2,400 new-age tech cos Mamaearth parent

Fund floated by entrepreneurs plans for ₹2.9k-cr
invests in over 45 startups in 2022
Bengaluru: Bharat Founders Fund, a venture capital fund
floated by a group of over 70 Indian entrepreneurs, on Thurs-
day said it has invested $4.5 million (around ₹37 crore) in over
wound up biz this year public share sale
45 early-stage startups so far this year. Launched in March, the Malvika Maloo &
fund has backed these 45 startups across software-as-a-service Ranjani Raghavan
(SaaS), edtech, fintech, healthtech, e-commerce and Web3 in
their angel and seed funding rounds at an average ticket size Scale of shutdown points to investor caution amid global economic uncertainties BENGALURU/MUMBAI
of $100,000. K. AMOGHAVARSHA

H
onasa Consumer Pvt.
Aman Rawat Ltd, which operates
Investors form new working aman.rawat@livemint.com
Beaten down direct-to-consumer
Startups found it difficult to stay afloat as investors turned more cautious about
brands Mamaearth and Derma
group for Gift City NEW DELHI
committing capital in the face of economic uncertainty.
Co, is planning to raise ₹2,900

I
BLOOMBERG NUMBER OF INDIAN TECH COMPANIES THAT SHUT SHOP
ndian startups faced a challenging crore through an initial public
year, with 2,404 of them shuttering in 2018 3,484 offering.
2022, more than double the 1,012 that 2019 2,131 The IPO will comprise a
had shut shop in the previous year, 2020 1,472 fresh issue of ₹400 crore and
according to data from Traxcn. 2021 1,012 an offer-for-sale (OFS) of up to Ghazal and Varun Alagh, co-
About 266 startups that shut down this 2022 2,404 46.82 million shares, accord- founders of Mamaearth.
year were funded by venture capital, angel ing to the draft red herring
investors, family offices or institutional NUMBER OF SHUTTERED FIRMS THAT WERE FUNDED IN 2022 prospectus (DRHP) filed with Kotak Mahindra Capital,
investors. The companies had raised close 55 the Securities and Exchange Citigroup Global Markets
50 Total
to $290 million, the data showed. Board of India (Sebi) on Thurs- India, JP Morgan India and JM
The number of startups shutting down
in 2022 is also higher than in the previous
42
266 day.
The OFS will be around
Financial are managing the
share sale.
two years, indicating that it has been diffi- 26 26 ₹2,500 crore, a person familiar The Gurugram-based firm,
25 24
New Delhi: A newly formed association of chief financial cult for these companies to stay afloat as with the development said founded in 2016 by husband-
officers (CFOs) of Indian private equity and venture capi- investors become more cautious amid seeking anonymity. “It could wife duo Varun and Ghazal
tal funds is working alongside International Financial global economic uncertainties. Only 2018 10 8 be higher or lower depending Alagh, counts California-
Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) to promote setting up saw more startup failures in the past five on the market valuations based Sequoia Capital, Belgi-
new funds at Gift City in Gujarat. The association said it years, with 3,484 clo- E-commerce Enterprise Fintech Healthtech Edtech Media Hospitality Proptech Others received,” this person added. um-based investment firm
will work closely to provide feedback to IFSCA on opera- sures. Tech
Source: Tracxn
Honasa may consider a pre- Sofina Ventures, and Evolv-
tional issues and suggestions for resolving them to make “Startup invest- IPO placement of ₹80 crore, in ence, a UAE-based fund as its
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
it simpler. AMAN RAWAT ments in 2021 were which case, the amount of the investors. It entered the uni-
exuberant, with new financing records pany employed around 100 people. Many other e-commerce startups that fresh issue will be reduced. corn club in January when it
being set in practically every industry. The e-commerce segment in India was shuttered were still in their early stages, Mamaearth’s backers, raised $52 million as a part of
Cos likely to raise funds via public 2022 tempered the investor mood, and also impacted in 2022, with close to 50 including Accel-backed Shopmonk and including Sofina its Series F round.
founder expectations, resulting in the gain funded startups failing to survive the Axilor Ventures-backed Inroadz. Ventures, Stellaris, The company
issues in 2023 as liquidity tightens of the overall ecosystem,” said Manu Rik- so-called funding winter. Among these Capital raised by Indian startups fell by Fireside Ventures aims to utilize the
Fundraising through public issues could see an uptick in 2023 hye, a partner at Merak Ventures. companies, e-commerce enablement 39% to $25.4 billion in 2022 from $41.8 and Evolvence, are capital for advertise-
as retail investors bet on attractive interest rates and companies Edtech was among the hardest-hit seg- platform ShopX had raised the most fund- billion the year before, Traxcn said. considering a partial exit ment expenses (₹186 crore),
look to diversify their funding portfolio under tightening liquid- ments in the Indian startup ecosystem, ing at $50 million but ultimately filed for For raising cash, many startups tapped through the IPO. capital expenditure for exclu-
ity conditions, bankers and analysts said.Indian companies raised with 25 funded startups in venture debt while a few oth- Fireside holds about 10.4% sive brand outlets (₹34.23
around ₹5.38 trillion ($64.95 billion) through private placements this sector closing their doors. WIPED OUT ers opted for flat rounds to stake in the firm, Sofina has a crore) and to set up new salons
in 2022, largely aided by the banking system’s massive cash sur- Funding for edtech compa- stay afloat. “Businesses that 9.5% stake, and Stellaris owns for its BBlunt brand (27.5
plus, data showed. Public issues were only to the tune of around nies in India plummeted to IN total, companies EDTECH was among THE funding crunch had a mandate for growth about 9.5%. crore), Honasa Consumer said
₹80 billion. REUTERS $2.4 billion in 2022, down that shut
down had
the hardest-hit
segments, with 25
impacted edtech,
e-commerce, media,
without considering unit eco- Varun Alagh, who owns a in the IPO draft prospectus.
from $4.1 billion in the previ- raised close to funded startups fintech and nomics took a beating,” Bri- 34.3% stake in the company, The remaining ₹152.2 crore
ous year, according to Tracxn. $290 mn closing doors healthtech firms jesh Damodaran, co-founder will dilute about 3% of his will be used for general corpo-
Twitter back online after global Among notable edtech com- and chief investment officer holding. Ghazal Alagh, with a rate purpose and to fund its
panies that wound up in 2022 of Auxano Capital, said. 3.2% stake, aims to dilute inorganic growth plans.
outage hits thousands were Lido Learning, Udayy, SuperLearn, insolvency after defaulting on its interest However, the funding crunch not only about 1% of her stake. Honasa Consumer, which
Twitter Inc suffered a major outage on Wednesday, leaving tens and Crejo.fun. The closure of Lido Learn- payments. impacted edtech and e-commerce firms, Investors, including Snap- had initially launched with the
of thousands of users globally unable to access the popular social ing, which had raised $20 million in fund- Another e-commerce startup that shut- but also healthtech, media and fintech. deal cofounders Kunal Bahl Mamaearth brand, has subse-
media platform or use its key features for several hours before ing, resulted in the loss of over 1,200 jobs. tered its doors in the segment is business- The healthtech and media sectors faced and Rohit Bansal, actor Shilpa quently added more brands
services appeared to come back online.The incident is the social Edtech startup Udayy shut down in in-a-box platform Protonnm, which shut challenges in 2022, with approximately Shetty Kundra, Sharrp Ven- such as Derma Co., Aqualog-
media site’s first apparent widespread service disruption since June after exploring options such as pivot- shop within close to six months after rais- 26 and 24 funded companies shutting tures’s Rishabh Mariwala will ica, Ayuga, Bblunt and Dr.
billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter as CEO in late October. ing to a different business model and even ing ₹67 crore in a seed round led by Matrix down, respectively. The fintech segment also dilute their stake through Sheth’s.
Some users commented service had returned to normal. REUTERS attempting to sell the company. The com- Partners in July. also saw 26 startups fail to make it to 2023. the IPO. malvika.maloo@livemint.com

Angels fly: Cred’s Shah, boAt’s Foldable //WEB//

These shutdowns also resulted in wide-
spread layoffs. Nearly 19,000 employees

Gupta, Shaadi’s Mittal top list smartphone across the tech ecosystem were laid off in
2022, Mint reported. A significant portion

Malvika Maloo
shipments of those impacted was from edtech start-
ups.
Most active angel investors
malvika.maloo@livemint.com
BENGALURU
A listing of top angel investors between 2017 and 2022 and the
number of investments they made.
to rise in ’23
Shouvik Das

K
unal Shah, founder of 2017 Raman Roy 19
fintech unicorn Cred was Rajan Anandan 19 shouvik.das@livemint.com
India’s most active angel Anand Ladsariya 16 NEW DELHI
investor with 54 bets in 2022, Munish Jauhar 16
Vikas Kuthiala 14

followed by wearables brand
boAt’s co-founder Aman Gupta
and Anupam Mittal, founder of
Mumbai-based People Group,
the parent of matrimony portal
Shaadi.com, according to data
from startup and private deal
intelligence platform Tracxn.
Gupta and Mittal backed 34
and 32 startups during the year,
respectively. Peyush Bansal,
co-founder of Lenskart, was at
the fourth spot with 26 deals.
Shah invested in Kredmint,
Growth School, Allo Health,
PickYourTrail and Gold Setu,
among others, besides backing
a few overseas startups, includ-
ing Lista in the Philippines, and
Jovian in the US.
Shah has been appearing on
the list of top five angels (by vol-
umes) for the last three years. In
2021, he topped with 108 deals,
the data showed. Shah did not
respond to queries for the story.
Shah started backing other
startups after selling payments
platform Freecharge to Snap-
deal in 2015 in a ₹2,800-crore
cash and stock deal.
To be sure, the Tracxn data is
based on the number of deals,
and does not track angels based
on the amount invested. Also,
investors who have set up their
family offices, or invest through
seed or venture capital funds, as
well as angel investment net-
works, do not feature
in the dataset, which
lists only individual
angel investments.
Furthermore, Gupta, Mittal
and Bansal are ‘Sharks’ on the
Indian edition of global ‘Shark
Tank’ show, a format that lends
itself to angel investing. Shark
Tank allows investors to issue
cheques ranging from a few
lakhs to a few crores, allowing
them to invest in a larger set of
companies.
The show’s judges, including
BharatPe’s Ashneer Grover and
F
oldable phone shipments
2018 Raman Roy 17 are likely to rise 20-30% in
Rajan Anandan 15 India next year, following
Bikky Khosla 11 over 50% growth in 2022, both
Rohit Bansal 12 in international markets and in
Sorabh Agarwal 10 India. “Though foldable phone
2019 Raman Roy 24 shipments may grow 20-30%
Kunal Bahl 22 next year, they remain small in
Jitendra Gupta 15 overall numbers, accounting
Rohit Bansal 20 for just over 2% of smartphone
Simi Hari 14 shipments priced at ₹30,000-
2020 Kunal Bahl 43 plus in India,” a senior industry
Rohit Bansal 40 executive said.
Ramakant Sharma 22 Market research firm Coun-
Kunal Shah 21 terpoint, in its annual report,
Abhishek Goyal 16 ‘Global Foldable Smartphone
Market Forecast, Q3 2022’, said
2021 Kunal Shah 108 FY23 is likely to close with 52%
Kunal Bahl 72 annual growth at 22.7 million,
Rohit Bansal 75
globally. However, while ship-
Ramakant Sharma 39
ments to India grew in line
Anupam Mittal 37
with
2022 Kunal Shah 54 t h e
Aman Gupta 34 global
Anupam Mittal 32 pace of
Peyush Bansal 26 growth, foldable smartphones
Hemant Gupta 25 remain a very small part of
Source: Tracxn
overall shipments. Industry
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
executives said around
Emcure Pharmaceuticals CFO top-listers have been replaced 400,000 foldable units were
Namita Thapar were also active by new and more active angels. shipped to India in 2022.
angels with 22 and 18 deals this Founder of Quatrro Global Ser- According to Prachir Singh,
year, respectively. vices, Raman Roy, was the top senior research analyst, Coun-
The show rejigged the list of active angel for three years in a terpoint, the Indian premium
top investors, according to the row during 2017-2019. Rajan smartphone market accounted
number of deals in the last few Anandan, managing director, for “10-11% of the overall mar-
years. Sequoia Capital, held the sec- ket” as of the September quar-
In 2021, Snapdeal’s Kunal ond position in 2017 and 2018. ter. Counterpoint’s quarterly
Bahl was at the second position While the total number of data showed 45 million smart-
with 72 deals flanked investments by the three most phones were shipped in India
by Shah at the top active angel investors individu- during the period. Singh said
with his 108 bets, and ally were at 11-24 deals between the market share of foldable
Rohit Bansal, the 2017 and 2019, in 2021, it went phones is not likely to drasti-
co-founder of SnapDeal at No 3 up to 75-108 deals. However, in cally change in 2023. “India’s
with 75 investments. At the 2022, it is down to 32-54. average selling price for smart-
fourth spot was Homespace Over the years, founders of phones is still $245 (approx.
unicorn Livspace founder Indian businesses have stepped ₹20,300), while foldable
Ramakant Sharma with 39 in to invest in early-stage start- phones are priced at a lofty
investments. ups, while initially seed money niche,” he said.
The Snapdeal founders (who was typically contributed by Foldable phones got a dou-
invest out of their investment family and friends of founders. ble-digit market share in the
vehicle Titan Capital) as well as However, as the Indian startup ultra-premium segment (above
Sharma continue to bet signifi- ecosystem matured, founders $1,000) globally, Tarun Pathak,
cantly as angels. came forward to support other director, global smartphone
Between 2017 and 2022, the entrepreneurs in their journey. practice, Counterpoint, said.
04 FriDay, 30 December 2022
New Delhi MARK TO MARKET LIVEMINT.COM

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

61,133.88 0.37 18,191.00 0.38 15,485.20 0.34 42,252.55 -0.02 18,343.60 0.40 25,220.62 -0.09 28,707.42 0.22
PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN

60,910.28 60,628.29 18,122.50 18,045.70 15,432.80 15,370.00 42,261.45 42,089.45 18,270.95 18,192.20 25,243.33 25,175.55 28,645.49 28,571.15
HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW

61,210.65 60,479.06 18,229.70 17,992.80 15,517.45 15,307.00 42,435.65 41,739.85 18,387.60 18,124.80 25,261.62 24,945.11 28,727.85 28,485.58

m MINT SHORTS Textile companies on Silver shines on fresh

Domestic demand drives demand outlook, but
growth in Russian factories
Moscow: Domestic demand more than made up for fall-
ing export sales to drive growth in Russian manufactur-
ing in December, a survey showed on Thursday, leading
long road to recovery gold glitters brighter
to the fastest monthly rise in job creation in the sector in Aprajita Sharma Harsha Jethmalani
Gloomy situation Little sparkle
over 21 years. The S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ feedback@livemint.com harsha.j@htlive.com
The global demand for textile and apparels has been soft in CY22 hurt by Silver price has recovered from
Index (PMI) eased in December to 53.0 from 53.2 in its recent low, but so far in CY22

T
unfavourable macroeconomic factors.

F
November, but was still above the 50 mark that separates he Indian textile sector faced a or yet another year, silver’s per- gold has performed better.
expansion from contraction. November’s reading was its rough patch in 2022. A triple Textile & Apparel Exports (In $ billion) formance versus gold has not
42.9 Spot MCX Gold (in /10 gram)
highest since January 2017. “Higher production levels whammy of elevated raw been quite impressive. In the
Spot MCX Silver (in /kilogram)
were linked to another monthly upturn in new orders material prices, lower exports domestic market, spot silver price
and the acquisition of new customers,” S&P Global said. demand due to the Russia- rose by 9% so far in 2022, in compari- 120

“The rate of output growth softened from November’s Ukraine war, and subdued capacity utili- 34.5 son, gold is up by 13%. (See chart) 113.37
recent high but was the second-fastest since August zation eroded their margins. The situa- The demand outlook for silver is
2020.” The contraction in new export orders weighed on tion worsened for spinners, with domes- 3.6 poised to improve aided by the ongo- 110
total sales growth, S&P Global said, attributing the drop tic cotton prices trading at a huge 3.2 3.2 ing pick-up in green energy initia-
in foreign client demand to the impact of sanctions premium compared to international 3.1 tives, globally. Silver is a precious
2.8
against Moscow over its actions in Ukraine. REUTERS ones, making Indian cotton products 2.5
metal and has industrial uses. Also,
uncompetitive globally. 2.2 the increasing traction for electric 100

Little wonder then that textile stocks vehicles and 5G technology would
have been beaten black and blue. For buoy industrial demand for silver.
instance, in 2022, so far, midcap textile However, a bigger catalyst for sil- 90
stocks, such as Vardhman Textiles Ltd ver demand and prices is the reopen- 109.07
and Trident Ltd, have corrected by 29% ing of the Chinese economy. “For sil-
and 37%, respectively. Smallcaps, such as ver, it has been observed that it rallies
Indo Count Industries Ltd, bore a higher FY22A Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct FY23E when base metals rise due to indus- 80
31 Dec 2021 28 Dec 2022
brunt falling around 47% in the period. Note: A is actual; E is estimated Source: Ministry of Commerce, CAI, ICICI Direct Research
trial uses. China reopening will be a
Values rebased to 100 Source: Bloomberg
Of course, midcaps and smallcaps big game changer for silver,” said
tend to see a steeper decline than large- SATISH KUMAR/MINT
Navneet Damani, senior vice presi- SATISH KUMAR/MINT

South and Southeast Asian stocks were among the few
bright spots this year for global funds AP
Race for 2022’s top stock
market goes down to final day
Three equity markets in Asia are competing to become
the biggest gainers in the world this year, even as a
stronger dollar hurt the appeal of the region. Measures
for Indonesia, India and Singapore are closing on Brazil’s
Ibovespa Index, which has climbed 5.2% in local currency
terms, according to data of major stock benchmarks
compiled by Bloomberg. The Asian gauges are up at least
3.5% each, which means a single-day gain could make up
the difference. The rankings are mostly similar in dollar
terms although the gains differ. South and Southeast
Asian stocks were among the few bright spots this year
for global funds as reopenings from the pandemic and a
revival in tourism boosted corporate profits. Indian
stocks attracted nearly $6 billion from international
investors this quarter, according to Bloomberg-compiled
data. Even so, South and Southeast Asia may become less
attractive going into 2023 as investors shift their focus to
cheaper North Asian markets. BLOOMBERG
caps during a market correction. How- between domestic and international cot- China-plus-one strategy by global com- dent, currency and commodity, ures the relative strength of gold ver-
ever, for this sector, near-term head- ton prices. According to analysts at panies should aid the sector’s long-term Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. sus silver prices. When the ratio is
winds persist, which has also weighed on Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd, outlook. China+1 strategy means reduc- From its recent lows, silver prices high, the consensus is that silver is
their stock performances. “H1FY23 has the last five-year differential averaged at ing concentration risk in China by diver- have recovered, but is far from shin- favoured because the latter is under-
been a turbulent period for the Indian ~5% compared to more than 25% now. sifying businesses in other countries. ing. “Silver is undervalued for quite valued, so it should start catching up,
textile value chain owing to spiralling “Even in a slightly low-demand scenario, As this further plays out, expectations some time now. According to the Sil- said Sachdeva. “That said, to outper-
domestic cotton prices and retailers, this differential decrease will bring relief are that the textile market share globally ver Institute, silver’s global supply form gold, especially with the global
globally, saddled with excess inventory,” to the Indian exporters, especially spin- will move away from China, the world’s would lag its demand in 2022, so a recession fears still looming, it will be
said ICICI Direct Research report. ners,” they said in a report. largest textile exporter, to key exporting significant deficit has reignited buy- challenging for silver,” she added.
According to the research house, higher However, India is at a disadvantage countries such as India, Bangladesh, ing interest in silver in the last few But, while interest rate hikes
inventory levels of global retailers com- compared to Asian exporting peers due Pakistan and Vietnam. Global trade of months and bodes well dampen demand for a
pared to earlier quarters is textiles stands at $1 trillion for prices, in the Increasing non-interest-bearing
likely to hit the order book a ShRED Of hOpE per annum. At $350 billion, medium to longer traction for commodity like gold,
of Indian exporters during China commands 35% of term,” Sugandha Sach- electric vehicles when recession fears
the holiday season invESTORS can COTTOn prices in ThE rise in cotton global trade, while India is deva, a commodity mar- and 5G tech play out, then investors
(Q3FY23) and spring-sum- take some comfort India have corrected production in the at 4%. Even if 1% of business ket expert, said.
from the fact that from ~₹1 lakh per upcoming season would also buoy typically prefer betting
mer (Q4FY23/Q1FY24). the supply side candy to ~₹70,000 should normalize the moves from China to India, However, if silver on gold as a safe haven
As things stand, the scenario is improving per candy supply-side situation it means the Indian textile manages to decisively industrial asset than silver. Two,
demand scenario appears industry will double from breach $30 an ounce demand for silver recession will mean
bleak owing to a looming here,” he said. levels in the global mar- subdued business con-
global recession. But investors can take to additional tariffs. “When a Banglade- Investors in textile stocks will want to ket, then a steep upside ditions, which is a set-
some comfort from the fact that the sup- shi or a Pakistani firm exports a textile keep an eye on the finalization of free momentum is likely in 2023, she back for silver’s industrial demand.
ply side scenario is improving. Cotton product to the EU, they are selling it trade agreements (FTAs) with the Euro- added. In the international market Meanwhile, the domestic market,
prices in India have corrected from ~₹1 without any import duty. But an Indian pean Union and the UK. FTAs with the silver is currently trading at $23.5 per may see silver prices touch ₹74,000
lakh per candy to ~₹70,000. Interna- player pays up to 9.5% duty. Bangladesh UAE and Australia are already done. ounce. Furthermore, the gold-silver a kg in Q1CY23 and ₹85,000 per kg at
tional cotton futures are down ~50%. and Pakistan are better placed in terms One of the benefits of FTAs is that they ratio, a metric that bullion investors the end of CY23, from the current
Thanks to better rainfall, the increase in of labour cost as well,” said Anuj Jain, help reduce tariffs for exporting goods to commonly track, has moderated. It is ₹67,000 per kg levels. The increase
cotton production in the upcoming sea- research head and co-founder at portfo- a trading partner nation. Clearly, a delay now hovering around the 76 mark in prices will, however, be accompa-
son should normalize the supply-side lio management service Green Portfolio. in finalizing the FTAs will dampen senti- after correcting from its recent peak nied with some corrections in
situation and ease the price differential That said, the increased adoption of a ments. levels of around 96. This ratio meas- between, Damani said.

