MUMBAI, NEw DELHI, BENGALURU, kOLkATA, CHENNAI, AHMEDABAD, HyDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE* VOL. 6 NO.

148

Friday, June 23, 2023

livemint.com

mint primer QUICK EDIT

Monsoon so far: Gilded

skewed spread, cage fight
reduced planting
BY SAYANTAN BERA
Monsoon’s journey has been uneven so far. While nearly half of India’s
geographical area is coping with a rainfall deficit of 60% or more,
some states in the west and north-east are under a deluge. Mint
explores the possible impact on rain-fed Kharif crops.
Falling short
Region-wise rainfall between 1-22 June (compared with normal, or 50-year average).
Actual (mm)
East and North-East India
60.9
North-west India
45.0
40.9
Central India
South peninsula
51.2
All India
How has the monsoon
1 progressed so far?
The annual south-west monsoon is
spread across four months—June
to September—coinciding with the
Kharif crop season, planting for
which began earlier this month.
India usually receives three-
fourths of its annual rains during
the monsoon season. This year, the
monsoon’s arrival was delayed by a
week. From 1-22 June, it has
recorded a country-wide deficit of
31%, compared to the 50-year-
average. The geographical
distribution is skewed: about 47%
of India’s geographical area has
seen a deficit of 60% or more,
while a fifth of its area has been
lashed by excess rains—20% or
more, compared to the normal.
Normal (mm) Deficit/Surplus (in %)
190.0
220.8
102.3
114.6
72.9
106.0
Source: India Meteorological Department
SATISH KUMAR/MINT
What about planting
2 of Kharif crops?
During the Kharif season farmers
plant a variety of crops which
include cereals, pulses, oilseeds
and cotton. Till 16 June, the area
planted with rice, the main cereal
crop, was 15% less than last year,
shows data from the agriculture
ministry. Planting of pulses lagged
57%, while the area under oilseeds
was 14% lower than last year.
Overall, the area under all crops
was 49% lower on-year. To be sure,
coverage will improve as monsoon
traverses through the country in a
northerly direction. Farmers
seldom leave their fields unsown,
so mid-season prolonged dry
spells are more of a risk to crop
health and production.
Meta’s potential competitor for
Twitter seems ready to pose the
top microblog site a challenge—
so much so that their owners
appear to be headed for a one-
on-one face-off. As a verbal duel
between Meta founder Mark
Zuckerberg and Twitter owner
Elon Musk escalated online,
Musk threw down a peculiar
gauntlet for Zuckerberg, saying
in response to a Twitter user’s
comment: “I’m up for a cage
match if [Zuckerberg] is.” The
Facebook boss wasn’t going to
-14
back down. “Send me location,”
he wrote on Instagram along-
35
side a post of Musk’s tweet.
Before we dismiss it with a
-60
laugh, note that Zuckerberg has
-55
claimed to have been practising
combat sports and even won a
-31 medal at a jiu-jitsu tournament
recently. And Musk has his own
credentials, having claimed last
year that he was trained in
Kyokushin karate, taekwondo
and judo. Whether this banter
between billionaires is just a
show, we can never be sure. The
stage, however, has been set for
a hotly contested battle in the
micro-blogging space. Meta has
reportedly been discussing a
“sanely run” Twitter alternative.
But there have been others too
that have challenged Twitter,
and unsuccessfully so. Zucker-
berg won’t have it easy.
MINT METRIC
by Bibek Debroy

In Delhi, Ankush Dutta chose to flee

3 Will crop production be
impacted?
For crops like paddy, the planting window
After staying two years for free.
is open till end-July. Besides, most paddy
A huge unpaid hotel bill,
farmers have access to irrigation, and are Front office lacked all skill,
better placed financially to save their
crops, using pumps to draw groundwater.
Systems not what they should be.
However, small and marginal farmers
growing pulses in rain-fed farms are at risk.
So, non-cereal food crops are likely to be
hit if rains continue to be deficient.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
The challenges and
4 Isfactor?
El Nino a major

The Australian Bureau of

Meteorology said in early June
that there is a 70% chance of El
Nino developing. The US National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration announced the
emergence of El Nino conditions
on 8 June, and said it will
strengthen. El Nino often
negatively impacts the monsoon
season in India—with 9 out of 15 El
Nino years recording deficit rains.
India’s Met department said that El
Nino conditions are likely to
develop by July, which spells lower
rains in July-August.
5 What about food
inflation?
Consumer food inflation fell to
opportunities facing the world
2.9% in May largely due to a sharp
in this century require that
decline in edible oil and vegetable India and the United States
prices. But cereal inflation
continues to be at a high of 13%.
work and lead together,
Retail prices of some pulses have and we are.
soared beyond comfort—tur dal
(pigeon pea) is 26% costlier than
last year. Deficit rains will keep
prices of these commodities high.
A fall in production of home-
JOE BIDEN
grown oilseeds such as soybean, US PRESIDENT
ground nut and sunflower is more
likely to hit farmers than
consumers—due to supplies of
cheap imported cooking oils.

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 PLAIN FACTS

Data recap: Yoga Day,

IndiGo, funds for IIT-B
CURATED BY TANAY SUKUMAR
very Friday, Plain Facts publishes a compilation of data-based insights, complete with easy-to-read charts, to help you

E delve deeper into the stories reported by Mint in the week gone by. Fitch Ratings has raised its forecast for India’s GDP
growth in 2023-24. IndiGo has placed an order for a record 500 aircraft from Airbus. The Indian Institute of Technology
in Mumbai has got a generous donation from a notable alumnus.

Debt Trap Ambitious Buy

30 Total debt (₹ trillion) Year-on-year change 20 Largest aircraft orders globally (Number of aircraft in deal)
(%, right-hand scale)
25 IndiGo
15 (2023) 500
20 Air India
10 (2023) 470
15
5 American Airlines
10 (2011) 460
0 IndiGo Partners
5 430
(2017)
0 5 IndiGo
FY11 FY23 (2019) 300
Note: The analysis covered 2,710 BSE-listed companies that have released
their FY23 data (excludes BFSI firms). Source: Capitaline, Mint analysis Source: Mint research

AGGREGATE GROSS debt of listed companies rose by
nearly 19% in 2022-23, the sharpest increase in over a
decade after falling 4% and 2% in the previous two years, a
Mint analysis showed. A bulk of this debt shot up due to
rising working capital needs in a year that saw high
wholesale price inflation. Capital-intensive sectors such
as oil and gas, power and mining contributed to half of
India Inc’s debt load. The analysis covered 2,710 BSE-
listed firms (excluding banking and financial companies).
INDIGO, INDIA’S largest airline, has placed an order
for 500 narrow-body planes with Airbus, taking its total
order book to 1,330. This also set a new record for the
single-largest purchase in the commercial aviation
industry globally. The order includes the Airbus
320neo, Airbus 321neo, and Airbus 321XLR models.
Going by list prices, the order would be worth about $50
billion, but the final size could be lower due to bulk
order discounts, Mint reported.

Generous Gift

315
THAT’S THE amount that Nandan Nilekani, co-founder
of Infosys and the founding chairperson of the Unique
Identification Authority of India, has donated to his alma
mater IIT Bombay. Added to his previous donations, the
total value of his grants to IIT-B stands at ₹400 crore.
Nilekani’s earlier contributions have helped build new
crore hostels, co-finance the School of Information Technology,
and establish India’s first university incubator.

Banking Trends Growth Path

Year-on-year growth (in %) India GDP growth projections for FY24 (%)
20 State Bank of India
17 Credit 15.4 Reserve Bank of India
Asian Development Bank
14
11.2 11.8 Fitch Ratings
11
Barclays
8 10.1 World Bank
Deposit
International Monetary Fund
5
8 Apr 2022 2 Jun 2023 5.5 6 6.5 7
Source: CareEdge (Care Ratings), Reserve Bank of India Source: Mint research

GROWTH IN banking deposits stood at 11.8% year-on-
year as of 2 June, data released by the Reserve Bank of
India showed. The growth is picking pace, and is
sharply up from the rate of around 8% at the end of
2022. The Reserve Bank of India’s withdrawal of
₹2,000 notes could have prompted some of the recent
deposit growth. While credit growth continues to
outpace deposit growth, the gap has been narrowing in
the past few quarters, a Mint analysis pointed out.
FITCH RATINGS on Thursday raised its forecast for
India’s GDP growth to 6.3% from 6% for the year 2023-
24. The rating agency noted that India has been
showing “broad-based strength” and indicators such as
auto sales, purchasing managers’ indices, and credit
growth remained robust. The agency had in March
pared its projection from 6.2% to 6%. Among major
forecasts for India’s GDP growth this year, the one given
by the State Bank of India is the highest, at 6.7%.

Lurking Threat

2 billion billion
THAT’S THE estimated number of people whose lives
and livelihoods stand threatened by rapidly melting
glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, a new study
by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain
Development estimated. The glaciers thawed 65% faster in
the 2010s compared with the preceding decade and could
lose 80% of their volume by the end of the century at the
current pace of emissions, the study showed.

Sensex Dazzles Chart of the Week: Yoga Buzz

Sensex, daily closing (points) Share of Indians, based on how often they practice yoga (in %)
64,000 63,238.89 Daily Weekly Monthly or less Never Don't know/
no response
63,000
Overall
62000 61,167.79 By gender
61,000 Men
60,000 Women
59,000 By age
18-34
58,000
35+
57,000 0 20 40 60 80 100
56,000 The survey had 29,999 respondents living in 26 states and three union
2 Jan 22 Jun territories, and was conducted between November 2019 and March 2020.
Source: BSE Source: Pew Research Center

THE SENSEX rose to a new peak of 63,588.31 points 21 JUNE marked International Yoga Day. The
during trading on Wednesday, surpassing its previous popularity of the ancient practice has risen since the day
high of 63,583.07 hit on 1 December. The index closed was designated in 2015. However, 62% of Indian
the day at a fresh closing high of 63,523.15 (but snapped a respondents told Pew Research Center
two-day winning streak to drop 0.5% on Thursday). The in a survey that they never practised
market sentiment has been positive as foreign portfolio yoga. The share was 69% among women
investors have turned buyers in this fiscal year, a reversal and 66% among those aged above 35.
of the trend in the previous two years. Between 1 April Follow us on #MintCharts on our
and 20 June, FPIs bought shares worth ₹79,678 crore. social media handles.
PARAS JAIN/MINT

TOP FIVE TAMIL WEB SERIES TOP FIVE HORROR TITLES

3 SENGALAM
Platform: ZEE5
Cast: Shali Nivekas, Vani
Bhojan
1 MODERN LOVE CHENNAI 4 IRU DHURUVAM 2
Platform: Amazon Prime Video Platform: SonyLIV
Cast: Wamiqa Gabbi, Ritu Varma Cast: Nandha Durairaj,
Abhirami Venkatachalan
ORU KODAI MURDER
2 MYSTERY 5 AYALI
Platform: ZEE5 Platform: ZEE5
Cast: Abhirami, Nikhil Nair Cast: Anumol, Abi Nakshathra
1 KNOCK
CABIN
AT THE 3 NEELAVELICHAM
Language: Malayalam
Language: English Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Platform: ZEE5 (Rental only)
4 WE HAVE A GHOST
Language: English
Platform: Netflix
2 BHEDIYA 5 NOPE
Language: Hindi Language: English
Platform: JioCinema Platform: Amazon Prime Video
 MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, BENGALURU, kOLkATA, CHENNAI, AHMEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE* VOL. 6 NO. 148 Rs. 10.00 16 PAGES

Friday, June 23, 2023

The night the nickel Temasek to lead Ola Electric’s

livemint.com market broke uP10 $350 mn funding round uP6

SENSEX 63,238.89 284.26 NIFTY 18,771.25 85.6 DOLLAR ₹81.95 ₹0.08 EURO ₹90.17 ₹0.62 OIL $75.64 $1.16 GOLD ₹58,420 ₹249

Two great friends: India, Blow to Byju’s as

auditor Deloitte,
DON’T MISS

US to shape global order 3 directors resign

India in Washington: Biden and Modi pledge commitment to democratic values Ranjani Raghavan &
Sneha Shah
Reserve Bank’s MPC members
Prashant Jha differ on future rate actions
letters@hindustantimes.com ENDURINg BONhOMIE Deals bouquet MUMBAI
Members of the RBI’s MPC held differing

E
WASHINGTON SEMICONDUCTOR PUSH dtech unicorn Byju’s suf- views on future rate actions, according to the
fered a twin blow with its minutes of the latest meeting released on
 $825 mn: Micron will invest in

I
n a grand display of the growing
strategic partnership and deep
people-to-people convergence
between India and the US, on
the south lawns of the White
House packed with 7,000 Indians
and Indian-Americans, US Presi-
dent Joe Biden accorded a ceremo-
nial state welcome to Prime Minis-
ter Narendra Modi on Thursday
m MODI IN US
and said the “two great friends and
two great powers” will define the
21st century.
Modi reciprocated the senti-
ment, thanking Biden for the warm
welcome and opening the doors of
the White House to people of
Indian origin. Modi expressed con-
viction that the India-US friendship
will be “instrumental” in shaping a
new global order as a force for
good, peace, and stability.
The two leaders pledged com-
mitment to democratic values.
Speaking about leading by the
power of example, Biden, in his
opening remarks on the lawns,
I wish for—and the 1.4 bn
people of India wish with
me—for India’s tricolour and
America’s Stars and Stripes to
always keep flying higher
NARENDRA MODI, PM, India
emphasised that the principles of
the rule of law, freedom of expres-
sion, religious freedom, and diver-
sity of both peoples give depth to a
shared future. Modi said both
Indian and American systems and
societies are based on shared dem-
ocratic norms. “Both constitutions
begin with ‘We the People’. Both
our countries take pride in our
diversity. We believe in the funda-
India and the US are working
closely on everything from
ending poverty and expanding
access to healthcare to
addressing climate change
JOE BIDEN, President, US
mental principle of, in the interest
of all, for the welfare of all…Our
strategic partnership is clear proof
TURN TO PAGE 6
Micron to set up $2.75 bn
chip facility in Gujarat >P5
Indo-US ties: Growth
charted >P6
a new chip assembly and test
facility in Gujarat, entailing a
total investment of $2.75 bn
 $400 mn: Applied Materials
will invest over four years in a
new engineering centre in India
 Lam Research will start a
training programme for up to
60,000 engineers in India
DEFENCE COLLABORATION
 GE Aerospace-HAL will
jointly manufacture F414 engines
for the Tejas light-combat aircraft
 India is likely to sign a deal for
MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones with
General Atomics
 A new defence pact to allow
American Navy ships to
undertake major repairs at Indian
shipyards
SPACE EXPLORATION
 Artemis Accords: India joins the
framework signed by two-dozen
nations, excluding Russia and
China, governing joint missions and
civilian space exploration
 NASA, ISRO will launch a joint
mission next year to visit the ISS
IMMIGRATION
 The US is set to introduce
in-country renewable H-1B visas
to help Indian workers to continue
with their jobs
Source: Agencies
statutory auditor and
three external board members
stepping down, adding to
troubles for the company bat-
tling lenders, lawsuits, and a
funding winter.
Deloitte Haskins & Sells,
which audited the books of
Byju’s parent Think & Learn
Pvt. Ltd for six years,
announced its resignation on
Thursday with immediate
effect, citing long-delayed
financial statements for the
year ended 31 March 2022.
Last year, Deloitte was
appointed auditor for
Byju’s-owned Aakash Educa-
tional Services Ltd and unit
Aakash EduTech Pvt. Ltd.
Separately, all three exter-
nal directors of Think & Learn
submitted their resignations
earlier this month, two people
aware of the development
said. The directors represent
Peak XV (formerly Sequoia
Capital), Chan Zuckerberg Ini-
tiative (CZI), and Prosus Ven-
tures. Peak XV owns around
6% in Think & Learn, while
CZI owns 2.5-3%, and Prosus
Byju Raveendran, founder and
MD, Byju’s.
9%. The resignations were dis-
cussed at a shareholders’ dis-
cussion on Sunday, the people
cited above added.
“The company has 30 days
legally before it needs to tell
the Registrar of Companies
about the resignations,” one of
the two people said.
Think & Learn on Thursday
named BDO (MSKA & Associ-
ates) as the statutory auditor of
the company and all its subsid-
iaries. However, it termed the
news of the directors’ exits as
“speculative”, adding it “firmly
denies these claims”.
A Prosus spokesperson
declined to comment, direct-
ing queries to Byju’s. Peak XV
TURN TO PAGE 6
Thursday. While external members were
cautious about excessive tightening, insiders
prioritised inflation risks. >P5
‘Debris’ found in search for
missing Titanic submersible
A “debris field” has been discovered by an
underwater robot searching near the wreck
of the Titanic for a missing submersible with
five people onboard, rescuers said
Thursday. The Coast Guard will hold a press
briefing at 3pm in Boston. >P8
Fitch Ratings raises India’s
growth forecast to 6.3%
Fitch Ratings on Thursday raised its FY24
growth forecast for the Indian economy to
6.3%, citing strong growth in the April-June
quarter so far and sustained near-term
momentum. In March, it predicted a 6%
growth rate for the current fiscal year. >P2
CBDT sets rules to allow switch
between old and new regimes
CBDT has amended its rules in order to
implement changes, announced in the FY24
budget, to the new personal income tax
regime and to set out the modalities for
taxpayers who wish to switch between the
old and new regimes. >P2

Bribes-for-jobs scandal rocks Steadview in

race to invest
TCS, four sacked for corruption in BlueStone
Varun Sood a team of three executives, Sneha Shah
varun.sood@livemint.com including the firm’s chief sneha.shah@livemint.com
BENGALURU information security officer, MUMBAI
Ajit Menon, to probe the alle-

T G
ata Consultancy Servi- gations. lobal hedge fund Stead-
ces Ltd, which added After weeks of investigation, view Capital Manage-
about 50,000 people on TCS sent the head of recruit- ment Llc has joined the
average annually in the past ment on leave, sacked four race to buy a significant minor-
three years, has been rocked executives from RMG, and ity stake in Ratan Tata-backed
by a scandal after the technol- blacklisted three staffing Indian jeweller BlueStone Jew-
ogy major discovered that a firms. Although the company ellery and Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd for
few senior executives is yet to ascertain the scale of $100 million, three people
entrusted with hiring thou- the irregularities, one of the aware of the matter said.
sands of critical personnel K. Krithivasan, CEO, TCS. two executives cited above India-focused Steadview is
accepted bribes from staffing said people involved in the competing with Singapore
firms, compromising the alleged that E.S. Chakravarthy, scam may have earned at least state investor Temasek Hold-
recruitment process. the global head of TCS’s ₹100 crore through commis- ings (Pvt.) Ltd, which is already
While the exact details of resource management group sions. conducting due diligence Blue-
the scam are sketchy, two (RMG), the company’s recruit- Mint could not independ- Stone, the people said on the
executives ment division, ently ascertain the names of condition of anonymity.
aware of the had been the staffing firms that have “The deal values the com-
develop- m E XC LU S I V E a c c e p t i n g been blacklisted. pany at ₹4,000 crore ($500
ments said a commissions Chakravarthy, who holds million), and the stake on offer
whistle- from staffing the rank of vice president, is 20%, which would be a mix of
blower, in a communication to firms for years. joined TCS in 1997. He primary and secondary shares,”
TCS’s chief executive officer Following the complaint,
and chief operating officer, the company promptly set up TURN TO PAGE 6 TURN TO PAGE 6

Heavier packs signal end of shrinkflation

Suneera Tandon 30, where prices are hard to
suneera.t@livemint.com tinker with. When pricing
NEW DELHI pressure eases, they step up
such indirect offers instead of

