OPINION, P6 ECONOMY, P2 EDITORIAL Status quo from RBI on Omicron uncertainty FY23 BUDGET AHEAD OF HOLIDAYS Two-dose coverage key to curbing Covid variants; need to fight hesitancy, vaccination inequity ADITI NAYAR INTERNATIONAL, P8 FM to start holding stakeholder meetings after Winter Session Apple tells suppliers demand for iPhone 13 lineup has slowed MUMBAI, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2021 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL. LXI NO. 284, 12 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 SENSEX: 58,461.29 ▲ 776.50 NIFTY: 17,401.65 ▲ 234.75 NIKKEI 225: 27,753.37 ▼ 182.25 HANG SENG: 23,788.93 ▲ 130.01 `/$: 74.99 ▼ 0.08 `/€: 84.94 ▼ 0.08 BRENT: $68.85 ▼ $0.02 GOLD: `47,394 ▼ `196 IN THE NEWS Omicron variant: 2 cases detected in Karnataka TWO CASES OF the new Omicron variant have been detected in Karnataka, the government said on Thursday while asking people not to panic but follow Covidappropriate behaviour and get vaccinated without delay, reports PTI. Export push: Govt seeks greater industry role THE COMMERCE MINISTRY has asked state-backed export councils and key industry bodies to work more closely with various government departments and overseas missions as part of its broader effort to realise the lofty $400-billion export target for FY22, reports Banikinkar Pattanayak in New Delhi. Jet in talks with Boeing, Airbus for $12-bn order THE NEW OWNERS of oncebankrupt Jet Airways are in talks with Boeing and Airbus to buy at least 100 narrowbody jets for the carrier’s fleet in a bid to revive what used to be the biggest private airline in the country before it collapsed under a pile of debt, reports Bloomberg. EXPRESS GROCERY OMICRON SCARE Equities gain, shrug off weak global cues Swiggy gives $700-m boost to Instamart Quick grocery delivery service now live across 18 cities SALMAN SH Bengaluru, December 2 FOOD DELIVERY PLATFORM Swiggy on Thursday said that it will invest $700 million into its instant grocery delivery service Instamart.This comes at a time whenbothinvestorsandhyperlocal deliverystart-ups are bullish on the grocery delivery segment.LaunchedinGurgaonand Bengaluru in 2020, Swiggy’s Instamart service is now live across18cities,handlingover1 millionorders perweek. Instamart competes with other heavily-funded start-ups likeGoogle-backedDunzo,Softbank-backed Grofers, Tataowned BigBakset and Zepto, which entered the market recently. The 10-minute delivery ■ The sector is Swiggy sees Instamart hitting annualised GMVrun rate of expected to grow to $5 bn by 2025 from $0.3 bn now, according to a RedSeer report Continue to rise for the second day amid strong domestic macroeconomic data $1 bn Intra-day, Dec 2 58,600 Nifty50 58,461.29 58,400 in next three quarters PRESS TRUST OF INDIA Mumbai, December 2 58,200 ■ It competeswith quick THE BSE SENSEX defied gravity for the second straight session on Thursday, buoyed by across-the-board buying despite largely negative cues from global peers amid concerns over the Omicron strain of the coronavirus.Building on a positive opening, the 30share equity benchmark soared776.50pointsor1.35% to finish at 58,461.29.On similar lines,the NSE Nifty surged 234.75 points or 1.37% to 17,401.65. HDFC was the top performeramong the Sensex constituents,climbing 3.92%,followed by PowerGrid, Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech and Bajaj Auto. Only three counters closed in the red — ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and UltraTech Cement,dipping up to 0.78%. “Irrespective of the weak sentimentsintheinternational markets,domestic indices con- commerce services offered by players like Dunzo, Grofers and Bigbakset Launched in 2020, Instamart handles over 1 million orders aweek service, also known as quick commerce,hasbeenanewtrend among hyperlocal delivery start-ups in the countrywhich operateusinganinventorymodel. Continued on Page 2 Stock of coal at these plants was 10.37 MT in Septemberand8.07MTinOctober. The government has takenvariousstepsformaintenance of adequate coal stockswithpowerplants,the minister said. ■ Page 10 57,800 57,600 57,400 Intra-day, Dec 2 17,401.65 17,475 17,325 17,250 57,781.48 Previous close: 57,684.79 Open Close Nifty IT Intra-day, Dec 2 36,450 17,175 17,183.20 Previous close: 17,166.90 17,100 Open Close `/$ 36,157.85 Intra-day, Dec 2 74.85 36,200 74.90 35,950 75.05 74.99 75.00 35,450 Inverted scale 74.95 35,700 35,504.80 35,200 Previous close: 35,428.95 Open Close 75.10 Ola plans IPO in first half of 2022 Gearing up to create a ‘super app’ to go beyond