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

‘CEO must understand Ujjivan objectives’ RBI ready to defend financial stability: Das
MINT

FROM PAGE 1
They were very worried. We
announced a loss because we
took a huge provision. Then,
with Nitin Chugh (erstwhile
CEO) leaving last year, a lot of the
people he had brought along
quit, and then, some board mem-
bers also left. That created a lot of
concern in RBI. They have put in
a board member in Ujjivan for
two years, and we have to provide
them with regular reports. They
were also looking at if we had
replaced the management team
and the board. Now they are very
comfortable. We have a very
strong board. B.A. Prabhakar, an
ex-chairman of Andhra Bank, is
there, and the board is well-bal-
anced. This board has supported
the management team during
this crisis. We have also replaced
the entire senior management
team. When we got Ittira Davis as
managing director, he had been
only given one year tenure by for close to 70% of our business. Wouldn’t the higher share FROM PAGE 1 tember 2023. interpreted as forecasts. RBI’s
RBI. It was recently extended by RBI has always been keen that we of secured loans on your RBI said that the capital ade- stress testing models have been
another two years. reduce it because microfinance is book affect margins? report indicate that banks quacy ratio may go down to 14% criticized in the past for a signif-
You said the bank is still an unsecured business. They Affordable housing does not would be able to withstand in the medium-stress scenario icant upward bias.
looking for a CEO even as directed us that over time, our give you a 10% interest margin, even severe stress conditions, and to 13.1% under the severe- According to RBI, the quar-
Davis got a second term. asset portfolio should be 50% and neither do medium and should they materialize,” Das stress scenario by September terly slippage ratio, rising since
How would the search be unsecured and 50% secured. We small enterprises. It will not said, adding that in spite of for- 2023, but it stays well above the December 2021, cooled off dur-
different this time round? are trying to build up affordable become as profitable, but it will midable global headwinds, minimum capital requirement, ing the September quarter,
His term has housing where we still remain a very profitable India’s external accounts including capital conservation with considerable improve-
been extended for Right now, places have been working business as long as 50% of our remain well-cushioned and buffer requirements, of 11.5%. ment recorded by public sector
two years, so we like Bihar are for some time. We business is in microfinance. viable. “None of the 46 scheduled banks. It also said that the pro-
will start the where we are currently have a Even if you look at profitability in Macro-stress tests help cen- commercial banks (SCBs) visioning coverage ratio has
search now. We planning to grow; ₹3,000 crore book the last couple of quarters, you tral banks assess the resilience would breach the regulatory increased steadily since March
will look at inter- there, and we also will see among SFBs, Ujjivan is of bank balance sheets to unex- RBI governor Shaktikanta Das. minimum capital requirement 2021 and reached 71.5% in Sep-
then Uttar
nal and external have a micro and one of the most profitable. pected shocks from the macro- of 9% in the next one year, even tember.
candidates. I think Pradesh to a small business What about consolidation? economic environment. In its banks’ net NPA ratio was below in a severely stressed situation, That apart, the report said that
we will make sure certain extent. enterprise. Our We certainly do not want to financial stability report, RBI 1%,” RBI said. although nine SCBs may fall the share of large borrowers in
that whoever core is microfi- be acquired. We wanted to said that falling slippages, an The stress tests also showed short of the minimum capital gross advances of banks has been
comes in, espe- nance, and so, as a have an independent, diversi- increase in write-offs and the that banks are well-capitalized inclusive of capital conserva- on a declining path, and their
cially if it is an external person, business strategy, microfinance fied ownership. But the three continuous improvement in and capable of absorbing tion buffer,” it said. share in total gross NPA has
he/she spends some time work- will always be our base. We will SFBs—AU, Equitas and Ujji- loan growth have led to banks’ shocks even in the absence of The report came with a dis- come down to 62.2% in Septem-
ing with us. That is to ensure the reduce the unsecured to 50%, van—are a breed apart from the gross non-performing asset any further capital infusion. claimer that the adverse sce- ber 2022 from 75.6% two years
person is completely aligned but that means the housing and rest. There are other much (NPA) ratio falling to a seven- Under the baseline scenario, narios are stringent and con- ago. It said that the gross bad
with the purpose of Ujjivan. other segments will have to grow smaller players because they year low of 5% in September. the aggregate capital adequacy servative assessments under loan ratio of large borrowers
Do you plan to diversify the at a much faster pace. Maybe in cannot grow due to capital “The net non-performing ratio of 46 major banks is pro- hypothetical adverse economic continued to improve and stood
loan book? another three-five years, half of restrictions. They may sooner assets ratio stood at a 10-year jected to slip from 15.8% in Sep- conditions, and therefore, the at 6.4% in September 2022 from
Today, microfinance accounts the portfolio will be secured. or later get acquired. low of 1.3%, wherein private tember 2022 to 14.9% by Sep- model outcomes should not be over 10% in March 2021.

Punjab Kings’ Mohit Burman sets sights on women’s IPL franchise

FROM PAGE 1
ary Care Ratings report.
The women’s IPL is set to be
a five-team tournament for its
first three seasons, featuring 22
matches. In subsequent sea-
sons, an additional team will
join the league, bringing the
total number of matches to 33.
Burman, who is also chair-
man of Dabur India Ltd, said that
the women’s IPL holds poten-
tial. His interest in the tourna-
ment could also encourage the
others to consider investing.
“We are not sure of the base
price. The quantum of money
required to acquire a team will
be clear once the media rights
are in place,” Burman said, add-
ing that selling the media rights
first was the right thing to do.
“That way, all the bidders can
get some visibility on what
they’ll get back,” Burman
added.
People familiar with the
development said, requesting
anonymity, that BCCI expects
potential bids of more than
₹400 crore per franchise.
Burman said while it took
Punjab Kings seven years to
break even, the recent media
rights auctions have helped
Mohit Burman, co-promoter
of IPL’s Punjab Kings team.
ease cashflows. “We’ve been in
this business for 14 years. In the
beginning, it took a couple of
years for people to believe in
the product. And central reve-
nues, which is the main part of
the revenue stream, only
kicked in after the 10th year
when it went up again. After the
10th year, all the teams started
to make money because the
media rights went up quite a
bit. Now with the new media
rights going, I think every team
is making money,” he said.
The Twenty20 cricket
league generates revenue by
selling media rights, sponsor-
ship deals and ticket sales.
Some of the league’s revenue
such as those from media rights
is then distributed among the
participating teams.
For the initial 10 years, Sony
Pictures Networks India (SPN)
was the rights holder of the
league, for which it paid around
₹9,200 crore. The value more
than tripled to ₹16,348 crore for
the next five-year cycle when
Star India (now Disney Star)
picked up the rights.
Recently, the rights value of
the IPL once again tripled to
₹48,390 crore for the 2023-27
cycle after Disney Star retained
IPL TV rights for ₹23,575 crore,
while digital rights were picked
up by Viacom18 for ₹23,758
crore.
Burman ruled out any
immediate plan to go public or cash flow is such that previous crore the previous year.
sell a stake in the franchise to “losses are wiped out, and there In 2022, IPL team valuations
investors. “It’s often that you is a dividend payout every year; shot up across the board after
get into conver- so as of now, we’re Sanjeev Goenka-owned RPSG
sations with dif- The women’s IPL, not planning to Ventures agreed to pay ₹7,090
ferent bankers on which will kick off monetize it,” he crore over 10 years for the Luc-
ways to monetize its inaugural season added. know IPL team. Similarly, CVC
the assets. Of in March, is set to The franchise Capital agreed to pay ₹5,625
course, we get a wants to see how crore (over 10 years) for the
be a five-team
lot of private this season goes team Gujarat Titans.
equity interest. tournament for its before doing In contrast, the four owners
There were dis- first three seasons something. KPH’s of Kings Punjab paid around
cussions on operating revenue ₹308 crore to acquire the rights
whether an IPO rose to ₹234.93 of Punjab Kings in 2008 for 10
was possible, but there’s been crore in FY21 from ₹214.84 years. Since 2018, the franchise
no decision taken by the board crore in the previous year. Net owners have been paying 20%
or the shareholders,” he said. profit, however, narrowed to of the annual revenues to the
Burman said that the current ₹48 crore in FY21 from ₹60 BCCI as licence fee.
LIVEMINT.COM
Telcos push
to resume
5G services
at airports
Gulveen Aulakh
gulveen.aulakh@livemint.com
NEW DELHI
T
elcos have asked the gov-
ernment to withdraw the
temporary ban on 5G ser-
vices in and around airports, an
industry executive said. The
wireless bands used by telcos do
not interfere with airwaves used
by aircraft altimeters, they said.
In a communication to the tele-
com department earlier this
week, the telecom industry
association highlighted the
technicalities and sought to
resume the services.
“We’ve written to the govern-
ment because there’s no evi-
dence to suggest that there is
any such interference, more so
because the bands that are being
used are not the same,” the
executive said. After the govern-
ment’s directions, 5G services
had to be stopped in airports
and high-density areas in key
metros close to airports. 5G ser-
vices were either stopped or
severely compressed in the
Lutyen’s Delhi due to proximity
to the Safdarjung airport, and
similar closures had to be done
in Hyderabad and Bangalore.
“A significant amount of cov-
erage compression has taken
place,” a second executive said.
The Directorate General of
Civil Aviation (DGCA) had
raised concerns over the inter-
ference of 5G C-Band or 3.3GHz
to 3.6GHz spectrum band with
plane radio altimeters back in
September. Following inter-
ministry discussions, the
department of telecom issued
directions to Bharti Airtel,
Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio
end of November that carriers
cannot install 5G base stations in
the 3.3-3.6 Ghz band within 2.1
km from both ends of a runway
and 910 meters from the central
line of the runway.
Govt plans rollout of
vax in push against
cervical cancer
Priyanka Sharma
priyanka.sharma@livemint.com
NEW DELHI
I
n India’s biggest push against
cervical cancer—one of the
biggest killers of women—
the union budget to be pre-
sented on 1 February may
announce a roll-out of the
country’s first indigenously
made vaccine against the
human papillomavirus (HPV),
which causes the cancer.
Cervical cancer is the fourth
most common cancer in
women after breast, lung and
colorectal cancer, with India
accounting for nearly a fourth
of the world’s cervical cancer
deaths.
The disease affects around
125,000 women—reported
and unreported cases—in India
every year, and kills over
75,000. Nearly all cervical can-
cer is due to HPV—a virus that
also causes several other can-
cers in women.
The vaccine, CERVAVAC,
has been jointly created by the
Serum Institute of India (SII)
and the Department of Bio-
technology (DBT).
The budget is likely to
include it as part of the Univer-
sal Immunisation
Programme, said
an official aware of
the matter.
As of now, all
that is available in
India is an imported HPV vac-
cine, and that too only at pri-
vate hospitals for ₹3,500 to
₹4,000 per dose. Two doses are
required to complete the vacci-
nation.
The union government now
plans to target girls in the 9-14
years age group for vaccination
against cervical cancer, with
Serum Institute keeping the
price of the vaccine at around
₹200-400 per dose.
Cervical cancer is a cancer of
the cervix or the lower-most
part of the uterus, where the
malignant tumour can be pre-
vented by screening and an
CORPORATE FriDay, 30 December 2022
New Delhi 05
Air traffic outpacing infra m
MOVES
at major domestic airports A weekly list of C-Suiters who have moved up
the corporate ladder either within or outside
their companies.
Aditya Appointed as head marketing
Gadiyar at Wildcraft India
Analysts see situation at most airports, barring Mumbai, improving from the winter schedule of 2023 Alok
Appointed as group chief human
resources officer and president at
Mehta
Total Environment Building Systems
Anu Sharma
anu.sharma@livemint.com Appointed as regional human
Deepali resources director - South West
NEW DELHI
Bhardwaj Asia at IHG Hotels & Resorts
W
hile rising air pas-
senger traffic has Jagannathan Appointed as chief technology
been celebrated, Srinivasan officer at Innoviti
aspired and encour-
aged by the govern- Appointed as senior vice president
Jayanta information technology at
ment and private companies, airport Bhowmik
infrastructure has failed to keep pace Greenply industries
with it, resulting in chaotic scenes at
major airports during peak travel sea- Krishnendu Appointed as senior vice president
sons, analysts and industry experts Dasgupta marketing at Tata Play
said.
“Airport infrastructure at metro air- Appointed as chief technology
ports such as Delhi and Mumbai will
be stretched for the next 18 months.
While the two airports are taking
measures to meet rising demand, it
may ease capacity constraints in the
next 1-2 quarters. Additionally, the rise
in demand and increasing fleet size
will put further pressure on the airside
Madhurisha V
Manish
Bansal
Mayur
Hola
m officer at Schaeffler India
Appointed as chief financial officer
at Atomberg Technologies
Appointed as chief marketing
officer at Culinary Brands
MOVES
at these airports over the next 18 Between FY15 and FY20, air traffic logged a compound annual growth rate of around 12%. Appointed as managing director &
HT Prachur chief executive officer
months or so,” said Jagannarayan Pad- Sah
manabhan, director and practice at 150,000 on 10 December, beating from the winter schedule of 2023. if they witness a low single-digit rise in at Indus Towers
leader, Crisil Market Intelligence and its previous record of 106,713 passen- “Demand is back to pre-covid levels, air traffic from pre-covid levels, as it
Analytics, said. gers on 22 December 2017. but infrastructure remains like it was will pressure existing capacities.
Sangita Appointed as chief communications
Ghalay officer at Vedanta Resources
Delhi airport is India’s largest as At Bengaluru, the new terminal is prior to covid, with significant shorta- Between FY15 and FY20, air traffic
well as the busiest, with an annual set to take the capacity to 50-60 mil- ges. Hence, the normalization of traf- logged a compound annual growth
Appointed as president industrial
handling capacity of 70 million pas- lion passengers per year from 25-36 fic is impacting, especially during the rate of around 12%, driven by growing Shanmugananth
chemicals at Deepak Fertilisers
sengers. While traffic fell for all air- million currently. Following the peak season. Airports in India contin- penetration of air travel beyond the Muthupandian And Petrochemicals
ports in India due to the onset of the expansion at Hyderabad, the capacity ued its infrastructure expansion with- metros, on the back of government
pandemic, it has picked up signifi- schemes like Ude Desh Ka Aam
Smeer Appointed as chief financial officer
cantly in the last quarter of 2022. AN UPSURGE Naagrik, besides inherent bene-
Chopra at Noise
It has been handling more than fits of time-saving during travel
the current capacity, at around DELHI airport is AIR passenger MUMBAI, the AT Bengaluru the for distances of over 500 km, and
200,000 daily passengers, during India’s largest, with traffic has picked second in line, has a new terminal is set to the focus on infrastructure devel- Sujeet Appointed as chief legal &
an annual handling up significantly capacity to handle take the capacity to Jain regulatory officer at Nykaa
this month on the back of favoura- capacity of 70 in the last quarter 50-52 million 50-60 million opment, Crisil said in a recent
ble sentiments in the peak holiday million passengers of 2022 passengers a year passengers per year note.
Appointed as lead – corporate
season. Once the expansion work The proposed Jewar airport,
at Delhi airport is completed by which is around 80 km from the Tribhuwan communication, PR&CSR,
Joshi consumer & ROG PC business
2023-end, 100 million passengers will will increase to 34 million passengers out disruption during covid, and it will Indira Gandhi International Airport, is
at Asus India
be able to pass through the airport. per year from 21 million passengers be of critical importance once new expected to handle 12 million passen-
Similarly, Mumbai, the second in now. capacity is inducted in the system,” it gers per year after the completion of Vinod Kumar Appointed as chief financial officer
line, has a capacity to handle 50-52 Aviation consultancy CAPA India is added. phase I of the project, while the Navi Panicker at Indostar Capital
million passengers a year, or a daily expecting infrastructure at metro and The pace of operationalizing alter- Mumbai International airport is
average of around 140,000. It handled other private non-metro airports, bar- native systems in Delhi and Mumbai expected to have a capacity of 10 mil- Source: Accord India, executive search worldwide
the highest-ever passenger movement ring Mumbai, to significantly improve will be crucial for the near term, even lion passengers in the first phase.
The vaccine ‘CERVAVAC’ has
been jointly developed by
the Serum Institute of India
and the Department of
Biotechnology. ISTOCKPHOTO
HPV vaccine.
“There is a proposal from the
health ministry on the HVP
vaccine considering women
health as a priority. The inclu-
sion of HPV vaccine under uni-
versal immunisation pro-
gramme may be highlighted in
the union budget and free jabs
for eligible girls,” said the offi-
cial cited above, requesting
anonymity.
The Serum Institute had ear-
lier said that the company
would be able to launch the
vaccine by November. How-
ever, production got delayed
due to the covid-19
pandemic.
“HPV vaccine is
likely to be rolled
out by the first half
of the upcoming
year (2023), said another per-
son aware of the matter from
Predict the Sensex
Serum Institute. However,
queries sent to the health min-
istry and Serum Institute Play and win
spokesperson did not elicit any
response.
Cervical cancer is among
women’s diseases that require
urgent government interven-
tion.
subscription.
Health experts have sounded
a warning over the lack of
awareness of the cervical can-
cer in India which is one of the Download Now
leading cause of deaths in *Exclusively on the Mint app
females despite the disease
being largely preventable.
06 FRiDay, 30 DecembeR 2022
New Delhi REaR ViEw 2022: EnTERTainmEnT LIVEMINT.COM

5G: A new leap

How 5G could change user experience as data usage soars
Average download speeds in India (in Mbps)
2G 0.01-0.1
Average data use per person per month (in MB)

11,183
13,462
17,045
Where we were
in 2021
For years, 4G was the
mainstay for the fast-
How 2022 was
unique
The spectrum auction saw Jio
emerge the largest bidder.
What next for
2023?
As major telcos plan
pan-India coverage,
690.6 Mbps

3G 3 9,653 growing number of mobile Commercial services were on-the-go film-watching The peak 5G download speed
internet users. India had launched in select cities on 1 and OTT use at fast recorded in India, almost 12
5,728 lagged on the 5G switch, October by Jio and Airtel, and speeds could revolution-
4G 18 times faster than 4G peaks,
an upgrade that various users reported speeds above ize leisure for common
countries had made by 2021. 600 Mbps. Indians.
according to an Opensignal
5G 242.1 report.
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Source: TRAI, Opensignal, Nokia India Mobile Broadband Index 2022, Mint research Compiled by Shuja Asrar/Mint; graphic by Sarvesh Kumar Sharma/Mint

Story of Hollywood hits

and southern supremacy
Drawing audiences to theatres for medium and small films will increasingly be a challenge

The subscription growth rate is as low as 10% across metros. BLOOMBERG

For OTT content producers,

the gravy train has stopped
Lata Jha single-digit growth in metros they will watch run-of-the-mill
lata.j@htlive.com over the next year,” said Keerat local shows. Some may say plat-
Grewal, partner, Ormax Media. forms have become more

A
fter an initial rush of
bullish spending as they
looked to consolidate
their presence in India, video
streaming platforms are slow-
ing investments in the country.
In 2022, spending dipped by
50% as parent companies of for-
eign platforms reeled from the
global downturn with sub-
scriber addition in India
remaining tepid. Along with
issues of copyright infringe-
ment, advertising spending
slowed, thanks to global infla-
An estimate by media consulting firm Ormax showed that 37% of the total Hindi movie box office collection between January and October came from dubbed films. HT tion that left crypto and tech
brands struggling with funds.
Lata Jha ging behind,” said Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Chaddha were two of the biggest flops in transactions for large-format experi- In 2018, these players, in
lata.j@htlive.com joint managing director at PVR Ltd this year. Now the consumers’ taste has ences such as 3D, IMAX 2D, IMAX 3D their earliest phase of India
New Delhi who feels overall, the movie business in evolved, they want a good script, and a and 4DX over regular cinema screens operations, started spending
India has clawed back 80% compared wow experience to bring them to the on its platform in 2022. heavily as land grab opportuni-
“In contrast, there has been a selective, but it’s just a matter of
significantly higher growth in them becoming more
the 1 million plus towns for the involved,” Arya explained.
AVoD (advertising-based video As a pure-play SVoD service,
on demand) segment, which is subscriber addition is not the
reflective of the challenge to get only aim, Monika Shergill, vice-
subscribers to pay. With growth president, content, Netflix India
rates slowing, and key markets said. “Non-paying or dis-
reaching saturation levels, plat- counted users don’t lead to a
forms will be focusing on build- strong business in the long
ing franchise properties. In this term. We’ve been measured
context, it will also be impera- and thoughtful in recognizing
tive for the platforms to that what we make is ploughed
increase the strike rate for their back to the consumer, which is
launches.” It is not practical to why we have to be priced a cer-
manage investments just by tain way,” Shergill said in a
subscription revenues, noted recent interview, adding that
Satyanarayana Murthy, head of the platform is continuing to
growth products, INCA, Motion “lean in” as far as India goes.
Content Group—GroupM India The proclivity to pay for any
(INCA is GroupM’s influencer service depends on the value

