KOLKATA, NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, BENGALURU, CHENNAI, AHMEDABAD, HYDERABAD, CHANDIGARH*, PUNE*, LUCKNOW*
124
Thursday, May 23, 2024
Think Ahead. Think Growth.
ASCI: Mamaearth, QUICK EDIT
Patanjali among ad RBI’s big
violators in FY24 surplus
Varuni Khosla
varuni.k@livemint.com
NEW DELHI
Y
oga Guru Ramdev’s Patan-
jali Ayurved Ltd, which
was recently rapped by the
Supreme Court for its mis-
leading ads, was involved
in as many as 28 advertising violations
in FY24, the Advertising Standards
Council of India (ASCI) said on
Wednesday.
These included endorsements of
products such as its DantKanti tooth-
paste, chyawanprash, infection-fight-
ing Ayurvedic medicines, heart medi-
cines, ointments, honey, sprays, and
orthopaedic and pain relief tablets,
according to an ASCI report.
However, the report found Mamae-
arth parent Honasa Consumer Pvt.
Ltd to be the biggest violator with 187
such ads, followed by sports betting
companies WinDaddy and Fun88
India with 98 each.
Honasa also runs brands like Dr.
Sheth’s Skin and Hair Clinic, Aqua-
logica, The Derma Co. and Ayuga.
Women’s fashion retailing plat-
form Urbanic’s parent Maysquare
Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd, Rummy24 run by
Ability Games as well as makeup
brand Renee Cosmetics were also
among companies allegedly violating
advertising standards.
Other companies in the list
included Bright Lifecare Pvt. Ltd
which owns MuscleBlaze and Health-
Kart and firms like Unacademy and
FirstCry.
Interestingly, betting and gambling
companies have overtaken healthcare
Patanjali was recently pulled up for its
misleading endorsements. MINT
firms that are making false claims of
magical remedies as the most viola-
tive ads this year, said the report.
A majority or 85% of all complaints
made against false and misleading
advertisements last year were made
for those appearing on digital plat-
forms.
Of all the ads listed, over 1,300 ads
of illegal betting were reported to the
information and broadcasting minis-
try, along with about 150 ads of liquor
promotion and e-cigarettes and
vapes, said ASCI.
About 1,250 ads were reported for
drugs and magical remedies to the
ministry of Ayush. Nearly 250 adver-
tisers were reported during the year
for a potential violation of the Drugs
and Magic Remedies Act, 1954.
Most of these were website adver-
tisements from marketplaces and 91%
of these ads were in violation since
they dealt with maintenance and
enhancement of “sexual prowess”.
VOL. 18 NO.
The latest transfer of surplus to
the government approved by
the Reserve Bank of India’s
(RBI) board came as a big sur-
prise. At ₹2.1 trillion, the figure
for 2023-24—to be paid in
2024-25—is the highest ever.
It’s nearly double the ₹1.02 tril-
lion anticipated by the Centre
for its annual budget. The fig-
ure is so large despite RBI set-
ting aside the highest pre-
scribed 6.5% of its balance sheet
as its contingent risk buffer, up
from 6% in 2022-23 and 5.5%
during the covid years, when
the buffer was reduced to lend
the economy support. With the
economy’s recovery, RBI can
afford to raise the buffer again.
But what explains such a large
payout? Higher interest earned
on foreign securities may have
spelt a bonanza, as bond yields
reigned strong globally in line
with high policy rates. In the
past, revaluation gains on RBI’s
foreign exchange reserves had
helped swell its surplus. The
government, on its part, would
be chuffed, with over ₹1 trillion
extra coming its way. It will give
the current year’s final budget,
due after the ongoing Lok
Sabha polls, some fiscal leeway.
The Centre could opt to spend
that much more, but it would be
better to further reduce the
budget’s deficit instead.
 PLAIN FACTS

Jal Jeevan Mission taps

yet to take water to all
BY SHUJA ASRAR & PAYAL BHATTACHARYA

The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) has made significant progress on installing taps in rural households since 2019, but
only about half these taps are fully functional, according to a survey commissioned by the government.

The coverage of tap connections has grown fourfold in the past five years
Share (%) of rural households with a tap connection, by state

20 40 60 80

As of August 2019 As of May 2024

Sikkim
52.8 Rajasthan
48.9

Gujarat Madhya West

71.5 Pradesh Bengal
62.3 48

Goa
75.7

Source: Jal Jeevan Mission

Over 30% of tap connections The majority of projects A mere 20% of all villages
were found to be partially under JJM rely on have been certified as
functional in a 2022 survey groundwater Har Ghar Jal so far
Assessment of rural households' tap JJM projects available to households, Share (%) of administrative units based
connections on the basis of quantity, classified by source of water (share in %) on Har Ghar Jal status
regularity and quality of water supplied
Reported 40.2
Share (in %) of households that were getting Groundwater & Certified 37.7
Bulk water-based surface water-based
Adequate water (≥55 LPCD) (quantity)
1.3
85 Others** 25 25.8 25
0.6
Water on a daily basis (regularity) 20.3
80 Surface 6.1 13.1
Potable water (quality) water* 9.7 11.3
87
All three conditions met: Adequate quantity,
regular supply, potable water Districts Blocks Panchayats Villages
62 Groundwater Reported: The state water supply department has
confirmed that water is being supplied through taps
*Litres per capita per day 82.4 to all households, schools, and anganwadi centres in
The survey studied a sample of 298,377 households the administrative unit.
and 22,596 public institutions across 13,303 villages in Certified: The local body has passed a resolution
*Includes spring, check dam, river, lake, pond,
712 rural districts from 33 states and UTs. after ascertaining the water supply department's
reservoir, etc. **Rainwater, traditional, or other
Source: HTA-Kantar Public report titled "Functionality sources. Includes cases where data isn’t available. claim, and the department has issued a certificate
assessment of household tap connections, 2022", for the same.
ministry of Jal Shakti Source: Jal Jeevan Mission Source: Jal Jeevan Mission
PARAS JAIN/MINT

C
lean water is a basic necessity. But access to it has biggest contaminants, while several also had arsenic and
been a longstanding challenge in India, especially fluoride contamination.
in rural areas. To address this, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi announced the launch of the Jal Jeevan SOURCE SUSTAINABILITY
Mission (JJM) on 15 August 2019. The progress of the More than 80% of the types of tasks taken up under the
scheme and the challenges it faces form the second part of JJM relies on groundwater. But if groundwater becomes
our ongoing Plain Facts series as the ruling party seeks a too depleted, the tap connection turns unsustainable.
third straight term. Considering that two-thirds of India’s terrain is hard
JJM aimed to provide safe and adequate drinking water rock, groundwater is not easy to extract and is vulnerable
through individual household tap connections to all rural to exploitation. Moreover, only a tiny percentage of
homes by 2024. It is yet to reach the target, but has in five rainfall makes its way into the ground. Groundwater levels
years covered 76.6% of the estimated 193 million rural also fall during summers, which adds to concerns over its
households as of 22 May, up from 16.8% when the scheme reliability. Groundwater levels in 25% of India’s districts
was announced in 2019. are already classified as overexploited, critical, or semi-
While 11 states and Union territories reported 100% critical by the Central Ground Water Board.
coverage, seven were behind the national average. (State- Groundwater is also susceptible to contamination by
level schemes helped some states, such as Bihar, to achieve chemicals such as arsenic and fluoride, which puts severe
better JJM coverage.) West Bengal and Rajasthan were strain on water availability, especially in rural areas.
particularly stressed, with less than half of rural Nitin Bassi, senior programme lead at the Council on
households having a tap connection. But after this Energy, Environment and Water, said these are natural or
infrastructure push comes the challenge geological constraints, and the solution is
of making it work. The progress there to increasingly shift to using surface
leaves much to be desired. JJM has covered water.
76.6% of the
BEYOND THE TAPS MEASUREMENT GAPS
To assess how functional these taps were, estimated 193 mn Once all households in an administrative
the government commissioned a survey rural households as unit receive a water connection, the unit
by HTA-Kantar Public in 2022, covering is granted “Har Ghar Jal” status.
nearly 300,000 households in 13,303
of 22 May According the latest data on the JJM
villages. The survey defined functionality dashboard, only 20% of villages have
on the basis of three criteria: adequate quantity (at least 55 been given this status as of 22 May.
litres per capita per day), prescribed quality (the water Under JJM , the quantity of water supply is measured at
should be potable), and regular availability (round the the village level. This poses a challenge in determining
year). whether the water is reaching the end user.
It found that 86% of the tap connections were working In 2020, internet-of-things-based sensors were
on the day the data was collected. Of these, 85% received installed in nearly 200 villages to measure water supply on
adequate quantity, 87% provided potable water, and 80% various parameters, including quantity. Barring this, there
had a regular supply. But only 62% of these connections is no primary data on how much water households in these
met all three criteria. villages receive. A household-level survey, or installing
For Rajasthan, Kerala and Manipur, this figure was 40% water meters, could help measure the distribution of water
or less, while it was 80% or more in four others: Tamil within villages in a more useful manner.
Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, and Telangana. (Note that JJM has provided more than 115 million households
the 62% figure for functional taps translates to just 53% of with a tap connection since its inception, but experts say it
the overall sample.) This shows that infrastructure alone is is still a work in progress. “While physical infrastructure
inadequate to fulfil the needs of households. has been put in place, ensuring regular supply of adequate
A Parliamentary standing committee report said earlier and quality water to the end user remains a challenge,”
this year that of the 57,539 habitations across India where Bassi said. “Though steps have been taken in this
water quality was found to be poor as of 15 August 2019, direction, more needs to be done to make the water
38% still lacked safe drinking water as of February 2023. In systems reliable.”
these habitations, iron and salinity were found to be the This is the second of a four-part data journalism series.

PEANUTS by Charles M. Schulz

 Kolkata, new delhi, mumbai, bengaluru, chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, chaNdiGarh*, pune*, lucknow*
Thursday, May 23, 2024
SENSEX 74,221.06 267.75
Car firms fume over
new emission goals
EU standards to hit sales, jobs, since EV tech still nascent, say cos
Alisha Sachdev
alisha.sachdev@livemint.com
new delhi
I
ndian automakers have strongly
opposed a proposal from the
country’s energy efficiency and
conservation agency to align
their fuel efficiency standards
with Europe’s new vehicle carbon
emission norms.
According to three people aware
of the matter, the automakers have
told the Bureau of Energy Effi-
ciency (BEE) that the target of close
to 70 gm per km of CO2 emissions
by 2030 under the proposed corpo-
rate average fuel efficiency (CAFE-
III) norms is “highly impractical”.
They claim that despite significant
investments in electrification,
internal combustion engine (ICE)
vehicles will dominate the market
for the next decade.
An expert committee steered by
the BEE—and advised by US non-
profit International Council on
Clean Transportation—has
impressed upon the automakers in
confidential meetings that it wants
to accelerate India’s CO2 reduction
efforts, and encourage faster adop-
tion of electric vehicles (EV) by
imposing stricter standards on
original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs), the people said. This
Anguish@IIT as jobs Climate combat
still distant for many comes to MBBS
Pratishtha Bagai &
Devina Sengupta
mumbai
P
lacement concerns stalk
the corridors of Indian
Institutes of Technology
(IITs) as the batch of 2024
draws to a close, with hundreds
of students yet to find a job even
in the second hiring round.
The elite institutions are
reaching out to startups,
alumni and recruiters from new
segments, and sounding out
companies that have previously
hired from their campuses,
placement team members said.
Departments and professors
are also asked to pitch in and
help place students.
At IIT-Bombay, 300-400
students finishing undergrad-
uate and post-graduate
courses are yet to be hired, a
member of its placement team
Even advertisers want you off smartphone
Katie Deighton
feedback@livemint.com
H
eineken last month
introduced what it calls
the Boring Phone, an
early-00s style flip-to-answer-
device featuring a keypad, flash-
light, FM radio, low-resolution
camera and not much else. With
an ability to make calls and send
texts, but under no circumstan-
ces access social media, the
phone is designed to be a portal
back to the days when people
would socialize in person with-
out continually maintaining
parallel lives on the internet.
“Young generations are crav-
ing release from their smart-
phones and the constant buzzing
and dinging, especially on nights
out and during social occasions,”
said Nabil Nasser, global head of
the Heineken brand. “We want
to give them the freedom to dis-
cover that there is more to their
social life when they are less on
their phone.”
livemint.com
NIFTY 22,597.8
pushback
The carmakers say the target of close to 70 gm per km of CO2 emissions
by 2030 under the proposed CAFE-III norms is ‘highly impractical’.
EU CO2 EMISSION TARGETS (g CO2/km)
147
95
93.6
2020-2024 2025-2029
(NEDC) (WLTP)
EMISSION TARGETS UNDER INDIA'S CAFE NORMS (g CO2/km)
2017-2022
NA
2022 onwards
NA
Source: European
Commission, MoRTH
would include penalties for non-
compliance with emissions reduc-
tion norms.
“(The proposal) will have devas-
tating effects on sales, jobs and the
financial health of OEMs if such
stringent rules come into effect,
given the nascency of the EV tech-
nology in India, and its underdevel-
IITs are reaching out to startups,
alumni and recruiters. MINT
said, adding the final numbers
may be different. “There were
about 1,973 students who had
signed up for placements, and
about 1,187 from them were
placed during the phase-1 pro-
cess. Another 200 have
already been placed in
phase-2, and the numbers
TURN TO PAGE 6
The advertisers are tapping into a concern over the technology’s
role in society, and in the mental health of young people.
The Boring Phone is really a
marketing campaign disguised
as a product drop, with only
5,000 units available via givea-
ways, part
of a wave of
advertising
tapping the
widespread fear technology is
ruining our ability to fully expe-
rience and enjoy the real world.
Tequila brand Jose Cuervo
68.75 DOLLAR ₹83.28
153.9
90.6
49.5
2030-2034
(WLTP)
WLTP: Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test
Procedure, NEDC: New European Driving Cycle
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
oped charging infrastructure com-
pared to Europe, against which the
BEE is benchmarking India’s car-
bon emissions,” one of the three
persons cited above said on the con-
dition of anonymity. “So, there is
certainly a rift between the two cur-
Somrita Ghosh
somrita.ghosh@livemint.com
new delhi
I
n a season of scorching heat
waves bracketed by a pro-
longed winter and predic-
tions of extreme rains, climate
lessons are making their way
to medical curriculums, as the
government takes climate
combat to the campuses.
If heatstrokes are rampant
as temperatures cross 45
degree Celsius in some states,
heavy rains in some parts of
the some southern region have
triggered alerts for vector-
borne diseases such as dengue.
Doctors have also blamed
extreme weather for diseases
such as covid and monkeypox.
To equip medical profes-
sionals to treat such conditions
more appropriately and
timely, the health ministry is
considering including climate
AFP
last year ran a sweepstakes for
hundreds of its own so-called
dumb phones, in another exam-
ple, urging drinkers to “go off”
their smart-
phones to
“go off” in
real life. This
year’s Super Bowl ad by web
design company Squarespace
imagined what would happen if
nobody noticed an alien arrival
VOL. 18 NO. 124 Rs. 15.00 18 pages
Why Generation Z is a US court pulls up Byju’s chief
handful for HR uP12 for concealing $533 mn uP5
₹0.03 EURO ₹90.32 ₹0.27 OIL $81.66 $0.31 POUND ₹106 ₹0.00
RBI’s dividend blitz smoothes
journey to fiscal deficit target
DON’T MISS
MINT
Gopika Gopakumar
gopika.g@livemint.com
mumbai
White knight
The record dividend is expected to help the Centre achieve its
fiscal deficit target of 5.1% of GDP for FY25.
Surplus transfer to government Fiscal deficit
A
surprise dividend (₹ trillion) (₹ trillion)
3
bounty from the cen- 20 Paytm CEO says ‘the worst is
tral bank cooled bond 16.9 behind us’ after Q4 results
yields on Wednesday, as the
2
2.1 16 Paytm founder and chief executive Vijay
market bet that it would help Shekhar Sharma on Wednesday said that
the government meet its fiscal 12 the worst is over for the company, on a day
deficit target for 2024-25. One97 Communications, its parent firm,
The benchmark 10-year 1 reported a lower quarterly revenue and a
For cars For vans bond slipped below 7% to the 8 larger loss. >P8
lowest in nearly a year, after 4.9
0.3
the Reserve Bank of India’s 0
2012-13 2023-24
4
2012-13 2024-25*
Tata Consumer set to enter
(RBI’s) central board okayed a
*Budget estimate Source: RBI, CMIE
food services industry
record ₹2.1 trillion dividend
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT Tata Consumer Products is set to enter food
for 2023-24. This is twice what services market offering salt, tea, coffee and
0 0
was estimated earlier, and 141% current dividend, paid in May to raise the contingency risk gravies to hotels and restaurants, MD and
2035 onwards
higher than the previous fis- 2024, will be accounted for in buffer (CRB) to 6.5% from 6% CEO Sunil D’Souza said. Earlier this year,
(WLTP) cal’s dividend of ₹87,416 crore. 2024-25 by the government. previously as the economy Tata Consumer had acquired Capital Foods
“The board...approved Aditi Nayar, chief economist remains robust and resilient, and Organic India. >P8
the transfer of ₹2,10,874 crore and head of research and out- it said.
130
as surplus to the central reach at rating agency Icra Ltd, The contingency risk buffer Banks want MSME loans off
government for the account- said the higher-than-bud- is a specific provision fund kept
113
ing year 2023-24,” RBI said in geted RBI surplus transfer by the central bank primarily
RBI’s infra lending rules rejig
Banks are planning to write to the Reserve
a statement. would help boost the Centre’s to be used during any unex-
The 2023-24 dividend is resources, “allowing for pected and unforeseen contin- Bank of India (RBI) and the finance ministry
also higher than ₹1 trillion that enhanced expenditures or a gencies. These unforeseen to exempt loans given to micro, small and
medium enterprises (MSMEs) from
was budgeted by the govern- sharper fiscal consolidation contingencies could include proposed rules for provisioning for
ment and estimated by ana- than what was pencilled into depreciation of securities val- infrastructure project financing. >P2
lysts. In the interim budget of the Interim Budget for FY25”. ues, risks from monetary rate
2024-25, the government had The decision was taken at policy changes, systemic risks
budgeted a dividend of the 608th meeting of the Cen- to the system, etc. It is typically SpiceJet pursues ₹450 crore
₹1.02 trillion from RBI, tral Board of Directors of RBI in the range of 5.5-6.5% of refund post Delhi HC verdict
state-run banks and other held under the chairmanship RBI’s balance sheet. SpiceJet will seek a refund of ₹450 crore from
financial institutions. of governor Shaktikanta Das. “Higher interest rates both its former promoter Kalanithi Maran, and his
The record dividend is The board reviewed the on domestic and foreign secu- firm, KAL Airways, the company said on
expected to help the Centre global and domestic economic rities, significantly high gross Wednesday. SpiceJet said it will seek the
achieve its fiscal deficit target scenario, including risks to the sale of forex, along with limited return of ₹450 crore out of the ₹730 crore it
of 5.1% of gross domestic prod- outlook, said a statement. paid to KAL Airways and Maran. >P7
TURN TO PAGE 6 uct (GDP) for 2024-25. The The RBI board also decided TURN TO PAGE 6
The NCDC recently issued heat
stroke treatment guidelines. AFP
change education in the cur-
riculum for medical students,
according to two officials
aware of the matter.
Many doctors in India are
still not knowledgeable
enough to treat health hazards
arising out of climate change
or natural calamities, one of
TURN TO PAGE 6
because humanity wouldn’t look
up from its screens.
The message extends
beyond borders. Chinese elec-
tronics firm Oppo last Decem-
ber ran a campaign encourag-
ing consumers across Asia to
put down their phones at the
dinner table.
The advertisers are tapping
into a concern over the role of
technology in society, and par-
ticularly in the mental health of
young people , that has grown
as social media and smart-
phones have become omni-
present. Even Snapchat is run-
ning an ad campaign position-
ing its social-media app as an
“antidote to social media.”
But marketing executives are
treading gently, tending toward
humor rather than activism,
partly because their brands are
at least as present in the digital
world as any extremely online
person. They advertise on the
TURN TO PAGE 4
02 THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024
KOLKATA ECONOMY & POLICY LIVEMINT.COM

m MINT SHORTS
National Health Claim Exchange
Banks want MSME loans off Govt likely
to review tax
may be operational in 2-3 months
New Delhi: The National Health Claim Exchange (NHCX) is
likely to be launched in the next two-three months, officials
aware of the matter said on Wednesday. NHCX is a digital health
RBI’s infra lending rules rejig on inputs to
aid local mfg
claims platform developed by the National Health Authority
(NHA) to ensure interoperability and faster processing of health PTI
insurance claims. NHA and the Insurance Regulatory and Devel- feedback@livemint.com
opment Authority of India jointly operationalized NHCX. PTI The move aims to protect MSMEs, who are minor players in infra business but big in number NEW DELHI

T
he government is likely
NHPC hopes to finish Parbati-II Subhash Narayan & Rhik Kundu or applicable to investments above a to consider addressing
certain amount,” the person said, sug- the issue of inverted duty
hydroelectric project by Dec NEW DELHI
gesting that banks are yet to give their structure for certain products

B
AFP
anks are planning to write to suggestions. The RBI has sought com- like paper, furniture, washing
the Reserve Bank of India ments on its proposals by 15 June. machines, solar glass, and air
(RBI) and the finance minis- A senior finance ministry official said purifiers to promote domestic
try to exempt loans given to the government is studying the RBI manufacturing, an official has
micro, small and medium proposals and will respond to the regu- said. Inverted duty structure
enterprises (MSMEs) from proposed lator if required. Spokespersons for the refers to taxation on inputs at
rules for provisioning for infrastruc- finance ministry, the RBI and the higher rates than finished
ture project financing. Indian Banks Association didn’t products that result in the
The move is aimed at protecting respond to emailed queries. build-up of credits and cascad-
MSMEs, who are minor players in the On 3 May, the RBI issued a draft pru- ing costs.
overall infrastructure business but are, dential framework for lenders under- The official said the com-
nevertheless, large in number. With a taking project finance, which proposed merce and industry ministry
government thrust to boost work on increasing the standard asset provi- has shared a list of products
New Delhi: State-owned NHPC on Wednesday said all infrastructure, more and more small sioning to 1-5% of loans from the cur- with the finance ministry to
four units of its Parbati-II hydro electric project are businesses are looking to enter the sec- rent 0.4%. look at the inverted duty struc-
expected to be completed by December 2024. NHPC is tor. RBI's proposed rules are aimed at protecting lenders from risks such as cost- According to the draft prudential ture issues.
constructing an 800 MW (4 units of 200 MW each) Par- The RBI's proposed rules are aimed overruns, a frequent outcome of delayed construction projects. MINT framework, when a project is in the The list was shared after
bati-II HE (hydroelectric) project in Himachal Pra- at protecting lenders from risks such as construction phase, lenders must set holding detailed consultations
desh.“All four units of the project are anticipated to be cost-overruns—a frequent outcome of tioned above said. Some banks are also apply to all categories of infrastructure aside a provision of 5% of the loan with industry associations and
completed by December 2024,” the company said in a delayed construction projects, for expected to give their individual project financing to small industries amount in protect against defaults. export promotion councils.
regulatory filing. PTI instance. responses on RBI draft regulations. and MSMEs. The latter should be kept This will come down to 2.5% once a “We have already sent the
However, banks say MSMEs are sig- “There is a proposal among banks to out from proposed changes in provi- project is operational and 1% when list to the finance ministry. The
nificant borrowers for infra- write to the regulator, and sioning,” the person added. there’s adequate cash flow to list includes products such as
India in talks with Sri Lanka to structure projects, and need finance ministry to make The head of a prominent repay obligations. paper, furniture, washing
cheaper loans, two people special provisions for small public sector bank, who The RBI has allowed machines, solar glass, air purifi-
acquire graphite mines
New Delhi: India is in talks with Sri Lanka to acquire graphite
aware of the matter said.
The RBI seeks to over-
Standard asset
1-5% industries and MSMEs in spoke on the condition of
the context of the RBI's anonymity, said several
Current standard
lenders three years to
reach 5% provision- 0.4% ers, and some cases in apparel
and jewellery also,” the official
mines there. The demand for graphite is steadily increasing, as haul rules governing proposal to overhaul points will need to be ing—2% in FY25, 3.5% in said.
it is the most common material used for anodes in lithium-ion project-lending to enable provisioning RBI rules governing project discussed if RBI wants asset provisioning FY26 and 5% by FY27. Inverted duty structure
and other batteries. New Delhi held discussions with Colombo greater flow of funds to has proposed lending for the infrastruc- changes for all infrastruc- for lenders The draft rules also say impacts the domestic industry,
on acquiring graphite mines there, persons aware of the develop- the infrastructure sector ture sector,” one of the peo- ture project financing, that banks should have a as manufacturers have to pay
ment said and added the talks were in a preliminary stage. PTI and ensure that lower risks. ple mentioned above said including structures such as clear visibility on the date on more for raw materials in terms
The communication from the requesting anonymity. Infrastructure Investment which a project is expected to of duty, while the finished
banks is likely to come from by the “The idea of the draft RBI proposals Trusts. begin commercial operations and products land at lower duty and
Over 45,000 tonnes of onions Indian Banks Association, a Mumbai- is that projects are completed in time. “Clarification would also be required increase provisions if operations are cost. Expensive inputs make
based representative body of banks and We would like to get clarification on on whether changed provisioning delayed. products costly and cannot
exported after ban was lifted financial institutions, the people men- whether the changed provisioning will norms are appropriate for all projects subhash.narayan@livemint.com compete in the export market.
MINT

Türkiye seeks three Cancer drug barred over safety worries

IVF drugs from India
Priyanka Sharma
Priyanka Sharma
priyanka.sharma@livemint.com
“We wish to inform you that
the company has now received
NEW DELHI permission for voluntary with-
anonymity. India’s pharma drawal of Olaparib (Lynparza)

T
priyanka.sharma@livemint.com exports to Türkiye have been he Drug Controller Gen- 100mg and 150 mg tablets from
NEW DELHI growing over the years, stand- eral of India (DCGI), the CDSCO (Central Drugs
New Delhi: India has exported more than 45,000 tonnes ing at $291.66 million in FY24, Rajeev Raghuvanshi, has Standard Control Organisa-

