OPINION, P2 MIND & GAMES No end to a tragic saga FE LINES WITH EATING DISORDERS, LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING Whale done! Whales can teach us a thing or two about friendships, social bonds and social distancing too Page 7 Distorted eating behaviours occur in young people irrespective of their weight, gender, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation Page 10 ACROSS THE AISLE , P CHIDAMBARAM LEISURE Follow us on Twitter & Facebook. App available on App Store & Play Store WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM VOL. XVI AND NO. 48 THE GREEN PLATE KOLKATA SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 2020, 20 Pages, `10 (NE States & Andaman `13) F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , B E N G A L U R U , C H E N N A I , H Y D E R A B A D , K O C H I , `3-LAKH-CR CREDIT GUARANTEE MSME loan relief to widen, says FM WHAT'S INSIDE ● Units with turnover up to `250 cr, professionals to be covered ■ SPOTLIGHT, P6 U.P. goes pop The small town is big in popular culture, be it films, series or music. And Uttar Pradesh is where it is all happening. What appeal does the state have that it connects with audiences across the country? EXTRA COVER Additional beneficiaries estimated to get loans of `1 lakh cr within the overall cap Turnover limit of units that can tap the scheme to be raised to `250 cr from `100 cr FE BUREAU New Delhi, August 1 THE GOVERNMENT Elephant in the room A book on the Trump administration falls short in providing an analysis of backroom dealings Professionals like doctors, lawyers, CAs to be covered Maximum loan amount for each borrower to be doubled to `10 cr L U C K N O W , PRIVATISATION IDBI Bank stake sale in FY21, no call yet on other PSBs FE BUREAU New Delhi, August 1 THE GOVERNMENTINTENDS to pledged full guarantee for up to 20% extra, collateral-free working capital loans under the ECLGS. This means each eligibleborrowercanobtainup to `10 crore guaranteed loan. “The relaxation was made, keepinginviewthesuccessofthe scheme and its potential to help businesses,”Sitharamansaid. Continued on Page 11 Continued on Page 11 FM to place AG's opinion in its next meeting on whether GST council can borrow Financial services secretary Debashish Panda said individuals such as doctors,chartered accountants, lawyers, etc,who wish to take loans for professional purposes, will also be covered under the scheme. Eligible businesses with up to `50 crore outstanding as of February 29 will be eligible, instead of the extant cap of `25 crore. The Centre has K O L K A T A , go ahead with its proposed stake sale in IDBI Bank in the current fiscal and there is no decision as yet on privatising more banks,a finance ministry source said on Saturday. The statement comes amid growingspeculationsaboutthe government privatising more banks, including Uco Bank, Punjab&SindBankandBankof Maharashtra, following reported recommendations byNitiAayog. The central bank also reportedly made a pitch for the government to pare down its stake in certain state-run banks to 26%. The government held a 47.11%stakeinIDBIBankasof June 2020,while LIC is the promoter of the bad loan-laden lender with a 51% stake. The Centre has set a disinvestment target of `2.1 lakh crore for the current fiscal.Of this,`1.2 lakh crorewillcomefromdivestment ofpublicsectorundertakings. Loans of `1,36,155 cr have been sanctioned to 40 lakh MSMEs, of which `87,227 cr disbursed HAS decided to relax the eligibility criteria for tapping the `3lakh-crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to cover professionals and enable a much wider pool of businesses to benefit from it, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday. Although there is no review of the scheme’s overall credit limit(`3lakhcrore)yet,theadditional beneficiaries are estimatedtobesanctionedguaranteedloansofabout`1lakhcrore. The annual turnover limit of companies to be eligible to taptheschemewillberaised to `250 crore from `100 crore now, in sync with the revised definition of the MSMEs. ■ WORDS WORTH, P4 M U M B A I , N E W Apple, Samsung apply for scheme ● Micromax, Lava among domestic firms to show interest; Chinese players keep away LOCAL PUSH ■ Foxconn has a factory in Chennai & Wistron in Bangalore FE BUREAU New Delhi, August 1 ■ These