OPINION, P6 COMPANIES, P4 RV ANURADHA EU’s carbon tax a mockery of weighted climate responsibility MARKETS, P9 EDITORIAL OPERATIONS TO BEGIN MID-2025 REVISED INFLATION FORECAST IN JUNE Lanka in deep water; political instability is the last thing it needs amid economic woes Novelis plans $2.5-bn low-carbon aluminium recycling plant in US RBI unlikely to take ultra-defensive stance on rupee HYDERABAD, THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2022 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL XVIII NO. 313, 24 PAGES, `10.00 P U B L I S H E D F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , B E N G A L U R U , C H A N D I G A R H , C H E N N A I , H Y D E R A B A D , K O C H I , K O L K ATA , L U C K N O W, M U M B A I , N E W D E L H I , P U N E SENSEX: 54,088.39 ▼ 276.46 NIFTY: 16,167.10 ▼ 72.95 NIKKEI 225: 26,213.64 ▲ 46.54 HANG SENG: 19,824.57 ▲ 190.88 `/$: 77.24 ▲ 0.09 `/€: 81.58 ▼ 0.09 BRENT: $106.64 ▲ $4.18 GOLD: `50,968 ▼ `160 IN THE NEWS Morgan Stanley cuts India FY23 growth outlook FLAGGING GLOBAL SLOWDOWN, surging oil prices and weak domestic demand, Morgan Stanley has lowered its forecasts for India's economic growth for the current fiscal to 7.6% from 7.9% and to 6.7% from 7% for FY24, reports fe Bureau in New Delhi. UltraTech Cement joins race to bid for Holcim assets ULTRATECH CEMENT HAS joined Adani and JSW to put in a bid for Holcim India’s India assets. While the exact bid amount could not be ascertained, sources familiar with the developments said the firm has secured a favourable legal opinion on the issue. Google to heat up IPL rights race with Amazon, RIL GOOGLE HAS FLAGGED an interest in bidding for the broadcast rights of the Indian Premier League, reports Bloomberg. It joins the ranks of half-a-dozen media giants like Amazon, Disney, RIL and Sony vying for the coveted asset. CoC EXTENDS DATE TO JUNE 30 Poor response to RCap resolution TUSHAR GOENKA Bengaluru, May 11 FE BUREAU Mumbai, May 11 INDIAINC MUSTmoveawayfrom a risk-averse culture and thinkoutsidetheregimeofincentives and subsidies, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) president TV Narendran saidonWednesday.Speakingat the ‘Being Future Ready Business Summit 2022’,he said the mindset should be one that proactively explores all markets and all sectors. Narendran’sremarksaresignificant as India Inc has often been accused of being ultra-conservative in its approach towards investing in new capacity anditsincessantdemandforprotection and incentives.He also said that a responsible and conscious industry must think beyond its own priorities to drive entirety. The other bidders included HDFC Ergo, Bandhan Financial Holdings, Cholamandam Investment,Adani Finserv,YesBank,OakTreeCapital,Blackstone, New Quest, Indusind International, Brookfield,TPG Capital, Zurich, Ares SSG Capital, ArpWood Partners, Capri Global Holdings, Edelweiss Alternative, International Asset Reconstruction Company,JC Flower,Motilal Oswal, Square Four Housing and UV Multiple Asset Investment. AN ESTIMATED 750 full-time employees at coding start-upWhiteHat Jr,acquired and operated by Byju’s, have resigned over the last 60 days after the company asked them to relocate and return to their respective offices within a month’s time, persons familiar with the development said. The employees were working in the sales,coding,and math teams,and decided to quit as they didn’t want to relocate to their designated office locations. “Yes,peoplewere asked to relocate and some chose to resign — that is a different story but 800 is a highly inflated number,”persons privy to the matter told FE. “We asked them to come back to office and some of them resigned,”they added. The start-up is believed to have intimated thoseworking from remote locations to return in mid-March. “Business priorities change, people’s priorities change — that’s okay,we can shake hands and part ways,” the persons quoted above said. “People took up the job thinking it’s work from home fornow,we’ll see later,”theyadded. AnInc42reportsaidthatapartfromtherelocation, salary was another factor that prompted employees to quit. Although the start-up had informed employees about their job location when they were hired, they believed they deservedapayhikeforrelocatingtotheseexpensive cities. The report cites some employees claiming that the companywas not faringwell. Several start-ups have let go of people in recent months.Unacademy,Vedantu,Furlenco, Meesho and Trell are among those who are understood to have downsized theirworkforce. Continued on Page 2 Continued on Page 2 Just eight companies show interest RAJESH KURUP Mumbai, May 11 THE RESOLUTION PROCESS of Reliance Capital (RCap) has evoked a poor response, with just eight companies showing interest in bidding forthe debt-laden firm. Of the eight “prospective resolution applicants”(PRA),onlythree—aPiramal Group-led consortium, Yes Bank and HDFC Ergo — have held their own internal meetings.The administrator to the resolutionprocessreceivedenquiriesand clarificationsfromanotherfive,whilethe remaining 46 PRAs went“incommunicado”,sources close to the development told FE.The names of the five bidders, who had sought clarifications,could not be immediatelyascertained. Following the lukewarm response, the committee of creditors (CoC) has now decided to extend the deadline to submit resolution plans to June 30 from the earlier May 26, they added. “Thecoldresponsefromthemajorityof the PRAs could be due to the adverse economic conditions and challenging global environment,”one of the sources said,but did not elaborate. Earlier in March, RCap got a total of 54EoIsfromprominentbidders,includingICICILombard,TataAIGandNippon LifeInsurance,withmajorityofthesuitorsinterestedinacquiringthefirminits 750 WhiteHat Jr INDUSTRY BODY FOR CHANGE IN MINDSET employees quit India Inc must give up on back-to-office and salary woes risk-averse culture: CII Only three applicants — Piramal-led consortium, Yes Bank and HDFC Ergo — held their own internal meetings Enquiries and clarifications came from another five firms, remaining 46 applicationswent 'incommunicado' Earlier in March, RCap got a total of54 EoIs from prominent bidders like ICICI Lombard, TataAIG and Nippon We should think outside the regime of incentives and subsidies. —TV NARENDRAN, CII PRESIDENT positive change for the nation. He pointed out that recalibrationofglobalsupplychainspresents a chance for the industry to embed itself more firmly in the international arena and Engaging with society will make business more valuable and viable. —SANJIV BAJAJ, CII PRESIDENT-DESIGNATE expandits global footprint. Continued on Page 2 Synergy has become a key theme for us: Tata Sons’ Chandrasekaran, Page 4 We can create a Silicon Valley in India: Agarwal VEDANTA GROUP CHAIRMAN Anil Agarwal says the government’s incentive scheme on semiconductor has the potential to turn India into another Silicon Valley or Taiwan, reports Rishi Raj in New Delhi.Electronics,he said,is one sector where the country has immense potentialtogrow.“Todayweonlyhave branded products like mobile phones, etc, once we have the raw material also (chips), the cycle would be complete.WecancreateaSiliconValleyinIndia or another Taiwan,” Agarwal said in an interview to FE. Vedanta,he said is confidentof getting global orders once its semiconductormanufacturingunitisupand running in India. The company is already into manufacturing fab glasses and optic fibre globally, so it is not going to be a new business. ■ Details on Page 4 HYDERABAD