T
of onion since the ban on outbound shipments was lifted ürkiye has requested said the official. directed state authorities to tion),” AstraZeneca said in a fil-
early this month, a top government official said on Wednes- India for Gonadotropin Worldwide, around one in withdraw AstraZeneca’s Ola- ing with the BSE.
day. These exports provided relief to farmers after curbs drugs—used in obstetrics six adults, or 17.5%, struggle parib Tablets, 100mg and Queries sent to a health min-
were imposed to keep domestic supplies steady ahead of and gynaecology—given high with infertility, demonstrating 150mg, due to potential istry spokesperson remained
general elections. These exports provided relief to farmers demand for in-vitro fertiliza- the critical need to provide adverse effects on patients who unanswered till press time.
after curbs were imposed to keep domestic supplies steady tion (IVF) in that country. access to high-quality, reasona- have received three or more Dr Abhishek Shankar, onco-
ahead of general elections. PTI Every year around 65,000 bly priced fertility treatment. prior lines of chemotherapy. logist at AIIMS, Patna, said,
people receive IVF treatment The prices are similar in high-, The decision will impact the “This decision of withdrawing
in Türkiye—an expensive pro- middle-, and low-income treatment of ovarian and breast the use of Olaparib as mono-
India, China agreed to pay in local cedure in that country with nations, a sign that this is a sig- cancer patients with specific DCGI has ordered withdrawal of AstraZeneca’s Olaparib 100 mg therapy in patients with delete-
top-notch surger- nificant global genetic mutations. and 150 mg tablets over likely ill effects on repeated use. BLOOMBERG rious or suspected deleterious
currency for imports: Maldives ies costing India’s health issue. AstraZeneca, which received germline BRCA-mutated
Male: The Maldives on Wednesday said India and China have $3,500–4,500. Pharmaceutical “These are hor- approval for Olaparib in 2018, received three or more prior Raghuvanshi said state regu- advanced ovarian cancer who
agreed to cooperate in efforts to pay for imports in their respec- India’s Phar- Export Promotion monal drugs used has submitted an application to lines of chemotherapy, the firm lators must ensure implemen- have been treated with three or
tive countries’ currency instead of the US dollar, which is likely maceutical Council, for attaining preg- withdraw the drug for patients has now been directed to with- tation of the order until further more prior lines of chemother-
to help Male save almost 50% of the annual $1.5 million imports Export Promo- nancy. We have with gBRCA mutations (breast draw the said indication and notice. However, despite this apy is justified as patients who
Pharmexcil, is
bill from the two countries. Maldives’ economic development tion Council, been asked for cancer) and advanced ovarian revise the package insert,” the withdrawal, Olaparib will con- were taking Olaparib poten-
minister Mohamed Saeed said he met with the Indian high com- Pharmexcil, is supporting Urinary and/or cancer, especially those who DCGI said in a let- tinue to be mar- tially had a shorter OS than
missioner Munu Mahawar two weeks ago, who in turn, said New supporting Türk- Türkiye’s request R e c o m b i n a n t have undergone multiple ter, which has The decision will keted for other patients not on Olaparib, par-
Delhi would support and cooperate in arranging for the settle- iye’s request. FSH (Follicle chemotherapy treatments. been reviewed by affect treatment approved indica- ticularly in the subgroup analy-
ment of import payments in Indian Rupee. PTI “It is for the first Stimulating Hor- According to the DCGI, the Mint. of ovarian and tions, he added. sis of patients who had received
time we have received such a mone), Urinary HMG (Human move follows a subgroup analy- “In view of breast cancer Olaparib, mar- three or more lines of chemo-
request for such a drug used for Menopausal Gonadotropin) sis that indicated potential above circum- keted under the therapy.”
patients with
Calcuttta HC strikes down OBC gynaecology treatment. We are and Urinary HCG (Human adverse effects on patients stances, you (state
specific genetic
brand name Lyn- Dr Shyam Aggarwal, chair-
taking this as an opportunity Chorionic Gonadotropin),” treated with Olaparib. drug regulators) parza, was valued man of oncology department at
status of several classes in Bengal and encouraging our member said the official. India has 27.5 “Based on the post hoc sub- are requested to mutations at $10.3 billion in Sir Gangaram hospital echoed
Kolkata: The Calcutta high court on Wednesday struck down companies to support in this million infertile people, as per group analysis indicating a direct all the man- 2023, and is pro- Dr Shankar. He said that Ola-
the OBC status of several classes in West Bengal granted since and registration process of the the Indian Society of Assisted potential detrimental effect on ufacturers of the jected to reach parib shows good results when
2010, finding such reservations illegal. The court clarified that Indian firms is ongoing who Reproduction. overall survival (OS) for Olapra- said drug under your judica- $19.49 billion by 2030, with a used early in patients rather
the services of citizens of the struck-down classes, who are in ser- wish to supply their pharma Queries sent to Türkiye rib compared with the chemo- tions to withdraw marketing of compound annual growth rate than using it later in patients
vice or have availed the benefit or have succeeded in any selec- product to Türkiye,” said a embassy remained unan- therapy control arm in sub- the product and submit the (CAGR) of 10.1% between 2024 who have had two to three
tion process of the state will not be affected by the order. PTI Pharmexcil official requesting swered. group of patients, who have revised package insert,” he said. and 2030. chemotherapy earlier.

General elections: Big Tech accused of violating policy on political ads CORRECTIONS AND
CLARIFICATIONS
Mint welcomes comments,
Shouvik Das cal advertising across social work of bad actors using Meta's did not receive details from Eko by Big Tech, industry stake- suggestions or complaints
shouvik.das@livemint.com media platforms and claims by ads library to push hate speech to investigate. “[W]e have sev- holders said that there is a clear about errors.
NEW DELHI Big Tech firms to follow poli- and disinformation.” eral layers of analysis and need for third-party auditing of
Readers can alert the
cies to detect misinformation. While Meta had responded detection, both before and after Big Tech’s policy enforce-
newsroom to any errors in the

W
hatsApp, Instagram
and other social
media platforms car-
ried political advertisements
with misinformation, religious
hate speech and incendiary
content during the ongoing
general election, raising the
risk of electoral manipulation
by malicious actors, according
to a report by two civil rights
groups.
The report by US-based Eko
and India Civil Watch Interna-
tional, released on Tuesday,
put the scanner back on politi-
The two groups claimed to
have collated 22 politically
incendiary advertisements
across Meta’s advertising plat-
forms. Of these, 14 passed
Meta’s quality filters, the bodies
claimed. However, Eko said the
ads in question were taken
down before they went live on
Meta’s platforms.
Meta is not the only platform
to have come under the scan-
ner. On 2 April, a report by
human rights body Global Wit-
ness claimed that 48 advertise-
ments portraying violence and
to Eko’s investigation, Ham-
mad claimed the company “did
not directly answer our ques-
tions related to the detection
and labelling of AI generated
images in their ad library”.
Hammad shared a copy of
Meta’s response to Eko, dated
13 May.
Two groups have claimed to have collated 22 politically incendiary In the response, Meta under-
advertisements across Meta’s advertising platforms. ISTOCKPHOTO lined that it took multiple
“actions” and “enforcement”
voter suppression on the check filters. against malicious ad content.
world’s largest video distribu- Maen Hammad, a researcher However, a Meta India
tion platform YouTube cleared with Eko, told Mint that the spokesperson told Mint on
the latter’s electoral quality body “uncovered a vast net- Wednesday that the company
an ad goes live. Because the
authors immediately deleted
the ads in question, we cannot
comment on the claims made.”
In the investigation by
Global Witness, a YouTube
statement claimed that none of
the purported ads ran on the
platform, and refuted that they
showed “a lack of protections
against election misinforma-
tion.”
YouTube was yet to respond
to Mint’s request for a state-
ment at press time.
Despite the defence put up
ments—especially amid the paper by emailing us, with your
elections. full name and address to
Prateek Waghre, executive feedback@livemint.com.
director at public policy think
tank Internet Freedom Foun- It is our policy to promptly
respond to all complaints.
dation of India (IFF), said, “Var- Readers dissatisfied with the
ious ads that fall afoul of Big response or concerned about
Tech’s own policies end up Mint’s journalistic integrity may
being published, which reveals write directly to the editor by
a clear enforcement gap of sending an email to
quality controls. Advertising asktheeditor@livemint.com
content in India is multilingual, Mint’s journalistic Code of
but we don’t quite know how Conduct that governs our
good Big Tech’s quality classifi- newsroom is available at
ers are in most of our langua- www.livemint.com
ges.”

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First published in February 2007 to serve as an unbiased and clear-minded chronicler of the Indian Dream.
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04 THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024
KOLKATA 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

74,221.06 0.36 22,597.80 0.31 21,237.75 0.24 68,328.25 0.13 23,633.90 0.27 43,170.41 -0.05 47,961.77 0.18
PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN PREVIOUS CLOSE OPEN

73,953.31 74,165.52 22,529.05 22,576.60 21,187.65 21,255.20 68,241.75 68,573.70 23,569.90 23,634.50 43,191.88 43,366.18 47,873.56 48,150.50
HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW HIGH LOW

74,307.79 73,860.33 22,629.50 22,483.15 21,261.75 21,103.20 68,611.35 67,662.05 23,663.40 23,498.75 43,384.44 42,855.34 48,198.08 47,500.43

m MINT SHORTS
Japan reports trade deficit as
Can PSU Bhel reclaim its crown?
weak yen lifts cost of imports Manish Joshi
Impressive comeback Marching ahead ance peaked in FY13 when it reported an mens are enjoying because they have
Japan’s imports rebounded in April as the weak yen feedback@livemint.com operating income of around ₹50,000 technological capabilities in sectors
Solid improvement in new orders gave Bhel shares have handsomely
boosted their value, pushing the nation’s trade balance crore with gross and Ebitda margins at beyond power. For instance, ABB is also
Bhel's order backlog a boost in FY24 outperformed the Nifty50 index in

B
into deficit and highlighting the increasing economic harat Heavy Electricals Ltd’s the past one year about 40% and 20%, respectively. The known for its robotics and Siemens for
burden stemming from the currency’s plunge. Imports (Bhel) shares have largely New orders won Order Backlog Sales revival in thermal power capacity addi- its medical devices.
BHEL Nifty 50
gained 8.3% from a year ago, compared with the consen- moved in line with its swell- 140,000
tion is unlikely to be enough to return to Even if the demand for setting up
sus estimate of an 8.9% increase, the finance ministry ing order book over the past In  crore 450 the glory days of peak performance. thermal power plants remains intact,
reported Wednesday. The trade balance registered a year. But disappointing 120,000
380.8 Plus, the revival may not be for a sus- the technology is not so complex to pre-
¥462.5 billion ($3 billion) deficit, flipping from a ¥387 bil- results for the fiscal ended March saw 400 tained period as there is a shift towards vent the entry of new players as was seen
lion surplus. Exports advanced 8.3%, compared with the the stock lose 5% of its value on Wednes- 100,000
renewable energy. At the in the past when Larsen &
350
consensus of an 11% increase. The trade deficit, a negative day. same time, the defence and WHAT’S Toubro, JSW Ene-
factor for gross domestic product, reflects the growing The public sector undertaking’s 80,000 300 railway orders, though good TROUBLING rgy and Thermax had all
economic pain associated with the weak yen. With FY24 Ebitda (earnings before interest, for headline news, may not invested heavily in power
Japan’s currency trading around a 34-year low versus the taxes, depreciation, and amortization) 60,000
250 provide a significant boost IN FY24, the balance equipment manufacturing.
dollar, a majority of Japanese companies in a survey fell by 36% year-on-year to ₹613 crore, 200
to the annual numbers sheet worsened
with borrowings
While it is difficult to pre-
reported it’s becoming more of a problem as it puts them thanks to doubling of other expenses. 40,000
because of the long execu- rising by 64% to dict numbers in firms like
under pressure to pass on rising costs of raw materials to Additionally, the balance sheet wor- 150 123.4 tion lifecycle of the orders. ₹8,808 crore Bhel as they follow percent-
customers via price hikes. BLOOMBERG sened with borrowings rising by 64% to 20,000
The company’s share in age of completion method of
₹8,808 crore. More debt was taken to 100 the Vande Bharat order is at MORE debt was accounting, the manage-
taken to finance
finance working capital as receivables 0 50
₹13,500 crore, won in con- working capital as ment expects revenue CAGR
went up and payables declined, which FY22 FY23 FY24 22 May 2023 22 May 2024 sortium with Titagarh Wag- receivables went up, of 12-15% for the next few
meant that finance cost jumped 40%, Source: Company Note: Values rebased to 100 Source: Bloomberg
ons for supplying 80 train- payables declined years. It will be mainly due to
causing pre-tax earnings to drop by a sets and servicing them for the revenue recognition
PRANAY BHARDWAJ/MINT
sharp 68% to ₹220 crore. 35 years. Bhel will supply 20 beginning from new projects
Though earnings appear modest, In recent years, the bill-to-book ratio crore for FY25. With a gross margin of super rapid naval guns worth ₹3,800 in Bhopal, Jhansi and Bengaluru.
investors may be anticipating a better has been about 25%, meaning annual 30% and other costs at FY24 levels, this crore to the navy. But beyond that, the revenue visibil-
outlook. This optimism is due to the turnover is about one-fourth of the out- should translate into an Ebitda of Despite diversification attempts over ity is bleak as orders for thermal power
outstanding order book expanding to standing order book of the previous ₹3,400 crore, nearly 5x the FY24 Ebitda the years, Bhel’s core strength remains capacity are likely to dry out. Hence,
₹1.3 trillion, a 44% increase, attributed to year, reflecting a typical execution cycle due to operating leverage. However, the its expertise in setting up thermal power investors need to look at the terminal
the highest ever yearly order booking of of four years. current market capitalization is already plants. This edge does not deserve high value for Bhel rather than getting exci-
₹77,907 crore, nearly 3x the previous Applying this criterion, the best-case 30x the potential Ebitda. valuation multiples that other capital ted about the current surge in the order
year. scenario for Bhel is revenue of ₹33,000 Note that Bhel’s financial perform- goods companies such as ABB and Sie- inflow of thermal power capacity.

On Wednesday, the pound rallied 0.4% against the dollar

to $1.2753, the highest since 21 March. BLOOMBERG Delhivery’s profit party cut short as express slump dents growth
Pound rallies, traders pare Manvi Agarwal weakness could not be fully off- mise existing resources. While Ebitda estimates by 5% and 8%,
A bumpy ride
bets on interest rate cuts feedback@livemint.com set by the 10% and 35% sequen- Delhivery's express parcel business took a big beating in Q4FY24
the huge facility in Bengaluru respectively, after factoring in
The pound rose to its strongest in two months and traders tial revenue growth in part- will require significant capex, the insourcing hit, but said it
Shipment volume (in million)

D
Revenue (in ₹ crore) (right-hand scale)
priced in fewer and slower interest rate cuts after data elhivery Ltd’s shares are truck-load (PTL) and supply- the focus remains on expanding expected a profit-after-tax turn-
210 1,600
showed inflation slowed less than expected in April. Ster- down about 11% since the chain services. Express parcel
the tractor-trailer fleet. Delhiv- around in FY25.
ling gained 0.3% against the common currency to trade company returned to net Delhivery’s Ebitda more than 200 ery is also exploring engineer- Looking ahead, the comp-
at 0.8514 per euro, its strongest since 11 March. It also ral- loss in its March quarter halved to ₹45.9 crore in Q4 from 1,200 ing solutions to maximise the any’s ability to navigate the vol-
190
lied 0.4% against the dollar to $1.2753, the highest since (Q4FY24) results, even as it the previous quarter. The com- potential of current facilities to atile market and restore profita-
21 March. Traders are no longer fully pricing two rate cuts recorded its first Ebitda-level pany, however, expects growth 180 800 further enhance capacity. bility in its core segment will be
from the Bank of England in 2024. They now see a min- profit for the whole of FY24. in express-parcel revenue to 170 While Delhivery’s first year crucial to regaining investors’
uscule chance of a reduction at the bank’s decision next The culprit was the sharp rebound. As it renegotiates con- 400 of Ebitda profitability and confidence and reversing the
160
month, whereas previously it was seen as a coin toss. The slowdown in Delhivery’s key tracts, management projects growth in non-core segments stock’s downward trend. “Los-
UK’s Consumer Prices Index rose 2.3% from a year ago in express-parcel segment (62% of 15-20% year-on-year express- 150 0 are positive signs, the immedi- ses had been narrowing but still
Q3FY23 Q4FY24
April, down from 3.2% the previous month but below the FY24 revenue) owing to sub- parcel revenue growth in FY25, Source: Company data
ate future seems uncertain. The persist. Profitability remains the
economists’ consensus forecast for 2.1%. Services infla- dued online consumption and after 12% growth in FY24. significant drop in express-par- key for the stock price to start an
SHREEYA AGGARWAL/MINT
tion—which the BOE is watching carefully for signs of increased insourcing by A bright spot is the continued cel delivery highlights the vola- upward trajectory,” said Nuv-
domestic pressures—remained little changed at 5.9% Meesho. After a strong festival improvement in PTL profitabil- eventually match the 18-20% For FY25, Delhivery guided tility in its bread-and-butter ama Institutional Equities. The
compared to a 5.4% forecast. A core reading of prices that season, express-parcel revenue ity. Management reiterated that margin of the express-parcel for a lower capex range of 6.6% business, and is a concern. recent decline in Delhivery’s
excludes volatile food and energy costs fell to 3.9% versus plunged 16% sequentially in Q4 the PTL service Ebitda margin, service and significantly boost to 6.9% of annual revenue from Emkay Global Financial Ser- stock has meant that returns so
expectations for 3.6%. BLOOMBERG as shipment volumes fell. This which stood at 2.2% in Q4, could the profit. 7.4% in FY24 as it looks to opti- vices reduced its FY26 sales and far in 2024 stand at 3.6%.

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

BSE market cap closes a whisker short of $5 trillion Even advertisers are telling
Ram Sahgal
ram.sahgal@livemint.com
Higher and faster
The latest leg towards $5 tn accomplished in 118 trading sessions
In terms of stocks, the top 5
mid-cap movers over the
dend to the government
would enable whichever party
you to get off your smartphone
mumbai period included Trent, Cum- comes to power on 4 June in its
Total market capitalization of BSE-listed companies ($ trillion) mins India, REC, PFC and expenditure programme. FROM PAGE 1 lions of dollars “listening” to connect with Gen Z, a huge

A
fter kissing the $5 tril-
lion mark intraday
Tuesday, the market
capitalization of 5,389 listed
BSE companies fell just $3 bil-
lion short of the magic figure
on a closing basis at $4.997 tril-
lion, fuelled by a rise in mid-
cap and large-cap stocks.
The near-historic closing
came on a day the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) made a
bountiful dividend to the gov-
ernment, which, at ₹2.11 tril-
lion, was twice the amount
markets had anticipated.
Taken together with the jump
in market cap, the develop-
ments could act as a sentiment
booster for the market over
the long term, according to
6 Bhel. Nirmal Jain, founder of IIFL the moods of consumers to consumer group known for a
4.997 The top 5 large-cap movers Group, said that the RBI pay- same social-media platforms refine their messages—can no lack of brand loyalty and a bit-
4 were Reliance Industries, out was “a huge shot in the arm that their campaigns suggest longer tell consumers that ing awareness of how growing
ICICI Bank, SBI, Bharti Airtel for the new government to absorb too much of consumers’ everything is awesome. up online has affected them.
2 and M&M. continue infra spending with- time. Meta Platforms , the Instead, they’re leaning into Companies who align them-
The jump in value comes out having to increase the fis- owner of Instagram and Face- the fact it isn’t. selves with Gen Z’s anxieties
0
despite foreign portfolio cal deficit.” book, generated $36.5 billion in Celebrating tech can be dicey around their phones can
22 Sep 2003 22 May 2024 investors (FPI) net selling of Jain also expects the contin- revenue in the first quarter of in this environment, even for improve their chances of win-
Source: Bloomberg
₹25,716 crore so far this year. It uation of political and eco- this year, up 27% from the companies typically lionized for ning them over as customers,
is backed by DII net purchases nomic stability to benefit the period a year earlier, almost their accomplishments in the marketing executives say.
PRANAY BHARDWAJ/MINT
of ₹1.9 trillion and proprietary markets over the long term. entirely from advertising. field. Apple this month apolo- “It just dawned on us that his
market experts. Sensex 30, which accounted trader net buying of ₹37,578 In terms of performance, “We’re obviously not anti- gized for an ad that depicted the group is feeling a dispropor-
The all-India m-cap rose a for ₹16.18 trillion of the rise crore, as per BSE data. the BSE Midcap 150 has given tech, but what we do know is literal crushing of art supplies tionate sense of loneliness and
stupendous ₹77.45 trillion (20.9%) and the BSE Smallcap “Domestic retail investors a 24.1% return to a record that consumers want to detox and musical instruments to isolation, and really the root
over 118 sessions to Wednes- 250, which contributed ₹6.73 using the MF route have been 14,642.43 from 29 November from their smartphones to dial yield a thinner-than-ever iPad. cause of that is the lack of time
day’s closing of ₹416.13 trillion. trillion (8.7%) to the total jump. the driving force of the rally to Wednesday closing. This is up their social life and enjoy real “Marketers don’t want to be spent in person,” said Jackie
The BSE Midcap 150 contrib- Taken together all three and would continue to absorb followed by BSE Smallcap 250 world connections,” Heineken’s seen as out of touch, and saying, Jantos, the chief marketing
uted ₹18.4 trillion or 23.8% of indices contributed over half the FPI selling,” said Swarup index which has rallied 20.1% Nasser said. The Boring Phone ‘Buy this and your life’s going to officer of dating app Hinge. “I
the total increase in m-cap the increase in the all-India Mohanty, CEO of Mirae Asset to 6,377 over the same period campaign isn’t designed to get be amazing,’ because they think we all know what that
over 118 sessions. m-cap from 29 November MF. and the Sensex which has people buying know that the time has been displaced by.”
It was followed by the 2023 to 22 May 2024. Mohanty said the RBI divi- gained 10.9% to 74,222.06. more beer by leav- Marketers can no default where Hinge at the end of last year
ing them twid- longer tell people are com- began its latest push to get
dling their thumbs consumers that ing from is that young people to put down their
at the bar, but to everything is things feel worse phones and hang out in person

‘Record gold prices may reduce imports this year’ more indirectly
bolster the brand’s
association with
awesome. Instead, than they did 20
they’re leaning
years ago,” said
Lucy Jameson,
under the marketing banner of
“One More Hour.” The com-
pany promised as part of the
the joy of socializ- into the fact it isn’t co-founder of campaign to donate $1 million
Reuters increase,” said Prithviraj Old jewellery, also known as ing, he said. advertising and to social clubs in Atlanta, Los
feedback@livemint.com Kothari, president of the India scrap supplies, is recycled, and Advertisers’ design agency Angeles, and New York City
mumbai Bullion and Jewellers Associa- used for jewellery making. touch-grass campaigns repre- Uncommon Creative Studio. that provide Gen Z with oppor-
tion (IBJA). “Retail buyers pre- In the March quarter, scrap sent a broader shift in the indus- Middle-class families, one of tunities to connect in-person.

I
ndia’s gold imports in 2024
could fall by nearly a fifth
from the previous year, as
record high prices spur retail
consumers to exchange old
jewellery for new items, the
head of an industry body told
Reuters.
Lower imports by India, the
world’s second biggest con-
sumer of the precious metal,
could cap a rally that carried
global prices to a record this
week.
“Affordability is severely
affected by the rapid price
fer exchanging old jewellery supplies jumped 10% from a try, away from an always-sunny marketers’ most-coveted con- Hinge also published a physi-
for new.” year ago to 38.3 tons, data from and aspirational style of mar- sumer groups, are particularly cal book of things to do without
Buyers save money as they the World Gold Council keting and toward an accept- worried by the rise of tech use a screen in time for the annual
only pay the jewellery making showed. ance of a grimmer reality. and the mental-health prob- “Global Day of Unplugging” in
charges and tax when Lower demand due to The economy may be lems it might cause among chil- March. Suggestions include
exchanging old ornaments for record prices and higher sup- improving, but consumers dren and teenagers, she said. birdwatching, reading, and
new ones, since they do not plies of scrap will cut imports remain gloomy. The U.S. “If it’s at the top of their con- “lying in a park doing nothing.”
have to pay for the gold. by 20% from a year ago, said dropped off the list of the cerns, then you’re going to see Hinge mailed 4,000 copies
Preparing for his daughter’s IBJA’s Kothari. world’s 20 happiest countries , loads and loads of brands start of its offline-activity book,
wedding, Vinayak Patil Retail buyers prefer exchange of old jewellery. HT India imported 744 metric and news of global conflicts and to play into it,” especially which it designed to resemble
exchanged 50 grams of old tons of gold in 2023. inflammatory politics at home among companies who rely on an iPhone, for free to users. The
jewellery for new ornaments ges and taxes, I needed $5,700. “So, I decided to Domestic gold prices hit a is compounded by everyday people socializing, dating and website promoting the book
this month as prices put new ₹475,000 to buy 50 grams of exchange old jewellery and record of 74,442 rupees for 10 annoyances, from the shrink- otherwise going outside into says there are no more left, but
jewellery out of reach finan- new gold jewellery, which I pay just the making charges grams this week, and have ing lifespan of refrigerators to the real world, Jameson said. “you can still download/read an
cially. couldn’t afford,” he explained, and taxes, which amounted to jumped 17% so far in 2024, concert tickets’ hidden fees . Brands are also leaning into online version.”
“After adding making char- referring to the equivalent of around ₹90,000,” Patil said. after a rise of 15% in 2023. Marketers—who spend mil- the tech use conversation to © 2024 DOW JONES & CO. INC.
LIVEMINT.COM DEALS, TECH & STARTUPS THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024
KOLKATA 05

m MINT SHORTS
UnifyApps bags $11 million in seed
Byju’s director penalized by
funding from Elevation Capital
Bengaluru: UnifyApps has raised $11 million (₹91.6 crore) in a seed
funding round from venture capital firm Elevation Capital along
with undisclosed angel investors. The platform, which uses gener-
US court for missing $533 mn
ative AI to connect disjointed SaaS applications enables enterprises
to develop complex applications, automate business workflows
and build data pipelines. K. AMOGHAVARSHA
This compounds problems for firm once valued at $22 bn but now reeling under legal cases.
Soleos Solar Energy secures Surendran Chemmenkotil, CEO
Sneha Shah
funds worth $5.82 million sneha.shah@livemint.com
at Metropolis Healthcare.

