MARKETS, P9 COMPANIES, P4 INTERNATIONAL, P7 TO ASSUME A LARGER STRATEGIC ROLE APPRAISAL CYCLE UNDERWAY POST-PANDEMIC BLUES Chandra Shekhar Ghosh to retire as MD & CEO of Bandhan Bank in July Air India enters final leg of transformation journey: CEO Wilson In first big wave of cuts, Apple lays off over 600 in California MUMBAI, SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL LXIV NO. 82, 14 PAGES, `12.00 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: 74,248.22 ▲ 20.59 NIFTY: 22,513.70 ▼ 0.95 NIKKEI 225: 38,992.08 ▼ 781.06 HANG SENG: 16,723.92 ▼ 1.18 `/$: 83.29 ▲ 0.15 `/€: 90.28 ▲ 0.33 BRENT: $91.09 ▲ $0.44 GOLD: `69,720 ▲ `64 IN THE NEWS DAIMLER GEARS UP TO LAUNCH LIGHT E-TRUCK IN INDIA DAIMLER INDIA COMMERCIAL Vehicles will be foraying into the EV segment with the launch of eCanter later this year, reports Swaraj Baggonkar. The vehicle will be brought in the form of kits from Japan and later assembled in India. ■ PAGE 4 JSWTO USE `5K-CR QIP FUNDS TO CUT DEBT FOR RE ARM JSW ENERGY IS looking to use the proceeds from its `5,000-crore QIP for repayment and prepayment of its debt and investment in its renewable arm JSW Neo Energy, reports Raghavendra Kamath. ■ PAGE 4 NESTLE INDIATO PAY HIGHER ROYALTYTO PARENT COMPANY FMCG MAJOR NESTLE India on Friday said its board has approved an increase in royalty payment by 0.15% per year for the next five years to its parent firm, thereby enhancing it to 5.25% of sales from 4.5% now, reports Viveat Susan Pinto. ■ PAGE 4 GAS UTILITIES TO SEE STRONG Q4 ON HEALTHYVOLUMES INDIA’S GAS UTILITIES and city gas distribution companies are expected to end the financial year 2023-24 with healthy growth primarily on the back of lower costs of gas and stronger volumes, as per analysts, reports Arunima Bharadwaj. ■ PAGE 2 MARICO, GCPL SEE SINGLE-DIGIT SALES GROWTH IN Q4 FMCG COMPANIES MARICO and Godrej Consumer expect consolidated sales growth in Q4 to be low to midsingle digit, according to their quarterly updates, reports Viveat Susan Pinto. ■ PAGE 5 BHARTI HEXACOM IPO SUBSCRIBED 30 TIMES ON LAST DAY BHARTI HEXACOM’S IPO saw a strong demand from qualified institutional buyers and HNIs, leading to the issue getting bids nearly 29.88 times the number of shares on offer. TWO RUSSIA-MADE WARSHIPS SETTO JOIN INDIAN NAVY INDIAWILLTAKE delivery of two Russiamade warships in the next few months, as the two work around US sanctions that created difficulties in paying for Russian weapons systems, reports Bloomberg. FE S P E C I A L Apache RTR 310: Terrestrial rocket that defies gravity But the TVS engine vibrates a lot at high speeds, and can rattle your entire body. ■ MOTOBAHN, P7 ● REPO RATE UNCHANGED AT 6.5% FOR THE 7TH TIME ● FOCUS ON INFLATION TO ENSURE ITS DESCENT TO 4% For RBI, the elephantine task is still far from over JOYDEEP GHOSH Mumbai, April 5 IT’S QUITE RARE fora Reserve Bank of India governor to wish that his monetary policies are able to make sure that“the elephant that has now goneoutforawalk”returnstotheforest and remains there on a durable basis. But Shaktikanta Das did preciselythatwhilereferringtoinflation — the“elephant in the room”for the Indian economytwoyears ago. ThatexplainswhyRBIstucktoits hawkish policy tone on Friday.The first monetary policy in the new fiscal didn’t spring any surprises in termsofrateactionorstance.Consequently, both the equity and bond markets stayed almost flat,with the 10-yearG-Sec rising a tad by3 bps. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the policy repo rate unchanged for the seventh time at 6.5%bya5:1majority.Thestanceof the policyalso remained unchanged at ‘withdrawal of accommodation’ with5outof6membersvotingforit. Das said, “robust growth prospectsprovidethepolicyspaceto remain focused on inflation and ensure its descent to the target of 4%”.TheforecastsforGDPandinflation for FY25 remains unchanged at No change in policy on forex derivatives SHAKTIKANTA DAS, RBI GOVERNOR CPI (SHOULD) ALIGN ITSELF TO THE TARGET ON A DURABLE BASIS. UNTIL THIS IS ACHIEVED, OUR TASK REMAINS UNFINISHED RBI SAIDTHEREis no change in the policyon exchange-traded currency derivatives and reiterated that underlying forex exposure is necessaryfortransactingin rupeederivatives,reports SachinKumar. ■ P8 Forex reserves jump to all-time high INDIA’S FOREX RESERVES rose $2.9 billion to reach an all-time high of $645.6 billion as of March 29,reports fe Bureau.Forex reserves stood at $642.6 billion in the week ended March 22. ■ P8 7%and4.5%,respectively,withrisks equallybalancedacrossquarters.But Das flagged that food pricevolatility remains a concern, although core inflation has fallen sharply in recent months to below4%. Continued on Page 9 INSIDE CONSUMER CONFIDENCE HITS MID-2019 HIGH PAGE 2 OPINION: PLAYING IT SAFE PAGE 6 Expect normalcy by May: Vistara CEO MANOJ RAMMOHAN New Delhi, April 5 FULL-SERVICE CARRIER Vistara expects operations to normalise by May as the flight disruptions,mainlycausedbyastretchedroster for pilots, are getting