P
acks of soaps, snacks, and
cookies are gradually
turning heavier as com-
panies benefiting from cheaper
inputs pass on the benefit with-
out making direct price cuts.
The trend is a reversal of the
last couple of years when many
packaged consumer goods
makers facing soaring costs
reduced grammage instead of
raising prices in what was
called shrinkflation.
Parle Products Pvt. Ltd is
offering 20-25% extra gram-
mage on its salty snacks portfo-
lio, a top executive said. “For
price cuts, we have no further
plans, but yes, we are adding
grammage wherever possible.
We are also doing promotional
offers and offering extra weight
where we are getting respite
from commodity prices going
down— for instance, in cooking
As inflation soared over the past two years, brands took to both
price hikes and smaller packs to protect margins.
oil. In salty snacks, especially,
we are offering extra weight
and volume,” said Krishnarao
Buddha, senior category head
at Parle Products.
The March quarter data from
Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL),
India’s largest packaged con-
sumer goods company, showed
easing prices of crude oil, soda
ash, caustic soda, crude palm
oil, and tea.
Dhairyashil Patil, the presi-
dent of the All India Consumer
HT
Products Distributors’ Federa-
tion (AICPDF), said while pri-
ces have remained stable, com-
panies are increasing gram-
mage on certain packs.
“Grammages that were earlier
reduced are coming back as
indirect price cuts,” he said.
When commodity prices
surge, companies raise prices—
a move that could drive away
consumers—or shrink the
quantity sold, especially across
set price points of ₹10, 20, and
making direct price cuts.
As inflation soared over the
last two years, brands took to
both price hikes and smaller
packs to protect margins.
“Different brands react in dif-
ferent ways. For instance, some
categories such as biscuits are
very price-sensitive, wherein
we are seeing brands going back
to offering 10-15% extra gram-
mage, giving offers, etc.,” said
Aditya Goel, the co-founder of
Love in Store, which works with
large, fast-moving consumer
goods (FMCG) firms offering
general trade merchandising
management, retailer engage-
ment, and e-commerce channel
management.
Goel said while promotions
are high in modern trade and
e-commerce, such offers are
TURN TO PAGE 5
02 Friday, 23 June 2023
MuMbai
Indian Swiss
bank funds
down 11% to
₹30,000 cr
PTI
feedback@livemint.com
F
unds parked by Indian
individuals and firms in
Swiss banks, including
through India-based branches
and other financial institutions,
declined by 11% in 2022 to 3.42
billion Swiss francs (nearly
₹30,000 crore), annual data
from Switzerland’s central
bank showed on Thursday.
The decline, from a 14-year-
high of CHF 3.83 billion in
2021, follows two consecutive
years of increase and was
largely driven by a sharp
plunge of nearly 34% in cus-
tomer deposit accounts from a
seven-year high.
These are official figures
reported by banks to the SNB
and do not indicate the quan-
tum of the much-debated
alleged black money held by
Indians in Switzerland. These
figures also do not include the
money that Indians, NRIs or
others might have in Swiss
banks in the names of third-
country entities.
The total amount of CHF
3,424 million, described by the
SNB as ‘total liabilities’ of Swiss
banks or ‘amounts due to’ their
Indian clients at the end of
2022, included CHF 394 mil-
lion in customer deposits, CHF
1,110 million held via other
banks, CHF 24 million through
fiduciaries or trusts, and CHF
1,896 million as ‘other amounts
due to customers’ in form of
bonds, securities and various
other financial instruments.
Fitch ups India’s growth forecast to 6.3% Govt taps AI to enhance remote
Ravi Dutta Mishra &
Rhik Kundu
healthcare service e-Sanjeevani
NEW DELHI
F
itch Ratings on Thursday
raised its FY24 growth
forecast for the Indian
economy to 6.3%, citing strong
growth in the April-June quar-
ter so far and sustained near-
term momentum.
The credit rating agency in
March predicted a 6% growth
rate for the ongoing financial
year.
“Recent high-frequency data
point to sustained near-term
momentum as highlighted by
rising PMI indices, higher car
sales and increased power con-
sumption,” Fitch Ratings said
in a statement.
“The economy also contin-
ues to benefit from high bank
credit growth and infrastruc-
ture spending (with more to
come from the latter),” it added.
The Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) has projected FY24
Indian economic growth at
6.5%.
In terms of quarterly break-
ups, The Indian Central Bank
expects 8% growth in the June
quarter, followed by 6.5%, 6%
and 5.7% in the subsequent
quarters, RBI governor Shak-
tikanta Das said at the end of
m MINT SHORTS
Sensex, Nifty retreat from
record levels
Mumbai: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty retreated
from record levels and closed lower in volatile trading on
Thursday due to profit-taking
in financials, IT and oil shares
after a two-day rally and nega-
tive trends in the US and
Europe. The 30-share BSE
Sensex fell by 284.26 points or
0.45%. The BSE benchmark
hit an intra-day all-time peak
of 63,601.71 in initial deals.PTI
Sebi bars Eros Group entities,
MD Lulla from stock market
Bengaluru: India’s market regulator said on Thursday
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ECONOMY & POLICY LIVEMINT.COM
Taxman sets out rules to switch
between old, new filing regimes
The new personal income tax regime, introduced in 2020, was modified to make it more attractive for taxpayers.
Drinking water for people,
Gireesh Chandra Prasad ance of furnishing a separate form,” cattle in peril. MINT
gireesh.p@livemint.com
NEW DELHI
said Sehgal.
Those having income from busi-
ness or profession can use the provi-
MCA gives Reservoir
time to cos
T
he Central Board of Direct sion to opt out of and subsequently
Taxes (CBDT) has
amended its rules in order
opt back into the new regime, but
only once.
levels dip,
Staff writer
to implement changes,
announced in the FY24
budget, to the new personal income
The option once exercised will
apply to all subsequent assessment
years unless the person ceases to have
feedback@livemint.com adding to
worry over
T
tax regime and to set out the modali- any income from business or profes- he ministry of corporate
ties for tax payers who wish to switch sion, explained Sneha Pai, senior affairs has given a
between the old and new regimes. director, direct tax at Nexdigm, a month’s extra time to
The tax authority also capped at
40% the depreciation rate applicable
business and professional services
firm.
businesses to report, without
paying additional fee, their out-
rain delay
for assets of individuals with business The new personal income tax standing receipts other than
income, showed the Income-tax regime, introduced in 2020, was deposits. The earlier deadline Puja Das & Ravi Dutta Mishra
(Tenth Amendment) Rules, 2023. modified in this year’s Finance Act to was the end of June. NEW DELHI
Under the new personal income In the current year’s tax return filing, that is, for income earned in FY23, the old make it more attractive so that more Extra time is being given as
A
tax regime, no additional deprecia- tax regime is the default regime. MINT individuals sign up for it. The rule the ministry’s compliance por- n 8% on-year drop in
tion will be available and although changes give effect to the changes in tal MCA21 is undergoing a tran- the key reservoir levels
different rates are available for differ- Clear, a business-to-business fintech with income from business or profes- law. The Union Budget for FY24 had sition, said an official order. across the country has
ent classes of assets, the maximum software as a service (SaaS) company. sion have to file this form every year sought to make the new personal “Keeping in view the transi- raised concerns over drinking
rate applicable is capped at 40%, By submitting the declaration, they to continue in the old personal income tax scheme sweeter. It offered tion of MCA-2 1 portal from ver- water and cattle amid a weak
explained Deepesh Chheda, partner can inform the income tax depart- income tax regime. a tax rebate for income up to ₹7 lakh sion -2 to version -3, it has been and delayed southwest mon-
at Dhruva Advisors, a tax advi- ment of their choice. How- Sandeep Sehgal, partner - to individuals, up from ₹5 lakh decided to allow companies to soon. However, kharif crops
sory firm. ever, as per the change in tax at AKM Global, a tax earlier. Also, the govern- file form DPT3 for the financial sowing is not that alarming.
In the current year’s rules, for FY24 income, and consulting firm said ment lowered the num- year ended on 31 March 2023 Water levels in India’s 146
tax return filing, that is,
for income earned in
capping of
40% (next year’s tax filing) this may increase the
the new tax regime is compliance burden. lakh
and below income
ber of slabs from six to
five and raised the tax ₹7 without paying additional fees
up to 31 July 2023,” showed the
key reservoirs have dipped to
46.231 billion cubic metres,
FY23, the old tax the default regime. “Even for withdraw- exemption from ₹ 2.5 order. against a total storage capacity
regime is the default depreciation for Tax payers with busi- ing from the regime, offered a tax lakh to ₹3 lakh. This is a key disclosure of 178.185 bcm, according to the
regime and in case indi- biz income ness or professional this form is required to rebate Besides the tax slab aimed at enhancing the latest bulletin of the Central
viduals or Hindu Undi- income who want to opt be filed. However, per- rejig and higher exemp- accountability and transpar- Water Commission.
vided Families with busi- for the old regime, must sons having no income from tion limit, the government ency of companies on the loans “It is concerning from the
ness or professional income submit a declaration in form business or profession are also allowed in the new personal they have taken. immediate point of view
want to choose the new regime, they 10IEA, said Gupta. required to opt for new or old regime income tax regime a standard deduc- Banks, non-bank and mort- because reservoir water is used
must submit a declaration to the Experts also said that since the new only while filing the return of income, tion of ₹50,000 to salaried individu- gage lenders are excluded from for drinking purposes and cat-
income tax department, explained tax regime has been made the default which is a welcome move since they als. Also, the surcharge on income this requirement. tle. In terms of crops, it’s not a
Archit Gupta, founder and CEO of tax regime for FY24 income, persons do not have to fulfil the extra compli- above ₹ 5 crore was lowered. major concern because most of
the crop sowing is only done
when the monsoon arrives and
that itself has got delayed, so
distortion has taken place,” said
Madan Sabnavis, Chief Econo-
mist, Bank of Baroda.
in purchasing power due to ris-
ing inflation and weakening of
The southwest monsoon has
been weak and delayed by
about a fortnight due to
household balance sheets. cyclone Biparjoy, which has
Slowing global trade is also Priyanka Sharma platform. resulted in a 33% shortfall in
expected to impact India’s eco- priyanka.sharma@livemint.com Currently, the platform sup- June’s rainfall across the
nomic growth in the coming NEW DELHI ports only English and Hindi. nation, reaching up to 94% in
quarters, the rating agency The use of AI will provide real- some areas, and an 8% dip in
T
said. he Central government’s time translation services dur- reservoirs level across the
During May 2023, India’s national telemedicine ing the consultation process country.
merchandise exports declined service, commonly and enable patients to commu- The month of June, contrib-
for the fourth consecutive known as e-Sanjeevani, is being nicate with doctors in their uting to 16-17% of monsoon
month, by over 10%, amid a enhanced by leveraging artifi- regional language, improving rainfall, holds critical impor-
demand slowdown in the West. cial intelligence to improve its the overall patient experience tance for the agricultural sec-
“Trade prospects are not delivery of services. and reducing language barriers tor. During this period, farmers
looking good, especially AI can strengthen diagnostic to healthcare access. commence sowing kharif crops
because the global economy is accuracy for consultation in “The Interactive Patient following the onset of the mon-
The report says the economy continues to benefit from high slowing down, which will put a radiology, dermatology, oph- Form which is available in 10 soon. Sowing generally occurs
bank credit growth and infrastructure spending. HT lot of pressure on the Indian thalmology etc. It can also ena- Indian languages along with in June and July, varying
economy,” said Biswajit Dhar, ble patients to communicate AI can strengthen diagnostics, English, can help overcome according to regional climates.
the Monetary Policy Commit- potential risks to growth dur- Professor, Centre for Economic with doctors in regional lan- help patients communicate in this challenge by providing In regions like Punjab and
tee (MPC) meeting earlier this ing the second half of the ongo- Studies and Planning at Jawa- guages. regional languages. ISTOCK real-time translation services Haryana, where 80-90% of
month. ing fiscal year. harlal Nehru University, New “Tele-medicine has played a during the consultation pro- farmland has access to irriga-
A breakdown by industry “Nevertheless, while infla- Delhi. “The larger economies crucial role in delivering aim to help doctors accurately cess. This would enable tion, sowing has already com-
showed a recovery in manufac- tion has eased there are near- are not doing well. We could healthcare services in remote diagnose patients and recom- patients to communicate with menced. Nonetheless, most
turing, after two term upward risks see a revival only by the middle areas, especially during and mend the appropriate treat- doctors in their regional lan- farmers in west, central and
consecutive quar- The American in 2H23 (October of 2024. As far as services are after the covid-19 pandemic. ments, medicines, Investiga- guage, improving the overall east India are awaiting the
terly contrac- rating agency had 2 0 2 3 - concerned, workers are wor- The health ministry is leverag- tions & advice. AI models can patient experience and reduc- arrival of the monsoon to culti-
tions, a boost from earlier in Mar March2024), ried about the rapid entry of ing the use of artificial intelli- analyze a patient’s medical ing language barriers to health- vate Kharif crops like rice,
construction and predicted a 6% given the mon- AI,” Dhar added. gence technologies through images and detect subtle care access,” said the official. maize, tur, urad, moong and
an increase in soon outlook and In May the World Trade the e-Health AI Unit to improve abnormalities that may indi- So far more than 80 million soybean.
growth forecast
farm output, Fitch the potential Organization (WTO) revised its the quality of medical consulta- cate the presence of a disease, consultations have been pro- “Immediate concern is for
said. for the ongoing impact of El global trade growth outlook for tions on e-Sanjeevani by assist- whether taken through an vided across the country while drinking and cattle and to an
“In expendi- financial year Niño,” it said. 2023 upwards to 1.7% from last ing with diagnostic treatment, X-ray machine or a smart- more than 500,000 patients extent vegetables. If the levels
ture terms, GDP The rating October’s estimate of 1%. predicting and preventing dis- phone camera.” are provided teleconsultation don’t rise in the next month or
growth was agency also cau- This projected growth rate is eases, and crisis management,” Queries sent to the health services in a day. so, then whatever crops are
driven by domestic demand tioned that the full impact of much lower than the average an official said. ministry did not elicit any It is widely used in 1,144 dependent on reservoirs will be
and a boost from net trade.” the monetary tightening is still rate for the last 12 years since Explaining the importance response. online OPDs with 222,026 doc- facing problems,” Sabnavis
Despite raising the GDP out- to be felt, while consumers the global financial crisis. of AI tools, the official said, The language barrier is a tors, including specialists and said.
look, Fitch cautioned about have been experiencing a drop ravi.dutt@livemint.com “AI-powered diagnostic tools challenge for the e-Sanjeevani health workers. puja.das@livemint.com
DGCA suspends licence of AI
it had barred Eros Group Managing Director Sunil Arjan
Lulla and three of the media company’s entities from the
securities market, citing accounting irregularities at the
L&T signs deal with DRDO
for submarine system pilot in cockpit entry case
CORRECTIONS AND
CLARIFICATIONS
firm. In an interim order, the Securities and Exchange Mumbai: Aviation regulator Mint welcomes comments,
Board of India (Sebi) said it had found prima facie evidence DGCA has suspended the suggestions or complaints
that the books of accounts of the company were “over- licence of an Air India pilot by about errors.
stated and do not present a true and fair picture of the one year for allowing an
Readers can alert the
financial health of the Company.” Sebi barred Eros Inter- authorised person in the cock-
newsroom to any errors in the
national Media Ltd , Eros Worldwide and Eros Digital pit of a Chandigarh-Leh flight paper by emailing us, with your
from the securities market until further orders. PTI earlier this month, an official full name and address to
statement said on Thursday. feedback@livemint.com.
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Trai floats discussion paper on for one year and that of the First Officer for a period of one It is our policy to promptly
respond to all complaints.
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innovative tech PTI
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New Delhi: Telecom regulator Trai has floated a discus- Mint’s journalistic integrity may
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LIVEMINT.COM DEALS, TECH & STARTUPS Friday, 23 June 2023
MuMbai 03

Kauvery to buy
‘Residential segment will remain lucrative’ Fortis Chennai
Priyal Mahtta
for ₹152 crore
bility reduced in 2018, to 2021. It has But even when interest rates have institutional players, and the size of
priyal.mahtta@livemint.com been a counter-cyclical opportunity. been rising, we have not seen the investment is very large. So, we Anuj Suvarna
benGAluru Even now, if you look at the way demand getting impacted in terms are not in that space, nor do we anuj.s@livemint.com
NBFCs have not come back aggres- of buying so far. Demand will con- intend to be in that space. benGAluru

A
SK Property Invest- sively; there has been a regulatory tinue to grow because migration to Premium housing will remain a

F
ment Advisors (ASK constraint from 1 October 2022, that the top five-six cities will grow. Job part of our strategy, depending ortis Healthcare said it has
PIA), the real estate pri- NBFCs can’t lend to projects that are creation will also happen predomi- upon the opportunity and the loca- signed definitive agree-
vate equity arm of the not approved. And approval means nantly in these six cities. So, I see a tion and developer partner. Pre- ments with Sri Kauvery
ASK group, recently including Rera registration. So, that very sustained demand. mium housing has done well in the Medical Care (India) Ltd for the

closed its sixth fund at ₹1,500 crore,
with an aim to focus on debt funding
opportunities in the residential
property segment.
The fund house is largely focused
on mid-market and affordable hous-
ing segments that are most affected
by changes in
interest rates.
However, Amit
Bhagat, chief
executive and managing director at
the real estate fund, believes that
despite the increase in interest rates
over the past year, demand for resi-
dential real estate is likely to be unaf-
fected. This is because end users,
and not investors, are driving
demand, he said.
In an interview, Bhagat also said
the transformational changes in the
real estate sector, including the
establishment of the Real Estate
Regulatory Authority (Rera), should
help the housing segment get the
attention of foreign institutional
investors who have so far been
mostly focusing on commercial,
logistics, or retail real estate seg-
ments. Edited excerpts:
Since ASK Property Fund has
predominantly been in the resi-
dential sector as an investor, has
the risk-reward changed over
time?
As a debt player, from 2017, the
risk-reward has been commensu-
rate. One, because the debt availa-
‘
is a window which will open for pri- I understand the sector was last two-and-a-half years. But sale of its hospital business
vate equity funds; not that we are in not regulated till going by the five to operations in Vadapalani,
that space because we invest after 2017, so all those seven-year cycle, I Chennai, in an all-cash deal
approvals, but if you are acquiring transformational Now is the time the would still remain worth ₹152 crore.
an all-approved project, NBFC can’t changes have now (residential) sector bullish on the mid- The deal is slated to be final-
fund it, but we can fund, even if the taken place. Now is should start getting segment and ized by July-end, subject to ful-
Rera registration has to be done sub- the time the sector affordable hous- filment of certain conditions.
sequently. should start getting attention, which it has ing. T h e
There are more opportunities attention, which it never been getting in If you combine divest-
available for funds like us. And risk- has never been get- the past all the premium ment is
reward has been very commensu- ting in the past. It is housing stock, it part of For-
Amit Bhagat
rate with the risk. time foreign insti- Chief executive and managing can be counted in tis’ portfolio rationalization
The residential segment has tutional investors director, ASK PIA thousands. But if strategy to focus on deepening
faced a lot of growth hurdles. look at the sector you look at the its presence in select geo-
What is your outlook? seriously and we get mid-segment, they graphic clusters where it has a
Residential was lucrative and will serious money to help increase sup- are in very large numbers, so the strong presence. Tamil Nadu-
remain lucrative. It went through ply in the market. size of the opportunity is very large based Kauvery Hospital Group
some transformational changes like Do you plan to venture towards in this segment. is in the process of expanding
GST, withdrawal of tax benefit for the commercial segment? Do In 2021, ASK got approval for a its capacity to over 3,500 beds
second home, etc. But after covid, if you also plan to venture into Gift City fund. What is the fund’s across south India within the
you look at the demand, and it is only premium housing investments? status? next three years. Kauvery cur-
by end users as investors are missing We are not very keen on com- The fund which we have raised is rently runs 15 hospitals com-
in the apartment space. Interest mercial to diversify because there money received from Gift City from prising over 1,500 beds in
rates were also in favour of the buy- are deep-pocketed players who are offshore investors. This has been Chennai, Tiruchi, Bengaluru,
ers. doing this business and backed by pooled into the domestic fund. Salem, Hosur, and Tirunelveli.

Mumbai Angels
invested ₹80 cr in
66 deals in FY23
Aman Rawat
aman.rawat@livemint.com
new delhI

I
nvestment platform Mumbai
Angels on Thursday said it
has invested more than ₹80
crore (nearly $10 million) across
66 deals in the financial year
ended March 2023, with an
average deal size of ₹1.2 crore
(nearly $150,000).
The platform, owned by Bain
Capital-backed 360 ONE, eval-
uated over 6,000 deals, show-
cased more than 160 deals, and
marked six exits in the last finan-
cial year, it said in its FY23
annual report.
In FY23, the number of inves-
tors on the platform rose to over
720 from over 450 in FY22, with
82% from India and the rest
from overseas.
Mumbai Angels,
whose investor base is
spread across more
than 60 cities in more than 20
countries, claimed an internal
rate of return (IRR) of 36% in the
last financial year.
The platform’s investments
were primarily in the education
(15.2%), foods and beverages
(12%), technology (10.6%), con-
sumer (9.1%), and finance (9.1%)
sectors. The EV industry
received 7.6% of the invest-
ments, while marketplaces and
content each received 6.1%, and
logistics, legal, and HR seg-
Nandini Mansinghka, chief
executive at Mumbai Angels.
ments receiving 4.5%.
The year also saw Mumbai
Angels getting acquired by Bain
Capital-backed 360 ONE, for-
merly IIFL Wealth and Asset
Management.
“The past year has been one
of the most signifi-
cant for Mumbai
Angels,” said Nandini
Mansinghka, chief
executive at Mumbai Angels.
“We became a part of 360 ONE,
one of India’s leading wealth
and alternates-focused asset
managers with an AUM of over
$40 billion. We also launched
two new funds that can turn out
to be game changers in this
space.” “While these transfor-
mational events were taking
place, our performance for
FY23 remained consistent with
steady growth on all fronts,”
she added.

Lumikai sets $50 mn

target for 2nd fund
Aman Rawat Rathee.
aman.rawat@livemint.com New Delhi-based Lumikai,
new delhI which has backed startups like
All Star Games, Eloelo, Crater,

G
aming-focused venture
capital firm Lumikai has
launched its second
fund with a target corpus of $50
million to be raised from global
investors.
The fund has already marked
its first close with commitments
of nearly $25 million so far.
Investors in Fund II include Jap-
anese gaming giants Mixi and
Colopl, South Korean
conglomerates Kraf-
ton and Smilegate,
Finland’s Supercell,
and India’s Nazara Technolo-
gies.
Large Indian family offices
including the Jeejeebhoys, KCT
Group, DSP Kothari, and Sattva
Group as well as high-net-worth
individuals (HNIs) also partici-
pated in the funding mop-up.
Some of the notable HNIs
include Take-Two Interactive’s
former CEO Ben Feder, Napster
CEO Jon Vlassopulos, Gulf
Islamic Investments’ founder
Pankaj Gupta and Nodwin
Gaming’s founder Akshat
Studio Sirah, CloudFeather
Games, Bombay Play and Loco,
will invest in pre-seed to Series
A rounds in Indian gaming and
interactive media firms.
“We are looking to invest in
new 18-20 companies from the
second fund. However, we do
have a certain allocation
towards doing follow-on invest-
ments in Fund I’s portfolio com-
panies,” Lumikai’s
founding general
partner Salone Sehgal
said in an interview.
The fund is currently at the term
sheet stage of investing in three
firms. Lumikai launched its first
fund in August 2020. “We have
already deployed 75% of the cor-
pus from the first fund, and will
use the remaining corpus for
follow-on investments in port-
folio companies,” she said.
Separately, the firm is seeking
domestic Rupee capital with the
starting of a dedicated $10 mil-
lion alternative investment fund
(AIF) for Indian Limited Part-
ners (LPs).
04 Friday, 23 June 2023
MuMbai 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

63,238.89 -0.45 18,771.25 -0.45 16,140.80 -0.62 43,387.15 -1.18 18,722.70 -0.56 28,327.83 -1.07 32,369.66 -0.64
PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN

63,523.15 63,601.71 18,856.85 18,853.60 16,240.95 16,252.75 43,905.65 43,984.95 18,827.80 18,830.35 28,635.61 28,677.34 32,577.35 32,627.80
HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW

63,601.71 63,200.63 18,886.60 18,759.50 16,264.15 16,128.80 43,341.15 43,905.65 18,850.40 18,710.30 28,690.67 28,271.68 32,710.29 32,276.07

m MINT SHORTS
Singapore buys record biofuel
Britannia eyes 50/50 biscuit plan
feedstock from China Vineetha Sampath & Pallavi Pengonda
Expansion mode time. Britannia’s non-biscuits category confidence in the business.
Chinese exports of used cooking oil to Singapore jumped vineetha.s@livemint.com 634 is gaining traction. New products like For now, investors in the stock are
to a record last month, likely due to more demand from Britannia Industries has increased its capex in recent croissants have moved up to two shifts sitting pretty on handsome gains given

T
Neste Oyj’s renewable fuel refinery. Shipments of UCO he stock of Britannia Indus-
rose to 48,832 tons in May, 18% more than April and tries Ltd has consistently
almost double the amount from a year earlier, according scaled new 52-week highs
to data from Chinese customs. The surge was mainly this month. On Wednesday,
attributable to the Finnish company’s plant, which com- the stock hit a fresh high of
pleted an expansion this year, said biofuel traders who ₹5,085.25 apiece.
asked not to be identified. The facility is the world’s big- Analysts who recently visited Britan-
gest renewable diesel refinery and largest producer of nia’s largest manufacturing plant in
sustainable aviation fuel, according to Neste. Demand for Ranjangaon, Maharashtra have come
green diesel and jet fuel is increasing as governments and back pleased. The facility has 15 manu-
industries seek to de-carbonize. China exported a record facturing lines out of which nine are for
1.58 million tons of UCO in 2022, while shipments from the biscuits business, which contrib-
Malaysia and Indonesia also climbed. The jump in car- utes 10-12% of volume. The rest of the
goes to Singapore come as Chinese biodiesel producers production lines cater to cakes, crois-
pledge to improve export standards. BLOOMBERG sants, rusks, snacks and dairy.
“The Ranjangaon facility is an essen-
tial ingredient in Britannia’s transfor-
mation journey, from being a biscuit-
maker to a total foods company,” said
analysts at Nuvama Research in a
report on 19 June. In FY23, the non-
biscuits portfolio formed about 23% of
revenue. Britannia aims to increase this
share to 50% in the long run.
The Ranjangaon factory offers Bri-
tannia several cost advantages. For one,
it has reduced freight cost by lowering
the distance required to travel to mar-
ket. Secondly, the overall wastage is
years and that would aid in diversifying revenue streams.
Capex (In  crore)
421
366
249
FY16 FY17 FY18
low in the biscuits category. Also, the
saliency of own manufacturing is mov-
ing up and that would further provide
an upper hand on the cost front. The
Ranjangaon plant would further see
addition of 3-4 new biscuit lines. The
contribution to volume may inch up to
14-15% in the near to medium term.
547 from one, showing consumer accept- that the shares have risen 47% in the
ance, said Nomura analysts. past one year. The packaged foods
Further, to capture cheese market in company’s volume and margin per-
India, Britannia entered a joint venture formance over many quarters along
with Bel SA. The commercial launch of with market share gains have imp-
399 the cheese line through this ressed the Street. But, after
joint venture is expected to TRiCk OR a steep run-up, valuations
be at the end of FY24. TREaT are now pricey. The stock
However better execu- trades at almost 53 times
243 240 tion could aid the share of RanjanGaOn FY24 estimated earnings,
non-biscuits segment. “We plant uses 9
manufacturing lines
showed Bloomberg data.
believe factors such as out of 15 for the Significant gains could be
robust opportunity in core biscuits business. limited in near term.
biscu-its, Britannia’s lim- In FY24, with the effect
ited domain knowledge in THE plant is key in of price hikes waning, Bri-
Britannia’s journey
adjacencies and negative from being a tannia’s volume trajectory
margin mix have hurt its biscuit-maker to a is crucial since growth
FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23
diversification agenda,” total foods company would be volume-led. For
Source: Company, Emkay Research
said Emkay Global Finan- this, rural and urban
cial Services analysts in a 14 demand needs to pick up
SATISH KUMAR/MINT
June report. pace. In FY23, volume growth stood at
While there is scope to expand opera- Coming to capital expenditure 2-3%. Besides volume, margin per-
tions at the facility, one needs to watch (capex), Britannia expects FY24 capex formance requires closer tracking. Bri-
for any capacity concentration risk. to be ₹500-600 crore, which would be tannia hit multi-quarter high on gross
Analysts at Nomura Financial Advi- largely investment in dairy. Emkay’s margin (44.9%) and Ebitda margin
sory and Securities (India) who visited analysts note that Britannia’s signifi- (19.9%) front in March quarter. But a
the Ranjangaon plant note a few value- cant capital spending over FY16-FY25 replication of the same seems unlikely
added products such as JimJam have would help prepare for demand accel- in coming quarters due to elevated
been running on three shifts for some eration and showcases management’s costs of inputs such as dairy and flour.

Germany had rolled out ultra-cheap public transport last

summer. ISTOCK Shot in arm for Lupin revenue as US approves respiratory drug
Europe’s inflation retreat to be Bavadharini KS and is margin accretive too. generic launch by the innovator, their base business (excluding
Bouncing back
hit by cheap German travel bavadharini.ks@livemint.com Lupin is expected to garner
Lupin’s US sales showed reasonable improvement in the past two
the opportunity for Lupin could gSpiriva) are important factors to
Germany’s rollout of ultra-cheap public transport last annual sales of $80-100 million be even higher,” said Kotak Insti- monitor,” said Param Desai, ana-
quarters helped by a favourable product mix.

L
summer is set to reverberate through its upcoming infla- upin Ltd investors have from gSpiriva in FY24/FY25, tutional Equities report. lyst, Prabhudas Lilladher.
tion readings, causing a headache for the European Cen- heaved a sigh of relief. It’s said a Motilal Oswal Financial US sales (in  crore) Year-on-year change (in %) (right-hand scale) While investors need to be Apart from gSpiriva, Lupin has
tral Bank. The 9-euro ($9.90) monthly ticket was availa- crucial respiratory drug Services Ltd report. 1,600 30 aware of competition that Lupin multiple launches in the pipe-
ble from June to August 2022, granting citizens bur- gSpiriva HandiHaler (Tiotro- Remember, the US market faces in gSpiriva, for now, that line, particularly in its niche
dened by soaring energy costs unlimited travel on pium bromide inhalation pow- had been a pain for Lupin with 1,200 15 worry is for another day. Some business of injectables and inhal-
regional trains, trams and buses. It was so popular that it der) received a final approval high competition eroding price, analysts expect gSpiriva to be ers. Although this is positive for
800 0
became a permanent fixture this year—albeit with a heft- from the US Food and Drug regulatory issues at the plant and launched in Q2FY24. Now, sentiment, but after the sharp
ier 49-euro price tag. That cost difference is important. Administration (USFDA) on lack of new product launches. 400 -15 Lupin stock gave up some of run-up of 39% in the last one year
Bloomberg Economics sees it driving annual inflation in Wednesday. Note this nod has Thankfully, business started to Wednesday’s gains closing down the stock’s valuations have
Europe’s biggest economy up to 7% this month from 6.3% come earlier than management’s improve in H2FY23 with 0
Q4FY21 Q4FY23
-30 2.6% on Thursday. There could become pricey. Kotak analysts
in May. The effect will be felt beyond Germany’s borders, expectations of July-August this ramp-up in sales of new products be concerns around company’s believe that at current market
Source: Company, Motilal Oswal Financial Services
too, adding about 0.2 percentage point to euro-area price year. and a favourable product mix. In execution skills. “The company’s price, the upside from gSpiriva is
gains in June and exerting upward pressure through In reaction, the stock surged March quarter the company’s US SATISH KUMAR/MINT
execution had been patchy in the priced in. The brokerage is cau-
August. That could dash any hopes of a pause in the ECB’s to a new 52-week high of revenue grew 9.5% year-on-year the generic segment), this would iva’s contribution to Lupin’s last two-three years. So, its exe- tious on the stock given slim
historic campaign of interest-rate increases, which can ₹885.30 on Wednesday. This (y-o-y) to ₹1,550 crore. As of work in Lupin’s favour, at least FY2024-26E overall earnings cution with gSpiriva along with medium-term US pipeline
only happen once a pronounced retreat in core price approval gives Lupin’s US reve- now, Lupin is the only company over the next two-three years, per share to be very significant at sustainable launches in FY24 beyond gSpiriva and subpar
growth is evident. BLOOMBERG nue prospects a shot in the arm in the market with gSpiriva (in said analysts. “We expect gSpir- 17-21%. If there is no authorized and margin improvement in margin profile.