SOLEOS SOLAR ENERGY PVT. LTD/LINKEDIN MUMBAI

Metropolis

A
US court has imposed
penalties on Riju Ravin-
dran, director of edtech
Healthcare
major Byju’s, for contempt
of court after he refused to
“disclose or ascertain the location of
to expand to
$533 million in term loan proceeds”, a
release from the company’s group of 1,000 towns
lenders said.
The court will announce the amount
for financial penalties during a future
within 2 yrs
hearing, it said.
“At a show cause hearing on May 20, Naman Suri
2024 in the United States Bankruptcy naman.suri@livemint.com
New Delhi: Soleos Solar Energy on Wednesday said it has Court for the District of Delaware, NEW DELHI
secured ₹48.5 crore ($5.82 million) in funding, which will be Judge John T. Dorsey found Riju

M
utilised as working capital and renewable energy portfolio Ravindran, brother of Byju Raveen- etropolis Healthcare
development. India Ahead Venture Fund, Sunil Singhania’s dran and one of three directors of Ltd aims to expand its
family office; Madhuri Madhu Kela; Nabs Vriddhi; Pawan Think & Learn Pvt Ltd to be in con- reach to 1,000 towns
Agarwal, Head of PCG at InCred Capital; Faruk G Patel, CMD, tempt of court following his repeated Several cases have been filed against the edtech firm by its key global investors, vendors and bondholders. . BLOOMBERG within two years using a mix of
KP Group, and others participated. The fund will help the refusal to disclose or ascertain the loca- organic and inorganic growth
firm generate its working capital, develop global renewable tion of the $533 million in term loan loan B bonds. ing fraudulent transfer litigation, that stale information.” strategies, focusing on north
energy portfolio and establish manufacturing facilities. PTI proceeds that he transferred from In 2021, Byju’s Alpha, Inc. was estab- the transfers that are the subject of that “I conclude Ravindran’s testimony is and east Indian markets, Sur-
BYJU’s Alpha, Inc,” the release said. lished as a US subsidiary of the com- litigation were made for a legitimate not truthful, that he either knows endran Chemmenkotil, chief
The court also prohibited further pany to receive proceeds of the term purpose. where the funds are located, or is inten- executive officer of the domes-
NoPo Nanotechnologies raises transferring or using any of the $533 loan. In 2022, Byju’s Alpha, transferred “This sanction effectively renders tionally avoiding obtaining the infor- tic diagnostic chain, said.
million in loan proceeds, found Byju $533 million in loan proceeds to Cam- Ravindran without a defense to those mation from other sources. I therefore “We are strongly positioned
$3 mn in pre-Series A funding round Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath, shaft Capital Fund, LP, a hedge fund causes of action,” it said. find that he is in contempt of my previ- in 600 towns, but in the next
Bengaluru: NoPo Nanotechnologies has raised $3 million (₹25 co-founders of the company, to be founded by William Morton. The judge observed that Ravindran ous order to provide the information,” two years, we plan to extend
crore) in a pre-Series A funding round co-led by Micelio Fund and working in concert with Riju Judge Dorsey said in the ruling. our services to around 1,000
Inflexor Ventures. Spectrum Impact, Aureolis, and other undis- Ravindran, and ordered the arrest HOW BYJU’S LANDED IN SOUP “Today’s ruling validates what towns. Now, the growth will be
closed angel investors also took part in the funding round. The of hedge fund manager William we have known all along: Riju a blend of organic and inor-
startup plans to deploy the funds to scale up production, improve Morton for his repeated refusal to RIJU Ravindran was THIS followed his RULING comes after A PANEL of term Ravindran, his brother and ganic projects, not just in exist-
its engineering capabilities, and execute a global go-to-market appear in court. found to be in repeated refusal to year-long legal battle loan lenders says co-founder, Byju Raveendran, and ing geographies but in newer
contempt of court disclose location of between Byju’s they will continue to
strategy. K. AMOGHAVARSHA This compounds the problems during a show-cause $533 mn in term loan parent & a group of take legal actions to their conspirators fraudulently regions that we are exploring,”
for the company that was once val- hearing on Monday. proceeds. bondholders. recover stolen funds. transferred $533 million in loan Chemmenkotil told Mint.
ued at $22 billion and has been proceeds for no legitimate purpose With a foothold in 23 states,
YCombinator, others back edtech reeling under several legal cases other than to hide the money from including a robust presence in
filed against it by its key global inves- In March 2023, Byju’s Alpha’s LP submitted a sworn declaration, in the lenders to whom it is rightfully southern and western India,
startup SuperKalam in seed round tors, vendors and bondholders. interest in Camshaft Capital Fund was which he proposed to explain why he owed,” the steering committee of the the Mumbai-based firm is now
Bengaluru: SuperKalam has raised $1.95 million (₹16.3 crore) in A company spokesperson did not transferred to Inspilearn LLC, and then could not obtain the information even ad hoc group of term loan lenders of planning to expand its foot-
a seed funding round co-led by YCombinator and Fundersclub. immediately respond to queries from again transferred to, and then though he is one of the three directors Byju’s $1.2 billion term loan said. “With print to Uttar Pradesh, Uttara-
The round also saw participation from Puneet Kumar (YCcombi- Mint. redeemed by, a still undisclosed entity of Think and Learn. William Morton and now Riju found in khand, Assam, Madhya Pra-
nator partner), GoodWater Capital, Nurture Ventures, SuperCapi- The ruling comes after a year-long in February 2024. “The actions outlined in the declara- contempt, the walls are closing in desh, Telangana and Andhra
tal, and Pareto Ventures. The funds will be utilized to improve legal battle between Think & Learn, the As per the lenders, the court further tions were tepid at best, identifying a around Byju and his house of cards. We Pradesh. Besides, it also oper-
SuperKalam’s AI-based educational platform, expand its reach and parent company of Byju’s and the sanctioned Ravindran by precluding few emails that were unanswered and will continue to take all necessary legal ates chains across South Asia,
improve user experience. K. AMOGHAVARSHA group of bondholders holding term him from arguing, in the parties’ ongo- a request for financials that resulted in actions to recover the stolen funds.” Africa and West Asia.
“We have been reinforcing
our strategy to expand foot-
prints to tier-III and tier-IV

Microsoft AI push may boost India PC sales Warburg Pincus arm sells towns, while concentrating
efforts in vital clusters in our
core geographies. We are tar-
Shouvik Das
shouvik.das@livemint.com
3.5% stake in Apollo Tyres generative image editing, and
local search queries. Yusuf
geting the states after careful
consideration. While UP and
MP are vast markets, the north-
NEW DELHI Mehdi, Microsoft’s executive east including Assam is under-
vice president and chief mar- Mayur Bhalerao & Sneha Shah results show a 13.7% year-on- served. So, there are lots of

M
icrosoft’s new-genera- keting officer, stated in a recent MUMBAI year drop in net profit to ₹354.1 opportunities in these markets.
tion artificial intelli- blog post that the AI features crore. It posted a marginal Besides, Telangana and AP have

gence (AI) PCs,
recently unveiled by CEO Satya
Nadella, is set to transform the
personal computing landscape
in India, according to industry
insiders.
Equipped with the capability
to independently execute com-
plex AI algorithms, these devi-
ces are expected to have a
growing impact on overall PC
shipments, despite restricted
release this year, they added.
According to a consensus of
three industry analysts sur-
veyed by Mint, PC shipments
are expected to stabilize this
year following a 6% dip in 2023.
However, rising adoption of AI
PCs, tailored to Microsoft’s
specifications, could drive a 5%
surge in PC shipments, and by
up to 15% in revenues by
December 2025.
Data from market researcher
IDC revealed that as of Decem-
ber, PC shipments, including
tablets, stood at 13.9 million
units. Laptops dominated PC
W
will “remove previous limita- hite Iris Investment, uptick of 0.17% in operating great growth opportunities.”
tions on things like latency, cost a subsidiary of pri- revenue to ₹6,258 crore during Riding on increasing health
and even privacy to help you be vate equity giant the period. However, Apollo awareness, India’s diagnostics
more productive, creative and Warburg Pincus, on Wednes- Tyres’ gross debt reduced from space holds significant poten-
communicate more effec- day offloaded a 3.5% stake in ₹56 billion in March 2023 to tial to expand, given its current
tively”. Apollo Tyres in a bulk deal on ₹39 billion in March 2024. fragmented landscape domi-
However, despite the poten- the BSE. The transaction, Meanwhile, JPMorgan has nated by financially-stressed
tial, analysts cautioned that ini- which included 22.4 million upgraded Apollo Tyres to regional players. According to
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. AFP tial adoption may be sluggish shares priced at ₹477.35 apiece, “overweight” citing its commit- a Praxis Global Alliance report,
due to the higher price point helped the firm rake in ₹1,073 ment to reducing debt and India’s diagnostics industry is
sales with a 75% share. At an these devices will feature a ded- compared to standard laptops. crore. The shares price repre- The transaction helped White achieving sustainable growth. expected to nearly double to
average selling price of $900 icated AI co-processor, or neu- “The new batch of hardware sents a 3.97% discount to the Iris rake in ₹1,073 crore. MINT While the company’s fourth- $25 billion by FY28, up from
(~₹75,000), this translated into ral processing unit, enhancing would be more expensive than closing price on Tuesday. quarter results fell slightly short $13 billion in FY23.
net revenues exceeding $9.5 processing capabilities. the average market selling The divestment by White Emailed queries sent to a of expectations on margins, In line with its growth strat-
billion. As per While Micro- price of laptops in India. This in Iris Investment garnered buy- spokesperson for IIFL Securi- JPMorgan believes upcoming egy, the company aims to kick-
estimates, laptop With capability to soft will initially turn would mean that the ing interest from ICICI Pruden- ties Ltd, which is managing the price increases will counter it. start FY25 with two or three
shipments alone execute complex roll out surface- uptake could initially be slow, tial and Morgan Stanley, which sale process, did not elicit any According to JPMorgan, sev- bolt-on acquisitions to supple-
could exceed 11.5 AI algorithms, the branded laptops, and any major impact in India acquired stakes of 0.66% and response till press time. eral factors are going in favour ment its presence via organic
million units by PCs are likely to third-party adop- will likely not be seen at least 0.63% in Apollo Tyres, respec- This isn’t White Iris Invest- of Apollo Tyres, including a rise expansion.
December 2025, tion is imminent, until next year,” Navkendar tively, at the same price band. ment’s first divestment in in replacement truck tyre sales, It plans to allocate around
have growing
propelling net considering that Singh, associate vice-president The move coincided with a Apollo Tyres. In December, the strategic capital allocation that ₹70 crore towards capital
revenues to impact on overall industry giants, at market researcher IDC India, surge in Apollo Tyres’ share investment firm had offloaded improves return on capital expenditure for its organic
nearly $12 billion, device shipment including Dell, said, price, which rose by 5.7% intra- a 4.5% stake in the company employed, and its focus on growth initiatives. A bolt-on
up 26% in just two HP, and Lenovo, Ultimately, Microsoft aims to day, hitting its highest levels through multiple block deals, higher product margins acquisition is a strategic acqui-
years. are poised to challenge Apple’s dominance since 3 May. This surge was amounting to ₹1,281 crore. through price adjustments to sition of smaller firms aligning
Analysts attribute much of launch Copilot+ PCs laptops in the consumer laptop market, fuelled by trading of a signifi- The news of the stake sale offset material costs and envi- with a company’s objectives.
this projected growth to the next month onwards. particularly its MacBook Air cant volume of shares, totalling follows recent financial ronmental regulations. At present, it operates 199
introduction of Microsoft’s AI AI PCs offer offline support series, which starts at a price of 22.5 million, on the BSE, updates by Apollo Tyres. The mayur.bhalerao@live- labs and 4,150 collection cen-
PCs. Branded as ‘Copilot+ PCs,’ for tasks including file recall, $1,200 in India. according to Bloomberg. company’s fourth-quarter mint.com tres.
06 THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024
KOLKATA CORPORATE LIVEMINT.COM

Ericsson looks to raise India Anguish@IITs as jobs still

distant for many students
share on Voda Idea orders FROM PAGE 1

have increased since the last

count,” the person said on the
condition of anonymity.
A student at IIT-Delhi who
Voda Idea will spend the bulk of its fundraise on enhancing 4G services and rolling out 5G was placed in the first phase
said that from every stream,
some students are yet to be
Gulveen Aulakh with more details on which countries, hired. “The placement team is
gulveen.aulakh@livemint.com but currently we’re expanding to meet reaching out to alumni several
New Delhi the requirements of the India market.” times, and students were
Ericsson uses facilities of Jabil, an asked to fill up forms on

T
elecom equipment provider American contract manufacturer that whether they would still want A student at IIT-Delhi who was placed in the first phase said from
Ericsson aims to increase its has its India unit in Pune, to make tele- the placement team to get every stream, some students are yet to be hired. HT
share in the Indian market com gear in India that are deployed them a job so that the college
on the back of new orders locally. The capacities have been on an can keep a track on who needs checked,” the member added. find a job.
that it expects to come from increase as telcos rolled out 5G services to be placed. Many are trying Most large IT services com- “There has been a slight
existing customer Vodafone Idea, throughout the country last year. on their own as well,” the stu- panies have decided not to hire decrease in the packages. Last
which will spend the bulk of its fun- Carriers Bharti Airtel and Reliance dent said. from campuses this year. A year, the average package was
draise on enhancing 4G services and Jio, which aggressively rolled out their At IIT-Bombay, IIT-Delhi, TeamLease Digital report in ₹26 lakh. This time, it has gone
rolling out 5G services. 5G networks, will go slow on their capex IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Madras February said the hiring intent down to ₹25 lakh,” the place-
Nitin Bansal, India managing plans from this year on, which is set to and IIT-Kanpur—so-called for freshers in the IT sector has ment team member added.
director of the Swedish gear maker, spell a slowdown in revenue for telecom older IITs—placements begin decreased to 42% in H1 2024 While the crore-plus packages
said in an interview that discussions gear makers including Ericsson. in December, while the newer compared to 49% in the same did come in from the high-fre-
with the No. 3 carrier were ongoing but However, Bansal said the growth was ones start earlier in August- period in 2023. In January, quency trading firms this year
new purchase orders were yet to be likely to continue albeit the pace may September. The placements Mint reported that India’s as well, the numbers were a
given out. “We continue to talk. We be slower than 2023. “We’re seeing are conducted across two pha- freshly graduating tech talent handful and core sector firms
have been discussing across all telcos in more subscribers coming in, more data ses a few months apart. as well as entry- to mid-career saw many takers.
India. Once they decide, they will tell us being consumed, networks not being After a year and half of reck- employees are staring at a bleak “There were a lot of students
what they have in mind,” he said. congested but used even more. So, it less hiring, many businesses immediate future as the coun- to place and there were fewer
“As a technology provider, our ambi- will continue to grow, maybe not the entered a downturn, with try’s top tech recruiters pull companies that came. There
tion is always to get more but I will Carriers Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio will go slow on their capex from this year on, same level as we saw last year, but the funds drying at startups, con- back on new hiring. The last were around 2,000 students
never say we want to get less from any which means a slowdown in revenue for telecom gear makers such as Ericsson. growth will continue,” he said. sulting companies hit by cli- time the country’s largest tech- this year compared to around
customer. But the discussions are The carriers that have invested heav- ents reviewing work, global nology services 1,700 last year. By
ongoing, and we will wait for them to ₹50,000-55,000 crore for the next now engaging with Vodafone Idea, ily into offering 5G services across the conflicts and supply chain dis- companies shied Most large the end of last
decide what they have in mind,” Bansal three years, which will be primarily which was a change from the past cou- country were now looking at monetisa- ruptions. Companies that had away from cam- IT services month, close to
said in response to a question on getting aimed at improving 4G services across ple of years when they refrained from tion but have noted that opportunities over-hired during the boom of puses was during companies 60% students
more business from circles of Vodafone the country, and launching 5G services offering equipment on credit to telcos were absent, prominently by Airtel’s 2021 and 2022 began slough- the global finan- have decided were placed on
Idea that are currently using gear from in its 17 priority circles. It aims to begin that were unable to pay up past con- top executive Gopal Vittal in the telco’s ing off staff, and the domino cial crisis of 2008. campus,” said a
Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE. 5G roll-outs within six to nine months tractual dues. earnings call last week. “This time,
not to hire
impact was felt by colleges in placement team
The latter could be replaced when and achieve 40% revenue coverage Bansal said Ericsson was looking at Ericsson on Wednesday launched its both B-school and engineer- since the stu- from campuses member at IIT-
the telco upgrades to 5G as the Indian within 24-30 months. exports of telecom equipment from innovative software toolkit and show- ing campuses. This has forced dents were antic- this year Kharagpur.
government rules do not permit cased 5G advanced use cases offer- them to chase a wider set of ipating a down- IIT-Delhi has
‘non-trusted’ sources for telecom SIGNAL STREET ing Massive Mimo, advanced RAN companies and, in some cases, turn in the indus- reached out to its
equipment. Huawei and ZTE are yet slicing, time-critical communica- inviting recruiters setting the try due to recession, there alumni, a person aware of the
to get this status, while Ericsson and ERICSSON has gear HUAWEI, ZTE could HUAWEI and ZTE VODA Idea raised tion and 5G core. Bansal said telcos salary standards lower. were more students who matter said, and students have
Finnish rival Nokia have got theirs. deployed in 8 circles
of Voda Idea, while
be replaced when Vi
upgrades to 5G as
are yet to get this ₹18,000 cr from
status, while Ericsson India’s largest FPO
were in discussions to take the The placement team mem- decided to pursue higher stud- approached professors and
Vodafone Idea recently raised Nokia in 9, Huawei in India does not permit and Finnish rival and another ₹2,075 enterprise use cases to market, but ber cited above said some ies instead of placements. Usu- department heads to help them
₹18,000 crore from India’s largest 7 and ZTE in 5 circles ‘non-trusted’ sources Nokia have got theirs cr from the promoter did not put a timeframe for these to companies which had hired ally, there are about 200 stu- get hired. The Office of Career
follow-on public offer till date and become mainstream among enter- before this recruitment season dents who pursue higher stud- Services (OCS), IIT-Delhi has
another ₹2,075 crore from pro- prises. “There are multiple levers to were returning with new pro- ies, this year around 300 also asked other departments
moter Aditya Birla Group. The loss- Ericsson has telecom gear deployed India where it currently has surplus having a live (5G enterprise) deploy- files. “The new session starts in students are doing that,” said a to inform the placement team
making telecom services provider is in eight circles of Vodafone Idea, while equipment. “Our factory that we run is ment. It’s the need for investment, an July and we have a month and placement team member at in case recruiters were con-
also in talks with banks and financial Nokia has gear in nine circles, Huawei in over-capacity in the last few months, interest (from enterprises) and we have a week to place the rest of the IIT-Kanpur. The member tacted directly for the unplaced
institutions to raise another ₹35,000 in seven and ZTE in five circles. but going forward, we’re looking at to identify what problem are we trying students. Every call from any highlighted that the college students.
crore through debt. Senior sector executives who did not exports and that’s still work in to solve. So those discussions are hap- company is getting looked into had about 2,000 students to pratishtha.bagai@hindu-
The telco has planned capex of want to be named said vendors were progress,” he said. “We will come back pening,” he said. and student interest is place and 100-150 are yet to stantimes.com

Climate combat in MBBS curriculum RBI’s dividend blitz smoothes ‘OYO may
FROM PAGE 1 600 million children globally journey to fiscal deficit target raise funds
them said.
“There are a lot of diseases
would be living in areas of
extremely high water stress.
The NCDC has also been FROM PAGE 1 platform X on Wednesday,
at $3-4 bn
emerging because of climate
change. But not all doctors are
working on vector-borne dis-
eases and zoonotic diseases, drag from liquidity operations
congratulating the central
bank for the record payout. valuation’
much aware of them and transmitted from animals to compared to the previous year “It’s important to note that
hence are not able to provide humans, that could be exacer- have probably led to such a this record amount was PTI
the right treatment,” the offi- bated by climate change. whopping dividend,” said declared AFTER increasing feedback@livemint.com
cial said on the condition of “The impact of climate Upasna Bhardwaj, chief econ- the contingency risk buffer to New delhi
anonymity. “A basic course on change is clearly visible on vec- omist, Kotak Mahindra Bank. 6.5% from 6%. I would like to

climate action at the MBBS
level will enable them in a
much better way” to treat such
conditions, the official added.
The Union health and fam-
ily welfare ministry did not
reply to emailed queries.
The National Centre for
Disease Control (NCDC)
recently issued guidelines on
how to treat patients suffering
from heat strokes.
The NCDC and the National
Programme on Climate
Change and Human Health
have also prepared guidelines
for hospitals on deaths that can
be labelled as heat-related or
because of heatstroke, as part
of introducing evidence-based
medical decision-making.
“Identifying a patient suc-
cumbing due to heatstroke is
not easy; it can only be done by
experts,” said the official
quoted earlier.
The government is also
T
tor-borne diseases, and zoo- “Positively, this comes with compliment @DasShaktikanta ravel tech platform OYO
notic diseases are also a rising the contingency risk buffer & the entire team at the RBI for is likely to raise equity
concern,” said a second official being kept at the higher end of their diligent & judicious man- funds from institutional
A basic course on climate action at the MBBS level will enable familiar with the matter, also the statutory requirement. We agement of this vital institu- investors at a valuation of $3-4
doctors to treat conditions like heat stroke. HT speaking on the condition of expect such a windfall to help Shaktikanta Das, the governor tion,” tweeted Mahindra. billion, its founder Ritesh
anonymity. “The decrease in fiscal deficit ease by 0.4% in of RBI. PTI A significant part of RBI’s Agarwal told employees on
working on an action plan to ronmental hazard. forest areas will lead to a rise in FY25,” Bhardwaj added. surplus comes from its opera- Wednesday, according to peo-
combat the effects of climate The World Health Organi- zoonotic diseases, and there is The increased dividend by FPIs (foreign portfolio tions in financial markets, when ple aware of the matter.
change on people’s health at zation has predicted an addi- a high probability that new from RBI will offset the gov- investors) due to inclusion in it intervenes to buy or sell for- The firm, backed by Soft-
the state level. Most states and tional 250,000 climate-re- viruses will emerge.” ernment’s lower-than-ex- the global bond index will fur- eign exchange. It also earns bank, had its maiden net prof-
Union territories, in collabo- lated deaths worldwide every Dr. Rajeev Jayadevan, a pected revenue from divest- ther lend support,” said econ- income from government itable year in 2023-24 when it
ration with the year from 2030 to public health expert, said it ment and other proceeds. It is omists at Bank of Baroda in a securities it holds and as returns posted a profit after tax (PAT)
NCDC, have sent Many doctors in 2050 through was important for doctors to also expected to help the gov- note. FPIs refer to foreign from its foreign currency assets of ₹99.6 crore ($12 mil-
drafts of their India are still not m a l n u t r i t i o n , go beyond common health ernment cut back on its gross portfolio investors. that are investments in the lion).The company registered
action plans to knowledgeable malaria, diar- complications such as diabetes borrowing estimate of ₹14.13 According to Icra’s Nayar, bonds of foreign central banks a profit after tax (PAT) of ₹100
the Union health enough to treat rhoea and heat and heart diseases and also trillion in 2024-25, helping increasing the funds available or top-rated securities. crore in the March quarter, the
ministry for s t r e s s , focus on diseases caused by lower borrowing costs. for capex would boost the Other sources of income for people said.
health hazards
approval. with women, climate change. The benchmark 10-year quality of fiscal deficit, but RBI include deposits with It also reported an adjusted
These plans arising out of children and peo- “Climate change is real. bond yield dropped five basis additional spending may be other central banks or the Ebitda of ₹888 crore ($107 mil-
include a set of climate change ple with disabili- Animals are entering human points to 6.99% after the difficult to incur within the Bank for International Settle- lion) for the full fiscal year, up
guidelines to ties particularly at habitats, which was not hap- announcement, its lowest eight-odd months left in the ment (BIS). Additionally, it also from ₹274 crore ($33 million)
handle the risk. pening earlier. Zoonotic dis- level in nearly a year. fiscal year after the final bud- earns from lending to banks in 2022-23, the people said,
impact of climate change on Unicef has estimated that eases like covid, ebola, mon- “Overall, this is likely to get is presented. for very short tenures and citing a presentation shared in
people’s health over the next about 25% of the children in keypox are some examples of have a positive impact on gov- Industrialist Anand Mahin- management commission on the townhall. Oravel Stays Ltd,
five years. Each plan has four India experience high or how climate change has been ernment yields. We expect 10Y dra, chairperson of Mahindra handling the borrowings of the operator of the travel-tech
main chapters—vulnerability, extremely high water vulnera- threatening public health,” yield to go below 7% in the & Mahindra and RBI board state governments and the company OYO, will refile its
demography, illness and envi- bility, and that by 2040 almost said Dr. Jayadevan. coming months. Frontloading member, tweeted on social central government. initial public offering (IPO)
documents with the Securities
and Exchange Board of India
(Sebi) after the refinancing of

