BACK PAGE | PAGE 20 COMPANIES | PAGE 4 Tech service providers to gain as MDR returns to UPI INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 7 SAP builds India strategy around sovereignty NEW DELHI, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2026 Iran-backed Houthis seize strategic Red Sea island FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL LII NO. 168, 26 PAGES, `12 (PATNA & RAIPUR `12, SRINAGAR `15) 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: 74,781.76 ▼ 120.83 NIFTY: 23,398.10 ▼ 79.70 NIKKEI 225: 64,011.34 ▼ 1,259.61 HANG SENG: 24,805.63 ▼ 148.84 `/$: 95.56 ▼ 0.11 `/€: 110.81 ▲ 0.24 BRENT: $104.50 ▼ $3.13 GOLD: `1,51,549 ▼ `1,212 NSE IPO: Shares priced at `1,700-1,785 apiece IN THE NEWS COMPANIES PAGE 4 COFORGE CRISIS DEEPENS AS DIRECTOR QUITS THE CRISIS AT IT firm Coforge deepened with nonexecutive independent director and nomination and remuneration committee chairperson D K Singh resigning on Friday, citing "differences and tension" between independent and executive directors, days after Chairman OP Bhatt resigned over issues in board reporting. ECONOMY PAGE 3 INDIA, EU MOVE CLOSER TO LANDMARK FTA THE INDIAEUROPEAN Union free trade agreement has moved another step towards becoming operational, with the European Commission proposing a formal European Council decision authorising the signing of the pact and a separate decision for its conclusion, reports Mukesh Jagota. » INSIDE « FOREX RESERVES JUMPTO ALIFETIME HIGH PAGE 3 Bond yield tops 7%, highest in over 3 months GOVERNMENT BONDS fell this week as surging oil prices, a global debt rout, and concerns over the RBI's liquidity stance pushed the benchmark yield above 7%, wiping out gains from the central bank's June measures to attract dollars, reports Reuters.The yield jumped 5 basis points to 7.0233%, its highest in more than three months. ■ PAGE 6 India crude basket hits $115.98, OMC margins shrink STATE-RUN OIL retailers face a renewed squeeze on fuel marketing margins, LPG underrecoveries and working capital as crude prices remain above $100 a barrel, even after a sharp pullback on Friday, reports SauravAnand. India’s crude basket stands at $115.98 a barrel. ■ PAGE 2 KUSHAN SHAH Mumbai, September 11 (From extreme left) Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the BRICS Business Forum in New Delhi on Friday ANI PMcallsforstrongerBRICS tradetiesandsecureseas ● Stresses freedom member markets every year and build 1,000 new business partnerships annually. Modi also highlighted India’s efforts to diversifysupply chains and build capacity in strategic sectors such as shipbuilding,semiconductors, quantum technology, critical MUKESH JAGOTA minerals and biotechnology. New Delhi, September 11 “Make in India, Innovate with GLOBALTRADE CAN advance India,and Scale fortheWorld,” only if navigation in interna- he told the gathering. The Prime Minister’s tionalwatersisfreeandseafarers are safe, Prime Minister remarks come at a time when conflicts in West Narendra Modi Asia and the said on Friday. Black Sea have The statement increasingly comes in the exposed merwake of the prochant shipping longed — and and their crews often severe — INDIA 2026 to missile and disruptions in drone attacks.At the Strait of HormuzamidtheUS-Iranconflict, least10Indianseafarersdiedin and the escalation it caused to the West Asia conflict,the government had informed Parliaglobal energy prices. Addressing the Business ment in late July. Around five Forumaheadofthe18thBRICS deathsofIndianseafarershave Summit in New Delhi, Modi been reported in attacks on called for the 11-country commercialvesselsintheBlack grouping to turn its growing Sea region that falls under the economic weight into greater shadowofRussia-Ukraineconinvestmentandexpandedbusi- flict. There has been reported nessties.Heurgedthegrouping loss of at least one Indiato identify and remove its top flaggedvessel nearYemen. 10 trade barriers, scale 100 BRICS startups into other Continued on Page 7 of navigation and seafarers’safetyas wars upend trade Modi,Putin review ties as oil discount shrinks FE BUREAU New Delhi, September 11 defence, energy, space, skill mobility and people-to-people ties. They welcomed Russia’s PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA InternationalIndustrialExhibiModi and Russian President tion,INNOPROM India,held in Vladimir Putin on Friday NewDelhifromSeptember9to reviewed bilateral ties,focusing 11, and visited the exhibition, underscoringefforts on expanding ecoto expand the relanomic and industrial tionship beyond its cooperation amid traditional pillars of geopolitical disrupdefenceand energy. tions and growing Russian crude tradeandenergylinkremainsatthe heart ages.The two leaders of that equation. met on the sidelines Russia accounted ofthe18thBRICSSufor an average mmit in New Delhi, 43.3% of India’s theirsecond meeting crude imports durthisyearaftertalks in PM Modi gifted ing April-July 2026, BishkekonAugust31 Vladimir Putin a on the margins of the copy of the Russian with its share touching a record SCO Summit. translation of the 51% in July. The oil The next major