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

Bitcoin rally pauses ‘Buy AI stocks on any pullback’ Cyient DLM to launch IPO on
near $30,000 level 27 June at ₹250-265 per share
Bloomberg
feedback@livemint.com
with growing concerns that the concentrated in profitable
frenzy around AI this year— businesses, rather than specu-
which helped lift the S&P 500 lative ones.”
Bloomberg PTI

A
ny pullback in artificial into a bull market in June—has “In addition, we view AI as a requirements, capital expendi-
feedback@livemint.com intelligence-related run too hot. Nvidia Corp.— tech accelerant akin to, and feedback@livemint.com ture, debt payment, and
stocks is a reason to buy whose market capitalization potentially far more potent NEw DELhi achieving inorganic growth

A
Bitcoin rally moderated as valuations aren’t overly surged to a record $1 trillion than, the digital transformation through acquisitions as well as

near $30,000 as inves-
tors assessed a flurry of
US applications to start
exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
investing in the token’s spot
market, products American
regulators have so far resisted.
The largest digital asset
bobbed around the round-
number level on Thursday fol-
lowing a 22% surge since Black-
Rock Inc.’s surprise 15 June fil-
ing with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC)
for permission to launch such
an ETF.
The climb has outstripped a
13% jump in an index of the
largest 100 virtual coins over
the same period. Bitcoin’s per-
formance has also split from
stocks, turning a short-term
correlation between the token
and the Nasdaq 100 gauge of
technology shares negative for
the first time since 2021.
Aside from BlackRock — the
world’s largest asset manager
The Bitcoin surge is sparked by
optimism over ETFs. ISTOCK
Australia Pty, wrote in a note.
Bitcoin edged up 1% to
$30,315 as of 6.38 am in Lon-
don on Thursday after adding
more than 5% in each of the
prior two days. Smaller tokens
such as Ether, Cardano and
Solana also posted gains.
Bitcoin “has been the stand-
out outperformer in this move
higher and feels to be dragging
the rest of the crypto complex
with it,” said Spencer Hallarn,
derivatives trader at crypto
investment firm GSR.
Crypto sentiment also got a
expensive despite their stun-
ning gains this year, Barclays
Plc strategists say.
“We think any retracement
would present a tactical oppor-
tunity rather than a structural
collapse of the trade because
multiples have not risen to his-
torical extremes,” the Barclays
team including Venu Krishna
and Emmanuel Cau wrote in a
note, referring to the sector’s
price-to-earnings ratio. “The
expanding AI economy should
help its primary beneficiaries
grow into their valuations over
the longer term.”
The strategists’ call is at odds
Nvidia now tops Tesla as ESG funds ratchet up exposure to AI
Bloomberg
feedback@livemint.com
E
due to its AI exposure—is still sparked by Covid, which we lectronic manufacturing for general corporate purposes.
trading at a price- believe is likely to services firm Cyient DLM The company said 75% of the
to-earnings ratio The strategists’ provide support Ltd on Thursday said it issue has been reserved for
below a peak for call is at odds with to longer-term has fixed a price band of ₹250- qualified institutional buyers
the C o v i d growing concerns multiple expan- 265 per share for its initial pub- (QIBs), 15% for non-institu-
rebound. that the frenzy sion,” the strate- lic offering (IPO), which will tional investors, and the
The rally has gists said. open for subscription on 27 remaining 10% for the retail
around AI this
drawn compari- Still, they June. category. Further, investors
sons with the dot- year has run warned that the The initial share sale will can bid for a minimum of 56
com bubble of too hot outperformance conclude on 30 June and the Cyient has reserved 75% of the equity shares and in multiples
2000, when the of US stocks at an bidding for anchor investors issue for QIBs. ISTOCK of 56 equity shares thereafter.
market was index level now will open on 26 June, the com- Cyient DLM, a subsidiary of
driven by a similarly narrow carries a higher price tag. A pany said in a statement. already undertaken a private Cyient, is the leading inte-
breadth of technology-related near-record valuation pre- Cyient DLM’s IPO is a purely placement of 40.75 lakh equity grated EMS and solutions pro-
stocks before a crash. mium and index concentration fresh issue of equity shares shares worth ₹108 crore. vider with a focus on the entire
But Barclays strategists say warrants diversification into aggregating up to ₹592 crore Funds raised through the life cycle of a product, includ-
the outlook this time is likely to international equities, they with no offer for sale (OFS) IPO would be utilised for fund- ing design, build, and mainte-
be different as “leadership is said. component. The company has ing incremental capital nance.
data show. Nvidia shares hit a thanks to a high level of ESG cial intelligence—has the
record high this week, bring- disclosures and a business potential to change the narra-
ing gains so far in 2023 to that’s aligned with the critical tive around an investment

—Invesco, WisdomTree and
Bitwise have submitted similar
plans in recent days.
The SEC has resisted allow-
ing such funds, citing risks such
as fraud and manipulation in
the token’s spot market, but
BlackRock’s stature and
approach triggered speculation
that the agency might be
appeased.
BlackRock’s application and
investor “expectations of more
stimulus in China” to bolster
the nation’s ailing economy are
supporting Bitcoin, Tony Syca-
more, a market analyst at IG
boost this week from the start
of a digital-asset exchange,
EDX Markets, backed by firms
including Citadel Securities,
Fidelity Digital Assets and
Charles Schwab Corp.
Before the latest bout of opti-
mism, an SEC crackdown had
sapped sentiment and contrib-
uted to depressed liquidity in
crypto markets. The regulator
is suing exchange operators
Binance Holdings Ltd and
Coinbase Global Inc. and in the
process has designated a raft of
digital tokens as unregistered
securities.
N
vidia Corp.’s strato-
spheric ascent has
lured at least 100 more
ESG funds in recent weeks,
transforming the company
into one of the most popular
stocks among asset managers
who integrate environmental,
social and governance metrics
into their investment strate-
gies.
There are now over 1,400
ESG funds directly holding
Nvidia, according to data com-
piled by Bloomberg based on
the latest filings. A further 500
are indirectly exposed, the
about 200%.
The company is now more
popular among ESG investors
than traditional green power-
houses such as Vestas Wind
Systems A/S and Tesla Inc.,
according to the Bloomberg
data. The funds analysed are
registered as either “promot-
ing” ESG, making it their
“objective” or simply market-
ing themselves as ESG.
Nvidia has become an “ESG
darling,” said Felix Boud-
reault, managing partner at
Montreal-based Sustainable
Market Strategies. And that’s
global warming threshold of
1.5C.
Peter Krull, partner and
director of sustainable invest-
ing at Earth Equity Advisors, a
Prime Capital Investment
Advisors company, says Nvidia
is “absolutely” a good sustaina-
ble investment.
There are now over 1,400 ESG funds directly holding Nvidia, “They’re making the steps
according to data compiled by Bloomberg. REUTERS that big companies need to
make to both be lighter on the
“not ludicrous,” because the officer of sustainability data planet” with their products,
company is “exemplary” when and technology firm ESG and contributing to innova-
it comes to traditional ESG risk Book, calls Nvidia “one of the tion, he said.
management, he said. best-performing companies in ESG’s growing exposure to
Daniel Klier, chief executive the large-cap universe,” tech—and in particular artifi-
strategy that last year suffered
a number of headwinds. Amid
an energy crisis and rising
interest rates, ESG found itself
the target of political attacks in
the US, with Republicans call-
ing it an anti-American form of
business and investing that put
a “woke” agenda ahead of
financial returns.
This year, however, ESG
funds’ reliance on tech is driv-
ing outperformance. The top
ESG funds so far in 2023 are all
tech-heavy and invested in AI,
and all have returned more
than 40%.
LIVEMINT.COM CORPORATE Friday, 23 June 2023
MuMbai 05

Heavier
packs signal Micron to set up $2.75 billion m
MOVES
the end of
shrinkflation
India chip assembly facility A weekly list of C-Suiters who have moved up
the corporate ladder either within or outside
their companies.
Abhishek Appointed as director of portfolio
FROM PAGE 1 Modi management at LGT Wealth

visible on salty snacks, biscuits,
soaps, and shampoos.
For instance, Procter & Gam-
ble’s detergent brands Tide and
Ariel are both offering 1 kg free
Applied Materials to invest $400 million to build engineering centre in Bengaluru Amit
Arora
Appointed as chief operating
officer at Fenesta Windows
Shouvik Das & Gulveen Aulakh executive of Micron, said: “Our new
assembly and test location in India will Appointed as head of marketing
New Delhi Archit and corporate communication
enable Micron to expand global manu- Shankar

with several large packs at both
general trade and in e-com-
merce. However, in categories
such as edible oils, companies
such as Marico, Adani Wilmar,
and Mother Dairy said they
have been lowering MRP in
response to lower global prices
of palm and sunflower oil.
A 16 June report from HDFC
Securities said HUL initiated
price cuts in the home care cat-
egory in the first quarter of
FY24. “Beauty and personal
care should see sequential
improvement, aided by moder-
ating inflation and price cuts
(skin cleansing has seen two
rounds of price cuts in Q3 and
M
icron Technology Inc. facturing base and better serve our cus- at Bharti AXA Life Insurance
on Thursday said it will tomers in India and around the world.”
set up a $2.75-billion Railways, IT and telecom minister Chirag Appointed as head fixed income
semiconductor testing Ashwini Vaishnaw said the investment Doshi at LGT Wealth
and assembly facility in “will fundamentally transform India’s
India, the first of its kind in the country. semiconductor landscape and generate Mayank Appointed as chief financial officer
The move also marks the first approval tens of thousands of high-tech and con- Thatte at Rupyy
under the government’s $10-billion struction jobs”.
incentive plan to encourage chip man- Micron is the second-largest DRAM Appointed as vice president &
ufacturing. maker in the world as of December, Nanda
head-people & organization,
The American chipmaker will set up with a 28.1% market share, according to Majumdar digital industries at Siemens India
an assembly, testing, and packaging
facility for dynamic random access
memory (DRAM) and Nand flash mod-
ules in India. The plant will be estab-
lished in two phases, with the first
phase involving the construction of a
500,000 sq ft assembly facility in San-
and, Gujarat, scheduled to begin later The US chipmaker will set up an assembly, testing, and packaging facility for
market researcher Trendforce. In the
September quarter, Statista said it was
the fourth largest global Nand flash
manufacturer, with a market share of
12.3%. Samsung remains the top maker
of both DRAM and Nand flash modules.
Industry stakeholders welcomed the
move, stating they would help develop
Philip
Logan

Prateek
Chatterjee
m Appointed as chief operating
officer at Royal Orchid Hotels

Appointed as group chief

communications officer at GMR
Group

Q4). Within home care, HUL
has taken price cuts in Q1,
which shall help maintain its
industry outperformance,”
they said. However, high milk
inflation continues to hurt the
company’s health food and
drinks portfolio, they said.
Meanwhile, others said they
are awaiting more moderation
in prices before passing on ben-
MOVES
this year. The second phase is expected dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and Nand flash modules in India. REUTERS a domestic component supply chain for
to be implemented in the second half of the semiconductor industry. Vivek Sachi Appointed as chief human
this decade. offer Micron 20% of the total project “This is a big milestone in India’s Tyagi, a semiconductor industry vet- Krishana resources officer at Vymo
Rival US semiconductor manufac- cost as an incentive. roadmap and growth as a semiconduc- eran and advisor to India Electronics
turer Applied Materials has also The company said that once com- tor nation. In the last 18 months, after and Semiconductor Association (IESA), Sanjai Appointed as chief executive
announced a $400 million investment pleted, the facility will create “up to the announcement of the semiconduc- said: “The first semiconductor testing
Ranganathan officer L&T EduTech
to build an engineering centre 5,000 new, direct Micron jobs, tor vision by PM Narendra Modi and packaging facility will boost
in Bengaluru. The invest- and 15,000 community jobs and the planned investment India’s overall supply chain
ment will be spread over over the next several of ₹76,000 crore to cata- for chipmakers as Micron’s Saurabh Appointed as head human
four years in the engi-
neering centre, which $825 mn
to be directly
years.” lyse and build India’s
Meanwhile, Applied semiconductor ecosys- 28.1%
Micron’s mkt share,
global suppliers may also
come to India in the long
Katyal resources at ADM Foods

efits to consumers.
“In the last two years, hair oils
industry took just about 50% of
the overall increase. Only cate-
gories that had taken substan-
tial price increases earlier are
giving back to the consumer as
the price cools off. For that to
happen in hair oils will require
some more cooling off of are
material prices,” said Jaideep
Nandi, the managing director
of Bajaj Consumer Care.
will be used for develop- Materials said in a state- tem, much progress has run. The facility will help Sivalai Appointed as chief financial
ing and commercializing invested by Micron ment that the new facility been made,” said Rajeev the second largest boost and create a num- officer at Himatsingka Seide
Senthilnathan
semiconductor manufac- for the project will seek to train “future Chandrasekhar, union DRAM maker ber of indirect jobs along-
turing equipment. semiconductor industry minister of state for elec- side direct employment.” Appointed as chief executive
Micron will invest $825 talent” and bring together tronics and information tech- Sanjay Gupta, chairperson, Sukesh officer at Motilal Oswal Home
million directly, with the remain- “engineers, global and domestic nology. Rapid progress was made IESA, said the announcements Bhowal Finance
ing $2.75 billion to be contributed by suppliers, and top research and aca- in a short period of time, he added. showcase India’s ability to attract high-
the central and state governments. The demic institutions.” Srinivas Satya, “This is just the beginning, and there value investments and “fostering tech-
US company will benefit from govern- country president of Applied Materials is more to come, as India rapidly grows nological advancements... strengthen- Vish Appointed as chief senior
Magapu director, site lead at Mercari India
ment incentives, under which it will India, said in a statement that the Cen- as a significant and trusted partner to ing India’s position as a hub for semi-
receive 50% of its total project cost as tre will “play a critical role in bringing global electronics and semiconductor conductor manufacturing, and provide
financial support from the Centre. Fur- the much-required synergies between value and supply chains.” a platform for collaboration, knowl- Source: Accord India, executive search worldwide
ther, the Gujarat state government will engineers, academia and suppliers.” Sanjay Mehrotra, president and chief edge sharing and technology transfer”.

Firm backed by Vikram Solar to MPC split on future rate actions

invest $1.5 bn in new US factories Gopika Gopakumar
gopika.g@htlive.com
nomic data. “Beyond the first
quarter, however, pressure
MuMbAi points emanating from specific
Reuters state in 2025 that will produce supply-demand mismatches

M
feedback@livemint.com cells, wafers and ingots, which embers of the central could impart upward pressure
New Delhi are used to build solar panels. bank’s monetary pol- to the momentum of prices and
The $250 million Colorado icy committee (MPC) offset the favourable base

A
new venture backed by facility will create more than held differing views on future effects, especially in the second
Indian solar panel 900 jobs and be capable of rate actions, according to the half of 2023-24,” observed RBI
maker Vikram Solar producing 2 gigawatts (GW) of minutes of the latest meeting deputy governor Michael
Mercedes Benz has an over 70% share of ₹1.5 cr and above Ltd said on Thursday it will modules a year initially, with released on Thursday. Patra.
luxury cars category in India, according to industry estimates. invest up to $1.5 billion in the plans to double that amount. While external members In May, retail inflation eased
US solar energy supply chain, Colorado Governor Jared were cautious about excessive to an over two-year low, stand-

Merc India sales of beginning with a factory in

Colorado next year.
The newly formed com-
Polis called the announce-
ment “a big deal” for his state,
which was able to attract the
tightening, insiders prioritised
inflation risks.
The MPC had kept the repo
RBI governor Shaktikanta Das
ing at 4.25%, compared to 4.7%
in April, within the inflation
band of 2-6% set by the RBI for

top-end cars surge pany, VSK Energy LLC, aims

to leverage India’s extensive
solar manufacturing know-
how in the US push to build a
107% in March qtr clean energy manufacturing
sector to compete with China.
The announcement is the
Alisha Sachdev ings so far. The roadster was latest by an overseas manufac-
alisha.sachdev@livemint.com launched at an ex-showroom turer seeking to capitalize on
New Delhi price of ₹2.35 crore. Iyer said incentives in President Joe
this will be the first SL devel- Biden’s landmark climate
Gyanesh Chaudhary,
chairman, Vikram Solar
and development company
with solar holdings in both the
US and India.
“It’s a great thing for us to be
bringing an Indian company
to the table here,” said Sriram
Das, a managing director at
Das & Co. and chairman of the
facility with its educated work-
force and central location near
large US solar markets. The
state is also offering VSK up to
$9.1 million in tax credits tied
to job creation.
“We’re excited as a state to
be able to be a major manufac-
turing center for the renewa-
ble energy economy,” Polis
said in an interview.
rate unchanged for the second
straight meeting on 8 June but
indicated that monetary condi-
tion will continue to be tight as
they sought to rein in inflation-
ary pressures further.
“Monetary policy is danger-
ously close to levels, at which it
can inflict significant damage
to the economy,” said Jayant
Varma, external member, and
rate as it could harm the eco-
nomic cycle. “Commitment to
such a regime only involves
aligning the nominal repo rate
with expected inflation,” said
Goyal. “Such actions, together
with a greater impact of official
communication in emerging
markets, is adequate to bring
inflation to target as the effect
of shocks dies down. It doesn’t
the third consecutive month.
RBI governor Shaktikanta
Das said MPC’s task of bringing
inflation within the tolerance
band is partially accom-
plished.“Fight against inflation
is not yet over. We must under-
take forward-looking assess-
ment of the evolving inflation-
growth outlook and stand
ready to act, if the situation

S
tuttgart-based luxury car oped fully by AMG, which adds change law, the Inflation joint venture. “You’ve seen a VSK will invest up to $1.25 the only one to dissent against require the nominal repo to be warrants,” he added. Rajiv Ran-
manufacturer Mercedes to its appeal for customers who Reduction Act (IRA), to boost number of Indian companies billion in its second factory, the MPC’s decision to maintain kept higher for longer.” jan, executive director at RBI,
Benz India witnessed seek a piece of history before renewable energy production. get into the manufacturing which is expected to create the policy stance of withdraw- However, all three internal said prudence requires that the
107% growth in top-end vehi- the transition to electric vehi- VSK is a joint venture space and do quite well, and more than 1,500 jobs. ing accommodation. members of the Reserve Bank MPC must now focus on align-
cle sales in the January-March cles (EVs). between Kolkata-based Vikram is the best of them.” Gyanesh Chaudhary, chair- Another external member, of India, continued to focus on ing inflation to the target of 4%.
period. According to the com- India is considered a strate- Vikram and two New York- The company will begin man of Vikram Solar, said the Ashima Goyal, said inflation the upside risks to inflation, “Time is opportune to empha-
pany over 1,700 units, priced gic market for Mercedes Benz, based partners—sustainabil- producing modules in Brigh- investment decision was based has been falling as expected, and reiterated that the pause in size the distinction between the
at ₹1.5 crore or more were sold, Iyer said. Sales have surpassed ity—focused private equity ton, Colorado, next year and largely on US policies encour- and emphasized the impor- June was only for a specific pol- inflation target and tolerance of
grossing over ₹3,000 crore till the pre-covid record in 2022, firm Phalanx Impact Partners plans to open a second facility aging clean energy manufac- tance of preventing a signifi- icy, and future rate actions will deviations from the target,”
May, thus reinforcing its strat- he added. It is aiming for dou- and Das & Co., an investment at an undisclosed southern turing. cant increase in the real repo depend on evolving macroeco- said Ranjan.
egy to focus on segments gen- ble-digit growth in 2023, with
erating high stable returns. the first quarter achieving a
At present, one of every four 17% increase. An improvement
cars sold in India by the Ger- in supplies in Q2 will help
man auto major is
a top-end vehicle,
close some pend-
ing deliveries of
Dilemma for film makers as top stars eye digital pound of flesh
up from 12% in This category cars, on similar
2018 and 22% in includes the GLS, growth as last Lata Jha left with meagre compensa- an adequate share of ancillary 45-50% of the film’s box office
2022. Globally, it S-Class, GLE year. lata.j@htlive.com tion, while remaining heavily rights comes to them. This is earnings. In fact, according to a
sold 92,000 units Coupe, E63, EQS, India’s strate- New Delhi reliant on profits derived from especially crucial at a time box report by Care Ratings, profit
of top-end mod- gic significance is theatrical releases, if any at all. office returns have turned margins of 51 film companies
S-Class Maybach,

F
els out of an over- prompting the ilm producers, already This trend of diverting digital unpredictable and few films are studied, hovered between 3-5%
all sale of over GLS Maybach, automaker to grappling with the reper- revenue to the stars as backend finding takers in cinemas. In in FY17 and FY18.
500,000 vehicles EQS, AMG G 63 allocate products cussions of box office dis- remuneration places produc- fact, most stars are unable to “The role of the producer has
in Q1 of 2023. such as the GLE ruption and changing audience ers in a vulnerable position, draw people to become signifi-
This segment 63 and SL, exclu- preferences due to the pan- with their potential earnings theatres based on Trend of diverting cant; it is impor-
includes the GLS, S-Class, sively for the country.“Luxury demic, now face an additional significantly diminished. their name alone. digital revenue to tant to note what
GLE Coupe, E63, EQS, S-Class consumption in India is also challenge. “Nowhere in the world does According to a stars as backend expertise he or
Maybach, GLS Maybach, EQS maturing, and people want Some top male stars, in a bid this happen. All actors want to recent Ficci-EY remuneration she can bring to
and AMG G 63. desirable products, desirable to compensate for reducing secure their revenue in some report, domestic
places producers the table. Compa-
According to industry esti- brands to purchase across cat- their upfront fees for film pro- way while producers who theatricals in India nies like YRF will
mates, Mercedes Benz has an egories. That also gives a lot of jects, are demanding a share of make, market and promote Some top male stars are demanding a share of the revenue from are only valued at in vulnerable never agree to
over 70% share of this category promise back to our colleagues the revenue generated from films are left with crumbs. That digital sales to OTT platforms as back-end remuneration ISTOCK ₹10,500 crore. position such deals (where
of luxury vehicles in India. in Stuttgart, that it’s the right digital sales to OTT platforms is why the producer ecosystem Further, while the the star takes a
The company on Thursday market for growth,” Iyer said. as back-end remuneration. On is collapsing; everything is dic- multi-film contracts with the instead of his producers, who revenue share share of OTT
also brought back the classic “A luxury boom is also being the flip side, several streaming tated by talent,” said a senior Disney Star network for prices would be assumed to hold the between the producer or dis- rights) because they have entire
SL (Super Light) nameplate to reported globally. Although platforms are willing to comply film producer, requesting ano- ranging between ₹300 crore to copyright to the film, was that tributor, and exhibitor keeps creative control over projects
India, this time as an AMG, the demand is huge, many of these with these agreements, enticed nymity. The person said this ₹1,000 crore. It meant that the the actor agreed to coordinate changing depending on the and pay people that they hire.
AMG SL55. cars are handmade in Sindel- by the audience pull of big stars was similar to the deals lead channel signed a contract with the supply of movies to the individual film, in the first week However, many others who are
Santosh Iyer, the managing fingen, Germany, where there that enhances the perceived actors would strike with broad- the star for the satellite rights of channel by reducing his remu- of a movie’s run, which is when simply signing names and
director and chief executive, are constraints to increase viability of projects. In this sce- cast networks eight to 10 years a specific number of his forth- neration for the film. most earnings come in, the funding films without an
Mercedes Benz, said the car capacities. So, I would say that nario, producers, who bear the ago. Stars such as Salman Khan, coming movies for a certain However, as costs of film exhibitor takes a 52.5% share. understanding of the business,
has seen strong demand even to grow 25% will be challeng- entire financial burden of fund- Ajay Devgn, Varun Dhawan period. The reason the deal production and marketing rise, For any film, the producer’s are playing blind,” said a sec-
before launch, with 30 book- ing in terms of supply.” ing the film, find themselves and Hrithik Roshan had signed could be struck with the actor producers feel it’s only fair that final share cannot be more than ond film producer.
06 Friday, 23 June 2023
MuMbai CORPORATE LIVEMINT.COM

Temasek to lead Ola

Indo-US ties: Growth charted
By Nandita Venkatesan Electric’s $350 mn
nandita.venkatesan@livemint.com
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently in the US for his first state visit to the country. His address to the US Congress on Thursday marked how the ties
between the two countries have become stronger over the years. Apart from being hosted by President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden for a state dinner, Modi
has also had back-to-back engagements with top entrepreneurs, academicians and intellectuals. As the US attempts to close in on ties with India in an attempt to
fundraising round
strengthen its presence in Asia and ward off the growing Chinese threat, here’s a lowdown on different facets of the growing partnership.
Alisha Sachdev & Sneha Shah
POLITICAL PLAY DEFENCE HEFT alisha.sachdev@livemint.com
Modi’s visit comes at a significant time, a year before both countries Defence deals and technology transfer are on the top of the agenda during Modi’s New Delhi
are set to go to polls, inevitably creating great interest. Biden’s visit. The US is a key partner as India tries to diversify its sources of procuring arms.

