BACK PAGE | PAGE 18 INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 7 MARKETS | PAGE 6 IPLauction:Green,deKock &VenkateshIyerinfocus Gold loans take the shine off personal loans KOLKATA, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2025 Netflix CEOs make their case forWarner Bros acquisition FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL 35 NO. 39, 18 PAGES, `12 (NORTH EAST STATES `12 & ANDAMAN `20) P U B L I S H E D F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , B E N G A L U R U , C H A N D I G A R H , C H E N N A I , H Y D E R A B A D , K O C H I , K O L K ATA , L U C K N O W, M U M B A I , N E W D E L H I , P U N E SENSEX: 85,213.36 ▼ 54.30 NIFTY: 26,027.30 ▼ 19.65 NIKKEI 225: 50,168.11 ▼ 668.44 HANG SENG: 25,628.88 ▼ 347.91 `/$: 90.73 ▼ 0.31 `/€: 106.55 ▼ 0.46 BRENT: $61.02 ▼ $0.10 GOLD: `1,32,940 ▲ `1,256 -24.5 -41.7 -32.1 -26.7 -27.5 Rural jobs scheme reloaded THE RENAMED AND updated MGNREGA seeks a complete overhaul of the 2-decade-old programme to curb rampant leakages. A look at the key changes ■ PAGE 2 YONO 2.0: SBI aims to double users to 200 mn SBI LAUNCHED YONO 2.0, a revamped version of its digital banking platform You Only Need One.The number of users will be doubled to 200 million in two years, Chairman CS Setty said at the launch. ■ P6 2024-25 2023-24 2022-23 MGNREGA DGCAprobe panelvisits airline’s HQ THE FOUR-MEMBER panel, set up by Director General of Civil Aviation Faiz Ahmed Kidwai to investigate operational disruptions at domestic carrier IndiGo earlier this month, visited the airline’s headquarters in Gurugram on Monday as part of the ongoing probe, reports PTI. 51.54 50.07 47.84 52.07 50.24 2021-22 INDIAAND THE US are close to signing a framework pact that will see reversal of the reciprocal and penal tariffs on Indian exports, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said, reports Mukesh Jagota. ■ P2 Average number of workdays per household 2020-21 India, US close to pact on removal of extra tariff INDIGO FIASCO VB–G RAM G Act No. of guranteed employment per household in a year: 100 days No. of guranteed employment per household in a year: 125 days Demand-driven, open-ended Normative funding with a statutory guarantee Centre bears most costs (~93%) 60:40 Centre-State cost sharing (90:10 for NE & Himalayan states) Broad, scattered categories of work Focus on water security, core rural and livelihood infrastructure, and climate-resilience works Labour often diverted from farming Up to 60 days of no-work during peak sowing/harvest season SC refuses to hear plea on cancellations THE SUPREME COURT on Monday refused to entertain a PIL seeking judicial intervention into the cancellation of hundreds of flights by IndiGo, and asked the petitioner to move the Delhi High Court with the grievances, reports PTI. The HC had earlier asked the Centre why the situation was allowed to precipitate. Designed to operate largely on automation and self-service Noidaairportsetforflightintothefuture YARUQHULLAH KHAN New Delhi, December 15 TRAVEL UPGRADE WHEN NOIDA INTERNATIONAL Airport opens, it wants to do something radical for an Indian flyer: make itself almost invisible. There will be no crush around check-in counters, no serpentinequeuesheldtogether by retractable belts,no army of staff herding passengers from one checkpoint to the next. Instead, India’s newest greenfieldairportisbettingthatsoftware—notmanpower—willrun theshow.Billedasthecountry’s first fully digital,mid-sized airport, Noida has been designed from scratch to operate largely onautomationandself-service. That “from scratch” part matters.Unlike Delhi,Mumbai or Hyderabad—where technology has been bolted on to decades-old processes—Noida has had the luxury of a clean slate.“The `10,000-crore airport has been built as the country’s first fully digital airport,” says Christoph Schnellmann, ■ Self check-in, bag-drop kiosks and self-boarding gates to cut queues ■ Kyndryl’s AI-powered ■ Mixed-rotation gates to handle domestic and international flights interchangeably platform to monitor IT, operational systems, predict failures, help prevent disruptions ■ Planned deployment of full-body scanners and CT baggage scanners CEOofNoidaInternationalAirport. A single master systems integrator,heexplains,isstitching together everything from core IT and operational platforms to passenger-facing systems,ensuringtheyfunctionas one integratedwhole. Theresultisanairportwhere humans step back and machines step forward. From the moment passengers enter the terminal, the journey is designed to be self-directed. Self-bag-dropkiosksreplacetraditionalcheck-incounters.Self- »INSIDE« CEO: VISION IS TO BUILD A FUTURE-READYAIRPORT PAGE 4 boarding gates take over at departure. Staff remain in the background—overseeing operations,handlingexceptionsand meeting regulatory requirements—rather than processing everytravellerbyhand. Automation extends to the