T
heatres in 2022 were able to
operate fully for the first time
since the covid-19 pandemic.
However, the impact of the
previous two years on con-
sumer behaviour was visible through-
out the year. The cinema-goer has
become ruthless in deciding which film
to watch in a theatre, and which to give
a miss, irrespective of cast, budget and
language.
Bollywood, or Hindi cinema, the
country’s biggest movie-producing
industry, is under immense pressure as
60% of this year’s box office revenue is
expected to come from local-language
films made in southern states. Net box
office collections of Hindi cinema this
year, at around ₹3,450 crore, lags far
behind the ₹5,300 crore made in 2019.
In fact, as per an estimate by media
consulting firm Ormax, 37% of the total
Hindi movie box office collection
between January and October came
from dubbed Telugu, Tamil and Kan-
nada films.
“Hindi has had a mixed bag this year,
even though we’ve seen green shoots
with Drishyam 2 and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2.
But those have been few and far
between. At a time that Hollywood has
seen its tent-pole titles, be it Avatar,
Top Gun or Jurassic World, perform
well and regional cinema has contin-
ued to outperform, Hindi has been lag-
with pre-covid years. theatres,” Malik added. “Big films released on holidays failed ties beckoned, and spending and content marketing solution proposition it offers, Manish
The year saw consumerism peak, Other big titles, including Jayeshbhai to open as well as sustain at the box was later spurred by the cov- unit). Further, Kalra, chief busi-
Bijli agreed, as pent-up demand among Jordaar, Heropanti 2, Shamshera, office. Part of the reason is that these id-19 lockdown. However, consumers shall Along with ness officer, ZEE5
audiences locked up at home for nearly Radhe Shyam, Godfather, Liger, Aar- films were supposed to release pre- many producers now feel that pay for subscrip- India said. “Con-
two years played out through signifi- aattu, Khiladi and Sarkaru Vaari Paata pandemic and audience tastes have the gravy train has stopped and tions if there is a
issues of piracy, tent consumption
cant spending on outdoor entertain- also stand out as disappointments. gone through a significant change post OTT platforms are no longer regular feed of advertising happens across
ment. Given their costs, even Brahmastra and covid. Going forward, getting audien- green-lighting large-scale fresh and varied spending has mediums and fac-
Alok Tandon, chief executive officer, Cirkus should incur losses, he said. ces to theatres for medium and small shows in a hurry, preferring content and the slowed down, tors such as the
INOX Leisure Ltd, said the film indus- There were a few success stories too. films will be a challenge,” Gautam Jain, instead to invest more fre- l o c k d o w n thanks to global growth of con-
try staged a comeback in 2022, attrib- With more than 1,600 movies released, partner, Ormax Media said. quently in mid-budget titles. ensured that most inflation nected TV,
uting it to a general fondness for cine- hits such as K.G.F. Chapter 2, RRR, Pon- It is pretty clear that only certain “The motherships (parent engaged consum- demand for the
mas, making the recovery kinds of content is finding companies based in the US) are ers have seen a enhanced viewing
smoother than expected. “The favour with audiences. suffering, quite clearly. How- majority of the flagship shows experience, and newer formats
industry would do well with The cinema-goer has become ruthless “Drama is not a genre that is ever, what most of us are even across OTTs. play a significant role in bring-
support from authorities, with in deciding which film to watch in a doing well post-covid and more concerned about is that “It is extremely tough to ing audiences on board. Con-
measures such as single-win-
dow clearances for new cin- theatre, and which one to give a miss, niche-segmented cinema that
only appeals to the urban, elite
most of these platforms haven’t
seen growth in subscriptions
retain subscribers when you sumers are now evolved, and
have a big show landing every they are opting for bundled ser-
ema opening, policy support irrespective of cast, budget or language consumer is no longer consid- post the first phase of the pan- two to three months which vices that provide access to
for alternative content screen- ered a safe bet for theatres. demic,” said a senior producer means that the platforms need multiple platforms but at a dis-
ing, and also a faster pace of The big learning this year has working on a slate of web origi- to acquire new subscribers to counted rate,” Kalra said.
retail-led real estate growth,” Tandon niyin Selvan-1, and Doctor Strange: In been that the age of stars is over and nals. One reason is the undue manage the churn, and this is More than content spending
said. The Multiverse of Madness were among franchises and IPs (intellectual proper- focus on licensing big films with the phase that we are seeing,” “correcting”, they will become
Trade analyst Shaaminder Malik the most popular movies, said Ashish ties) have taken over,” said Vishek mainstream actors. Also, most Murthy said, adding that as a more sharply focused on audi-
estimated all-India box office takings Saksena, chief operating officer, cine- Chauhan, an independent Bihar-based services remain wary of truly result, content that rests outside ence segments and business
across languages to be in the region of mas, BookMyShow. “K.G.F. 2 sold 34% exhibitor. Large-scale, branded enter- experimenting with genres and paywall could increase. deliverables, said Sameer Nair,
₹10,000-10,500 crore in 2022. The fig- of overall tickets for weekends alone tainment that can assure audiences of creating content that could res- Given that OTT services have CEO, Applause Entertainment.
ure would have been closer to ₹11,000 and broke a five-year-long record by a good time is the way forward, Chau- onate with the lower end of acquired a lot of data on users “Streamers will continue to
crore had the two big December surpassing Baahubali 2 to become the han added. audience segments beyond the over the past few years, it is only invest in the creation and acqui-
releases, Avatar-The Way of Water and top-selling film on BookMyShow with The few Hindi films that have youth in metros. “The subscrip- natural that they will be more sition of premium quality con-
Cirkus, done better. 17.7 million tickets sold overall,” Sak- worked post covid—Sooryavanshi tion growth rate is as low as 10% careful with decisions, said tent across languages but will
“One thing is clear, not even a big star sena said. (released in November 2021), Bhool across metros, which is indica- Gunjan Arya, chief executive do so to attract and retain wider
—Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ranveer He added that audiences are willing Bhulaiyaa 2 and Drishyam 2, have all tive of SVoD (subscription officer at OML Entertainment. mass audiences to their plat-
Singh, Ranbir Kapoor or Hrithik to pay for the big screen magic that an been pitched as event films the family video on demand) penetration “When audiences have been form, even as they remain com-
Roshan—can ensure a big opening any- in-cinema experience brings, adding can go to together and been part of in these markets reaching satu- exposed to content from across mitted to building their sub-
more. Samrat Prithviraj and Laal Singh that BookMyShow saw a 116% increase long-term franchises. ration levels and we can expect the globe, there is no reason scription services,” Nair added.

HAS HINDI CINEMA LOST ITS MAGIC TOUCH? THE FEARS ARE EXAGGERATED
and studios such as Ramanaidu and Padmalaya made block-
buster Hindi films (mostly remakes of South films) with the
EXPERT likes of Jeetendra, Sridevi, Dharmendra, Mithun Chakraborty
to name a few. On the other hand, stalwarts such as Rajini-
VIEW kanth, Kamal Haasan, and Mani Ratnam succeeded in Hindi
with original content. But this phase didn’t sustain and even-
S H O B U YA R A L AG A D DA tually led to different language films falling into individual
silos with little or no crossover.
Respond to this column at
feedback@livemint.com
Beyond cinema halls, the rise of satellite channels and later
mobile phones and the internet in the late ’90s and early 2000s
was the biggest game changer in how people engage with cinema.
The Conclusion, gave many South Indian film-makers dealing
with growing budgets the confidence to release their films in
Hindi. The success of subsequent films like KGF 1&2, Pushpa, and
Kantara dismantled regional boundaries and gave rise to “pan-
India” movies or what I prefer to call Indian cinema.
The question on everyone’s mind is what is so appealing about
these films even if they are only a small fraction of all the films
produced in the South.
Most South Most South Indian films that shone
films that shone at the box office in recent times share
at the box office alocal few things. First, they are all rooted in
the answer lies in rooting the stories and storytelling in our cul-
ture and ethos, which the general audience seems to be craving
right now.
Hindi cinema has made blockbuster films showcasing people’s
aspirations in the 50s and 60s to capturing the nation’s mood in
the 70s and 80s with Salim-Javed’s ‘angry young man’ featuring
Amitabh Bachchan. The latter became a benchmark for a quin-
tessential ‘action hero’ who continues to enthral the audience
today.
At its heart, Hindi cinema was rooted in its approach to stories
and characters before the rise of NRI culture in the mid-90s

T
he year 2022 has been one in which cinema from the
Southern states struck a chord with national audiences.
The resounding success of spectacle and action films such
as RRR, KGF and Pushpa, and even smaller budget films like
Kantara and Karthikeya 2 on a national level and the muted
response to even the biggest Bollywood films led to terrifying
statements that Bollywood is dead. But, amid all this, one ques-
tion has stirred a major debate: How are South Indian movies able
to strike gold while Hindi cinema fails at theatres?
There has always been a connection between the South
Indian film industries and Hindi cinema in the form of collabo-
rations and exchanging ideas and talent. On the one hand, Tel-
ugu filmmakers such as K.Raghavendra Rao and K. Bapaiah
This resulted in more avenues to release Hindi-dubbed versions
of South Indian films. It started with satellite channels looking for
low-cost content and later the internet, like YouTube and even
pirated movie sites. The audience from the Hindi heartland
found South content with action and heroism appealing. Around
the same time, Hindi film-makers started producing films
appealing to NRIs, leading to the growing acceptance of South
cinema in the Hindi heartland.
It all blew up with the release of Baahubali-The Beginning. The
film had the scale, grandeur, and right partnerships to ensure a
wide release. It hit the sweet spot, and people across India
watched and celebrated the film like it was their own. Baahubali-
The Beginning, followed by the superlative success of Baahubali-
or Indian culture, raw at times
in recent times and far removed from sophisticated
share a few Western film-making. And the more
things local a story is, the more it connects
with the audience. The biggest specta-
cles also tend to be hero-centric and
action-driven, where the hero goes out of his comfort zone and
becomes a messiah for the people around him. They might be
escapist, but there’s something quite awe-inspiring about watch-
ing such stories that have an intrinsic message of hope, justice,
morality, and bravery.
Is there something mainstream Hindi cinema can emulate
from the success of south Indian films in recent times? Perhaps,
changed the direction of mainstream Hindi cinema. Perhaps, it’s
only a matter of time before Hindi cinema finds its rhythm back
to cater to an audience pampered with a wide variety of movie
choices across languages and platforms. Therefore, the fears that
Hindi cinema has lost its magic touch are exaggerated and unnec-
essary.
The ongoing success story of south Indian films means that
film-makers can now dream bigger, break out of the confines of
language-based regional silos and make Indian movies for Indian
and global audience. That, indeed, will be a game changer for
Indian cinema.
Shobu Yarlagadda is the founder of Arka Mediaworks, that has
produced the two-part Baahubali franchise.
LIVEMINT.COM
ReaR View 2022: ConsumeR FRiDay, 30 DecembeR 2022
New Delhi 07

2023: The year of women's cricket?

Women's cricket is starting to get its due, with a new IPL set for a launch
Highest digital engagement for women's World Cups*
(billion video views)
2022, ODI 1.64
The year's stars: Highest T20I run scorers for India Where we were
in 2021
India’s women cricket team
had a hectic 2021. They
How 2022 was
unique
Women’s cricket saw some
big coming-of-age moments.
What next for
2023?
Hopes are pinned on
women’s IPL in March that
105 mn
played their first Test since Indian female cricketers will can act as a catalyst for Total dedicated TV audience for
2020, T20I
590 531 512 2014; Mithali Raj crossed now get match fees at par young domestic cricketers.
1.10 463 317 the 2022 Women's World Cup.
249 7,000 ODI runs mark with with male peers. The World They can gain much-needed Despite the gains, the gap
2017, ODI aplomb, and the pay parity Cup grabbed record digital exposure and greater
0.10 debate was catching steam. eyeballs. commercial value.
remains huge: the 2022 Men’s
Smriti Shafali Harmanpreet Jemimah Deepti Richa T20 WC had a TV audience of
*Across ICC channels Mandhana Verma Kaur Rodrigues Sharma Ghosh
1.28 billion.
Source: International Cricket Council, ESPNCricinfo Compiled by Nandita Venkatesan/Mint; graphic by Sarvesh Kumar Sharma/Mint

Omnichannel retail comes

of age aided by pandemic
Indian shoppers are now buying across platforms, forcing companies to adapt their strategies suitably

People are willing to pay more for family outings. MINT

A year that cut the hospitality

and travel industry free of the
ball and chain of covid fears
Varuni Khosla
varuni.k@livemint.com
New DelhI
covid and I don’t see the travel year, and a base year most
demand slowing down in the likely for us to measure other
short to medium term,” said years against, for instance.
Marriott International’s presi- covid changed the way we

I
ndia’s hospitality and travel dent for Asia-Pacific (exclud- viewed the customer, permit-
industry came to a grinding ing Greater China), Rajeev ting them to decide the man-
halt many times in the past Menon. “Covid has reaffirmed ner in which they connect with
two years. For instance, the the power of travel”. People us as well as deciding on what
omicron wave, in January and have had time to think during they want. We discovered a
February this year, took the the pandemic and realize how new, younger customer, with
wind out of their sails. The sec- important it is for many to our average customer age
ond quarter of 2022-23 was travel and spend time with reducing by about 10 years,” Brands are looking beyond traditional retail to explore other ways of reaching consumers. MINT
big respite for many compa- family and friends. Customers said Madhavan Menon, chair-
nies—in store for them was the are willing to pay more for man & managing director at Suneera Tandon verge from a brand’s perspective,” he Large retailers, too, are capitalizing prices have hurt domestic demand, a
year of “Big Travel”. experiences,” he added. Thomas Cook India Ltd. suneera.t@htlive.com said. on this shift. Earlier this year Tata Digi- trend that brands hopefully will reverse
By the middle of the year, “The great story of India was “What truly stood out was New DelhI Meanwhile, brands are also looking tal, the wholly-owned unit of Tata Sons, in the second half of the current fiscal.
many companies more than that it really sustained and had the evolution of the new kind beyond traditional retail to explore unveiled the country’s first super app However, companies also stepped-up

T
surpassed their 2019 figures, very strong demand, despite of travel behaviour. Domestic he pandemic has clearly other ways of reaching consumers. Tata Neu. Then earlier this month, Reli- launches of direct-to-consumer brands
while others discovered new all the headwinds we’ve seen demand is huge in India, I shifted how consumers in “Brands now have access to multiple ance Retail acquired German retailer as well as platforms as they capture a
ways of working. Unlike other in everything from inflation in don’t think hotel rates will India shop. Markets experts channels, including B2C e-commerce, Metro AG’s India business of 31 whole- shift in consumer demand. Meanwhile,
years, in many ways, it was a fuel prices to average daily reduce right now,” Madhavan said that 2022 was somewhat B2C commerce, quick-commerce, and sale cash and carry stores. The move is ElSheikh said the company continues to
year of big travel primarily rates in hotels going up across Menon said. of a banner year for omni- food tech,” he said. There is a transfor- set to strengthen the retailer’s business- witness strong demand from rural
because airlines commanded the board compared with The recovery in India has channel retail as the entire ecosystem of mation happening in modern trade to-business play as well as give a fillip to India.
whatever price they liked, 2019. The industry has stood out globally. Families shopping, payments, and logistics integration, with the likes of JioMart the retailer’s omnichannel model. Other “This is largely due to labour migra-
hotel prices dominated the bounced back in a very big are taking holidays like never reached greater levels of maturity. Mean- that are not only looking at it as modern announcements, too, defined internet tion, increased digital penetration, and
market, and customers were way. We had a couple of tough before and this will be the new while, the popularity of direct-to-con- trade but also enabling kirana stores and commerce in the country in 2022. In enhanced distribution of our portfolio
ready to shell out years between normal. sumer brands, the pick-up in quick com- integrating B2B wholesale. There’s full August, Meta and Jio Platforms and rural India switching from
the money. Travel market in 2020 and 2021 “For many countries around merce, deeper reach and availability of convergence of multiple channels at announced the launch of the first-ever unbranded loose products to branded
The m a i n India is projected but this year was the world, there’s also been a brands across the country’s smaller cit- play,” he said. shopping experience on WhatsApp, ones,” he said.
driver of the to reach $125 actually the best huge focus on the Indian trav- ies, and further consolidation in the retail Damodar Mall, CEO, Grocery Retail, which will allow consumers to shop Ajoy Chawla, CEO, of Titan Com-
resurgence billion by FY27 from every per- eller, keeping in mind that and packaged goods market were among Reliance Retail Ltd, said that post-covid from JioMart right within their What- pany’s jewellery division, said that the
remained domes- spective,” said China has kept its borders the key defining trends for the year. digital habits have become far more sApp chat. consumer’s omnichannel journey is
from an shut. Indian travellers have
tic travel, which Santosh Kumar, Two consecutive years of the pan- mainstream. “I think digital habits have In 2022, food and beverages major now “well entrenched”; for retailers, it
dominated the estimated $75 country head of answered that call and have demic have led brands to ensure greater become far more mainstream. means a strong convergence of
businesses of billion in FY20 the Indian sub- been travelling extensively to availability of their goods online. This Whether it is digital payments, physical and digital retail.
travel companies continent & markets across the world. has further intensified the convergence the ease with which people are Brands have to ensure greater For the country’s largest
and unlike the Indonesia for India represents an incredible of online and offline retail, a trend that familiar with buying digitally availability of their goods online. This organized jewellery retailer,
West, Indian companies online travel agency Book- tourism opportunity, both in companies and experts said will define when required—some of that 2022 was a “fulfilling” year for
appeared to have been some- ing.com. terms of inbound as well as the next decade of shopping. stays. This habit we see even in has further intensified the the business despite some vol-
what immune to the geopoliti- And it’s no surprise then outbound travel,” added Mad- “The first wave of omnichannel was smaller towns. The sense of convergence of online and offline retail atility along the way. Mean-
cal uncertainties. And num- that the travel market in India havan Menon. largely about the fashion and lifestyle normalcy in consumption also while, Chawla said that contin-
bers demonstrated that. The is projected to reach $125 bil- In India, there has been an categories, food and grocery were diffi- returned this year. People are ued formalization of the indus-
Directorate General of Civil lion by FY27 from an esti- improvement in both hotel cult and less viable. But quick commerce happy to return to stores and participate PepsiCo witnessed a “seismic shift” in try, a steady shift towards
Aviation said passengers car- mated $75 billion in FY20. occupancies and rates, and not has allowed for food and grocery, which in sale events,” said Mall. omnichannel growth with sales signifi- ‘premiumization’, as well as the emer-
ried by domestic airlines dur- For the travel business just an increase in revenues of has been a more recent phenomenon. I Meanwhile, commenting on the cantly outpacing in-store growth across gence of a significant Gen-Y and Gen-Z
ing January-November 2022 Thomas Cook India, 2022 reg- hotel companies based on the think that’s really changing the overall democratization of shopping channels, metro cities, said Ahmed ElSheikh, segment of shoppers seeking fuss-free
were 110.51 million as against istered a tremendous recovery rates. shopping behaviour and the fulfilment Mall said shoppers are now buying president, PepsiCo India. “Our product adornment will drive up demand for the
72.61 million during the corre- with a huge amount of activity. According to the UNWTO’s model of omnichannel,” said Angshu- across platforms. portfolio in foods and beverages are in company in the coming year.
sponding period of the previ- It also had a return to profita- World Tourism Barometer, man Bhattacharya, partner and national “There is no such thing as a kirana or high demand and the digital consumer Manish Sharma, chairman, Panasonic
ous year, showing annual bility for its retail businesses, which trade association Ficci leader, consumer products and retail, a supermarket or an e- commerce category continues to expand with Life Solutions India and south Asia said
growth of 52.19% and monthly Thomas Cook India, SOTC cited, globally international EY India. Bhattacharya said that brands household. Each household buys across brands building value proposition in a that 2022 was a mixed bag for the econ-
growth of 11.06%. “When we and Sterling Holidays, despite tourism saw a 182% year-on- are now looking at connected com- channels depending on the occasion socially networked world thereby sig- omy. “While on one hand there was a
think about India today, it’s only having eight months to year increase in January- merce more closely. and convenience. Will well planned nificantly driving growth for PepsiCo resurgence of economic activities, con-
recovering the way some Mid- trade in the calendar year. It is March 2022, with destinations “The big question brands are asking shopping work or will quick shopping India,” ElSheikh said. sumer spending, positive sentiments,
dle Eastern and European at a 90% recovery now at an worldwide welcoming an esti- is how do offline and online really come work or will subscription-based shop- Fast-moving consumer goods mak- and celebrations after two years in India,
markets are, showing strong aggregate business level as mated 117 million international together, i.e. how do consumer needs ping work for grocery? I think the mod- ers witnessed a volatile year as the war on the other hand, geopolitical tensions
growth. People have saved a compared to 2019. arrivals compared with 41 mil- get sensed very early on, and how do els are yet not conclusively formed,” he in Ukraine drove up prices of key com- and inflationary pressures loomed upon
good amount of money during “2022 stands out as a unique lion in Q1CY21. multiple modes of delivery really con- said. modities at the onset of the year. Higher the global economy,” he said.

Why a shift toWards ‘consumer commerce’ Will take centre stage in 2023
Meanwhile, thanks to the pandemic, businesses have
increased the scope of their digital offerings to give customers
EXPERT a more distinctive and personalized shopping experience.
This shift has made customer experience increasingly more
VIEW critical for sustained growth, forcing businesses to revisit
their CX strategy and adopt smarter means of engaging with
HARSHA RAZDAN their customers.
Another key trend that has gained prominence over the last
Respond to this column at
feedback@livemint.com
few years is the popularity of D2C brands. A few consumer com-
panies are working on an “influencer-first” strategy through vari-
ous online social channels. This fresh and mounting wave of
As we move into 2023, here are some trends to watch out for—
price hikes have been undertaken in the last two quarters by
most FMCG companies due to commodity fluctuations and ris-
ing inflation. Hence, they’ll need to go deeper to evaluate newer
ways to turn profitable. For example, investments in new tech-
nologies to improve the efficiency of supply chain or invest-
ments in payment tools to reduce friction in customer pur-
chases. Automation and efficiency
In 2022, the could be critical levers for companies
industry also to focus on as we will still see price led
growth dominating volume led
saw massive
While there is widespread consumer expectation that shop-
ping online should save them money, many are prepared to pay
some premium for services that offer additional convenience.
The recent KPMG in India-Equitor research report highlights
that customer experience plays a critical role in generating sus-
tained value for businesses, indicating many successful compa-
nies that are performing exceptionally well are offering a superior
customer experience.
Additionally, increasingly consumers are becoming climate
conscious and aware and eco-friendly products and packaging
are only accelerating the demand for environmentally friendly

I
ndia today is a consumption hub that is dominating the future
global retail trends. In the medium and long-term, we believe
that a stronger domestic demand will help India ride on the
growth wave.
Some of the aspects that were witnessed in 2022 would be
growth drivers in the coming year. For instance, India is
strongly positioned for supply chain opportunities backed by
strong macro-economic fundamentals, skilled labour pool,
young demographics, large English-speaking population, and
high levels of consumption. Moreover, initiatives taken by the
government to enhance ease of doing business and to liberalize
FDI have, in turn, helped India to position itself as an important
player in the supply chain.
social media marketing can resonate well with the younger gen-
eration as they enter adulthood and impact consumption in the
economy. Amid this online delirium, the younger generations
continue to influence demand.
Interestingly, in 2022, the industry also saw massive consoli-
dation and capital markets frenzy.
At 265 deals, Indian consumer and retailer M&A had a good
year—with 19% increase in deal volume and 47% increase in deal
value to $13.6 billion. Retailers are using M&A to enhance capa-
bilities in certain areas, such as strengthening their logistics and
technology infrastructure to tighten up last mile. There will be
activity in the capital markets via IPOs, particularly for technolo-
gy-enabled consumer companies.
growth.
consolidation Meanwhile, with the advent of
and capital q-commerce and other new models,
markets frenzy supply chain digitization and
addressing talent gaps is critical to
success. Data-driven personas are
also being generated by using analytics and helping companies
deliver more customer-centric products.
The omnichannel revolution is inspiring deals as both online
and offline players seek to rationalize portfolios and expand into
new channels. Casting our eyes forward to 2023, financial inves-
tors, including private equity players, are expected to be the
major force behind consumer M&A.
alternatives.
They are likely to drift from economical products to eco-
friendly products that would promote sustainable living.
I believe that 2023 will see consumers take centre stage, with
a large transition from Retailing to ‘Consumer Commerce’,
where increasingly, retailers will offer products and services
without the need for a physical store legacy.
Therein, lies a unique opportunity to reimagine the shopping
experience entirely, with a customer-centric approach and a
business model, thereby allowing them to stand out and build
a loyal fan base.
Harsha Razdan is partner and head, Consumer Markets and
Internet Business, KPMG in India.
08 FriDay, 30 December 2022
New Delhi GLOBAL LIVEMINT.COM

m MINT SHORTS
US approves $180 mn anti-tank
Russia fires heavy salvo on
Ukraine, ruling out peace talks
weapons sale to Taiwan
Washington: The US State Department approved on Wednes-
day the $180 million sale of vehicle-launched anti-tank systems
to Taiwan, the Pentagon said, the latest weapons deal between
the self-governed island and its main ally. Taiwan would receive
Volcano anti-tank munition-laying systems, cargo trucks, ammu-
nition, logistics support packages and a myriad of other related
services under the deal, according to a Pentagon statement. AFP
Putin’s forces fired 69 cruise missiles, out of which 54 were shot down, according to Ukraine officials
Taiwan’s TSMC begins mass
Bloomberg
production of 3nm chips
REUTERS
feedback@livemint.com
A Ukrainian