mobility UNA GALANI & ADITI SHAH December 2 17,400 58,000 Coal stocks at power plants improve in Nov COAL STOCKS AT over 136 power plants in the country improved to 18.95 MT in November compared to the previous two months,power minister RK Singh informed Parliament on Thursday, reports PTI. Sensex READY FOR RIDE 75.05 Open Previous close: 74.91 Close RIDE-HAILING COMPANY Ola plans to go public in the first half of 2022, chief executive officer Bhavish Aggarwal said onThursday,undeterredbythe recentvolatilityand lacklustre listing of some start-ups in the country. SoftBank-backed Ola is also gearing up to create something of a “super app” with plans to broaden its services beyond mobility to include personal finance and microinsurance,Aggarwaltold the Reuters Next conference. “We are not a company that takesashort-termviewonanything. Short-term, there might bevolatilities in the market but ‘We expect beauty retail to comprise 60% of our biz’ Vivek Bali, CEO, Enrich, talks about the company's beauty retail foray via large-format stores, its private label ambitions, and revival of the salon business ■ BrandWagon, P7 tinued to rise due to gains in IT, financials and metal stocks amid strong domestic macroeconomicdata,”saidVinodNair, head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. Fed Chair’s remarks stating a possibility of a faster end to the bond-buying programme and interest rate hike along withthefirstconfirmedcaseof the Omicron variant in the US, triggeredafreshglobalsell-off, he noted. Continued on Page 2 LARSEN & TOUBRO (L&T) has entered into an agreement with ReNew Power to tap into the emerging green hydrogen business in India, reports fe Bureau in Mumbai. Under this agreement, both companies will jointly QuickPicks RBI moves NCLT for insolvency proceedings against Reliance Cap THE RBI on Thursday filed an application for initiation of Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process against debt-ridden Reliance Capital at the Mumbai bench of the NCLT, reports PTI. The central bank had on November 29 superseded the board of Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Capital in view of payment defaults and serious governance issues. The RBI had also appointed Nageswar Rao Y (former executive director, Bank of Maharashtra) as the administrator of the company. PAGE 9 Maruti, Mercedes-Benz,Audi to hike vehicle prices from January CAR MARKET leader Maruti Suzuki India along with luxury carmakers Mercedes-Benz and Audi on Thursday said they will increase prices from January to offset rising input and feature enhancement costs, reports PTI. While Maruti said the price rise planned for January 2022 will vary for different models, Mercedes -Benz India said its hike will be on select models by up to up 2% due to feature enhancement and rising input costs. Audi said its price increase will be up to 3% across its entire model range owing to rising input and operational costs. PAGE 4 INDU BHAN & GEETA NAIR New Delhi/Pune, December 2 The Kirloskar family dispute has pitched Sanjay Kirloskar against his brothers Atul Kirloskar and Rahul Kirloskar, and cousinVikram Kirloskar 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 Alibaba’s US shares have never been this cheap Alibaba ADRs reported P/E Ratio 2016 separated ownership, management and control of different firms, distributed among the brothers gency situation needs emergency measures”, reports fe Bureau in NewDelhi. The apex court asked the governments why pollution was not coming down despite their tall claims of taking measures. ■ Page 3 Bear case 2015 2017 Some of Alibaba’s biggest growth drivers — fintech, data, online advertising and content — are under scrutiny from regulators in Beijing.The company missed estimates for quarterly sales at its latest earnings update last monthandpredictedslowingrevenue 2018 2019 ■ Ola also plans to list its separate electricvehicle business in the future ■ It plans to launch an electric car in 2023, looks to set up battery cell plant that has never informed our decisions,” said Aggarwal,who founded the companyin 2010. Continued on Page 2 develop, own, execute and operategreenhydrogenprojects in India. Many countries, including India, have announced specific policy interventionstopushforthe widespread adoption of green hydrogen. ■ Page 4 2020 2021 Source: Bloomberg growth for 2022.There’s also uncertainty over the future of tech companiessuchasAlibabathatusedvariable interest entities to get around foreign ownership rules and list overseas. Continued on Page 2 on its