airport’smosttime-consuming choke points. Phase I will have 13 security lanes, with cabin baggage screened through an automatedtrayretrievalsystem that keeps trays moving and queues flowing. Checked-in bagswillpassthroughafullyinline baggage handling and trackingsystem,reducingmanualinterventionandguesswork. The goal, says Schnellmann, is predictability—shorterwaitsfor passengers and smootherplanning forairlines. Even the terminal’s physical design reflects this digital-first mindset.Noida Airport will use a mixed-rotation gate system, rare for an airport of its size.A gate that handles a domestic arrival in one slot could handle an international departure in thenext.Theflexibilitycutsaircraft turnaround times and squeezes more efficiencyout of every stand,while a multi-level layout keeps domestic and internationalpassengerssegregated to meet securitynorms. Thenotablefeatureisn’tany single automated feature but the way everything is wired together. Check-in, baggage, security, retail and ground transport systems are being built to exchange data in real time.Tomanagethisdigitalnervous system, the airport has brought in Kyndryl,which will run technology operations using its AI-driven Kyndryl Bridge platform.The platform continuously monitors the healthofITandoperationalsystems,flaggingissuesbeforethey snowball into passenger-facing disruptions.Cybersecurity,too, is not an afterthought. Continued on Page 10 mance,and Septemberwas a weak month formost FMCG companies.That said,in principle,GSTcuts should support consumption.We sawa similarimpact in 2017 afterGSTwas first introduced,and are hopeful of a repeat.As faras urban demand goes,itwas slowereven priorto the GSTprice reductions.Andyes,it does remain & How do you read the current environment three months aftertheGST2.0reformswere introduced?Whatexplainsthe mixed urban demand trends despitethepricecuts? It has actuallybeen about two months since the GST price reductions kicked in,so it is still earlyto drawdefinitive conclusions.Pipeline movements can distort short-term perfor- Trump’s steep H-1Bvisa fee to hitTCS,Infyhard ANDREW KREIGHBAUM & ERIC FAN December 15 US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump’s$100,000pricetagfor new H-1B workers hired from outside the US will have punishing effects for the IT outsourcing and staffing industries that have long been a target of both parties. Thefeeisthebiggestrestriction theTrump administration has imposed so far on employmentofskilledforeignworkers. A Bloomberg News analysis found it will have a disproportionate impact on multinational staffing firms that act as middlemen for companies seeking H-1B workers. Those middlemen include Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and Cognizant. Almost 90% of new H-1B hires at those three companies between May 2020 and May 2024wereapprovedatUSconsulates.Theworkerswouldhave cost each of them hundreds of millions more if the fee had been in effect. More than 93% of new InfosysH-1Bhiresinthattimeframe—upwards of 10,400 workers—would have been hit with the $100,000 fee,according to the Bloomberg analysis, addinguptomorethanabillion dollars invisa charges. Tata would have had to pay the fee for 6,500 workers over that period, or 82% of newly approved H-1B workers. Cog- Kolkata mixed,although certain segments such as quick commerce are growing rapidly.Overall,we expect urban demand to graduallystrengthen overthe next fewquarters.Rural demand,of course,remains robust. What are the building blocks for GCPL now that the FMCG marketisonthegrowthpath? Ournear-termobjectiveisto deliverconsistenthighsingledigitvolumegrowthinIndia andthenbuildtowardsdoubledigitgrowth.Thiswillbedriven byacombinationoforganic growthincorecategories,new categorylaunchesandselective acquisitions.Wearealsoensuringourinternationalbusinessesremainprofitable,with someofourlocalinnovations takenabroadselectively.Thisis along-termjourney.Ourprioritiesarealsoalignedwiththis philosophyofbuildingastrong Indiabusiness,withcapital allocatedprimarilyhere. Continued on Page 7 TOUGH TIMES (in K) 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Google Continued on Page 7 SudhirSitapati,MD & CEO, Godrej Consumer(GCPL),says there is cautious optimism among FMCG players,driven by GST2.0 price reductions,rural demand and a gradual urban recovery.Sitapati,also the chairman ofthe CII National Committee on FMCG,speaks with ViveatSusanPintoon the sidelines ofthe CII FMCG Summit on the company’s premiumisation agenda,acquisitions and big bets.Excerpts: Cognizant Technology Continued on Page 7 ‘Top 15-20% of consumers driving growth energy’ TCS NOTWORRIED ABOUT IMPACT OFTARIFFS AS MUCH AS OFAI, SAYS BCG CHAIR RICHARD LESSER ● SUDHIR SITAPATI, MD & CEO, GODREJ CONSUMER Infosys PAGE 18 importswas due to sharp fall in goldimportsbothyear-on-year and month-on-month. Gold importsweredown59.15%on year in November to $4.0 billion.Another