R
ussia rained scores of mis-
siles on Ukrainian cities in missile shot
one of its heaviest barrages
of the war, pressing further down, says
with a campaign to destroy
civilian targets as Moscow spurned Belarus
the prospects of talks to end the inva-
sion. Bloomberg
In the 10th large-scale attack since feedback@livemint.com
September, President Vladimir

Putin’s forces fired 69 cruise missiles,
according to Valeriy Zaluzhnyi,
Tainan, Taiwan: Taiwanese tech giant TSMC on Thurs- Ukraine’s army commander-in-chief.
day said, it had started mass production of its 3-nanometre Ukraine shot down 54, as well as 11
chips, among the most advanced to come to market. The Iranian-made drones, officials said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company operates Kyiv’s forces foiled Russia’s
the world’s largest silicon wafer factories and produces attempt to leave Ukrainians without
high-performance chips used in everything from smart- electricity ahead of New Year cele-
phones and cars to missiles. It is also Apple’s primary chip brations, even as some energy infra-
supplier. Its 3nm-process chips are expected to have more structure was hit, Prime Minister
processing power while using less power, boosting battery Denys Shmyhal said on Telegram.
performance. AFP “The Ukrainian air defense forces
demonstrated an incredible level of
skill and efficiency,” he wrote.
China tightens reins on EdTech in The assault coincided with an
interview with Russian Foreign Min-
new blow to private tutors ister Sergei Lavrov, who said the
China will further tighten oversight over its battered online edu- Kremlin won’t discuss Ukraine’s
cation sector, in a clear signal that Beijing’s not yet prepared to demands that it withdraw from occu-
unshackle the private tutoring arena despite loosening curbs on pied lands and pay reparations.
tech giants. Edtech companies plunged after the Ministry of Edu- After suffering setbacks on the bat-
cation published a new set of restrictions that limit the fees and tlefield for months, Russia is increas-
operating times of private tutoring services for primary and mid- ingly targeting energy and other
dle school students. Scholar Education Group fell as much as 30% civilian sites in a so-far unsuccessful
in Hong Kong on Thursday, biggest fall since last July.BLOOMBERG bid to crush Ukrainians’ will to fight
off Putin’s forces.
Russia’s salvos on Thursday tar-
Goldman CEO Solomon says job geted power infrastructure in cities
across Ukraine, including the capital,
cuts are coming next month Kyiv, as well as Kharkiv and Sumy in
BLOOMBERG
the north.
Fired from strategic bombers and
Russian ships in the Black Sea, the
missiles knocked out power to 90% of
Lviv, a city near Ukraine’s western
B
elarus said its air defen-
ces shot down a Ukrain-
ian S-300 missile that
flew into its territory Thursday
— a rare instance of the war
spilling over the border into
Russia’s ally, where an official
downplayed the incident.
Missile debris fell near the
village of Gorbakha in the Ivan-
ovo region of southern Belarus
near the border with Ukraine,
the Defense Ministry said
Thursday on Telegram.
Rescuers clear debris of homes destroyed by a missile attack in the outskirts of Kyiv, on Thursday. AFP State-run news agency Belta
published photos and videos of
border with Poland, and caused mas- now in its 11th month, Putin admitted sia, and Kyiv’s forces are steadily what appeared to be debris
sive blackouts in Odesa in the south, last week that his forces face an pushing Russian troops back with the lying in a muddy field. There
according to reports from local offi- “extremely difficult” situation in the aid of billions of dollars of US and was no information about any
cials and the military. four territories annexed European weapons. casualties or other damage
Ukraine’s air defence The war may by Russia since he Even so, there are indications the from the incident.
forces shot down at least extend well into ordered the Feb. 24 war may extend well into next year, Belarusian President Alex-
21 rockets over Odesa next year, as invasion. after Russia recently mobilized some ander Lukashenko offered his
and all 16 that were tar- Russia recently While the United 300,000 reservists. country to Russia as a launch-
geting Kyiv, a spokes- Nations has condemned Ukrainian Foreign Minister pad for its invasion from the
mobilized some
man said. Russia’s “attempted ille- Dmytro Kuleba said in an interview north into Ukraine in February.
Five more were shot 300,000 gal annexation” of the with the Associated Press Monday that The missile incident further
down over the southern reservists areas after Putin signed his country wants to hold a peace raises stakes for the authoritar-
Mykolayiv region. That orders in September to summit in February, but he doesn’t ian ruler who so far has avoided
added to the 420 Rus- absorb them into his anticipate Russia taking part. sending his own troops into
sian missiles and 430 drones downed country, Lavrov said this week that Kyiv is ready to hold direct talks neighbouring Ukraine while
by Kyiv’s troops since Moscow began Kyiv should cede sovereignty over with Moscow only after Russia faces still providing Russia with
the mass barrages in September. the areas. a war-crimes tribunal, he said. Lavrov logistical support, munitions
Russian authorities haven’t com- Zelensky has vowed to retake all said in his interview that Russia won’t and care for the wounded.
mented on the attack. With the war Ukrainian territory occupied by Rus- submit to any tribunal.

US Weekly jobless claims tick Israel’s hard-right cabinet set

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is working on a fresh round of
higher, as market remains tight to expand Jewish settlements
job cuts that will be unveiled in a matter of weeks, CEO
David Solomon said in his traditional year-end message Reuters inflation to heel - earlier this Reuters him with chants of “Weak!
to staff. “We are conducting a careful review and while dis- feedback@livemint.com month said “it feels like we feedback@livemint.com Weak!”. They say Netanyahu
cussions are still ongoing, we anticipate our headcount have a structural labour short- JERUSALEM had to make costly deals to

T
reduction will take place in the first half of January,” Solo- he number of Americans age out there.” secure new partners after cen-

mon said. BLOOMBERG filing new claims for
unemployment benefits
edged higher last week but
30,000 flee ethnic violence in remain in a range indicating
the US job market remains
South Sudan, says UN tight, even as the Federal
Juba: Armed raids in a region of South Sudan plagued by ethnic Reserve works to cool demand
clashes have forced around 30,000 civilians to flee their homes, for labor as part of its bid to
the UN’s emergency response agency said Thursday as interna- lower inflation.
tional partners demanded an end to the violence. On 24 Decem- Initial claims for state
ber, armed men from Jonglei state, an eastern region beset by unemployment benefits rose
gun violence, attacked communities in nearby Greater Pibor 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted
Administrative Area, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of 225,000 for the week ended
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement. AFP 24 December, the Labor
Department said on Thursday.
Economists polled by Reuters
Disney’s ‘Avatar’ sequel crosses had forecast 225,000 claims
for the latest week.
$1 billion at global box office The claims figures have
Avatar: The Way of Water surpassed $1 billion in worldwide ticket been choppy in recent weeks
sales after two weeks in theatres, Walt Disney said. It reached the but have held well below the
milestone faster than Top Gun: Maverick, from Paramount 270,000 threshold that econ-
Global, and Jurassic World: Dominion, from Comcast ’s Universal, omists see as a red flag for the
the only other 2022 movies to sell $1 billion of tickets. BLOOMBERG labour market. A raft of layoffs
Economists polled by Reuters
had forecast 225,000 claims
for the latest week. BLOOMBERG
in the technology sector and
interest-rate sensitive indus-
tries like housing have yet to
leave a notable imprint on
claims as laid-off workers
appear to cycle into new jobs
with relative ease.
Federal Reserve Chair Jer-
ome Powell - the chief archi-
tect of the central bank’s
aggressive interest rate hikes
aimed at bringing too-high
Indeed, the labour market’s
resilience is a central focus for
Fed policymakers, as the US
economy has minted an aver-
age of 392,000 new jobs a
month this year despite rapid
rate hikes and growing fears of
a recession next year. Officials
see that strength as providing
ample room for them to con-
tinue to raise interest rates to
bring down inflation, which by
their preferred measure
remains nearly three times
their targeted level of 2%
annually even if it has recently
shown signs of heading lower.
The central bank has lifted
rates from near zero in March
to the current range of 4.25%
to 4.50% and Fed officials
project it will breach the 5%
mark in 2023, a level not seen
since 2007.
B
enjamin Netanyahu
sealed a comeback as
Israeli prime minister on
Thursday as his hard-right cab-
inet was being sworn in with
promises to expand Jewish set-
tlements in the occupied West
Bank and to pursue other poli-
cies criticised at home and
abroad.
The veteran leader, 73 and
on trial for graft charges he
denies, has sought to calm con-
cerns about the fate of civil
rights and diplomacy since his
bloc of nationalist and religious
parties secured a parliamentary
majority in a Nov. 1 election.
His allies include the Reli-
gious Zionism and Jewish
Power parties, which oppose
Palestinian statehood and
whose leaders - both West
Bank settlers - have in the past
Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu. AP
agitated against Israel’s justice
system, its Arab minority and
LGBT rights.
Netanyahu has repeatedly
pledged to promote tolerance
and pursue peace. He told par-
liament that “ending the Israe-
li-Arab conflict” was his top pri-
ority, along with thwarting
Iran’s nuclear programme and
building up Israel’s military
capacity. Opponents heckled
trist parties boycotted him over
his legal woes. For Palestinians,
Netanyahu’s line-up has dark-
ened an already bleak outlook,
with violence surging and Jew-
ish settlements set to expand in
the West Bank - among territo-
ries where they hope to build a
future state.
Netanyahu’s conservative
Likud party said in its guide-
lines for the government that it
would “promote and develop
settlement” on lands to which
“the Jewish people has an
exclusive and unassailable
right”. Most world powers
deem settlements built on land
captured in war illegal.
Palestinian economic
growth, a more modest aim
endorsed by Netanyahu, could
also suffer should the conflict
flare up anew.

Lack of information on China’s covid-19 surge stirs global concern

AP China. The U.S. cited both the already disrupting holiday already active in Europe. ing away patients. Cremations of time … and then suddenly
feedback@livemint.com surge in infections and what it travel plans. More broadly, World Health have risen several-fold, with a unleash a multitude of the
BEIJING said was a lack of information, Chinese Foreign Ministry Organization Director-Gen- request from overburdened infected from a caged China
including genomic sequen- spokesperson Wang Wenbin eral Tedros Adhanom Ghe- funeral homes in one city for to the world,” risking major

M
oves by several coun-
tries to mandate cov-
id-19 tests for passen-
gers arriving from China
reflect global concern that
new variants could emerge in
its ongoing explosive outbreak
— and that the government
may not inform the rest of the
world quickly enough.
There have been no reports
of new variants to date, but
China has been accused of not
being forthcoming about the
virus since it first surfaced in
the country in late 2019. The
worry is that it may not be
sharing data now on any signs
of evolving strains that could
spark fresh outbreaks else-
where.
The US, Japan, India, South
Korea, Taiwan and Italy have
announced testing require-
ments for passengers from
cing of the virus strains in the
country.
Authorities in Taiwan and
Japan have expressed similar
concern.
“Right now the pandemic
situation in China is not trans-
parent,” Wang Pi-Sheng, the
head of Taiwan’s epidemic
command center, told The
Associated Press. “We have a
very limited grasp on its infor-
mation, and it’s not very accu-
rate.”
The island will start testing
everyone arriving from China
on Jan. 1, ahead of the expected
return of about 30,000 Tai-
wanese for the Lunar New
Year holiday later in the
month. The new Japanese
rules, which restrict flights
from mainland China, Hong
Kong and Macao to designated
airports beginning Friday, are
noted Thursday that many
countries have not changed
their policies for travelers
from China and said that any
measures should treat people
from all countries equally.
Every new infection offers a
chance for the coronavirus to
mutate, and it is spreading rap-
idly in China. Scientists can’t
say whether that means the
surge will unleash a new
mutant on the world — but
they worry that might happen.
Chinese health officials
have said the current outbreak
is being driven by versions of
the omicron variant that have
also been detected elsewhere,
and a surveillance system has
been set up to identify any
potentially worrisome new
versions of the virus. Wu Zun-
you, the chief epidemiologist
at China’s Center for Disease
Passengers register for covid test, after Italy ordered antigen
swabs and virus sequencing for travellers from China.
Control, said Thursday that
China has always reported the
virus strains it has found in a
timely way.“We keep nothing
secret,” he said. “All work is
shared with the world.”
German Health Ministry
spokesperson Sebastian
Guelde said authorities there
REUTERS
have “no indication that a
more dangerous variant has
developed in this outbreak in
China,” but they are monitor-
ing the situation. The Euro-
pean Union is also assessing
the situation, though its exec-
utive branch noted that a prev-
alent variant in China is
breyesus has said the body families to postpone funeral outbreaks elsewhere, Yu said
needs more information on services until next month. in an email.
the severity of the outbreak in Chinese state media has not Dr. David Dowdy, an infec-
China, particularly on hospital reported the fallout from the tious disease expert at Johns
and ICU admis- surge widely and Hopkins Bloomberg School of
sions, “in order to US, Japan, India, government offi- Public Health, said the move
make a compre- S Korea, Italy and cials have blamed by the U.S. may be more about
hensive risk Taiwan have Western media increasing pressure on China
assessment of the made testing for hyping up the to share more information
situation on the situation. than stopping a new variant
must for
ground.” The global from entering the country.
China rolled passengers concerns, tinged China has been accused of
back many of its from China with anger, are a masking the virus situation in
tough pandemic direct result of the country before. An AP
restrictions ear- the ruling Com- investigation found that the
lier this month, allowing the munist Party’s sudden exit government sat on the release
virus to spread rapidly in a from some of the world’s most of genetic information about
country that had seen rela- stringent anti-virus policies, the virus for more than a week
tively few infections since an said Miles Yu, director of the after decoding it, frustrating
initial devastating outbreak in China Center at the Hudson WHO officials.
the city of Wuhan. Spiraling Institute, a conservative think The government also tightly
infections have led to shorta- tank in Washington. controlled the dissemination
ges of cold medicine, long “You can’t conduct the of Chinese research on the
lines at fever clinics, and at-ca- lunacy of ‘zero-covid’ lock- virus, impeding cooperation
pacity emergency rooms turn- downs for such a long period with international scientists.
LIVEMINT.COM
NeWs WrAp FriDay, 30 December 2022
New Delhi 09

TWEETS & QUOTES

Dr Mansukh Mandaviya Kristalina Georgieva Ursula von der Leyen
Monica Jasuja Union health minister MD, IMF President, European Commission
Head, Money Manage- RT-PCR test has been made 2023 will be a difficult The future of Ukraine begins
ment, GoTo Financial mandatory for flyers coming year for the world. Silver with its children. We are
UPI is clearly outpacing from China, Hong Kong, Japan, lining is we can use it to investing €100 mn to rebuild
the growth of any & South Korea, Singapore & Thai- transform economies & the schools destroyed by
every other digital land from 1 Jan 2023. They will accelerate change that’s Russia’s bombs. Sending
payment form factor in have to upload their reports on good for our climate, school buses so children can
India, and by miles... Air Suvidha portal before travel good for growth go to and from school safely

Kochhars sent to AUTO STRIKE TCPL buys 23%

judicial custody stake in Joekels

A F
special CBI court on Thursday sent MCG firm Tata Consumer Products Ltd
former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda (TCPL) on Thursday said it has acquired
Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar 23.3% additional shares of South Africa-
and Videocon group founder Venugopal Dhoot based Joekels Tea Packers for ₹43.65 crore
to judicial custody till 10 January 2023 in through a step-down subsidiary.
connection with a loan fraud case. The Kochhars Tata Consumer Products Overseas Holdings
were arrested by the CBI last Friday. Dhoot was Ltd (TCP Overseas)—a step-down wholly-
arrested on Monday. The three were produced owned subsidiary of the company through Tata
before special judge S. H. Gwalani at the end of Consumer Products UK Group—“has decided to
their earlier remand on Thursday. The CBI, purchase 23.3% of the share capital of Joekels
represented by special public prosecutor A Tea Packers, Republic of South Africa from its
Limosin, did not seek their custody further. joint venture partners,” said a regulatory filing.
The CBI had named the Kochhars and Dhoot, This is as per the terms of the share purchase
along with companies Nupower Renewables agreement and the shareholders’ agreement,
managed by Deepak Kochhar, Supreme Energy finalised and executed, amongst TCP Overseas,
Private Limited, Videocon International Joekels and the JV Partners, it added. Over the
Electronics Ltd and Videocon Industries cost of the acquisition of the stake, the Tata
Limited, as accused in its FIR registered in 2019 group FMCG arm said it is for a consideration
under IPC sections related to criminal value of ₹43.65 crore plus the adjustment
conspiracy and the Prevention of Corruption amount. PTI
Act. PTI

Autorickshaw drivers park their vehicles along a road in Bengaluru on Thursday in protest against the Karnataka government’s decision to allow
bike-taxi services in the state capital. PRI

Ambani sets goals for his three N Chandrasekaran will head the new economic
advisory council of Maharashtra. MINT
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

FM discharged from
REUTERS

children as they step up at RIL Tata chief to lead

Maha advisory body
hospital
T
ata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran

F
inance minister Nirmala Sitharaman was
discharged from All India Institute of
Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi on
Thursday, government officials said. The 63-
year-old minister was in a private ward at AIIMS
since 26 December with symptoms of viral
fever, they added.
will head the new economic advisory
He said the firm has embarked on a journey of comprehensive self-transformation council of Maharashtra, the state
government said on Thursday.
Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis
Bloomberg transformation. Asia’s second-richest person is trying to over- made the announcement in the Legislative
feedback@livemint.com Reliance’s retail business run by Akash’s twin, see an orderly generational transition during his Council in Nagpur.
Isha, has “grown rapidly” with the widest and chairmanship of the $207 billion retail-to-refin- “To make Maharashtra a trillion dollar

B
Sitharaman’s hospital visit came weeks
before the presentation of the Union budget on 1
February. This would be the final budget before
national elections in the summer of 2024 when
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to
seek a third term in power. The Modi
government is expected to use the upcoming
budget to revive the Indian economy amid
concerns of a global slowdown and elevated
inflation.
The $3.2 trillion economy grew 6.3% from a
year ago in the July to September period, more
than halving from the 13.5% expansion in the
previous three months. India has budgeted a
deficit of 6.4% of GDP in the current fiscal year
ending March 2023, significantly lower than
9.2% gap notched during the first year of the
pandemic. BLOOMBERG
illionaire Mukesh Ambani outlined
his ambitions for various businesses
under his flagship Reliance Industries
Ltd that are now helmed by his three
children, in a clear sign that leader-
ship transition was firmly underway at India’s
largest company by market value.
Under elder son Akash Ambani’s chairman-
ship, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd should aim to
provide “unique digital products and solutions”
after emerging as India’s largest wireless-service
operator that rolled out the world’s fastest 5G
network, the 65-year-old Ambani said.
Speaking to company employees at his father
and founder Dhirubhai’s birth anniversary, cele-
brated as Reliance Family Day, Ambani said the
oil-to-telecom-to-retail conglomerate has
embarked on a journey of comprehensive self-
deepest reach in India, he said. ing conglomerate after firming up succession economy, the state government is setting up an
The retailer should now aim to expand fur- plans earlier this year. economic advisory council, to be headed by
ther, providing more jobs and revenues for vari- The tycoon wants to avoid a repeat of the fra- Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran,” he
ous partners along ternal feud he faced said.
its supply chain, after his father and It will function as a private research
according t o Asia’s second-richest person is trying Reliance founder, organization with focus on issues related to
Ambani. to oversee an orderly generational Dhirubhai Ambani, agriculture, banking, engineering and
The gigafactories died without a will education, among others, deputy CM Fadnavis
being set up for transition during his chairmanship of in 2002. added.
Reliance’s green the $207 billion conglomerate This triggered a The government is also focusing on certain
energy ventures, very public power ‘aspirational’ regions to enhance the state’s
under the steward- struggle between human development index, he said. PTI
ship of his youngest son, Anant Ambani, “are Mukesh and his younger brother, Anil Ambani,
making rapid progress,” Mukesh Ambani said. who were part of the family business at that
“The goals before our New Energy Team are time.
crystal clear. Enable India to achieve security Three years after Dhirubhai Ambani’s death,
and self-sufficiency in energy by reducing the their mother was forced to intervene and divvy
RIL to buy stake in
dependence on imports.” up Reliance businesses as part of a truce pact.
Lotus Chocolate

R
eliance Consumer Products Ltd, the fast-
Consolidation wave may continue to hit retail industry in 2023 KFin shares make moving consumer goods arm of Reliance
Industries Ltd, will acquire a controlling
tepid market debut stake in Lotus Chocolate, as per a regulatory

T
he wave of consolidation is likely to hit the country’s fast-growing retail filing. Reliance Consumer Products Ltd
industry next year too, as larger players seek to strengthen their (RCPL) has entered into an agreement with the

S
footprints, leverage technologies to improve efficiency and expand hares of KFin Technologies made a muted
beyond metros. market debut on Thursday and ended on a
While the growth prospects are promising, the industry is entering 2023 flat note.
with “cautious optimism” amid inflationary headwinds and concerns over a The stock made its debut at ₹369, higher by
spurt in coronavirus cases in different parts of the world. just 0.81%, against the issue price of ₹366 on the
After learning the lessons from the pandemic-induced disruptions, the retail BSE. During the day, it hit a high of ₹372.40 and
players will continue with their multi-channel approach and marketplaces a low of ₹351.10. Shares of the company settled at
such as B2B (Business to Business) commerce and D2C (Direct to Consumer), ₹364 per piece, lower by 0.54%.
and also focus on diversifying their supply sources. On the NSE, it was listed flat at ₹367,
Consultancy EY’s India leader, consumer products & retail Angshuman marginally higher by 0.27%. The stock ended at
Bhattacharya said India seems to be skipping the modern trade wave, with two ₹364.40 each share, a dip of 0.43%
of the large modern trade chains adopting a path of B2B commerce and kirana The company commanded a market
integration, with an ambition to create a data-unified retail environment. PTI Retail players will continue with their multi-channel approach. BLOOMBERG valuation of ₹6,099.51 crore on the BSE. PTI
promoters of Lotus Chocolate, which
manufactures chocolates, cocoa products and
cocoa derivatives.
As part of the share purchase agreement,
RCPL proposes to acquire 77% of the paid-up
share capital of Lotus Chocolate through a
“secondary purchase” from promoters Prakash
Peraje Pai and Ananth Peraje Pai, followed by
an open offer.
RCPL is the FMCG arm and subsidiary of the
country’s leading retailing firm Reliance Retail
Ventures Ltd (RRVL). RCPL has ambitions to
be a relevant player in the FMCG segment. PTI

