OPINION, P2 MIND & GAMES Why do some mass gatherings turn violent? Experts in crowd behaviour say there’s still much to learn Page 10 ‘Curiouser and curiouser’ FE LINES An expressive, as well as captivating monogram can act as a great tool for brand recall Page 6 MAKING SENSE OF THE ‘MOB’ MENTALITY ACROSS THE AISLE , P CHIDAMBARAM VOL. XX NO. 11 Monogram magic LEISURE Follow us on Twitter & Facebook. App available on App Store & Play Store WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM ARTFROMTHE MARGINS FINANCIAL EXPRESS ON SUNDAY NEW DELHI SUNDAY, JANUARY 17, 2021, 18 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 Turning the clock back C H E N N A I , READ TO LEAD H Y D E R A B A D , K O C H I , K O L K A T A , L U C K N O W , M U M B A I , A romance with the pitch Ramachandra Guha pens a passionate ode to the game and his love for it ROHNIT PHORE OVER 1.6 LAKH healthcare and sanitary workers at the frontline of India's Covid-19 battle got their first jabs on Saturday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the world's largest vaccination drive againstthepandemic,showing the light at the end of a 10month tunnel that upended millionsoflives.Morethanone crore cases and 1.5 lakh fatalities later, India took its first steps out of the pandemicwith shots of the Covishield and Covaxinvaccinesbeingadministered at medical centres across the country to a collectivesighofreliefthatthiscould finally be the beginning of the end of the Covid-19 trauma. The Union health ministry said1,65,714beneficiarieswere inoculated with Covid-19 vaccinestill5.30pmacrossIndiaon the first day at 3,351 session sites.SanitationworkerManish Kumar became the first recipient of the vaccination drive at Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the ministry said."I had good sleep last night, came here (hospital) inthemorningandtalkedtothe other staff who were to get the shot,"the 34-year-oldwho got a Bharat Biotech to compensate for Covaxin adverse effects BHARAT BIOTECH, which A medic administers the vaccine to a frontline worker in the presence of Union health minister Harsh Vardhan in New Delhi on Saturday AMIT MEHRA Narendra Modi on Twitter “This is a day of pride, a celebration of the prowess of our scientists and hardwork of our medical fraternity, nursing staff, police personnel and sanitation workers” shot of the indigenously developedCovaxintoldPTI.“Manyof them were scared. So I went to my seniors and said I should be given thevaccine first.Iwanted to prove to my colleagues that thereisnoneedtobescared,"he added as speculation swirled in some quarters about safetylevels. Injecting confidence in the people,several high profile persons, including AIIMS director Randeep Guleria, NITI Aayog member V K Paul, who is also headofanempoweredgroupon medical equipment and man- PM announces `1,000-cr seed fund for startups FE BUREAU New Delhi, January 16 PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA Merkel’s party elects Laschet as leader to continue her legacy GERMANY’S DOMINANT party voted for continuity on Saturday by electing Armin Laschet as leader, opting for the candidate who most resembles outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel in policy and style, reports Bloomberg. Laschet beat longtime Merkel critic Friedrich Merz. PAGE 11 Farmer union in SC: Remove panel members, select new A FARMER union requested the Supreme Court on Saturday to remove the remaining three members of the committee it had set up to resolve the impasse over the three contentious farm laws, and select people who can do the job “on the basis of mutual harmony”, reports PTI. PAGE 3 P U N E ● No hospitalisation reported after dose ● 1,65,714 get vaccine on Day 1 MONEY PUSH QuickPicks D E L H I , INDIATAKES AJAB AGAINST COVID PRESS TRUST OF INDIA New Delhi, January 16 ■ WORDS WORTH, P4 N E W VACCINATION DAY ● Begins world’s largest inoculation drive Staying at home has not only changed our lives, but also our routines. A big casualty has been our body clock, which has led to erratic sleep and disrupted schedules. Now, when the world will soon get back to normal, can we return to our original routines? ODD & EVEN C H A N D I G A R H , Incisive works of art portray the human predicament in conflict zones Page 7 Modi on Saturday announced a Start-up India seed fund worth `1,000 crore to enable startups toraiseinitialfunding.