S
approval ratings in the US have seen a drop and stand below 50% Russia has remained the top arms seller to India, providing 45% of arms deliveries ingapore’s Temasek will
Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, currently, while Modi continues to enjoy popularity back home. All between 2018 to 2022, but its share has fallen from 64% during the previous five-year lead a $300-$350 million
founder & CEO, BlueStone. MINT
the hullabaloo around the visit notwithstanding, Modi is unknown to a period, according to data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The round in Ola Electric, a
vast share of Americans, with 40% saying that they haven’t heard of US accounted for 11% of imports. Expect growing talk of defence ties.
portfolio firm with an infusion
Steadview him. For those who have, the prevailing sentiment is negative (37%
have little or no confidence in his ability to do the right thing on world
affairs), according to Pew Research Center.
% share of top suppliers in India's
arms imports, 2018 and 2022
Total weapon deliveries to India from US ($ million)
1,600
of $100- $150 million, people
with direct knowledge of the
matter said. The deal is in the
in race to % of US adults who say they have never heard of Prime Minister Narendra Modi

18-29 years
By age
15
Others 1,200 final stages of due-diligence,
the people added .
59 11
invest $100 30-49 years
50-64 years 35
39 US 45
Russia
800 564.6 According to them the deal
could value Bhavish Aggarwal-
led Ola Electric to $6 billion,
Ola might file draft IPO papers
with Sebi by next qtr. REUTERS

million in
BlueStone
FROM PAGE 1
one of the three people said.
In March 2022, the Bengalu-
ru-based jeweller raised $30
million at a valuation of $400
million to finance the opening
of brick-and-mortar stores,
expanding from its previous
online-only model. Currently,
75-80% of its business is gener-
ated online.
Some of BlueStone’s existing
investors will sell some of their
shares during the round, the
second person added. Accel
Partners, Kalaari Capital,
Saama Capital India Advisors
Llp, Iron Pillar, Dragoneer
Investment Group Llc, IvyCap
Ventures Advisors Pvt. Ltd, and
Sunil Kant Munjal have also
invested in the company.
“The primary funding will
help the company further
expand its network of stores,”
the third person said.
In an interview in 2022,
Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, the
founder and chief executive of
BlueStone, said the company
wants to expand its store net-
work to 300 by 2024. Cur-
rently, it has around 150 stores.
Emailed queries to a spokes-
person for Steadview and
phone calls and messages to
Kushwaha remained unan-
swered, while a Temasek
spokesperson declined to com-
ment.
BlueStone planned to go for
an initial public offering in the
year ended 31 March 2023 but
deferred it as the market was
muted, the third person added.
Founded in 2011, BlueStone
sells jewellery in more than
8,000 designs. It competes
with the likes of Giva, Carat-
Lane, and Tanishq. Apart from
Karnataka, it has plants in
Mumbai, Jaipur, and other cit-
ies. In the interview, Kushwaha
said BlueStone aims to clock
revenue of ₹500 crore in FY23
and ₹2,000 crore by the end of
FY25.
According to a 2022 World
Gold Council report, though
online sales are picking up in
India, with the average online
grammage of purchase being
pegged at around 10gm, 37% of
the country’s jewellery market
remains unorganized and is led
by local retailers. Online jewel-
lery is expected to account for
5-7% of the overall sales in the
next five years. The report—
Jewellery Market Structure—
expects the top 4-5 companies
in the country to expand
aggressively by opening more
than 1,000 outlets in the next
five years.
400
65 years+ 28 29 20% higher than the $5 billion subsidies on e-two-wheelers.
France
By education 0
valuation it secured in the last Besides, it has also decided to
2012 2022 funding round in early 2022. pull the plug on the smaller
Little-to-no college
College-educated 33
43 Source: SIPRI Arms Transfers Database,
March 2023
Source: Security Assistance Monitor (Center for International Policy) The electric two-wheeler
maker, which has aspirations to
2kWh variant of S1 Air scooter,
which was to be launched for
Overall 40 RISING TRADE foray into passenger EVs, ₹84,999. Singapore state’s
India's trade with the US ($ billion) started roping in IPO bankers investment arm Temasek has
3,576 US adults surveyed online from 20 to 26 March 2023. Source: Pew Research Center Trade is another area of focus in 78.4
80
the Biden-Modi talks. The US Exports last month for a potential listing amped up investments in India
TOP TALENT MIGRATION continues to be India’s top trading early next year, just before the over the last five years, deploy-
India has also been a source of top talent to the US as thousands partner and we maintain a trade 60
50.2 general elections in 2024. ing around $1 billion every year,
migrate each year in search of better education and job prospects. surplus with the world’s biggest Ola Electric raised around or nearly 5% of its total invest-
Indians are the biggest recipients of the H-1B work visa given to economy, with exports outstripping $200 million from Tekne Pri- ments globally.
40
high-skilled workers and represent the second largest US immigrant imports. However, last fiscal, India’s vate Ventures, Alpine Oppor- It first invested as part of a
group, after Mexicans and ahead of Chinese. Unauthorized immigration imports shot up 16%, compared to
tunity Fund and Edelweiss at a $53 million round in Ola Elec-
of Indians to the country has also been in the spotlight recently. a mere 3% on-year growth in 20
exports. With global headwinds Imports valuation of $5 billion in Janu- tric in 2021, valuing it at $2.7
Top migration destinations of top-scoring IIT graduates* (% share)
impacting exports, will the visit help ary 2022. billion. “The EV space in India
0
US 65 lay the base for strengthening trade 2013-14 2022-23 The EV maker will have to is growing at a fast clip with
Canada 3 with the country? Source: CMIE move at lightning speed to be clear winners emerging based
able to list within this time. It on the sales numbers and
Germany 3 could file draft IPO papers with rowth plans. Temasek is bet-
DIASPORA MATTERS
Japan 2 the market regulator by early ting big on the category in
The Indian diaspora is among the most influential globally, powering several US
companies, entering the US Congress, and featuring among the highest-earning
next quarter to realize its goals. India,” said a person in the
Singapore 4 The company is expected to know of Temasek’s plans.
migrant groups in the country. The diaspora is also seen as ardent supporters of Modi.
UK 5 Plans are afoot for a grand outreach on 23 March at the Ronald Reagan Building in launch a lower variant of its S1 Emails sent to Temasek and
Washington, DC. Will the outreach build into his support base even further? scooter in July, which will be Ola Electric did not elicit any
South Korea 2
priced below the 3kWH Ola S1 response till press time. The
Switzerland 2 2.7 million 73% 5 #6 28.6% Air, for which final payments government’s move to slash
Indian-origin persons Share of H-1B  Number of India’s rank in Share of US in and deliveries are yet to begin. subsidy on electric two-wheel-
UAE 2 Sample size: 2,470 | *Students who scored 243
in the US (2021), visas given to Indian-origin foreign tourist foreign tourist
and above in JEE 2010 (in the general category)
according to Migration Indians in members in the arrivals to the arrivals to India, The company, like its peers, has ers is expected to have a short-
Others 12 and had migrated by 2018.
Policy Institute 2022 US Congress US (2022) the highest (2021) had to raise the prices of its term impact on sales as the mar-
Source: Choudhury, Ganguli and Gaulé, 2023,
NBER ("Top talent, elite colleges, and migration: Evidence from the Indian Institutes of technology") scooters following the govern- ket readjusts to higher prices
GRAPHIC: PARAS JAIN/MINT
ment’s move to slash FAME-II under the new subsidy regime.
India and US to shape global order TCS sends top officials on leave,
FROM PAGE 1 ing the visit.
Biden said in his welcome
sacks four over graft charges
of democracy,” the PM said. remarks that the world was at
As the crowd, which came an “inflection point”, and deci- FROM PAGE 1 we don’t know how pervasive
from all parts of the US and sions taken today would define and for how long this scam was
checked into the White House the future for decades. He reported to the chief operat- continuing. We hired over
in the wee hours, chanted hailed India’s participation in ing officer, Natarajan Ganapa- 300,000 people, including
“Modi, Modi” as well as “USA, Quad, the plurilateral group thy Subramaniam, and has contractors, only in the last
USA”, both leaders acknowl- with Japan and Australia. been debarred from coming three years. Even if 10% of the
edged the role of the diaspora. “Many decades later, people to the office, although his entire recruitment was made
Biden referred to his vice presi- will say Quad bent the arc of email ID is still active, the through selected staffing firms
dent, Kamala Harris, among history towards, as PM Modi executive said. and the staffing firm gave a
others who had succeeded in calls it, global good,” he said. An email sent to Chakrav- commission on every person
diverse American public India and the US were working arthy on Monday seeking recruited, you can imagine the
spheres, as proof of the dyna- together to end poverty, comment remained unan- scale of this scandal,” said the
mism of the diaspora. Modi expand access to health care, swered, while a message sent executive cited above. “I
expressed his deep gratitude to address the climate crisis, as to another executive, Arun believe it will be at least ₹100
Biden for the honour he gave Prime Minister Narendra Modi hugs US President Joe Biden. AFP well as deal with the food and G.K., who headed a function in TCS ended last year with crore.”
both 1.4 billion Indians and the energy crisis caused by “Rus- the RMG division and was $27.93 billion in revenue and The development comes as
four million people of Indian bolism associated with the state retary Vinay Mohan Kwatra, sia’s unprovoked war in sacked, on LinkedIn did not has 614,795 employees. MINT a surprise as major corpora-
origin in the US. visit — the national anthems of Indian ambassador to the US Ukraine”, Biden added. In a elicit a response. tions are expected to have
“Three decades ago, as a nor- both countries were played, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and seeming reference to the initia- “While there are complaints ers or contractors are hired robust safeguards to prevent
mal citizen, I had come to there was a 21-gun salute, the additional secretary in-charge tive on critical and emerging regarding code of conduct vio- through staffing firms. corruption that could hamper
America. I had seen the White US military was out in uniform, of Americas Vani Rao were technologies (iCET), which is lations that arise from time to This development, a first of operations and sully their
House from outside. After and a military band performed. among those present. seen as providing the ballast for time, the company has robust its kind of recruitment scandal image.
becoming PM, I have come Standing alongside, right To be sure, even as Modi and the recent momentum in the processes for investigating and to hit TCS, comes after K. Kri- “This is common in small
here many times. But this is the below the dais, Biden were relationship, the US President resolving them to closure,” a thivasan took firms where cor-
first time White House doors was Jill Biden. It was clear both locked in discus- said the two countries made TCS spokesperson said. over as the com- TCS sent the head porate govern-
have opened for the Indian- Among those were focused on sions in the Oval critical and emerging tech the The RMG division, esti- pany’s chief exec- of recruitment on ance is perceived
American community in such present were vice- the substantive Office, there were “pillar” of the next generation mated to be 3,000-strong, pla- utive on 1 June. leave, sacked four to be lax. But
large numbers,” Modi said. president Harris, outcomes that protests by some partnership—to ensure that ces almost 1,400 engineers, “The entire news of this
Later, in his opening remarks at secretary of state including new hires, on pro-
executives from r e c r u i t m e n t
officials have said Indian groups tech protected values, senior leadership
RMG, and
the restricted meeting between Antony J. outside the White remained open, accessible, jects daily, averaging a place- is shocked,” said scandal at a com-
the two sides in the Oval Office, Blinken, secretary were on offer House against trusted, and secure. ment per minute. TCS ended an executive, blacklisted three pany like TCS is a
Modi said while joint state- of defence Lloyd during the visit Modi and the During the opening remarks last year with $27.93 billion in who did not want staffing firms surprise. Simply
ments, agreements, and work- Austin, national shrinking space at their bilateral meeting in the revenue and has 614,795 to be identified as because all large
ing groups were important, security adviser for minorities in Oval Office, Biden said 10 years employees. he is not autho- companies have
people-to-people constituted (NSA) Jake Sullivan, and US the country. ago, in Mumbai during a visit, The two preferred routes for rized to speak with reporters. robust audit practices and no
the true engine of the relation- Ambassador to India Eric Gar- But it was clear that both he had envisaged India-US ties hiring experienced executives “This makes you question if one executive is entrusted
ship, and they had just heard cetti. On the Indian side, exter- leaders were focused on the improving small step by small for IT services firms such as there were enough guardrails, with enough powers to abuse
the spirited engine roar out- nal affairs minister S. Jais- substantive outcomes that offi- step; 10 years later, these had TCS are employee referral and how could such a thing his position,” said an execu-
side. hankar, national security cials from both sides have con- transformed into significant programmes and staffing happen.” tive at a Bengaluru-based
The event had all the sym- adviser Ajit Doval, foreign sec- sistently said were on offer dur- progress. firms. Even temporary work- “The disturbing thing is that company.

Twin blow to Byju’s as its auditor Deloitte, three directors resign

FROM PAGE 1
also declined to comment,
while CZI did not respond to a
request for comment.
“The board members had
been wanting to resign for sev-
eral months, but the company
was keen they stay on till the
funding round was stitched,”
the second person said.
Deloitte’s resignation note
cited five letters it wrote to
founder and managing
director Byju Raveendran and
board members on 30 Sep-
tember, 5 November, 12
November, and 24 December
last year, and a final one to
Raveendran on 29 March this
year, regarding the statutory
audit for FY22.
“We have not received any
communication on the resolu-
tion of the audit report modifi-
cations in respect of the year
ended 31 March 2021, the sta-
tus of the audit readiness of the
financial statements and
underlying books and records
for the financial year ended 31
March 2022, and we have not
been able to commence the
audit as on date,” Deloitte said
in its resignation letter.
Byju’s filed the report for
FY22 after an 18-month delay
in September 2022.
“The starting point of any
audit is to check if the modifi-
cations from the previous year
have been resolved. The com-
pany needs to close the books
and submit the financial state-
ments to an auditor before the
audit can begin,” an industry
expert said by way of inter-
preting the Deloitte resigna-
tion letter.
Deloitte submitted an
adverse opinion on Byju’s
internal financial controls in
its audit report for FY21 and
offered an “emphasis of opin-
ion” on the company’s reve-
nue recognition practices.
Internal financial controls
refer to the policies and proce-
dures adopted by any com-
pany for its business, including
regulatory compliance, and
the company’s ability to pre-
vent and detect fraud and
errors in reporting its state-
ments. Byju’s appointed a
chief financial officer Ajay
Goel only in April.
“Audit resignations are rare.
Typically, it is an iterative pro-
cess and auditors usually
explain the process and the
implications well before they
Byju’s filed earnings report for FY22 after an 18-month delay in
September 2022.
formally resign,” the industry
expert cited above added.
“The resignation of the
auditors for not receiving
information and not being
MINT
able to audit in a timely man-
ner also seems to suggest a lack
of transparency in the manner
in which business operations
are being conducted,” said
Yashojit Mitra, partner at Eco- Supreme Court challenging of that dispute, too, was the
nomic Laws Practice. the decision to accelerate the delay in Byju’s financial state-
On the exit of board mem- company’s $1.2 billion loan. ments.
bers, Mitra said the resignation The company said it would not Several investors, such as
of non-executive directors make any more interest pay- Blackrock and T Rowe Price,
arises when there is a differ- ments until the have written
ence of views between them legal dispute was Deloitte down the value of
and the promoters. “The resolved, mark- submitted an their investment
resigning directors (usually ing a default. In adverse opinion in Byju’s. In
take) the decision so as not to its petition, on Byju’s internal November 2022,
be henceforth held liable for Byju’s catego-
financial controls Prosus valued
any of the actions being rized its TLB len- Byju’s at $6 bil-
undertaken by the company, ders led by Red- in its audit report lion, the same val-
which is not a good sign for any wood as “preda- for FY21 uation at which it
company,” Mitra said. tory” and moved initially invested.
The resignations come amid to disqualify Red- Last month,
Byju’s ongoing spat with wood as a lender. Byju’s raised $250 million in
bondholders, with the com- Previously, the lenders sued debt funding from New York-
pany declaring on 5 June that the company in the US over based investment manager
it was stopping repayment of what they claimed was $500 Davidson Kempner Capital
interest over its $1.2-billion million missing from its US Management. The company
loan and sued Redwood Capi- entity Byju’s Alpha. The len- has separately been trying to
tal Management and other ders sought to take control of raise equity funding from
lenders in the New York the US subsidiary. The origin investors.
LIVEMINT.COM CORPORATE Friday, 23 June 2023
MuMbai 07

Brewing inclusivity: ‘Smart visas key to growth for tourism’

Varuni Khosla including its own database.

Women take charge varuni.k@livemint.com

New DelHI
World Travel and Tourism
Council measures the value of
the industry in terms of its eco-

I
nitiatives such as smart visas
and a strategic focus on desti-
nation marketing campaigns
such as Incredible India play a
vital role in attracting a greater
United Breweries, Diageo lead the way in empowering women leaders number of global tourists to
India, said Julia Simpson, presi-
dent of World Travel and Tour-
Devina Sengupta & Suneera Tandon ism Council.
Cheers to change
MuMBaI/New DelHI
In a concerted effort, distilleries and breweries have appointed women to lead various operations.
Speaking at a G20 event in
Women in United Breweries over the past two years
Goa, Simpson said visa back-
nomic contribution and repre-
sents about 200 firms, which
account for 30% of the $10 tril-
lion global tourism industry.
WTTC also signed a memo-
randum of understanding with
the World Tourism Organiza-
tion of the United Nations at
the G20 ministerial meeting.
The idea would be to focus on
WTTC president Julia Simpson said visa backlogs present a advancing public-private part-

T
he alcohol beverage industry is logs present a significant hur- significant hurdle resulting in extensive waiting periods. nerships, promoting job crea-
courting women to participate in JAINEE NATHWANI KAVYA PUTHURAO dle resulting in extensive wait- tion, creating business oppor-
Head-CSR and sustainability Category head-domestic premium
a sector that has traditionally ing periods spanning 200 days tion activities such as Incredi- travel and tourism sector will tunities and skilling global tal-
been deemed taboo across socie- SHELLY KOHLI BIPASHA BANERJEA to a year for certain destina- ble India was slashed by more contribute one in 13 jobs. ent.
Chief legal & compliance officer Head-finance transformation
tal strata. In a concerted effort tions. “Paper visas should be a than half this year to ₹167 crore While international tourists Simpson said growth will
challenging prevailing social, cultural and SRIVIDYA RANGARAJAN JACQUELINE VAN FAASSEN thing of the past. India is mov- from ₹525 crore two years ago. are likely to spend ₹2 trillion, double GDP, but governments
religious stigmas, distilleries and breweries Head-IT Category head-Premium Brands ing quickly in the e-visas space However, at the same time, the domestic visitors are expected must focus on reliable energy
have appointed women to lead various INDIRA M. JAYATI SHEKHAWAT but it can move faster towards country has also set a target to to spend over ₹12.6 trillion. and sustainable aviation fuel
operations, such as cluster heads, as well as Head raw materials Brewery head, Daruhera smart QR-coded visas like the host 25 million international In 2022, tourism’s contribu- production.
to steer their marketing, procurement and KANAKADURGA PULIMERA GAGANDEEP KOCHAR ones used by Dubai. Also, desti- tourists by 2030. tion to gross domestic product Tourism minister G. Kishan
legal divisions. Digital portfolio owner Brewery head, Ludhiana nation marketing campaigns According to Simpson, the ( GDP) grew by almost 90% to Reddy has shown great leader-
To ensure the safety and well-being of ARCHANA BHOITE RICHA SARASWAT
(Incredible India) are very criti- travel and tourism industry in $15.6 trillion, accounting for ship, rallying the G20 ministers
female employees, these companies have Head procurement Cluster HR head-north cal to any country which looks India is expected to contribute 5.9% of the economy. In 2019, it under the Goa Roadmap,
arranged for special night shifts and estab- at more visitors. It is a proven ₹16.5 trillion to the economy in was at 7% of the economy. showing the world that travel
Diageo India executive committee 
lished partnerships with cab services. fact that countries are compet- 2023 down 3.5% than the 2019 In 2022, tourism created and tourism boosts economies
Additionally, they have also initiated ori- HINA NAGARAJAN DEEPIKA WARRIER ing with each other and those numbers. The sector will also about 14.6 million jobs to reach while meeting UN’s sustainable
Managing director and CEO Chief marketing officer
entation programmes in smaller towns to having good destination mar- create over 1.6 million jobs this a total 37.2 million, according development goals. India’s
highlight the integrity of the sector, and SHOBHANA NIKAM SHWETA JAIN keting campaigns, do better,” year, recovering almost all the to a study by Oxford Economics tourism sector is likely to grow
encourage greater female workforce par- Leads the legal function and is general counsel Chief business development officer she told Mint over a video call. jobs lost during the pandemic on the basis of data sourced its GDP contribution to ₹36.8
ticipation. For instance, United Breweries SHILPA VAID Budget for overseas promo- to reach 39 million: that is, the from UNWTO, among others, trillion by 2033, she added.
made rapid strides in increasing its female Leads the human resources function Source: Companies
workforce from 6% to 18% in the last two
years, with 12 of its leadership positions
now occupied by women, including its sales teams travelling to remote areas with organizations, 20% are women.
head for raw material, category head for better access to hotels for overnight stays at Among member organizations, women
premium brands, and brewery heads for the nearest city, and is tying up with ride have 40% representation in leadership
HDFC warrants to list under HDFC Bank
procurement. “Beer often does not find hailing platforms to prioritise transporta- roles at Pernod Ricard India, and 27% in
enough space in Indian fridges, despite the tion services for them. Besides, it is offering Beam Suntory, she added. Ram Sahgal from applying Rule 19(2) (b) of Scheme, until 10 August 2023. “In relation to outstanding
138% growth in business during the covid- extended maternity leave for up to one year In 2021, India’s largest spirits company ram.sahgal@livemint.com the Securities Contracts (Regu- Rule 19 of the SCRR outlines listed warrants that have been
induced lockdown. We have started work to attract and retain female talent. Diageo India had appointed its first female MuMBaI lation) Rule, subject to certain the requirements a firm must issued by HDFC Ltd, and will
on inclusion and diversity, but managing director and chief conditions specified. fulfil for listing securities on a continue in the name of HDFC
TOAST TO EQUALITY
T
alco-bev had a stigma of being executive Hina Nagarajan. In a he outstanding warrants Upon the effective date of stock exchange. It also estab- Bank, on the effective date of
a male-dominated sector. So, recent media meet, Nagarajan issued by HDFC Ltd will merger and sub- lishes a minimum the scheme, HDFC Bank had,
we are consciously trying to COMPANIES have UNITED Breweries IN 2021, Diageo India said inclusion and diversity are be listed and traded sequent listing of The post-merger offer and dilution in relation to the proposed list-
build brewery as a normal arranged for special made rapid strides in had appointed its
night shifts to ensure increasing its female first female chief
a key part of the company’s HR under HDFC Bank, after the warrants under listing will allow requirements for ing of warrants in the name of
workplace as any other fac- safety and well-being workforce from 6% executive Hina agenda in India. In fact, 35% of merger between the two enti- HDFC Bank, the warrant holders listing any class of HDFC Bank, made an applica-
tory,” said Kavita Singh, chief of female employees to 18% in last 2 years Nagarajan the firm’s employees are ties is finalized, in line with the warrants will be to exchange the equity. The war- tion to Sebi through stock
human resources officer of women. “Around 50% of our relaxation of a rule on the post- available for trad- rants also enable exchange under Rule 19(7) of
warrants for
United Breweries Ltd. leadership team (executive merger listing of warrants by ing on the desig- holders to convert SCRR for relaxation of strict
As part of its ongoing efforts, the com- “More the women, better is the compli- management committee) is women. We the Securities and Exchange nated date associ- equity shares of to shares at a pre- enforcement of Rule 19(2)(b) of
pany rolled out an initiative last year called ance, governance and right environment in want 35% of our overall organization to be Board of India (Sebi), the bank ated with the list- HDFC Bank determined price SCRR,” the bank added. “BSE
Queenfishers, to start sensitizing potential a sector that is one of the highest contribu- women in the next five-seven years. It’s a informed the stock exchanges. ing. The warrant within a specified and NSE vide letters dated 21
candidates about the opportunities in the tors to the state exchequer,” said Nita journey, I have to say, it’s growing, but I The merger is expected to be holders will have time in exchange June has informed HDFC Bank
brewing sector. With renowned brands Kapoor, chief executive officer, Interna- think we could do better, we want to make closed by next month. the right to swap their warrants for payment to the warrants’ that the Sebi granted relaxation
such as Kingfisher and Heineken in its tional Spirits and Wines Association of it faster. There are challenges, but we must HDFC Bank said it had been for equity shares of HDFC issuer. Once these are exercised from applicability of Rule
portfolio, the company has implemented India, According to Kapoor, out of the continue to be the role model in the indus- informed by the BSE and NSE Bank, based on the share the issuer issues fresh shares to 19(2)(b) of the SCRR, subject to
various initiatives to support its female 10,000 people employed by its member try,” Nagarajan said. that Sebi has granted relaxation exchange ratio outlined in the the warrant holders. certain conditions,” it said.

