BACK PAGE | PAGE 20 MARKETS | PAGE 6 TMC split reaches Lok Sabha, 20 MPs back NDA INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 9 Sebi, RBI to launch corp bond index derivatives Google, Nvidia consider Intel as backup chip maker BENGALURU, TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2026 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XXXIX 45, 20 PAGES, `12 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 A TA , 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: 73,524.26 ▼ 719.08 NIFTY: 23,123.00 ▼ 243.70 NIKKEI 225: 64,024.60 ▼ 2,563.52 HANG SENG: 24,657.06 ▼ 304.89 `/$: 95.71 ▼ 0.77 `/€: 110.19 ▲ 0.31 BRENT: $93.69 ▲ $0.60 GOLD: `1,50,235 ▼ `3,724 COMPANIES PAGE 4 DEALACTIVITY COOLS IN MAY AFTER APRIL HIKE INDIA'S DEALMAKING ACTIVITY moderated in May after an exceptionally strong April, even as investor appetite for large-ticket deals remained intact, according to Grant Thornton's latest Dealtracker report, reports fe Bureau. » INSIDE « US DEALHINGES ONTARIFF ADVANTAGE: OFFICIALP2 CEASEEKSAUDITOF POWER TRANSFERTO PANCHAYATS P2 Grasim approves `3,094-cr capex for lyocell expansion GRASIM INDUSTRIES HAS approved a capital expenditure of `3,094 crore to expand its lyocell fibre production capacity by 110,000 tonne per annum at Harihar, Karnataka, reports fe Bureau. The investment, sanctioned by the board on Monday, will be executed in two phases of 55,000 TPA each. ■ PAGE 4 8 workers inVizag steel plant killed as molten iron spills AT LEAST EIGHT workers of the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (Vizag Steel Plant) were killed and six others injured on Monday after molten iron spilled on them, officials said, reports PTI. Police said some of the injured workers suffered grievously. ■ PAGE 3 URVI MALVANIA & RISHI RAJ Mumbai/New Delhi, June 8 THE BOMBAY HIGH Court on Monday struck down the Centre’s 2012 decision to levy a one-time spectrum charge (OTSC) retrospectivelyon telecom operators for spectrum holdings beyond 6.2 MHz from July 2008 onwards, quashing demand notices issued to Bharti Airtel and VodafoneIdeaandreopeninga long-running dispute involving claims of about `22,000 crore across the industry. The judgment is significant becausethebulkofthedisputed amount — estimated at around `12,000 crore — pertained to Airtel and Vodafone.When the demands were raised in 2013, VodafoneIndiaandIdeaCellular CASE FILE 2008: DoT proposes retrospective charge on spectrum beyond BSNL MTNL demands issued to telecom operators were separate entities and had not yet merged to form Vodafone Idea.Other operators that facedsimilardemandsincluded Aircel,Reliance Telecom,BSNL, MTNLandTataTeleservices. Adivision bench of Justices Manish Pitale and Shreeram 2026: Bombay HC strikes down levy; final verdict now rests with Supreme Court 3,313 2,113 Idea 2016: Levy is upheld by Madras HC in Aircel case `22,000-cr 3,599 Vodafone 2013: Airtel, Vodafone move Bombay HC 2013: 5,201 Bharti 6.2 MHz 2012: Cabinet clears one-time spectrum charge 6,911 Aircel 1,351 Tata Tele 1,152 Reliance Telecom Shirsat held that the department of telecommunications (DoT) lacked both contractual and statutory authority to retrospectivelyimposethecharge on spectrum that had already been allotted under existing licence arrangements. The 173 court ruled that neither the telecom licences nor Section 4 of the Indian Telegraph Act empowered the government tolevysuchachargeyearsafter spectrum had been assigned. Continued on Page 7 Ceasefire faces its toughest test ● Iran,Israel trade REUTERS Dubai/Jerusalem, June 8 Farmers spray water in a burnt agricultural field near the town of Najha, Syria, on Monday after a part of an Iranian missile fell in the area during the Iran-Israel conflict AP MARKETS SLIP TO 2-MONTH LOW Top Sectoral losers % gain SENSEX -2.56 Intra-day, Jun 8 Realty -2.33 74,243.34 7 74,243.34 3 Metal Auto -1.85 Previous close -1.57 Oil and gas Consumer durables -1.49 0.97% 73,524.26 Close 5,555.67 FPIs net sold 5,165.24 REPORT ON PAGE 6 Continued on Page 7 »INSIDE« OIL PRICES RISE MORE THAN 5% BEFORE PARING GAINS PAGE 9 BOND INFLOWS HIT 1-YEAR HIGH AFTER RUPEE SUPPORT MEASURES PAGE 6 DIIs net bought RUPEE LOGS WORST FALL IN A MONTH PAGE 7 AIforeverythinguntiltheheftybillcomes ITTURNS OUT that“use AI for everything”is excellent advice — right up until the moment the bill arrives. Barely months after companies enthusiastically urged staff to embrace generative AI, a quieter, more accountable memo has gone out: slowdown,we’re bleeding tokens. What began as a productivity revolution is bumping into a ratherold-fashioned constraint — money. The culprit is not a lack of enthusiasm.If anything,that’s