commodity that sawfallinimportswascrudeoil where the fall was 11.27 % on A passenger plane is barely visible as a thick blanket of smog covers the runway at the Delhi airport on Monday. Over 228 flights were cancelled and five diverted to nearby airports due to poor visibility conditions, according to an official ■ PAGE 20 Amazon.com services BACK PAGE yearto $ 14.11 billion. TheNovembertradeperformance has offset the losses on thegoodstradefrontinOctober, Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said. Trade deficit ($ bn) 2025 2024 Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov -19.1 MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA is gearing up to localise battery production and other critical components over the coming years to strengthen the electric vehicle ecosystem in India, reports Nitin Kumar. CHRISTINATITUS Mumbai, December 15 THE RUPEE'S DOWNWARD slidecontinuedonMonday,endingatanewlowof90.73against the dollar—down 31 paise—on weak market sentiment. This was the third consecutive session when the rupee closed at a newlow.Thedomesticcurrency has closed at a new low eight timesinthepastmonth. According to currency experts,persistentoutflowsand delaysinthetradedealwiththe US are keeping the sentiment poor.The latest drop has taken the year-to-date (YTD) depreciation in the current financial yeartomorethan6%,thehighest in threeyears. “Some positioning was also there due to the ongoing initial public offer (IPO) and the forex swap, which will be held on Tuesday,” said a dealer at a public sector bank. -22.5 MARUTI PLANS PHASED EV LOCALISATION -27 PAGE 4 Exports & Imports (% chg, y-o-y) 19.4 25 19 19.5 Export Export Exports 20 15 10 5 0 -5 -1.9 -1.9 -5 -5.1 Imp Imports -10 Nov 2025 -15 Nov 2024 ASURPRISEJUMPinshipments to the US despite high tariffs pushed up India’s merchandise exportstoathree-monthhighof $38.13 billion in November, a growth of 19.37% on year.The growthwas the highest in three years, though it came on a low base (-5.3%). Coupled with a 1.88% decline in imports to $62.66 billion, the robust exportsbroughtdownthetrade deficit to a five-month low of $24.53 billion, giving comfort onthecurrentaccountfront. After contracting for two straight months after impositionofadditionaldutiesinAugust,theexportstotheUSrecovered smartly and grew 22% year-on-yeartotouch$6.98billion. Other geographies that contributed to the November performance notably included China where the exports were up 90% to $2.20 billion. In April-November, exports totheUSgrew11.4%to$59.04 billion while that to China rose 32.8% to $12.22 billion. Growth was also witnessed in markets like Spain and the UnitedArab Emirates (UAE). The drop in November ● IT’S SMOG SEASON IN DELHI-NCR Rupee slides to another record low ROBUST RECOVERY -21.5 COMPANIES MUKESH JAGOTA New Delhi, December 15 -14.1 INDIA’S JOBLESSNESS DROPPED to a new low of 4.7% in November, according to the statistics ministry’s latest monthly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) report published on Monday. Exports see smart rebound, Nov shipments rise 19.4% -23.1 UNEMPLOYMENT RATE AT NEW LOW OF 4.7% -20.3 ECONOMY PAGE 3 TRADE DEFICITAT5-MONTH LOWOF$24.5 BILLION -31.8 IN THE NEWS Change of status Consular processing New H-1B approvals from May 2020-2024; Source: US Citizenship and Immigration Services nizant would be faced with the charge for more than 5,600 employees, or 89% of new H-1B hires. Even if legal challenges are successful in quickly blocking the fee, industry observers expect it will to lead to a steep drop invisa demand and drive placement of more workers overseas. “We’re already seeing that happen,” said immigration attorneyJonathanWasden,who represents manyITemployers. Continued on Page 10 MUFG nears $3.2-bn deal to buy 20% in Shriram Fin SIDDHI NAYAK, HIDEKI SUZUKI & MANUEL BAIGORRI December 15 MITSUBISHI UFJ FINANCIAL Groupisnearingadealtobuya minority stake in Shriram Finance, according to people familiar with the matter, the latest foreign bank seeking to buildapresenceinthecountry. MUFG may invest more than $3.2 billion to buy a stake of around 20%,the people said,asking not to be identified.Talks are advanced and an agreement may be reached as soon as this week, the people said, adding that details such as the price and stake size could still change. Shriram’s shares climbed as much as 2.7% before paring some of the gains. The stock has risen almost 50% this year, giving the Mumbai-based financial services firm a market value of roughly $18 billion. Negotiations are ongoing and may face delays or even fall apart, the people added.A representative for MUFG declined to comment, while Shriram didn’t immediately respond to a request seeking comment. Shriram operates businesses across urban and rural areas, focusing on loans for commercial vehicles, tractors and passenger cars. It also lends to small and mediumsized enterprises. —BLOOMBERG