units currently manufacture phones for India market THE MINISTRY OF electronics ■ Under PLI scheme and information technology (Meity) has received applications from 22 international and domestic firms under the `41,000-crore production linked incentive (PLI) scheme. The three contract manufacturers of US major Apple — Foxconn Hon Hai,Wistron and Pegatron — as well as South Korean major Samsung have applied under the scheme, which aims to make the country a hub for mobile manufacturingaimedat exportmarket. Rising Star, a company owned by Foxconn, which makes devices for several mobile firms, has also applied under the scheme.Among the domestic companies, Lava, Dixon Technologies, Bhagwati (Micromax), Padget Electron- phones would be made for export market ■ Incentives under the scheme for international firms will be given for phones of $200 and above ■ In India phones of $200 and above have a market share of just 2% ics, Sojo Manufacturing ServicesandOptiemusElectronics have applied.Around 10 companies have filed applications under the specified electronic components segment, which include include AT&S, Ascent Circuits, Visicon, Walsin, Sahasra,Vitesco and Neolync. Continued on Page 11 ROHNIT PHORE UNLOCK IMPACT Fatality rate down: Nod to export of indigenous ventilators lot on phones during the lockdownmonthsofAprilandMay anddatatrafficonthenetwork did not actuallywitness a huge explosion, if the April-June quarter results of Bharti Airtel andRelianceJioareanythingto go by.One of the reasons could bethattotalclosureledtolower sales of new 4G smartphones, which meant lesseraddition of newsubscribers.Plus,recharge Bharti Airtel (% chg) Q1FY21 Q4FY20 Total voice volumes -0.2 8.3 Continued on Page 11 Reliance Jio (% chg) Q1FY21 Q4FY20 Total voice volumes 1.5 6 Feb 1,05,366 Mar 97,597 Apr May Jun 32,294 62,009 90,917 Continued on Page 11 ● Unprecedented number of houses up for sale; prices also down Usage per customer (mins) RISHI RANJAN KALA New Delhi, August 1 Total data volume Total data volume ONEOFINDIA’SMOST exclusive Usage per customer (MB) Usage per customer (MB) 12.2 11.2 7.5 16.3 7.5 -2 10.6 7 1.4 6.3 0.89 (factory despatchestodealers)bounced back smartly for the month of July on a sequential as well as yearly basis. While sales on a sequential basis recovered strongly,registering high double-digit growth as factories resumed production and most dealerships having opened,year-onyearsales,though still not fully AUTO SALES strong, have certainly recovered a lot of lost ground. For instance, Maruti Suzuki India touched the sale figure of one lakh in the domestic market during the month.This was after a gap of four months — the company had last despatched more than a lakh vehicles in February. In normal times, Maruti on an average despatches 1.20 lakh units in a month. Continued on Page 11 Maruti Suzuki Hyundai Motor Toyota Kirloskar M&M % change m-o-m 88 Jul ‘19 79 2 31 2 % change y-o-y 35 Hero MotoCorp Jun ‘20 39 Jul ‘20 12.5 48 0.9 *Includes export figures Distress sales: Lutyens Delhi opens its gates to buyers Usage per customer (mins) 3 FE BUREAU Mumbai, August 1 5,06,946 options were limited. For instance, in the case of BhartiAirtel,totalvoice minutes on the network decreased by 0.2% during the quarter compared to the preceding quarter whenithadgrownby8.3%.Even voice usage per customer, per month,grewonlyby3%quarteron-quartercomparedto7.5%in theprecedingquarter.Totaldata volume on the network increased by12.2% quarter-onquarter,which was slower than 16.3%intheprecedingquarter. 1,10,818 July car sales jack up Motown further 5,11,374 4,50,744* Voice loses its strength under Covid lockdown Jan ROAD TO RECOVERY 5,386 TELCOS’ TALE Continued on Page 11 37,474 At `87,422 cr, it is 86% of July ’19 collection PTI 18,505 (` crore) 2020 A girl poses for a photograph while celebrating Eid al-Adha at Charminar in Hyderabad on Saturday 38,200 Gross GST collections FESTIVE MOOD 39,010 US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has said that he will act to ban TikTok, amidst reports of American technology giant Microsoft being in advanced talks to acquire the popular Chinese-owned video app, reports PTI. Trump said he could use the emergency economic powers or an executive order to ban TikTok in the US. PAGE 11 ministers (GOM) on Covid-19 has agreed to the health ministry’s proposal to allow the export of indigenously made ventilators. The decision was taken as India continues to maintain a progressively declining low rate of fatality among Covid-19 patients, which currently stands at 2.15%, “which means fewer numbers of active cases are on ventilators”, the Union health ministry said in a statement. 