BRANDWAGON, P9 BACK PAGE, P16 INTERNATIONAL, P7 SENTIMENT SOURED THE BIG PICTURE LABOUR PARTY PREDICTED TO WIN Only 3 films earned over `100 cr each in Indian market this year As India's apparel market booms, Zudio stands out with its style Latest polls say Sunak’s Conservative party heads for poll wipeout KOLKATA, MONDAY, JUNE 17, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL 33 NO. 193, 14 PAGES, `12.00 (NORTH EAST STATES & ANDAMAN `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 A TA , 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 Paytm in talks with Zomato to N E W S Budget may push sell movie ticketing business IN THE FM’S PRE-BUDGET CONSULTATIONS TO BEGIN JUNE 19 FINANCE MINISTER NIRMALA Sitharaman will hold pre-Budget consultations with industry chambers on June 20, sources said. In the first leg of her interactions with the stakeholders, the minister will hold consultations with representatives of various sectors of the economy from June 19 to June 25, sources said. ■ PAGE 2 VISA CURBS MAY BE EASED FOR SKILLED CHINESE WORKERS THE GOVERNMENT IS planning to ease the visa restrictions for Chinese technicians further, reports Mukesh Jagota. Needbased relaxations would be offered to all manufacturing units that are in the process of installing Chinese machinery. ■ PAGE 2 SBI TO MONETISE SUBSIDIARIES AFTER THEIR SCALING UP SBI CHAIRMAN Dinesh Kumar Khara has said the lender would wait for its subsidiaries to further scale up their operations before monetising them, reports PTI. ■ PAGE 6 ESSAR TO INVEST `30K CR IN GREEN HYDROGEN PLANT ESSAR GROUP PLANS to invest `30,000 crore over the next four years in setting up a green hydrogen plant at Jamnagar as the metals-to-infrastructure conglomerate eyes clean energy as a key pillar for its new phase of growth, reports PTI. ■ PAGE 5 RURAL STIMULUS ON FMCG FIRMS' BUDGETWISH LIST FMCG COMPANIES ARE hoping the upcoming Budget will improve the purchasing power of rural consumers as firms eye a faster recovery in the market, reports Viveat Susan Pinto. ■ PAGE 4 INDIA OPTS OUT OF UKRAINE DECLARATION SAUDI ARABIA, INDIA, South Africa, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico and the UAE were among countries participating at a summit on peace for Ukraine that did not sign a final communique, the Swiss government said on Sunday. ■ PAGE 7 Markets closed today on account of Eid FE S P E C I A L S RBI SURPLUS TO HELP CHECK FISCAL DEFICIT capex, unveil income support Schemes for MSMEs to be streamlined to aid job creation ON THE TABLE ■ Recently, PRASANTA SAHU New Delhi, June 16 Sanjiv Puri, CMD, ITC and CII president, suggested that the government raise Budget ■ The Centre THE FIRST BUDGET of the new government may unveil an income support scheme for the deprived families on the lines of PM-Kisan and give an additional boost to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) by streamlining schemes to support job creation,sources said.It could,however,alsoraisethecapitalexpenditure toamoreelevatedlevelthanproposedintheFebruary interim Budget,which sent a message of gradualslowingofpubliccapexpaceandletthe privatecorporatesectordotheheavylifting. On a higher base after increasing capex by over30%inthepastthreeyears,theCentreprovided an outlay of `11.11 trillion for the FY25 interimBudget,anincreaseofaround11%over the FY24 Budget estimate and 16.9% over the FY24revisedestimate.Whiletheoutlaywasthen considered to be enough as private capex was expected to pick up,investments by corporate India have not been broad-based even though capacity utilisation has reached the trigger thresholdof75%. Recently,Sanjiv Puri,chairman & managing director of ITC and Confederation of Indian Industry president,suggested that the governmentraiseBudgetcapexby25%onyearinFY25, given thewindfalldividendof `2.1trillionfrom theReserveBankofIndia,andstrongtaxreceipts. provided an outlay of `11.11 trn for the FY25 interim Budget, an increase of around 11% over the FY24 Budget estimate capex by 25% on year in FY25 ■ Preliminary discussions suggest that the Centre may look at steps to counter the poll manifesto of the principal opposition party Congress Discussions in advanced stages; others also in fray ANTO ANTONY & SANKALP PHARTIYAL June 16 PAYTM IS in talks with Zomato to sell its movieandeventsticketingbusiness,accordingtopeoplefamiliarwiththematter,asthe beleaguered fintech company carves a revivalstrategyamidweakeningsales. The discussions between Paytm, officially known as One97 Communications, and