DELHI JAL BOARD, GOVT. OF NCT OF DELHI

OFFICE OF THE ADDL. CHIEF ENGINEER (C)-06
THROUGH EXECUTIVE ENGINEER (PR) SR - I
POCKET-D-7, ROHINI SECTOR-6, NEW DELHI-110085
MADHYA PRADESH STATE AGRICULTURAL Email: eepsr11@gmail.com
Press Note
MARKETING BOARD N.I.T. No. 04 (2023-24) (RE-INVITE)
26-Arera Hills, Kisan Bhawan, Bhopal Item Name of work Estimated E/Money Tender Fee Date of release Last date
NIT No./Agri-Export/23-24/34 & AIF/23-24/833 Dated : 22.06.2023 No. Contract (EMD) (in (Non- of tender/ /time of
Value (ECV)/ Rs.) Refund Tender ID receipt of
E-TENDER NOTICE Amount put to able) tender
tender (Rs.)
Madhya Pradesh State Agricultural Marketing Board 1 Construction of 4 Nos. of Decentralized Sewage Hybrid Annuity 80,48,778/- 1500/- Dated 21.07.2023
(MPSAMB), Bhopal invites offers from interested Consultancy Treatment Plant and Sewage Pumping Station at Garhi Mode (HAM) 20.06.2023 upto
Rindhala, Ghewra, Jaunti and Nizampur Village along BASIS 2023_DJB_ 3.15 PM
agencies with proven capabilities and demonstrated with other associated/allied appurtenant work on 243323_1
performance to participate in the competitive bidding for Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) for Ten years Operation
“Request for Proposal (RFP) for Selection of Agency for & Maintenance and two years Defect Liability Period.
2 Construction of 2 Nos. of Decentralized Sewage Hybrid Annuity 70,66,000/- 1500/- Dated 21.07.2023
Project Management Unit for the implementation of Agri-Export Treatment Plant and Sewage Pumping Station at Mode (HAM) 20.06.2023 upto
cell, Mandi Board” (Tender No. 2023_MPSAM_277395) & Mohamadpur Majri Village and Kanjhawala Village BASIS 2023_DJB_ 3.15 PM
along with other associated/allied appurtenant work on 243323_2
“Request for Proposal (RFP) for Selection of Agency for Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) for Ten years Operation
Project Management Unit for the implementation of AIF Cell, & Maintenance and two years Defect Liability Period.
Mandi Board”. (Tender No. 2023_MPSAM_277398). All the Further all the details in this regard can be seen at https://govtprocurement.delhi.gov.in
ISSUED BY P.R.O. (WATER) “STOP CORONA: WEAR MASK, FOLLOW PHYSICAL (Ashok Sharma) (N.K. Sharma)
interested Bidders/Agencies may visit www.mptenders.gov.in Advt. No. J.S.V. 75 (2023-24) DISTANCING, MAINTAINING HAND HYGIENE” EE(SDW) XII EE(PR)SR-I
& www.eanugya.mp.gov.in to view the details of tender from
dt. 22.06.2023 @ 15:00 hrs. onwards.
M.P. Madhyam/110498/2023 SUPP. ENGINEER

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION OF GREATER MUMBAI

K.E.M HOSPITAL, PAREL
No. KEM/1099 / AEME dated 22/06/2023
E-Tender Notice
DEPARTMENT : DEPARTMENT KEM Hospital
BID INVITATION NO : Bid No.7200054825
SUBJECT : SITC of Smart Video Recorder System
along with 2 years of CMC in KEM
Hospital
SALE OF THE BID : DATE 23/06/2023 on 16.00 Hrs
TO
DATE 30/06/2023 on 16.00 Hrs
WEB SITE : http://portal.mcgm.gov.in
A) CONTACT OFFICER : Asst Engineer ( M & E ) KEM
B) NAME : Mrs. Neha Sankhe. /Mr. Praful Khupte
C) TELEPHONE : 022 24107768/7799
D) Email ID : ae02me.kem@mcgm.gov.in
Sd/-
PRO/882/ADV/2023-24 DEAN (KEMH)
Keep the terraces clean, remove odd articles/junk/scrap.
08 Friday, 23 June 2023
MuMbai GLOBAL LIVEMINT.COM

m MINT SHORTS
Intelsat, SES end talks to form
BoE outpaces peers with rate
rise of half percentage point
$10 billion satellite giant
Intelsat SA and SES SA have ended talks on a merger that would
have created a satellite giant to help fend off growing competi-
tion as the industry consolidates. Discussions on a potential com-
bination have ceased, SES said in a statement Thursday, confirm-
ing an earlier Bloomberg News report. It didn’t provide further
details. A transaction could have valued the combined business
at more than $10 billion including debt, Bloomberg News reported
in March. BLOOMBERG The central bank seeks to curb the highest inflation rate in the Group of Seven wealthy countries
US lawmakers approve Taiwan Paul Hannon were in late 2021, double the rise that
feedback@livemint.com has already taken place. But if rates
trade deal despite Chinese ire London were to rise as the market expected
BLOOMBERG
before Thursday’s announcement,

T
he Bank of England raised
its key interest rate by half
a percentage point Thurs-
day, a more aggressive rate
rise than its peers as it seeks
to curb the highest inflation rate in
the Group of Seven wealthy coun-
tries.
The move to raise the lending rate
to 5%, its highest level since April
2008, follows smaller rate increases
in recent weeks by the European
US lawmakers voted to greenlight an agreement aimed at Central Bank, the Bank of Canada and
deepening economic relations with Taiwan, prompting an the Reserve Bank of Australia. Last
irritated response from Beijing on Thursday. The US-Tai- week, the Federal Reserve kept its
wan Initiative on 21st Century Trade streamlines customs key rate unchanged.
checks, looks to improve regulatory procedures and estab- Across rich economies, inflation
lishes anti-corruption measures. AFP has proven tougher to tame than cen-
tral banks had expected. But the
U.K.’s inflation rate has proved par-
Microsoft, US regulators head to ticularly stubborn.
Figures released Wednesday
court over $69 billion deal showed consumer prices in May were
Microsoft on Thursday will try to gain clearance to complete a 8.7% higher than a year earlier,
$69 billion takeover of video game maker Activision Blizzard in unchanged from April. Before the
a legal showdown with US regulators that will reshape a pastime inflation data was released, econo-
that’s bigger than the movie and music industries combined.The mists and investors had expected a
battle will pit Microsoft’s ambition to expand its video game quarter-point interest-rate increase.
imprint beyond its Xbox console against the US Federal Trade The core measure that excludes
Commission’s bid to block a deal that it contends will stifle com- volatile items such as food and energy
petition and innovation to the detriment of consumers. It’s the rose to its highest level in more than
latest twist in a deal that was announced 17 months ago AP three decades, a contrast with the U.S.
and the eurozone, where it has been
falling.
Zelensky claims Russia preparing The big reason for that pickup was
services inflation, which the BOE has
radiation leak at nuclear plant said it is paying particular attention to
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that for signs that rising wages are push-
Moscow’s forces were considering launching a “terror attack” at ing prices higher.
the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, a recurring Seven of the BOE’s nine rate setters
flash point of concern throughout Russia’s invasion. The Kremlin agreed that a stronger response was
rejected Zelensky’s claims that Russian forces could be orches- needed “at this particular meeting” to
trating a radiation leak, pointing to a recent visit to the facility by recent signs that inflation is set to stay
the head of the UN’s nuclear agency. REUTERS high for longer than they had
Lending rate rose to its highest level since April 2008 after the central bank hiked the rate to 5%
expected. “There had been signifi-
cant upside news in recent data that
indicated more persistence in the
inflation process, against the back-
ground of a tight labor market and
continued resilience in demand,” the
BOE said in a statement.
The BOE said it
may raise its key
interest rate again
in the coming
months if there are fresh signs that
inflation is set to stay high for longer
than it expects. The central bank last
month forecast that inflation would
fall to its target of 2% by the end of
2024, about nine months later than it
had expected at the start of the year.
With inflation staying stubbornly
high, investors have priced in a num-
ber of additional rate rises. The BOE
said investors expect to see its key
interest rate average 5.5% over the
next three years, up from 4% at the
time of its May meeting.
Britain’s FTSE
100 index slipped
after the decision
and was down 1.2%
on the day. The U.K.’s 10-year gov-
ernment bond yield fell to 4.343%
from 4.406%, while the pound
wavered against the dollar.
For households, the main way in
which BOE rate increases restrain
spending and damp inflation is by
AP
raising the cost of repaying their
mortgages.
In contrast to the U.S., where rates
are fixed for between 15 and 30 years,
British mortgages usually carry fixed
interest rates for between two and
five years, so a growing number of
households are facing higher interest
payments.
Much of the pain has yet to come.
According to calculations by the Res-
olution Foundation, a research group
that focuses on living standards, if the
BOE’s interest rate were to remain
close to its current level, annual mort-
gage payments would be 12 billion
pounds higher, equivalent to $15 bil-
lion, by the end of 2026 than they
the annual bill would increase by
£15.8 billion.
“The full impact of the increase in
bank rate to date will not be felt for
some time,” the BOE said.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies, a
research body that focuses on gov-
ernment finances, estimates that
higher interest payments will reduce
the disposable incomes of house-
holds with mortgages by more than
8%.“For many, the increase in
monthly repayments is going to come
as a serious shock,” said Tom Wern-
ham, an economist at the IFS.
The BOE said two of the nine policy
makers again voted to leave rates on
hold, arguing that the central bank
had already taken the action needed
to meet its 2% inflation target.
The U.K. economy has barely
grown since Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine sent energy and food prices
surging in early 2022.
The BOE had expected to see a
winter recession, but raised its
growth forecasts in May as the econ-
omy proved more resilient than it had
expected.
However, economists worry that a
sharp rise in borrowing costs, coming
on top of higher energy and food pri-
ces, could push the U.K. into contrac-
tion.
The U.K.’s central bank has been
raising its key interest rate for longer
than either the Fed or the ECB. The
cumulative rise in its key rate since
December 2021 is slightly more than
the Fed’s, and a percentage point
more than the ECB’s.
Chelsey Dulaney and Anna Hirten-
stein contributed to this article.
©2023 DOW JONES & CO, INC

‘Sans minority rights, India may pull apart’

AFP Obama’s administration over
feedback@livemint.com 2002 religious riots in which
WAshingTon mostly Muslims were killed.
Since Modi took office in

F
ormer US president Bar- 2014, India has passed a con-
ack Obama said Thursday troversial law on citizenship
that India risks “pulling and abrogated the special sta-
apart” if the Muslim minority tus of Muslim-majority Kash-

EATING THUKPA &

is not respected, calling for the mir. The US State Department
ISSUE OUT issue to be raised with Prime in an annual report on reli-
TOMORROW
Minister Narendra Modi. gious freedom also pointed to
Obama spoke in a CNN police and vigilante violence
interview as President Joe against minorities along with

MYSORE MASALA
Biden welcomed the Hindu
nationalist prime minister for
a state visit and gently spoke of
the importance of “religious
pluralism.”
Six decades into exile, Tibetan cuisine continues to hold its On a visit to Greece, where
own even as it opens itself up to local flavours and makes space he is holding a weeklong ses-
sion for emerging global lead-
for Indian dishes at the dining table ers, Obama said that address-
ing human rights with allies
was always “complicated.”
“I think it is true that if the
president meets with Prime
Minister Modi, then the pro-
tection of the Muslim minority
in a majority-Hindu India,
that’s something worth men-
tioning,” the first African-
Barack Obama spoke in a CNN interview as President Joe Biden
welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a state visit
American president said in an
interview with CNN Interna-
tional anchor Christiane
Amanpour.
“If I had a conversation with
Prime Minister Modi, who I
know well, part of my argu-
ment would be that if you do
not protect the rights of ethnic
minorities in India, that there
is a strong possibility at some
point that India starts pulling
PTI
apart,” Obama said.
“We’ve seen what happens
when you start getting those
kinds of large internal con-
flicts. So that would be con-
trary to the interests not just of
Muslim India but also of Hindu
India,” he said.
Modi, as the former state
leader of Gujarat was banned
from entering the United
States during much of
inflammatory statements by
members of the prime minis-
ter’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
Obama, in his 2020 memoir
“A Promised Land,” offered a
glowing portrait of Modi’s
center-left predecessor Man-
mohan Singh, a mild-man-
nered economist.
Recounting a visit to New
Delhi, Obama -- who was suc-
ceeded by Donald Trump --
quoted Singh as warning him
that the “call of religious and
ethnic solidarity can be intoxi-
cating” and that politicians can
“exploit that, in India or any-
where else.

Search for missing sub finds debris field

AFP have joined the operation in
feedback@livemint.com the past day, and sonar has
picked up unidentified under-

THINK: She’s got a
ticket to ride—and
he’s ticked off
A
“debris field” has been
discovered by an
underwater robot
searching near the wreck of
the Titanic for a missing sub-
mersible with five people on
board, rescuers said Thursday.
The development came
after rescuers insisted that the
multinational mission to
locate the craft was still
focused on finding the crew
alive despite fears that the ves-
sel’s oxygen may have run out.
“Experts within the unified
command are evaluating the
information,” the US Coast
Guard said in a tweet.
The coast guard said the
debris field was found “within
the search area by an ROV
ZOOM: Finding CULTURE: Air India’s TRAVEL: On (Remotely Operated Vehicle)
the city of collection of rare art Geoffrey Bawa’s near the Titanic.”
Shahjahanabad goes on display trail in Sri Lanka It did not give more details
but said it would hold a press
briefing at 3:00 pm (1900
Two more robots were deployed Thursday in the hunt.
GMT) in Boston.
Two more robots were
deployed Thursday in the
hunt for the Titan sub, lost
somewhere in a vast swathe of
the North Atlantic between
the ocean’s surface and more
than two miles (nearly four
kilometers) below.
Based on the sub’s capacity
to hold up to 96 hours of emer-
gency air, rescuers had esti-
mated that the passengers,
which include fee-paying
REUTERS
tourists, may have run out of
oxygen in the early hours of
Thursday.
But as that possible deadline
passed, US Coast Guard Rear
Admiral John Mauger said res-
cuers were “fully committed”
to search operations.
“People’s will to live really
needs to be accounted for as
well. We’re going to continue
searching,” he told NBC’s
Today show.
A surge of assets and experts
water noises.
Organizers of the response
— which includes US and
Canadian military planes,
coast guard ships and tele-
guided robots -- are focusing
their efforts close to the
sounds.
The noises, heard Tuesday
and Wednesday and which
have been described as sound-
ing like “banging,” raised
hopes that the passengers are
still alive, though experts have
not been able to confirm their
source.
The French research ship
Atalante deployed an
unmanned robot able to
search at depths of up to 6,000
meters (nearly 20,000 feet)
below water on Thursday, the
US Coast Guard tweeted.
Experts have called the Vic-
tor 6000 “the main hope” for
an underwater rescue.
LIVEMINT.COM NEWS WRAP Friday, 23 June 2023
MuMbai 09

TWEETS & QUOTES

Soumya Swaminathan Pradip Burman Jill Biden
Kadri Simson Chairperson, MSSRF Founder, Mobius First lady, US
Commissioner for energy, EU In most countries, indige- Foundation Education is a cornerstone of the
The EU is working to support nous or tribal populations The covid pandemic bond between India & the US—one
smart electrification. Some have preserved & protected has highlighted the we hope to keep building & strength-
EU best practices include our rainforests. We should difficulties in safely ening...Our universities are partner-
blockchain solutions to learn from their traditional disposing of medical ing together, leading research, and
integrate renewables & culture & knowledge how to waste, particularly in creating apprenticeships & intern-
e-mobility live in harmony with nature countries like India ships that span the ocean

CBAM to hit 15-40% WAIT & WATCH NIIF in talk to raise

of steel export: Icra $244 mn for InvIT

T N
he Carbon Border Adjustment ational Investment & Infrastructure
Mechanism (CBAM) framework will Fund is in talks to raise at least ₹2,000
impact 15-40% of steel exports to Europe, crore ($244 million) for an infrastructure
Icra said on Thursday. investment trust (InvIT), according to people
The impact will be seen from the calendar familiar with the matter. The vehicle would
year 2026 to 2034, the rating agency said in a include some assets from Athaang
report.The European Union (EU) is Infrastructure, which operates toll roads,
introducing the CBAM from 1 October. Icra according to one of the people, who declined to
said the EU is the second largest steel- be identified because the information is private.
consuming block globally. It recently signed The investment will be a private placement and
the mechanism laying the framework for the the fund raising should take place by
imposition of taxes on embedded carbon September, another person said. NIIF is India’s
imports from six sectors, which includes steel, first major attempt to develop a capital-raising
aluminium, cement, hydrogen, electricity, and structure on home soil, to tackle a shortfall in
fertilizer. infrastructure spending. Investors include Abu
“...CBAM compliance requirements could Dhabi Investment Authority and Singapore’s
pull down the profits of Indian steel exports to Temasek Holdings Pte, according to its website.
the EU by $60-165/MT between CY 2026 and InvIT are like mutual funds and allow a pooling
CY2034...Failure to reduce the carbon of assets for financing projects and can help
footprint may result in lower profits in EU make up the shortfall in investment. BLOOMBERG
markets,” it said. PTI

People gather on the south lawn of the White House to watch an arrival ceremony organized for the state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in
Washington, US, on Thursday. Indian-Americans, who gathered at the south lawn, chanted ‘USA USA’ ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Modi Modi’. REUTERS

Oil from the field was previously transported

Starlink’s proposal for satellite GAIL beat IOC to win the licence to build the gas
pipeline from Gurdaspur to Jammu. REUTERS
through ships.

ONGC links Panna

BLOOMBERG

broadband faces Jio resistance GAIL wins Jammu-

Punjab pipeline deal
field with pipeline
G
AIL (India) Ltd beat Indian Oil

S
tate-owned Oil and Natural Gas
Corporation (ONGC) on Thursday said it
has linked Panna oilfield in the Arabian
Sea to shore through a sub-sea pipeline,
helping save $43,000 a day in cost that was
previously incurred in transporting crude oil
through ships.
Panna field, which is part of ONGC’s Bassein
Corporation (IOC) to win a licence to
Starlink is lobbying India to not auction the satellite spectrum but just assign licences build a gas pipeline from Gurdaspur in
Punjab to Jammu, oil regulator PNGRB said.
In a statement, Petroleum and Natural Gas
Reuters Starlink is lobbying India to not auction the tion satellite spectrum, and not agree to the Regulatory Board (PNGRB) said it had in
feedback@livemint.com spectrum but just assign licences in line with a demands of foreign companies. January invited application cum bids for grant
NEw dELhI global trend, saying it is a natural resource that The stakes are high for Musk. His push comes of authorization for the Gurdaspur-Jammu
should be shared by companies. An auction may after a 2021 attempt to launch Starlink in India ran pipeline. “The last date for submission of bids

& Satellite (B&S) asset of western offshore,
produces 9,600 barrels of oil per day.
Oil from the field was previously transported
through ships. Now it flows to shore through
the sub-sea pipeline.
“The submarine pipeline connection
minimizes the production downtime
associated with tanker changeovers and
eliminates demurrage charges during adverse
weather conditions,” it said. “These combined
savings and improved operational agility
position ONGC for long-term success in the
offshore oil and gas sector.”
The job involved laying of two segments of
37.50 km of submarine pipeline and
installation of three main oil line pumps (MOL)
and 3 booster pumps.
E
lon Musk is eager to bring his Starlink impose geographical restrictions that will raise afoul of local regulators for taking bookings with- for the Gurdaspur-Jammu natural gas pipeline
satellite broadband to India, but the costs, it said in company letters made public by out a licence, and just as he is in talks with India to was 17 May. Two bidders namely, GAIL (India)
world’s richest man faces strong resist- the government this set up a Tesla fac- Ltd and Indian Oil Corporation have submitted
ance from Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s month. tory. their bids,” it said.
wealthiest, who runs Indian telecom Reliance disa- Reliance has called for an auction of For Ambani, Both bidders were found to be technically
giant Reliance Jio. grees and has called the satellite broadband spectrum in keeping foreign qualified and financial bids were opened on 21
Following a meeting with Prime Minister Nar- for an auction in a competition at bay June. “As per preliminary evaluation of the
endra Modi in the US on Tuesday, Musk said he public submission a public submission to the in satellite broad- financial bids, it appears that GAIL (India) Ltd
was keen to launch Starlink in India which “can be to the government, government band will be another has the highest composite score and is the
incredibly helpful” in remote villages that have no saying foreign satel- shot in the arm - his successful bidder for the Gurdaspur-Jammu
internet or lack high-speed services. lite service provid- Reliance Jio already natural gas pipeline,” it added. PTI
What he didn’t talk about is how Starlink is at ers could offer voice and data services and com- has 439 million telecom users, making it the mar-
odds with Reliance over the government’s distri- pete with traditional telecom players, and so there ket leader, and 8 million wired broadband con-
bution of satellite broadband spectrum, setting must be an auction to achieve a level playing field. nections, a 25% market share.
the stage for a battle between two of the world’s
richest men for satellite services in the world’s
In signs of deepening rivalry, an industry Starlink’s view on auctions is shared by Ama-
source with direct knowledge said Reliance will zon’s satellite internet initiative, Project Kuiper,
Aditya Birla MF cuts
PTI most populous nation. continue nudging the Indian government to auc- and the British government-backed OneWeb.
Bayer Crop stake

A
ditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, a part
SBI Caps to advise of the Aditya Birla Group, on Thursday
Gaganyaan’s first mission in August said it has reduced its stake in Bayer
VIPL over debt CropScience Ltd, the flagship company of the
Bayer Group, by 2%, according to an exchange
Somanath, said on Thursday. filing.

L
enders of Vidarbha Industries Power Ltd
(VIPL), a subsidiary of Reliance Power,
have appointed SBI Caps as an advisor for
its debt resolution process, people familiar to
the matter said.
As per the terms of reference, SBI Caps will
invite bids for the sale or one time settlement
(OTS) of VIPL debt.
It will also lay down evaluation criteria and
recommendations for the anchor bidder.
SBI Caps will follow a fair and transparent
process to ensure the resolution of VIPL’s over
₹2,000 crore outstanding debt, said a person
close to the development.
The responsibility of conducting the Swiss
Chairman of the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO), S Somanath.
Talking to media persons on the
sidelines of an event at the Physical
Research Laboratory (PRL) in
Ahmedabad, he said the test vehicle is
ready at Sriharikota and the assembly
work of the crew module and crew escape
system has also begun.
“For Gaganyaan, the first and foremost
thing is that the abort mission has to be
done. For that, we have made a new
rocket called a test vehicle, which is ready
at Sriharikota. Assemblies of the crew
module and crew escape system are just
PTI getting ready,” Somanath said.
“So I am informed that this month-end
A 500 ml bottle of nano urea liquid will replace at
least one bag of conventional urea.
IFFCO signs deal to
The stake reduction brings Aditya Birla Sun
Life Mutual Fund’s holding in the Bayer
CropScience to 3%.
The 2% stake is estimated to be valued at
₹393 crore based on Tuesday’s closing price.
Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund sold
914,262 shares in Bayer CropScience, reducing
its total holding from 2.25 million shares to 1.34
million shares.
Bayer CropScience’s market capitalization
stood at ₹19,372 crore on Thursday. In the past
MINT year, the company has given a negative return
of -11.5%, lower than the Nifty 50 index’s return
of 22%. MAYUR BHALERAO

export nano urea

Challenge process to maximize the recovery
for lenders will also lie with SBI Caps, they said.
The deadline to complete the resolution
process by SBI Caps is 30 September.
The terms of reference say that SBI Caps,
while executing the process, will ensure
compliance with the RBI guidelines of 8 June
T
he first abort mission for India’s
maiden human spaceflight
‘Gaganyaan’ would be conducted at
the end of August this year, while the
unmanned mission to orbit would take
place next year, chairman of the Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO), S
it will go for a fully functional testing,
vibration testing, etc. So we are hoping
that in August-end or so we will be able to
BIS sets standards
I
fire the launch of this crew abort mission. ndian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd
Then it will be followed by a repeat
mission with different conditions of abort.
(IFFCO) on Thursday said it has signed an
agreement with California-based Kapoor for bio-utensils
This is planned for this year,” he said. PTI Enterprises Inc for export of nano liquid urea to

for the sale of VIPL debt and OTS.
Church of England dumps all oil & gas investments over climate
PTI the US.
The agreement comes at a time when Prime
Minister Narendra Modi is on a state visit to the
US. “IFFCO now started exporting world’s first
nano urea invented and manufactured
indigenously in India by IFFCO to USA,” the
cooperative said in a statement.
T
he Bureau of Indian Standards on
Thursday said it has come out with
quality standards for biodegradable food
utensils amid rising demand for such products.
The standard “IS 18267: 2023” covers various
aspects, including raw materials,
manufacturing techniques, performance, and