Automakers fume over new Europe-like carbon emission goals
FROM PAGE 1
rently, and it is reasonable to
believe such standards cannot
come to pass as it is.”
CAFE norms relate to car-
bon emissions from the full
fleet of a company, including
vehicles with conventional
and clean-fuel engines. So, a
higher number of EVs,
hybrids, small ICE vehicles
(which emit less carbon), or
those with more fuel-efficient
fossil engines such as CNG, in
a company’s fleet of cars sold
would reduce its carbon emis-
sions under CAFE-III.
“The bigger play is to reduce
oil imports, but such hastened
electrification will come at a
cost, which will affect demand
negatively,” another person
cited above said, declining to
be identified as the talks are
private. “It’ll be challenging to
meet such a target, so I don't
believe the government will go
for such strict standards.”
Mint has learnt that some
sections of the auto industry
have also sought a carbon trad-
ing mechanism, which will
enable OEMs to buy and sell
carbon credits, but the pro-
posal isn’t actively being con-
sidered yet. In Europe, OEMs
that exceed their CO2 emis-
sions targets for vehicles can
purchase carbon credits or
allowances from other OEMs
to offset their excess emissions.
Rajesh Jejurikar, executive
director and chief executive,
behind CAFE norms for the
future, he said the way M&M
understands the norms, “the
mindset right now is to create
CAFE norms, which encourage
companies to have a very high
portfolio of electric cars. It is
being designed in a way that lit-
erally discourage non-electric
(cars). The direction of the con-
versation right now is to move
OEMs, and push them to have
EVs because that’s the only way
CAFE norms relate to carbon emissions from a firm’s full fleet, to meet the CAFE norms”.
including conventional and clean-fuel vehicles. ISTOCKPHOT “At Hyundai Motor India, we
fully support government initi-
automotive and farm business happen with the portfolio of atives that promote sustainable
at Mahindra & Mahindra, told electric cars that we have in and environmentally friendly
analysts post its March quarter FY25 as well.” On the upcoming transportation,” said Puneet
earnings call that the company CAFE-III norms, he said they Anand, the company’s AVP and
has met its CAFE-II targets in are “still under discussion”. vertical head (corporate affairs).
2023-24. “We expect that to On the thought process “Regarding the CAFE-III and
CAFE-IV proposed standards,
we, along with the industry
body SIAM, are actively partici-
pating in discussions with the
relevant authorities. Hyundai
Motor India is dedicated to pro-
viding customers with prod-
ucts that comply with all gov-
ernment regulations."
Queries sent to BEE, Maruti
Suzuki and Tata Motors
remained unanswered till
press time.
The European Union aims
to completely phase out sales
of fossil fuel-run passenger
vehicles by 2035. India does
not have such a deadline yet—
the government has set a 30%
electrification target by 2030,
but various industry estimates
are much lower. A BNP Paribas
report, published on 2 May,
estimates India will see 15%
electrification in EVs by 2030.
The BEE is holding consul-
tations to formulate CAFE-III
and -IV norms to set targets for
fuel consumption and CO2
emissions. CAFE III and CAFE
IV norms will kick in from
2027 and 2030, respectively.
Currently, the threshold for
CO2 emissions under the pre-
vailing CAFE-II norms is 113
gm per km. By 2027, the BEE
has proposed to shrink it close
to 94 gm/km, the people cited
above said. Significantly, eight
out of 18 OEMs reportedly did
not meet CAFE-II norms in
2023, which could cumula-
tively attract upwards of
₹1,000 crore in penalty.
its $450 million Term Loan B
(TLB) at a lower interest rate,
PTI reported last week.
“OYO has also been
approached by friendly inves-
tors and may do a small equity
round at a $3-4 billion valua-
tion, or at $38-45 per share to
further reduce its debt,” Agar-
wal told employees in the
townhall. In 2023-24, OYO
added about 5,000 hotels and
6,000 homes globally.
Gross booking value (GBV)
per storefront per month for
hotels stood at ₹3.32 lakh
($4,000). The travel tech plat-
form’s gross margins
improved in 2023-24, reach-
ing ₹2,508 crore ($302 mil-
lion) up from ₹2,350 crore
($283 million) in 2022-23.
Operating costs also improved,
decreasing from 19% of GBV in
2022-23 to 14% of GBV in
2023-24, the people said.
और सभी न्यूज़ पेपर मैगजीन प्राप्त करने के लिए सर्वप्रथम इस टेलीग्राम ग्रुप को ज्वाइन करें नीचे दिए लिंक पर क्लिक करके ज्वाइन टेलीग्राम

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LIVEMINT.COM CORPORATE THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024
KOLKATA 07

SpiceJet to seek
₹450 crore refund
Co. has paid Kalanithi Maran, KAL Airways ₹730 crore
Krishna Yadav
krishna.yadav@livemint.com
NEW DELHI

B
udget airline Spice-
Jet will seek a
refund of ₹450
crore from its
former promoter
Kalanithi Maran, and his firm,
KAL Airways, the company
said on Wednesday.
This follows a Delhi High
Court order on 17 May that
overturned an earlier judg-
ment upholding an arbitral
award in Maran's favour.
SpiceJet said it will seek the SpiceJet’s chairman and managing director Ajay Singh.
return of ₹450 crore out of the
₹730 crore it paid to KAL Air- and Ravinder Dudeja passed their annulment.
ways and Maran. This the order on a plea filed by The division bench found
includes ₹580 crore in princi- SpiceJet's chairman and man- that the single judge had
pal and ₹150 crore in interest. aging director (CMD), Ajay erred in dismissing the Sec-
“The Division Bench of the Singh, and the airline, chal- tion 34 petitions of Ajay Singh
Delhi High Court ruled on lenging a single-judge order and SpiceJet without due
May 17 in favour of SpiceJet from July 2023 that had consideration of claims of pat-
and its promoter, Ajay Singh, affirmed the arbitral award. ent illegality and admitted
in the long-standing share SpiceJet and Ajay Singh breaches by KAL Airways and
transfer case against former had challenged many por- Kalanithi Maran. The court
promoter Kalanithi Maran tions of the award, including noted that penal interest had
and his firm, KAL Airways,” the direction to refund ₹270 been charged despite Spice-
SpiceJet said in a statement. crores to KAL Airways and Jet not being in breach of the
“This ruling overturns a pre- Maran and the imposition of share purchase agreement.
vious decision by a single- 12% interest on warrants and These aspects were not ade-
judge bench, positioning Spi- 18% interest on the awarded quately considered by the sin-
ceJet to claim a substantial amount. They argued that gle judge, leading to the
refund based on legal advice.” these portions of the award allowance of the appeals by
Justices Yashwant Varma were unjustified and sought Ajay Singh and SpiceJet.

Office of the Executive Engineer (E)

RDSS Division, Electricity Department-II
New Delhi Municipal Council
Room No. 1804 “A”, 18th Floor, Palika Kendra,
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provider NIC is mandatory. Executive Engineer (E) RDSS

JUBILANT FOODWORKS LIMITED

CIN NO. L74899UP1995PLC043677
Regd. Office: Plot No. 1A, Sector – 16A, Noida – 201301, Uttar Pradesh
th
Corporate Office: 15 Floor, Tower E, Skymark One, Plot No. H-10/A, Sector-98, Noida – 201301, Uttar Pradesh
Contact No: +91-120-6927500, +91-120-6935400
E-mail: investor@jublfood.com, Website : www.jubilantfoodworks.com

STATEMENT OF CONSOLIDATED AND STANDALONE FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE QUARTER AND YEAR ENDED 31ST MARCH, 2024
(Figures-INR in Million, Unless Otherwise Stated)
CONSOLIDATED RESULTS STANDALONE RESULTS
Sr. For the Quarter ended For the year ended For the Quarter ended For the year ended
st st
No. PARTICULARS 31 March 31 Dec 31st March 31st March 31st March st
31 March st
31 Dec 31st March 31st March 31st March
2024 2023 2023 2024 2023 2024 2023 2023 2024 2023
Refer Note 3 Unaudited Refer Note 3 Audited Audited Refer Note 3 Unaudited Refer Note 3 Audited Audited
1 Total Income from Operations (net) 15,727.97 13,781.17 12,698.47 56,540.88 51,582.47 13,313.00 13,550.58 12,523.11 53,408.50 50,959.92
2 Net Profit for the period/ year (before Tax, Exceptional and / or Extraordinary items) 548.61 858.40 534.01 3,155.51 4,887.31 508.18 818.75 929.66 3,303.46 5,384.71
3 Net Profit for the period/year before Tax (after Exceptional and/or Extraordinary items) 2,250.26 858.40 534.01 4,857.16 4,887.31 388.18 818.75 729.66 3,183.46 4,918.32
4 Net Profit for the period/ year after Tax (after Exceptional and / or Extraordinary items) 2,082.45 657.09 285.42 4,000.73 3,530.34 256.27 609.52 475.25 2,339.09 3,562.12
(Refer Note 3)
5 Total Comprehensive Income for the period/ year [comprising Profit for the period 1,468.10 440.96 (495.10) 3,225.47 1,839.35 (294.54) 355.19 (605.60) 1,873.69 1,518.88
after Tax and Other Comprehensive Income after Tax]
6 Equity Share Capital 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69 1,319.69
7 Reserves excluding Revaluation Reserve as at Balance Sheet date 20,386.73 19,058.21 20,797.09 20,135.03
8 Earnings per share (after exceptional items) (of INR. 2/- each)
From continuing operations
a) Basic (in INR.) 3.15 1.00 0.43 6.06 5.35 0.39 0.92 0.72 3.54 5.40
b) Diluted (in INR.) 3.15 1.00 0.43 6.06 5.35 0.39 0.92 0.72 3.54 5.40
From continuing operations
a) Basic (in INR.) (0.01) (0.01)
b) Diluted (in INR.) (0.01) (0.01)
NOTES :
1 These financial results have been prepared in accordance with the recognition and measurement principles as laid 5 During the financial year ended March 31, 2024, Jubilant Foodworks Netherlands B.V. ("JFN"), wholly owned subsidiary
down in the Indian Accounting Standards (referred to as "Ind AS") prescribed under Section 133 of the Companies of the Parent Company has acquired further stake in DP Eurasia N.V. (DPEU) for an aggregate consideration of INR
Act, 2013 read with Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Rules as amended from time to time, to the extent 7,702.69 million and JFN holds 94.33% in DPEU as on March 31, 2024. Pursuant to the aforesaid acquisition, DPEU has
applicable. The above consolidated and standalone financial results were reviewed by the Audit Committee and become subsidiary of JFN and accordingly the Group has accounted for its investment in accordance with IND AS 103
approved by the Board of Directors at their meetings held on May 22, 2024. The statutory auditor’s report on review “Business Combinations” and Ind AS 110 "Consolidated Financial Statements" w.e.f. February 1, 2024. Consequent to
of consolidated and standalone financial results for the quarter and audit of consolidated and standalone financial the same a gain of INR 1,701.65 million on remeasurement of previously held equity interest at acquisition date fair
results for the financial year ended March 31, 2024 is being filed with the BSE Limited and National Stock Exchange of value has been disclosed under exceptional item in the financial results. Further, results of DPEU duly inflation adjusted
India Limited. in accordance with IAS 29 on“Financial Reporting in Hyperinflationary Economies”are consolidated in these results and
2 The Company's business activity falls within a single business segment i.e. Food and Beverages in terms of Ind AS 108 accordingly results of the quarter and year ended March 31, 2024 are not comparable with that of previous periods/
on Segment Reporting. year. Based on the Purchase Price Allocation carried out by the independent valuer, the purchase consideration has
3 The figures for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 and the corresponding quarter ended in the previous year, as been assigned as follows i) INR 9,718.10 million on identifiable intangibles (INR 5,761.30 million for master franchise
reported in these financial results, are the balancing figures between audited figures in respect of the full financial agreement and INR 3,956.80 million for Coffy brand) and ii) INR 7,706.44 million is accounted for as goodwill.
year and the published year to date figures upto the end of third quarter of the relevant financial year. Also, the 6 The Board of Directors of the Company has recommended a dividend of INR 1.2 per Equity share of INR 2/- each fully
figures upto the end of the third quarter had only been reviewed and not subjected to audit. paid up for the financial year 2023-24, subject to approval of the shareholders at the ensuing Annual General Meeting.
4 The Company has investment in its wholly owned subsidiary viz Jubilant FoodWorks Lanka (Private) Limited (JFLPL) 7 The above is an extract of detailed format of financial results for the quarter and year ended March 31, 2024 filed with
having operations in Sri Lanka. During the quarter, the management has recorded an impairment charge of INR 120 the Stock Exchanges under Regulation 33 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations,
million (INR 466.39 million in previous year) which is shown under exceptional items. 2015. The full format of the financial results are available on the Stock Exchanges websites (www.bseindia.com and
www.nseindia.com) and on Company's website (www.jubilantfoodworks.com).
For and on behalf of the Board of Directors of
JUBILANT FOODWORKS LIMITED
Sd/-
SHYAM S. BHARTIA
Place: Noida CHAIRMAN & DIRECTOR
Date: May 22, 2024 DIN No. 00010484
08 THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024
KOLKATA CORPORATE LIVEMINT.COM

Sun Pharma
posts higher Worst behind us, says Paytm
Q4 profit at
₹2,655 cr
CEO after losses widen in Q4
PTI
feedback@livemint.com
new DELHI Firm’s revenue also drops to ₹2,399 crore in March quarter from ₹2,465 crore a year earlier

S
un Pharmaceutical
Industries Ltd on
Wednesday reported a
consolidated net profit of
₹2,654.58 crore in the fourth
P
quarter ended on 31 March
2024.
The company had posted a
consolidated net profit of
₹1,984.47 crore in the fourth
quarter of the previous fiscal,
Sun Pharma said in a regula-
tory filing.
Consolidated total revenue
from operations in the fourth
quarter was at ₹11,982.9 crore
in the quarter under review. It
was at ₹10,930.67 crore in the
Priyamvada C. Bank, State Bank of India and Yes Bank The Falguni Nayar-led firm was buoyed by robust growth in the
Priyamvada.c@livemint.com for this. beauty and personal care segment. MINT
BENGALURU Paytm is also in the midst of a
restructuring and has seen several top-
Nykaa net profit up
aytm founder and chief exec- level exits and layoffs in recent months.
utive Vijay Shekhar Sharma “There is an opportunity for us to cre-
on Wednesday said that the
worst is over for the company
on a day One97 Communica-
ate a much leaner organisation in line
with some of the revenue and profita-
bility impact that we have had... We’re
300% in Q4 even
tions, its parent firm, reported a lower very conscious about the fact that we
quarterly revenue and a larger loss.
“We learned a lot of our lessons to
become better and resilient. We also
need to relook at every cost… our larg-
est indirect cost is of course people,”
Deora said.
as expenses surge
resolved to be fully compliant accord- The company expects further reduc- Sowmya Ramasubramanian FY24, indicating its ability to
ing to the regulators’ expectations in tions in other employee costs and sowmya.r@livemint.com capitalize on modest con-
letter and spirit,” Sharma told share- anticipates annualised people cost sav- BENGALURU sumption patterns throughout
holders in an earnings call. ings of ₹400-500 crore. Deora the financial year.

same quarter a year ago, it
added.
Sun Pharma’s India formu-
lation sales were at ₹3,707.8
crore while US formulation
sales were at $476 million
(around ₹3,964 crore) in the
fourth quarter.
The company said the
results for the quarter ended
31 December, and the quarter
and the year ended 31 March
were not comparable with
other periods due to the
acquisition of a 60% share-
holding in Vivaldis Health
and Foods Pvt. Ltd, which was
completed during the quarter
ended 30 June last year.
Sun Pharma’s board has
recommended a final divi-
dend of ₹ 5 per equity share of
₹1 each subject to approval by
shareholders at the ensuing
annual general meeting, the
company said.
This is in addition to the
interim dividend of₹ 8.5 per
share paid in FY24, taking the
total dividend for FY24 to
₹13.5 per share compared to
₹11.5 per share for FY23, it
added.
C
Earlier this year, the Reserve Bank of explained that this “takes a little bit of osmetics and fashion In line with its expansion
India (RBI) directed Paytm Payments time to come through fully in the finan- retailer Nykaa has strategy, the FSN E-Com-
Bank Ltd (PPBL) to halt new credit and cial numbers”, which is why the com- reported a significant merce board also approved the
deposit operations, top-ups and fund pany has not yet seen all of these gains surge in profits for the quarter acquisition of Nykaa Fashion’s
transfers, among other banking activi- in Q1. Paytm expects to see the full ended March, buoyed by western wear and accessories
ties. The action followed a comprehen- Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma. MINT financial impact of the disruptions in robust growth in its beauty business during the quarter
sive review by external auditors, which Q4 in the current quarter. It has fore- and personal care (BPC) seg- through a slump sale. This seg-
uncovered consistent non-compliance tion and a temporary rental waiver to increase marketing spends in the sub- cast Q1 (April-June) revenue at ment. The company, operated ment reported a turnover of
and supervisory concerns at the bank. ring-fence certain cohorts of mer- sequent quarters to acquire new cus- ₹1,500-1,600 crore and is confident of by FSN E-Commerce, posted a ₹37.6 crore as of 31 March.
As a result of these sanctions, Febru- chants, the company said in a state- tomers. “We do expect our marketing “seeing meaningful improvement net profit of ₹9.07 crore, up Additionally, Nykaa Fashion
ary and March were “uncomfortably ment. cost to be higher in Q1 than in Q4 (of starting from Q2FY2025” from restart- around 300% compared to a was merged with Iluminar
bad” and filled with lessons for “long- The active rate and per-device sub- FY24), which was abnormally low,” ing certain paused products and year ago period. Media’s LBB, a digital lifestyle
term sustainability and growth of the scription revenue were also hit. In Q4, Madhur Deora, group CFO, said in the achieving steady growth in operating Nykaa’s operating revenue platform acquired in August
company,” Sharma said. merchant subscription revenue was earnings call. metrics. Due to a pause on PPBL prod- also witnessed a significant 2022, to bolster content dis-
The company’s revenue dropped to around ₹90 per device per month. The The company has started acquiring ucts like Paytm wallet and FASTag, the uptick, rising 28% year-on- covery and delivery capabili-
₹2,399 crore in Q4 from ₹2,465 company also expects annualised year (y-o-y) to reach ₹1,667.9 ties, according to a separate fil-
crore a year earlier. Losses widened SETBACKS TO COMPANY direct impact on Ebitda to be about crore. However, the growth ing with bourses.
to ₹551 crore in a quarter, from ₹168 ₹500 crore. was accompanied by a surge in Falguni Nayar-led Nykaa
crore a year earlier, largely due to EARLIER this year THE action followed FEB and Mar were THE company’s “Most of this impact will be in Q1 total expenses, amounting to reappointed two independent
an impairment of ₹227 crore on the RBI directed Paytm
Payments Bank Ltd
an audit by external
auditors, which
“uncomfortably
bad” and filled
losses
widened
as these products were operational ₹1,655.4 crore during the directors—Pradeep Parames-
company’s investment in Paytm to halt new credit, uncovered with lessons, to ₹551 crore during most part of Q4FY24” the quarter. waran and Seshashayee Srid-
Payments Bank Ltd, in which it deposit operations supervisory concerns Sharma said during the quarter company said in the statement. According to Nykaa’s dis- hara—for another three years
holds 49%. Temporary disruptions in oper- closure to the stock exchanges, starting 1 July. The firm
Paytm’s stock gained nearly 5% ating metrics (monthly transacting its profit after tax for FY24 appointed Santosh Desai, the
to close at ₹369 on the BSE on Wednes- company expects it to bottom out new merchants and is also focusing on users, merchant base, payment gross stood at ₹39.74 crore, up from managing director and chief
day. around ₹80 in Q1 FY25 before rising to reactivating inactive merchants, Deora merchandise value) during February ₹20.9 crore in FY23. The executive officer of Future-
The company’s active point-of-sale about ₹100 by Q4 FY25. added. and March are also expected to have an beauty and personal care seg- brands India, as an independ-
device base on the merchants’ side fell The company’s indirect expenses In March, Paytm received approval incremental Ebitda impact of ₹100-150 ment, accounting for the larg- ent director effective 15 July.
by about a million due to higher attri- decreased 9% sequentially on account from the National Payments Council of crore in Q1FY25 and should start recov- est share of the company’s rev- The board also approved an
bution in these months and no new of lower employee costs and a tempo- India (NPCI) to operate as a third-party ering from Q2 as seen from the stabili- enues, was the primary driver, investment of ₹20 crore in
additions from February. rary reduction in marketing costs as UPI app, allowing it to function like its zation of growth in consumer and mer- with gross merchandise value FSN International, a wholly
Subscription revenue was also onboarding of direct users was halted competitors Google Pay and PhonePe. chant base metrics from April/May, the (GMV) witnessing a 25% owned subsidiary of FSN
affected by lower new-merchant addi- in February. However, it expects to It has partnered with Axis Bank, HDFC company added. increase to ₹8,340 crore in E-Commerce.

Tata Consumer ‘Reduced flights are Hospitality sector sees muted growth
set to enter food impacting salaries’ Not so bright
Varuni Khosla
varuni.k@livemint.com
In Q4FY24, the hospitality sector saw muted growth in terms of
conversions of other hotels,
accounting for 12% of the inven-
new delhi tory signed during the quarter.
services industry PTI the room revenues
Conversions happen when the

T
feedback@livemint.com he hospitality sector in RevPAR growth* Total number of Total number of owner of a hotel decides to
(in %)
hotel signings rooms signed in
new delhi India experienced muted 100.8 these hotels make their hotel move from an
Suneera Tandon growth in the fourth quar- Q4
unbranded property to work
56 FY23

L
suneera.t@htlive.com ess than two weeks after ter of the financial year ended 31 Q4 FY22 3,739 with a brand or change their
new delhi the airline’s cabin crew March in terms of the room reve- 54 Q4 4,497 brand to another hotel manage-
Q4 FY23 FY22
called off their strike, a nues generated. ment company, let’s say, for
39.1

T
ata Consumer Products union of the Air India Express The sector, which has seen instance, the owner of a Taj
Ltd (TCPL) is set to enter has flagged concerns about interesting developments in 9,710 Hotels property decides to
90 Q4 FY24
the food services market flight delays and cancellations, growth momentum with new 11.4 Q4 FY24 move to working with ITC
by offering its range of salt, tea, saying that the reduced num- hotel signings in tier-II and Q4 Q4 Q4
Hotels to manage the hotel.
coffee and gravies to hotels and ber of departures is adversely tier-III cities, has not registered FY22 FY23 FY24 There were 36 hotel open-
restaurants, said a top execu- impacting the salaries of the a similar kind of growth on the *Revenue per available room Source: JLL Hotels and Hospitality Group
ings across India with about
tive at the company. cabin crew. Air India Express Employees operational side, where it has 2,316 rooms, of which 75% of
SARVESH KUMAR SHARMA/MINT
“We are looking at setting up The Air India Express Union has flagged concerns. seen some slowdown. the total keys were in tier-II and
our distribution system for Employees Union (Aixeu) also According to a report by JLL, year-on-year because the Omi- tions, right from January when III cities including Jaipur,
HORECA, i.e. hotel, restau- Sunil D’Souza, TCPL’s MD and claimed that more than 100 labour commissioner (Central) a real estate and hospitality cron wave of the covid-19 pan- the wedding season began. Indore, Surat and Ayodhya.
rants and cafes,” Sunil D’Souza, CEO. cabin crew are sitting idle in the national capital. consultancy, the RevPAR (rev- demic had shut down operations The occupancy levels in key The rates of increase in aver-
TCPL’s managing director without flying duties for the The strike, to protest against enue per available room) met- of many businesses in the early business markets were also age daily rates (ADR) and Rev-
(MD) and chief executive offi- arate distribution arm that last two months due to the alleged mismanagement at the ric, which hoteliers utilize to months of 2022. strong, averaging around 70%. PAR were higher in the last
cer (CEO), said. “Everyone uses caters to hotels and restaurants, non-availability of airport airline, had resulted in signifi- gauge room yield based on The fourth quarter of FY24 In the same quarter, 90 quarter of 2023 and 2024 over
water, spices, pulses, tea, cof- supplying them with products entry passes. cant flight disruptions. occupancy rates, has grown by saw a sequential RevPAR branded hotel signings com- 2022, indicating a post-pan-
fee; now, I’ve got sauces and such as salt, water, sauces and The union represents a sec- In a letter to the commis- 11.4% year-on-year (y-o-y) dur- growth of 5.5%. This is because prising 9,710 rooms were regis- demic recovery.
dips. It’s a separate distribution tea, among other products, in tion of the airline’s cabin crew. sioner on Tuesday, the union ing the last quarter of FY24. the October-December period tered. Hotel signings entail In FY24, Goa stood out with
channel. There are distributors its portfolio of packaged foods. On 9 May, the cabin crew claimed that the cabin crew The report said that the Rev- typically sees a fall in hotel stays owners of individual hotels ask- the highest ADR and maintained
who only address that, but now Currently, this is done through strike was called off after a data was lost during the transi- PAR numbers have stabilized in owing to the festive season. ing hotel management chains a lead over other cities. New Delhi
with Capital Foods coming in, third-party wholesalers. meeting of the representatives tion to a new software man- the Q4. The corresponding The Q4 also saw a robust to take over the day-to-day and Mumbai also showed high
we have the luxury of building “Companies (hotels, restau- of the union and the airline aged by the scheduling quarter in FY23 experienced a demand for hotel rooms in both operations of their properties. ADR values, indicating strong
out a strong channel only rants) are currently buying (our that was convened by the chief department. very large growth of 100.8% business and leisure destina- Also, 13 hotels signed were pricing power in these markets.
addressed to this. We’re still products) from wholesalers or
working out how it will operate. some unorganized distributor.
That is a channel opportunity Some of the big multinationals
which exists and we’ve not operating in this country do
addressed it yet.” have food service businesses,
Earlier this year, TCPL we don’t. This is an opportunity
Popular faces, TV franchises top OTT viewership charts
announced the acquisition of for us to build,” D’Souza said.
Capital Foods, the owner of the TCPL was formed after Tata Lata Jha RRR have also grabbed eye- ent will pull in the next set of films. “This highlights the abil-
Ching’s Secret Chemicals, a lata.j@htlive.com balls. Platform executives say a audiences to OTT. ity of films and film star-led
packaged noodles D’Souza said the chemicals com- new delhi spike in viewership is guaran- To be sure, media-industry properties being able to break
and condiments firm is looking to pany selling salt teed with such mainstream experts emphasize that growth through the clutter. However,

