MARKETS, P9 INTERNATIONAL, P8 COMPANIES, P4 COMBINED STAKE OF 30% SEPARATE IPOs LIKELY MERGER WITH AIR INDIA Piramal, TPG said to be weighing exit from Shriram General Alibaba to split into six units in historic restructuring First priority my staff, will see what’s in store for me: Vistara CEO KOLKATA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2023 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL 32 NO. 126, 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: 57,613.72 ▼ 40.14 NIFTY: 16,951.70 ▼ 34.00 NIKKEI 225: 27,518.25 ▲ 41.38 HANG SENG: 19,784.65 ▲ 216.96 `/$: 82.19 ▲ 0.18 `/€: 88.91 ▼ 0.23 BRENT: $77.88 ▼ $0.24 GOLD: `58,765 ▲ `104 FE INDIA’S BEST BANKS Will SME really become the new retail? FE Best Banks brings you insights into why banks are eyeing this space. Also, meet the winners of the Best Banks awards selected by a high-powered jury Dipak Gupta, joint MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Banker of the Year, talks of how millennials can be profitable customers WITH TODAY’S EDITION IN THE NEWS Deadline for linking PAN & Aadhaar extended to June 30 THE CENTRAL Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has extended the last date for linking PAN to Aadhaar to June 30 from the earlier March 31 to provide some additional time to taxpayers, reports fe Bureau. “From July 1, 2023, PAN of taxpayers who have failed to intimate their Aadhaar, as required, shall become inoperative,” the CBDT said on Tuesday. Vedanta announces fifth interim dividend VEDANTA LTD, a subsidiary of Londonheadquartered Vedanta Resources, has approved its fifth interim dividend of `20.50 per share for FY23, entailing an outgo of `7,621 crore, reports Rajesh Kurup. ■ PAGE 4 Govt cancels licence of 18 pharma firms CENTRALAND state regulators conducted joint inspections at 76 pharma companies and cancelled the licences of 18 of them for producing spurious and adulterated drugs, sources told PTI. ■ PAGE 3 11 FIRMS SELECTED UNDER TRANCHE II Reliance, Tata bag solar PLI projects Incentives worth `14,000 cr on offer FE BUREAU New Delhi, March 28 AS MANY AS 11 companies, including Reliance, ReNew, Indosol, First Solar, Tata Power Solar and Avaada have bagged solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing projects of a total 39,600 MW capacity under the second tranche of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the solar sector, the Union power ministry said on Tuesday. The tranche II,which entails a budget outlay of `14,007 crore,is estimated to generate investments worth `93,401 crore and over 100,000 jobs, 35% of which would be direct employment,the ministry said. Manufacturing capacity totalling 7,400 MW is expected to become operational by October 2024, 16,800 MW capacity by April 2025 and the balance 15,400 MW capacity byApril 2026. The good response to the tenders is expected to give a fillip to India’s efforts to build a globally competitive domestic manufacturing base for solar PV cells and modules. It would cut import dependence for these products in a big way. India has set an ambitious plan to have a solar capacity of 280 gigawatt (GW) by2030.The PLI scheme is also inkeepingwithIndia’scommitmenttoreduce carbon intensity of the economy. Power minister RK Singh said: “The PLI scheme has proved to be a watershed event in GREEN GOALS `93,401 cr `14,007 cr worth of investments expected budget outlay for solar PLI tranche II 39,600 MW total capacity of solar photovoltaic manufacturing projects 100,000 jobs likely to be created, 35% direct employment India’s renewable landscape, resulting in around 48 GW domestic module manufacturing capacity within the next three years. The scheme has boosted the government’s efforts to reduce not onlythe impact of global supply chain shocks but also our import dependence adhering to the Prime Minister’s vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.” A total integrated capacity of 8,737 MW was allocated undertranche I of the scheme in November-December 2022. Continued on Page 2 States offer to underwrite flight seats under Udan scheme Move follows airlines’ lukewarm response to many new routes SWARAJ BAGGONKAR Mumbai, March 28 STATE GOVERNMENTS ARE offering to underwrite certain capacity for flights that connect regional airports under the Ude Desh kaAam Naagrik (Udan) scheme after many new routes failed to generate enough enthusiasm among airlines. Udan, launched in 2016, was positioned as a game changer as it promised to connect several unserved and underserved airports in the country by making air travel more affordable. But as new routes closed without receiving any bids, the Centre believes that the scheme needs some tweaking to regenerate interest from stakeholders. Speaking to FE,civil aviation secretary SOME TURBULENCE ■ Launched in 2016, Udan promised to connect several unserved and underserved airports in the country ■ Govt had put out bids for 6 routes under the scheme, connecting Imphal,Agartala and Assam ■ In February, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman doubled the scheme outlay for 2023-24 to `1,244 crore Rajiv Bansal said: “A lot of the low-hanging fruits, where it was easier to operate, are already done.As we go forward, it will become increasingly difficult. We will need to support them in betterways.” With the opening of new airports,coupled with restarting of operations at older