Tamil classic trade, however, engagement will be Thirukkural moderated in the24thIndia-Russia AnnualSummitinRussia.Putin August. India’s Russian crude invited Modi to visit Russia for importsfell26.3% month-onthesummit,andthePrimeMin- month to 2.08 million barrels isteracceptedtheinvitation.The per day (bpd) from a record 2.82 million bpd in July. dateswill be finalised later. The discussions on Friday covered trade and investment, Continued on Page 7 NDBreform,morelocal-currencytradesought FE BUREAU New Delhi, September 11 FINANCEMINISTERSANDcentral bank governors of BRICS countries on Friday pitched for greater use of national currencies for cross-border trade and investment.They also pledged to intensify efforts to reform global financial institutions, expand development finance, strengthen the New Development Bank (NDB),mobilise private capital and improve payment systems amid rising KEY TAKEAWAYS ■ Unilateral ■ IMF, World Bank should have higher representation of emerging markets imposition of trade, financial and developing economies actions, ■ Risks to global economic including raising of tariffs outlook remain elevated, reflecting persistent and non-tariff geopolitical tensions, measures, is protectionism, and growing debt concerning global economicuncertainties. In a joint statement after their meeting in Mumbai, the grouping acknowledged the efforts of the BRICS Payment Task Force towards exploring »INSIDE« BRICS MEMBERS SHOULD LINK RUSSIA, IRAN SEEKP2 PAYMENT SYSTEMS: GOYAL P2 MORE FINANCING pragmatic solutions for efficient cross-border payment mechanisms.“In this regard, we acknowledge the work done to studythe cross-border interoperability of payment and messaging channels, and the discussions on promoting trade settlements and investments using BRICS local currencies, while respecting national priorities and acknowledgingthatthereisnoonesize-fits-all approach,”it said. Continued on Page 7 INDIA, CHINA SHOULD HANDLE DIFFERENCES PROPERLY: BEIJING AHEAD OF MODI-XI MEET P2 THE NATIONAL STOCK Exchange (NSE) will launch its much-awaited `22,000-crore initial public offering (IPO) on September 17, marking a key milestone for the country’s largest stock exchange more than three decades after it began operations. The issue is entirely an offer-for-sale (OFS) and comprises126.44millionsharesin a price band of `1,700-1,785 apiece.This values the offer at `21,494-22,568 crore. At the upper end of the price band, it willbethesecond-biggestpublic issue after Hyundai Motor India.The redherring prospectus (RHP) saw the size of the OFS reduced from 148.91 million shares to 126.44 million shares, as several corporate shareholders cut the number of shares they planned to sell. NSEManagingDirectorand Chief Executive Officer Ashishkumar Chauhan highlightedonFridaytheexchange’s transformation from handling about700tradesonitsfirstday ofoperationsin1994toaround 300 million trades on a busy day now.“NSE is India’s largest exchange and,bymanycounts, ANTHROPIC BROKE UP attempts to use its Claude models to develop biological weapons and carry out a suspected Russia-linked cyber espionage campaign against Ukraine, the AI heavyweight said in its latest Threat Intelligence report. It also accused Chinese competitors of hacking attempts aimed at extracting Claude’s capabilities. In its report, which documented malicious use of its technology over the past eight months, Anthropic said it has long been a concern that AI models might one day reach the level of capability where THREATANALYSIS Biological weapons: Anthropic report documents five attempts of using its AI models in ways that could support biological weapons development. Firm did not identify the actors Conventional weapons: Attempted use of Claude to develop software for conventional weapons, including missiles & armed drones they could help make existing pathogens more dangerous or create entirely new ones. It documented five examples of scientists using its models in ways that could support bio- Surveillance & espionage: One hacking group reportedly ran operations against targets in Ukrainian government, military logicalweapons development. Inonecase,aresearcherina region unsupported by Anthropic employed virtual privateserverinfrastructureto access Claude and for weeks used it to plan avian influenza mammalian-adaptation experiments.Regions not supported by Anthropic include countries like Russia, China andNorthKoreaamongothers. After detecting the misuse, it banned the accounts involved. Anthropic did not identify the institutions, the countries where they are based, or the specific biological agents and research techniques involved. It also identified what it called“new categories of threat actors” misusing Claude.That included using the platform to “develop software for conventional weapons, including firearms, missiles, armed drones,bombs,andothermunitions,aswellasthetargetingand control systems that operate them.” The report detailed incidentsofoperatorsinChina,Russia and Yemen using Claude to develop software for weapons design and development, or to support intelligence gathering Year