C
ampaigners on Thursday hailed a move by the Church of England to
exclude all oil and gas majors from its investment portfolio because of
climate concerns.
The body that manages the Church’s £10.3-billion ($13.1-billion)
endowment fund excluded 20 companies from its list of financial assets two
years ago.
It has now extended the ban to 11 more, including BP, ExxonMobil, Shell
and TotalEnergies, after assessing that none was meeting the goals of the
2015 UN climate accord to tackle global warming.
“With the 2021 exclusions and those announced today, the Church
Commissioners (for England) will have excluded all oil and gas majors,” it
said. “The broader exclusion of all oil and gas exploration, production and
refining companies will follow by the end of 2023.”
The Church of England Pensions Board announced separately that it, too,
would disinvest from fossil fuels. AFP
BP, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies have been banned by the
Church of England for any future investments. REUTERS
As of now, IFFCO exports more than 5 lakh
bottles of nano liquid urea to more than 25
countries. In June 2021, IFFCO launched the
world’s first nano urea fertilizer, while nano
DAP in April this year. A report by E&Y said
that “Green House Gas (GHG) saving from the
usage of 5 bottles of nano urea is equivalent to 1
tree planted.”
A 500 ml bottle of IFFCO nano urea liquid will
replace at least one bag of conventional urea. The
bottle can significantly bring down the cost of
logistics and warehousing. IFFCO have already
sold more than 57 million bottles of the nano urea
liquid in India since its commercial rollout.
LIVEMINT
hygiene requirements for the production of
biodegradable utensils. It specifies the use of
agricultural by-products, such as leaves and
sheaths, as preferred materials for making
plates, cups, bowls, and more. The standard
recommends appropriate parts of plants and
trees and provides manufacturing techniques
like hot pressing, cold pressing, moulding, and
stitching, the BIS said in a statement. It
emphasizes smooth surfaces, non-sharp edges,
and prohibits the use of chemicals, resins, and
adhesives, it added. According to the BIS, the
standard provides comprehensive guidelines
to manufacturers and consumers to maintain
uniformity in quality requirements. PTI
10 Friday, 23 June 2023
MuMbai LONG STORY LIVEMINT.COM

THE NIGHT THE

nICkEL MarkET brOkE
How the LME sleepwalked into a crisis, unaware of a massive short squeeze centered around metals giant Tsingshan

Bloomberg
feedback@livemint.com

M
atthew Chamberlain had
just presided over one of
the wildest days in the his-
tory of metals markets
when he sat down to type a
late-night memo to the UK’s financial reg-
ulator. But the chief executive of the Lon-
don Metal Exchange (LME) was optimis-
tic. It was the evening of 7 March last year
and nickel prices had surged as much as
90% to an unprecedented $55,000 a ton,
causing huge strains across the market. A
large Chinese bank had missed a margin
call in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
was beginning to demand updates.
Now, after a long day of meetings, calls
and emails, Chamberlain summed up the
LME’s position: the price spikes were
explainable because of jitters over Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine, and the market was
still functioning. It didn’t see a need to
intervene.
“We will see where we stand 0800-
0900 tomorrow,” Chamberlain wrote. “If
the nickel price has fallen overnight, we’ll
be in a much better position.” At 9:36 pm,
he pressed send. By the time he woke up at
5:30 am, the market was in chaos.
The broad outlines of what happened in
the nickel market last year are by now well
known. Prices did start rising because of
worries over Russian supply, but by the
time of Chamberlain’s memo the nickel
market was in the grips of a violent
squeeze centered around a short position
built by Xiang Guangda of Tsingshan
Holding Group Co., the world’s top nickel
and stainless steel producer. A few hours
after Chamberlain woke up, the LME
announced it was cancelling all nickel
trades that had taken place on 8 March.
Now, documents made public in a court
hearing this week recount in unforgiving
detail the LME’s fateful decisions in early
March, and how it sleepwalked into a cri-
sis with little precedent in the modern his-
tory of finance.
Across 649 pages of filings and witness
statements, they reveal that the LME was
largely in the dark about Tsingshan’s role A file photo of the London Metal Exchange (LME). The LME’s clearinghouse had never put a member into default since it started operations in 2014. REUTERS
as the major driver of the price spike until
after it had decided to cancel billions of
dollars of nickel trades; that the
exchange’s top decision makers were offices in Shanghai, Xiang was coming to Tsingshan had not paid margin calls to it. mint booking trades. At 4:49 am, they sus- need to pay their first margin call of the
asleep as the market spiraled out of con- the opposite view. Like Elliott, Xiang, Defaults are not an everyday occur- SHORT pended them altogether. day by 9 am, based on prices prevailing at
trol; and that Chamberlain made the key who’s known as ‘Big Shot’ in Chinese rence on the LME, or any other exchange. STORY around 7 am. If that had happened on 8
decision that the market was disorderly in commodities circles, also has a history of The LME’s clearinghouse had never put a Dizzying ASCenT March, the LME would have needed to
about 20 minutes after he woke up on 8
March—unaware until much later that the
LME’s staff had allowed prices to move
betting big. He’d built Tsingshan from a
modest start into a global metals behe-
moth, and now he was backing himself to
member into default since it started oper-
ations in 2014. That CCBI, as the unit is
known, was unable to pay its margin call
WHAT I t was soon after this that nickel prices request $19.75 billion from 28 banks and
started the most dizzying part of their brokers—an unprecedented sum that was
ascent. By the time Chamberlain woke up, more than 10 times the previous daily
more rapidly by disabling its own auto- deliver again: with plans to boost produc- was a sign of the extreme stress on the On 7 March last year, nickel at 5:30 am, the price was already $60,000 record before March 2022.
matic volatility controls. tion significantly, he reckoned prices market. prices surged 90% to a ton. In the next 38 minutes, it rose LME executives were bombarded with
could only fall. He started building up a As prices surged, the LME began to $55,000 a ton. Tsingshan another $40,000. calls and emails from panicking brokers.
DeATh SPirAl large nickel short position. hold discussions about whether and how Holding Group Co., the world’s “The abandonment of price bands “We will not be able to meet intra-day

T he LME has acknowledged that it has By February 2022, it was clear that
lessons to learn from the events of last Elliott’s view of the market was prevailing.
year, but insists it acted in the best inter- Stocks were low, demand for nickel in
it should respond. The key question at the
time, and one raised repeatedly during
this week’s legal case, is whether the mar-
top nickel and stainless steel
producer, built a short position.
caused or at least materially contributed margin calls,” one wrote, warning of their
to the speed and scale of the increase in company’s imminent bankruptcy. “We
prices,” Jane Street said in its court filing. are in serious difficulties and will be
ests of the market to avoid a “death spiral” electric car batteries was booming, and ket had become “disorderly.” “Without price bands in place, the LME invoking actions to halt the business.”
that threatened to bankrupt a dozen banks traders were fretting that supplies from LME executives discussed suspending And could not control price volatility at all.” Another requested a call with “someone
and brokers and posed a risk to the wider Russia could be cut off. the market on a call on the morning of Chamberlain spent 20 minutes search- senior” at the LME to convey their com-
financial system. “Wow,” Elliott’s contact at JPMorgan March 7. By 1:30 pm, with prices up 60% The London Metal Exchange ing on his phone for a real-world explana- pany’s “pain.”
“The LME is not meant to be a specta- said in an instant message. “We did that at for the day, James Cressy, the LME’s chief was in the dark about Tsingshan’s tion for the price move – browsing Bloom- One member, who was among roughly
tor,” Jonathan Crow, a lawyer for the the right time.” operating officer, said in an email that role as the major driver of the berg, the Financial Times and Google – 10 brokers through which Tsingshan held
LME, said in court on Wednesday. “It is The market started trading in a self-re- there was “a question of how orderly the spike until after it had decided before concluding that the market was its short position, wrote to Chamberlain
meant to be operating an orderly market inforcing cycle, known as a “short mkt is and whether we suspend.” to cancel billions of dollars disorderly. “I had never witnessed such saying: “You shouldn’t have opened in
and then it must intervene in moments of squeeze.” Higher prices forced Xiang to Still, nickel continued to trade. of nickel trades. extreme price movements in nickel (or Asia—now you have to cancel trades and
disorder.” post more margin, leading him to reduce But in a recognition of the strains any other metal traded on the Exchange) reset to the London close.”
However, its handling of the saga has his position by buying back contracts— spreading through the market, the LME’s before,” he recalled. At 7:30 am, Chamberlain led a confer-
been criticized by everyone from the and so pushing up prices further. clearinghouse resolved to stop making noW Chamberlain wasn’t aware that his ence call for the senior management of
International Monetary Fund to Citadel Yet the LME remained largely unaware margin calls until the following morn- operations team had suspended the price LME and LME Clear, as well as several
Securities’ Ken Griffin. And the crisis of Tsingshan’s role in driving prices ing—giving members more time to find Hedge fund Elliott Investment bands, as he made his pivotal decision to executives from its parent company
threatened the existence of the 146-year- higher as the chaotic events unfolded. cash, but also potentially exposing LME Management and trading firm suspend the nickel market. In his witness HKEX. They agreed to suspend the mar-
old LME itself. In the The LME’s senior Clear to a greater risk if prices moved even Jane Street are seeking statement, he said that ket as soon as possible.
words of its chief risk management first higher. $472 million in damages. Even if the information No minutes were taken.
officer, the situation car- The LME has acknowledged became aware of Tsing- When the LME’s “Special Committee” the LME prevails, it faces an uphill wouldn’t have affected Elliott sold 9,660 tons By now, Elliott had sold
ried “a significant risk of that it has lessons to shan’s short position met at 4 pm, it decided that the market struggle to rebuild its reputation. the decision, as the price of nickel at the elevated 9,660 tons of nickel at
market collapse leaving when Bloomberg wrote should remain open. The nickel price would have risen any- the elevated prices of 8
the LME unable to func- learn, but insists it acted about it on 14 February, move could be explained by geopolitical way, even if the trading prices of 8 March March via three brokers.
tion as a venue for the in the best interests of according to the witness and macroeconomic factors, it concluded, fund’s traders sent a series of orders to curbs were still in place. via three brokers. It The bulk of it was sold, in
world’s non-ferrous statements. However, deciding not to impose any limits on the their broker, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., “Wow,” Elliott’s con- a single trade, via
metals markets.” the market to avoid while Chamberlain market. About half an hour later, Cham- seeking to sell nickel should the price rise tact at JPMorgan said in stood to make a profit of JPMorgan Chase &
The outcome of the recognized that the posi- berlain was forwarded a market commen- to certain predetermined levels. an instant message. “We Co.—in a deal that was
legal battle playing out a “death spiral” . tion was large, he did not tary from an LME broker that read, “How The nickel market opened as usual at 1 did that at the right $50,000 a ton. confirmed at 8:14 am.
this week in London’s see it as “a particular closely do you need to monitor a market to am. As Farnham and Chamberlain slept, time.” Having sold at an aver-
High Court could be similarly existential cause for concern,” and therefore did not spot something is not quite right !!!!!!!” the market was calm for a few hours, but The exchange still didn’t have a handle age price of just over $75,000 a ton, Elliott
for the LME. Hedge fund Elliott Invest- request any further information. then resumed its rise as panicky banks on the scale or the importance of Tsing- stood to make a profit of around $50,000
ment Management and trading firm Jane To BeD sought to reduce their exposure to Tsing- shan’s position—the real reason behind a ton on its bullish bet.
Street are seeking $472 million in dama- MArgin CAllS
ges in a judicial review, but the $12 billion
of trades the LME cancelled on 8 March is W ithout that, the LME only had
access to data about Tsingshan’s
A nd when the LME’s key decision
makers went to bed, CCBI’s margin
call remained unpaid. By that time, the
shan by covering part of the short position.
Jane Street alleges the very fact that the
LME’s key decision makers were asleep
the runaway rally. “Wow,” Elliott’s contact at JPMorgan
Gay Huey Evans, the LME’s chair, had said in an instant message. “We did that at
asked for an update on Tsingshan’s posi- the right time.”
more than 100 times its annual profit. on-exchange position, and not the portion exchange’s executives were becoming was a breach of the exchange’s regulatory tion the previous evening, but when the But the real bombshell was still to come.
Even if the LME prevails, it faces an uphill of its position that was held bilaterally, or increasingly concerned. duties, since it meant that “no-one had FCA asked that morning what was driving At 9 am, the LME held a 52-minute call to
struggle to rebuild its reputation among over-the-counter. Bloomberg has since At 8:47 pm, Adrian Farnham, the chief been monitoring transactions in order to the nickel price, an LME staffer did not discuss what to do next. It considered and
investors and an ongoing investigation reported that Tsingshan’s total position executive of LME Clear, sent a WhatsApp assess whether there were disorderly even mention the possibility of a short rejected several options, including allow-
from the FCA. was five times the size of the on-exchange message to Nicolas Aguzin, the chief exec- trading conditions.” The LME disputes squeeze. “This is, as you’d expect, related ing the trades of 8 March to stand, allowing
part the LME could see. utive of LME parent company Hong Kong that it was in breach. to the ongoing situation in Ukraine,” he them to stand but changing their price,
Big BeTS On the morning of 7 March, nickel pri- Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. He asked What oversight there was came from wrote. Chamberlain said he “was not and allowing them to stand but calling

S ix months before the crisis, in Septem- ces leapt to $36,000 a ton, and the strains
ber 2021, traders at Elliott had started were becoming apparent in the market.
placing a bet that nickel prices would rise. Four LME brokers were late in paying
Aguzin to try to speak to China Construc-
tion Bank, ‘because obviously we can’t
really allow’ its CCBI unit ‘to not pay again.’
the exchange’s trading operations team.
They were in charge of operating the
LME’s price bands, a form of speed bump
aware of Tsingshan being in any diffi- margin based on the prices of the previous
culty” until later that day. day. Finally, Chamberlain made the deci-
That morning, CCBI, having enlisted sion to cancel the entire trading session.
The hedge fund, run by billionaire Paul their margin calls that morning. Nonetheless, Farnham, like Chamber- designed to limit extreme price moves, support from its parent company, paid its On 9 March, as recriminations flew and
Singer and best known as an activist One of them, a unit of China Construc- lain, remained optimistic. “I went to bed such as in the case of “fat finger” trades. margin call from the previous day. with the nickel market still closed, Cham-
shareholder and ferocious litigator, is a tion Bank Corp., was unable to pay a mar- expecting that the nickel price would But in the early hours of 8 March, the berlain finally held his first call with
significant player in commodity markets gin call in the hundreds of millions of dol- come back down,” he said in a witness operations team received numerous com- PAniCking BrokerS Tsingshan.
with a taste for big wagers . lars for the entire day. It told the LME that
Around the same time, at Tsingshan’s the reason was because clients including
statement. Elliott, on the other hand, was
preparing for prices to spike. The hedge
plaints from market participants that the
price bands were preventing them from B ut now there was a new problem. Bro- The same day, Elliott’s lawyers wrote
kers on the LME would normally their first letter to the LME.
LIVEMINT.COM
NRIs: Here’s what you need
to know when writing a will
NRIs must draft a will in accordance with Indian Succession Act for it to be valid in the country
Satya Sontanam
satya.sontanam@livemint.com
A
testament or will is inte-
gral to estate planning for
everybody, be it resident
Indians or non-resident
Indians (NRIs). Estate
planning is aimed at ensuring that your
wealth and assets are distributed
according to your wishes after your
death. Yet, in case of NRIs, there are
specific considerations to keep in mind
for estate planning.
Rishabh Shroff, co-partner and
head-private client at Cyril Amarchand
Mangaldas, addresses some of the fre-
quently asked questions on estate plan-
ning for NRIs in an interview with Mint.
Edited excerpts:
WHEN TESTATOR IS AN NRI
Can NRIs prepare a will for their
assets in India?
When individuals reside overseas,
they often come into possession of two
categories of assets. First, they may
have assets located in the country they
reside in, including a local bank
account, and properties. Second, they
may possess self-acquired or inherited
assets in India. In such cases, it is advis-
able to draft two separate wills. One
that pertains to their global assets out-
side of India and another that specifi-
cally address their Indian assets. These
two wills operate concurrently. The
Indian will must comply with Indian
laws, both at the time of drafting and in
relation to any probate, if applicable.
Should the NRI be present in India
when writing an Indian will?
Physical presence is not required to
draft a will governing Indian assets. It
can be drafted anywhere in the world
and will be valid as long as it follows the
requirements under the Indian Succes-
sion Act. The will needs to be signed by
the testator (the individual drafting the
will) and two witnesses. There is no
other requirement.
For wills relating to foreign assets,
the requirements will vary depending
on the country in which the will is to be
executed. For example, in Singapore,
the requirements are more or less the
same as in India.
Can witnesses be NRIs as well?
Yes. But, at the probate stage, the
witnesses may need to submit an affi-
davit to the Indian court that they were
indeed witness to the testator signing
the will. Depending on where the NRI
witnesses reside, a letter to that effect
from a notary in their home jurisdiction
would also suffice.
Can the will be signed via video
conferencing with witnesses from
India?
This is not permitted under Indian
law. The law requires that the two wit-
nesses be physically present when the
will is being signed.
Is it recommended to have an exec-
utor in India?
Yes, it is strongly advisable. An execu-
tor is an individual appointed by the
person drafting a will (referred to as the
testator) to carry out the instructions
and wishes stated in the will after their
death. Executors have bigger responsi-
bilities, requiring physical visits to the
concerned court as well. They may need
to fulfil various legal formalities, render
accounts, etc. Note that the Indian Suc-
cession Act allows more than one exec-
utor to be appointed, and hence you can
HOW YOUNG INCOME EARNERS CAN START THEIR RETIREMENT PLANNING EARLIER
POWER
POINT
NISREEN MAMAJI
We welcome your views and comments at
mintmoney@livemint.com
M
any young income-earners often overlook the impor-
tance of retirement planning. However, starting early
can have a significant impact on their financial future.
The following tips can help young individuals who want to take
the first steps in their retirement planning journey.
Inflation and compounding: Beginning your retirement
planning and investment journey at a young age allows you to
stay ahead of inflation during your retirement years. Inflation
erodes the purchasing power of money, so it is essential to ensure
that your savings grow at a rate that keeps up with rising living
costs.
Compounding is another powerful concept that can work
wonders for your retirement savings. Contributions made early
and consistently can generate substantial growth over time due
to compounding. For example, a monthly SIP (systematic invest-
ment plan) of ₹20,000 for 25 years, yielding 12% annualized
MINT MONEY Friday, 23 June 2023
MuMbai 11
WHAT'S THE FOREX RATE?
Whether you are planning
overseas travel or want to
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
some of the major banks
and travel aggregators. We
recommend that you also
check the commission being
charged by these players to
NRI succession and inheritance tax ensure that you are getting
the best deal.
When it comes to global estate planning for NRIs, both as testators (who draft a will) and as legal heirs
(who inherit properties), there are specific considerations to keep in mind. Here are the key points: FOREX RATES (/$)
Wire transfer* Buy forex
Bank/travel
TESTATOR WITNESSES aggregator inward Outward Forex/travel card Cash
 Advisable to have  Witnesses can be NRIs Registration
SBI 81.37 82.87 NA 83.50
separate wills for foreign as well of will
assets and Indian assets When NRI
 Witnesses must be  Not mandatory Bank of Baroda 81.69 82.50 82.90 83.30
 Physical presence in is drafting physically present, video  Ensures authenticity
India is not required a will conferencing is not allowed of the will and the Canara Bank 81.75 82.47 82.68 NA
 At the probate stage, testator's signature
IndusInd Bank 80.59 83.59 84.38 84.68
EXECUTOR
witnesses may have to give  Can be done
an affidavit to Indian court abroad at the local Kotak Bank^ 80.63 83.55 83.95 84.52
 Plays an important role that they witnessed the embassy
 Strongly advisable to have a executor in India sign HDFC 80.85 83.43 83.68 84.24
 To register in India,
for Indian will  A notarized letter from NRI must physically be
 Physical visits to court would be required their home jurisdiction present in India ICICI 80.3 83.90 83.69 85.25
 You can have more than 1 executor in a will would also suffice
Axis Bank 79.81 84.60 85.30 85.05
Source: With inputs from Rishabh Shroff, co-partner and head-private client at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas
Yes Bank 80.66 83.51 84.42 84.42
Thomas Cook 80.53 83.43 83.27 83.64
Country-specific rules
Note: Data collected from website of respective entities as on 21 June 2023; Rate denotes INR/USD; Rates are as mentioned
A few countries levy inheritance tax, typically ranging around 10%-55%. Citizenship, on the website of the bank/FI and it may vary according to different amount slabs; *Telegraphic Transfer (TT) buying and
residency, value and location of the inherited assets determine such tax. selling rates used. ^As on 20 June 2023.
Compiled by BankBazaar.com
Inheritance Applicable on NRI
law in place? inheriting Indian assets?
When legal heir US  
is an NRI
 NRIs can inherit any
asset
Canada
UK