Bulls beat back bears on last derivatives expiry day of the year
Ram Sahgal
ram.sahgal@livemint.com
mumBAi
A
smart rally in bank
stocks in the last hour of
trade lifted the markets
from early losses on Thursday,
driving the Nifty and the
Sensex to closing gains on the
green after languishing in 2023 target of 21,000, driven Financial Services (MOFSL).
Retail push
losses for much of the day.
The Nifty swung almost 200
points between the day’s low of
Retail buying helped the Nifty end in the green after
languishing in losses for much of the day.
by corporate-linked banks, MOFSL expects credit
capital goods, telecom and growth and capex themes to
chemicals. play out in CY23, with sectors
Survival Tech files IPO
documents with Sebi
17,992.8 and the closing of 18,250
Nifty 50 18,207.1 ICICI Direct pegs the range like BFSI, capital goods, infra,
18,191, up 68.5 points from the between 17,000 and 21,000 cement, housing, defence and
18,200
previous close. State Bank of next year, with India continu- railways being dominant.
India and IndusInd Bank led ing to outperform In 2022 PTI ing to up to ₹200 crore, and
18,150
the charge, rising 1.4% and 1.8% advanced and Nifty swung 200 through Decem- feedback@livemint.com an Offer For Sale (OFS)
each. 18,100
18,055.5 emerging mar- points between ber 2022, Nifty aggregating to up to ₹800

last derivatives expiry of 2022.
Expiry, which happens on the
last Thursday of every month,
results in settlement of deriva-
tives contracts like futures and
options.
Domestic institutions closely
matched selling by their for-
eign counterparts, purchasing
a provisional ₹515.83 crore
worth of shares against sales by
the latter of a provisional
₹572.78 crore. Retail buying
helped the indices end in the
The Sensex also gained an
impressive 655 points from an
intraday low to close up two-
fifths of a percent at 61,133.88,
led by gains in banking heavy-
weights including Axis Bank,
ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank.
Analysts attributed the rise
to the resilience of the bulls
after an over-1,000-point fall in
Nifty from a record high of
18,887.6 at the beginning of the
month to 17,774.25 on Monday.
“Whenever you see a 1,000-
18,050
18,000
17,950
9:15am
point type of fall, value buying
at lower levels supports the
markets and bulls get back
their mojo,” said Amit Gupta,
fund manager, ICICI Securities
PMS. “We saw this happening
3:30pm
Source: Bloomberg
SATISH KUMAR/MINT
when the market tanked to
16,000 from 17,000.”
Gupta expects the market to
consolidate for some time as it
has given a breakout above
18,000 before heading for the
S
kets on buoyant the day’s low of rose 4%, outper- peciality chemical crore by its promoters and
tax revenues, fall- 17992.8 & closing forming bench- manufacturer Sur- promoter group share-
ing crude and ris- mark indices of vival Technologies holders, according to its
of 18191, up 68.5
ing GDP growth. brazil (-3%), UK has filed preliminary Draft Red Herring Pro-
“On expiry, put points from (-1%), France (-9%) papers with markets regu- spectus (DRHP).
option sellers, previous close and China (-18%), lator Securities and The OFS will see the sale
who are bulls, to name a few. Exchange Board of India of shares to the tune of
tend to protect FIIs sold shares (Sebi) to mop-up ₹1,000 ₹544.41 crore by Vijay-
the levels at which they have worth ₹1.22 trillion in the calen- crore through an initial kumar Raghunandan-
written puts, and we saw this dar year so far, but DII buying of public offering (IPO). prasad Agrawal, ₹212.41
happen on Thursday along over ₹2.6 trillion enabled the The initial public offer- crore by Nimai Vijay
with good support from Nifty to recover from a low of ing comprises a fresh issue Agrawal and ₹43.18 crore
banks,” said Chandan Taparia, 15183.4 on 17 June through a life of equity shares aggregat- by Prabha Vijay Agarwal.
VP (research), Motilal Oswal high of 18887.6 on 1 December.
10 FriDay, 30 December 2022
New Delhi LONG STORY LIVEMINT.COM

REPORTAGE | TALKING POINTS | IDEAS | INSIGHT | THE BOTTOM LINE

DECIPHERING 2022 WITH

15 COMPELLING READS
Mint’s Long Story page is where we embrace the challenge of delving deep into a story and telling it well
every day of the week. This space allowed us, over the course of a year, to report on and explore a wide
range of stories that captured the zeitgeist. From Adani’s entry into cement to the Sequoia-Algo legal spat,
the rise of natural farming to the downturn in commuter mobikes, we captured trends and unearthed
stories that are shaping the nation. Here are 15 stories that highlight the breadth and depth of our
reporting, from among the 240 long stories we published in 2022.

AdANI IS gIvINg jITTeRS To terland to understand what it means to again. Devina Sengupta camped in the city sorts to the industry. syncrasies, can shape one’s experience of noose around the culprits.
SouTh INdIAN ceMeNT FIRMS own a motorcycle, how it changes lives, for many days to chronicle a tectonic shift living in an apartment complex. Rich with

I ndia’s richest man, Gautam Adani, cre-

ated quite a stir in May this year when
and why consumers are not lapping them
up as they did in the past.
in the landscape of the city—the older
centres are facing tough competition from
IN SeARch oF The AveRAge
INdIAN WoMAN
anecdotes, writer Madhurima Nandy
highlighted how many RWAs have failed
The MySTeRy oF INdIAN
TRAde’S MISSINg BIllIoNS
he decided to enter the cement business
with the acquisition of Holcim AG’s oper-
ations—Ambuja Cements and ACC Ltd. In
AT MeRcedeS INdIA,
A FINANcINg MeSS
new ed-tech firms like Unacademy.
Resisting the charge is Allen, the biggest
player in the market. It is fighting a battle
A ccording to the National Family
Health Survey, an average Indian
woman is married; lives in a village; is
in maintenance of apartment complexes
leading to a fall in their prices. On many
occasions, they overstep their brief,
T here is a gaping $10 billion hole in
India’s trade with China—a mismatch
between what China claims to have
one stroke, it became the second largest
cement producer in the country but
Adani wasn’t done yet. Close on the heels
B ad loans and rising non performing
assets (NPAs) hit Daimler Financial
Services that finances dealers and cus-
on two fronts—retaining teachers (with
astronomical salaries) and acquiring stu-
dents (with deep discounts). Allen, mean-
under 30 years of age; attended school for
8-9 years; is likely to belong to the other
backward community (OBC) and unem-
betraying prejudice against single men
and women as also pet owners, resulting in
unreasonable and stringent restrictions. .
exported versus what India says it has
received at the ports. Sumant Banerji’s
investigation found unscrupulous
of the deal, he announced his intention to tomers of Mercedes Benz India. In this while, has learnt new tricks of the trade, ployed. But does she have a face? Tauseef importers resort to under-invoicing to
become the No.1 and did not rule out report, Shayan Ghosh investigated how like offering Esops (employee stock own- Shahidi scrolled through hundreds of pro- SMAll ToWN INdIA IS WheRe evade taxes. Taxmen are aware of it, and
more acquisitions. N.Madhavan reported top officials at the firm were hand in glove ership plans) to teachers. files before he travelled to meet Suneeta BollyWood goeS To dIe multiple government departments are
on how Adani’s entry is making compa-
nies in the highly fragmented southern
market nervous.
with errant dealers. By assessing internal
documents and speaking to a number of
insiders, Ghosh established numerous
The cuRIouS cASe oF
SBM BANK’S gRoWTh
Devi in Kantewa village of Rajasthan. Her
story is the story of every rural Indian
woman—of unrealised dreams and unful-
B ollywood is fast losing appeal with its
most loyal fanbase—the youth in
north India’s small towns. As the spate of
investigating the fraud. But the story also
narrated how lack of coordination
between the departments, and the lack of

IS NATuRAl FARMINg
The FuTuRe oF Food?
transgressions, including a refusal to take
prompt action against defaulters and
ever-greening of loans. As a result, the
I t is barely four years old but the State
Bank of Mauritius (SBM) has become
a darling of fintechs—it powers nearly
filled aspirations. It is also one of hope.
Devi, who has a 4-year-old daughter, is
comfortable with her marrying outside her
flops suggests, this is turning into a major
problem. Lata Jha travelled to several
small towns to speak to young film watch-
resources, is hampering the process. A cat
and mouse game is being played in the
shadows, one where the tax authorities

F resh off the fields, Sayantan Bera nar-

rated the story on how early adopters
of natural farming, based on new age soil
company’s net NPA ratio shot up to 17.5%
in fiscal 2021.
four dozen firms and their products. In
this widely read piece, Arti Singh
reported on how SBM created a market
caste when she grows up.

INSIde INdIA’S MoST

ers. In this article, she narrated the story of
how the Gen Z now sees greater appeal
and aspirational value in Hollywood
have met with little success.

SANdeep KApooR’S ART oF

microbiology, have seen higher yields and Byju RAveeNdRAN’S by being less fussy with startup founders. uNSAFe WoRKplAce action and superhero flicks. Also, the ReTuRNS oN pATRoNAge
low cultivation costs. It has enthused small
and marginal farmers who spend signifi-
cantly on chemical inputs. At the same
MoMeNT oF RecKoNINg

B esieged by internal business challen-

ges and a potential valuation squeeze,
The bank takes much less time to
onboard partners unlike the big banks
that are known to sit on the files for
T he construction sector is one of the
largest employer of unorganized
workforce in the country but it is also one
grand spectacle of dubbed versions of
south Indian movies. Besides, there is a
growing weariness with Bollywood’s pen-
I n a bizarre development in June, ven-
ture capital (VC) firm Sequoia Capital,
cautioned its portfolio companies
time, this method has more than piqued 2022 was not a memorable year for Byju weeks on end. However, the good times of the most unsafe. After four workers died chant at social messaging, be it on homo- against doing business with Algo Legal,
the interest of the government as it could Raveendran. In this exhaustive piece, may be over soon. Stricter regulations for at a construction site in Noida, Sumant sexuality or live-in relationships. a law firm run by its former counsel San-
provide a way to keep fertilizer subsidy in Ranjani Raghavan chronicled the many fintechs, going ahead, may force SBM to Banerji investigated the abysmal safety deep Kapoor. It quickly graduated into a
check. Sounds like a win-win? Well, scien- issues that plague edtech firm Byju’s— let go of some of the aggression. standards and blatant flouting of laws in The TRue SToRy oF A bitter legal slugfest. In this piece, Varun
tific validation is still awaited. from the lack of a dedicated chief financial the industry. The sector is structured with FAKe NeTWoRK Sood went beyond the news to unearth a

WheN The 100cc MoToRBIKe

officer to mounting losses at one of its
many acquisitions, Whitehat Jr. The latter
The lITTle-KNoWN FuNd
houSe dISRupTINg INdIA’S MFs
thousands of sub contractors that ensure
safety always takes a back seat. The wafer- S hell companies for financial frauds and
tax evasion is a recurring theme for the
litany of conflict of interest concerns
throughout Kapoor’s tenure at the firm.
RIdeS INTo A doWNTuRN

T here is something peculiar about

today’s domestic automobile indus-
is a major drain on the company’s finances
and has led to even investors asking tough
questions. A couple of months after the
I n the ever expanding world of mutual
funds, a little known fund house, Quant
Mutual Fund, has beaten the Goliaths of
thin margins of the contractors do not give
them scope to invest in safety either. The
big fish at the top always gets away.
government. And, in this investigative
piece, Tauseef Shahidi narrated the inside
story of a Gurgaon-based Chinese firm, Jil-
He also raised questions on Sequoia’s
vigilance, or the lack of it, against poten-
tial abuse of power.
try. While super luxury cars and SUVs are story was published, Byju’s raised $250 the industry by topping various categories ian Consultants. Using a pattern of dummy
flying off the shelves, the bread and butter million in fresh funding. But, it is also lay- in 2020 and 2021. Neil Borate wrote on WhAT NoBody TellS you directors as fronts, Jilian created over two
commuter motorcycles, which represents ing off employees to put its house in order. how Quant’s riskier philosophy of buy- WheN you ARe BuyINg A houSe dozen companies that are being investi- Scan the code
the other end of the spectrum, is battling
a protracted slowdown. Symbolic of the
economy’s K shaped recovery in the post
NeW poAchINg WAR
@coAchINg cITy
and-sell trading also flies in the face of the
usual tenet of bottom-up research and a
buy-and-hold approach of the industry at
I t is a story that is relatable to most new
home buyers, or even those living on
rent. Most of us consider the price, loca-
gated by the Serious Fraud Investigation
Office. These companies are suspected of
being involved in loan app frauds, crypto
to read the
extended
version of
pandemic era, low demand for motorcy-
cles has significant consequences. For this
piece, Alisha Sachdev travelled to the hin-
W ith the shadow of the pandemic
receding, Kota, the epicentre of
India’s coaching industry, is buzzing
large. Quant’s investors, however, aren’t
complaining. Its enduring success is now
drawing attention and is a challenge of
tion or developer while buying or renting
property. But resident welfare associa-
tions (RWAs), with their politics and idio-
investment scams, fake job offers, and even
dating scams. Shahidi gave a ringside view
of how investigators are tightening the
these stories.

A PEEK INTO 2022

12 WeDNesDay, 13 July 2022
10 WeDNesDay, 12 OctOber 10 ThurSDay, 29 SepTember
New Delhi 2022

LONG STORY
LIVEMINT.COM NeW Delhi
LONG STORY LIVEMINT.COM NeW Delhi 2022
LONG STORY
LONG STORY LONG STORY LIVEMINT.COM LIVEMINT.COM

10 TuesDay, 12 July 2022 FriDay, 22 July 2022 2022 LONG STORY 2022 LONG STORY
New Delhi
LIVEMINT.COM 10 New Delhi
LIVEMINT.COM 10 WeDNesDay, 26 OctOber
NeW Delhi
LIVEMINT.COM
12 WeDNesDay, 7 December
NeW Delhi

RepoRTAge | TAlkIng poInTS

REPoRTAGE | IdeAS

WHAT NOBODY TELLS

| TAlkING PoINTS InSIghT | The BOTTOMLIne RePORTAGe | InSIghT | The boTTomlIne tHe bottom lINe
| IDEAS | INSIGhT | IDeAS | | TAlKING POINTS | INsIgHT | THE BOTTOMlINE | INSIgHt |
TALKIng pOInTS | IDeAS

AT MERCEDES INDIA,
| |

OF
ThE BoTToMlINE | IdeAS | INSIGHT | IDEAs tAlkINg PoINtS
TAlKINg pOINTs

THE CURIOUS CASE OF

repOrTAge | THe BOTTOMlINe | |

SANDEEP KAPOOR’S ART IAN

REpORTAgE rePortAge

A FINANCING MESS THE TRUE STORY YOU

When buyIng A houSe THE MYSTERY OF IND S
The luxury auto maker’s
reTurnS On pATrOnAge SBM BANK’S GROWTH OF A FAKE NETWORK The RWA is the X-factor;
it can add value to an apartment
trADe’S mISSINg bIllIoN
there and found State Bank of Mauritius India loan apps and shell firms chase
financing arm is grappling
with recovery of bad loans vendors during his tenure became a fintech darling for setting up a maze of fraud
complex or drag down residents’ across India on a wild goose
counsel favoured specific despite its lack of visibility links is under the scanner quality of life by importers has sent taxmen
The former Sequoia general
Madhurima Nandy
and allegations of poor and
potentially improper lending benefit from them later. Arti Singh and brand recall Why a company with China madhurima.n@htlive.com Rampant under-invoicing
Shayan Ghosh
decisions crafty ways to materially arti.singh@livemint.com bengALuru

mint neW delHi

W
shayan.g@livemint.com
SHORT hen Rashmi Singh and
mint

W
mumbAi
STORY hat do fintech competi- her family moved into Sumant Banerji
Tauseef Shahidi SHORT
tors Slice, Uni and Lazy- their new four-bedroom

L
ast September, Paasha, tauseef.s@livemint.com
STORY sumant.banerji@livemint.co
m
the roof- Varun Sood pay have in common? apartment at Guru-
top lounge of the JW
Marriott varun.sood@livemint.com
WHAT And we are not talking neW deLHi gram’s Ireo Victory Val- NeW DelHi
hotel in Pune, hosted a
farewell of their ambition to out- ow long does it take to resign
ley in August 2018, everything
perfect. The leafy outdoors, seemed
WHAT n a rainy August afternoon,

H O
NeW DelHI Sequoia
party for a departing chief In June this year, VC firm race each other in the
tive officer (CEO) that
execu- India Capital India cautioned
its digital lending from a job? A 31-year-old beachscape and pool, the the sandy Consumers assess a property in Mumbai, three officers
n June, when Sequoia Capital
space. The answer: State
from India’s Central Board

about 11 pm. It is said to have went on till
by the CEO himself, with
the leadership team and
level below—invited. The
freely and the food was sumptuous.
‘unofficial’ party, however,
an accounting nightmare
Financial Services India,
financing arm of the global
known for the Mercedes
vehicles, according to companyof luxury
It was allegedly hosted by
ore, its chief executive, at
expense. Thakore was movingcompany’s
up the chief financial officer out to take
Daimler India’s trucking
“Thakore directed the finance
ment to ensure that the company depart-
bill. This was just one
where he used his influence instances
how things are done at
cial,” said one among multiple
have come forward with people who
about a slew of improprieties
banking financial company at the non-
Any wrongdoing related
however, pales in comparisonthe party,
questionable activities at
in demand for are gradually coming to
a visitor luggage counter
reflects the rebound
studies in his hostel room
in Kota; PRADEEP GAUR those activities have now
Aman Babu, a student, tion of the Reserve Bank
at Allen Career Institute;
students attend a session
centre at Kota, Rajasthan;
In May, the RBI imposed
walk towards a coaching lakh on Daimler Financial
Clockwise from top: Students
ing to promptly report a
offline classes. fraud.
NBFCs are mandated to report Domestic
insighT | The BoTTomline transactions to the regulator fraudulent
TAlKing poinTs | ideAs | within 15-21
I
firm rooftop restau- on
companies portfolio companies against a
Bank
tius (SBM) India. The private of Mauri- director of a technology rant and the swanky club price, location and builder
been thrown cautioned its portfolio Legal, lender might in Gurugram says he
has were just what of Indirect Taxes and Cus-
against doing business
with Algo doing business with Algo be less than four years old the brochure had promised reputation, but the experience
only 60 people— general in India,
something of a fintech darling, but it is been trying to quit for close it would be. toms (CBIC) found them-
executives one Legal, a law firm run by
its erstwhile law firm run by its former Designed like a valley, Victory of living in an apartment of Dhar-
Kapoor, it counsel Sandeep Kapoor. about 44 fintech firms and powering to a year. most striking feature is the Valley’s complex depends on whether selves scurrying in the by-lanes
booze flowed general counsel Sandeep their “I’ve been trying to get
my name 51-storey tower slums.
avi, one of the world’s largeststrangers to
bizarre develop- with partnerships on payments, products, (the tallest in Gurugram), the RWA is good, bad or
That marked one of the most investment side. credit and removed [from the company’s who had
rolls] but to smaller towers and villas, flanked by
ugly.
It may take many hours for
ecosystem. slum, spread over
proved to be ments in India’s startups all
down a slope. The developer running find their way around this
for Daimler For one, Sequoia isn’t just
another ven- BUT In June, after the Reserve
Bank of India
no avail. An ex-colleague, it, and now Ireo Group
2.1 square kilometres. The
CBIC team took
heritage, resour- (RBI) issued a letter to all onboarded me, kept delaying off,” the was also well known and backed
WHY
the Indian ture capital (VC) firm. Its ran non-bank PPIs
his phone is always switched
by private
about half an hour to find
their target—the
are formidable. Its relationship with Kapoor (prepaid instrument or equity capital.
auto ces, networks and success wallet) licence over the phone. left them dispirited.
parallel with a saga rife with
giant is a blue- holders, directing that Bihar resident told Mint But soon, problems began. As a project ages, its value result, however,
brand
Founded in 1972, Sequoia with $80 instance, PPIs cannot be
He had joined Su Hui Technology
Pvt Power was
“It was a solid lead and we
were hoping
blooded Silicon Valley VC
firm, conflicts of interest. For loaded with credit lines,
a curious 2021 as
still supplied by diesel
gensets, water largely depends on its
of a (shell) com-
insiders. glo- Kapoor got into business
with happened. While the regulator thing Ltd in Gurugram in August came from tankers, and maintenance. In several to nab one of the linchpins
Manish Thak- billion in assets under management that had not director, after months of joblessness. a lit-
It was work on sewage
pany involved in hawala
trading. Instead,
of tech- the founder of the firm explicitly included bank lines and basements was apartment complexes,
the
bally. It has backed generations Apple, PPIs
lar, several banks decided in its circu- a new firm—it had been incorporated
incomplete. The RWAs’
we found a migrant rickshaw knowledge
puller from
Atari, benefitted from his patronage. residents’ welfare association failure on this count has
nology leaders, including to
pause button. A close reading press the tle over a year ago. It promised
him a still run by the builder. Then (RWA) was
led to
eastern Uttar Pradesh with
no
Stripe, Dropbox prices dropping. an officer with
position at Google, Cisco, YouTube, master directions, some of the RBI’s
‘proper’ job once the company
took off. and all hell broke loose. The
came covid,
of the racket at all,” said
division. and Airbnb. said, disallowed neither did annual main- “He had been
it has been AND even bank PPIs to load credit But he didn’t sign a contract, director- tenance contract was not CBIC’s Mumbai office.
In India, starting in 2006, lines. these renewed, some misused but it
firms, deploying There was just one exception: he receive any money for lifts didn’t work and a fire
ALSO fooled and his credentials
foots the one of the most active VC with Several banking and fintech India.
SBM ships, nor get any job, he claimed. he saw
A couple safety
was absent. When protests clearance was a dead end for us. In
two other cases,
$6 billion in capital in
more than 300 An arms-length relationship grew, Ireo a vegetable
of the
marquee vendors is a key tenet in
the told Mint that SBM India continuedofficials
when
of months later, he panicked as an ex-di- asked residents to form Sometimes RWAs overstep too, our search ended with
to control portfolio companies, including to lend an RWA. But the their
vendor and a watchmaker.”
Freshworks, fiduciary duties of a senior its PPI BIN (bank identification a Chinese national mentioned the gov- homeowners, now wary limits. Their prejudices against
Daimler Finan- names such as Byju’s, Ola, fintechs. It even partnered number) to
when
rector at Su Hui. This was on Chinese
of the
and worried that work would developer Part of the department
of revenue
Pine Labs. officer. But, was Sequoia single men or women or
Zomato, Unacademy and the with new fin-
ernment had turned the
heat declined. Soon, project further lag, under the ministry of finance,
CBIC, apart
said in June sufficiently vigilant against techs —for example, Kissht. pet-owners have often
information Effectively, what Sequoia Three senior
companies, cracking down scrutiny of
on loan apps sales almost led to
from being tasked with
making policies
Kapoor, alleged abuse of power? fintech executives confirmed stopped and prices tanked. unreasonable and stringent
was it no longer trusts Sandeepworked as had told them that they have that SBM linked to China and increasing Beijing.
From ₹8,500 of customs
concerning levy and collectionon the pre-
who per sq ft at one point, restrictions on residents.
(NBFC). the founder of Algo Legal, in India cially” told by the regulator
been “unoffi-
foreign direct investment
from ₹5,500-6,000 per sq ft.
it tumbled to
and other duties, also works
to the firm’s general counsel his nearly to continue The Su Hui director said
that a sinking vention of smuggling. In this case, the offi-
During with this business. SBM did “Despite paying maintenance,
to other between 2010 and 2019. from not respond to
feeling had set in: He realized
he had been of the property was appalling.upkeep cers were investigating the
under-invoic-
would have executive who also benefitted
Mint’s email query on this landlords say it’s not an
the lender that decade-long stint, Kapoor privy to the We’ll come luru-based fintech founder
claim. A Benga- while.
a “dummy” director all this September wanted to sell and exit. Many
Mayur Vihar will tell you
issue, brokers in
ing of electronics goods
imported from
been key to due diligence
and Kapoor’s decisions at Sequoia. said his firm in The market was if you months.
light. Some of all—of numer- in a bit. had avoided partnering His fears only deepened bad. A family we know it’s a problem. Pets are denied have a dog, China over the last eight
inner workings—warts and to the second executive with along with bought a 3BHK access even In similar raids last year—in
and around
drawn the atten-
So Kapoor got into business
with the “because we thought it was SBM India 2022, when Su Hui was named, apartment for ₹1.68 crore, to the parks in societies. I
of India (RBI). ous portfolio companies. benefitted from
a regulatorily
five other firms—Lillian
Technocab Pvt ₹2.15 crore. It seemed like
down from remember taking
Delhi, Haryana and West
Bengal—con-
extended to founder of the firm that
weak bank”. But as RBI my dogs for a walk at 11pm,
a penalty of ₹5 The falling out, which has Sequoia, a decade. The regulations
Ltd, Shigoo Technology
Pvt Ltd, Mad-El- says Singh.
a distress sale,”
could see us,” she says.
so that no one
ducted by the income
tax (I-T) depart-
a lawsuit now (Kapoor has sued his patronage for nearly
cramped the fintech space,
Pvt Ltd, X10 shell companies
Services for fail- and a number of the two he
bank as it was “the only game wrote to the ephant Network Technology Nimisha After months of protests, ment, a large racket of
financial relationships between
There are many instances
social media firm Twitter On 17 August, however, the town.”
in
Financial Services Ltd,
and in
this year, the builder finally February where RWAs
was busted. A group of
such companies
reported the
media companies that have publisher of
cite bylaws against young
nearly ₹2,000
are unknown.
sent out a communication bank finally Finance India Pvt Ltd—by
the directorate many of the major demands addressed and unmarried
imported goods worth
spat, including HT Media,
the tenants, freedom of movement, paper, on
faultline in saying that it is planning
to its partners,
of enforcement (ED) in an investigation dents, and homeowners finallyof the resi- pets or feeding pets. Many keeping crore but the declared value on

