COMPANIES, P4 NATION, P5 INTERNATIONAL, P8 TRANSFER FROM ARVIND FASHIONS HURUN INDIA RICH LIST ‘DEFENDING TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY’ Reliance Retail in talks to get India rights for beauty retailer Sephora Gautam Adani earned a whopping `1,612 cr per day in 2021 Putin accuses West of 'nuclear blackmail', calls more troops for Ukraine KOLKATA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2022 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL 31 NO. 275, 16 PAGES, `10.00 (NORTH EAST STATES & ANDAMAN `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: 59,456.78 ▼ 262.96 NIFTY: 17,718.35 ▼ 97.9 NIKKEI 225: 27,313.13 ▼ 375.29 HANG SENG: 18,444.62 ▼ 336.8 `/$: 79.9788 ▼ 0.2225 `/€: 79.4158 ▲ 0.4032 BRENT: $92.6 ▲ $1.98 GOLD: `49,491 ▲ `255 Brokers on edge as Sebi account settlement deadline looms PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi has nominated chairman emeritus ofTata Sons Ratan Tata, former Supreme Court judge KTThomas and ex-deputy Speaker Karia Munda as trustees of PM CARES Fund, reports fe Bureau in New Delhi. ■ PAGE 2 SpiceJet flight cap extended by five weeks by DGCA THE AVIATION regulator on Wednesday added five more weeks to the period of punitive action on budget airline SpiceJet which forces it to operate at only 50% capacity, reports fe Bureau in Mumbai. ■ PAGE 4 No criminality found in conversations of Niira Radia: CBI to SC THE CBI on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that no criminality has been found in conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, recorded by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) during 200809, with various people , reports fe Bureau in New Delhi. TechM scouts for internal talent to succeed Gurnani TECH MAHINDRA, India’s fifth largest IT services firm by revenue, is scouting for internal talent to succeed its current CEO and MD CP Gurnani, who will retire by the end of next year, sources told Ayushman Baruah in Bengaluru. ■ PAGE 4 Rupee tumbles to record closing low of 79.98 THE RUPEE fell sharply to close at record low of 79.98 against the dollar on Wednesday, tracking the strength of the American currency in the overseas markets and a muted trend in domestic equities. Forex traders said investors are awaiting the US Fed policy decision on interest rates for further cues. ■ PAGE 13 FE S P E C I A L S THE SECURITIES AND Exchange Board of India (Sebi) diktat on running account settlement is expected to result in outflows of thousands of crores in cash balances of brokers on October 7, impacting trading volumes the next few days and the broking business. According to earlier regulations, Nov Dec Jan Feb 2021 2022 brokers had to settle the client’s unused funds lying in the trading accounts at least once in 90 days (everyquarter)or30days.Thiswason a rolling settlement basis and referred to as ‘running account set- May June July 636 498 Apr 475 Mar ASHLEY COUTINHO Mumbai, September 21 619 733 633 695 710 PM CARES Fund: Ratan Tata, 2 others named trustees impact trading volumes, broking business Monthly average cash volume (` billion) 579 THE CBI arrested Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, the founder-chairman of ABG Shipyard, on Wednesday in connection with an alleged bank fraud of more than `22,842 crore, officials said, reports PTI. SUDDEN SPURT 718 IN THE NEWS `22,842-crore bank fraud: CBI arrests ABG Chunky cash balance founder Rishi Agarwal outflows in one go to Aug Source: MOFSL tlement’ or‘quarterly settlement of funds’.Theaimwastopreventmisuse of excess cash bybrokers. Under the new norms,the entire industry has to do the quarterly or monthly settlement on a specific date,which is the first Friday of each quarter or the first Friday of every month.If the first Friday is a trading holiday,suchsettlementwillhappen on the previous trading day.Accordingly, the running account of funds are slated to be settled on October 7; January6,2023;April6,2023,andso on,for all the clients who have opted forquarterlysettlement.Clients’runningaccountswillbeconsideredsettled only by making actual payment into their bank accounts and not by making any journal entries. Clients aretobeintimatedbySMSandemail. “Sebi had found that a lot of brokers were not settling clients' accounts on time or that the process to do so had become cumbersome. Thenewnormsareaimedatbringing uniformity and ensuring that the entire industry has one single day to work towards the settlement process,” a brokersaid. Continued on Page 8 Tech majorWipro sacks 300 Govt sweetens employees for moonlighting `2-TRN INVESTMENT SEEN IN 2 YRS sops for global chip companies Offers uniform 50% fiscal support to units across all categories FE BUREAU New Delhi, September 21 NINE MONTHSAFTER announcing a `76,000-crore incentive scheme fordevelopmentofsemiconductors