Not payable by NRIs,
PIOs, or foreign citizens
or immigrants if the
property is in India
How can I reduce premium of
 NRIs are not required
to come to India
 Can appoint a power
UAE   Joint will for UAE
assets is not allowed
medical insurance cover?
of attorney to handle European Union#  
legal matters in India
Forced heirship rules Abhishek Bondia
 NRIs are permitted to Singapore   apply for assets in some
remit up to $1 million per European countries*
year as capital Australia   I am 57 years old and have
 Inheritance tax might # In a few countries
no previous history of ill-
kick in in some countries *Forced heirship mandates how certain portion of the deceased's estate has to be distributed nesses. Can you suggest
Source: with inputs from Monika Taparia, legal head, AasaanWill how can I get medical
insurance with coverage of
2. UAE - ₹10 lakh while minimizing
consider having one local executor WHEN LEGAL HEIR IS AN NRI ation of sale proceeds of inherited the premium cost as much
based in India, and an NRI as well if property? as possible?
required in certain circumstances. What considerations should one NRIs are permitted to remit up to $1 — Name withheld on request
Does the registration of a will hold keep in mind when drafting a will million per year as capital, in addition
more significance for NRIs? for a legal heir residing abroad? to an unlimited amount of current Health insurance premiums
The benefits and drawbacks remain The Foreign Exchange Management income (subject to evaluation to con- increase with age. If you are
unchanged regardless of the person’s Act (FEMA) 1999, rules would be appli- firm it qualifies as current income). If looking to lower your premi-
residency. The primary advantage of cable in such cases. The primary issue the sale proceeds of the inherited prop- ums, you can choose one of the
registration is to establish the authen- that an NRI will face when planning for erty exceed this limit, the remittance following restrictions: co-pay- salary of ₹70,000, your gross
ASK MINT
ticity of the will and the testator’s signa- inheritance from India would be the may need to be spread out over multi- ment, deductibles or room m income is estimated around
ture, thereby avoiding any dispute on exchange control limits on the funds ple financial years. While it is theoreti- rent capping. Such restrictions INSURANCE ₹80,000 per month or ₹9.6
these specific grounds. If that can be remitted out- cally and legally possible to apply to the reduce the claim eligibility, lakh per annum. Accordingly,
such concerns do not Legal heir’s side India. Likewise, if RBI for permission to remit a larger thus help in reducing the pre- you may face deduction of you should consider buying a
exist, registration can be agricultural land is amount, the chances of obtaining such mium. approximately 50% on the sum assured of ₹1 crore or
residency is
omitted. It is important involved and needs to be permission are extremely slim. Co-payment is the most overall bill amount. However, more.
for NRIs to be physically irrelevant and the bequeathed to an NRI The NRI can consider leasing the straightforward. For each and if you opt for a room costing At your age, an insurer may
present in India for regis- NRI heirs are not heir, or if a testamentary property or reinvest the excess sale every claim, the insurer would ₹5,000 or less, then there be willing to offer a higher
tering a will in the coun- strictly obliged to trust (a trust that comes proceeds into a more suitable property deduct the proportionate would be no deduction. multiple of coverage as well,
try. They can also con- visit India for into effect after the death for the long term instead. co-payment amount. So, if the Do note that none of these up to 20 times. If you expect
sider attesting the will asset transfer of the testator) is created What about the levy of inheritance co-payment is 10% for a claim conditions reduce your ability your annual income to
abroad at the local with NRIs as beneficiaries, tax? of ₹10 lakh, you would be eligi- to claim for a certain ailment, increase substantially over the
embassy as per an estab- they need to take proper India does not impose an inheritance ble to receive ₹9 lakh. or restrict the choice of hospi- next few years, then you may
lished process. legal advice. tax or estate duty at present, and there Deductible stipulates an tal. want to consider a sum assured
Can a will written and registered Are there any limitations for an are no indications of the current gov- absolute threshold beyond between ₹1 crore and ₹2 crore.
outside India be enforced in the NRI legal heir who wishes to sell an ernment intending to reintroduce such which a claim becomes paya- I am 32 years old and my This will help you plan more
country? inherited property? a tax. However, it is important to note ble. If the claim amount is monthly take-home salary efficiently for the future.
Indeed, it is possible. This scenario is No, it is common for NRIs to sell off that many countries do levy an estate below the deductible, nothing is ₹70,000. I allocate 40% Do note that life insurance
quite common when an NRI has a com- inherited properties as they may not duty, typically ranging around 40%. is payable. You could choose of this amount towards premiums are locked-in at the
prehensive ‘global’ will covering both want the responsibility and costs asso- The citizenship and residency of the for an annual aggregate household expenses and time of entry. The premium
Indian and foreign assets. If probate or ciated with managing old ancestral testator and legal heir, and the location deductible of around ₹25,000. currently have no liabili- would remain fixed for the
legal processes are completed for such a properties. However, it is important for of the properties play a key role in Room rent capping is the ties. My dependents entire duration of the term.
will in the foreign country, it can be NRIs to ensure that the title transfer determining the tax levy. Therefore, least preferred option, as the include my parents, wife, Abhishek Bondia is principal
applied to the relevant Indian court to process is handled carefully as per law. when NRIs engage in global estate adjudication process is more and a child. How much life officer and managing director
have it authenticated. The specific pro- This may involve filing for probate, if planning, it becomes crucial for them complex. However, if you insurance coverage should at SecureNow.in.
cedure may vary among Indian courts, applicable, and ensuring that the title to carefully consider the tax efficiency manage to get a hospital room I consider obtaining?
but generally, the Indian court will documents are appropriately mutated of bequests made under their wills (or within the room rent limit, — Name withheld on request Do you have a personal
review the foreign will and its probate in their favour. By doing so, the NRI can even lifetime gifts). Failure to do so then there would be no deduc- finance query? Send in your
based on its merits. If deemed appropri- establish a clear and marketable title may result in significant tax liability for tion at all. For example, if the The general rule of thumb is queries at
ate, the court will issue relevant orders to for the property, which can potentially their family members. policy provides for a room rent to buy a life cover equal to ten mintmoney@livemint.com
and get them answered by
extend its applicability to Indian assets. get a better sale price as well. (For an extended version of this story, of ₹5,000, and you opt for a times of one’s annual income.
industry experts.
In almost all cases, this is never an issue. What are the limits on the repatri- go to livemint.com) room costing ₹10,000, then Considering the take-home
return, can give you a corpus of ₹3.76 crore as a retirement cor- is crucial in designing an investment strategy that aligns with
pus. Post-retirement, it is important to earn returns which are your financial goals. If you have a higher risk appetite, consider
inflation-adjusted.Thereafter, you can start withdrawing about
₹2.5 lakh as monthly income from your corpus for the next 20
investing in multi-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap funds that offer
the potential for greater returns. However, it is essential to diver-
years. This withdrawal can be increased by 5% every year to keep sify your investments to manage and mitigate risks effectively.
pace with inflation. Diversification helps balance potential gains and losses, reducing
Starting small: Many young income-earners mistakenly the overall volatility of your portfolio.
believe that significant sums of money are required to start Balancing multiple goals: As a young individual, you may
investing. However, the key is to develop a habit of regular and have various financial goals alongside
consistent savings and investments, regardless of the initial It is also retirement, such as purchasing a car,
amount. Starting small is perfectly fine, as long as you are com- important to homeownership, marriage or your
mitted to contributing consistently. Over time, even small but
regular contributions can accumulate into significant savings have a safety net children’s education. It is important to
integrate retirement planning with
over the long-term. in the form of these goals and leverage the power of
Emergency fund: While retirement planning is crucial, it is an emergency compounding to ensure you have suf-
equally important to have a safety net in the form of an emer- fund ficient funds for each objective.
gency fund. Set aside about 10% of your income to build an emer- Seeking professional help: Con-
gency fund. This fund will help you navigate unexpected sider consulting certified financial
expenses or financial hardships without having to dip into your planners as retirement planning can be complex. They can help
retirement savings prematurely. Having an emergency fund pro- you create a plan tailored to your specific needs and goals. They
vides peace of mind and protects your long-term financial goals. investments can be around 9%, effectively combating the impact can assist with goal planning, provide investment advice and
The right investments: If you are in your 20s to mid-30s, of inflation. However, if you are starting later, a balanced portfo- review your portfolio periodically. Their expertise will help to
consider allocating 100% of your savings towards equity invest- lio consisting of 40:60 combination of debt and equity invest- keep your retirement goals on track.
ments. Historically, equities have been the ideal asset class for ments may be more suitable. This will, however, impact the Retirement planning may not be a top priority for young
long-term growth, consistently outperforming inflation. The retirement corpus since debt or fixed income will earn a lower income-earners, but starting early and making informed invest-
average annual rolling return of the Sensex is 14%; factor in an real rate of return. ment decisions can lay the foundation for a secure financial future.
inflation rate of 5%, and you will find that the real return on equity Assessing risk tolerance: Understanding your risk tolerance Nisreen Mamaji is founder of MoneyWorks Financial Services
12 Friday, 23 June 2023
MuMbai
OUR VIEW
Artificial music will not
come to rule our hearts
Artificial intelligence can enrich but not subvert music as we know it, which at its true best
is a poetic endeavour of human emotion, enterprise and originality. Trust poetry to prevail
L
ast week, Paul McCartney’s mention
of a last John Lennon song left fans
giddy in anticipation of its release. A
cassette recorded in the New York flat
of the late Beatles member has been
cleaned up by artificial intelligence
(AI) and is slated for its debut this year, more
than four decades after he was killed. Imagine
that. While AI is expected to impact almost
every field, we must not lose track of what it
can do in the world of chords and keys, vocals
and ear-worms, melody and harmony. Of late,
voice synthesis by AI has been evoking much
wonder. All it takes is a singer’s voice sample
for software to generate and belt out songs in
it. Such vocal cloning has raised worries of
intellectual property theft, even as vocalists
spot a pay-per-use opportunity. Who deserves
credit for AI-aided or generated output is
another question. How can an AI-suffused
market share its rewards evenly enough so that
artists keep up their art and audiences also stay
satisfied? Or what if AI is poised to grab the
very core of this business? It’s not just graphic
equalizers, the whole music industry has been
thrown into flux by technology.
It was a sign of the times that Grammy
Awards recently revised its rulebook for next
year’s contest to include clauses specifying any
AI use in song production. This move was also
a high-profile nod to AI’s ability to confuse
human judges about what constitutes award-
worthy talent. Music has always used digital
and other instrumental aids to enhance
results, with human creators credited for the
work, but AI marks a sharp departure for its
human-like agency in making music. An entire
composition could be done by AI and we
would not be able to make that out. It would, of
Our PLI schemes are in need of a coherent trade policy
SAtyA SAhu
T
he recent spat between former
Reserve Bank of India governor
Raghuram Rajan and electronics and
information technology minister Ashwini
Vaishnaw over the former’s criticism of the
production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme
for semiconductors and other manufactur-
ing sectors is part of an ongoing debate on
India’s manufacturing policies.
is a researcher with the Rajan argues that PLI schemes alone do
high-tech geopolitics not add value to electronics and semicon-
programme at Takshashila ductors, even though value addition is a key
Institution, Bangalore. objective of the ministry’s 2022 vision docu-
ment. It aims to increase India’s electronics
exports to $300 billion by 2025-26 from
$25.3 billion in 2022-23, and deepen inte-
gration with global value chains (GVCs).
Rajan has also previously questioned the
rationale of giving subsidies to industries
that would anyway have invested in India to
access its rapidly-growing consumer base.
His criticisms knock the effectiveness of the
PLI schemes as industrial policy instru-
ments to kick-start domestic manufacturing.
VIEWS
ISTOCKPHOTO
Fear not extinction at the hands
of artificial general intelligence
AGI isn’t a mortal threat but humankind should be wary of human misuse that could wreak havoc
JASPREET BINDRA
is a technology expert, author of ‘The Tech
Whisperer’, and is currently pursuing his
Masters in AI and Ethics from Cambridge
University
I
recently participated in a panel dis-
cussion with a rather bombastic title:
‘Is Singularity Here? AI vs. Human:
What will be the new reality?’ Elon
Musk has been musing on the same Sin-
gularity, saying that “The advent of arti-
ficial general intelligence is called the
Singularity because it is so hard to pre-
dict what will happen after that.” He
also speculated that this would bestow
us “an age of abundance” but there was
“some chance” that it “destroys human-
ity.” Geoffrey Hinton, an acknowledged
‘godfather’ of AI, recently confessed to
CBS News that general purpose AI may
course, all be artificial. After all, AI music tools be here in 20 years or less, not in 20-50
are trained on vast datasets of tones, formats, years, as he earlier thought.
With the advent of AI and the Gener-
genres, lyrics, moods, voices, etc, and what ative AI tidal wave, talking about Singu-
they deliver is drawn from what already exists larity and AGI (or Artificial General
in digital format. In other words, all AI can Intelligence) has become fashionable.
serve us are souped-up remixes. Yet, so long as The concept is much older, though, and
these can express emotions and convey what was probably coined by the brilliant
polymath John von Neumann. In the
humans do, they could pass off as authentic for 1950s, Neumann talked about how
the most part. And therein lies the rub. Will the “the ever-accelerating progress of tech-
global market of listeners prove discerning nology” could lead to “some essential
enough? Or will musicians find their roles singularity in the history of the race.”
automated by machines for the sake of cost (bit.ly/3Pja8UJ). In recent years, Ray
Kurzweil, a futurist and computer
and time efficiency? scientist, has championed singularity.
It comes down to whether creativity as a Kurzweil, along with Peter Diamandis,
human faculty is over- or under-rated by music set up Singularity University in the US,
listeners. How the market evolves isn’t easy to which advocates the concepts of abun-
predict, but we can expect human ingenuity to dance, exponential technologies like AI,
and, of course, singularity. (Disclaimer: I
rise to this challenge. While a computer could
be made to churn out emotions it has been fed
and concoct rhythms and beats that are likely
to sound like soul soothers going by an analysis
of past response data, there exists no actual
heart from which any of it springs. This should
lend real artists an edge over digital wannabes. www.livemint.com
Learning has its limits, too; even the ultimate
learning machine cannot learn the emotions of CONTENT PARTNER
a uniquely led life in all its finer nuances. The SENSEX 18,540.89 æ 233.35
BILATERAL RELATIONS
India, US
words, melodies and sounds that move us seek a fresh
usually come from somewhere deep within, be
start to ties
US vice­president Biden
it the pain of unrequited love, the anguish of
to visit India in July;
Kerry says the two
nations have reaffirmed
commitment to N­deal
B Y E LIZABETH R OCHE
oppression or the grief of losing a loved one.
elizabeth.r@livemint.com
·························
NEW DELHI
I n a sign that India and the
US are seeking a fresh start to
their bilateral relationship,
which lost focus in the last four
years following the change in
presidency, both sides are get-
Humans are imperfectly perfect, and this must
ting ready for an exchange of
high-level visits, beginning with
that of US vice-president Joe Bi-
den to India next month.
This is significant because the
US has begun to recalibrate its
global strategy by seeking a re-
balance of power in Asia, which
at present is dominated by Chi-
flow into art for it to qualify as art. A real song
na. A closer relationship with In-
dia, along with its historical links
with Japan, will give the US the
right pivot on which to effect its
global strategy.
US secretary of state John Ker-
ry, on a three-day visit to India
for the fourth India-US strategic
dialogue, on Monday made the
or musical composition is a form of poetry,
announcement of Biden’s visit
after talks with his Indian host,
external affairs minister Salman
Khurshid in New Delhi.
“This (India-US) is a very im-
portant relationship,” Kerry said
after the talks. “In furtherance of
this dialogue and in effort to
keep the high level that we think
defined broadly as a soul bared to us. And soul-
that this relationship deserves,
vice-president Joe Biden will be
visiting India in late July in order
to continue this dialogue.”
On security issues Kerry said
India and the US “share a very
specific and similar vision for
peace, democracy and stability
in Asia and in the Indian and
baring of the kind that can win hearts is best
Pacific ocean” as well as Af-
left to human beings. Lennon was right about
not being the world’s only dreamer. And that’s
Mint is also available for R7 with
Hindustan Times in Delhi-NCR only
another point in favour of real music.
GUEST VIEW
Vaishnaw rejected Rajan’s concerns as marked by a tendency to raise tariffs, particu- vantaging domestic ICT manufacturers as
being politically coloured, and maintains larly since 2015, as the moving parts of Aat- they compete on cost with other global play-
that PLI schemes are necessary to promote manirbhar Bharat gained momentum. Initi- ers. Indeed, India’s attempts at kick-starting
manufacturing in India. atives such as the Phased Manufacturing large-scale ICT manufacturing ignores the
This debate is conspicuously silent on a Programme for smartphones gradually uncomfortable realities of GVCs, which are
critical aspect of manufacturing strategy— increased import duties on components. essentially networks of production stages
trade policy. A coherent trade policy reduces Basic Customs Duty on components such as across countries that create the value of the
tariff barriers and incentivizes technology display assemblies and camera modules rose final product. It is unrealistic to expect the
transfers from countries and companies that to 22% by 2020-21 from nil in 2015. Addi- raw materials, technologies and human cap-
dominate the production of information and tionally, ad hoc tariff hikes are inconsistent ital needed to produce these components to
communication technology (ICT) hardware with India’s obligations under the ITA-1, as all be present in one geographic area.
and semiconductors. the WTO has recently ruled in a dispute filed Ideally, the prospect of accessing India’s
India wants to emulate China, Taiwan and by the EU, Japan and Taiwan. rapidly-growing demand should have con-
Vietnam by improving domestic infrastruc- Meanwhile, India’s
ture and logistics alongside providing tax electronics imports have
breaks and financial incentives for ICT man- risen to $69.7 billion in QUICK READ
ufacturing. However, there is no effort to 2021-22 from $39.8 bil-
emulate their liberalized trade policies. Over lion in 2015, showing India’s PLI scheme is being hotly direct investment (FDI),
the decades, the three countries combined that India’s tariff barriers debated but we must also talk
a low- or zero-tariff regime enabled by the have not reduced Indian about our trade policy that has
World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Infor- dependence on foreign seen tariffs and input costs go
mation Technology Agreement (ITA-1) and suppliers; they have up, thus counter-productively
a litany of free trade agreements, alongside merely ensured that hurting domestic producers.
foreign investment, research and develop- what gets imported are
ment, and industrial policy reforms. input materials that we New Delhi should lower trade semiconductor sectors,
The resultant ecosystem attracted com- do not produce locally. barriers so that local producers
panies—Intel, AMD and Qualcomm, to name High tariffs also make can compete better globally
a few—looking to set up different parts of high-quality compo- and boost value generation here ment and GVC integra-
their supply-chain operations. nents from foreign sup- even as it smoothens integration tion, bypassing the sup-
India’s trade policy, on the other hand, is pliers expensive, disad- with global value chains.
New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh*, Pune*
NIFTY 5,590.25 æ 77.40
ghanistan.
Lalit Mansingh, former foreign
secretary and ex-ambassador to
the US, said the Biden visit was
“politically significant” and will
be seen as reassuring to both
sides.
“The vice-president enjoys the
confidence of the president
(Barack Obama). Biden is a dif-
ferent kind of vice-president who
has more executive powers than
others. He can discuss matters of
substance.”
A person close to the develop-
ments said both countries were
working on a visit to the US by
Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh in September by which
time the two sides are hoping
that Nuclear Power Corp. of In-
dia Ltd (NPCIL) and Westing-
house Electric Co. LLC will con-
clude a commercial pact for a
1,000MW atomic power plant in
Bhavnagar district in Gujarat.
This follows India and the US
clinching a landmark pact in
2008 that overturned more than
three decades of international
embargoes against India buying
nuclear power plants, equip-
ment and associated technology
from the global market.
That US firms have so far not
been able to reach commercial
deals with India’s NPCIL—
thanks to stringent Indian rules
regarding compensation and lia-
bility in the event of an acci-
dent—has been an irritant for
the US given that it was the ad-
ministration headed by then
president George W. Bush that
pushed the deal through.
It could also negate criticism
that India-US ties, that warmed
considerably during the years of
the Bush presidency, seem to
have plateaued under the
Obama administration.
Kerry on Monday said that In-
dia and the US had “reaffirmed
their commitment to the full and
timely implementation of the
civil nuclear deal”. He added lat-
er that both sides “agreed that it
(the deal) should be arrived at by
September this year”.
Referring to the strategic dia-
logue, Kerry said India and the
US had discussed a series of sub-
jects from defence co-produc-
tion and co-development to
space co-operation, health, edu-
cation and procurement issues.
Describing India and the US as
“two of the most powerful econ-
omies in the world,” Kerry said
he was of the view that two-way
trade could be increased from
TURN TO PAGE 4®
ALSO SEE
Ending the drift in India­US ties
vinced MNCs to set up
local manufacturing or
assembly operations via
tariff-jumping foreign
where foreign companies
invest in a subsidiary in
another country to avoid
tariff barriers.
However, studies have
shown that for ICT and
tariffs may deter foreign
manufacturing invest-
posed benefits of tariff-
DOLLAR `59.68 Æ `0.41
Democracy, interrupted: Indira Gandhi announcing a state of emergency on 25 June 1975. Thirty­eight years
ago, president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed gave his assent to an ordinance moved by prime minister Gandhi’s
government declaring an internal emergency.
ELECTORAL POLITICS
Congress to renew its
appeal to Muslims
B Y P RASHANT K . N ANDA
prashant.n@livemint.com
·························
NEW DELHI
T o strengthen its appeal to
Muslims, a key vote bank
for the ruling Congress, the
government is proposing a se-
Drones scan
flood­hit
Uttarakhand
B Y N EHA S ETHI
neha.s@livemint.com
·························
NEW DELHI
I ndia deployed four unmanned
aerial vehicles (UAVs) on
Monday to scan areas that res-
cue and relief workers have not
been able to reach in the flood-
hit Himalayan foothills in Uttara-
khand in what was described as
a pioneering operation.
“It was the first time that this
was done,” said M. Shashidhar
Reddy, vice-chairman of the Na-
tional Disaster Management Au-
thority (NDMA).
The UAVs made a reconnais-
sance of 50 areas in Uttarakhand
on Monday, at least 20 of which
were locations that rescuers
hadn’t been able to reach to as-
sess damage, Reddy said.
“The idea was to try to use
UAVs to scan areas,” he said.
It was the first time that the
drones had been used in the
country outside test situations,
he said. The vehicle is controlled
from a laptop “and has a camera
attached to it which gives live
video of the area,” he said.
TURN TO PAGE 5®
ALSO SEE
Insurance claims may rise above
>P23 `3,500 crore
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
MARKETS: Mid­cap, small­cap
stocks at lowest in a year >6
LAST WORD: India link found in spate
of cyberattacks around the world >24
CORPORATE: Indian brands give MNCs a run
for their money in smartphone market >8
WSJ: No sign of Snowden on flight to
Havana >19
EURO `78.25 Æ `0.23
ries of measures to ensure the
community’s speedy social up-
liftment.
The measures include wid-
ening the scope of so-called
minority concentrated districts
to bring more members of the
community under the purview
>P5
MY VIEW | TECH WHISPERS
Vol.7 No.150 `3.00 in Delhi­NCR/`4.00 outside Delhi­NCR
18,663.66
9.15am
GOLD `26,840 æ `300
HT PHOTO
of government-targeted pro-
grammes, setting up dedicated
coaching institutes for under-
privileged Muslim students to
prepare them for entrance ex-
ams to engineering institutes,
and a leadership development
programme for women.
The initiatives come as polit-
ical parties have begun to pre-
pare not just for the general
election due in May next year,
but also for elections in Mad-
hya Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan
and Chhattisgarh. Ahead of
these challenges, the Congress
TURN TO PAGE 4®
LIVEMINT.COM
have attended SU’s executive pro- larity, with some ancient texts speaking
gramme and am now an expert faculty about the universe and all conscious-
member for it). In 2005, Kurzweil ness arising from a single point origin:
authored, The Singularity is Near; now, the primeval sound of Aum.
perhaps encouraged by the generative Irrespective of its origin and defini-
AI tsunami, he is penning The Singular- tion, what happens after Singularity is
ity is Nearer. For the record, in his ear- where there is a sharp divergence in
lier book, Kurzweil had stuck out his opinion. Optimists like Kurzweil, Sam
neck and proclaimed that singularity Altman and many Big Tech leaders
will arrive in or around 2045. Let’s see gush about how AGI will solve the
how much nearer he thinks it is now. world’s biggest problems like global
But what is Singularity? Much like warming and nuclear fusion, eliminate
artificial intelligence, it has no one drudgery in jobs, and generally make
definition. It is widely believed to be the the world a better place. On the other
moment of time when artificial intelli- hand, the more cynical voices of Yuval
gence will exceed human intelligence, Harari, Musk and now Hinton worry
and thus become smarter than us. AGI, about an uncontrolled race for singular-
or artificial general intelligence, has a ity, and the injustice, division and
similar description: When an AI agent destruction it can bring. It was thus
can accomplish any intellectual feat
that humans can perform. Opinion is
divided on whether we should consider
AGI or Singularity to have happened
quite interesting that both optimists
and pessimists got together to sign a
single-line open letter released by
the Center for AI Safety saying that:
when an AI agent becomes smarter than “Mitigating the risk of extinction from
the average or smartest human (Kurz- AI should be a global priority alongside
weil?), or all humans put together. The other societal-scale risks such as pan-
word is borrowed from space science demics and nuclear war.”
and the Big Bang theory, which postu- So, will AI become superintelligent
lates that nearly 14 billion years ago, the and destroy us all? I do believe that we
universe emerged from a singularity—a are hurtling towards some kind of alter-
single point of infinite density and native intelligence. Recent studies on
gravity, and before this space and time large language models like GPT4 have
did not exist. Interestingly, even Hindu- revealed what are called ‘emergent’
ism refers to something akin to singu- abilities, or capabilities that were unex-
pected and went far beyond just ‘auto-
completing text’. Microsoft researchers
unveiled some of these astonishing
QUICK READ skills of GPT4 in a now famous ‘Sparks
of AGI’ paper (bit.ly/3Pj6hHn). To me, it
AI advancements have brought is inevitable that we will create highly
forward the prospect of intelligent AI. What I am much less sure
singularity being achieved of is whether these will ever be sentient.
but it’s what happens next on If we still do not understand our own
which opinion is split between brains and consciousness—the ‘hard
AI optimists and pessimists. problem’ of philosophy—how will we
infuse a machine with one? As for a
Worries of AI causing human super-intelligent AI destroying us, I am
extinction are overblown, just as equally sceptical. It is us humans that I
the fear of AI taking over our jobs fear; we have a greater ability to destroy
is. Rather, it is human actions that humankind. Much like AI will not take
could imperil our future if AI tools our jobs, AI will not annihilate us, but a
are deployed for evil ends. human mis-using AI can.
24 PAGES
+ 4 MARKETS PAGES
I’m increasingly inclined
18,540.89
3.40pm
to think that there should
Sensex intraday, 24 June
QUICK EDIT
OIL $99.95 æ $0.96
Soccer and
statues
T ens of thousands
turned up outside a
stadium, built to host the
2014 soccer World Cup,
in Brazil last week. They be some regulatory oversight
demanded that the
money to be spent on the
Cup should be used for
[of AI]... just to make sure
essential services such as
education and health.
It marked a unique
turning point in a nation
where ordinary people
are supposed to worship
soccer over all else. The
preference for public
goods over status
symbols is a sign that
expectations in Brazil
have changed owing to
that we don’t do something
rising incomes and
educational levels.
As Indians increasingly
invest in education and
move to urban careers, it
is likely that their
expectations from elected
representatives will
undergo a sea change
over the next decade. In
2020, India too could
very foolish. I mean, with
find protesters who
oppose public spending
on statues of Shivaji in
Mumbai, or of Sardar
Patel in Ahmedabad, and
instead demand
investment in public
infrastructure.
artificial intelligence we’re
summoning the demon.
E LON MUSK
jumping FDI. Simultaneously, it does noth-
ing to advance export production goals, thus
echoing Rajan’s point about India’s growing
trade deficit in key component manufactur-
ing, as foreign investment only pours into
smartphone assembly plants.
To be sure, India’s integration into ICT
and semiconductor GVCs is underway. The
US-China tech war and supply vulnerabili-
ties exposed by covid have prompted busi-
nesses to seek alternatives to China and
build security, redundancy and resilience.
To benefit from this decoupling, New Delhi
must discard its protectionist trade policy.
That will help leverage its advantages of a
large market, low labour costs and strategic
partnerships with the US and others.
Recent initiatives like the Indian Semi-
conductor Mission and National Policy on
Electronics, 2019, suggest growing policy
cohesion on FDI, fiscal incentives and man-
ufacturing infrastructure. The elimination
of duties on certain smartphone parts
announced in the 2023-24 budget is also a
push in the right direction. Now that India
has taken a targeted industrial incentives-fo-
cused approach, it is high time that our trade
policy is revamped too.
Miheer Karandikar also contributed to this
article.
LIVEMINT.COM VIEWS FrIday, 23 June 2023
MuMbaI 13

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

The Digital India Bill should help India’s data deficiencies could
explain its heat complacency
us fight against gender injustice The country still lacks reliable figures on lives lost to heat waves

Upcoming legislation for the digital realm could provide an internet-age framework of governance to secure the vulnerable

ISTOCKPHOTO

DAVID FICKLING
is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering
energy and commodities.