IPO size (` cr) NSE* 2026 21,494-22,568 LIC 2022 20,557 One 97 Comm. (Paytm) 2021 18,300 Tata Capital 2025 15,512 Coal India 2010 15,199 * Valuation based on price band of `1,700-1,785 apiece Source: Prime Database ASHISHKUMAR CHAUHAN, MD & CEO, NSE Inthelongrun,India’sgrowth, demographics,andtechnological adoptionwillprevail.Whatyou seeisashort-termblip it’s one of the largest in the world.The purpose of NSE was also to channel savings into capital.It’satestamentthatNSE has fulfilled the mandate its founders startedwith,”he said. NSE began equity market operations on November 3, 1994,and has since expanded across asset classes while building much of the technology underpinning its trading FM: Need stronger guardrails against agenticAI threats NIRMALA SITHARAMAN, FINANCE MINISTER Ourgoalshould beneithertoblock innovationoutof fearnortolet speedcompromise safety FE BUREAU New Delhi, September 11 FINANCE MINISTER NIRMALA Sitharaman on Friday warned thattherapidadoptionofagentic AI, tokenisation and quantum computing could create new systemic risks if technological progress outpaces safeguards, calling for stronger accountability, oversight and institutional preparedness. “Aswe rapidlyprogress into the era of agentic AI,tokenisation,andquantumcomputing, we all need to ask a critical question to ourselves: how do we balance breakthrough efficiency against emerging systemic risk?” Sitharaman said, addressing the 7th Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai. Acknowledging the trans- AnthropicflagsbidstouseAItobuildbiologicalweapons Illicit distillation: Anthropic says it disrupted distillation attempts by seven China-based labs, including Alibaba, Moonshot and DeepSeek Company Hyundai Motor India 2024 27,859 infrastructure.“We are among the largest vertically integrated exchanges in the sense that we own our technology. Some exchanges focus on commodities or equities. We are across asset classes — commodities, currencies, electricity, even charity,” Chauhan said. Continued on Page 5 GLOBAL FINTECH FEST RUSSIAN HACKING, CHINESE CLAUDE MISUSE &YEMENI MISSILE DEVELOPMENTATTEMPTS BLOCKED, SAYS FIRM AJ VICENS & EDUARDO BAPTISTA September 11 PECKING ORDER and procurement related to weapons programmes. Rapid improvements in Anthropic’s models have raised newrisks,JacobKlein,itsheadof threatintelligence,toldReuters. Anthropicfoundthatcybercriminals and state-backed hackerswereincreasinglyusing AI to orchestrate and execute large portions of cyberattacks, with humans often serving as overseersratherthanhands-on operators. One hacking group allegedly ran phishing, hotel Wi-FihijackingandWhatsApptakeoveroperationsagainsttargets in the Ukrainian government, military and diplomatic sectors,usingAI at nearlyevery stage,Anthropic said. Continued on Page 5 RBIhastoolsto absorbexcess liquidity:Guv ANUP ROY September 11 »INSIDE« PAYMENT PROVIDERS NEED QUANTUM-PROOFING, SAYS RBI DG P6 BANKS CAN’T DO ITALL, PLENTY LEFT FOR FINTECHS: BANSAL P6 formative potential of these technologies,shesaidtokenisation can remove unnecessary intermediaries and make asset transfersalmostinstantaneous, while agentic AI can move beyond recommendations to takingdirectactions,compressing processes that once took days into seconds. Quantum computing promises computing capabilities and security protocols that were previously consideredimpossible,shesaid. Continued on Page 5 THE RESERVE BANK of India (RBI)hasenoughtoolstoabsorb a record surge in banking-systemliquidityfollowingitsmassive foreign-currency deposit drive, Governor Sanjay MalhotrasaidonFriday,aspolicymakersseektopreventthecashglut from pushing borrowing costs lowerand fuelling inflation. The central bankwill use all available measures to withdraw surplus funds, Malhotra said in an interviewwith CNBC TV18.“We are alert to that.We have enoughtools,”hesaid,citing open-market operations and swaps.“Nothing is off the table.”The governor, however, ruled out raising the cash reserve ratio to absorb liquidity created by the foreign-currency deposits. Continued on Page 7 »INSIDE« RBI TO DRAIN `1 LAKH CR VIA OMOs PAGE 6 Opentoslowingfrontier AIdevelopment:Altman OPENAI IS CONSIDERING slowing down the development of cutting-edge artificial intelligence, and the ChatGPT maker’s Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman is hoping otherAI companies will do the same, reports Bloomberg. In a company-wide meeting this week, Altman told employees that OpenAI could potentially pace itsAI development,perhaps in conjunction with several other AI labs, but that some maynot agree to do so,according to people familiar with the matter. New Delhi In recent weeks, employees of leading AI firms have raisedpublicconcernsabout the increased risks of advanced AI systems, fuelling anxietyinside these companies. Both OpenAI and its rival Anthropic have filedconfidentialpaperwork to go public earlier this year. OpenAI declined to comment.The company’stopscientist, Jakub Pachocki, recently wrote a postwarningabout the dangers of AI and said he believes AI companies should be “coordinating to slow down future development as needed.”