“Thiswill helptostartandgrownewstartups,” Modi said at the Prarambh Start-up India International summit.Going ahead,the government will also help startups toraisedebtcapitalbyproviding guarantees, Modi said,adding, “Indiaistryingtocreateastartup ecosystem which will be based onthekeyprincipleoftheyouth, bytheyouthandfortheyouth.” Modi said India today has theworld’sthird-largeststartup ecosystem. The country has more than 41,000 startups of whichmorethan5,700startups are in the IT sector.As many as 3,600 startups operate in the healthsector,whilenearly1,700 startups are present in the agriculture sector, the PM said, emphasisingthatthesestartups arechangingthe“demographic characteristics of businesses”. “The biggest USP of the startup worldisitsdisruptionanddiversificationcapacity,” Modisaid. Through the GeM portal, local startups have been given the opportunity to participate in government tenders at par with big companies. Continued on Page 18 To go public in coming years: BigBasket FE BUREAU New Delhi, January 16 BIGBASKET AIMS to go pub- lic in the coming years, cofounder & CEO Hari Menon said without mentioning a specific timeline. “We would want to go public. We would like to go public.Thereareexitsneeded, peoplehavetoexitbusinesses and the best form of doing it is through an IPO,” Menon saidatthePrarambhStart-up India International Summit onSaturday.Thefactwhether companies want to get listed in India or overseas is being widelydebated,butBigBasket wouldwanttogoforanIPOin India,the CEO said. Continued on Page 18 Health workers perform aarti before vaccination begins at Cooper Hospital in Mumbai AMIT CHAKRAVARTY agementplantotacklethecoronavirus outbreak, Serum InstituteofIndia'sAdarPoonawallah and West Bengal minister NirmalMajialsoreceivedtheirfirst shot of the two-dose vaccine. Addressing the nation ahead of the launch, the PM reminded peoplethattwodosesofthevaccine are very important and asked them to continue with masks and social distancing even afterreceiving the jabs. Reassuring people that emergency use authorisation was given to the two 'made in India'vaccinesonlyafterscientists were convinced of their safety and effectiveness, he said the vaccines will ensure a decisivevictoryforthe country over the coronavirus pandemic, he said. “Dawaai bhi, kadaai bhi,” Modi said, asking people to guard against complacency and follow Covid-19 appropriate behaviour. Striking an emotional chord, Modi spoke of the disruption the pandemic had caused to people’s lives,isolating victims of the coronavirus and denying the dead traditional last rites. HIGHER INCOME hasreceivedagovernment purchase order for supply of 55 lakh doses of Covaxin, a Covid-19 vaccine, will pay compensation to recipients in case of any ‘serious adverse’ effects experienced after receiving the antidote. A consent form to be signed by the vaccine recipients said,“In case of anyadverse events orserious adverse events, you willbeprovidedmedically recognised standard of care in the government designated and authorised centres and hospitals.Thecompensationfor serious adverse event will be paid by sponsor (BBIL) in case if the SAE is proven tobecausallyrelatedtothe vaccine,”the form said. HEALTHY BANKING Continued on Page 18 Continued on Page 18 HDFC Bank RBI for more measures Q3 net rises to improve governance 18% y-o-y at banks, NBFCs: Guv FE BUREAU Mumbai, January 16 HDFC BANK ON Saturday reported an 18% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in net profit for thequarterendedDecemberto `8,578 crore on the back of a 15% y-o-y rise in net interest income (NII) to `16,317.6 crore,withnon-interestincome growing 11.6% y-o-y. The bank’s non-bank subsidiary postedalossduringthequarter. The bank’s provisions rose 12% y-o-y to `3,414 crore. In a statement, HDFC Bank said total provisions forthe current quarter includes contingent provisions of approximately `2,400 crore for proforma non-performing assets (NPA). Itsaidifithadrecognisedas bad the accounts which were not declared NPA till August 31, 2020, under the Supreme Court’s orders, the pro forma gross NPA ratio would have been 1.38% as on December 31,2020. Continued on Page 18 FE BUREAU Mumbai, January 16 INTEGRITYANDQUALITY ofgov- ernance are key to good health and robustness of banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), Reserve Bank of India(RBI)governorShaktikanta DassaidonSaturday,addingthat theregulatorplanstoissuesome more measures on improving governanceatregulatedinstitutions. Any discussion on a bad bank must happen between the governmentandprivateplayers, and the RBI will consider such a proposal once presentedwith it, hesaidinresponsetoaquestion at the Nani Palkhivala memoriallecture. Recenteventsintherapidly evolving financial landscape have