OPINION, P6 ECONOMY, P2 ARUNABHA GHOSH Boardrooms must get real on climate-aligned business INTERNATIONAL, P4 EDITORIAL FOLLOWING PEERS REFORMULATED SHOT RBI is right; India Inc doesn’t yet inspire confidence on upholding banking-sector ethics Jio announces up to 21% hike in tariffs from December 1 Moderna says vaccine for Omicron may be ready in early 2022 MUMBAI , MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2021 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL. LXI NO. 280, 18 PAGES, `7.00 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 LUXURIOUS DUBAI GROWTH PANGS Inflation could impede economic recovery While corporate sector is doing very well, the rest of the economy isn’t QuickPicks Visa complains to US about India backing for RuPay VISA HAS complained to the US government that India's "informal and formal" promotion of domestic payments rival RuPay hurts the US giant in a key market, memos seen by Reuters show. ED summons Amazon,Future executives The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned senior executives ofAmazon India, including its country head Amit Agarwal, and that of the Future group for questioning in a foreign exchange violation probe linked to the disputed deal between the two conglomerates, official sources said on Sunday. PAGE 3 FE BUREAU Mumbai, November 28 RISING PRICES AND high input costs could hit demand, slowing the pace of recovery over the next few months. This is worrying for sectors such as two-wheelers where demand is even otherwise subdued. Indeed the sharp drop in sales of tractors in October raises concerns about the conditions in the rural economy. An analysis by Bank of America reveals the increase in rural wages has been slowing, averaging 2.7% y-o-y in the April-July period compared with a much better rise of 7.4% y-o-y in the same period last year. Also, the deceleration has been steeper for non-agri wages rather than agri-wages. Driven by a rise in rural unemployment which jumped to 7.91% in October from 6.06% in September, overall unemployment rose to 7.75% from 6.86%, CMIE data showed. Continued on Page 2 MIXED MACROS ❚ Recovery trends 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 96 Goods 78 Services Recovery trends in goods and services Index Feb '20 SA = 100 -11.4 ❚ Unemployment (mn) 0.0 -1.0 -2.0 -3.0 -4.0 -5.0 May 2021 -6.0 (%) 12 8 4 0 Nov 2014 Source: BoFA Securities ❚ IIP Rural CMIE: Estimated employed Nov 2020-Oct 2021 avg minus Nov 2018-Oct 2019 average Urban Source: CEIC, HSBC ❚ Inflation (% chg, y-o-y) 30 25 20 15 10 5 1 0 -5 Sept 20 (% chg, y-o-y) 14 12 3.1 10 8 7.61 6 4 2 0 1.3 Oct 2020 Sept 21 WPI CPI 4.48 Oct 2021 ❚ Gross tax collections April to September, ` crore) 7,20,896 ❚ Exports (% change) 200 195.7 150 11,83,808 100 FY22 64.2 Source: CGA 50 0 Over FY21 17.6 Over FY20 Apr 2021 Source: Ministry of commerce CALL FOR APPLICATIONS NMDC INNOVATION AND INCUBATION CENTRE (NICE) NICE is a joint initiative by NMDC Limited and iTIC Incubator at IIT Hyderabad to support entrepreneurs building Deep Tech Startups. Inviting applications from Individuals and Deep Tech Startups for Fellowship and Incubation support. BENEFITS TO STARTUPS: - Structured mentorship - Co-working space - Financial assistance - IP support - Networking and events prototyping n d - Access to prototyping labs and other infrastructure Financial aid of upto INR 9.6 Lakhs under Fellowship support App Apply on: www.niceprogram.in 12.5 Source: MoSPI, Office of the Economic Adviser Source: MoSPI % chg, y-o-y -6.1 Source FADA ❚ Rural wage growth FY21 (% chg, y-o-y) 75 Passenger vehicles 50 25 0 -87 -25 -50 2-wheelers -75 -100 -88.8 May 2020 Oct 2021 Aug 2021 Note: Apr & May 21 compared with Apr & May 2019 Apr 2020 Source: HSBC Financial aid of upto INR 25 Lakhs under Incubation support D Deadline: December 5, 2021 For any query: contact@itic.iith.ac.in Sterlite bullish about India market, 5G prospects PRESS TRUST OF INDIA New Delhi, November 28 ❚ Retail auto sales Pre-pandemic level ● NEW AVENUES 43.1 35.9 Oct 2021 DIGITAL NETWORKS INTEGRATOR Sterlite Technologies (STL) is bullish about the India market opportunity, including businessprospectsarisingfrom upcoming 5G deployments, Ankit Agarwal, who recently took overas managing director of the company, said. Headded thatrightspectrumpricingwillact ascatalystfor5Grollout,enabling investmentstobechannelisedinto buildingnetworksinthecountry. Continued on Page 2 OPTIMAL USE Telcos likely to be allowed to share spectrum across bands DoT’s move aimed at facilitating better utilisation of the resource FE BUREAU New Delhi, November 28 THE DEPARTMENT OF telecommunications (DoT) may look at liberalising spectrum sharing guidelines before the auctions take place next year. Spectrum sharing, which currently allows operators to share spectrum only within a ● MINISTERIAL POSTPONED ON THE AGENDA ■ Currently spectrum sharing is allowed between two operators having spectrum in the same band ■ Sharing across bands is seen as leasing and is prohibited band wherein both parties hold spectrum, may be done away with. Sharing would be allowed across bands, sources said. Around the time spectrum sharing was allowed and guidelines formulated, there ■ Allowing sharing across bands will lead to better utilisation of spectrum ■ Since today there's no major concern on allowing sharing across bands, govt feels the same can be allowed were two technologies — GSM and CDMA — so sharing was not possible across technologies. Continued on Page 2 5G services launch next year, Page 2 ● ADANI, TATA POWER, RENEW TO BENEFIT Much at stake for India Solar PLI outlay to be as WTO talks lose steam hiked to `19,500 crore BANIKINKAR PATTANAYAK New Delhi, November 28 ASTHE 12THministerialofthe World Trade Organization (WTO),scheduled to start from November 30, gets deferred indefinitely due to emerging Covid situations,fate of several criticalissuesrelevanttodeveloping countries, particularly India,hangs in balance. Official sources told FE that NewDelhi,meanwhile,willcontinue to work with other developing nations and press forkey demands, including a patent waiver to manufacture Covid19vaccines,a permanent solution to its public procurement programmes for food security, no immediate end to fishery subsidy for most developing countries,andWTO reforms. However,intheabsenceofa stricttime-lineforreconvening the ministerial,which typically brings in the urgencyto resolve outstanding issues,developing countrieswillfinditdifficultto make substantial headway in negotiations anytime soon. AS MANY AS 15 companies including public-sector Coal India, Adani Infrastructure, LarsenandToubro,ReNewSolar, Tata Power Solar,Waaree Energies,Vikram Solar,Megha Engineering&InfrastructuresandFS IndiaSolarVentureswilllikelyget incentivesofferedundertheproduction-linkedincentivescheme forsolarmanufacturing,asscope oftheschemeissettowiden. Continued on Page 2 Continued on Page 2 ANUPAM CHATTERJEE New Delhi, November 28 Additional allocation to be made from `30,984 cr savings on auto PLI scheme Solar manufacturing commitment to increase to 54,809 MW if additional funding is approved Current solar manufacturing capacity is 13,000 MW and sector's dependent on imports for inputs is 80%