R
| CompliANCe CoNuNdrum
reporTAge days of the illegal activity Mint), has exposed a critical to stop onboard- Victory Valley Condominiumformed the of these dis-
which taxes were paid, was
only ₹20 crore.

NEW POACHING WA
being
ered, depending on the quantum discov- his pattern, of Kapoor
extending ing new customers on PPI. into crypto and loan apps. criminatory bylaws are in
Sequoia’s India journey.
T that he had no Owners’ after a container
HT
SBM did not fact illegal. But
of loans its
Sequoia patronage to a firm,
repeats respond to queries about The 31-year-old man said Welfare Association (VVCOWA). some RWAs often take on It was a chance discovery
involved. But the genesis of the relationship, why it
the prepaid card business continued awareness of Su Hui’s business,
and has 12-member RWA was A new a policing role.
in the Kolkata port was
opened. Several
into acri- in Gurugram. Especially during covid,
Established in 2011, Daimler course and eventual descent rife with in another company.
Themis Asso-
when other
not yet been summoned
by an investigat-
lead to just one firm: Jilian
Consultants India, based things changed. Water and
elected. Soon, when
diction expanded and they their juris- laptops and mobile phones declared
worth ₹64
Services is the captive financierFinancial mony ran parallel with
a saga Less than two years after
banks did not, and what made
it change its A view of trails from five shell companies power
was regularized, maintenance supply set rules that of the
gart-headquartered Daimler. of Stutt- that’s egregious entity called mind. The larger mystery ing agency. Damning money and document were far more stringent and crore were found instead
ciates was founded, another sprang up
‘The Capital’ building,
conflicts of interest, one is this: How did which houses SBM Bank be only one stream- arbitrary than cables. This led
But Su Hui appears to ₹3.8 lakh worth of HDMI

@ CoAChing CiTy
The lender as the firm’s Ltd a banking entity with no India’s corporate office, lined, and a new facilities the ones prescribed by the
considering Kapoor’s role raises ques- One Delta Synergies Pvt
JILIAN AND ITS WEB
offers loans in two broad Indian in Bandra-Kurla Complex, management government. prize catch.
categories—to at the same branding or visibility become roots, no Mumbai. thread in a larger web of
deceit. firm appointed. Maintenance “An RWA is not a legal entity to more searches and the
Mercedes dealers, and legal officer, and one that
also with its registered office Investiga- mint fee too was and it needs These are classic cases of
import duty
to customers. In was suffi- the old Airport in game in town” for fintechs? the “only Officials of the Serious Fraud But why would any legiti- cut to ₹4 from ₹4.20 per to follow the bylaws as per
the first category, Daimler tions about whether Sequoia premises as Themis near Read on. the ministry of seals and ian@gmail.com. the name of a service SHORT sq ft. the Cooperative order con-
Financial alleged abuse man- The selling poinT SAMEER JOSHI/MINT
tion Office (SFIO) under seized “boxes filled with company Aliyeye Network Jilian Consultants Now, prices have Societies Act and Apartment evasion. Ingenious importers
extends loans to dealers ciently vigilant against the Bangalore. It offered a compliance Com- these com- mate company use STORY HPZ Pvt. Ltd, Hong Kong climbed to Ownership foreign country at pre- MINT
for their
rooms, workshop equipment, show-
capital and so on. It is in this working Cars displayed
at a Mercedes showroom.
of power by a top official.
How could the powerful
VC firm have
agement software product
plius to startups. This company,
called
as well as
S
The finTech approach
BM Bank (India) Ltd is F
a step-down take a lot
or startups in a hurry, all
SBM. “ICICI Bank, HDFC,
products, the second
roads led to “Slowly and
Yes Bank, businesses
official shares.
steadily, most prepaid card mint
HOW THEY STACK UP
corporate affairs (MCA) suggest
radar too, as
panies have come up on their a racket of
into
digital signatures of dummy
directors”.
under provider in its
official email ID? Are these
Prima facie, all the companies incor- companies linked at the source if
been
they
Token
fraud
Tech. Pvt. Ltd.
Inc.: 30 Dec 2019
Links with Jilian:
Fraudulent
loan apps: Yo-Yo
₹10,000-11,000 per sq ft.
ued than other premium
Though less val-
projects nearby,
Act. The bylaws are regulations,
challenged in court if fundamental and can be
rights of
signment from a
vailing market rates. Next,
they forge doc-
the goods at the
Mumbai. It is nearly impossible
to speculate how big the
under-invoicing racket
is.

the company finds itself

segment that Daimler Financial extends
loans to dealers for their not known what was going
on under its Themis group companies,
also had a com-
KTS Anand was
subsidiary of SBM Holdings of time to onboard. From
listed entity in the Mauritius Ltd, a ceptualization to get the product
con-
came to SBM.”
“Through M2P, SBM
SHORT part of a larger investigation links.
shell companies with Chinese usually
investigation appear to have extent were have the common ID?
two former
WHAT Email: corporatejilian@gmail.com 99.99% owns Cash, Tufan
the association is upgrading
make it more appealing.
the society to residents are infringed upon.
We see sev-
uments to under-invoice
port in India to pay lower
customs and
of containers being unloaded
from a ship at a port in
mired in a bad showrooms, workshop
mon managing director. currently has STORY porated by Jilian, and to some In June and July 2021, Rupees, Coco “In the last six eral cases where residents
use hawala File photo in Kolkata—
loan mess, which for equipment, and working own nose? Stock the market, it out in about 18 partnerships SBM’s deposit base growth
The term “shell company” an SFIO official. been months, there has been complain about
other duties. Finally, they Mumbai; Chandni Chowk
long had been capital. Themis Associ- “controlled” by it, said of Shigoo sent their resignation Jilian Consultants India has
exchange, promoted by Cash arbitrary regulations levied
the managing director of would take around 6-7 across product in FY22 was largely driven Shigoo Tech. Pvt. Ltd. a marked differ- based that a signifi-
THE $10BN HOLE you would probably sense on sale are
brushed under the carpet the Government months,” lines, of which 7-8 are on by current account deposits business and Section 2 of the directors corporatejilian@gmail.com, by RWAs,” says
channels through shell companies of the
and has left a alleges
ates, Themis Lex India,
Themis Lexsol of Mauritius. Despite a “big the second official said. the hold. They refers to a firm with no active “Control”, according to helping companies with
Chinese Inc.: 14 Apr 2021 Jilian Consultants India ence. The greenery is better Mumbai-based advocate
cry betrayal hole in its balance sheet. that some of the NBFC’s
delin- tle its dues by repaying
MINT
Web of eNTiTies from April 2015
bang” inaugu- Larger banks are also in the process WHAT Total deposits
Savings deposits
is sometimes misused
for tax evasion,
Companies Act, 2013, can
also be indirect, emails
to
One of
investment set up shop
here ilian: Pvt. Ltd. a school bus area for pick-up
maintained, Vinod Sampat.
in Dubai or Hong Kong for
payment
India imposed a substantive
18.95% coun- mint cant chunk of the gadgets rampant
make big bucks and founders
of interest ration by Mauritius Prime a Jilian India employee.
quent loans originated during o understand the conflict and One Delta Minister Pra- about whom are also more discerning cards in partnership of launching credit (in  crore) No. of and drop has overseas. In the steel,
T ownership, etc.
Employees SHORT
Daimler Financial Services’ 30% of the entire Private (in  crore)
money laundering, hiding above have shareholding or marking asked for the acceptance of the radar been demarcated, AGMs balance amount to sellers in India and its impact duty (CVD) on China, in
addi- smuggled. Apart from
that period. outstanding since 2017. It is now on the 
branches HOw muCH tO Handle
In Allen vs Unacademy, teachers
loan book In February Algo vind Kumar Jugnauth in they take on as their part- with some fintechs and not always through transactions on mis-invoicing is
stood at ₹6,600 crore as on 2018, Thakore moved amount, said one insider. mint at the root of Sandeep Kapoor’s until mid-2017. January 2019, ners. “At who are stuck, one such SBM India is less than four them even was links 
are held
dents are updated. Quality and resi- post-pandemic era, these again, figures tervailing duty. This took
STORY under- invoicing and circumvention
L.N. Maheshwari. It is
still run by four
31
(latest available figure) and March 2021 Singapore as vice-president (key
it reported a
to Entrepreneurs Satish,
account Ghatge Mohan and Gaurav SHORT
S
Services stood at ₹26.34
August 2020, the compan
crore as on 28 showrooms—in Ahmedabad
and
Legal, it’s necessary to go
into a complex
dating back to 2010,
When reached for comment,the own-
ld not remember who
Anand the bank stirred little interest.
The collapse o
SBM, there was nothing
sort. You could be an avera of this person aware of fintech is Uni,” a
the matter told Mint.
years old in India, but it
6,799 427.6 11 300
The companies mentioned app frauds
been involved in all kinds
of
,
management, argued the
The ED also suspects the
official.
reporting to
on the email, as if he
involvement of resignation his manager.
of ED and MCA for alleged
with several loan app frauds.
 improved and it’s a big relief,” of life has T he scope of work of an RWA
lenge as there i
is a chal- have become more rampant.
on the economy—China,
e how prominently. GFI
studied data for 2016 to
tion to the basic customs
the effective taxation upwards
of 30%.
WHAT
probably true in mobile
phones, laptops,









LIVEMINT.COM MINT MONEY FriDay, 30 December 2022
New Delhi 11

Why this Mumbai-based RIA WHAT'S THE FOREX RATE?

Whether you are planning
overseas travel or want to

prefers to go with referrals

send money abroad, it is
always a good idea to shop
around for the best forex
exchange rate. From banks,
travel aggregators to money
changers, various small and
big players sell foreign
exchange. To simplify your
work, here is a list of INR to
USD forex rates offered by
‘We have a distribution arm which is open for not very evolved clients with a small corpus’ some of the major banks
and travel aggregators. We
recommend that you also
Neil Borate check the commission being
charged by these players to
Neil.b@livemint.com
An RIA's journey ensure that you are getting
the best deal.

I
n a world where growth at all cost is WHEN DID YOU GET THE SEBI RIA
the motto of most firms, Vivek LICENSE? FOREX RATES (/$)
Rege’s practice is somewhat coun- We were among the first 30 companies to
Bank/travel Wire transfer* Buy forex
ter-intuitive. Rege, the founder and get a license from Sebi for corporate RIAs
back in 2013. aggregator inward Outward Forex/travel card Cash
CEO of VR Wealth Advisors Pvt Ltd
has about 140 clients and roughly ₹600 WHAT IS THE SIZE OF ASSETS UNDER SBI 82.09 83.59 NA 84.20
crore of assets under advisory. How- ADVICE (AUA)?
ever, he insists on growing his clientele It is roughly 600 crore of assets under Bank of Baroda 82.41 83.23 83.65 84.05
only by word of mouth referrals by advisory.
Canara Bank 82.50 83.22 83.43 NA
existing clients. “Clients need to be HOW MANY CLIENTS DO YOU HAVE ?
aligned to our process. There are peo- We have 140 clients. IndusInd Bank 81.32 84.32 85.11 85.41
ple with crores of rupees and managing
this money through multiple advisors. WHEN DID YOU THINK RISK PROFILING Kotak Bank 81.40 84.30 84.70 85.27
And some of them even ask me if I can BECAME A CRUCIAL FACTOR FOR ASSET
ALLOCATION? HDFC 81.52 84.13 84.38 84.95
manage a part of that money. They The global financial crisis of 2008 brought
want me to show that I am better than home the importance of risk profiling. ICICI 80.99 84.63 84.41 85.99
the other guy, usually by taking riskier
bets. I do not accept such mandates,” he WHAT IS YOUR PROUDEST MEMORY OF Axis Bank 80.49 85.32 86.00 85.32
says. SERVING A CLIENT?
A client asked us if he could quit his job and Yes Bank 81.40 84.28 85.19 85.19
Before he began his own practice in
retire immediately. We showed him the
2003, Rege started out as an insurance Thomas Cook 81.23 84.22 84.06 84.43
preparedness, and it is very much possible,
advisor with HDFC Life. The company and even today, he thanks us profusely for it. Note: Data collected from website of respective entities as on 28 December 2022; Rate denotes INR/USD; Rates are as
gave him a list of people for cold-calling mentioned on the website of the bank/FI and it may vary according to different amount slabs; *Telegraphic Transfer (TT)
(the practice of phoning somebody you WHAT IS THE ONE MISTAKE YOU REGRET buying and selling rates used.
Compiled by BankBazaar.com
do not know in order to sell them some- THE MOST?
thing) and one such cold call got him Looking back, I realise, we may have avoided
advising clients on traditional insurance
his first advisory client. This client has
policies.
been with him ever since. This hap-
pened before market regulator Sebi’s
regulations for registered investment
advisors (RIAs) were enacted in 2013.
WHAT IS THE AVERAGE TICKET SIZE OF
YOUR CLIENTS’ INVESTMENT?
It’s around 5 crores.
How much insurance is needed
Edited excerpts from an interview.

Tell us about your practice as an

DO YOU ADVISE ORDINARY PEOPLE ON
INVESTMENT?
We have a distribution arm for clients with
for a healthy 31-yr-old bachelor?
RIA. small amounts to invest, where advisory
From 2003 to 2008, I was an indi- may not be suitable. For example, it could ISTOCK
vidual proprietor. In 2008, we set up a be a gym instructor, a hotel waiter, or a small Abhishek Bondia
private limited company for our prac- shopkeeper.
tice. I started as an insurance agent and WHAT WOULD BE THE THRESHOLD I am a healthy 31-year-old
simultaneously commenced distribu- ABOVE WHICH IT BECOMES FEASIBLE bachelor, with dependent
tion of mutual funds. At that time, peo- FOR SOMEONE TO GO TO AN RIA? parents. I have a corporate
ple were asking questions pertaining to Two ingredients are essential to dispense health insurance policy for
life goals, and for which they never advice as an RIA—If you have an asset base, ₹3 lakh. Do I have to buy
really got an answer. They wanted to or you have the ability and willingness to pay another health policy?
know whether they would be able to a fee. And, if so, should I buy a
achieve certain goals in life. Most of WHAT IS YOUR FEES? family floater plan or an
these answers were delivered in the We charge somewhere between individual health policy?
form of investment products earlier. 50,000 and 1 lakh. - Name withheld on request
That’s when I realized that these clients
can be given a sort of roadmap for their The right level of sum
goals. assured depends largely on
The second aspect was in terms of VIVEK REGE, founder & CEO where you live and are likely to
V R Wealth Advisors Pvt Ltd
reporting. We realized that we could get hospitalized. The most
come out with a simple spreadsheet expensive are the ‘luxury hos-
where clients are able to see all their and the asset allocation should be in markets and the investment options More than an asset base , it should be pitals’ in metros, and the costs ASK MINT within a higher age group and
holdings in one place. sync with their stated risk profile. In was not so great at that point of time. the ability and willingness of people to increase as you go to smaller m INSURANCE with some pre-existing dis-
CAMS Mailback started around this 2008, I attended a conference in the And when you look back, you realize pay a fee . Sometimes, it so happens that towns. Even within the same eases. The regular plans gen-
time (2004). I was among the first pro- US, where I learned about a new plan- that we could have maybe avoided the people may not yet have created an hospital, the cost of a surgery erally have stricter policy issu-
fessionals to opt for it. By 2013 though, ning tool that could be used to provide traditional insurance policies for some asset —the asset is a work in progress. could vary by 30 to 40% you are covered in a corporate ance criteria. Most senior citi-
giving a report was considered the planning reports to clients. That of our clients. But they have the willingness and abil- depending on the type of room plan because you may change zen plans offer coverage for
norm. We were among the first 30 brought an end to excel sheets, and I Your average client investment is ity to pay a fee. These two ingredients chosen. jobs or your current company pre-existing conditions faster
companies to get a licence from Sebi for was one of the first customers of that ₹5 crore. Can ordinary are essential to dispense As a rule of thumb, one can modify their health insur- than the regular plans. How-
corporate RIAs back in 2013: we are software company when they launched people seek your We charge a fee an advice as an RIA. should buy coverage that is at ance benefits over time. ever, such plans carry higher
glad we took that decision early on to in India. advice? of ₹1 lakh. But if I remember the case of a least equal to their annual sub-limits. The sum assured
apply for a licence. What has been your proudest Yes, we definitely look we feel that the young couple who income, or a minimum sum I am 58 years of age and available under senior citizen
The global financial crisis of 2008 moment of serving a client? at clients who have a client still needs approached us. The hus- assured of ₹10 lakh. This will be retiring in the next plans are also lower than the
brought home the Recently, one of much lesser corpus; what band was working with should be further revised couple of years. I was so far regular plans.
to mature, then
importance of risk m A DECADE OF RIAs our clients had to we see is the need for cli- Bain & Co and the wife was upwards in case the individual covered under my corpo- You should first apply for a
profiling. Clients quit his company ents to understand and we may lower with the human resource has an adverse family medical rate insurance policy. regular plan. In case there is
A MINT SERIES
tend to say one abruptly. We had prefer to educate them to the fee department of a leading history. Please suggest a good any challenge in the policy
thing in a risk questionnaire in a bull worked for a very long time on his opt for advisory. company. They didn’t Do keep in mind that the health insurance plan for issuance, then it would make
market and quite another in a bear goals. He was about three years away We have a distribution have significant assets: in sum assured should be high me and my 54-year-old sense to apply for the senior
market. A doctor couple from South from retirement. The client asked us if arm as well which is open for not very fact, they have to pay off a big education enough to factor in medical wife. Do note that my wife citizen plan.
Mumbai, in 2005, were insisting on an he can quit his job and retire immedi- evolved clients with small amounts to loan, which means starting with a nega- inflation over the years. is a heart patient and I am a You should have a coverage
asset allocation with 75-25 equity debt ately. We proved to him that it was pos- invest, where advisory may not be suit- tive net worth. But they were willing to Typically, family floaters are diabetic. Should we go for of at least ₹10 lakh.
allocation. When we got the risk profile sible and even today, he thanks us pro- able. For example, it could be a gym seek advice and pay our fees. most cost-effective. However, senior citizen-specific plan Abhishek Bondia is principal
tool in 2009 and tested them, their risk fusely for it. instructor, a hotel waiter or even a What is the minimum fee that you in your case because you are an or a regular health policy? officer and managing director,
profile flipped to 80-20 in favour of What was the one mistake you small shopkeeper who come for advice. charge? adult and there is likely to be at Is there any difference in SecureNow.in.
debt and it has been there that way regretted the most? These people are the most vulnerable To start with, we charge a fee of least a 20-year age difference such plans? What amount
since then. In the early days, what used to hap- lot in society today and also need to be about ₹1 lakh. But if we feel that the cli- with your parents, you should of coverage should we look Do you have a personal
Sometimes clients want us to disre- pen was that agents and advisers would protected . ent still needs to mature, then we may buy an independent policy for at? finance query? Send in your
gard the risk profiler. However, I’m promote traditional insurance policies. If you’re to think of the industry as lower the fee and allow them to be in yourself and consider insuring —Name withheld on request queries at
quite strict about it—they must reflect That time, mutual funds were just start- a whole, what would be the thresh- the system. In such a case, we may have your parents in a family floater. mintmoney@livemint.com
and get them answered by
on their answers and only then change ing; everything was very new. Even my old above which it becomes feasi- a fixed fee of ₹50,000 for up to two It is important to have your Senior citizen plans are
industry experts.
them or accept the risk profile result, own understanding in terms of the ble for someone to go to an RIA? years and then hike it. own health insurance even if designed to cater to people