ones,stategovernments,whichareeagerto put non-metro markets on the aviation map,have come forwardwith a solution. None of the 6 routes operationalised yet “The state governments have been coming forward to underwrite a certain numberofseats.Theprimeministerinaugurated Shivamogga airport recentlyand now the Karnataka government is reaching out to air carriers with an assurance that they will underwrite some seats for some period of time,”Bansal added. Continued on Page 2 Sebi eases onboarding process for foreign portfolio investors Irdai allows insurers flexibility in paying commissions THE SECURITIES and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has eased the onboarding process of FPIs with the aim of reducing the time taken for granting registration and opening of demat, trading and bank accounts of foreign portfolio investors (FPIs),reports fe Bureau.FPI registration can now be granted on the basis of scanned copies of executed Common Application Form (CAF) and certified supporting documents. ■ Report on Page 9 NOTIFYINGTHE paymentofcommissionregulationsforthe insurance industry, coming into effect from April 1, insurance regulator Irdai has replaced the earlier caps on commissionpaymentsindifferentlinesofbusinesswithanoverall cap on expenses of management at the company level, reports Mithun Dasgupta. With this, insurers will have the flexibility to pay commissions to agents as per their board-approved policies. ■ Report on Page 14 EPFO may raise equity exposure to 15% cap Move prompted by higher returns from ETFs, falling income from debt PF interest rate marginally raised to 8.15% for FY23 SURABHI New Delhi, March 28 INAMOVE aimedatimprovingthereturnsfor itsover65millionsubscribers,theEmployees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) may increase its exposure to equities via exchange traded funds (ETFs) up to the maximum permitted level of 15% of annual investible funds in the next fiscal. The 15% ceiling was never fully used bythe EPFO; in FY23,onlya little over 10% of incremental deposits by the subscribers got invested in ETFs. The move is prompted by the attractive returns from ETF investments after the pandemic and a trend of declining income from a chunk of its debt investments,forcing it to sell ETFinvestments to find resources for interest payouts to the subscribers. According to sources,the Central Board of Trustees (CBT), which met here on Monday and Tuesday, gave “an in-principle approval” to the retirement funds body to invest up to 15% of its annual incremen- SUBSCRIBERS OFtheEmployees’ProvidentFundOrganisation(EPFO) willgetan interestof8.15%ontheirretirementsavings in 2022-23,marginally higher than 8.1% for 2021-22, which was a fourdecadelow,reportsSurabhi.Thedecision was taken onTuesdayat a meeting of the Central Board of Trustees of the EPFO chaired by Union labour and employment ministerBhupenderYadav. “We have been making investments conservatively as we believe theEPFOisthemoneyoftheworkers. Thelabourministryfollowstheguidelines of the finance ministry.We have a two-fold objective to increase the corpus andtoinvestitcorrectly,”Yadavsaid. ■ Report on Page 2 tal deposits in ETFs that replicate the portfolio of either the BSE Sensex Index or the NSE Nifty 50 Index. Continued on Page 2 ENTRY-LEVEL BROADBAND PLAN AT `198/MONTH Jio offer may pull the plug on cable TV JATIN GROVER New Delhi, March 28 DAYS BEFORETHE IndianPremierLeague (IPL) is scheduled to begin, the cable TV industry could witness another setback owing to Reliance Jio’s newbundled offering of fixed broadband, OTT and live TV channels at reduced rates. Thepay-TVindustry,whichisalreadywitnessing‘cord cutting’with subscribers disconnecting cable connections and moving to OTTplatforms,could see the trend acceleratingwiththelatestdisruptivetariffpackages by Jio, which aim at convergence between wireless telecom services, fixed broadband and broadcasting services. Till now, the fear among cable TV and DTHoperatorswaslargelyrelatedtothefree streamingofIPLonJioCinema.However,the only thing theywere positive about was the highercostofdatawhichtheuserswillhave to factor in before shifting to JioCinema for watching IPL free on a 4K resolution. Now, Jio’sentry-levelbroadbandplan,atapriceas low as `198 per month with top internet speedof10Mbps,couldcausesomeserious DISRUPTION AHEAD `400 per month average price of a TV channel bouquet `298 per month 110-130 million India’s pay TV subscriber base 30 million fixed broadband subscribers in the country 7.7 million Jio's home broadband subscribers as of December end Jio's entry level bundled offering with 10 Mbps internet speed, 6 OTT apps, 400 live TV channels troublefortheoperatorsaswellasIPLbroadcasterDisneyStar,industryanalysts said. Lately,RelianceIndustries-ownedmultisystemoperatorssuchasHathway,DenNetworks and GTPL,which have a subscriber base of 20 million, removed Star channels (includingStarSports)fromtheirbaseplans, making cable TV subscriptions 15-20% costlyforsubscribers just before IPL. “We believe the new plan is targeted at thecableuserwhohasseenasignificantrise in cable bills and a drop in the number of channels. The new plan by RJio will offer more content (OTT + live TV) and fixed broadbanddataatlargelypayTVprice(bundled plans offered bylocal cable operators),” saidSanjeshJainandAkashKumar,research analysts at ICICI Securities. Continued on Page 2 Kolkata