and displaymanufacturing ecosystem in the country,the Union Cabinet onWednesdaysweetenedit furtherbymaking the fiscal support of 50% of project cost uniform across all technology nodes for setting up of semiconductor fabs. When the government had first announced the scheme in December2021,it had extended financial support of up to 50% of project cost forat least two semiconductor and two display fabs for a minimum of six years. For others, like compound semiconductors,sensor fabs etc, fiscal support of 30% was to be offered. Minister of state for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the total outlay for the package will remain the same but harmonisation of incentives to 50% will make the policy “extremely competitive” and attract investment across spectrum of opportunities,namely silicon and compound fabs,packaging units, display fabs, and design and innovation ecosystem. Global companies, he said, are examining exploring India as a viable investment destination for semiconductors. India is positioning itself as among the most attractive destination in Asia for“all things electronics and semiconductors”, and the government is “confident” that investments of almost `2 trillion will come in Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MoS for IT CHIPPING IN ■ Fiscal support of 50% of project cost made uniform across all technology nodes ■ Earlier, 50% support was only for semiconductor and display fab units; for others, like compound semiconductors and sensor fabs, 30% support was offered ■ Vedanta-Foxconn JV, Dubai's NextOrbit & Israel's Tower Semiconductor, and Singapore's IGSS Venture have so far signed MoUs for fab projects ‘An act of integrity violation in its deepest form’, says chairman Rishad Premji FE BUREAU New Delhi, September 21 MOONLIGHTING HAS TAKEN its toll at Wipro.After disapproving of the practice, the company has become the first IT major in recent times to have fired 300 employees who were found to be working for competitors at the same time. “Employeescanhaveatransparent dialogue with the organisation about their second or weekend work, but we discovered 300 employees who were working for directcompetitors.Thereisnoplace for them,” Wipro chairman Rishad Premji said on Wednesday at a conference organised byAll India Management Association (AIMA).“It is an act of integrity violation in its deepest form,”he added. Premji has been a vocal critic of moonlighting and had earlier made itclearthatthecompanyhadnoplace RISHAD PREMJI, CHAIRMAN, WIPRO ASBA-LIKE MECHANISM FOR SECONDARY MARKETS IN THE WORKS, SAYS SEBI CHAIRPERSON BUCH PFC may divest stake in REC to push green funding RAJESH KUMAR SINGH & ANNA KITANAKA September 21 There is no space for someone to work for Wipro and competitor XYZ and they would feel exactly the same way if they were to discover the same situation. It became a big talking point when recently, Premji equated the practice to cheating in a tweet. “There is a lot of chatter about people moonlighting in the tech industry.Thisischeating—plainandsimple,”hehadsaid.Later,otherITfirms also commented on the issue with most supporting Premji’views. THE GOVERNMENT MAY unwind a four-year-old decision to combine two state-run lenders as it seeks to sidestep rules that restrict them from funding powerprojects. The government is discussing a plan for Power Finance Corp to sell itscontrollingstakeinRECtotransmission utility Power Grid Corp, which is flush with cash, power minister RK Singh said in an interview in New Delhi. Power Finance and REC will enjoy their different exposure limits as separate firms, potentiallyresulting in greaterproject funding,he said. Thegovernmentislookingtoadd a record capacity of clean energy to reduceitsdependenceonfossilfuels. However, the central bank’s rules to cap lenders’ exposure to a business grouplimitbothfinanciers’abilityto fund such projects, as they are treated as one entity under the current ownership structure. Continued on Page 2 Continued on Page 2 Retaining and upskilling tech talent is a challenge...Only about 10% of Wipro’s workforce now works from office and majority have little emotive connect with the organisation. for such employees. On Wednesday hesaidthatthoughhehasreceived a huge amount of hate mail since calling it (moonlighting) cheating, he stands bywhat he said. Moonlightingrefersto pursuing more than one job at a time and remoteworking (work from home), which became a norm during Covid days and is still prevalent at several workplaces. REPORT ON PAGE 9 Amazon to set up 3 solar farms in India overthe next twoyears.