OPINION, P2 MIND & GAMES Smartphone location data has been useful for studying Covid-19 spread. But the info raises troubling privacy questions Page 10 A great opportunity missed FE LINES The screenshot can never get old as it remains one of the most popular tools to share data Page 6 HOWYOUR PHONE IS USED TO TRACK YOU, AND WHATYOU CAN DO ABOUT IT ACROSS THE AISLE , P CHIDAMBARAM Capture your screen LEISURE Follow us on Twitter & Facebook. App available on App Store & Play Store WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM VOL .XVIII NO. 95 IT’SA(M)ADWORLD FINANCIAL EXPRESS ON SUNDAY NEW DELHI SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2020, 16 Pages, `10 (Patna `11, Raipur `10) 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 , WHAT'S INSIDE ■ SPOTLIGHT, P5 Reboot, refresh, restart Jobs have been put on hold and employees laid off due to coronavirus shutdowns around the world. Faced with a gloomy future, many professionals are re-evaluate their career choices and upskill themselves to remain relevant ■ WORDS WORTH, P4 Broad strokes A perfunctory and sweeping view of India minus the nuances and its complexities ODD & EVEN ROHNIT PHORE C H A N D I G A R H , C H E N N A I , READ TO LEAD H Y D E R A B A D , K O C H I , AIRPORT MAKEOVER FE BUREAU New Delhi, August 22 ON AUGUST 19, the Union Cabinet approved the leasing out of three airports — Jaipur, Guwahati, and Thiruvananthapuram — belonging to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to Adani Enterprises. However,the government did not state by when it would sign the concession agreement with the company for the handover to take place. This is crucial because Adani Enterprises had in March cited force majeure clause and sought time till February 15, 2021, to take charge of the operations, maintenance and development of the earlier three airports — Mangaluru, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow — for which the concession agreements were signed in February this year. Adani Enterprises had won the bids for these airports under the WHAT'S THE DELAY Adani Enterprises had won the bids for these airports under the private-public-partnership route in February 2019 As per the agreement, the airports would be handed to Adani Enterprises for a period of 50 years The company will operate, manage and develop the airports by paying perpassenger fee to AAI private-public-partnership route in February 2019. The extension in taking overtheairportswassoughtby Adani Enterprises because the companyhadtakenahitdueto the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the government has not accepted its request for extensionintakingchargetillFebru- K O L K A T A , L U C K N O W , SHARE SWAP DEAL No takeoff in sight for Adani operations ● Six airports leased to Adani group, but uncertainty over giving charge Societies around the world are becoming more inclusive and if brands want their attention, they must evolve in their messaging Page 7 Bharti AXA to merge with ICICI Lombard FE BUREAU Mumbai, August 22 BHARTI AXA’S non-life insur- ary2021,andhasaskedittodo it bymid-November this year. The companyhas so farnot said officiallywhetherit is fine with the deadline given by the governmentoritwouldpursue its original request for extension till February 2021. ance business will be merged with ICICI Lombard General Insurance through a share swap deal. Post the deal, ICICI Lombard will become the third-largest non-life insurer and the combined entity shall have a market share of around 8.7% on pro-forma basis.The financial details were not disclosed, but sources in the industrysaid the deal isvalued at `4,000-`4,500 crore. ICICI Lombard in its press releasestatedthatbasedonthe share exchange ratio recommended by independent valuers and accepted by the respective boards of ICICI Lombard and Bharti AXA, the shareholders of Bharti AXA shallreceivetwosharesofICICI Lombard for every 115 shares of Bharti AXA held by them as on the date on which the Scheme of Arrangement is approvedbytheboard.Bhargav Dasgupta, MD & CEO of ICICI Lombard General Insurance, said,“Thisisalandmarkstepin the journey of ICICI Lombard and we are confident that this transaction would be value accretiveforourshareholders.” Continued on Page 15 Continued on Page 15 In March Adani cited force majeure clause and sought time till February 15, 2021, to take charge of the earlier three airports — Mangaluru, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow — for which the concession agreements were signed in February this year The government, however, refused extension till February 2021 and asked it to do it by mid-November this year M U M B A I , N E W D E L H I , P U N E MARKET WARS Indian e-comm pond big enough for plenty of fish ● Given size of vertical, at least four players can co-exist; grocery likely to be biggest segment FE BUREAU New Delhi, August 22 AFTER RELIANCE INDUSTRIES (RIL)entering the e-commerce space in the grocery segment with its JioMart initiative in tie-up with Facebook’s WhatsApp, expect more big players to enter the arena. E-commerce — especially grocery — is forecast to be the biggest battleground forIndia internet companies, with a potential addressable market of $112 billion by FY25 (60% of India internet), according to estimates drawn up by Goldman Sachs. Within this segment, it is estimated that Amazon, Flipkart/Walmart and RILwould be the key players,with RIL’s push initially likely to be in grocery/FMCG, and over time into categories such as apparel andelectronics. GOING DIGITAL ■ E-COMMERCE — especially grocery — has a potential addressable market of $112 