the problem. Tokens — the basic units of text thatAI models chew through to produce their outputs — are being consumedataratethathascaught finance teams off guard. VISHAL SIKKA, EX-CEO OF INFOSYS & FOUNDER OF VIANAI In the weeks/months ahead...we will see all 3 outcomes: More high-value applications emerge and get adoption; cheaper models; more scrutiny of AI usage Throwinagenticworkflows(AI systems that autonomously execute multi-step tasks),software licence fees and infrastructure costs, and the bill looks rather less like a modest IT upgrade and rather more TataTrusts meet skips contentious flashpoints SWAPNA BAPAT, VP & MD FOR INDIA AND SAARC, PALO ALTO We do not believe in micro-managing individual employee token quotas (for AI coding tools), which risk stifling the very innovation we are trying to unlock like a second headquarters. The corporate confessions have been remarkable in their candour. Uber reportedly exhausteditsannualAIbudget in fourmonths before capping consumption at $1,500 per employee permonth foragentic coding tools.Microsoft cancelled licences for Anthropic’s Claude Code for some internal users,redirectingdevelopersto GitHub Copilot CLI instead. Amazon, perhaps most enter- A MEETING OF the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust on Monday steered clear of the contentious governance and regulatory issues confronting the Tata Group, focusing instead on routine business despite growing scrutiny of the Tata Trusts ecosystem. According to those aware of the deliberations, the meeting did not take up several sensitive subjects currently hanging over the Tata Group. These include Tata Sons’ potential listing amid growing regulatory pressure, the performance of newer loss-making ventures, the position of Tata Trusts Vicechairman Venu Srinivasan within the trusts structure, and the future tenure of Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran. The limited agenda of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust meet was not entirely unexpected. Continued on Page 7 ` crore The rush to deploy generativeAI is giving way to tougher questions on costs, controls and returns POULOMI CHATTERJEE Bengaluru, June 8 EVENASTHEcountryissaidto witness a “balance of payments stress test” in the currentfinancialyearduetorising energy import bill, subdued exports and an unusuallyweak capital account, data revealed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)onMondayshowedasurprise current account surplus in the fourth quarter of 202526. This resulted in a benign current account deficit (CAD) of 0.6% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in FY26, the samelevelastheyearbefore,as against around 1% analysts had expected. The Q4FY26 current URVI MALVANIA Mumbai, June 8 strikes for1st time sinceApril;Trump plea leads to a halt IRAN AND ISRAEL said on Monday they had halted attacks on each other after an appealfromUSPresidentDonald Trump that they immediately “stop shooting”, though Tehran said it would resume strikesifIsraelcontinuedtohit Hezbollah in Lebanon. Thewave of attacks over24 hours were the most direct confrontation between Iran and Israel since anApril ceasefire, threatening to wreck Washington’s efforts to reach an agreement with Tehran to end their more than threemonth-old war. A source briefed on the matter said Israel had also decided to halt its attacks on Iran. Tehran fired missiles towardsIsraeliterritorylateon Sunday, calling them retaliation for Israeli attacks on strongholds of the Iranianbacked Hezbollah militia on the outskirts of Beirut. Israelthenhitapetrochemical plant in southwest Iran thatitsaidwasusedtoproduce ballistic missiles. FE BUREAU New Delhi, June 8 tainingly, had to withdraw an internal AI token leaderboard after employees began gaming it — apparently treating “most tokens used” as a performance metric worth optimising for. It was not. “Enterprises are applying significantly tighter financial scrutiny to AI investments as computeintensityrisesandROI remains uncertain,” said Biswajeet Mahapatra, principal analyst at Forrester.The arithmetic is sobering: generative AI models can require up to 100 times more computing power than traditional AI systems, making them considerably more expensive to run at scale — and considerably less forgiving of casual,unconstrained use. Continued on Page 11 AHEAD OF BoP ‘STRESS TEST’ Current account balance % of GDP 2.0 1.0 0.5 1.4 Accretion to forex reserves ($ billion) 0.7 0.0 - 1.0 -2.0 -3.0 Q4FY24 Q4FY25 Q4FY26 account surplus reached $7.1 billion (0.7% of GDP) despite an $83.4-billion merchandise trade deficit. This surplus was supported bysolid net services receipts of $60.4 