True Beacon to soon offer overseas investment products, says Kamath

Priyal Mahtta & Malvika Maloo alternative investment fund scheme (LRS) allows Indian expands the product suite by products, which are not availa-
priyal.mahtta@livemint.com (AIF), catering to both high net individuals to make interna- focusing on originating and ble elsewhere. It intends to
worth individuals (HNIs) and tional transactions to spend on executing private deals for the increase its clientele of about

W
ealth management
firm True Beacon,
founded by Nikhil
Kamath and Richard Pattle, is
looking to launch a product to
enable foreign remittances for
its clientele, which includes
ultra-high net-worth individ-
uals (UHNIs).
“The idea is to start LRS (lib-
eralised remittance scheme)
for people who want foreign
exposure,” Kamath, who is also
co-founder of stock broker
Zerodha, said in an exclusive
interaction with VCCircle.
“We are working with the
regulator here. Soon we
should have something to
offer,” he added, without dis-
closing further details.
Currently, the firm’s opera-
tions include a category-III
UHNIs. True Beacon, founded
in 2019, works on a client-
aligned fee model, with an
open-ended flagship fund,
zero management fees and a
10% annual performance
reward on gains achieved by
the company.
Currently, “all of
our investments are
in the public markets
here in India. That’s our core
competence,” said Pattle, add-
ing that the fund has so far out-
performed the benchmark
Nifty Index.
Earlier this year, it added
portfolio management servi-
ces (PMS) to its product suite,
foraying into personalized
wealth management, going
beyond investment funds.
Liberalised remittance
or make investments in for-
eign assets, cumulatively val-
ued up to $250,000 in a finan-
cial year. In this case, investors
are allowed to reinvest their
funds in foreign assets without
repatriation, and investments
can be made in assets
including ETFs,
stocks, and actively
managed funds.
Even as the wealth manage-
ment firm looks to go for over-
seas investments, particularly
public markets, Kamath
pointed to several hurdles that
True Beacon may have to cross
to make LRS a part of its port-
folio.
“The norms in India are
tough to get too much expo-
sure to foreign markets. We
have the LRS cap, it gets con-
Nikhil Kamath, founder at Wealth management firm True Beacon
stantly tweaked. The problem
here is also that if someone is
doing LRS through us, we
don’t have data on what he
might have done on his credit
card, (or) whether he is con-
stantly declaring the foreign
exposure he has,” the
co-founder said.
As it tries to increase its
exposure to private markets,
being more holistic as a fund-
manager, it may venture into
launching products for real
estate, too.
Earlier this month, entre-
firm’s client base. 400 family offices to about
Pai is optimistic about the 1,000 next year.
opportunities in the long term However, factors such as
in private markets, especially global geopolitics, rising inter-
in categories like consump- est rates and inflation have led
tion, clean-tech investors to take a
and prop-tech. True Beacon c a u t i o u s
“We’re looking at wants to get niche a p p r o a c h ,
investing in busi- products for whether it is
nesses and family offices retail investors or
brands, which are UHNIs or HNIs.
which are not
inherently cash Globally, public
generating. Our available markets have
investment thesis elsewhere taken a beating
is to go for brick- with S&P down
preneur Abhijeet Pai, joined and-mortar new about 20% since
the company as a general part- age businesses which look at January.
ner and co-founder. Pai, with profitability, cash flow and Further, the reports of ris-
his experience in private mar- scale as a combination,” Pai ing covid-19 cases globally
kets, real estate and partner- said. have also spooked investors.
ships, will be responsible for True Beacon wants to get Kamath expects investors to
building new partnerships for niche products for family offi- be “circumspect” about the
True Beacon, as he works to ces as it develops its suite of next year.
12 FrIDay, 30 December 2022
NeW DelhI
OUR VIEW
Concentration of power
was the hazard of 2022
Russia’s autocratic invasion of Ukraine revived cold-waresque hostilities, the US enlarged
its economic arsenal and the world at large suffered a top-down money shower gone awry
I
t was a Ukraine under Soviet command
where the nuclear meltdown of Chernobyl
took place, serving us a grim lesson on
autocracy as a suicidal set-up: a diktat-
driven order, packed with unintended
incentives for truth cover-ups at every
level, was a danger to itself and everyone else.
That was back in 1986. It was shock waves from
the same state, freed of Moscow’s control in
1991, that revived the spectre of another Cold
War in 2022. Three decades after decentralized
power—in governance, data usage or markets—
defeated its polar opposite in a bipolar contest
of ideology, history made a comeback this year.
On 24 February, Russia invaded Ukraine and
a game of chicken over Kyiv began between
Washington and Moscow. Only, this repeat was
a mix of tragedy and farce. And, like 30 years
ago, we need clarity on what’s going wrong.
A world split apart and kept on an atomic edge
is less likely to see everyone prosper. And if the
Kremlin is all but trapped by its own war, its
armed might held off by a love of liberty backed
by the West, the steady concentration of power
in Vladimir Putin’s hands over two decades of
his rule is largely to blame. Arguably, a robustly
institution-led country would not have been
so reckless. At the top, risk of failure varies
inversely by the width (and candour) of pre-
decision deliberation. The US has not shown
much restraint in its military actions either,
sure, but this is aberrative: its top elected leader
gets scandalous leeway under its democracy to
act imperiously abroad. Indeed, the irony of the
global crisis that unfolded in 2022 was the dam-
age America did to globalization and a formula
inspired by its own 20th century success: Maxi-
mize liberty and minimize power gaps to give
everyone even odds in life. Like its retreat on
Courts should study the economic impact of decisions
PradeeP S. MehTa
A
s another year comes to an end, I am
filled with hope that the new year will
bring greater empathy for—and
progress to—the helpless and vulnerable.
The reason? The actions and assertions of
D.Y. Chandrachud, the 50th Chief Justice of
India. For quite some time, Justice Chandra-
chud has spearheaded an initiative to mod-
ernize the Indian judiciary by ensuring trans-
is secretary general, CUTS parency, accessibility and accountability
International through digital and inclusive means. He has
conveyed his belief that the judiciary should
work for all, uphold constitutional morality,
and that its decisions should be equitable,
comprehensible and implementable. He also
understands the importance of having well
capacitated district and higher courts.
While well begun is half done, it is now
time to shift gears. With a bumpy initial
period and winter vacations behind him, Jus-
tice Chandrachud will have a little less than
two years to put his vision into action. Amid
growing scrutiny of the judiciary’s decisions,
he will need to leave no stone unturned to
VIEWS
ISTOCKPHOTO
We did not manage to double
the income of Indian farmers
Multiple surveys indicate that we not only missed that goal but our rural economy is in deep distress
HIMANSHU
is associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru
University and visiting fellow at the Centre
de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi
O
n 28 February 2016, at a farmer
rally in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
announced the government’s intention
of doubling the income of farmers by
2022, a year marking 75 years of India’s
independence. That it was not just
political rhetoric but a real project was
evident from the follow-up. An expert
committee headed by Ashok Dalwai
submitted a report on Doubling Farm-
ers’ Income (DFI) in 14 volumes.
While the aim is welcome and has
been reiterated several times by gov-
ernment functionaries, there is no
free-trade in the face of 21st century rivalry, clarity on who a ‘farmer’ is and what is
America’s use of novel economic weapons to meant by farmer’s income. Immediately
after the announcement, Niti Aayog
squeeze Russia has been brash and alarming. brought out a policy paper (policy paper
Uncle Sam’s arbitrary regime of sanctions, no.1/2017) authored by Ramesh Chand,
snap-offs and frozen reserves disrupted trade member in-charge of agriculture, pro-
deals, divided the globe and dimmed global viding benchmark estimates of farmers’
prospects. Today, crypto revolutionaries are incomes and details on doubling these.
This was a straightforward calculation
not the only ones calling for freedom from of what constitutes farmers’ income
the dollar, neutral traders have sought other and has been used earlier in academic
options and calls have arisen for ‘arm’s control’ studies. The policy paper had estimates
of economic arsenals. In significant ways, the of incomes of cultivators until 2015-16,
world is a worse place than it was when 2022 which was treated as the base year. By
its data, real farm income per cultivator
began and very few people had a say in any of it. had increased by a paltry 0.44% per year
Once again, we are in a world of fiery fissures, between 2011-12 and 2015-16, as against
nuke rattles and technology denials in a race for a 7.5% increase between 2004-05 and
supremacy, this time with one-party-ruled 2011-12. It had declined 0.55% per year
China as Russia’s geo-strategic ally. Across the between 1999-00 and 2004-05, during
the term of the first National Demo-
Atlantic, it’s financial rather than political
power that has got concentrated, thanks partly
to a top-down US policy of ‘helicopter money’.
While the idea of a central bank as a lender-of-
large-sort was drawn from academic work that
won its chief advocate a surprise Nobel prize
this year, we need to accept that it was always a www.livemint.com
risky approach and has clearly gone awry. A big
chunk of US inflation, an invisible tax borne by EXCLUSIVE PARTNER
all, can be traced to frequent Federal Reserve
SENSEX 19,444.84 ®
BANKING LICENCES
Firms gear
showers of easy money. Meant to offer ultra- up to start
cheap credit not just overnight, but also over
new banks
RBI is likely to release
long tenures, it did do its job of easing the covid
final guidelines for new
bank licensing norms in
January to allow entry
to more private banks
B Y D INESH U NNIKRISHNAN,
J OEL R EBELLO & A NUP R OY
pandemic’s grip on economic activity, but also
·························
MUMBAI
T
he Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) is likely to release
the final guidelines for
new bank licensing norms in
January to allow entry to a third
set of private banks in the coun-
try’s `70 trillion banking system,
inflated assets and worsened inequality. A top-
three years after former finance
minister Pranab Mukherjee an-
nounced the plan.
Following Mukherjee’s an-
nouncement, RBI first issued a
discussion paper in August 2010
and followed it up by releasing
draft guidelines a year later, in
August 2011.
wielded monetary tool that widens wealth gaps
In its draft guidelines, RBI has
clearly stressed on the eligibility
of promoters, past business per-
formance of the firm, and im-
peccable corporate governance
standards as a prerequisite to
apply for banking licence.
“Past records of customer
service and good corporate gov-
and distorts people’s odds in life may eventually
ernance standards will be highly
critical while deciding the pros-
pects of the aspirants this time,”
Neeraj Aggarwal, partner, finan-
cial services at the Boston Con-
sulting Group. “Any efforts to
build capability by way of some
NOTE TO READERS
lose public approval, but is a fait accompli for
The four­page Media Marketing
Initiative with this edition is the
equivalent of a paid­for
advertisement, and no Mint
journalists were involved in
creating it. Readers would do well
to treat it as an advertisement.
now. All said, this year was a rude reminder of
how too few have too much power over our
lives and financial prospects. It’s what we, as
Mint is also available for R7 with
Hindustan Times in Delhi-NCR only
Ambedkar and Gandhi would urge, must resist.
thEIR VIEW
retain (and in some cases even regain) the the suspension of its environmental clear- impacted around 30,000 jobs in and around
trust and confidence of Indian citizens. ance by the Supreme Court (SC), potentially the plant, in addition to affecting around 400
A practical way to do this is to institute a causing immediate jobs losses estimated at downstream businesses, employing approxi-
mechanism for the judiciary to consider the around 1,500 workers and indirectly hurting mately 100,000 people. The livelihoods of
economic implications of its decisions, par- about 6,900 persons for no fault of theirs. thousands of service providers and workers
ticularly for India’s vulnerable, before pro- The suspension lasted a full eight months, was severely impacted by the closure for no
nouncing them. This is not wishful thinking, contributing to a cost escalation of around fault of theirs. On the other hand, from a net
nor does it pit the interests of the economy ₹715 crore. We are not talking about the eco- exporter of copper, India became a net
against those of the environment or society. nomic impact of the delay. Much of this could importer, adding to our trade deficit.
It just calls for an assessment of the impact have been avoided had the judiciary been These are just a few examples. There are
of different options available to the courts on more considerate in listing and hearing the instances galore of judicial decisions that
diverse stakeholders, whether or not they are matter. This isn’t to say that the government, severely hit thousands of jobs, like the judge-
legally represented, and taking decisions that bureaucracy and expert committee were not ments that cancelled telecom licences and
avoid adverse repercussions for those who at fault, but two wrongs
have no connection with the wrongdoing in don’t make one right.
question. Some may argue that this approach Similarly, several QUICK READ
goes beyond the judiciary’s remit, but the affected citizens have
Constitution empowers courts to take such a recently demanded The judiciary is empowered to
holistic view, thereby imposing a moral obli- reopening of a Sterlite go by broad interests and can
gation to do so wherever necessary. Copper plant in Thoo- thus take into consideration the ready if it is unable or
Allow me to explain. Recently, the Prime thukudi, Tamil Nadu, so economic effects of its decisions unwilling to appreciate
Minister inaugurated Manohar Parrikar that the area’s economy on the vulnerable among those
International Airport at Mopa, Goa. This air- can revive. Its permanent left unrepresented in a case.
port is likely to boost tourism, create signifi- closure was ordered by
cant direct and indirect employment oppor- the Tamil Nadu Pollution The new Chief Justice of India
tunities, ensure customer comfort and give a Control Board and the could create a roster of experts
fillip to the Goan economy. While there has state government, which drawn from diverse fields for
been a felt need for a new airport in Goa for was endorsed by the SC expert panels to scrutinize the
several years, its construction has been inter- and Madras High Court. impact of judicial choices and
mittent. A reason for the interruptions was This closure directly offer the courts their advice.
New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh*, Pune*
NIFTY 5,908.35 ®
last-minute attempts to demon-
strate their eligibility to RBI
which is not deeply ingrained in
their operations might not
work.”
Mint has done a SWOT analy-
sis of 15 companies that have
shown interest to start a bank
once the central bank finaliZes
the rules (See Page 4).
If one goes by the recent com-
ments of the RBI top brass, the
central bank is extremely reluc-
tant to allow corporate house to
float banks, given a choice. “We
are painfully aware of the pit-
falls, but we will make sure that
regulations are not subverted,”
deputy governor Anand Sinha
said in October in Pune at a
seminar.
The government has ad-
dressed the regulator’s concerns
by amending the banking law
and empowering RBI to super-
sede a bank board that is not de-
livering and the right to inspect
group companies of the promot-
er of a new bank. The Indian
central bank can dismiss a
board and appoint an adminis-
trator to run a bank for up to
one year.
Following the nationalization
of 14 larger banks in 1969 and
six in 1980, RBI has so far given
licences to only 12 banks in
two phases, including conver-
sion of a cooperative bank into a
commercial bank.
In the past, the apex bank’s
stated objective behind giving
licences to new banks was to in-
troduce competition in the
banking sector, which was
largely dominated by govern-
ment-owned banks.
This time, the prime focus is
to promote so-called financial
inclusion, or increasing the
reach of financial services to the
unbanked population in the
country. At least 40% of India’s
adult population does not have
access to banking services.
In the first round, RBI issued
licenses to 10 private sector
banks in 1993-94, shortly after
the nation embraced economic
liberalization under the P.V.
Narasimha Rao government.
These were Global Trust Bank
Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, HDFC Bank
Ltd, Axis Bank Ltd, Bank of Pun-
jab, IndusInd Bank Ltd, Centuri-
on Bank, IDBI Bank Ltd, Times
Bank and Development Credit
Bank Ltd.
In 2003-2004, RBI issued li-
cences to two more banks—Ko-
tak Mahindra Bank Ltd and
TURN TO PAGE 3®
ALSO SEE
>Banking licences: The contenders
mining leases en masse.
Our constitutional
courts are morally obliged
to prevent such conse-
quences. After all, how
can a judiciary be future-
the economic consequen-
ces of its decisions on
unrepresented groups. It
must no longer play deaf
to cries of the voiceless.
While the SC in the
much-celebrated judge-
ment of Shivashakti Sug-
ars Limited in 2017 high-
DOLLAR `54.76 ®
Call for justice: A candlelight vigil at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on
Sunday. People across the country continued to agitate for greater
protection for women against sexual violence after the woman who was
gang­raped and beaten on a bus on 16 December in the national capital
died in a Singapore hospital on Saturday. The body of the medical
student was cremated at a private ceremony on Sunday.
United Spirits
stock best
performer on
global index
B Y L ISA P ALLAVI B ARBORA
lisa.b1@livemint.com
·························
MUMBAI
U nited Spirits Ltd, which
only last month found a
way out of its mounting debt
woes through a majority stake
sale to Diageo Plc, has emerged
the best performing interna-
tional stock in a global index
this year, according to a
Bloomberg study.
The analysis is based on a
basket of 2,443 stocks from de-
veloped and emerging coun-
tries that constitute the MSCI
ACWI index that measures the
performance of global equity
markets. India’s country weight
in the index is less than 1%.
The United Spirits rally puts
the spotlight on the perform-
ance of the Indian stock mar-
ket. The country’s benchmark
Sensex index on BSE Ltd has
gained nearly 26% this year,
though the market was bogged
by a limping economy, rising
prices, policy flip-flops, and a
government that for the most
part was inactive.
Despite these and fears that
the government was pushing
>P4 TURN TO PAGE 2®
Monday, December 31, 2012
400 years
IN DETAIL:
of the Indian Navy >19
SPECIAL: The Mint Newsmakers
Quiz >12­13
BANKER’S TRUST: The year
that wasn’t >6
MARK TO MARKET: The financial
markets in 2012 >16
EURO `72.16 ®
RAJ K RAJ/HINDUSTAN TIMES
See Page 3
WIDER RANGE
Websites selling luxury products
expand offerings to boost business
B Y S APNA A GARWAL & Praveen Khanna, co-founder of
V IDHI C HOUDHARY
·························
MUMBAI/NEW DELHI
E -commerce start-ups target-
ed at buyers of luxury prod-
ucts are expanding and diversify-
ing their product range as they
try to attract more customers to a
still nascent market.
India has at least 80 online re-
tailers selling jewellery, luxury
goods and accessories, accord-
ing to comScore Inc., a digital
marketing research firm. The
number has grown from less
than 10 in 2010 and close to 60 in
2011.
The overall Indian luxury
goods market was valued at
$2.18 billion (nearly `11,950
crore today) in 2011, much
smaller than China’s $17.94 bil-
lion market, according to an Oc-
tober report by global research
firm Euromonitor.
As online retailers seek to tap
the niche market, they are wid-
ening their product portfolios by
adding premium brands and in-
creasing the number of segments
to include luxury accessories,
home and lifestyle products, and
sporting goods.
“The definition of luxury in In-
dia is different from that in the
West. It also differs in different
parts of the country,” said
Vol.6 No.312 `3.00 in Delhi­NCR/`4.00 outside Delhi­NCR
GOLD `30,435 ®
2012: Baby
steps to a
rules­based
regime
B Y A NIL P ADMANABHAN
anil.p@livemint.com
·························
NEW DELHI
L ooking back at 2012,
especially a day after a
23-year-old succumbed to
injuries suffered during her
brutal rape, it is difficult to
find the proverbial silver
lining in the cloud. If the
social mood is sombre, then
economic sentiment is at a
new low; all the more given
the fact that the world
economy is
2012 a step away
THE YEAR from a
precipice
THAT WAS and the
animal
spirits have all but deserted
the Indian economy thanks to
the policy self-goals by a
clueless government.
Despite all this, there is a
positive takeaway; dig a little
deeper and beyond the
anguish of the immediate loss
of this girl and the hurt of
those who braved state
oppression last week and
focus instead on their core
demand: implement the law
TURN TO PAGE 3®
jabong.com, an e-commerce site
that sells popular clothing
brands such as Ed Hardy, Izod,
DKNY, Chemistry and Tantra.
In the company’s consumer
surveys it was found that premi-
um brands are considered luxu-
ry, particularly in the smaller cit-
ies and towns, Khanna said. The
smaller cities are the fastest
growing markets for jabong.
In a country with 100 million
Internet users, the number of
visitors to luxury e-commerce
stores in India is just a fraction of
those logging into popular web-
sites such as jabong that sell
mass-market and popular
brands.
For instance, excluzen.com,
which bills itself as India’s pre-
mier luxury lifestyle destination,
has signed up over 50,000 mem-
bers since it began operations
early this year. Elitify.com,
launched in October, gets
50,000-60,000 visitors per month.
Another luxury website, strap-
sandstrings.com, which has
been selling lingerie and
swimwear from various interna-
tional brands such as Lise
Charmel, Simone Perele,
Damaris and Chantelle for two
years now, has just 14,000 visi-
tors.
Jabong, launched in January,
LIVEMINT.COM
my VIEW | FARM TRUTHS
cratic Alliance (NDA-1) government. rise, albeit barely by 0.6% per annum,
So, what happened with the farm when livestock income is included. On
income of cultivators now that 2022 has adding non-farm income, it shows a
come to a close? Between 2016-17 and growth of 2.8% per annum. Much of this
2020-21, the last year for which data is increase in income is thanks to the non-
available, it declined 1.5% per annum, farm intake of farmer households.
three times faster than it did during the Unfortunately, there is no way to esti-
agrarian crisis under NDA-1. Using mate farmers’ incomes in 2022, as there
2015-16 as the base year, a year that saw have been no surveys after 2018-19 and
a second successive drought, does there is unlikely to be one for some
improve the result to 0.6% annual time, given that these are generally
growth between 2015-16 and 2020-21. decennial. The only other source of data
Data for 2021-22 is not available, but it is on income of agricultural households is
clear that even if farm incomes grow at the survey of rural households as part of
very high rates, it will need a miracle for the NABARD All India Financial Inclu-
them to reach the level of 2016-17. sion Survey (NAFIS), which provides
The Dalwai panel adopted a different incomes for 2015-16. Although its defi-
approach and a broader definition of nition of agricultural households and
‘farmer’ used by the Situation Assess- income differs from the SAS’s, it found
ment Survey (SAS) of the National Sta-
tistical Office (NSO). It also used all the
income of such households for defining
the target of doubling farmers’ incomes.
that the income of agricultural house-
holds from all sources increased 1.7%
per annum between 2015-16 and
2018-19, less than half the 3.8% growth
This included non-farm incomes from rate of the prior period between 2012-13
businesses and the labour wages of and 2015-16.
farmer households. The most recent It is unlikely that we will have a robust
NSO survey of farmers is for 2018-19. estimate of what happened to farmers’
Prior to that, it was in 2012-13. Nonethe- income in the last five years, given our
less, based on the SAS, the income of lack of data. But based on whatever little
farmer households from crop cultiva- one can infer using multiple sources,
tion declined 1.5% per annum between there has been a deceleration in farmer
2012-13 and 2018-19, similar to what was incomes after 2015-16, irrespective of
reported by the national accounts the source or method.
method. The income of farmers does The issue here is not only the trend in
farmers’ income, in particular from
agriculture, but also what is happening
in India’s broader rural economy. With
QUICK READ rural real wages also declining in the last
five years, even wage workers have not
India doesn’t have a reliable seen any growth in their incomes.
dataset for the income of Three-fourths of rural workers are
farmers but whatever little is witnessing a decline in income. This is
available points to policy efforts likely to deepen the rural stress. While
falling way short of the hyped this has an impact on lives and liveli-
target of doubling it by 2022. hood, given spiralling inflation this
year, it has also deepened a crisis in our
There’s an acute problem of economy that is suffering a demand
broad distress in India’s rural deficiency. Therefore, for any meaning-
economy and public policy must ful plan aimed at an economic revival
aim at relieving this for the sake next year, prioritizing the revival of
of farmers as well as a revival in India’s rural economy is not just
demand across our economy. desirable, but a necessity.
24 PAGES
Fully unleashed,
sanctions too are weapons
OIL $110.62 ®
of mass destruction.
QUICK EDIT
Governing
urban India
I f there is one failure
that is obvious after the
recent gang-rape incident
in New Delhi, it is the
They may not topple
inability of governments
to fathom the governance
needs of urban India.
In the past one decade,
India has urbanized at
breakneck speed. So
much so that today the
country is one gigantic
urban continuum
interspersed with rural
areas instead of the other
buildings or collapse
way round. The situation
that prevailed since 1947
has altered dramatically.
This change, however,
has not altered the rural
centric nature of
governance. Virtually all
the plans, schemes and
projects are designed in a
fashion as if India
continues to be a land of
bridges, but they
villages. The virtual
lockdown of Delhi in the
past days resembled the
bandobast days of yore.
That’s counterproductive
in this age.
Sensitizing the police—
which ought to be trained
in local government
functions instead of
merely wielding the
destroy firms, financial
lathi—is just one part of
what needs to be
changed.
institutions, livelihoods
attracts anywhere between
600,000 and 800,000 visitors per
day. The conversion rate for
most of these sites is the same—
between 0.7% and 3.5% of the
visits result in a sale, experts say.
At excluzen, Apple Inc. prod-
and even lives.
ucts and Rolex or Omega watch-
es are the most popular purchas-
es. “I don’t see much traction in
apparel. It’s mostly gadgets,
phones and laptops that are pop-
ular on our site along with
watches,” said Urvashi Sahay,
founder of excluzen, which sells
everything from spa bookings to
travel and sailing lessons online.
Likewise, elitify, which spe-
cializes in premium and luxury
goods for men, has 70% of its
sales coming from accessories
and 30% from apparel, said Amit
Rawal, one of the three co-
founders of Lavida Luxe Lifestyle
Solutions Pvt. Ltd that operates
the site. Lavida Luxe is in the
process of launching a women’s
site, too, as it looks at better utili-
R AG HU R A M R A JA N
zation of its resources.
Even jabong, which got inves-
tor funding within three months
of starting the business, now sells
products across nine categories,
including home and living,
sports and accessories. It had
started with only two categories.
TURN TO PAGE 2®
lighted that courts must avoid a particular
outcome which has a potentially adverse
effect on employment, the economy or state
revenue, and should take the economic
impact of a decision into consideration, this
approach is yet to gain a firm footing.
In early 2022, the SC had directed high
courts to be extremely circumspect in staying
the execution of projects of national impor-
tance. In September, the apex court observed
that developing countries cannot be told to
stop ongoing projects only because they are
likely to worsen climate change. In Novem-
ber, the SC declined to grant a plea seeking a
ban on stubble burning an urgent hearing.
The court observed that it couldn’t enforce
such a prohibition against every farmer in
Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
While economic interests being taken into
consideration is heartening, such instances
are few and far between. Justice Chandra-
chud has a chance to institutionalize eco-
nomic impact assessments in complex mat-
ters by creating a standing roster of experts
from diverse fields. Such panels can probe
impacts on the vulnerable and offer advice
before rulings are made. Here’s hoping for
some concrete action on this front in 2023.
Amol Kulkarni of CUTS contributed to this
article.
LIVEMINT.COM VIEWS FriDay, 30 December 2022
New DeLhi 13