T
brand; the Smith set up a separate and pulses, was he roaring success of content. Also, with awareness in paid OTT subscriptions will six of the top 10 properties on
& Jones brands; distribution arm merged with Tata popular TV franchises levels high, entertainment now need to come from smaller Appeal, which is the intention
and Organic India, Global Beverages and family dramas breaks properties are able to break Indian towns and content that to watch the property on OTT,
that caters to
a company that in 2019. TCPL the myth that explicit, dark through the clutter. speaks to the masses will be are also theatrical films. 75% of
sells organic teas hotels and now sells a wide content tends to do better on “While star-studded titles required to help SVoD (subscrip-
and health foods. restaurants range of packaged streaming platforms, given that often grab attention, they don't bridge the gap Experts tion video-on-de-
T hi s , said food products they are a personalized always guarantee success. Ulti- between rising emphasize that mand) audiences
D’Souza, allows across pantry sta- medium. mately, it’s the quality of story- content costs and growth in paid are also theatre
the company to expand its dis- ples and snacks. Increasingly, many top-per- telling and content that matter the slowing user OTT subscriptions goers, which
tribution channels beyond The company is also working forming titles across OTT plat- most. While mainstream shows acquisition rate.
will now need to explains their
general and modern trade towards selling more products forms tend to be mainstream with familiar faces tend to draw Keerat Grewal, propensity
stores, and take its wide range in pharmacies. “...we never had shows and films, some of them larger crowds, it's crucial for the head, business come from towards theatrical
of products to the business-to- the heft or the scale to build a spin-offs of established fran- content to resonate with the The latest Kapil Sharma Show on Netflix has been topping the development smaller towns content,” Grewal
business market. For instance, dedicated go-to-market. So, chises and featuring popular audience to retain their inter- weekly viewership charts X@FINFLOWW (streaming, TV explained.
Ching’s Secret gives the com- like Tata GoFit, Soulfull, Tet- faces, drawing in a large mass of est,” Gaurav Banerjee, head, and brands) at To be sure,
pany a large play in the gravies ley—these do sell in the pharma viewers. The latest Kapil content, Disney+ Hotstar and attract a wide audience, Baner- OTT platform. Hence, bigger media consulting firm Ormax, platforms are also exploring
and condiments segment. It channel. But now, with the Sharma Show on Netflix has HSM (Hindi-speaking market) jee said the platform has also streaming companies will con- said that based on Ormax strategies like restricting pass-
also owns Tata SmartFoodz Ltd Organic India infusions and, been topping the weekly view- entertainment network, Dis- seen success with titles like 12th tinue to experiment with, and Stream Track, which is the word sharing and increasing
that operates in the ready-to- more importantly, the supple- ership charts, as did Koffee With ney Star said. Fail and Manjummel Boys, with invest into building original company’s awareness and subscription fees to ensure
eat segment, selling pasta, noo- ments coming in, we will focus Karan on Disney+ Hotstar ear- While Koffee with Karan lev- the former becoming the most- content, said Rajni Daswani, appeal tracker for properties financial stability, Shrenik
dles, biryani and combo meals. on building a full go-to-market lier. Both are new versions of erages its years of TV legacy watched film on the service in director, digital marketing, launching on OTT properties, Gandhi, co-founder and CEO,
D’Souza said the company is to address the pharma oppor- TV shows. Further, theatrical and star power—Karan Johar is 2023. Exclusive content is the SoCheers, adding that invest- seven of the top 10 properties White Rivers Media, a digital
contemplating setting up a sep- tunity in India,” D’Souza said. hits such as Jawan, Animal and a famous film director—to primary differentiator for any ment in bigger names and tal- on Buzz this year are theatrical marketing agency, said.
 BE AT THE FOREFRONT OF WITNESSING THE
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Head of Corporate Centre Satagopan Executive Director & Chakravarthy CEO VP, Global Safety Tech Entrepreneur &
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CIO VP- Project Head Data MD & Partner Advocate, Supreme VP & Head - Platform Partner & Founder Co-Founder & CEO
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10 THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024
KOLKATA GLOBAL LIVEMINT.COM

China’s $10,000 EV is coming

for Europe’s carmakers
A competition investigation in Brussels isn’t likely to extinguish the threat posed by Chinese manufacturers
Businesses are looking to methods like RAGs for up-to-date and
specific knowledge that makes them useful for the firm. BLOOMBERG
Bloomberg Model Y.
feedback@livemint.com Incumbent European carmakers
are considering unorthodox steps to From RAGs to vectors:
C
heap electric vehicles counter the challenge, including new
(EVS) from China are
already pushing into
Europe, undercutting
alliances. Renault is openly shopping
around for partners to cut costs on a
small-car platform, while Stellantis
How businesses are
one of the region’s big- will start sales in September of cars
gest industries. BYD Co., which over-
took Tesla Inc. last year to become the
biggest global EV maker, is about to
made through its joint venture with
China’s Zhejiang Leapmotor Tech-
nologies Ltd.
customizing AI models
raise the stakes. “We have no intention to let this Belle Lin PDFs, spreadsheets and data-
The Chinese manufacturer last price band open for our Chinese feedback@livemint.com bases, images and audio files.
month announced plans to introduce competitors,” Stellantis Chief Execu- For instance, developers at

its Seagull hatchback in Europe
next year, which offers premium
features like cruise control and
wireless phone charging but sells
for less than $10,000 in China.
Even after tariffs and modifications to
meet European standards, BYD exec-
utives have pledged to sell the Seagull
for less than €20,000 ($21,500) on
the continent.
That would price the four-seater
thousands below electric runabouts
that Stellantis NV, Renault SA and
others are counting on to help them
bridge the energy transition. Its
arrival is ratcheting up pressure on
Europe’s automakers for dominance
in the post-combustion-engine era. A
competition investigation in Brussels
isn’t likely to extinguish the threat.
“We are looking very closely at this
model and others coming from Chi-
nese EV makers,” said Martin Sander,
head of Ford Motor Co.’s European
EV business. “Of course, we are nerv-
ous when new competition is coming
to the market.”
The Seagull has won plaudits for
the build quality, design and technol-
ogy BYD has packed in for the price.
It’s no one-off: the company plans to
introduce a higher-end €25,000 EV
even before the city car, European
managing director Michael Shu said
at an industry event in London this
month. BYD’s plans for two plants in
the region will help it blunt the effects
of any European Union tariffs meant
BYD plans for two plants in China to blunt the effects of any European Union tariffs meant to slow its path.
to slow its path.
The model is already doing well
outside its Asian home base. In Mex-
ico, where the car is dubbed the Dol-
phin Mini, drivers have been flocking
to buy the 358,800-peso ($19,780) car
since its introduction in February,
despite a charging infrastructure
that’s still in its infancy.
Mexico “is not great for us, but in
the end we found a lot of demand, a
lot of heat for this,” BYD Executive
Vice President Stella Li said at an
event last week in the capital, unveil-
ing a plug-in hybrid pickup for the
Mexican market.
BYD is in the vanguard of Chinese
carmakers that are increasingly target-
ing exports after seizing control of
their home market. Tesla CEO Elon
Musk warned in January they’ll “pretty
much demolish” most other carmak-
ers if trade barriers aren’t erected.
While President Joe Biden has
moved to almost quadruple US duties
on Chinese EVs, essentially slamming
the door on near-term imports, tariffs
are more complicated for Europe.
That’s because the region’s carmak-
ers are more dependent on the Chi-
nese market than their US counter-
parts, making them vulnerable to
retaliatory measures from Beijing.
And Europe’s plan to phase out sales
of combustion-engine cars will
require cheaper cars to boost mass-
market adoption.
The EU has launched a probe of
China’s EV industry and is nearing a
decision on raising barriers, but
industry executives and experts have
pushed back.
“Tariffs should not be used to
shield our lead manufacturers from
meaningful competition,” said Julia
Poliscanova, senior director for vehi-
BLOOMBERG
cles and e-mobility supply chains at
lobby group Transport & Environ-
ment. “What matters on top of cli-
mate targets, which are critical, is
actually to have local jobs and for
decarbonization not to result in
de-industrialization.”
Founded in 1995, BYD started by
making batteries before expanding
into automobiles in 2003. It started
passenger car sales in Europe three
years ago with splashy displays at
both the Paris and Munich car shows.
Shares of BYD have advanced 9.6%
this year, after losing 23% in 2023. For
now it’s the former British brand MG
Motor that’s leading the charge, after
spending years to rebuild its dealer
network and customer base since its
2007 acquisition by Shanghai Auto-
motive Industry Corp. It now has the
UK’s second-best selling EV with the
Chinese-made MG4, behind Tesla’s
tive Officer Carlos Tavares said
last week about the upcoming Euro-
pean Seagull, dismissing calls for tar-
iffs. “We don’t think that protection-
ism will give us a long-term way out of
this competition.”
Tavares has long emphasized act-
ing swiftly to counter the growing
competition. The deal with Leapmo-
tor, forged in October, allows the Jeep
and Peugeot owner to benefit from
China’s cost advantages and
advanced EV technology, which the
US and EU have say has been propped
up by unfair government aid. While
the overall share of Chinese brands in
Europe’s electric market was around
7% last year, Transport & Environ-
ment projects they could reach 11%
this year and 20% in 2027.
Judging by the reviews, incumbent
automakers in Europe and the US are
right to take the Seagull seriously.
Caresoft Global, a Michigan engi-
neering firm that tears down vehicles
to evaluate quality and manufactur-
ing techniques, pored over the Sea-
gull to assess money-saving details in
its construction.
“Everyone in the industry should be
talking about this car, seriously,
because it’s quite a vehicle,” Caresoft
President Terry Woychowski said in a
video posted on InsideEVs. “It changes
the definition of cheap and cheery,
which basically said, ‘Oh, sell some-
thing that’s just really cheap.’ This
doesn’t come across that way at all.”
L
arge language models,
which are the AI algo-
rithms that power chat-
bots like ChatGPT, are power-
ful because they are trained on
enormous amounts of publicly
available data from the inter-
net. While they are capable of
summarizing, creating, pre-
dicting, translating and syn-
thesizing text and other con-
tent, they can only do so on the
data they have been trained
on, at a specific point in time.
That’s why businesses are
looking to methods like
retrieval-augmented genera-
tion, or RAG, and fine-tuning
to bridge the gap between the
general knowledge these
LLMs have and the up-to-date
and specific knowledge that
makes them useful for enter-
prises. Here’s what to know
about these techniques, and
how they work:
Vector database: A database
designed to store a massive
amount of data as “vectors,”
which are numerical represen-
tations of
the raw
d a t a .
Depending
on the amount and type of
data—from images and text to
tables—each vector can contain
tens to thousands of dimen-
sions grouped by similarity.
This format, which differs
from a traditional database
Workday used RAG to link the
cloud software provider’s cor-
porate employee guidelines
with an underlying AI model.
When employees ask the AI a
question like, “What’s our
expense policy when I travel to
New York City?”, the system
will return an answer with a list
of its sources and suggestions
for further research, said Jim
Stratton, the company’s chief
technology officer.
Fine-tuning: A method of
customizing a large language
model with private or com-
pany data, so that it becomes
better at specific tasks like
analyzing legal contracts and
writing marketing documents.
An LLM can also be fine-tuned
for industries like healthcare
and finance, which have
specialized terminology and
strict requirements around
data handling.
Fine-tuning involves train-
ing a general, pretrained AI
model like OpenAI’s GPT-3.5,
on data related to the task. For
the task of
drafting
marketing
d o c u -
ments, that data might include
information about a com-
pany’s products, its competi-
tive positioning and brand
voice.
Fine-tuning is generally
more costly and time-consum-

Nvidia is the final hurdle for mega tech’s earnings victory lap with columns and rows, allows
AI models to quickly search for
contextually similar vectors
ing than RAG because it
requires computing power
and advanced AI expertise to
and identify the context of a change the underlying model.
Bloomberg So, Nvidia arrives with the had slumped as much as 14% a high stakes event for the user’s question. Traditional Roughly 80% of enterprises
feedback@livemint.com expectation that it will confirm this year, is close to turning entire market. databases require specific are using RAG, compared with
the enthusiasm — and poten- positive for the year after its Nvidia shares tumbled 10% text-matching searches, 20% using fine-tuning,

A
surprisingly strong
earnings season for big
tech reaches its grand
finale Wednesday afternoon
when Nvidia Corp., the artifi-
cial intelligence (AI) chipmak-
ing giant, reports its results and
gives a much anticipated out-
look that could set the tone for
the second half of the year.
Investors were nervous
as technology companies
started reporting, with ques-
tions about whether the AI
boom had run too far and if the
group could meet the lofty
expectations set for it. A month
later, most of those concerns
have been put to rest with the
S&P 500 Index sitting at an all-
time high on the back of strong
corporate profits.
tially offer a glimpse into the
future for stocks. The com-
pany’s shares have been on a
rocket ride since its blow-out
fiscal fourth-quarter results
and outlook a year ago, soaring
212% and adding roughly $1.5
trillion in market value in the
past 12 months. With a market
capitalization of $2.3 trillion,
Nvidia’s weighting in the S&P
500 is more than 5%, up from
2.2% a year ago.
“It is the leader, and if the
demand remains strong in
Nvidia then you know that
means demand is going to be
strong across the board,” said
Jay Woods, chief global strate-
gist at Freedom Capital Mar-
kets. “That will dictate not only
the next leg in the AI-deemed
strong results.
“The market has gotten a
lot of what it’s wanted this
earnings season,” said Phil
Blancato, chief executive offi-
cer of Ladenburg Asset Man-
agement and chief market
strategist at its parent Osaic
Holdings Inc. “Nvidia is sort of
icing on the cake.”
After four-consecutive quar-
ters of Nvidia earnings that
Nvidia added $1.5 trillion in market value in the past 12 months. AFP have blown past Wall Street
estimates, investors have come
stocks in the semiconductor Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com to expect a repeat performance.
space, but it could dictate the Inc. showed that demand for AI What’s less certain is how the
market.” services is helping to fuel reve- shares will respond. The
An index that tracks seven of nue growth. Alphabet has ral- stock has gained 0.1%, lost 2.5%
the biggest US technology lied 14% since beating first- and jumped 16% following the
stocks is at a record high after quarter sales estimates and ini- company’s last three reports.
earnings from the likes of Mic- tiating a dividend last month. With an implied day-after-
rosoft Corp., Google-parent And Apple Inc., whose shares earnings move of about 8%, it’s
on 19 April, their worst day
since March 2020, as investors
seemed to grow skeptical of the
AI boom. But subsequent
earnings reports from Alpha-
bet, Amazon.com, Microsoft
and Facebook-parent Meta
Platforms Inc. showed how
much companies are planning
to spend on computing
infrastructure. That helped
propel the stock to a record
close on Tuesday.
“The demand is still out-
stripping the supply,” said Mike
Sansoterra, chief investment
officer at Silvant Capital Man-
agement. “You can always have
an overreaction to the upside
and downside in the short
term, but fundamentals for the
business have not changed.”
whereas vector databases can
search for similarities in the
data based on a user’s query—
finding instances of “coffee”
that likely relate to “beverage,”
for example.
Retrieval-augmented gen-
eration (RAG): A method used
by developers to connect large
language models with external
data sources, such as a busi-
ness’s private information, so
that it can provide more per-
sonalized, accurate and rele-
vant responses. The term orig-
inated from a 2020 paper by
Meta Platforms AI researchers.
The RAG technique enables
an AI model to reference any
data stored in a vector data-
base, which can include a com-
pany’s emails, documents and
according to market research
and consulting firm Gartner.
Prompt engineering: The
process of asking questions
and giving instructions to a
large language model so it
responds with more accurate,
specific and relevant outputs.
Prompt engineering has
emerged over the past year as
an essential new skill for
employees, so that they can
generate better text summa-
ries, data analyses and email
drafts from AI chatbots and
other applications. It is also
used as a way to provide gen-
eral large language models
with specific company infor-
mation, so that it provides
more tailored responses.
©2024 DOW JONES & CO. INC.

Risky bonds join the everything rally

Vicky Ge Huang and Carl Icahn’s Icahn Enter- ers to invest, and there are few said Brian Schell, chief finan- conditions.” among the most at-risk sec-
feedback@livemint.com prises in recent weeks. Collec- concerns about a declining cial officer of SS&C Technolo- There are signs of stress tors, she said.
tively, low-rated businesses economy.” gies. The company primarily lurking. The default rate has “We are in this benign envi-

I
f the U.S. economy is headed
for trouble, no one told the
junk-bond market.
The premium that investors
demand to hold debt from
sub-investment-grade compa-
nies instead of relatively safe
Treasurys has shrunk to near
pandemic-era lows, a sign of
dwindling worries about an
economic slowdown that
would cause a big jump in
defaults and bankruptcies.
Low-rated debt has been
swept up in a broad market
rally fueled by signs of cooling
inflation and hopes for inter-
est-rate cuts. Attracted by
yields around 8%, investors
have added a net $3.7 billion
into junk-bond funds so far
this year, according to Refini-
tiv Lipper—the first inflows in
that period since 2020.
That demand has powered
bond sales from companies
including Jack Dorsey’s Block
issued $131 billion of specula-
tive-grade debt this year
through mid-May, according
to PitchBook LCD, up from
about $71 billion during the
same period of 2023.
Investors and analysts
closely watch junk bonds
because companies with
weaker
credit rat-
ings tend to
be hit by
economic problems first.
Strong demand there—along
with a recent surge in profits
among S&P 500 companies—
boosts hopes that the econ-
omy will cool enough for rates
to come down, without sliding
into a recession.
“Markets continue to buy in
that there will be a soft land-
ing,” said Matt Brill, head of
North America investment-
grade credit at Invesco. “The
all-in yields are enticing buy-
Bonds of all kinds are
rebounding after three
straight months of hotter-
than-expected inflation data
rattled markets, denting inves-
tors’ hopes for interest-rate
cuts. Now, signs of cooling
price increases have rekindled
bets that the Federal Reserve
could cut
rates more
than once
this year,
according to CME Group data.
Many companies are taking
advantage of investors’
demand to refinance existing
debt. SS&C Technologies,
which provides software for
the financial-services and
healthcare industries, recently
issued $750 million of bonds
that will mature in 2032 to
help pay back floating-rate
debt that was coming due as
soon as April 2025.
Thanks to higher underly-
Investors have added a net $3.7 billion into junk-bond funds so
far this year.
ing interest rates, the bonds
sold at a 6.5% yield, a percent-
age point more than the initial
yield on the company’s older
bonds that were issued in
2019. Still, the premium, or
spread, to Treasurys was 1.91
percentage points—or a per-
centage point lower than the
initial spread on the bonds
sold in 2019. That suggests
investors viewed the new
ISTOCKPHOTO
bonds as less risky than the
older bonds when they were
first issued.
SS&C Technologies’ refi-
nancing effort also included
a $3.9 billion loan, which was
larger than initially planned
because of stronger-than-
expected demand from
investors.
“We caught an opening for
the timing for the refinancing,”
used debt to finance mergers ticked up to 5.8% of junk bond ronment where everyone
and acquisitions in the past. issuers over the 12 months wants to earn a little bit extra
Heading into the year, through March, its highest yield and take a little more
Allied Universal, a provider of level in three years, according credit risk, but the credit risk is
facility services and security, to a Moody’s Ratings analysis. ticking up,” said Kevin Loome,
had about $1.9 billion of That figure includes bank- a high-yield portfolio manager
secured debt due ruptcies and out- at T. Rowe Price.
in 2026. In Feb- Over the past few of-court debt Still, technical factors could
ruary, the com- years, more restructurings. keep spreads on high-yield
pany refinanced businesses The rise bonds relatively low. Over the
$1 billion of that climbed into reflects ongoing past few years, more busi-
debt, extending
investment-grade financial difficul- nesses climbed into invest-
its maturity to ties at some pri- ment-grade territory, or
2031. More territory, while vate-equity- returned there, while fewer
recently, i t fewer fell into junk owned compa- fell into junk. That cuts into
tapped the bond nies that had the supply available for inves-
markets again for struggled to refi- tors, analysts said.
$500 million after seeing a nance debt at today’s higher “It’s more money chasing
softer-than-expected jobs rates, said Julia Chursin, a sen- the same amount of paper out-
report and a persistent tight- ior analyst with Moody’s lever- standing, and that’s also been
ening in spreads. aged-finance and private- very supportive of the market
“It was an opportunistic credit team. valuations,” said Michael
trade for us,” said Lasse Glas- Telecommunications and Anderson, head of U.S. credit
sen, global chief communica- media businesses, which face strategy at Citigroup.
tions and investor relations challenges including cord- Sam Goldfarb contributed to
officer for Allied Universal. cutting and the shift to this article
“We took advantage of good streaming services, are ©2024 DOW JONES & CO. INC.
LIVEMINT.COM NEWS WRAP THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024
KOLKATA 11

NEWS
₹2.11 tn
THE AMOUNT the Reserve Bank of
₹39.74 cr
THE NET profit reported by Nykaa for
11.4%
THE YEAR-on-year growth in the Indian
₹450 cr
THE REFUND SpiceJet will seek from its
$25 bn
THE PROJECTED size of India’s
IN India is transferring to the government FY24, up 90% from ₹20.9 crore in FY23, hospitality sector’s revenue per available former promoter Kalanithi Maran, and his diagnostics industry by FY28, up from
NUMBERS of India as dividends for FY24,
the highest so far
aided by growth in its beauty and
personal care segment
room (RevPAR) in the fourth quarter of
FY24, according to JLL, a consultancy
firm, KAL Airways, following a recent Delhi
high court order in its favour
$13 billion in FY23, according to a report
by Praxis Global Alliance

HOWINDIALIVES.COM

Govt fines LinkedIn FALSE ALARM Granules promoter

India and Nadella sells 3.09% stake

T K
he corporate affairs ministry on
Wednesday slapped fines on Microsoft-
owned LinkedIn India, Satya Nadella and
eight other individuals for violation of the
significant beneficial owner norms under the
companies law. Nadella is the chief of Microsoft,
which acquired the professional networking
platform LinkedIn in December 2016.
In a 63-page order, the Registrar of
Companies ((NCT of Delhi and Haryana) said
that LinkedIn India and the individuals violated
the significant beneficial owner (SBO) norms
under the Companies Act, 2013.
“... Satya Nadella and Ryan Roslansky are the
SBOs in relation to the subject company and are
liable to a penalty under section 90(10) of the
Act, due to their failure to report as per section
90(1). Ryan Roslansky was appointed as the
global CEO of LinkedIn Corporation on 1st June
2020 and started reporting to Satya Nadella,”
the RoC said in the order.
rishna Prasad Chigurupati, one of the
promoters of Granules India, on
Wednesday pared a 3.09% stake in the
company for ₹304 crore through an open
market transaction. According to the block deal
data available on the NSE, Chigurupati
offloaded 7.5 million shares, amounting to a
3.09% stake in Granules India.
The shares were disposed of at an average
price of ₹405.08 apiece, taking the deal size to
₹303.81 crore, as per the data on the National
Stock Exchange (NSE).
As per a regulatory filing on Wednesday,
Granules India said, “the primary objectives of
the deal was to clear personal debt, to release the
existing pledge on his holding in the company,
and creating a small personal liquidity.”
Chigurupati further notified the company that
he has no plans to sell his shareholding in
Granules India Ltd in the foreseeable future. PTI
PTI

Firefighters arrive at the ministry of home affairs office after an email threat about a bomb was received, at North Block in New Delhi on Wednesday. PTI

Tesla Inc. filed the lawsuit to prevent Tesla Power

Doctors alert about heatstroke The shareholders’ e-voting will start at 9 am on
Thursday and will end at 5 pm on 21 June. REUTERS
from using the “Tesla” trademark.

HC to hear Tesla
AP

amid severe heatwave warning Vedanta seeks nod

to raise ₹8,500 cr
case on 28 May
M
ining billionaire Anil Agarwal-led

T
he Delhi High Court will hear Tesla Inc’s
trademark infringement case against
Gurugram-based Tesla Power India Pvt
Ltd next on 28 May. The case was initially slated
to be heard by justice Anish Dayal on
Wednesday, but was deferred because of time
constraints. On 2 May, the court issued a notice
in response to Tesla Inc.’s plea and restrained
Vedanta Ltd has sought shareholders’
Ten cities nationwide have recorded the hottest temperatures in the past 24 hours nod to raise up to ₹8,500 crore through
issuance of securities.
“We hereby submit a copy of postal ballot
Somrita Ghosh experienced temperatures between 45 and 47 pressure was low requiring ionotropic medication. notice...seeking approval of the members of the
somrita.ghosh@partner.livemint.com degrees, Sirsa in Haryana recorded 47.8 degrees. He was given a final diagnosis of heatstroke with company in respect of...issuance of securities up
New Delhi In Maharashtra, the temperature has similarly multiple organ dysfunctions. But, with aggressive to ₹8,500 crore,” the company said in a filing on
lingered between 44 and 45 degrees Celsius during cooling and hydration, he responded well. the BSE. The e-voting for postal ballot will start

I
Tesla Power from publishing any
advertisements featuring electric-vehicle
(EV) products with a trademark similar to
Tesla’s. It also instructed Tesla Power to reply
to the allegations.
The American EV giant filed the lawsuit to
prevent Telsa Power from using the “Tesla”
trademark. It argued that Tesla Power’s use of
the trademark in India was causing confusion
among consumers and potentially harming its
business interests. It claimed Tesla Power not
only had a similar trademark but also
advertised itself as an EV company in
newspapers. It said consumers were mistakenly
buying Tesla Power batteries, assuming they
are associated with the US company, and
sending complaint to Tesla Inc. KRISHNA YADAV
n addition to growing worries about extreme
heatwave conditions, there is also a major risk
to public health. Over the next five days, there
could be high to extremely high heatwaves in
several regions of the nation, according to the
India Meteorological Department (IMD).
A red alert has been issued by the Met depart-
ment for several regions, including west Uttar Pra-
desh, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Punjab, Delhi, Hary-
ana, and portions of Gujarat, due to extreme heat-
wave conditions expected in these areas over the
next five days.
The private sector weather forecaster Skymet
also indicated that this week's heatwave will only
get worse. Ten cities nationwide have recorded the
hottest temperatures in the past 24 hours. While
Pilani in Rajasthan, certain areas of UP, and Punjab
the past 24 hours. It is anticipated that the highest While so far there has not been any major surge at 9 am on Thursday and will end at 5 pm on 21
daily temperatures in these states would rise in the number of admissions or cases associated June, the filing said.
beyond 47°C, pro- with severe heat The company’s board had earlier approved
viding minimal res- conditions, medical raising funds via instruments like American
pite to those endur- IMD has issued red alert for regions experts advise cer- depository receipts, global depository receipts
ing the extreme including west UP, Rajasthan, Punjab, tain precautions and foreign currency convertible bonds.
summer heat.
Recently, Fortis and Delhi, due to severe heatwave which will help avoid
any major health
Vedanta, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources
Ltd, is one of the world’s leading natural
Hospital Gurgaon expected over the next five days calamities. resources companies which is spread across
received a case of Other complica- countries like India, South Africa, Namibia,
severe heatstroke tions faced in heat- Liberia and UAE. PTI
where an 80-year-old man with body temperature waves are cardiovascular issues which is increased
shooting up to 105 degrees, along with a state of strain on the heart, which can lead to heart attacks,
deep sleep from which he couldn’t wake up. Multi- high blood pressure, and other cardiovascular
ple tests, including MRI scans were done which issues, electrolyte imbalance which is caused due
came normal however he had low urine output, to excessive sweating and can lead to imbalances in
Mahindra Fin to sell
kidney and liver enzymes were high, and his blood essential electrolytes, affecting muscle function.
insurance products

M
ahindra & Mahindra Financial
Disney to sell stake Services on Wednesday said it has
SRK hospitalized after heatstroke received corporate agency licence
in Tata Play from insurance regulator Irdai, which will
enable it to sell life and general insurance
Indian Premier League (IPL) match of his policies offered by various insurers.