billion and remittances of $43.5 billion. Data also showed that the $20 billion in forex swaps undertaken by the RBI during the quarter helped the balance THE COUNTRY’S LARGEST airlineIndiGoexpectscapacity growthtoremaininsingledigits in FY27 as aircraft delivery delays and supply-chain constraints continue to weigh on expansion plans,prompting it toundertakecapacityrationalisation measures despite strong demand for air travel. Shares of InterGlobe Aviation fell 2.37% to close at `4,375 on the NSE on Monday after the airline flagged a slower growth trajectory for the current financialyearin its analyst day presentation. The airline said it is rationalising capacity to mitigate the impact of external headwinds.A presentation made to analysts showed single-digit capacity growth for FY27, following an estimated 10% increase in FY26, which witnessed aircraft-on-ground issues and operational disruptions.IndiGo,however,expects growth to accelerate again from FY28 onwards. At the centre of the nearterm challenge is the delay in deliveries of Airbus A321XLR, the long-range narrowbody BENGALURU Q4FY26 of payments (BoP).The quarter saw forex reserves increase by $7.2 billion,comparedwith the depletion of $24.4 billion in Q3FY26 and $10.9 billion in Q2FY26. India had previously reported a quarterly current account surplus in Q4FY25 ($13.7 billion or1.4% of GDP). Continued on Page 7 HDFC Bank legal reviewreport likelyin aweek ● Mistry set to get 3 more months as chairman KSHIPRA PETKAR Mumbai, June 8 AN INDEPENDENT LEGAL reviewcommissionedbyHDFC Bank following the abrupt resignation of then Chairman Atanu Chakrabortyis expected to be submitted in a week, according to sources familiar with the matter. The report couldremoveakeyuncertainty surrounding the reappointment of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sashidhar Jagdishan whose secondtenureendsinOctober. The findings, prepared by law firms Trilegal and Wadia Ghandy & Co, along with an international law firm, are expectedtobesubmittedtothe boardafternearlythreemonths of reviewinto concerns flagged by Chakraborty in his resignation letter.The report has been IndiGo expects FY27 growth in single digits AKBAR MERCHANT Mumbai, June 8 Q4FY24 7.2 for retrospective charge,says bench DoT's OTSC demands from operators (` cr) receipts,higher remittances offset war disruptions -10.9 -24.4 ● No legal basis ● Strong services 8.8 4.5 THE CENTRE IS remodelling its bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with countries based on three key principles -- a minimum two-year period for local remedies before initiation of international arbitration; no most-favoured nation clause; and an exclusion of tax-related provisions. Bombay HC strikes down `22,000-cr spectrum levy 18.6 TWO-YEAR LOCAL REMEDYWINDOW IN NEWBITMODEL India sees surprise current accountsurplusinJan-Mar -37.7 PAGE 20 30.8 BACK PAGE RULING CLASHESWITH MADRAS HCVERDICTINAIRCELCASE 5.2 IN THE NEWS FY25 62% 22% 13% FY26 10% FY27 Single digits* FY28-30 Continued on Page 7 Car retail sales surge 23.25% Year-wise capacity growth FY24 delayed beyond the bank’s expectations,the sources said. Animmediatereleaseofthe report, which would be made public, is critical as the HDFC Bank board appears to be racing against time to get regulatory approval for Jagdishan’s reappointment. The usual norm is to apply six months before the incumbent’s term expires, though sources said there is no rule to this effect. QUICK PICKS ROUGH FLIGHT FY23 Race against time for Sashidhar Jagdishan’s reappointment proposal Mid teens** *Projected; ** Expected CAGR »INSIDE« SPICEJETTO EXPAND FLEET FOR CAPACITY REBUILDING PAGE 4 aircraft that forms a keypart of IndiGo’s international expansion plans. The airline expects nineA321XLRs to join its fleet during FY27 and has already received two. Continued on Page 7 PASSENGER VEHICLE RETAIL sales surged 23.25% to 402,591 units in May, helping India’s auto retail market rise 9.55% despite higher fuel prices, an intense heatwave and West Asia crises, data released by FADA showed, reports Akbar Merchant. ■ PAGE 4 Haleonplansto invest`2,000cr HALEON, THE CONSUMER healthcare major behind brands such as Sensodyne and Eno, is making its biggest investment bet on India so far, announcing plans to invest `2,000 crore in a new oral healthcare manufacturing facility in Madhya Pradesh, reports Viveat Susan Pinto. ■ PAGE 4 E100:Concerns overurbaninfra FUEL STATION OPERATORS in Delhi and other major cities have expressed concerns that the Centre’s push for higher ethanol-blended fuel could create new infrastructure challenges at urban petrol pumps, where space is limited, reports Nitin Kumar. ■ PAGE 2