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

Whose rule of law is it anyway? The sharp rise of the Left was
the year’s global revival story
What’s universal isn’t settled yet Pandemic battered electorates effected a significant leftward shift

The West mustn’t presume to export its own version with its own failures so obvious and the idea’s details under global debate

AFP

PANkAJ MISHRA
is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist.

ANTARA HALDAR
is associate professor of empirical legal studies
at the University of Cambridge.

P
undits reviewing 2022 are heaving a
palpable sigh of relief. This was the

I
n the early 2000s, there was a near consensus
among academic lawyers that the absence of
the rule of law was strictly a “third world
problem”, meaning one that the advanced
economies of the Global North had solved.
Yet, just over a decade later, the United States
elected as president a man who would go on to
incite an insurrection at the US Capitol, conspire
to overturn an election that he lost, abscond with
classified documents when he finally left the
White House, and then call for “termination” of
the US Constitution.
How did a quintessentially ‘third world problem’
become a ‘first world problem’ as well? In fact, it
was always thus. The purported differences in
kind between the Global North and the Global
South have always been a product of colonial
triumphalism, rather than reflecting an accurate
scientific taxonomy.
This was the core insight of ‘law and develop-
ment’, a beleaguered area of study that came into
(modest) prominence in the 1970s. At the height of
the Cold War, organizations like USAID and Ford
Foundation pushed law professors and legal
scholars to take more of an active interest in evan-
gelizing Western-style law (which is a bit like a
pharmaceutical company paying a laboratory to
‘find’ that one of its proprietary drugs is indeed
effective). But, as a few of that academic field’s
scholars pointed out, law is not always ‘potent’ or
‘good’, even at ‘home’ in the West.
Ignoring this inconvenient truth, Western
organizations proceeded to foist their vision of the
rule of law on the rest of the world anyway. While
law and development professors were unwilling to
play ball, economists steeped in the Washington
Consensus agenda (fiscal discipline, deregulation,
trade and capital-market liberalization, privatiza-
tion and so forth) were all too happy to fill the void.
In the years since, waves of economistic engage-
ment—from ‘law and economics’ and new institu-
tional economics to legal origin theory—have
crashed onto the shores of the Global South. The
consistent message has been that low-income
countries must modernize their legal systems,
replacing all traditions and social conventions
rooted in ‘magical’ and ‘mystical’ thinking
(as Max Weber once put it) with cold, calculable
legal ‘rationality’.
The West, under the auspices of programmes
such as the United Nations Commission on Legal
Empowerment of the Poor and the World Bank’s
Worldwide Governance Indicators, has launched
multiple initiatives not only to ‘export’ a valuable
commodity—a Western-style legal system, i.e.—
but also to quantify and measure its uptake. One
influential effort, which I was involved with at its
inception, is the American Bar Association-backed
World Justice Project. Among other things, the
WJP assesses the health of the rule of law in ailing
year, or so the consensus goes, when
far-right strongmen such as Donald Trump Lula’s victory in Brazil was among several
and Jair Bolsonaro were enfeebled, China wins by leftist leaders in 2022 AP
stumbled and the ‘West’ made a comeback,
at least against Vladimir Putin’s Russia. sequences of the ‘third way’ that were experi-
Such assessments, nostalgic for a lost ‘lib- enced painfully during the pandemic—were
eral international order’, ignore a more what pushed many voters to the far Right.
widespread development: how a general To get them back, leaders have to recreate
discontent with the old order, exacerbated some part of the old compact between the
by the pandemic, is fuelling a revival of the social-democratic left and the weak, the
Left in South America, Europe and Austra- insulted and the injured. That said, too
lasia. It’s most clear in Latin American much should not be read into close relations
countries long tormented by extremes of between Germany’s Scholz, Spain’s San-
poverty and inequality. Returning to chez and Portugal’s Costa, or in the Socialist
power in Brazil in October, Luiz Inacio International conference in Madrid in
Lula da Silva heads a long victory parade by November, presided over by Sanchez and
leftists in the region. In June, Colombia attended by several heads of state.
elected its first leftist president in Gustavo Leftists today are very far from the clear
Petro. Gabriel Boric became in December and confident consensus that in the 1970s
2021 the most left-wing president of Chile united such leaders as Willy Brandt, Olof
since Salvador Allende. Bolivian President Palme, Bruno Kreisky and François Mitter-
Luis Arce came to power in 2020. In 2019 rand, and extended deep into governments
developing countries (usually designated ‘corrupt’) reports, which showed a marked decline in the in Argentina, Alberto Fernández defeated and political movements in Asia, Africa and
and then prescribes treatments—typically shock US’s rule-of-law ranking for five consecutive years a right-wing incumbent. A year earlier, Latin America. For one, electorates have
therapy-style elixirs—to bolster property and from 2017 to 2021. Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador fractured, probably irrevocably, and most
contracts regimes. Although the US recovered somewhat from won in a landslide. social democrats and socialists today come
The good works of Western law have continued Trump’s contempt for the rule of law in 2022, it Australia, New Zealand and many Euro- to power in coalition governments with nar-
apace in locations ranging from Vietnam and Iraq might not be so lucky next time around. Trump pean countries provide additional context row margins of victory. They have little
to Afghanistan. Yet, none of these initiatives was has already announced his campaign for the 2024 for why so many voters are turning to social- scope for structural transformations and the
ever supported by any evidence that simply ‘trans- presidential election, and dismissed the House’s democratic (and in some cases avowedly new alliances they create are precarious.
planting’ legal regimes would succeed. On the 6 January Committee as a “kangaroo court”. socialist) leaders. In the simplest terms, the While winning back alienated working
contrary, many millions of dollars were spent on a Moreover, a fully Trumpified Republican Party benefits of globalization are shrinking, and, classes, they cannot afford to lose the pro-
two-decade-long reform effort in Afghanistan, and seems committed to eroding the values that under- as essentials such as energy and food soar in gressive and professional middle classes in
still, before the Taliban’s recon- pin the rule of law. cost, voters expect more social protections. metropolitan areas, as well as young activ-
quest, the country ranked 134th The emergence of social order This is why centre-left parties, from Jacinda ists seeking climate and gender justice.
of 139 in the WJP’s 2021 Rule of QUICK READ via the establishment of law-like Ardern’s Labour in New Zealand to Pedro But this dilemma is not unsolvable. As
Law Index. systems is a universal phenome- Sanchez’s Socialist Workers’ Party in Spain, inflation peaks amid the unending crises of
There are undoubtedly prob- Rule of law isn’t just a ‘third world’ non. It happens when individu- share an emphasis on improved wages, bet- a pandemic and war in Ukraine, fear of the
lems with this kind of empirical problem, clearly, as we saw a US als join an emerging social ter job security and more public goods. future will make many more people than
approach, as the controversy leader reject poll results, incite a consensus in support of such a This is a move back from goals like privat- before look to governments for social and
surrounding the World Bank’s mob to storm the US Capitol system, and this process tends ization and marketization that since the economic security. And politicians who
Doing Business report shows. and even call for ‘termination’ to follow the same pattern no 1980s have been pursued by not only right- respond to this widespread longing for reas-
But even more problematic is of the American Constitution. matter the country. But under- wing but also centre-left and even some surance are likely to do better than those
the underlying theory. As the standing the rule of law’s basic socialist parties in the UK, France, Ger- still going on about how free markets will
2008 global financial crisis did The more emphatically we can structure and normative merits many, Sweden and elsewhere. Public opin- unleash entrepreneurial spirits and turbo-
with orthodox economics, the bring rigorous scientific analysis doesn’t really help us under- ion has shifted; the ideological hegemony of charge growth. For example, after lagging
Trump presidency exposed core to the study of the rule of law, stand its underlying mechanics. the so-called ‘third way’ of Bill Clinton, behind for years, Spain’s ruling party has in
flaws in rule-of-law scholarship instead of prejudices, the better Fortunately, now that we are Tony Blair and others now survives mostly recent months overtaken the right-wing
that had long been buried or we can understand and secure seeing the global nature of the in small bubbles. party in opinion polls with a programme of
obscured. Chief among these is it everywhere across the world. challenges associated with Another preserve is Britain’s Labour public spending funded by tax hikes on
the assumption that law will play maintaining the rule of law, Party, whose Blairite leader Keir Starmer banks, utility companies and large fortunes.
a decisive part in eliciting good behaviour, or that it important but long-neglected areas of legal and supporters in the media find them- In reaction, a cornered right is likely to
will exert what legal scholars call “general norma- scholarship (including empirical legal studies, law selves out of step with overwhelming public become even more intransigently radical,
tive force” on the society in question. and psychology, law and economics, and law and support for striking public-sector workers. ramping up culture wars. Those celebrating
But now, no one can deny that the prevailing emotions) are getting the attention they deserve. Today’s cannier social democrats such as the return of the West in 2022 ought to turn
epistemic apartheid—the marginalization of those The more emphatically we can bring rigorous German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Portu- their focus to what’s likely to be the main
studying the ‘problems’ of establishing and main- scientific analysis to the study of the rule of law, gal’s Socialist President Antonio Costa work event of 2023: how, after years of ideologi-
taining the rule of law—within law schools has the better we can understand and protect it, both with the insight that the neglect of the wel- cal confusion and stalemate, the real battle
damaged Western countries as much as the rest of in the ‘third world’ and in the ‘first’. fare state, the shredding of social security for hearts and minds will be led by a freshly
the world. This is evident even in the WJP’s own ©2022/PROJECTSYNDICATE nets and the rise of inequality—in part, con- reconstructed left. ©BLOOMBERG

GUEST VIEW

We should aim to lead the field of artificial intelligence

tion and programmatically generated text
SHASHI SHekHAR VemPATI that is almost human-like. The ease with
which the AI tool is able to generate fiction in
response to queries also poses questions on
how to assess the truth quotient of artificially
generated creative products. As an instance,
past browsing and consumption behaviour, analysis and crop recommendation to help- AWS or Microsoft’s Azure from both a scale
the risks of algorithms reinforcing biases, ing identify herbs and leaves of medicinal as well as ease of use standpoint. While the
prejudices and amplifying fake news need to value, the student projects offered a glimpse Bhashini initiative is a significant effort at
be assessed. In light of recent experiences in of AI’s potential in traditional sectors of the creating an open-stack algorithm library for
the US with politically oriented content on economy that are perhaps the last to embrace recognition, translating and transcribing
Facebook and Tik-Tok, the manner in which cutting-edge technologies. Also on display Indian Languages as a domestic alternative to

I
n recent weeks, two seemingly unrelated
developments in the field of artificial intel-
ligence (AI) have brought India into focus.
The Global Partnership for Artificial Intelli-
gence (GPAI), an international initiative that
focuses on responsible AI use, passed its
chairmanship to India. This coincides with
India’s presidency of the G20. In parallel,
OpenAI, an AI research initiative in the US,
is the former CEO of Prasar made public its ChatGPT system, which has
Bharati. raised the chatbot bar with its ability to write
and provide answers in English to questions
across a wide range of subjects.
ChatGPT’s interactive interface that was
made publicly accessible for testing and feed-
back has since gone viral on social media,
with questions ranging from math problems
to software programming source codes being
generated by the AI tool. While ChatGPT has
certain restrictions imposed on it, the viral
social experiment underway through its
interface raises several questions on how AI
can potentially blur the lines between crea-
tive products resulting from human cogni-
when asked to compose an essay on events
that may not have occurred historically, the
AI tool got its dates mixed up. Fictional prod-
ucts from generative AI are perhaps less of a
worry than students using it to draft project
reports, solutions to assignments, and more.
While regulatory concerns around AI are
yet to reach a critical threshold, substantial
groundwork seems to have been put in place
with the recently released Data Protection
draft bill and from early indications around
the proposed Digital India Act. A key area of
concern would be the use of large personal
datasets and AI-based algorithms for the pro-
filing and behavioural targeting of individu-
als. Such behavioural targeting is already an
everyday phenomenon for most users of
smartphone-based apps and platforms such
as YouTube and Facebook. While the aiming
of advertisements based on browsing history
is common place and overt, it is the more sub-
tle recommendation algorithms that need
scrutiny. Given the propensity of these algo-
rithms to suggest similar content based on
recommendation algorithms can distort the were apps focused on improving athletic per- Google’s language services, similar open
public discourse needs to be put to greater formance, doing yoga and the early detection stack efforts are needed in other areas such as
regulatory scrutiny. of diseases. With several studies highlighting visual recognition and generative AI, among
While fears around AI are natural, they the potential of AI to accelerate drug discov- others. Lastly, more core research in AI needs
must not distract from the immense potential ery and assist in disease management as well to happen in Indian research labs and aca-
technology holds for India’s development. as create new biological products, the spec- demic institutions. This would ensure that a
The initiatives of the government under the trum of AI applications with relevance to significant body of intellectual property in
Digital India banner India is quite broad. this emerging technology space is created in
through the National Realizing this vast India. The many tools created by the OpenAI
Programme on Artificial QUICK READ potential, however, will project in the US and the extensive use of rec-
Intelligence are notewor- require further strength- ognition technologies by China are impor-
thy for their focus on Heading the G20 and GPAI at a ening the country’s ena- tant lessons on the strategic need for India to
starting early and engag- time when ChatGPT has thrust AI bling ecosystem of data invest as much in core intellectual property
ing school students. into a global spotlight presents centres, cloud computing as the country does in applications of AI.
The Digital India week India with an opportunity to services and open stack With G20 and GPAI leadership coming to
held back in July was par- develop its AI ecosystem and API-based algorithms. India, the world is keenly looking at India’s
ticularly striking; young establish leadership in the field. While the past few years unique approach to digitalization, one that
school students show- have seen India make rea- leverages open stack-based digital platforms
cased their ideas around Success with a digital stack of sonable progress on this for mass use. India’s relative success with dig-
potential applications platforms for public services has front, we are still a sub- ital public goods such as Aadhaar identities,
based on AI for India’s drawn attention to our approach stantial distance away Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transfers
development to Prime and for AI we must go beyond its from creating formidable and Co-Win vaccination in recent years offers
Minister Narendra Modi. varied applications to get core homegrown cloud-based a strong foundation to take AI to traditional
From using AI for soil research work done here as well. alternatives to Amazon’s sectors of our economy in mission mode.
14 FriDay, 30 December 2022
New Delhi BUSINESS OF LIFE INDULGE LIVEMINT.COM

Ñ
PATEK PHILIPPE CALATRAVA
In 2022, Patek Philippe proved that the old
master can still come up with new tricks
with the Ref. 5226G-001. This sporty Cal-
atrava tweaks one of the most iconic dress
watch designs, with its textured dial and
super-legible Arabic numerals. This is the
kind of Patek that anyone can wear. Well,
at least in theory.

VACHERON CONSTAN-
TIN LES HISTORIQUES 222
Ô
Talking about a re-issue from GRAND SEIKO SBGW287
the 1970s that hits the sweet For those in the know, the sleeper classic of the
spot, probably the best one manufacture has always been the classic
was this gold beauty from SBGW231: A mechanical, 37mm, time-only,
Vacheron Constantin. I’ve platonic ideal of a watch. This year GS released
written about it in this column two new colourways, and the one I love is the
before, so I will say just this: I SBGW287’s burgundy dial with a faint, gor-
never liked gold watches, but geous texture. All yours for ₹3,90,000.
after seeing the Les Histori-
ques 222, I love a gold watch!
Pity I don’t have $62,000.

HANDWOUND

There was a watch

for everyone in 2022
2022 was a great year
for watches in every
budget. From quartz to
automatics to GMTs, here
are ten timepieces that
really caught the eye
Bibek Bhattacharya
feedback@livemint.com

t’s a fool’s errand to create an objective list of

I the “best watches of 2022”. It just can’t be

done, given the sheer number of models that
are released every year. So let me just start by
saying that these were the watches that I was
impressed with this year. If money were no object,
then the ten watches here would find their way into
my collection, and some of them would probably
Ñ ORIENT BAMBINO
The Bambino has been the go-to dress watch
for those on a budget for nearly a decade now.
even stay there. The Japanese brand’s winning combination
Ó Suffice it to say that if you are a watch aficionado, just got better in 2022 with the release of
TISSOT PRX then you’d know that 2022 was a great year for time- 38mm versions. A gorgeous dress watch for
The vintage-perfect Tissot PRX, a runaway hit in the budget category, has been pieces. This year, we got great watches for every bud- about ₹29,000? Now we’re talking!
around for year. This year, Tissot made it even more perfect—at least as far as I am get, and, mercifully, this year’s releases also con-
concerned—by releasing a set of models for 35mm. This is the perfect size for the firmed that watch sizes are moving back in the
perfect 1970s throwback watch. And it could be yours for about ₹37,000. smaller direction. Apart from that, there really was
only one trend this year, the return of GMT watches.
Which isn’t surprising, considering 2022 was the
year that people started freely travelling again, fol-
Ò lowing two years of the pandemic.
Other than that, what we got in 2022 were beauti-
LONGINES SPIRIT fully designed watches that did the job, and ensured
Over the years, as my that your wrists looked great while doing so. Since
taste in watches has this is a subjective list, you won’t find some big names
evolved, there’s two (like Rolex), here. This doesn’t mean that these manu-
kinds that I’ve gravi- factures didn’t release models this year. For example,
tated towards: Robust a Rolex Oyster Perpetual in 36mm or the Explorer
everyday watches and Ref.124270 will always have a place in my heart. But
dress watches. The neither were from this year. So, without further ado,
Longines Spirit is a bit of here are ten of my favourite watches for 2022.
both, and utterly gor-
geous to boot. With the Handwound is a column on watches and watch-
release of a 37mm ver- making.
sion, this aviator’s watch
is now better than ever. Ó
For about ₹1,79,000, it
is a relative bargain too. SEIKO 5 GMT
Ô If there is one release that
dropped jaws all around the
Q TIMEX GMT world, it was Seiko’s afforda-
I have sung the glories of the Q Timex ble automatic GMT watch.
GMT previously, and frankly, this hand- The three colourways in the
some 38mm quartz GMT is one of the Ref. SKCC00x are all standard
releases of the year. A perfect vintage Seiko 5’s riffing on the design
inspired GMT that you can just set and for- language of the beloved SKX.
get, it is the traveller’s watch I’m most likely But with a GMT hand
to get. Once Timex gets around to releasing attached. For the first time
it in India, that is. It retails for about $279. ever, for ₹40,000 or less, you
can get yourself an automatic
GMT. That’s a good ₹60,000
Ò less than any Swiss automatic
GMT. Enough said.
NOMOS CLUB
The German inde-
pendent watch-
maker NOMOS
has become the
darling of watch
enthusiasts in the
past decade, and
for good reason.
Take the 2022 Ñ
release NOMOS OMEGA SEAMASTER
Club Sport. A tough AQUA TERRA
37mm sports watch Wait, hasn’t Omega’s
that’s also elegant, fea- much-loved dress/
turing one of the best sportwatch been around for a
in-house automatic cali- while? Well, it sure has, but
bers in the world, is a difficult 2022 saw the release of this
thing to pull off. Yet NOMOS favourite in two fabulous
does it with aplomb. If its sizes: 34mm and 38mm. Add
$3,530 tag is too much, to that some extremely col-
check out the NOMOS Club ourful dials, and you get a
Campus line. winner. In India, it’s going for
about ₹5,19,000.