proposed cross-border insolvency framework, which has been modelled after an existing UN model law, the ministry of corporate affairs has also recommended that financial service providers such as banks and insurance firms be excluded from the purviewof cross-borderinsolvency, in step with the provisions in many countries. THE NATIONAL HIGHWAYS Authority of India (NHAI) has setanambitioustargettomonetise 21,700 km operational highway stretches in three years starting 2022-23, a plan that could help it raise around `2 lakh crore. Monetisation of the existing assets will be carried out through three routes: toll operate transfer (TOT), toll securitisation and infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) Replying to a written question in the Lok Sabha, minister for road transport and highwaysNitinGadkarionThursday said NHAI has identified highways with combined length of 5,500 km for monetisation in 2022-23,7,300kmin2023-24 and 8,900 km in 2024-25. NHAI will use the funds to build new highways and cut its debt,whichwas`3.17lakhcrore at the end of 2020-21. The authority has been monetising government-funded highway projects since 2018. The first TOT bundle of 680 km fetched the authority `9,681 crore — 1.5 times the base price.Under TOT,NHAIgivesthestretchesto thehighestbidderonlong-term lease,generallyfor15-30years. Continued on Page 2 Continued on Page 2 ■ Deed Continued on Page 2 Alibaba rout wipes out $526 bn in over a year ALIBABA GROUP HOLDING’S USlisted shares have never been this cheap and yet investors keep bailing. On a reported earnings basis, Alibaba’s American depositary receipts trade at a multiple of 18.7. That’s the lowest since its 2014 debut,and thewidest discount to the Nasdaq 100 Index’s average multiple on record.The ADRs slumped 4% on Wednesday to a level not seen since May 2017. Its Hong Kong shares closed 2.5% lower on Thursday. Arout that’swiped $526 billion in valuein13monthsisdeepeningamid concern over the company’s outlook. It allows customers to avail vehicle finance and insurance via app FE BUREAU New Delhi, December 2 over breach of a deed signed in 2009 when management of several firms was divided between the brothers ment and whether that could be donewith the existing array of parties or the need for any other parties to be joined for mediation,”theapexcourtsaid. CHINA CRACKDOWN SOFIA HORTA E COSTA December 2 allows its 150 m customers to buy and sell new and used cars NHAI targets to raise `2L cr in three years ■ Main row is Pollution: SC gives 24 hours for 'serious plan' SLAMMING THE CENTRE and the Delhi government over severe air pollution levelsintheNationalCapital,the Supreme Court on Thursday gave a 24-hour deadline to themtocomeupwitha“serious” plan, saying “the emer- share ofIndia's ride-hailing market,where it competeswith Uber ● MONETISATION SC directs Kirloskar family to resolve row THE SUPREME COURT on Thursday gave one last opportunity to the Kirloskar brothers — Sanjay,Atul and others — to explore the possibility of resolving their long-standing family feud over division of assets through “preliminary” mediation under former SC judge Indu Malhotra. Earlier,the warring parties had agreed for mediation by Justice Malhotra. A bench led by Chief Justice NV Ramana asked Sanjay and Atul and 13 other respondents to cooperate and raise all the objectionsbeforethemediator. “We feel that as a preliminary steps,the existing parties shall appear before the mediator, who shall look into the modalitiestobeworkedoutforsettle- ■ It has a majority ■ Ola app L&T-ReNew to tap green hydrogen biz LAST CHANCE Special Feature Ride-hailing company has plans to raise up to $1 billion through an IPO PROTEST CONTINUES Opposition parties’ MPs stage a protest against the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha peers during the Winter Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Thursday ● STRESSED ASSETS Cross-border insolvency eyes wider reach FE BUREAU New Delhi, December 2 THE MINISTRY OF corporate affairshasproposedthatcrossborder insolvency framework beappliedtonotjustcorporate debtors but even personal guarantors to them, in sync with the extant corporate insolvency resolution norms for stressed assets located within the country. Seeking public comments MCAfor exclusion offinancial service providers such as banks and insurance firms Ministry proposes to include not just corporate debtors but also personal guarantors Analysts, however, feel there is a need to include financial services sector, which has significant cross-border investments