W
alt Disney Co. has struck a deal to sell
its minority stake in a subscription
television broadcaster to Tata Group,
people familiar with the matter said, allowing
the US media giant to focus on the merger of its
Indian unit with billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s
media arm.
The transaction values Tata Play Ltd at about
$1 billion, the people said. Tata Group took full
control of the TV platform after buying the
29.8% stake from Disney, said the people, who
asked not to be identified as the information is
private. The deal came as the India’s media
landscape is going through a major shakeup.
Disney signed a binding agreement in late
Actor Shah Rukh Khan was admitted to K D
hospital in Ahmedabad.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team at the
Narendra Modi Stadium.
“Actor Shah Rukh Khan was admitted
to K D Hospital after suffering from a heat
stroke,” Ahmedabad (Rural)
superintendent of police Om Prakash Jat
said. Security has been tightened around
the hospital, they said. Ahmedabad
recorded a maximum temperature of
45.2°C on Tuesday. It rose to 45.9°C on
Wednesday. KKR entered their fourth
IPL final with a thumping eight-wicket
win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in qualifier
AFP 1 here on Tuesday.
Videos shared by the official X account
Mercedes-Benz India is focused on strengthening
the top-end vehicles segment.
‘See double-digit
The registration shall be valid from 21 May
2024 to 20 May 2027, Mahindra Finance said
in a regulatory filing.
The registration as ‘Corporate Agent
(Composite)’ will enable the company to
undertake supplemental business activity
of soliciting and procuring insurance
business in the areas of life, health and
general insurance—both group and
individual, it said.
The process would augment the company’s
REUTERS existing sources of revenue and profits as it
would deploy its common infrastructure of
branch network and feet on street. PTI

B FY25 sales growth’

February to combine its India unit with Viacom
18 Media Pvt., creating an $8.5 billion
entertainment giant that will have 750 million
viewers and dominate the sector in the world’s
populous country. Tata Play was incorporated in
2001 as a joint venture between Tata Group and
TFCF Corp., formerly known as Twenty-First
ollywood superstar Shah Rukh
Khan was admitted to a hospital in
Ahmedabad on Wednesday after
suffering from a heatstroke, police said.
He was admitted to multi-speciality K D
Hospital, they said. Khan was in
Ahmedabad on Tuesday to attend an
of KKR showed Khan celebrating his
team’s triumph with a lap of honour, with
his children Suhana Khan and AbRam
Power Grid Corp
M
Khan accompanying him. ercedes-Benz India is eyeing double-digit
Khan also greeted fans and players at
the stadium. KKR will play the final in
sales growth this fiscal as demand remains
strong, especially for high-end models, a Q4 net profit dips
Chennai on Sunday. PTI senior company executive said on Wednesday.

Century Fox. BLOOMBERG The company, which on Wednesday
introduced luxury models—Maybach GLS 600
4MATIC SUV and AMG S 63 E Performance
Edition 1 on Wednesday, had sold 18,123 units
UK inflation shrinks to 2.3% in Apr, lowest level in nearly 3 yrs last fiscal. It was a growth of 10% over 16,497
units sold in 2022-23. “We expect double-digit
sales growth this fiscal as well. The demand for
S
tate-owned Power Grid Corp. on
Wednesday reported a nearly 4% dip in its
consolidated net profit to ₹4,166.33 crore
in the March 2024 quarter, mainly due to a
marginal decline in income.
The company reported a consolidated net
profit of ₹4,322.87 crore in the quarter ended on

I
nflation in the UK fell sharply to its lowest level in nearly three years in the company’s top-end vehicles (TEV) remains 31 March 2023, a BSE filing showed.
April on the back of big declines in domestic bills, official figures showed robust,” Mercedes-Benz India VP (Sales & Total income declined to ₹12,305.39 crore in
on Wednesday. Marketing) Lance Bennett told PTI. the quarter as compared to ₹12,557.44 crore in
The Office for National Statistics said inflation, as measured by the He said the company is focused on the same period a year ago.
consumer prices index, fell to 2.3% in the year to April, down from 3.2% in strengthening the TEV segment, which For fiscal 2023-24, the consolidated net profit
March. That is the lowest level since July 2021 when the global economy was accounted for 1 out of 4 Mercedes cars sold in rose to ₹15,573.16 crore from ₹15,419.74 crore a
still being held back by the coronavirus pandemic. The fall also takes inflation India during the first quarter of 2024. year ago. Total income in the fiscal rose to
nearer to the Bank of England’s target rate of 2% and is likely to pile pressure The TEV segment remains buoyant, fuelled by ₹46,913.12 crore as against ₹46,605.64 crore in
on its nine-member rate-setting panel to cut interest rates from the current demand and unwavering customer loyalty, the year-ago period.
16-year high of 5.25%. comprising 25 % of Mercedes-Benz sales in India, The board also recommended a final dividend
The next rate meeting is on 20 June and many economists think the bank Mercedes-Benz India managing director and CEO of ₹2.75 per share (i.e. 27.5% on the paid-up
will cut borrowing costs. However, others think that ongoing concerns on the Santosh Iyer said. equity share capital) for the financial year
panel over the scale of price rises in the crucial services sector and the pace of The new Maybach GLS 600 4MATIC is priced 2023-24 subject to the approval of the
wage increases, which raise the risks of an inflation rebound if interest rates at ₹3.35 crore while the AMG S 63 E Performance shareholders at the ensuing annual general
are cut too soon, make an August reduction more likely. AP Inflation still remains above Bank of England’s target rate of 2%. AFP is priced at ₹3.3 crore. PTI meeting of the company. PTI
12 THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024
KOLKATA
WHY GEN Z IS A
HANDFUL FOR MANAGERS
Middle and senior managers at many firms have been struggling to cope with new-age attitudes towards work
Devina Sengupta
devina.sengupta@livemint.com
MUMBAI
O
n a Tuesday afternoon in
New York last month, a
40-year-old senior execu-
tive was waiting for her
28-year-old colleague to
join her on a video call to discuss the
launch of a website for their employer—
one of the largest product firms in the
world. She had already been waiting for
25 minutes—they were both working
from home and she was worried. It would
have been unusual for the employee to
abscond from office, but home was a differ-
ent turf. “I logged out, and within a few
minutes got a message from him apologis-
ing for the delay. He had taken his dogs for
a walk and lost track of time.”
The senior recounted how the shock of
skipping the meeting to “take dogs for a
walk” gave way to anger, which ebbed to
exasperation and finally acceptance. Los-
ing the young executive was not an option
since he was good at his work. And explain-
ing to him that deadlines are sacrosanct,
even if that meant delaying a dog walk,
could lead to questions over work-life bal-
ance and even a revolt. Besides, all dogs,
noble creatures that they are, deserve a
good walk, if not a good run. The trick is
to simply ensure that it does not clash
with work.
The senior executive, a millennial
(from the generation born between 1981-
1996), is not the only one walking on egg-
shells around younger executives in their
20s with less than a decade of work experi-
ence (the latter belong to Generation Z or
iGen, and were born between 1997 and
2012). Managers across the board, across
sectors, and across the world have been
grappling with the same challenge.
To be sure, generational differences
have always existed. For instance, in the
West, those who belonged to the Silent
Generation (born between 1928-1945) were
people who fought in or grew up during the
Second World War. They were called tradi-
tionalists or conformists and were followed
by their polar opposites, the Baby Boomers
(those born between 1946 and 1964). The
Boomers were the brash young rebels of
the 1960s and 70s who turned the
Western world upside down with
their counter-culture—flower power,
free love, drug use and hippie com-
munes. There probably will never be
another generation quite like the Boom-
ers when it comes to being rebellious. But
those same rebels, and those who came
after them, have been left confounded by
the attitudes and expectations of Gen Z.
(Note: The term Baby Boomer was
coined after the spike in the global birth rate
after the Second World War, until 1964.
Generation X refers to people born between
1965 and 1980. Neil Howe and William
Strauss are credited with naming Millenni-
als in their book Generations—The History
of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069. Social
analyst and demographer Mark McCrindle
came up with the term Generation Alpha,
after the first letter in the Greek alphabet, to
indicate they were all born in the 21st cen-
tury, from 2010 to 2024.)
SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT
T here has been a shift from “col-
lectivism to individualism as soci-
ety is going through major changes,” said
Kavil Ramachandran, senior advisor at the
Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family
Enterprise in the Indian School of Business
(ISB), Hyderabad. “As an economy devel-
ops, business is no longer about survival and
children have been insulated from their
parents’ struggles. Wealth is considered to
be inherited and one may not have to
actively contribute to creating it,” said the
professor, whose clients include some of the
largest Indian business families. At the
Mumbai office of Japanese tyremaker Yok-
ohama Off-Highway Tires, the entire team
meets every Tuesday at 9.30 am. Since most
of the tyre manufacturing happens in India
and the company’s customers are overseas,
this meeting is one of the more important
ones of the week for planning, coordination
and demand-supply matching.
The senior executive leading the meeting
is a Boomer with more than three decades of
experience. A few weeks ago, three of his
team members did not make it for the meet-
ing. It turned out they had gone on a week-
end trip and their phones were switched off.
Towards the end of the day, one of the trio
picked up and simply said they had overslept.
The veteran’s initial fury was replaced by a
worrying thought: was there a lack of trust in
the younger executives that kept them from
revealing where they were and why they had
been delayed?
“For the first time we are grappling with a
generation whose basic needs are taken care
of and there is a perceived sense of entitle-
ment around policies, processes and stan-
dards,” explained Amit Chincholikar, global
chief human resources officer at Yokohama
Off-Highway Tires. But, he noted, Gen Z is
not afraid to question the efficiency of the
fundamental policies of a company.
The Japanese tyre maker learnt a lesson
from the incident. It realized that the young
workforce needed to know that the firm
was listening to them. It has since created a
policy called ‘HR aapke dwaar’, which asks
employees to talk about policies that need
to ‘Start’, those that can ‘Continue’, and
those that need to ‘Stop’. While changes in
administrative issues like canteen, break
timings, etc. were put in the first category,
a large set of employees asked the manage-
ment “not to micromanage” under the Stop
category.
A VERY DIFFERENT START
T he pandemic has played a key role in
widening the gap between the genera-
tions. Many young people joined their jobs
during the pandemic and its lockdowns,
which mitigated any bonding in offices
with peers or seniors because of the work-
from-home imperative. Consequently,
those who are at the beginning of their
careers have a different experience and
perception of the workplace compared to
earlier generations. Corporates that hire
youngsters in the hundreds of thousands
from campuses, such as the IT sector, have
had to resort to making attendance an
appraisal parameter to get executives back
to the office. In 2020 and 2021, it was again
LONG STORY LIVEMINT.COM
mint
SHORT
STORY
WHAT
Managers across the board,
sectors, and the world have
been walking on eggshells
around younger executives
in their 20s with less than a
decade of work experience.
AND
Many young people joined their
jobs during the pandemic and its
lockdowns, which mitigated any
bonding in offices with peers or
seniors because of the work-
from-home imperative.
SO
Those at the start of their careers
have a different experience and
perception of the workplace
compared to earlier generations
and are less committed to
organizational goals.
working hours of the law firm she was look-
ing to join with seniors before her intern-
ship started. “Many in my batch find out the
working hours and check if the policies are
conducive to a work-life balance…if there
is time for us to meet our friends and pur-
sue our hobbies,” she told Mint.
When reminded that for many a good
part of their initial career is spent in the
office, Nazia said that would not be some-
thing she or her classmates would be keen
on. “Money is important and some may
make that choice. But most of us already
know the kind of legal practice we want to
get into and the hours that we will put into
the workplace,” she declared.
“It is an understanding within my age
group that two years is what you give a firm
because beyond that there is not much to
offer. If you work in larger consumer firms
that have role-change opportunities, then
one must ask for that or leave,” said Gauri.
She is willing to commute long hours to
work but insists that her employer, a mid-
size manufacturing firm, offer her training
courses in the latest skillsets. “I do not want
to be unemployed for lack of updated skills.
We also want to work in firms where there
is little hierarchy,” she said.
FASHION FAUX PAS
W hile it has made progress, Axis Bank,
and many other firms, are continu-
ing to evolve in their understanding of new-
age attitude towards work. Attire, for
instance, may be a simple matter but it has
often become a big bone of contention. In
banks, formal attire is mandatory and fresh
graduates are trained in grooming since
customers expect to see bank executives
dressed formally. It may be regarded as “old
school” today but appearances inspire con-
fidence that their money is parked safely,
say senior bankers.
Younger executives, however, prefer to be
TARUN KUMAR SAHU/MINT
casual about their attire. It is not unusual for
them to tell managers that the organization’s
sartorial rules are outdated, and this is a trend
seen even in smaller towns. “The definition of
casual and formal has blurred to the extent
this sector that was forced to deal with its Mukherji, who teaches Organizational A few years later, the US made its first that managers in our offices have been
mostly young workers taking to moon- Behavior & Human Resources Manage- manned moon landing (in 1969). nudged to give their teams grooming tips.
lighting to earn some extra bucks. ment at Indian Institute of Management- The story has been cited in B-schools for And if that fails, ask some of them to go home,
“Young people report physical-health Bangalore. In his discussions with IIM-B decades as an example of how a company shave, change their clothes and return. This
issues as an impediment to effectively per- students, Mukherji says many cite how needs to ensure that its goals remain the kind of policing was unthinkable in our
forming work at higher rates than the gen- they can make more money by being social same across hierarchies. But the managers times,” said Vempati.
eral population, which includes people media influencers rather than work in a Mint spoke to opined that the younger set Another reason for the clash in approach
decades older than them. In fact, on every corporate. “Their success stories are differ- of employees today do not consider a com- is the need to know where employers stand
metric that interferes with effectively per- ent. Hence, N.R. Narayana Murthy (Infosys pany’s goals to be critical. on certain principles. For instance, leading
forming work, Gen Z reports more strug- co-founder) talking about long hours (a Did the signs crop up now? Apparently law firms are seeing junior employees ques-
gles than the general population,” noted a 70-hour week) may not inspire them,” he not. Rajkamal Vempati, president and head tion how a client is selected.
study released in October told Mint. of human resources, Axis Bank, says she “The younger generation thinks about
2022 by consulting firm “There are teams spotted them years ago. A 33-year-old rela- the views and actions of clients on issues
McKinsey & Company. With their basic needs where the bosses insist tionship manager was unhappy with his around diversity, climate, and impact on
The study, called ‘How taken care of, GenZers are on clocking in at 9 am hike. The reason cited was novel; he said his society, more than young lawyers did in the
does Gen Z see its place in and one can leave by 7 wife and he were used to taking four holi- years gone by,” said Bishen Jeswant, part-
the working world? With perceived to have a sense pm. Those teams have days in a year and given that she was now ner, Labour and Employment for law firm
trepidation’, looked into of entitlement when it the highest attrition. No on a sabbatical, the hike he got wasn’t suffi- Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. “While the
responses from 25,062 one my age stays in such cient to cover their four holiday expenses. firm does consider these issues, there isn’t
Americans, including comes to adhering to policies, firms,” said Gauri B., a
1,763 in the Gen Z age
range of 18 to 24. It found processes and standards.
22-year-old professional
working in Delhi.
“I was shocked. I thought he would raise
the issue of a home loan or other expenses.
But a holiday, earlier a discretionary
currently a formal process around
onboarding or off boarding clients on these
parameters. That these matters are even
“concerning levels of dis- expense, had become a necessary experi- being considered by the younger lawyers in
tress” among young people, including an BEYOND MOONSHOTS ence that couldn’t be traded off. It got me the context of clients is itself new and com-
astounding 55% reporting having either
been diagnosed with or having received W hen Mint spoke to senior executives
across sectors for this story, those
treatment for mental illness (compared with who had heard the anecdote about the jani-
thinking on how we have to think differ-
ently,” said Vempati.
Axis Bank, which has 104,000 employ-
mendable.”
While the struggle to understand Gen Z
continues, India Inc. will have to soon deal
31% of people aged 55 to 64 reporting the tor at the National Aeronautics and Space ees of which 45-50% are under 30, has with Gen Alpha—those who were born
same). Administration (Nasa) said it does not apply since revised its leave policy to include after 2010. By many indications, these kids
“They (Gen Z) have grown in a different today. The story goes that in 1962, when US more time off for fathers, parents who have are non-conformist digital natives with a
environment, where access to information, president John F. Kennedy visited Nasa, he just adopted etc., and so on. The expecta- keen sense of their ecological footprint. So,
both good and bad, is easy. They did not noticed a janitor with a broom. The presi- tions of what a workplace should be are fossil fuel-powered companies could well
have gatekeepers and have entered the dent introduced himself and asked the jani- chalked out right at the internship stage by end up missing out on their talents. As for
workplace with a confidence and belief that tor what he was doing. The latter replied some. For instance, Nazia K. , a second-year HR managers, they will have to listen more
chest-thumping is necessary,” said Sourav that he was helping put a man on the moon. law student in Mumbai, discussed the to understand them. Much more.
LIVEMINT.COM MINT MONEY THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024
KOLKATA 13

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pany (MF AMC) on the Account CAMS is the largest MF transfer agency Motilal Oswal S&P 500 Index Fund 18.40 28-Apr-20 3,157
Aggregator, we can ping you on the and it is actively participating in the AA Returns as on 17 May 2024; Corpus data as of April 2024; Growth option in regular plans has been used
morning of the SIP debit date and ecosystem Absolute returns for 'Out of box', CAGR for the rest. For detailed methodology refer to:
notify you if your balance is low. This Anuj Kumar, Keep a smart, flexible and minimalist MF portfolio
Managing director, CAMS https://www.livemint.com/money/personal-finance/keep-a-smart-flexible-and-minimalist-mf-portfolio-11638378827521.html
ensures your SIP goes through and Download mint app for latest in Business News - https://bit.ly/32XEfFE
also helps you avoid bounce charges *Debt funds can be viewed in the full table online
PRANAY BHARDWAJ/MINT
that some banks impose. Data and analysis by CRISIL Research Compiled by Neil Borate
We’re also using AA for personal the NAV has also not gone up by much had to locate the same documents telecom provider, whether the tele-
finance management (PFM) and lend- so please redeem and send me the through the Aadhaar or from Digi- com company sent the message to the
ing. In PFM, we enable AMCs and money as my daughter is getting mar- Locker. That’s because we had to com- customer, and if the customer
wealth managers to provide advisory ried.” Such instructions can be confus- pare the details including the inves- received the message or not.
services even to smaller clients. Here’s ing for automated systems. We now tor’s name, father’s name, date of
how we help: if you are the target cus- have the capability to read these birth, etc.
And if they did not receive, or there
was a glitch in the network we can find
Retirement planning for
tomer, we would ask you to register intents, confirm them through a Now, through smart ML and AI, we out if you had gone outside your circle
with CAMSfinserv. This allows us to checker, and then execute the trans- can do this in less than 10 minutes. or if your phone was shut. We can fig-
fetch details of your bank, depository, action or respond to the customer This has crunched the time it takes to ure all these out.
mutual fund, insurance, pension fund, query more quickly. start investing especially for mutual Your opinion on MFCentral?
NRIs: How to invest in India
among others, on behalf of your We were also the first to introduce a funds as the person can start transact- MFCentral has two objectives: to
wealth manager. chatbot in the mutual fund space, ing from day one. This has taken a lot attract traffic to the site and to enable Harshad Chetanwala seven years. Alternatively, you
Once done, they can analyse the capable of answering about 30 to 40 of wrinkles out of the KYC system. MF capabilities on partner websites. feedback@livemint.com can start with a monthly invest-
patterns and help plan your finances different queries. This is now being However, on the demat form of Today, on MFCentral, you can do ment of ₹2.70 lakh and increase
more effectively. enhanced with artificial intelligence holding, the creation of the unique cli- financial transactions, you can take I am a non-resident India this every year by 10% for the

‘
For insurance use, if UPI payments (AI) and machine learning (ML) to ent code (UCC) still takes about a common account statement (CAS), (NRI) working in Finland coming seven years. All the
of ₹16 or ₹18 are frequent, indicating understand both voice and intent. day. So they cannot you can take capital gains and want to start investing above calculations are done
cigarette purchases, we can alert Any innovation on the AIF and transact on the same day (CG) statements, etc. All in the Indian stock market. assuming your investment gen-
underwriters to verify the policy- PMS side? of registration. Email transactions these capabilities are While I live alone here, my erates 12% per annum returns
holder’s disclosures. Additionally, AA We were the first ones to bring What about non-fi- can become now live on partner web- family resides in India. I during the investment stage.
facilitates refreshing about digital onboard- nancial transactions? confusing when sites. Today, more than 1 plan to work for a maxi- Investing through equity
bank account details ing. This was the last We have moved all lakh people use CAS mum six to seven years in mutual funds will be much eas-
for F&O (futures and m INTERVIEW bastion of the relation- non-financial transac- people send capability each day. Finland and then come ier and more effective for you as
options) accounts ship manager where tions to T+1. This used to double-intent MF Central is gather- back to India. I have a house the money will be managed by
annually. they had to collect 50 happen over a period of messages ing users at a rate of in Pune that is loan-free, experienced fund managers.
How can we use email for trans- signatures from the end investor. time typically three or about 60,000 to 80,000 and I will be settling there You can consider investing in
Anuj Kumar
actions? Today, almost all of it is done online five days. But we realized Managing director,
a month and this is an era once I return. I want to ASK MINT the following funds: UTI Nifty
Today, we allow our users to send with a few clicks. We have already that the expectation of CAMS where we haven’t know how much money I m RETIREMENT PLANNING Index Fund (20%), Parag Par-
emails for transactions. You can write onboarded 130 portfolio management the customer is the same pushed the pedal on will need if I assume 30 ikh Flexi Cap Fund (16%),
to us requesting to buy or sell 1,000 services (PMSes) and alternative as the same-day food marketing. That aside, years of monthly expenses HDFC Flexi Cap Fund (16%),
units of the XYZ fund. Our system investment funds (AIFs). We are cur- service delivery. This has taken a lot of financial transactions are one area of ₹1.25 lakh. Also, how do I post-retirement inflation at the ICICI Large & Mid Cap Fund
reads the message, calculates the NAV rently adding about one new player automation and investment in it. Cur- where we expected a lot more growth. go about starting with my same rate and post-retirement (16%), 360 One Focused Equity
(net asset value) times the quantity, every week. They are acquiring the rently, we are executing more than Anything else? investments and where portfolio returns of 9% per Fund (16%) and Nippon India
converts it into a link, and sends it digital solution from us. And a lot of 95% of non-financial transactions on a For years, the National Automated should I invest to begin? annum, you will need a corpus Growth Fund (16%). You should
back to the investor for verification them have moved 25% to 35% of their T+1 basis. Clearing House (NACH) and the —Name withheld on request. of ₹4.56 crore for your monthly try to review the progress every
and execution. traffic to online. That makes things a We also have immense capabilities e-NACH, which was the SIP mandate, withdrawal when you are back six months to one year.
Often, users don’t remember login lot easier. for fraud prevention. We send more have been the standard way of paying The decision to invest in in India. Please note that you Harshad Chetanwala is a cer-
details for multiple apps and have one If investors were in Mumbai, it was than 1 billion emails and 1 billion for mutual funds. Now UPI autopay is India is good, and considering will be technically consuming tified financial planner and
preferred app. If that platform is down still simpler, but think of those in SMSes every year. We can reconcile all becoming a viable alternative for that. the potential we have in the this corpus that will remain co-founder of MyWealth-
or under maintenance, this feature Nashik or Ludhiana, etc. The flow of of that. Any investor could come up to In some time, you may see UPI coming future, it will help you invested during the withdrawal Growth.com.
can be very useful. information has now become much us and say their units got redeemed replacing NACH since the time to reg- to build a good portfolio and stage as well. You will be with-
However, email transactions can faster. but they hadn’t applied for it. They ister and time to trigger are both generate returns over the long drawing the monthly require- Do you have a personal
become confusing when people send Any improvement in account might say that they did not receive the shorter in case of a UPI mandate. UPI term. If we consider a 6% ment from this corpus and let- finance query? Send in your
double-intent messages. For example, opening speed? SMS or email for this. In this case, I can mandate happens on the date of the annual rate of inflation, the ting the remaining money be queries at
a customer might write, “I bought this What used to happen was that KYC search my archives and establish what SIP while for NACH this timeline is monthly expenses of ₹1.25 lakh invested. To reach this amount, mintmoney@livemint.com
and get them answered by
MF which you said will pay an annual verification consumed time. Investors messages were sent from our side to T-1. will become around ₹1.87 lakh you will need to invest ₹3.58
industry experts.
dividend and I haven’t received it, but submitted a set of documents and we the service provider, from them to the neil.b@livemint.com after seven years. Assuming lakh per month for the coming

WHY WOMEN MUST DRIVE ESTATE PLANNING AND DECISION-MAKING

to hold it as a full owner, with complete autonomy and control. This mented through a registered will. Also, to ensure that the family
ensures women have the freedom to manage and dispose of their interests are safeguarded, women must be the first choice to be
POWER property according to their wishes, without any undue restrictions.
What is holding back women’s role in estate planning?
nominees for all types of investments.
4. Working women today have one more major challenge to
POINT It has more to do with legacy factors, or factors that Indian soci- worry about, and that is retirement planning. Once there is clarity
ety has got used to over the years. on what she inherits, she can make a more rational plan for retire-
N E H A L M OTA • For a long time, estate planning was a domain of the Indian ment. A typical retirement plan needs around 30-35 times a
male, and the woman did not have much say in such matters. How- month’s spending as retirement corpus
Respond to this column at
feedback@livemint.com
ever, the legal provisions of the Hindu Succession Act have stated Reality has to take care of costs and inflation. The
that women not only have equal inheritance rights, but also equal proved that calculations become a lot simpler with
rights in deciding how to deal with the property and enjoying estate inheritance imbued.
women are