“We believe this move will further increase the interest and create additional proposals that have been in discussions with us over the last 4-5 months,” the minister told reporters. Sources told FE that the modificationswere sought bythe ministry of electronics and ITafterreceiving industry feedback. Once the finance ministry approved the same, the matter was referred to the Cabinet. Continued on Page 8 ■ Solar PLI scheme may generate `94,000-cr investments, P2 ■ Cabinet clears national logistics policy, P2 PPAs signed with ReNew, Amp Energy & Brookfield Renewable for 420 MW projects FE BUREAU Mumbai, September 21 AMAZON ON WEDNESDAY announced it will set up three solar farmsinRajasthanwithacombined capacityof420megawatt(MW).This will be the first time that the e-commerce major is setting up a solar farm in the country. These would include a 210 MW project to be developed by ReNew Power, a 100 MWproject to be developed byAmp Energy India,and a 110 MWproject to be developed by Brookfield RenewablePartners,forwhichpower ENERGY BOOSTER ■ A 210 MW project to be developed by ReNew Power, a 100 MW project to be developed by Amp Energy India and a 110 MW project to be developed by Brookfield Renewable ■ Amazon now has 379 green projects across 21 countries Amazon to set up 23 new solar rooftop projects across 14 cities in India purchase agreements (PPAs) have been signed,it said in a statement. Further,Amazon will also set up 23newsolarrooftopprojects–witha capacity to generate an additional 4.09 MWof power— across 14 cities in India.Thiswould increase its total ■ Projects being set up across India, South Africa, France, Austria and Poland number of solar rooftop projects in the country to 41 with 19.7 MW of renewable energycapacity. “Amazon is committed to helping scale corporate renewable energy procurement options in the country, bringing associated green jobs and investments to more parts of India,”saidAbhinavSingh,director, customer fulfilment, supply chain and Amazon Transportation Services,at Amazon India. “Besides these PPAs, our efforts includeprovidingtrainingfordevelopers and other buyers on how to structure these agreements for mutual benefit, facilitating governmentdialogueswithindustrygroups to highlight the importance of corporate buyers, and working with local energy providers who want to reach newcustomers,”he added. Combined,these farms have the capacity to generate 1.07 million megawatt hours (1,076,000 MWh) of renewable energy per year, enough to power more than 360,000 average-sized households in New Delhi annually. Continued on Page 8 CENTRAL BANK TO CONDUCT `50,000-CR VARIABLE REPO RATE AUCTION TODAY RBI to infuse more funds as liquidity slips into deficit Multi-cloud to take centre stage Interview with Amit Midha, president, APAC & Japan/Global Digital Cities, Dell Technologies ■ eFE, P7 OnePlus 10T 5G: Super-fast charging The phone has a good in-hand feel, powerful internals and decent cameras ■ Gadgets, P7 FE BUREAU Mumbai, September 21 WITH THE BANKING system liquidity slipping into a deficit, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will conduct an overnight variable rate repo auction for `50,000 crore on Thursday. Banks have been borrowing increasing amounts from the marginal standing facility (MSF) window over the past week or so — on Tuesdaytheyborrowed a little over `30,000 crore, up from `11,000 crore on Monday. Moreover,overthe past fewsessions, the call money rate has slowly crept past the repo rate — it was 5.6% on Monday and inched up to 5.64% on Tuesday. “While the net injection of funds was to the tune of `21,873 crore adjusting for cash reserve ratio (CRR),the deficitworks out to close to `39,000 crore,” Vivek Kumar, economist at Quantico Research said. Bhaskar Panda, executive vice president (overseas treasury), HDFC Bank, said the system was between a deficit and a little surplus.He observed that the outflow on account of advance taxes, the pick–up in credit demand and slower pace of growth in deposits as also the RBI intervention in the forex markets had contributed to the shrinking liquidity. “Going forward, there will be demand for funds as the festive season begins. It is likely the RBI will take some steps to ensure there is adequate liquidity,” Panda said. Sushanta Mohanty, general manager - treasury, Bank of Baroda,believes the liquidity tightening is temporary.“The RBI is monitoring the situation and will infuse liquidity through different tools like variable repo etc as and when required.Some of the liquidity that has gone out due to advance taxes and the goods and services tax will flow back into the system”Mohanty said. Importantly, government cash balances with the RBI remain high at an estimated `3.2 trillion,while tax collections have been robust. Some of this is expected to flow back into the system over the next few weeks. “Going forward, there will be demand for funds as the festive season begins. It is likely the RBI will take some steps to ensure there is adequate liquidity,” Panda said. Continued on Page 8 Kolkata