addressed, its CEO Vinod Kannan said on Friday.He also said the concerns raised by the pilots are being reviewed and discussed by the airline. The Tata Group airline cancelled many flights earlierthisweek due to the non-availability of pilots and has also been forced to temporarily reduce the overall flight operations in order to stabilise the situation. The carrier cancelled more than 125 flights over three days from April 1. In an interview on Friday,Kannan said the need to cancel flights at short notice will not happen after this weekend as the buffer situation for VINOD KANNAN, CEO, VISTARA WE HAVE STRETCHED THE ROSTERS FOR PILOTS QUITE SIGNIFICANTLY. WHEN THERE WERE DISRUPTIONS, THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH BUFFER UPI payments from PPI wallets proposed RBI HAS PROPOSED permitting linkingof prepaid payment instrumentsvia third-partyUPI apps,thus allowingPPIwallet holders more flexibilityto make UPI payments, reports AjayRamanathan. ■ P8 Zee to lay off 15% of workforce, eyes leaner organisation pilots is stabilising.“It might be a reduced schedule.We are back to normal as far as the flights that are operating.The need to cancel flights at short notice will not happen after this weekend,”he said. According to him, the buffer situation in terms of pilots is stabilising and there is no cause for concern about last-minute flight cancellations. “From Monday, whatever flightsare in thesystem,theyshouldbe operating,” Kannan said as he sought to assure travellers that flights will not be cancelled at the last minute. Aspartofreducedoperations,Kannansaid the airline has cut 20-25 daily flights.Vistara is to operate more than 300 flights daily in the ongoing summer schedule.Theairlinecancelledsomeflights on Friday.“We are now working on the schedule forMay,andwewill try andoptimiseittocometousualkind ofoperations.Weexpectnormaloperations (by May),”Kannan said. Further, the CEO said the airline will continue to have discussions with pilots to address their concerns. Vistara, a joint venturebetweenTatasand SingaporeAirlines,has a total of 6,500 staff, including 1,000 pilots and 2,500 cabin crew. Continued on Page 9 VIVEAT SUSAN PINTO Mumbai, April 5 ZEE ENTERTAINMENTWILL lay off an estimated 15% of itsworkforce as MD and CEO Punit Goenka proposes a leaner and more streamlined management structure. The company aims to reduce costs and achieve the targeted objectives of 8-10% revenue growth and 1820% Ebitda margins by FY26. Thelayoffsareexpectedtoaffect approximately 500 employees, of the total 3,437 permanent staff. The announcement comes within days of Goenka's decision to take a voluntarypaycut of 20%. On Friday, Zee proposed a new structure,seeking to establish a cost-efficient operational model.This model is designed to spur higher growth by focusing on performance and profitability,Zee said. Goenka had laid out a three-pronged strategy — cuttingcosts,reducingbusinessoverlapsandenhancingcontentquality—inFebruarysoonafterSonyhadcalledoffits proposed $10-billion mergerwith Zee in January. “Building a simplified, lateral structure for the company,will ensure thatwe maintain a sharperfocus on performance, profitabilityand productivity,” Goenka said on Friday. In the last one month, Zee has seen senior-level exits, including Rahul Johri,president of business; Punit Misra, presidentofcontentandinternationalmarkets;andNitin Mittal,presidentandgroupchieftechnologyofficer,aspart of its efforts to cut costs and streamline operations. Goenkahasproposedpromotingteammembersacross different businessunits to higherresponsibilities. Continued on Page 9 Govt may shelve `2-trn freight corridor plan Low demand for the existing ones OFF TRACK MANU KAUSHIK New Delhi, April 5 THE GOVERNMENT IS likely to abandon the plan to set up three more dedicated freight corridors (DFCs) — East Coast, East-West and North-South — at an estimated combined cost of `2 trillion. The Centre may instead opt for a few commodity-specific rail networks, a senior railway official told FE on condition of anonymity. The move comes in the wake of the railways having to hard-sell the recently commissioned east and west freight corridors to potential bulk customers,and the issues that have cropped up of the network planning of these projects. The capacity utilisation of the two corridors remain low. The rethink on the three additional DFCs is despite the fact that the Railway Board has recently receivedthedetailedprojectreports for two or them (East Coast and North-South), and the DPR on the thirdone—East-West—isexpected anytime soon. According to the source, members of the railways board and the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCCL) have already met once to discuss DPRs.