T
he active involvement of women in estate planning has
always been a grey area. While traditional perceptions are
changing, there is still a mind block in the way of giving
women a bigger say in estate planning. Let us go back to what the
Hindu Succession Act, 1956, says about the property rights of
women? Section 14 of the Act, which deals with the property rights
of female Hindus, is categorical that any property possessed by a
female Hindu, whether acquired before or after the commence-
ment of the Act, shall be held by her as the full owner thereof and
not as a limited owner. This provision essentially confers absolute
ownership of property upon a female Hindu, granting her the same
rights and privileges as a male Hindu in matters of property owner-
ship and management.
One of the key implications of Section 14 of the Hindu Succes-
sion Act is that it applies to ancestral and self-acquired property of
a female Hindu. Whether the property was inherited, gifted, pur-
chased or acquired by any other means, a female Hindu is entitled
unfettered rights.
• Secondly, there is some gender stereotyping—that women
don’t give their best when it comes to managing money. However,
reality has proved that not only are women savvier in money man-
agement, they are also willing to play the more conservative and
long-haul game in financial planning.
• One of the things that has reduced the role of women in estate
planning is that they have to give up quite a few years of their work-
ing life towards bringing up children and bringing about balance
of priorities in the family. Hence, the belief was that this would
hamper their ability to make key decisions. Once again, this is not
substantiated by anecdotal evidence.
Let us turn to why estate planning for women is mandatory and
a plausible model for the same.
Why, and how?
Why women must drive estate decisions in the emerging model:
1. As per the latest National Population Survey, women have a
higher life expectancy than men. That means women are more
likely to inherit family property. Also, today women are a lot more
socially aware, as is evident from the impact that women voting
patterns have on Indian elections.
2. Children learn habits like thrift and the need for financial sta-
bility from their mothers. In a sense, women act as key influencers
of how families shape up. Having a larger role for women in estate
planning sends out the right message to children at a young age.
3. Name women as successors in the will and as nominees for
investments. Parents and spouses must ensure that women get a
fair share of family property and that such transitions are docu-
5. Indian households have been
savvier in aggressive buyers of gold, insurance
money and land. As the experience of the last
management few years shows, all these have stood the
test of time. These are assets where
women have had a strong influence.
Today, women are among the major buyers of insurance and that
will continue to remain a key component of women planning their
finances.
A bigger share and a bigger decision-making power in estate
planning for women is the need of the hour. For years, Indian
women played a pivotal role in families, which was largely counted
as unproductive labour. However, these are the kind of services that
are remunerated at a hefty premium globally. The bare minimum
that can be done is to compensate women with a fair share of estate
and a major say in estate planning. That would be poetic justice!
Nehal Mota is co-founder and chief executive officer, Finnovate.
14 THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024
KOLKATA VIEWS LIVEMINT.COM

OUR VIEW MY VIEW | OTHER SPHERE

MINT

Spare a thought for people who

live amid our heaps of garbage
A little compassion and care in how we get rid of our waste is the least ‘ragpickers’ deserve from us

on foot every day. If they don’t, because
of illness, they lose that day’s earning.
Weather conditions are just another
obstacle—a downpour, blazing sun or
freezing wind can’t stop them, just slow
them down. Rain is particularly bad. It
makes the waste messier, and its collec-
tion and sifting that much harder.
In journeys of dredging the city, day-
ANURAG BEHAR after-day, year-after-year, those few
is CEO of Azim Premji Foundation. who have been able to acquire a
decrepit cart are in a different league,
and even higher are those two or three
who possess broken rickshaws. Both
permit construction of any sort. Resi-
dent families don’t have ration cards,
having migrated from afar. Rare are
those who get any of the most basic gov-
ernment schemes. Getting children
admitted to schools is hard. Even when
the family is willing and the schools
legally bound to, the latter find excuses
not to admit them; they probably find
the children dirty, smelly and wayward.
There is one tree on the two acres—the
only shade on that precipice of survival.
A few hundred metres away on tree-
lined avenues and gleaming plazas are

Sebi’s open offer pricing

enable coverage of larger territory and Munich-style bier-gartens and pubs,
collection of greater volumes. But none Japanese and Italian restaurants among

H
eaps of rubbish dot the two can escape the basic peril of their scores of others, and four five-star
acres. Each heap is dense and trade—putting their hands in the bins, hotels, all buzzing from dawn till late
tightly packed with months of dumps and cesspools that we create night. Hundreds of families spend

tweak will boost M&As accumulation—remnants of waste col-

lected from the city. Workers, usually
called ragpickers, collect the waste and
bring it to this site. Then they sift and
across the city, with invisible shards of
glass, corrosive chemicals, rotting
organic material and worse. Hands with
deep and shallow wounds, infected or
₹10,000 an evening on a single dinner
outing, and people like us pay ₹12,000
for a room-night. Remnants of waste
from all this revelry add to the heaps
strip the waste of everything and any- not, and skin diseases are daily rewards. close-by. If not those very heaps, then
thing that has the smallest of value. All The first thekedaar got hold of a piece some other somewhere in our urban
Market rules that let the open offer of a company acquirer ignore share price moves caused by of which is taken by the thekedaars of the site 15 years ago. Others came in wasteland. Wherever you live in this
(contractors) they work for and sold to over the next three or four years. The country, with no effort beyond opening
information leaks should ease acquisitions and favour the economy. But beware complexity the recycling chains of different materi- two acres are mired in land-title dis- your gaze, you will find an identical twin
als—plastics, bottles, metals and more. putes. The state government and a reli- of that site with the lone tree and 500
After the to-the-bone stripping, the gious institution are among the many families living amid rubbish heaps.
worthless remnants form heaps that claimants. Titles don’t matter on the Excavating our conscience buried at

T
he Securities and Exchange Board
of India (Sebi) has changed its take-
over regulations to shield acquirers
from cost spikes in the event infor-
mation of a merger and acquisition
(M&A) plan gets leaked. From 1
June, when its new rumour verification frame-
work comes into effect, the pricing formula for
an open offer will be stripped of any spike that
arises from the stock market getting whiff of a
company’s control being in play. At one level,
India’s top 100 listed entities will be mandated
to confirm, deny or clarify market rumours in
case of significant movements in their share
price. This requirement will be expanded to the
next 150 companies from December 2024. At
another level, a party seeking to acquire a com-
pany will have an easier path. Under Sebi rules,
if a quarter of a target firm’s equity is acquired
(granting a veto on special resolutions), the
acquirer needs to make an open offer to share-
holders for additional shares that would give it
majority control. A 26% stake bought this way
can prove expensive. Currently, to even it out
suited to maximize the value they generate for
all stakeholders. When this is not the case, the
market’s self-corrective devices are expected to
kick in. Typically, weak performers that are
listed see their share value slump. Widely held
firms without a single majority owner are thus
exposed to takeovers by parties that can inte-
grate them with other operations or appoint
their own managers to run them better. This
not only keeps incumbents on their toes, it
boosts overall value generation by placing
assets in more capable hands. Ownership
changes can even give dying firms fresh leases
of life. Minority shareholders, though, may dis-
approve of shifts in control and direction, which
explains Sebi’s mandate of an exit path laid out
for them via an open offer to tender their shares.
The price must be fair, of course, which is why
the weighted-average formula was created. Yet,
this protection of minority shareholders should
not deter acquisitions, which is what happens
when prices shoot up on the buzz of firms being
eyed. Lowering the bar could give India’s M&A
arena some dynamism.
grow for months and even years. ground in such disputes; control does. the bottom of those heaps is too much
The workers live amid rubbish heaps Those who control the land can’t sell or to hope for. We are unlikely to change
on the site. In structures made of waste build on it without title papers, but they our society structurally. It demands
metal and plastic sheets, and makeshift charge rent with impunity. Jockeying sustained collective and political action,
wooden frames. The two acres are for control is continuous. A couple of apart from sacrifices and moral courage
divided among 12 thekedaars, all of months ago, in the middle of the night, of the kind we seem incapable of today.
whose workers live on their portion of one of the claimants sent a platoon of When we regain some of that, we may
the land. These are entire families, not thugs to get a portion vacated. Panic change. Till then, we will live as we do
only men. The contractors have gripped the thekedaars of that portion and they will live as we let them.
brought them here from distant parts of and their workers. Their unlikely sav- Perhaps we can do some small things.
the country, usually from the vicinity of iours turned out to be the local police, Don’t call them ‘ragpickers’—they keep
the towns that they themselves hail who thrashed the thugs and sent them us clean. City and state officials should
from. The 500 odd resident families do packing. It is not clear why. ensure that they receive the benefits of
not pay any rent, but must work for There is no water at the site. It is all government schemes; and others too
their thekedaars. For many workers, it’s brought by tankers—to drink and wash. who live in similar settlements and sub-
a full family enterprise with their chil- About 10-20% of family incomes are sist on other trades. We should tolerate
dren working side-by-side. A family of spent on water. There are no toilets, a few smelly children in school, or get
five may earn up to ₹10,000 in a good other than a few constructed by an NGO them water to wash everyday. And be
month and ₹4,000 in a bad one, after much struggle. Those who rent the careful of how we dispose shards of
depending on how much territory they land do not want the faintest sign of a glass and jagged metal, so that a child’s
scrounge. Most cover 30-40 kilometres permanent settlement—so they do not hand isn’t hurt. At least that much.
www.livemint.com
New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh*, Pune* Friday, May 23, 2014 Vol.8 No.122 `4.00 in Delhi-NCR/`5.00 outside Delhi-NCR 24 PAGES

for both the buyer and sellers, this offer price
Complexity, however, may hamper the idea’s
MINT METRIC
MARKETS: A requiem for
Calcutta Stock Exchange >7
INTERNATIONAL: Thai army stages coup
after six-month political stalemate >3

goes by the stock’s average price over 60 days
implementation. To clip out a “material share CONTENT PARTNER
CORPORATE: Kotak Mahindra Bank
submits binding offer to buy MCX stake >3
CNBC-TV18: Govt should open up e-commerce
sector to FDI, says DIPP secretary >9

before the announcement, weighted by vol- price move,” we need it defined clearly. Indian
SENSEX 24,374.40 Æ 76.38

GIANT MERGER
NIFTY 7,276.40 Æ 23.50

DEBUTANT
DOLLAR `58.46 Æ `0.32

LAWMAKERS
EURO `79.92 Æ `0.33

Lanka invite
GOLD `27,690 æ `780 OIL $110.43 æ $0.12

QUICK EDIT by Bibek Debroy

Cafe talks row poses first The taper
58% (315 out of 545) members of the 16th Lok Sabha have been elected for the first
time to the lower house of Parliament—the highest proportion in three decades.

umes traded. In case market participants hear stock exchanges are to issue a framework for test for Modi tremors
First time MPs in Lok Sabha (year-wise)
400
376
350
313 315

seal biggest
B Y S . B RIDGET L EENA
300
E LIZABETH R OCHE
250
·························
CHENNAI/NEW DELHI
200
T he incoming Bharatiya Ja-
I
& t is a year since Ben
Bernanke first hinted
that the US Fed he then
headed would begin to
trim its monthly bond

of a control play, we often see them piling into it, but market confidence will depend on how
196 nata Party (BJP)-led Na- purchases funded

e-retail deal
150
1957 1962 1967 1971 1977 1980 1984 1989 1991 1996 1998 1999 2004 2009 2014 tional Democratic Alliance through new money
(NDA) government faced its creation—the famous
MPs elected from the 15th Parliamentary experience of MPs first crisis even before it as- taper of quantitative
to the 16th Lok Sabha in the 16th Lok Sabha* sumes office, with several par- easing. The financial
ties from Tamil Nadu, includ- markets went into a funk.
1st term 315
BJP 29% ing its allies, criticizing prime Emerging markets were
minister-designate Narendra battered. India was one

A UP man’s only crime,

2nd term 110
Flipkart to buy Myntra Modi’s decision to invite Sri of five fragile economies

the stock, raising its price beyond a level judged convincingly leak-related moves are isolated.
for $330 mn; fashion
retailer to stay
Convinced INC 70% 3rd term

4th term
42
26
Lankan President Mahinda Ra-
japaksa for his swearing-in on
Monday.
addicted to cheap global
capital for funding
massive current account
independent in bid to
tackle competitors
that 1+1 AIADMK 8%
5th term 23
Modi has decided to invite
the leaders of all countries that
deficits. The rupee
dropped like a stone in

B Y M IHIR D ALAL &

can be four AITC 41% 6th term 10

7th term 8
are part of the South Asian As-
sociation for Regional Co-op-
eration (SAARC) to the cere-
the middle of 2013.
The taper began in
January. Markets have
BJD 40%
S HRUTIKA V ERMA
mint INTERVIEW mony—a move widely ap- taken the actual event

reasonable by the acquirer. Once Sebi’s revised Identifying the precise start of a rumour isn’t
························· 8th term 4 plauded by analysts, who saw with far more equanimity

He forgot to buy kurkure sublime.

BANGALORE/NEW DELHI
Shiv Sena 33% it as a positive first step by the than they did when it was

F or Flipkart.com and Myn- B Y M IHIR D ALAL 9th term 3 *Only includes new government to get its for- first announced. Part of
tra.com, merging with mihir.d@livemint.com Lok Sabha experience eign policy off the ground. the reason is that
each other is all about re- ····················· First time MPs by party First timers Re-elected As of press time on Thurs- countries such as India
maining separate. BANGALORE 100% day, six of the seven countries have worked hard to cut
8%
80% 44% 41% 40% 33% 25%
F
Flipkart, India’s largest e-com- lipkart.com agreed to 90% (other than India) that are part their current account
80%
merce firm, announced on buy rival Myntra.com 70%
of SAARC, had confirmed their deficits. The RBI has
Thursday it had bought Myntra, in India’s largest-ever presence at Monday’s event. been emboldened to start

rule takes effect, however, ‘material’ leak- easy; would subjective calls need to be made?
India’s largest online fashion re-
tailer, in the biggest deal ever in
India’s Internet space.
60%
deal in the fast-growing 50% According to the Indian for- easing curbs on gold
Internet business. 40% eign ministry, the presidents of imports. But there could
Flipkart’s chief execu- 30% Afghanistan, Maldives and Sri be shocks ahead once the

Missing her favourite treat,

The e-commerce business in tive officer Sachin Bansal 20% Lanka, prime ministers of Bhu- US Fed begins to reduce
India is valued at $3.1 billion, ex- and chief operating offic- 10% 20% 56% 59% 60% 67% 75% 92% tan and Nepal, and the speaker its bloated balance sheets
0%
cluding travel services and tick- er Binny Bansal, as well INC AITC BJP BJD Shiv Sena AAP AIADMK of the Bangladesh Parliament by selling the bonds it
ets, according to a November re- as Myntra’ chief executive Note: AAP’s Harinder Singh Khalsa contested and won on an Akali Dal ticket in 1996 accumulated since 2009.
Source: PRS Legislative
port by CLSA. Mukesh Bansal, none of TURN TO PAGE 4®
PARAS JAIN/MINT
The long-awaited, cash-and- whom are related, spoke

driven upshoots will be clipped out. This, in How the verification rule impacts a target’s
stock deal is likely to value on-
line fashion retailer Myntra at
more than $330 million, one per-
son familiar with the matter said,
requesting anonymity.
Following two-month long ne-
gotiations that led to Thursday’s
announcement, both sets of
principle, is fair to retail investors as well, since share price will also be tested. This part may
Bansals—Sachin and Binny at
Flipkart and especially Mukesh
at Myntra—were clear that for a
merger to make sense, Myntra
would need to be kept independ-
ent.
The lessons of the past two
years showed that apparel, un-
on rationale behind the
merger. Edited excerpts:
Why sell to Flipkart? Why
not continue independently? FDA to expand SEVERING TIES
Mukesh Bansal: This
Sun Pharma Hero to stop paying fixed royalty
The wife beat a hasty retreat.
merger significantly in-
creases our odds of build-
ing what we want to data scrutiny to Honda in boost to profits
TURN TO BACK PAGE ®
B Y C .H . U NNIKRISHNAN & RAMESH PATHANIA/MINT
L ESLIE D ’M ONTE B Y A MRIT R AJ
portant for me to ensure that we ························· amrit.r@livemint.com
would not be integrating any- MUMBAI ·························
thing. Most of the discussions
were to ensure that there is abso- S un Pharmaceutical Indus-
tries Ltd seems headed for
NEW DELHI

H ero MotoCorp. Ltd will

Leaving him in his amnesic grime.

like books and electronics, is a lute alignment about the man- more trouble with the US Food stop paying royalties to

such gains are not performance led. take time to settle. All said, how smoothly our
product category that requires
specialization, deeper under-
standing of fashion, aesthetic
presentation and experience,
rather than volume-focused ap-
proach of Flipkart.
“Mergers are risky and inte-
gration can be very dicey,” Myn-
tra’s CEO Mukesh Bansal said in
agement autonomy.”
He got what he wanted.
Flipkart has agreed to keep
Myntra (pronounced Mint-rah)
as a separate entity that will re-
tain its website and continue to
be led by Mukesh Bansal, co-
founder Ashutosh Lawania and
the rest of the current manage-
Drug Administration (FDA),
which in its latest letter to the
company on its Karkhadi fac-
tory in Gujarat has pointed to
company-wide data integrity
issues similar to those that
plagued Ranbaxy Laboratories.
In April, Sun acquired Ran-
baxy in a deal worth $3.2 bil-
Honda Motor Co. Ltd in June
on products that it inherited
from their erstwhile partner-
ship, resulting in a saving of
`415 crore that will provide a
sizeable boost to the current
year’s net profit at India’s larg-
est maker of scooters and mo-
torcycles. Reduced burden: After June, Hero will only need to pay royalty to Honda

A level playing field for M&As would serve us
markets operate under Sebi’s new rules will
an interview. “So it was very im- ment team.
For Flipkart, which started
selling apparel two years ago, the
deal is about gaining size and
keeping the Amazon India,
Snapdeal and others at bay. The
company started selling fashion
products only two years ago but
fell way short of its target to be
lion.
The 7 May letter, posted on
the FDA’s website, which says
Sun’s response to FDA’s earlier
findings is inadequate, was re-
ported in Indian media, in-
cluding Mint, on Wednesday.
What the reports missed out
was that the US regulator was
Under the separation agree- on products for which it sourced technology from Honda.
ment announced on 16 De-
cember 2010, Hero was to pay after tax) in the remaining need to pay royalty to Honda
the Japanese company 45 bil- three quarters (July-March) of on the products for which it
lion yen (`2,350 crore then) in FY 15 will be in the region of sourced technology from Hon-
four instalments by June 2014. about `415 crore,” said a per- da following the separation—
The amount was amortized son with direct knowledge of the Maestro scooter, and the
over 14 quarters starting in estimates made by the compa- Impulse, Ignitor and Passion X
January 2011 and ending in ny, who spoke on condition of Pro bikes. As per its annual re-

well as it has the potential to make our economy determine the difference they make. The regu-
the No.1 in the category by Octo-
ber 2013.
The deal was stitched together
over several meetings in March,
mostly held at the coffee shop in
the Grand Mercure hotel near
Flipkart’s office in the Koram-
angala area of Bangalore. The
raising concerns about the in-
tegrity of “all data” generated
by Sun Pharma.
FDA, which has banned im-
ports from Sun Pharma’s fac-
tory in Karkhadi, is expanding
its scrutiny to the company’s
other factories, including the
two export-oriented ingredient
June 2014, which roughly anonymity. port for 2013-14, Hero Moto-
translated into about `180 Honda and Hero MotoCorp, Corp paid `50 crore as royalty
crore per quarter, excluding then known as Hero Honda on new products to Honda that
the impact of exchange rate Motors Ltd, ended a 26-year- fiscal year.
swings. This amount was in old partnership when the “With sales of Maestro and
line with its 2010 rate of royalty Munjal family bought out the Passion X Pro picking up, this
payment, which was 2.7-2.8% Japanese company’s 26% stake (the royalty payment on new
of net sales. in their joint venture, Hero models) is likely to be around
“So post June 2014, with the Honda Motors Ltd, for `3,842 `100 crore this year,” the per-

more efficient. In an ideal scenario, the control lator’s effort to rebalance the pricing of open
TURN TO BACK PAGE ® production sites and two for- payment period getting over, crore at the end of 2010. In July son cited above said.
mulation units located in Gu- this is going to reflect positive- 2011, the Hero Honda Motors Hero also expects the end of
ALSO SEE jarat, Maharashtra and Dadra ly on financials of Hero Moto- Ltd renamed itself Hero Moto- royalty payments to improve
Mint is also available for R8 with >MARK TO MARKET: Flipkart’s Myntra Corp. As an immediate result, Corp.
Hindustan Times in Delhi-NCR only
acquisition: on a wing and a prayer >P14 TURN TO PAGE 2® the net impact on PAT (profit After June, Hero will only TURN TO PAGE 2®

of companies would be vested in those best offers is laudable. Now let’s see some action.

GUEST VIEW

Politically exposed persons ought to keep banks alert

was charged with having accepted bribes
JAIDEEP MEHTA from various businesses.
The vast quantities of cash recovered
time and again from our own politicians
here in India have also often travelled
through benami bank accounts and other
mate also includes the proceeds of other tions through the bank. These govern- Banks should invest in systems to iden-
crimes, like illegal money made off drug ments are under US government sanctions, tify, monitor and report to regulators their
trafficking and gold smuggling. and when the regulator found out, it PEP relationships as part of their anti-
PEP-related corruption is especially resulted in a court case and massive fine. money laundering and counter-terrorism
insidious, as it nibbles away at the fabric of In extreme cases, PEPs may also have financing obligations.
the nation and weakens democratic struc- links with individuals or organizations From RBI to the US Federal Reserve, bank

T
he general election currently under-
way is the only thing hotter than the
weather in India these days. With talk
of tempos full of cash, and the discovery of
more than ₹30 crore of unexplained cur-
rency in a Jharkhand legislator’s home, it is
time to shine a light on a somewhat obscure
term: Politically exposed persons (PEPs).
dubious channels. Note that the currency
notes printed by the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) are distributed only through what are
described in banking regulations as ‘sched-
uled banks.’ There is no other way for them
to enter general circulation.
Within the bounds of privacy norms, it
would be prudent for banks to keep a watch
tures in ways that are still being discovered. involved in terrorist financing. Due dili- regulators around the globe not only have
From the distortion of gence exercises could well laid-out policies, procedures and rules,
elections to the award of ensure that bank services but are also raising the bar on these continu-
contracts for flyovers and It’s prudent for are not surreptitiously ally. While this adds to the cost of bank oper-
highways to contractors used for nefarious ends. As ations, it is seen as necessary to ensure that
that deliver sub-standard banks to keep a recently as in 2020, it was political corruption is stemmed and terrorist
quality, the impact covers found that banks in Syria financing stops. Compliance need not be too
a vast range of activities.
vigil on the risk were facilitating the trans- burdensome, though. Digital technologies

is an investor and a tech

industry watcher.
This term refers to individuals who hold
political office or public positions such as
judgeships and bureaucracy posts, or have
a close association with those who hold
such authority.
Data from Rzolut, a risk and compliance
technology and data provider, reveals that
there are over 2.3 million PEPs around the
world, ranging from country presidents to
municipality officials. These positions tend
to have stronger links than others with
cases of corruption, money-laundering and
other financial crimes.
For instance, in December 2023, Senator
Bob Menandez in the US was found in pos-
session of several gold bars at his home. He
on the actions of customers who are PEPs,
not just to manage their financial risks, but
also to satisfy the regulatory requirements
of India’s central bank and other regulators
around the world.
Although there are no credible figures
available to quantify political corruption,
the scale of money-laundering that takes
place globally is estimated to be monumen-
tal. According to the United Nations Office
on Drugs and Crime, an estimated 2%-5% of
global GDP is laundered. In today’s sce-
nario, this would amount to more than $2
trillion annually. It is safe to assume that a
significant proportion of this money is from
corruption involving PEPs, though the esti-
Connecting the dots
between political corrup-
of their services fer of millions of dollars to
the terrorist group ISIS;
are playing a welcome role in ensuring effec-
tive compliance and helping banks manage
tion and India’s low-qual-
ity infrastructure—roads
being misused these lenders paid a heavy
price, as they were subse-
complex processes and reporting cycles.
In election years, the challenge is steeper
that barely survive mon- by clients for quently cut out of the than usual. Countries with over half the
soon rains, for example— international payments world’s population are election-bound in
does not require much financial crimes settlement system, as per 2024. The list includes robust democracies
imagination. Washington Institute. such as India and the US, but also countries
For their own reputa- Given the dangers faced like Russia and North Korea.
tion and balance-sheet health, banks by the world, it is no surprise that banks It is well understood that the pressures of
should maintain a vigil to prevent their ser- around are being asked by regulators to election-funding needs could combine
vices from being used to facilitate illicit enhance their due diligence in dealing with with the temptations of power to elevate
financial activities. Negligence can prove PEPs, including obtaining information on levels of corruption and illicit financial
costly. A few years ago, BNP Paribas was their source of funds and nature of business activity. Banks should stay extra vigilant
fined $9 billion for letting the governments relationships. Growing online transactions and ensure that their books and business
of Sudan, Cuba and Iran conduct transac- are also being kept track of. reputations stay spotless.
LIVEMINT.COM VIEWS THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024
KOLKATA 15

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

What does an emerging Squad in It’s Bidenomics that has made

America’s EV tariffs necessary
the Indo-Pacific mean for India? One bad idea after another: EV subsidies have spelt trade barriers

This new mini-lateral grouping of the US and three of its allies could coordinate actions with the Quad for regional stability

ALAMY

CLIVE CROOK
is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and
member of the editorial board covering
economics.
HARSH V. PANT &
DON MCLAIN GILL
are, respectively, vice president for studies at
Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, and
a Philippines-based geopolitical analyst author
and lecturer at De La Salle University.