led to increasing scrutiny of the role of promoters,major shareholders and senior management vis-à-vis the role of the board and the RBI is constantlyfocusedonstrengthening the related regulations and deepening its supervision of “A good governance structure will have to be supported by effective risk management, compliance functions and assurance mechanisms” — SHAKTIKANTA DAS, RBI GOVERNOR financial entities,he said. “A good governance structure will have to be supported byeffective risk management, compliance functions and assurance mechanisms.” Continued on Page 18 PPP TAKE-OFF Sky not the limit for airport privatisation Luxury housing sales rise in Delhi-NCR ● No cap on number of airports an operator can bid for FE BUREAU New Delhi, January 16 A GOVERNMENT-APPOINTED COMMITTEE has dropped the proposalfloatedbythecivilaviationministrytorestrictthenumberofairportsaprivateoperator can bid forunderthe public-privatepartnershipmodel. Sources in the government saidthecommittee,afterexamining the market, came to the conclusion that there are not enough players in the sector to takeupairportprivatisation,so putting any kind of cap would GROUND CLEARANCE A govt-appointed committee has dropped the proposal floated by the civil aviation ministry Since there are not enough players to take up airports, putting a cap would delay the privatisation process, say experts delay the entire exercise to privatise airports. The proposal wasthataprivateoperatorcannot bid for more than two pro- Govt is likely to invite bids for privatisation of Varanasi, Calicut, Patna, Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi, Coimbatore, Trichy, Indore and Raipur airports In 2020, the Adani Group emerged as the largest player in the airports business in terms of number of projects jects in a round of auction. The government is likely to invite bids for privatisation of Varanasi,Calicut,Patna,Amrit- sar, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi, Coimbatore,Trichy,Indoreand Raipur airports in the next round and the guidelines once finalised would not have any restrictive clause,sources said. The proposal for putting some kind of restriction on number of projects one operator can bid forwas mooted last year with Adani Group winningallsixprojectsinthe2019 airport privatisation bids. The airports on offer were Jaipur,Guwahati,Thiruvananthapuram, Mangaluru, Ahmedabad and Lucknow. In 2020, the Adani Group emerged as the largest player in theairportsbusinessintermsof numberofprojectsafteritstruck adeal toacquirethecontrolling 74% stake in Mumbai International Airport (Mial) from the GVKGroupandotherpartners. Continued on Page 18 ● NRIs, HNIs made most of buyers’ market in 2020; trend likely to continue RISHI RANJAN KALA New Delhi, January 16 596 530 362 Delhi NCR: Sale of housing units above `1.5 crore 455 292 139 Gurgaon Noida Greater Noida 0 39 16 10 Ghaziabad Faridabad Source: Anarock Property Consultants Sales (Units) 2019 2020 THE LUXURY RESIDENTIAL market in Delhi NCR made a promising comeback in 2020 with developers selling 929 units priced over `1.5 crore during the year. Thoughsales were down 34%Y-o-Y,market watchers say the numbers will rise as demand is mainlybeing driven by NRIs and HNIs, who are exploring projects with world class amenities and propertymanagement,among other factors. Developers and analysts point out that 2021 will witness more traction in the luxury segment as NRIs and HNIs who have been scouting the market for deals will finalise their transactions in the first half of 2021. Although sales in luxury housing in Delhi NCR in 2020 were lower on an annual basis, its share of total sales have risen marginally. As per Anarock research, NCR saw total housing sales of more than 23,220 units, of which nearly4%wasluxury,pricedat `1.5 crore and above.In 2019, total sales were 46,910 units, of which 3% was luxury. Anarock Property Consul- New Delhi tants chairman Anuj Puri says thescintillatinghighsthatluxury housing experienced in earlier years, especially as a goodinvestmentclass,areover for good. Today, end users are driving majority of sales. Ever since demonetisation, in late 2016,developershavealsosignificantly curtailed supply within this category, which positively impacted the segment in shedding its previous unsold stock. “In 2020,while affordable and mid segments continued to drive housing demand, luxury sales saw some movement in NCR despite the pandemic.This is also because the pandemic did not hit this buyer-class economically as much as it did the middle class,” Puri said. Continued on Page 18