FAUZIA KHAN &

SHRUTI SHREYA
are, respectively, a member of Parliament and
programme manager at The Dialogue

W
ith temperatures across India
soaring above 45° Celsius this
week, you would hope its gov-

T
he increased exposure of our personal
lives on the internet along with
enhanced user data sharing has led
to newer challenges, such as the
emergence of Technology Facilitated
Gender Based Violence (TFGBV),
which is motivated by the sexual or gender identity
of the target and involves the misuse of technology
in order to harm, threaten, coerce, stalk or harass
another person. Perpetrators of tech abuse misuse
devices (such as phones and computers), accounts
(such as email) and software or platforms (such as
social media or tracking apps) to control, abuse,
track and intimidate victim-survivors. The extent
of harm to an individual’s safety and well-being
can be extremely noxious, which makes it crucial
to strengthen our response mechanisms and
enhance victim redressal and recovery measures.
In the wake of these challenges, ongoing efforts
to revamp India’s Information Technology Act,
2000 (IT Act), present an opportunity to enhance
the adeptness of our regulatory interventions to
tackle such violence, and to provide for a safer
online experience for women and other marginal-
ized communities without impinging upon their
right to free speech and privacy.
The menace of gender-based violence: Existing
social norms and a widening gender digital divide
aggravate the vulnerability of groups already
vulnerable to online violence. Even when women
have access to the internet, it is usually restricted
by male members of the family. This leads to lower
reporting rates, as survivors fear that reporting
their experiences of violence will restrict owner-
ship and usage of technology. Moreover, research
shows that female journalists, women’s rights
workers and politicians face even higher rates of
online abuse compared to other women. Just the
idea of independent women making their opinions
known online, regardless of content, challenges
the social structure and makes them more vulnera-
ble to violence. Therefore, most of them engage in
self-censorship to pre-empt any unwarranted
repercussions on their safety and freedom.
The country’s present legal frameworks are not
updated to tackle the evolving nature of internet-
based harms. Many of these laws, such as the
Indian Penal Code, 1860, and the Criminal Proce-
dure Code, 1973, were enacted to address physical
harms, but they are also being applied in the online
space, while others like the IT Act that are specifi-
cally aimed at the digital ecosystem were promul-
gated in the early days of the internet. As a result,
these laws have been unable to account for the
recent nature, forms and volume of online vio-
lence, where the speed and virality of crimes is
increasing at an unprecedented rate. Moreover,
none of these laws specifically address gender-
based crimes in the tech space.
ernment had learnt from last year’s deadly Accurate heat-impact measures are now a
heat waves and properly prepared the climate-change imperative GETTYIMAGES
health system for the next climate-driven
crisis. Temperature and humidity at levels navirus infection and pressured doctors to
now seen in South Asia’s pre-monsoon sea- name other issues during its outbreak last
son are already testing the limits of human year, in each case serving to suppress
survivability. That risks mass deaths as the reported mortality.
planet warms further this century. A common solution to that problem
But attempts to even enumerate what is involves looking at excess deaths—that is,
happening are embroiled in arguments. comparing recorded fatalities with the
Nearly 100 people have died from heat-re- number you’d expect in a typical year to
lated conditions in two of the country’s iron out the effects of reporting bias. One
most populous states in recent days, AP excess-deaths study last year found that as
reported this week, but officials, including many as 4.9 million people in India had
medics, have disputed the claims. The died during the first 18 months of the covid
Indian Express reported that one hospital pandemic, compared to the 412,000 offi-
superintendent who’d publicly linked cially recorded covid deaths.
deaths to heatstroke was removed from his Even that approach may be inadequate
position for giving “a careless statement.” in India, however, because the most basic
It then quoted a doctor who’d visited the data on mortality is too patchy.
same clinic as saying the causes were Nationwide, roughly 8% of estimated
unclear. This episode is emblematic of the deaths in 2019 went unrecorded, accord-
explosive potential of heat wave deaths in ing to an annual government survey, and
Our legal system and the perceptions of law and privacy of our younger population without the divisive political atmosphere in the big only 19% of the total were certified by a
enforcement agencies (LEAs) go by a hierarchy of undermining their right to meaningful expression state of Uttar Pradesh that’s led by a leader medical professional, a step considered
offence and subsequent response, because of and access to information online. The law must of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Beyond that, routine in most countries. In Bihar, a state
which physical violence is taken more seriously. also dedicate additional funding to create survivor- though, it’s symptomatic of the parlous neighbouring UP on the lower Ganges with
It is crucial that the upcoming Digital India Act centric resources and drive efforts such as access to state of health services and public data in a a population bigger than Japan’s, just 52%
fills these gaps and specifically addresses gender- legal support and therapy services through com- country that apparently lacks the means to of deaths were recorded and 5.1% were
based violence on the internet. The law must also munity-led collaborations. even know for certain how many people its medically certified.
institutionalize dedicated training for LEAs on the The technology space is evolving continuously broiling climate is killing, let alone take As a result, biases are baked into every
forms and effects of tech-based violence to ensure and new threats are bound to emerge frequently. measures to help them. level of information. For instance, though
effective prevention and However, coherent and con- Going by some numbers, the effects of women and men die at roughly similar
improved response. certed action along with clear high temperatures on India’s population rates, women account for just 40% of regis-
Prevention, mitigation and QUICK READ delineation of the responsibility seem remarkably slight. Last year’s brutal tered mortalities—not because of their lon-
response: Legislative interven- of each stakeholder, at every heat wave season, which saw temperatures gevity, but the fact that their relatively low
tions are futile unless they are The exposure of our personal stage right from the occurrence in Delhi as high as 49.2° Celsius, is widely social status means their deaths are less
complemented with the efforts lives to the online world has of a crime to the reporting, quoted as resulting in only 90 deaths. The likely to be recorded.
of internet companies, such as worsened the threat of gender remediation, recovery and figure is an estimate based on media The people most at risk from heat waves
enhanced R&D investment injustice. Old laws can’t tackle healing, can help in furthering a reporting cited in one of the first studies to are the poor, the old and very young, and
towards integrating safety and new perils and so the upcoming victim-centred mechanism that measure the influence of climate change in those in isolated rural areas. These are pre-
privacy measures by design. Digital India Act must fill the gaps. ensures timely response and the disaster. That study admits the two- cisely the groups who are most likely to be
Companies should regularly efficient redressal. digit number is likely an underestimate: In missed from official tallies of vital statistics.
update the safety features of We require a comprehensive Several countries like Singa- the city of Ahmedabad alone, a 2010 heat Measuring excess mortality, as a result,
their services and improve framework to prevent abuse and pore, Australia and the US are wave resulted in 1,344 heat-related deaths. mostly gives us a picture of how extreme
the reach of their redressal help victims that also assures working towards developing So far, however, it’s the closest we have got temperatures affect the urban middle class,
mechanisms by ensuring their us privacy and safety without frameworks that entail targeted to a figure. rather than the population as a whole.
availability in indigenous lan- compromising our rights to free responsibility sharing between The covid pandemic provides an insight This information gap could be fatal.
guages as well. expression and web access. the government, law enforce- into why better numbers are lacking. Most Without reliable figures, it’s impossible to
For underage internet users, ment agencies, platforms as well deaths have multiple causes. When one is know which populations are most at risk,
there are concerns around their safety and privacy, as community-led organizations like legal aid a novel and politicized event such as an epi- or where medical and emergency supplies
considering the range of age-inappropriate con- groups, caregivers and mental wellness centres. demic or heat wave, people may tend to should be sent when hot spells are forecast.
tent in the form of advertisements, pop-ups, etc, It is important that Indian regulatory mecha- either overplay or downplay this factor. If India’s health care system may be thread-
that they may be exposed to. Countries like the US nisms take cognizance of the significance of a 65-year-old with angina has a heart attack bare in its cities, but in rural areas it can be
have undertaken legislative interventions in this victim wellness approaches that ensure easier on a day when the temperature touches 45° close to non-existent. Mortality that isn’t
regard to ensure enhanced accountability from rehabilitation. They must also focus on the timely Celsius, for example, would it be pinned on measured does not get addressed. On a
platforms towards underage users, and it will be prosecution of perpetrators, given the paramount heat or cardiac disease? planet that warms with each passing year,
important that the upcoming Indian law also stipu- role that justice delivery plays in strengthening That can lead to distorted figures. China India’s data deficiencies are fuelling a
lates similar approaches that advance the safety crime-deterrence. changed its standard for attributing coro- deadly complacency. ©BLOOMBERG

MY VIEW | PEN DRIVE

Indigo: An ode to Gandhi all too easily lost in transit

with my family to attend our daughter’s
AreSh ShIrAlI graduation from Princeton. On a campus
overrun by ivy leaves and tiger stripes, the
latter in honour of the college mascot, my
aberrative mop of hair had cheerfully been
mis-identified so frequently that I simply
personnel. It happened in Buffalo, this slip, let me explain my hairstyle for the record. technology. As the odds of this victory have
on a second round of security-check after For a start, it has nothing whatsoever to already turned so volatile, it’s a virtual cop-
being sent back to an airline counter for a do with any Indian aviation service, regard- out to wax philosophical over accepting the
date-of-birth fix in its database. In the blur less of what algorithms conspire to feed us moral relativism of ‘post-truth’ and no relief
of what ensued at this airport, my memory as search results on the internet. that whizzy tools of artificial intelligence
retains a ‘hey thanks’ voiced by me, a reflex My hint of indigo is an ode to Gandhi. Or, can be put to almost any end.

N
is Views editor, Mint.
o colour of the rainbow can claim an
identity crisis as credibly as indigo
can. As the ‘i’ in ‘vibgyor,’ it tends to
get squashed between violet and blue as one
of the spectrum’s seven. In fact, it is usually
identified as ‘purple’. As befits a mind on
holiday, this was a fruitless thought that
struck me after marvelling at a truly colour-
ful roulette of 49 flavours in a 1.8kg jar of
candy that could qualify as a marketing
work of art. It had “Directions” printed on its
label in red: “Enjoy one at a time, or com-
bine flavors for a gourmet treat!” Just the act
of popping each jellybean of a kind to guess
its flavour against such odds—even with its
hue as a hint—would risk a sugar overdose,
let alone playing the bean-blender in search
of a favourite combo, which if done lazily at
random may well have called for a whole jar
or two gulped down. Probability 101 at the
service of candy offtake. “Made in the USA,”
the pack said, a pointless reminder of where
I was—in the US, on a private visit from India
had to frame a response.
“Love your purple hair!” came at me every
now and then in public spaces, a reference
to my no-longer-subtle tinge of indigo dye.
In parks, museums and cafes, on footpaths,
zebra crossings and trains, it was surround
sound. After a few attempts in vain to clarify
what it was as people whizzed past, “Hey
thanks!” took hold as my reflex response.
American security officers seemed to take a
special interest in it. At Newark airport,
their cheers for my get-up seemed to wave
me past check-posts speedily. If proof were
needed that US profiling had reformed, this
felt like it. And at the Capitol in Washington
DC, the site of a mob attack in 2021, cops
guarding the gates for casual drop-ins had a
query of purpose. Did my purple hair have
any? “Oh, yes,” was my snappy answer, all
elaboration held back for later—if asked.
A blurt-out that would make Pavlov
proud, though, was waiting to get the better
of my prudence in the presence of armed
that had added on a cheery smile and to be precise, a tribute to the enduring idea This is not just about echo chambers of
thumbs-up by then. of satyagraha. While this natural dye may alternate reality on social media. What can
Except, in this instance, unlike Newark, take ‘denim’ as a cue for most of the world to be judged credible has begun to challenge
the stimulus was a mention of purple shorn recall, its farmers were among India’s first to the discerning. Even in academia, we face an
of emotion. Uh-oh. It was one lady officer wield his ‘force of truth’ to defy injustice epistemic crisis. One cannot guess what
talking to another in the parallel lane for meted out to them in British India. Gandhi would have made of all this, but
women, that’s all. This was more than a clarity on what’s true and what’s not retains
This grim realization century ago, and its suc- its relevance as an ideal to strive for.
sobered me up alright, QUICK READ cess set out the strategy So, yes, allow me to submit that my purple
and it took rather long for a long struggle that indulgence does bear a purpose.
getting past that point, Indigo-dyed hair on a US visit has went on to liberate India It’s just that it was stumbled upon. The
what with a full pat- both pros and cons in terms of three decades later. original objective, on a nudge from my wife
down to follow, com- public appreciation versus It endures as an idea 75 and the amused approval of our daughter
plete with my fingers the pitfalls of its conditioning years past colonial rule and son, was simply to try a dye. Slathered
dusted for traces of while opportunities to explain because Gandhi’s twin on several years ago, it went green the first
dubious substances. its purpose could prove elusive. aims of justice and liberty day and indigo next. Soon, it looked as if my
At the risk of missing still go unmet for too head had somehow mopped up a puddle of
that flight, it might’ve It should ideally be interpreted many. And if we are to indelible ink at a ballot booth.
been fun had indigo dye as a personal tribute to Gandhi’s wipe tears away from all Its woolly-headed effect was to induce a
shown up in their glow concept of ‘satyagraha’ that must eyes, as he urged, it’s a review of how India won freedom. It wasn’t
scan and shunted me power our twin quests for justice fair bet that truth must the rejection of a ruler dubiously claimed by
aside for questioning. and liberty by ensuring truth prevail over forces like colonialists to possess a ‘divine right’ to rule,
With luck, it would’ve prevails against worsened odds. propaganda amped up by as in America, but of rank injustice.
14 Friday, 23 June 2023
MuMbai BUSINESS OF LIFE INDULGE LIVEMINT.COM

REUTERS

Celebrating Midsommar
in Sweden with friends said to have originated in Germany, most likely
in the late 17th or early 18th century.
Despite the many debates surrounding its
origin and purpose, Romanian anthropologist
Mircea Eliade famously theorised that maypoles
are a part of public rejoicing to mark the return
of summer, and the growth of new vegetation.
Young and the old, clad in traditional dress,
come together to dance around the pole. To me, About 60 outfits of performers will be on show at the museum.
the highlight is the Små grodorna (Little Frogs)
dance, where people jump around the pole pre-
tending to be frogs. Many family games, com-
monly called femkamp, and including croquet,
sack race, and others are played.
A V&A show to
Alongside, the cycle of eating and drinking
continues unabated as the outdoor celebrations
carry on well into the night. Toasting is an
important part of a “Glad Midsommar” (happy
depict the life
Midsummer) and is traditionally accompanied
by raucous singing.
I say skål (cheers), looking my fellow drinkers
in the eye. I have learnt that this is another
and work of divas
Swedish tradition and must be done just right.
I hold my drink up like everyone around me, The exhibition aims to tell stories of
looking directly at the person in front of me and performers who have become icons
giving a modest smile, one that “isn’t a grin, or
flirtatious, overbearing, or accompanied by a
smirk”. The crowd around me breaks out into a AFP
loud rendition of Helan Går, the most popular feedback@livemint.com
drinking song in Sweden, one that’s better

known than the national anthem.
Helan (the whole) signifies the first glass of
After a long and dark spirit (akvavit or vodka) in a series, and går
stands for goes (down). The phrase, which
winter, Sweden sings, loosely translates into “Bottoms up!”, sets the
tone for the night. Incidentally, if you don’t
dances and drinks for drink the first one, you can’t have the second,
called “Halvan” and meaning “the half”. Drink-
three days to mark the ing songs are unique to Sweden and Swedish-
start of summer and speaking parts of Finland. Stockholm’s Museum
of Spirits has a collection of more than 12,000
the season of fertility drinking songs, but the Swedes aren’t done yet.
New ones, set to known melodies, are composed
and sung all the time.
Teja Lele I realise that the day has a cyclical pattern: eat
a bite, down a drink, and sing a song. Over time,
F
rom 19th-century opera singers to the youngest modern pop
superstars, “divas” are taking centre stage at a major new
exhibition in London. From 24 June until April 7 next year,
the Victoria & Albert Museum will be showcasing the stories of
dozens of performers who have become feminist icons, anti-ra-
cism campaigners and LGBT champions.
DIVA includes more than 250 exhibits, including photographs,
posters, magazines, film and video clips, as well as an accompany-
ing soundtrack. But the focus of the in-depth look at the mould-
breaking talents on display is some 60 outfits that defined their
distinctive image.
On show are Josephine Baker’s sequinned costumes from the
early 20th century as well as Stella McCartney’s designs for the
young American singer Billie Eilish. There are also gowns by
major designers worn on the red carpet of film premieres and at
award ceremonies. “From the early 19th century opera singers

T
he white cloth-clad table is
groaning under the weight of a
delicious buffet, the likes of
which I have only seen on Pin-
terest. Sill (pickled herring) take
the starring role, buoyed by a strong supporting
cast: gravlax (salmon), new potatoes with dill,
sour cream and chives, skagenröra (a mix of
prawns, mayonnaise, crème fraiche, lemon and
dill), västerbottenpaj (a cheese quiche), and new
strawberries with whipped cream. Buntings,
paper lanterns, fresh flowers, green leaves and
vines create a rustic and romantic setting cre-
ated with one aim: to eat and drink, laugh and
enjoy, all in the company of friends and family.
Given the long and dark winters that they live
with, it’s no surprise that Swedes live for Mid-
The cynosure of all eyes is the midsommarstång, a maypole usually decorated with flowers and
foliage and often said to represent a phallic symbol.
with healing and magical properties. The forces
of darkness that had a free run during the
shorter days were quelled by lighting bonfires,”
says my friend Maja, who I am accompanying to
her neighbourhood Midsommar celebration.
the singing gets louder, which works well as the
brash behaviour is supposed to ward off evil
spirits. Sammilsdal in Sweden’s central region,
Dalarna, is known for hosting the largest Mid-
summer celebration in the world, attracting
over 20,000 people. People tog up in tradi-
tional costumes, there’s professional folk music
and dancing, the maypoles are feverishly deco-
rated, there’s a parade with garlands, and even
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY SKANSEN a boat race.
Sweden isn’t the only country that celebrates
Midsummer; all the Nordic nations do. In Fin-
land, large bonfires, known as kokko, are lit to
WHEN YOU ward off evil spirits and ensure an abundant har-
vest. Finns also believe that their luck during the
ARE ALONE year is directly proportional to their loudness
quotient during the celebrations. The harvest is
that commissioned their own couture gowns to the kind of con-
temporary catwalk, from the Met Gala to the stage, the diva look
and the diva expressing themselves through fashion is incredibly
important” curator Kate Bailey told AFP.
The exhibition takes visitors on a journey across two centuries
of female empowerment, from the first use of the Italian word
meaning “goddess” to describe opera greats such as soprano Ade-
lina Patti.
The exhibition She was the best-known woman in
takes visitors on 19th-century Britain after Queen Vic-
a journey across toria. Being classed as a diva allowed
women rare independence at the time,
two centuries and made them pioneers in the strug-
of female
empowerment
gle for equality with men.
The concept then evolved to the
stage, with dancers such as the Ameri-
can Isadora Duncan and actresses such

summer, or Midsommar in Swedish. Dating to
the country’s agrarian past, the three-day cele-
bration marks the summer solstice, the longest
day of the year in the northern hemisphere, and
the harvest season. Midsummer celebrations
originated from a Christian holiday for John the
Baptist (24 June), according to information at
Sweden’s Nordic Museum. In 1953, however,
the Swedes decided to fix the day; rather than
having the celebration fall on different days of
the week, it was set for the Friday that falls
between 20 and 26 June. This year, it’s 23 June.
The Midsommar merriment marks the start
of summer and the season of fertility. Everyone
around me seems to be in an exceptionally good
mood, all with glasses of akvavit, lemon, elder-
flower, or herb-flavoured snaps, in hand. A holi-
day that began as a pagan celebration to wel-
come summer and ensure a successful harvest
has become the most important date in the
Swedish calendar.
“Summer solstice reportedly endowed plants
A TIME OF HEALING
Her neighbour, Nils, chimes in that Midsommar
is essentially a festival that celebrates nature,
and is considered to be a time of good fortune
and healing.
The Vikings are believed to have turned to
Freyia and Freyr, the Norse gods of fertility, to
seek an abundant harvest. It is also associated
with Ukko, the god of thunder who controlled
the rain and consequently the land’s fertility.
Midsummer is traditionally celebrated in the
countryside, which means the cities see an exo-
dus on the days leading up to it.
In the countryside, it’s time to attune oneself
to the shifting, cyclical rhythms of nature. The
revelry typically starts at noon with friends and
family members gathering for a picnic. The
cynosure of all eyes is the midsommarstång, a
maypole usually decorated with flowers and
foliage and often said to represent a phallic sym-
bol. The pole is usually placed in an open
space—a park, garden or farm—a tradition that’s
E
ven if you don’t have family or
friends in Sweden, head to
Stockholm to enjoy Midsum-
mer. Every year, the open-air
museum hosts a massive Midsommar
party, a family-friendly celebration
with traditional music, dancing,
games, and workshops where you
can learn about Swedish culture and
history. Make a floral crown, help
raise the maypole, listen to tales
about the spirits that appear during
this time, enjoy a musical concert,
and more.
also predicted to follow a similar pattern; the
more one drinks, the better the yield.
The Norwegians focus on massive bonfires ,
going up to 50ft, to quell evil spirits. In Den-
mark, people toss twig and cloth effigies of a
witch into the fire to subdue the dark forces. Ice-
land has a set of its own traditions to celebrate
Midsummer, known here as Jónsmessa, the
Mass of John the Baptist. People believe that the
day is when elves come out to play (and interact
with humans) and cows gain the power of
speech. This tradition isn’t for everyone: rolling
buck naked in the morning dew is said to bring
good fortune round the year!
In the past, Midsommar was a pagan celebra-
tion of fertility and of the forces of light defeat-
ing the darkness. In the present, the outdoor
jamboree is a celebration of true love, a
reminder that we need to value life’s little pleas-
ures with the people who matter the most.
Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com
as France’s Sarah Bernhardt. “My life has been a struggle to have
my own way where I felt I was in the right,” Bernhardt, who in the
1800s played male roles such as Shakespeare’s Hamlet, once said.
As technology developed, divas transferred to silent and then
talking movies. A major part of the exhibition is devoted to Greta
Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe,
who was most famously depicted in Andy Warhol’s pop art por-
trait. Costumes used in films such as Taylor’s in Cleopatra from
1963 or Monroe’s in Some Like It Hot from 1959 are on display.
DIVA chronicles the struggle of these artists to make their way
in a man’s world and includes a chronology of the parallel evolu-
tion of feminism and the creative industries.
“It’s diva and power, diva and creativity... having a voice and
using that voice and that platform to shift the needle, to do some-
thing different, to reinvent, to transform, to inspire,” said Bailey.
The exhibition hails jazz singers Nina Simone and Ella Fitzger-
ald for breaking down racial barriers in the US, alongside images
from the recent Black Lives Matter movement. Modern-day divas
such as Tina Turner and Cher feature, with their most recognisa-
ble outfits designed by the American Bob Mackie.
Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com

How the charm of a Japanese drink is growing in India

Sake is slowly finding also advises Japanese sake breweries on explains Eoka. “The rice used is indige- For example, a Junmai sake is best
global expansion. nous to Japan, the shorter the grain, the paired with seafood like prawn tempura.
more fans in the country, Last month, Eoka was in the coastal more premium the sake. It comprises 80% Sake contains glutamic acid, a common
thanks to increasing town of Mangaluru to conduct a session of water and this plays a pivotal role in deter- amino acid and a major source of umami.
sake and soju (both rice-based; the alcohol mining the mouth feel of sake. Hard water Seafood, too, has umami components
imports, more eateries content and flavour palate of soju is can make sake dry. The alcohol percent- such as inosinic acid. When paired
stronger than sake) tasting and pairing at age is between 13-20% and the acidity together, the depth of umami is height-
offering the beverage The Loft at The Avatar Hotel and Conven- level on the pH scale is between 1 and 2. In ened. In India, food with the presence of
tion. With 60 guests having attended the comparison, wine has an acidity level spices, oils, greens, umami-intense dishes,
Ruth Dsouza Prabhu session, it is clear that there is some curi- between 2.5 to 4.5. This makes sake softer dairy, nutty flavours, and creamy high-
osity about the beverage. on the palate. And with India being such a lactic acid ingredients pair well with sake.

F
or those who are curious about their
alcohol, a good Nihonshu or Japa-
nese sake is always well appreciated.
Not occupying as much shelf space as
some global tipples like single malts,
tequilas and old world wines, sake is on
the uptick in India, albeit slowly.
Sake has been a difficult product to
import because of the customs and taxa-
tion laws in India. “However, the geo-
graphical index (GI) tag for sake in India is
currently in process (for the first time a
Japanese product has filed for GI Registry
in India, in 2022). I am working with the
Embassy of Japan in India for this. Once
this is done, imports will become easier,”
says Mika Eoka, sake sommelier and chief
executive of Mika Sake Global INC.
As sake ambassador to India, Japan-
based Eoka has been promoting the bev-
erage in India for the past six years. She
Sake is a rice wine made from fer-
mented polished rice. “Sake has a 2,000-
year-old history and is essentially a tradi-
tional sacred drink dedicated to God,”
explains Eoka. “In Japan, rice is grown in
April and harvested in October and
November. Freshly harvested rice is con-
sidered sacred and is first dedicated to
God and then used to make sake. More
ceremonial than celebratory, sake is
served at milestones like births and wed-
dings, and is not drunk every day unless by
personal choice. For New Year celebra-
tions, special sake kits are created to
express gratitude to God,” she adds.
India is no stranger to rice-based fer-
mented alcohol. There is Apong from
Arunachal Pradesh, Ludgi from Himachal
Pradesh, Zutho from Nagaland, Handia
from Bihar and Odisha, Kiad Um from
Meghalaya, Chuak from Tripura, and Sek-
A sake tasting session at Mangaluru’s Avatar Hotel and Convention last month.
mai Yu from Manipur. Most of these
require indigenous herbs, and medicinal
plants, among other ingredients, to kick-
start the fermentation process.
In the fermentation process of sake,
starch in rice is converted to sugar using a
Koji mould. This is then converted to eth-
anol with the help of sake yeast.
For premium sake, brewer’s alcohol (a
neutral distilled spirit) is added to extract
additional flavours and aromas during fer-
menting. “The consistency and the quality
of sake are completely dependent on the
brewer’s skill. The micro-organisms in
rice starch are not easily controllable and
it depends on how the brewer handles it,”
high consumer of rice, sake is quite a relat-
able drink,” says Eoka.
She adds that climate change has
altered the nature of rice grains, making it
difficult for brewers to produce sake with
consistent flavours. Sake can be made
from any rice grain, but short grain rice or
premium quality rice are usually pre-
ferred; the more polished the better.
Sake has slowly begun to find more fans
in India, and Eoka attributes this to factors
like gradually increasing imports, and
more restaurants offering the beverage
and tasting sessions.
“For a first timer, there are two main fla-
vours profiles—an earthy, higher acidity,
strong rice-flavoured one, called Junmai,
and a fruitier version, named Daiginjo,”
explains Eoka, adding that whenever one
tries sake, the right pairing of food is
important.
“Cold kachumber salads and malai tikkas
go well together with the beverage. Aro-
matic sakes (with infusions like peach,
grape) can be savoured with vegetable frit-
ters,” says Eoka. In Japan, sake is usually
consumed warm. Sake Tokkuris (sake
flasks) are kept next to warmers to reach
ambient serving temperature. Sake can be
enjoyed at cooler temperatures, especially
at the start of the meal, progressing to
warmer as the meal ends.
Eoka is optimistic about sake’s growth
in India. “Twenty years ago, wines were
not prevalent in India, but today their
popularity has grown exponentially. The
key is creating awareness, among chefs,
servers and, of course, people. A compari-
son education, along with other beverages
is also important.”
Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com