I
n one sense, US President Joe Biden’s
punitive new tariffs on Chinese electric
vehicles (EVs) are indeed necessary, just

E
arlier this month, US Secretary of
Defense Lloyd Austin met his Australian,
Filipino and Japanese counterparts to
institutionalize and launch the ‘Squad’ as
a new four-way security arrangement in
the Indo-Pacific. The Squad has become
an essential addition to the series of security ‘mini-
lateral’ groupings in the Indo-Pacific, such as the
Quad, Aukus, the US-Philippines-Japan trilateral
and the US-Japan-South Korea trilateral.
The Philippines, Japan and Australia are not
treaty allies; however, each of these countries
shares a bilateral treaty alliance with the US. Thus,
the idea behind the Squad centres on the desire
of all four democracies to deepen their level of
integration beyond the hub-and-spokes format at a
time when China has been militarizing the South
China Sea at the expense of the rules-based order
of the Indo-Pacific.
The seeds for the Squad’s creation were already
planted in 2023 through the efforts of the four
countries to enhance their strategic collaboration
in the South China Sea. Manila has broadened its
alliance with the US and is currently negotiating a
reciprocal access agreement (RAA) with Japan to
enhance troop deployments between both coun-
tries. This also complements the existing Visiting
Forces of Agreement (VFA) that the Philippines
has with the US and the Status of Forces Agree-
ment (SOFA) between Manila and Canberra. In
June 2023, the defence chiefs of all four countries
met for the first time on the sidelines of the Shangri
La security dialogue in Singapore. Moreover, in
April this year, the US, Japan, the Philippines and
Australia conducted their first-ever multilateral
maritime exercise in the Philippines’ exclusive
economic zone (EEZ).
Though the creation of the Squad may have
seemed quite natural, due to the loose and
informal nature of mini-laterals, their develop-
ment relies on the convergence of political will and
the intersection of shared interests and threat per-
ceptions among its potential members. Conse-
quently, the degree of collective participation
among all four democracies only began to
heighten in 2023.
In the past decade, the US, Philippines, Japan,
and Australia lacked a collective and homogenous
strategic vision vis-a-vis the region. While Wash-
ington was initially preoccupied with Europe and
the Middle East during the latter years of the
Obama administration, the Trump presidency
sought to reconfigure US commitments towards
its alliances based on a greater level of transaction-
alism. On the other hand, while Japan and Austra-
lia recognized the challenges posed by China in the
South China Sea, there were still limitations in
their abilities to project a more military and
defence-driven approach in the geographic space.
Moreover, the absence of a resident Southeast
Asian anchor further constrained the ability of the
US and its two treaty allies to play a more robust
role in securing the South China Sea collectively.
While the Philippines seemed like the most
practical Southeast Asian partner then, given its
treaty alliance with the US, its close strategic ties
with Japan and its defence relations with Australia,
the former administration of Rodrigo Duterte sig-
nificantly reoriented Philippine foreign and secu-
rity policy. In the hope of gaining economic con-
cessions from Beijing by appeasement, Manila
refrained from taking direct action against China
through the US alliance network. This policy shift
limited the Philippines’ participation in security
arrangements to secure the South China Sea.
However, this strategic dynamic significantly
changed in 2022. While still heavily engaged in
Europe and the Middle East, Washington recog-
nized more clearly that China is the only major
power with the material capacity and ambition to
dismantle the established rules-based order in the
Indo-Pacific. Similarly, with China showing no
sign of managing its expansionist and belligerent
activities in the Western Pacific, Japan has recog-
nized the need to play a more robust defence role
in the Indo-Pacific. This reorientation has its roots
in Tokyo’s National Security Strategy (NSS)
released on 16 December 2022, which encom-
passes several notable objectives, including expe-
diting Japan’s military modernization and enhanc-
ing its military forces based on the acute traditional
security challenges in the region. Importantly, the
NSS also highlights the need for Tokyo to enhance
the capabilities of friendly regional countries to
attain a genuinely free and open Indo-Pacific. Aus-
tralia has also been showing greater interest in
playing a more prominent role as a security and
development partner in Southeast Asia.
Since Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr
took office in June 2022, Manila has taken a more
proactive role in safeguarding its EEZ against Chi-
nese expansionism by strengthening its partner-
ships to improve its maritime security capabilities
and ability to exercise its sovereignty. This shift
opened doors for the Philippines to participate
more actively in the emerging network of like-
minded democracies of the Indo-Pacific. By play-
ing the anchor’s role in Southeast Asia, the country
has positioned itself as the Squad’s fulcrum.
The proliferation of informal strategic arrange-
ments suggests that Indo-Pacific security will be
underpinned by flexible, area-specific and practi-
cal elements of cooperation, rather than traditional
and rigid alliances. At the heart of these develop-
ments lie concerns of a potential challenge posed
by China to the stability of the established regional
order. All four members of the Squad must consist-
ently engage with one another and explore new
means of collective capacity building. Moreover,
the Squad needs to coordinate with other existing
mini-laterals (like the Quad) to achieve a more
robust network-based cooperative framework of
like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific.
It is in the very nature of the Indo-Pacific that
mini-laterals will proliferate and the nature of
security threats in the region demand that they
coordinate their actions closely.
as he argues. What makes them so are the
enormous sums that the administration is
devoting to expanding US capacity to pro-
duce its own EVs. An almost-invariable
characteristic of industrial policy is to start
with one dumb idea, after which many
more then follow—by necessity.
America’s local EV makers are strug-
gling despite generous subsidies. Output
and sales are growing, but not as quickly as
hoped. Early adopters have adopted and
the rest are less enthusiastic. That could
change, but the charging infrastructure
has been slow to roll out and converting
American drivers to EVs isn’t easy. Even
after the subsidies, EVs made in the US
aren’t cheap. Hence the need for tariffs to
make the competition more expensive.
The high cost of producing EVs in the US
is partly by design. Bidenomics aims to do
two things that are in tension: Suppress
carbon emissions by speeding adoption of
EVs and create high-wage manufacturing
jobs. Well-paid workers making cheap EVs
is a tricky combination. “Good-paying
union jobs” of the kind Biden advocates are
difficult for a high-wage economy like the
US to sustain because the resulting pro-
duction is likely to be globally uncompeti-
tive. A low-wage country can use subsidies
to incubate a new industry that might in
due course thrive abroad, letting govern-
ments withdraw support. In pricey-labour
economies, this formula is less successful.
As incomes rise, factory employment is apt
to decline; work moves to more productive
sectors. Just maintaining factory employ-
ment requires ongoing government sup-
port, which, in turn, retards growth by
slowing the flow of resources to better uses.
Bidenomics favours sustaining persist-
ently uncompetitive industries. Some-
times that’s defensible, provided the costs
aren’t too high. China’s ability to produce
vast quantities of usable cheap EVs seems
to have surprised the administration. The
subsidies and incentives that the US has
offered to this point aren’t enough. The US
faces another “China shock,” as National
Economic Council Director Lael Brainard
puts it. Tariffs of no less than 100% are
needed to protect America’s nascent EV
industry. For the sake of good-paying
union jobs, Americans must be prohibited
from buying cheap imported EVs.
This won’t be the last stupid-but-neces-
sary idea in the sequence. The tariffs will
prevent EV prices in the US from falling as
quickly as they otherwise would, slowing
Joe Biden’s industrial policy has resulted in
a trade-distortive follow-up BLOOMBERG
the market uptake of a much-needed tech-
nology. If the administration is to keep its
promises on climate change, it will need
other ways of inducing Americans to use
EVs. One such policy is in the works: New
EPA rules to control the proportion of EVs
and gas-powered vehicles sold in the US.
Unless demand patterns shift, producers
will be induced to lose money on EVs and
recover the losses by selling their reduced
output of fossil-fuel vehicles at far higher
prices. If this arithmetic doesn’t work out,
demands for more subsidy may arise.
Support for persistently uncompetitive
industries sometimes makes sense. Access
to some kinds of goods really is a national-
security imperative. Some of the products
covered in America’s new bundle of tariffs,
such as high-end semiconductors, might
qualify. EVs plainly don’t.
Right now, Biden’s officials aren’t really
pressing the national-security argument.
The China threat lurks in the background,
of course, but the main case for high tariffs
on EVs and other Chinese exports rests on
Beijing’s market-distorting policies. In this
view, US producers can’t match their Chi-
nese rivals not because US costs are too
high but because China’s exports are artifi-
cially cheap, driven down by Beijing’s pur-
suit of industrial excess capacity.
A stickler for consistency might pause at
this logic. When the US adopts trade-dis-
torting policies, it’s presented as an over-
due recognition of market failures. When
China does it, it’s decried as artificial and a
threat to global economic stability.
Be that as it may, trade-distorting poli-
cies do distort trade. America’s industrial
polices can make its trading partners worse
off. The same goes for China. The question
is whether disputes and imbalances can be
resolved cooperatively. Pro-trade, posi-
tive-sum outcomes are at least imaginable.
But governments, led by the US, have cho-
sen to go the other way. Some argue it was
a mistake even to hope for cooperation.
China, it’s argued, is a cheat and should
never have been allowed into the World
Trade Organization, a defunct institution.
I disagree, but let’s see how the negative-
sum alternative of protection, retaliation
and counter-retaliation works out.
It’s early days for such policies, and the
cycle of error piled upon error has plenty of
room to run. ©BLOOMBERG

GUEST VIEW

Electoral bonds case: Do not nullify past transactions

unconstitutional. These amendments per-
LALIT KUMAR & MUSKAAN GUPTA tained to exemptions given to political par-
ties from publishing details of electoral bond
contributions, maintaining records of the
same and from disclosing the names and
addresses of donors. Another amendment
Thus, the settled position is that judge-
ments declaring any law as unconstitutional
are retrospective. This issue was decided by
the SC’s ruling in CBI vs. R.R. Kishore. In this
case, an amendment made to the Delhi Spe-
cial Police Establishment Act of 1946 (DSPE)
parties were not disclosed in the profit-and-
loss statements filed by most of these com-
panies. For political parties, it is known they
hadn’t published any details of electoral
bond contributions and haven’t maintained
records of the donations received.
Indian Constitution. Recently, this was
re-affirmed in its ruling on State of Manipur
vs Surajkumar Okram. The SC held that it
has the power to apply this doctrine to save
past transactions under statutes which have
been declared unconstitutional, or it can

O
ne of the compelling stories during
India’s ongoing general elections
has concerned electoral bonds. On
15 February 2024, the Supreme Court (SC)
struck down the electoral bond scheme for
political donations as unconstitutional. This
has meant serious ramifications for corpo-
rate houses that made contributions to polit-
had removed the upper limit for corporate
donations to political parties, earlier fixed at
7.5% of the company’s average net profits of
the past three years. Perhaps the most telling
was an amendment that exempted compa-
nies from disclosing the names of political
parties favoured by donations in their profit-
and-loss statements. Of all the strike-downs,
was held to be unconstitutional from the So, we have a unique set of challenges if mould the relief provided by exercising its
very date it was inserted in we reverse the actions ret- power under Article 142 of the Constitution.
the DSPE. The SC held that rospectively. How will con- Conversely, if the SC chooses not to apply
once a law is declared to be Donors need tributions beyond the 7.5% this doctrine, then past transactions exe-
unconstitutional, then it is limit or those made by loss- cuted under the aegis of the struck-down
void since its beginning. clarity from the makers be returned to con- law will be void and null.
Such a law would be still- tributors? How will firms Unfortunately, from the language in the
born, unenforceable and
SC on whether re-open or amend the duly electoral bond ruling, it appears that the SC

are, respectively, a partner and

ical parties based on this scheme and the
three statutes which were amended to facili-
associate at JSA Advocates and
Solicitors.
tate it. If transactions done before the ruling
are not preserved by the SC, it is going to
cause donor companies a lot of hardship.
First, let’s look at what these amendments
were and why the scheme was held uncon-
stitutional. A related question also arises: Is
the strike-down retrospective or prospec-
tive? And, if it is retrospective, what impact
will it have on past actions under the scheme
by corporates and political parties?
The verdict scotched the scheme as it vio-
lated Article 19 of the Indian Constitution.
Simultaneously, four amendments made in
three different laws were also struck down as
this one has hit businesses the hardest.
A well settled position under Article 13(2)
of the Constitution is that the state cannot
make any law which takes away or abridges
rights given by Part III of the Constitution. If
any law is made in contravention of these
rights, then to the extent of such a contra-
vention, that law will be void. Part III deals
with fundamental rights guaranteed by the
Constitution. It was violations of Articles 14
and 19 on the rights to equality and informa-
tion, respectively, that led to the scheme and
related amendments being struck down.
Article 13(2) makes it clear that once a law is
struck down as being unconstitutional, it
ceases to have effect.
have no legal effect.
In the electoral bond
this political
context, the critical ques-
tion is this: What happens
funding scheme
to deeds done in the past has been axed
when the statutes were still
considered valid? retrospectively
Let’s look at the impact
that the SC’s ruling could
have on the past actions of companies and
political parties if it has retrospective effect.
The available data shows that companies
have already made donations exceeding the
earlier cap of 7.5%; companies with zero
profits and even losses have made contribu-
tions and the names of favoured political
audited and approved
financial statements of past
years, unless they approach
the National Company Law
Tribunal? This is a serious
challenge for donors.
It was to avoid back-
tracking and incompatible
reversals that the doctrine
of prospective overruling was introduced in
Indian jurisprudence. Taken originally from
American jurisprudence, this doctrine was
first applied in India in the 1967 case of I.C.
Golaknath vs State of Punjab. There, the
court held that only the SC can choose to
apply this doctrine in matters involving the
has applied this doctrine only to save elect-
oral bonds that have already been encashed,
but not for amendments made to the three
statutes. Although unintentional, this has
created ambiguity and uncertainty, with
divergent views on the subject being taken
by different stakeholders.
Given the magnitude of the issue, this
needs a quick resolution. So, how can India
Inc expect to get legal relief for past actions?
For now, the only and best course would be
to approach the SC for appropriate direc-
tions to be issued so that past transactions
are saved. This would set a precedent and
reduce ex-post facto complications.
These are the authors’ personal views.
16 THURSDAY, 23 MAY 2024
KOLKATA BUSINESS OF LIFE CULTURE LIVEMINT.COM

‘Outside In’ offers up

a study of contrasts IMAGES: COURTESY ANINDO SEN

Karla Sofia Gascon stars in ‘Emilia Perez’ PHOTO:AFP

Moving trans
issues forward
at Cannes
Transgender identity and issues are a
theme at the Cannes Film Festival 2024

‘Outside In’, a two- dered futile by human solidarity against the lop- Agencies
sided odds. feedback@livemint.com
person show on the Mukherjee’s virtuoso metal work is epito-

T
mised by the way she has made the water glis- rans identities have emerged as a recurring theme at the
work of Jaidev Baghel ten on the faces and the bodies, while the for- Cannes Film Festival this year, including in frontrunner
mation of green patina has added a surreal layer Emilia Perez. The musical by Cannes veteran Jacques Aud-
and Meera Mukherjee, over time. iard about a drug lord with a family who has always wanted to be
blurs the line between Nearby is Coal Miners (1980), another
haunting sculpture made in the same year,
a woman stars Karla Sofia Gascon.
The 52-year-old has written a book about having a gender
artist and artisan which shows the pathos of a densely packed transition operation at the age of 46, when she already had an act-
group of miners, exploited under inhuman ing career, a wife and a daughter. “It was a very tough journey,”
working conditions. she told AFP, hailing her family’s courage.
Anindo Sen The embroidered kantha works I came The film has earned particular praise for not fixating on the
feedback@livemint.com across subsequently in the exhibition, albeit (top left) ‘The Thinker’ gender transition, but moving far beyond to explore themes of
exemplifiers of her community-based art (1980) by Meera parenthood, love and the victims of Mexico’s gang violence. Aud-

T
he pairing of Meera Mukherjee
with Jaidev Baghel in the Outside
In exhibition at the Museum of
Art and Photography (MAP) in
Bengaluru (on till 20 October) is
an intriguing one.
Mukherjee was 26 years older than Baghel.
When she visited his father, Sriman, in Konda-
gaon in Chhattisgarh in the early 1960s to learn
Dhokra metal casting, Jaidev would have barely
been an adolescent.
While there may be some evidence to suggest
that they met, it is unlikely they collaborated or
influenced each other during their long careers.
The connections are therefore apparent only in
their shared metal casting approach using the
lost wax method, and the presence of common
folk in both their sculptures.
The most synergistic pairing, in hindsight, is
served as soon as one enters the exhibition. He
Who Saw, one of Mukherjee’s early works, is a
towering two-metre-high figure. It was inspired
by the local deities she saw during her visits to
Bastar, and is meant to represent the one who
witnessed the creation of the world.
Her work is presented alongside Panch
Mukhi Vandevi (Five-Headed Forest Goddess),
Baghel’s polemic response to the exploitation of
the environment in his region, where a glower-
ing five-headed-goddess of the forest foretells
the destruction of the world.
Throughout the exhibition, Mukherjee’s fire-
brand approach shimmers through the dark
purple setting of the exhibition. Rain (1980),
perhaps the most evocative of her works on
show, captures masses huddled against a mon-
soon downpour. The water fails to pierce and
drips down the bodies, its force of nature ren-
practice, struggled to spark a dialogue with Mukherjee; Madiya iard, 72, sensitively portrays the main character’s intimate strug-
Baghel’s works, and would be best experi- and Madin’ (2007) by gle to be herself.
enced in isolation. Jaidev Baghel “It’s surprising to see this issue being picked up by seasoned
Critically engaging with her works remains filmmakers, who are often cisgender outside the LGBT sphere,”
incomplete without appreciating her journey. said Franck Finance-Madureira, the founder of the Cannes Queer
She was a young divorcee left to fend for herself the adivasi communities of central India. In an endeavour to be better recognised as Palm. “It’s been the emerging issue
in a conservative post-independence Bengali By proclaiming the Mahua tree as their an artist, he started signing his works, created It took 30 years to in the LGBT fight for a decade now,
society, who rejected painting and took to sculp- Banyan, Baghel asserts that indigenous peo- his own iconographies and explored non-tra- normalise gay or and it was about time we had trans
ture, and looked to indigenous crafts for inspira- ple have their own beliefs, rituals and customs ditional themes.
tion—she went against the odds on many fronts whose pluralism need to be acknowledged Their works do not stylistically resemble lesbian characters, leads in films.”
“It took 30 years to normalise
and lived life on her own terms. and celebrated. each other—Meera’s exhibited figures are but with trans gay or lesbian characters, but with
Many of Baghel’s works are representations Baghel’s Raodeo (2012-2024) has an interest- somewhat abstracted, roughly finished and characters it’s trans characters it’s going much
of the men and women from the Madia commu- ing story. When the curators visited the late art- intense, while Baghel’s are more precise, much faster faster,” he added. Increasingly
nity, who were the main patrons for Ghadwa ist’s home in Chhattisgarh earlier this year, they ornamental and serene. more films are including gender
sculptors like him. came across his unused moulds. With the Mukherjee’s works in the exhibition come identity, an issue first explored in
A work that stands out is Madiya and Madin involvement of his son Bhupendra, who now from the personal collection of Radhika and films like Laurence Anyways by Xavier Dolan in 2012 and Girl by
(2007), where he sculpted local gods as a work- runs the workshop, they commissioned this Abhishek Poddar (who are also the founder- Lukas Dhont in 2018.
ing adivasi couple, bridging folk mythology and piece, unsure how it would turn out after all trustees of MAP), while the works of Baghel are Among them is Argentinian director Daniel Burman’s Trans-
the everyday. these years. from a single unnamed Indian private collector. mitzvah. The feature, which premiered at a public screening out
Lakkad Deo, the The sculpture of Mukherjee’s works are spread across a wider of competition, follows a Jewish boy who wants to be a girl and
woodcutter god, has Baghel’s works are rooted in the tribal god, feared timeframe; almost all of Baghel’s works on show does not want the religious initiation ceremony for boys called
an axe over his shoul- representation of community; for shooting weapons are from a brief three-year period from 2004 to a bar mitzvah.
der; Gappa Dei is at those who dare pass 2007. While that makes the curation appear Burman said trans identity needs to be included in cinema but
shown with a basket Mukherjee’s are liberated by by his side, material- convenient and limited, the exhibition does not as a be-all and end-all. “We should render these situations vis-
on her head and a their depictions of humanity ised fairly robustly, manage to raise germane issues. ible but not lock ourselves in them,” he said. “There is excessive
crowbar in her hand, perhaps as a defiant The documentary film accompanying the focus on gender identity as the only pillar of identity.”
dressed as an adivasi. metaphor in support exhibition highlights the vital need to preserve Trans actors now mostly play trans roles. But Hunter Schafer,
A closer look at the sculpture also reveals of Baghel’s legacy. the artistic traditions of the indigenous commu- who has been on the Cannes red carpet after acting in Palme d’Or
mother earth opening up and reptiles and The exhibition ultimately ends up as a study nities, without leaving them dependent on the contender Kinds of Kindness, in April said she no longer wanted
insects crawling out, drawing attention to our of contrasts, rather than welding convergen- mass market for their survival. to play queer roles. “I worked so hard to get to where I am, past
diverse forest ecosystems. ces. While Baghel’s works are rooted in repre- Amid the ongoing centennial celebrations of these really hard points in my transition, and now I just want to
In Tree of Life (2006), another work drawn sentation of his community; Mukherjee’s are many male modernist peers, Meera Mukher- be a girl and finally move on,” the 25-year-old, who broke
from folk ecology, Baghel creates the kalpa- liberated by their depictions of humanity. jee’s has come and gone quietly last year, which through in Euphoria, told GQ magazine.
vriksha (a wish-fulfilling divine tree, which is Her works are more palpable in their sub- makes this exhibition a timely intervention. Trans women also starred in The Belle of Gaza, a documentary
of immense significance in religions such as version and forceful in their expression. Perhaps From the Depth of the Mould, the screening out of competition and unrelated to the conflict. The
Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism) but Home-schooled Baghel on the other hand commemorative book on her to be released film is an intimate portrait of Palestinian trans women living on
embodied by the Mahua tree. It emphasizes walked a fine line between authenticity and shortly, will put her life and work in focus once the margins of Israeli society in Tel Aviv, whom French film-
the pivotal role this tree plays in the lives of innovation. again. maker Yolande Zauberman calls “warriors of their own destiny”.

The radical honesty of Uma in ‘Sister Midnight’

Radhika Apte’s abilities as adventure. (The film shares DNA, in more about an outlaw… a dust bowl ballad.”
ways than one, with the Iranian “western Uma is the archetypal outsider, both mis-
an actor power this title, horror” film A Girl Walks Home Alone at anthropic and misunderstood, and he
which has been selected Night.) With each of her nocturnal jaunts, found the loneliness of her character
Uma inches closer towards a derangement reflected in the songs he selected and pre-
as part of Cannes’ neither she nor the audience quite under- cleared for the film before shooting.
stands until deep into the film. “The music is very important, and a lot
Directors’ Fortnight Kandhari, an Indian writer/director of the spirit of the film comes from the
born in the Middle East and now based in music. There’s no Indian music in the
Pahull Bains London, returns with a feature film after film and I quite like putting things
feedback@livemint.com nearly two decades, following his 2005 together that shouldn’t go together.
debut Bye Bye Miss Goodnight and a hand- Cambodian music is beautiful to me

W
hat depths of madness can sti-
fling boredom and loneliness
drive a homemaker to? That’s
the question Karan Kandhari pursues to
strange and stomach-turning ends in his
feature film Sister Midnight, which pre-
miered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
The film features a knockout performance
by Radhika Apte as Uma, a disgruntled
new bride left to her own devices in an
overwhelming and chaotic new city by a
recalcitrant husband she barely knows.
Hardly a “domestic goddess” by her own
admission, Uma must learn the basics of
cooking and running a modest household,
while her husband Gopal spends his days
at work and evenings out drinking.
Constantly itching to escape their tiny
single-room home in a shanty somewhere
in Mumbai, Uma sets off on her own at all
hours of the day and night in pursuit of
ful of shorts. Sister Midnight has been
selected as part of Cannes’ Directors’ Fort-
night, an independent sidebar at the festi-
val that is dedicated to showcasing “the
most singular forms of contemporary cin-
ema,” and in particular those that “rein-
vent cinematic genres.”
Kandhari’s film certainly occupies a
space unto itself, quite unlike anything
else in contemporary Indian cinema. It’s
impressive how much he and cinematog-
rapher Sverre Sørdal can do within the
confines of a tiny room, using light, shad-
ows and small dark corners to disquieting
effect. (Sound also plays an outsize role in
this film.) Featuring Wright-esque quick
cuts and Andersonian zoom pans, it’s shot
with a frenetic and impatient energy that
echoes Uma’s own restlessness. As a hero-
ine, she’s as iconoclastic as they come.
Foul-mouthed, quick-witted and acerbic,
The film features a knockout performance by Radhika Apte as Uma
she’s immediately at odds with her nosy
and judgmental neighbours. Kandhari’s
droll and deadpan script arms her with
some audaciously funny lines, but the real
beauty of the film (and Apte’s perform-
ance) lies in the moments where no words
are being exchanged.
“I tried to do everything with the least
amount of dialogue possible,” said Kan-
dhari at a post-screening Q&A.
The lack of dialogue gives Apte, an out-
rageously expressive actor whom Kan-
dhari likens to Buster Keaton, the perfect
platform to shine. With a gift for physical
comedy, Apte conveys magnitudes with
just the twitch of an eyebrow or turn of her
mouth. Her Uma is tightly wound, tingling
with an anger that’s ready to burst out of
her at any moment. And it finally finds an
outlet, in incredibly dark and comical
ways. The absurdist humour of the film is
compounded with some magical realism
featuring stop motion animation (which
Kandhari chose for its “inherent weird-
ness”) and an unexpected soundtrack fea-
turing Cambodian music as well as coun-
try and rock from the likes of Motorhead
and The Band, making you half-expect to
see a tumbleweed go rolling by.
And that’s precisely what Kandhari was
trying to evoke. With Sister Midnight, he
set out to create “an American folk song
because it’s got a sort of flavour that you
find in Indian traditional or pop music,
but it’s not [that]. You can’t quite place it.
It sounds like it got mutated through
some interpretation of Phil Spector stuff,
with that sort of 2am deadpan haze. And
the rest of the music, it’s just what felt
right as I was writing it.”
With Uma’s wild and unpredictable
behaviour comes a radical honesty, a
rejection of propriety that makes her both
enchanting and formidable. “Why can’t
you be like other people?” Gopal asks her
at one point. But even as he says it, you
sense that there’s a part of him that mar-
vels in how she isn’t like the others, how
she nudges him out of his own milque-
toast existence. It’s the cross to bear for
any anti heroine: she must make peace
with being beloved and reviled all at once.
Uma would certainly think it’s worth it.
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