21,320 ‘WILL BAN TIKTOK’ 53,139 QuickPicks (GST) collections in July — concerning largely June transactions — came in at `87,422 crore, or 86% of the collection in the corresponding month a year ago, indicating that large parts of the economy are back on their feet, after the severe disruptions caused bythe lockdown. Of course, the July mopup is lower than `90,917 crore collectedinJune,butasthegov- THE HIGH-LEVEL group of 1,00,000 THE GOODS AND Service Tax ernment itself pointed out,“a large number of taxpayers also paid taxes pertaining to February,March andApril 2020 during June", taking advantage of the compliance relief provided due to Covid-19. In July, the revenues from import of goods were 84% and the revenues from domestic transaction(includingimportof services) were 96% of the revenues from these sources during the same month lastyear. GST collections had nosedivedtoarecordlowof`32,294 crore in April,which was down 72% on year, but then recovered to `62,009 crore in May. Ofcourse,thecurrent rateof GST collections is far below the targets set, not to mention the initialexpectationsofarevenue jumpwhenthiscomprehensive indirect tax was introduced in FY18. The revenue slump is making it difficult for the Centre to meet the obligation of compensating the states for their ‘revenue shortfall’. Under GSTlaw,statesareguaranteedto becompensatedbi-monthlyfor any loss of revenue in the first fiveyearsoftheGSTimplementation from July 1, 2017. The shortfalliscalculatedassuming a 14% annual growth in GST collections by states over the baseyearof 2015-16. 98,210 FE BUREAU New Delhi, August 1 CONTRARY TO GENERAL PERCEPTION, people did not talk a P U N E FINAL PLI LIST July GST mop-up shows green shoots FE BUREAU New Delhi, August 1 D E L H I , 10,423 3,866 ODD & EVEN C H A N D I G A R H , READ TO LEAD 24,211 P U B L I S H E D FINANCIAL EXPRESS ON SUNDAY With meat consumption coming under heavy scrutiny,there’s a renewed thrust on plant-based diets & meat alternatives Page 9 address where the cost of owning a house is staggering and deals are few and far between, the Lutyens Bungalow Zone (LBZ)haswitnessedaround17- 18 prime residences being put up for sale in the past few months at a time when buyer interest is perhaps at its lowest. Situated in the heart of the national capital,theLBZboasts of heritage buildings, central vista and is home to India’s president, prime minister, top politicians and ultra high net worth individuals (UHNIs). Spread over 2,800 hectares, it has around 3,000 government-owned properties and 600 private bungalows covering a little over 101 hectares. “There are a handful of options in Golf Linkswith area of 375 sq yards (3,375 sq ft) and a couple of 575 sq yard (5,175 sq ft) ones. There are two-three big properties available on Amrita Shergill Marg. So if we take up all listings,the number should be around 1718,” said Mohit Minocha, founder of real estate consultancy South Delhi Floors. Minocha, who deals in prime residences, said prices have declined compared to pre-Covid times.“Earliera 575 sq yard property in Golf Links was priced at `100-105 crore (around `2 lakh/sq ft),but now a couple of properties have quoted `80-85 crore (`1.65 lakh/sq ft). Prices also depend on final negotiations and factors like location,area,etc.” In Sunder Nagar there are two-three properties up for sale.Herepricesareintherange of `85-90 crore (`1.15 lakh/sq ft)againstthepre-Covidrateof `110-120 crore (1.55 lakh/sq ft).All plot sizes are the same at 866 sq yards (7,794 sq ft). Atoprealestateconsultant, who did not wish to be identified, said normally one could find around five-eight properties for sale in LBZ, but it is somewhat unusual that about 18 properties are up on the block.“Considering that businesses are trying to conserve cash, the number of deals is likely to go down. I’m not saying there won’t be deals, but they will be very few, perhaps oneortwoayear,”heexplained. Continued on Page 11 Kolkata