“The reports for new DFCs have been submitted to the rail ministry for further approvals,butitislikelythattherailways will not pursue the proposed EAST COAST KharagpurVijaywada NORTH-SOUTH ItarasiVijaywada 1,078 km 931 km Approx. cost `49,965 cr `43,152 cr DPR: Submitted EAST-WEST RajkharswanPalgharAndal Dankuni 2,106 km 200 km Approximate cost `97,613 cr `9,270 cr DPR: Yet to be submitted corridors. Instead, the focus will be on building commodity-based corridors as announced by the finance minister,”said the official. In her interim Budget speech, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced major railway corridor projects. These are exclusive corridors for specific commodities — energy, mineral and cement — and forspecific purposes like port connectivity, and hightraffic density. Continued on Page 9 Byju’s stake sale in Aakash blocked ADITYA KALRA & ARPAN CHATURVEDI New Delhi, April 5 HARD LESSONS EDTECHSTARTUPBYJU'Sbreached termsofloansworth$42millionand hasbeenaskedbyanarbitratornotto sell some shares of a group firm, a confidential ordershowed,the latest setback for the company already battling allegations of mismanagement. Byju’s was the country’s biggest startup until 2022 when it was valued at $22 billion, but has seen its fortunes dwindle amid an auditor exit, regulatoryprobesandcallsfromits investorstooustitsCEOByjuRaveendran formismanagement.The company, now valued at around $250 million,deniesanywrongdoing. Inthelatestdispute,MEMGFamilyOffice,ledbyRanjanPai,inMarch initiated arbitration proceedings againstByju’sforallegedlynotrepaying its loans amounting to $42 millionthroughapre-agreedtransferof certain shares of a Byju’s groupcompany,Aakash Education. An arbitrator, appointed under $42 ■ Edtech major breached terms ofloanworth million, says arbitrator ■ Ranjan Pailed MEMG Family Office initiated arbitration in March ■ It alleges Byju's did not repay its loans in the latest setback for troubled edtech major ■ The amount was to come from pre-agreed transfer of shares ofAakash Singapore International Arbitration Centrerules,hasorderedByju’snotto disposeof4millionsharesofAaaksh, which as per the loan agreement amounted to a 6% stake last year, according to theApril 4 order. Continued on Page 2 PROMISES TO WAIVE STUDENT LOANS AND ABOLISH AGNIPATH SCHEME Congress’ Nyay Patra: Income support, health cover for all PRASANTA SAHU New Delhi, April 5 THECONGRESSONFridayunveiled “Nyay Patra”, the manifesto for the national elections 2024with a spate of welfare promises, including a `1 lakh/annum “unconditional” incomesupportto“eachpoorfamily” and“universal”cashlesshealthinsuranceofupto`25lakhforallfamilies. The largest Opposition party,which ruled for the longest period, but has been out of power at the Centre for the last decade, also promised to waive student loans, including unpaid interest,fill 3 million vacancies in the central government and abolish theAgnipath scheme (shortterm contractual recruits in defence forces) byresuming regularhiring. PROMISE OF FISCAL BOUNTY Basic income support of `100,000 to ‘each poor family’ `10.74 trillion estimated annual cost* The largesse promised could be fiscally extravagant and impractical unless substantial additional resources are moblised via means like hefty new taxes, analysts said. The Universal health cover of `25 lakh `50,000 crore Estimated annual cost# 3 million central govt recruitment The annual wage bill of 3.56 mn current civilian central government employees `3 trillion *Estimate by FE based on SECC 2011 count of 107.4 mn vulnerable families; #to be shared between center and states in 6:4 ratio promised income support — Mahalakshmi scheme — forthe pooritself could cost the exchequer `10.7 trillion or nearly a quarter of the size of the Union Budget FY24, assuming the number of“poor and vulnerable families”remain107millionasidentified by the Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011,the latest available. WhileseveraleconomistsandNiti Aayog functionaries had said earlier, contendINSIDE argue that poverty has ing that it would not be LEGAL MSP fallen to just 5%, this is practical for a developing PLAN SEEN contested by many,who countrylike India. COSTLY see a rise in incidence of The Congress also poverty after the panpromised to introduce a ■ PAGE 2 demic.TheCongresshassingle GST rate with a few n’t explained in the manifesto how exceptions and a Direct Tax Code to exactly the“poor families”would be streamline income tax structure. It identifiedorthe scheme funded. willalsoworktoraisethe50%capon It said the poor will be identified reservations for SC,ST and OBC,and “amongthefamiliesatthebottomof reserve 10% in jobs and educational the income pyramid”. The scheme institutionsforeconomicallyweaker will be rolled out in stages and rev- sections forall castes and communiiewed every year to assess the num- ties without discrimination. Howber of beneficiary families and its ever,the Economic Survey 2016-17 impactonalleviatingpoverty,itsaid. authored by the then CEA Arvind The cost of a universal basic Subramanian had indicated that the income scheme (UBI) is likely to be UBI deserves a careful examination. astoundinglyhigh,whichVAnantha Nageswaran,chiefeconomicadviser, Continued on Page 9