bn by FY25 ■ ADVERTISING is expected to emerge as the second-largest after e-commerce, which also includes OTTs ■ THE ADDRESSABLE market for segments such as food delivery and ridehailing are expected to be limited to less than $10 billion by FY25 ■ FINTECH in India is estimated to be a $2.5 billion revenue pool by FY25, split 20%-60%-20% between payments, lending and insurance According to Goldman Sachs, three-four players are likelyto co-exist in India in the e-commerce space, given the size of the vertical. Continued on Page 15 COVID-19 Highest single-day spike of 69,874 cases WITHARECORD spikeof69,874 infectionsinaday,India'sCovid19 tallyincreased to 29,75,701, while recoveries surged to 22,22,577pushingtherecovery rate to 74.69% on Saturday,as perhealthministrydata. The death toll climbed to 55,794 with 945 fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours.Fatalityratehasdeclined to 1.87%. There are 6,97,330 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which QuickPicks TikTok to challenge US order banning transactions TIKTOK IS preparing to mount a legal challenge as early as Monday to President Donald Trump’s order prohibiting transactions with the short video app and its Chinese parent ByteDance, according to people familiar with the matter, reports Reuters. Trump issued an order on August 14 that gave ByteDance 90 days to divest the US operations of TikTok. ByteDance has been making progress in talks with potential acquirers, including Microsoft Corp and Oracle. PAGE 15 FM: CAG report on defence offset performance in next Par session FINANCE MINISTER Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the CAG report on defence offset performance will be tabled in the forthcoming session of Parliament, reports PTI. The report on offset performance was scheduled to be tabled in the last session of Parliament but could not be done as the session had to be curtailed following the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic. “The C&AG Report No 20 of 2019...Defence Offset Performance was scheduled to be tabled in Parliament during the budget session (2020). The session ended, before date, due to Covid. Now the report will be placed in the next session. The contents will be known only after that,” she said in a series of tweets. PAGE 3 OIL posts `249-cr loss OILINDIA,THE nation’ssecond- largest state oil and gas producer, logged second quarterly loss in its history in April-June aftercrudeoilpricesslumpedto lower than cost of production. OIL had a net loss of `248.61 croreinfirstquarterof2020-21 fiscalascomparedtoanetprofit of `624.80 crore in the same period of the previous financial year.“We had a quarterlyloss in 2018-19 fiscal,” OIL directorfinance Harish Madhav said on Saturday.Thelosswasprimarily due to price realised for oil the company produced dropped to $30.43/barrelintheJunequarterascomparedto$66.33abarrel ayearback,he said. —PTI GOD OF SMALLTHINGS Children wear masks of Lord Ganesha during Ganesh Chaturthi festival at an orphanage in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on Saturday PTI REALTY CHECK Buyers ready to play house again RISHI RANJAN KALA New Delhi, August 22 COVID-19 MAY HAVE adversely impacted the already crisis-ridden real estate industry,the pandemic has resulted in some positive developments too, like increase in site visits to conversion ratio with serious buyers outnumbering window shoppers. While homebuyers still Building hopes Housing enquiries have reached 50% of pre-Covid levels 2BHKs and 3BHKs are in highest demand Homes priced at `40 lakh-1.25 cr attract a major chunk of buyer enquiries prefer ready-to-move-in (RTMI) units, some traction is witnessed in under-construction flats with delivery timeline of up to a year from branded players. AccordingtoAnarockProperty Consultants, the residential segment is witnessing return of serious enquiries, which are now at 50% of preCovid-19levelsinthetopcities. Continued on Page 15 Will Brand Mahi be hit post-retirement? DEVIKA SINGH New Delhi, August 22 FORMER CAPTAIN OF the Indian cricket team Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been as much a fan favourite as he is a bankable endorser for various brands over the course of his internationalcricketing career that lasted 15 years. MS ‘Captain Cool’ Dhoni, who has featured in lists of the world’s highest-paid athletes and cricketers, earned more than `100 crore a year from brand endorsement fees in his heydays. Dhoni’s recent retirement,however,begetstheques- BRAND ENDORSEMENTS MS Dhoni Sachin Sachin Tendulkar Indigo Paints, TVS, Dream11, BharatMatrimony Mastercard, ICICI Bank, , GoDaddy, Oppo, redBus, Mastercard BMW, Livpure, Gillette, IDBI Federal Life Insurance, DBS Bank, AMFI, Oxigen, Luminous, Power, Rorito, Apollo Tyres tion,canhisbrandvalueendure this move and if companies would keep roping him in for endorsements in the future? Dhoni’s business partner Arun Pandey feels his retire- ment will not affect his brand endorsements. “We have signedadozendealsinthepast one year and several brands approached us recently for signing him on,”he told FE. The cricketer currently endorses over 25 brands, including BharatMatrimony, Oppo, Dream11, Mastercard, ICICI Bank, ITC’s Sunfeast Yippee and TVS. Brand gurus, however, say while he has been an iconic sportsman and his brand value will stay strong for a while, it will diminish over time. Continued on Page 15 New Delhi comprises 23.43% of the total caseload. Acumulative total of 3,44,91,073 samples have been tested up to August 21 with 10,23,836 samples being tested on Friday, the highest done in a dayso far. —PTI