OPINION, P8 OPINION WELL BEING World in the Cup STEPPING UP TO STEM Hard talk,hard times Seldom has footballing royalty been humbled so frequently as has been the case over the last few weeks Page 8 STEM, a discovery-led teaching pedagogy, can improve cognitive learning, design thinking and life skills among children Page 6 ACROSS THE AISLE, P CHIDAMBARAM VOL XXII NO. 6 SPOTLIGHT Follow us on Twitter & Facebook. App available on App Store & Play Store WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM SHOWTIME FORVFX P U B L I S H E D F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , WHAT'S INSIDE FINANCIAL EXPRESS ON SUNDAY B E N G A L U R U , C H A N D I G A R H , STARTUP CRISIS Oyo to fire 600 staffers ● Company says redundancies in teams led to move ■ LEISURE, P7 Tribal tales India is home to hundreds of tribes but what binds them, apart from their amity with the forest, is their own traditional healing practices ■ WORDS WORTH, P4 Khalid Jawed JCB Prize 2022 winner Khalid Jawed talks about his novel, writing style and what the award means for Urdu writing in the country C H E N N A I , SALMAN SH Bengaluru, December 3 HOSPITALITY AND TRAVEL tech startup Oyo on Saturday said it is letting go of around 600 of its 3,700-strong workforce as it shuts down some products and integrates teams. The startup said it is downsizing the product and engineering teams, corporate headquarter and the Oyo vacation homes teams, while it adds people to the partner relationship management and business development teams. Though it is cutting at least 600 jobs, the company said it will,however, conduct fresh hiring of 250 members. Oyo said the new hirings will help scale up the number of hotels and homes on its platform, adding that it will assist “as many employees as it can” in outplacement and FIRING & HIRING READ TO LEAD H Y D E R A B A D , K O C H I , FE BUREAU Mumbai, December 3 TATA VS HYUNDAI ● Close on heels of Hyundai with slim sales margins Continued on Page 2 Continued on Page 2 says it will help those outplaced in getting fresh placements ■ It will also hire 250 members, primarily in the relationship management teams ■ The firm said the move is part of wideranging changes in its organisational structure M U M B A I , N E W D E L H I , P U N E CAR SALES RACE INTENSIFIES continue with their medical insurance coverage up to three months. “Product and engineering teams are being merged for smoother functioning,” Oyo added in its statement. reduce jobs in the technology and corporate verticals ■ Company L U C K N O W , 'CBDC has potential to be a game changer' RESERVE BANK OF India (RBI) deputygovernorTRabi Sankar on Saturday said there are potentially game-changing choices available in the use of central bank digital currency (CBDC), especially in crossborder transactions, where digital currency can remove the inefficiencies in terms of settlements. “We just create the infrastructure and leave it to the private ecosystem to build on it T Rabi Sankar, and develop RBI deputy it,”he said. governor The RBI earlier this week allowed CBDC for retail payments on a pilot basis forfourbanks in the first phase. The central bank also allowed use of digital currency for wholesale banking for settlement of governmentbonds. TheRBIisreadytotryotheruse cases of CBDC, Sankar said, addingthatthenextstepcould be applications in blockchain. ■ Oyo will K O L K A T A , Powered by EVs, Tata motors on for No. 2 spot Monthly sales in India (in units) VIKRAM CHAUDHARY New Delhi, December 3 IT’S A CLOSE contest between Tata Motors and Hyundai India for the number 2 spot in the domestic market. Twice — in December 2021 and May this year — the Indian carmaker overtook the Korean auto giant in sales, with the difference betweenthetwofirmsaslender 23,939 units from December 2021 till November2022. Going forward, Hyundai’s 15-yearperchatnumber2spot could get precarious if its mea- Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun 2021 Tata Motors Hyundai India Total SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2022, 22 Pages, `10 (Patna `10, Raipur `10) 35,299 32,312 40,777 44,022 39,981 44,050 42,293 44,600 41,587 44,001 43,341 42,293 45,197 49,001 47,505 50,500 47,166 49,510 47,654 49,700 45,217 48,001 46,037 48,003 NEW DELHI VFX has become the driving force behind movies Page 5 Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov 2022 522,054 545,993 Source: Carmakers gre presence in the electric vehicle segment — the main driver behind Tata’s success — continues. Currently, Hyundai has just one EV in the market, the Kona, which has sold only about 1,200 units since its launch in July 2019,with average sales of 50-60 units every month,comparedtoanaverage 3,400 electric cars sold byTata Motors per month. Continued on Page 2 IN THE NEWS Russia says it won't accept oil Navy to open all branches price cap, readying response for women from next year RUSSIA "WILL not accept" a price cap on its oil and is analysing how to respond, the Kremlin said in comments reported on Saturday, in response to a deal by Western powers aimed at limiting a key source of funding for its war in Ukraine, reports Reuters. ■ PAGE 16 RAFALE FOR THE INDIAN NAVY: FORCE MULTIPLIER AT SEA. © Dassault aviation. C.Cosmao CELEBRATING NAVY DAY New Delhi THE INDIAN Navy is looking at opening all its branches for women from next year, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar said on Saturday, reports PTI. Kumar also said the first batch of around 3,000 'Agniveers' has been inducted and it included 341 women. ■ PAGE 2