online food delivery firm Zomato are inadvancedstages,thoughthereareother suitors for the business, the people said, declining to be named as the matteris private.Talks are ongoing and no final decision has been made,the people said. Paytm,run bybillionaire founder-CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, last month ON A REVIVAL PATH ■ Paytm reported sales of `17.4 billion last fiscal in its marketing services business, which includes movie and events ■ The purchase could help Zomato to expand its digital business into a new highgrowth area ■ Paytm had earlier warned of job cuts, reflecting the fallout from regulatory action on Paytm Payments Bank ■ The sale, if successful, will allow Paytm to sharpen its focus on travel, deals and cash backs businesses reported its first sales decline on record, and vowed to trim non-core assets.It also warned of job cuts, reflecting the fallout from regulatory action on Paytm Payments Bank that’s curtailed much of the fintech’s business and forced it to forge new partnerships with lenders. Paytm does not control the bank but relied on it for digital wallets and payments traffic before the central bank’s move earlier this year. Paytm and Zomato did not respond to requests for comment outside of regular business hours. Continued on Page 7 ● PROTESTAGAINST NETANYAHU REUTERS ■ The Modi government may convert the PM-KISAN programme to a sort of Universal Basic Income (UBI) scheme He also said,such Budget spending on asset creation,coupledwithanexpectedpick-upinprivate investments,would help in accomplishing 8% realGDPforthesecondstraightyear. “The government’s capex will likely remain elevatedeveninthecomingyearstokeepupthe tempo in economic activity and jobs creation,” anofficialsaid,addingthattheallocationsforthis yearwerelikelytobeenhancedfurther. Continued on Page 7 AI, chip projects our focus areas: Vaishnaw seen in the light that we are developing a totally new industry,”he said. Before the polls, the government had EXECUTION OF AI (artificial intelligence) approved a total of four semiconductor promission and consolidation of the approved jects totalling `1.49 trillion.Of the `76,000semiconductor projects will be the top prior- croreincentivescheme,around`60,000crore ityofthegovernmentinthetechnologyspace, has already been budgeted for these projects. On the AI mission,where the government ITand electronics ministerAshwiniVaishnaw had approved an outlay of `10,372 crore told FE. In an exclusive interview, the first after before the elections,Vaishnaw said that apart from the execution,domesassuming office under the tic production ofAI chipsets new government, Vaishnaw will also be on the agenda. said the other two priority ASHWINI VAISHNAW, “Some companies are areas will be: one, to scale up IT and electronics minister ready to give us base level manufacturing of hardware, laptops and servers to the THE GOVERNMENTWILL power chips. If we develop on top of that, we can have level of smartphones. SecSEEK TO CREATE our own chip for inferencond, in smartphones, an JOBS THROUGH ing. For model training, we export-led growth strategy would require GPUs will be worked upon. MANUFACTURING OF (graphic processing units)," “In semiconductors, the SMARTPHONES, IT he said. focus is on the execution of HARDWARE, AND AI chipsets basically thealreadyapprovedprojects. ELECTRONICS mean GPUs, which are Weshouldmovecarefullyand essential for creating AI focus on execution of COMPONENTS models as these require approved projects. Once the large-scalecomputing.Cenecosystemcrossesthethreshtral processing units (CPUs) old, then we should increase arenotabletodosuchlargethe pace," Vaishnaw said, scale computing.At present, adding that he will soon visit the US and China lead in all the sites to get an update. computing infrastructure “We are in very good required for the developshape with regard to semiment ofAI technology. conductor projects. We can now target to be among the top10semiconductorhubs Continued on Page 7 by 2030. This should be JATIN GROVER & RISHI RAJ New Delhi, June 16 A demonstration against PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and a call for the release of hostages in Gaza, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Tel Aviv. The Israeli military on Sunday said it would hold daily tactical pauses in military activity along a main road in southern Gaza to allow more aid to flow in ■ REPORT ON PAGE 7 Order book of top firms up 18% RAJESH KURUP & KISHOR KADAM Mumbai, June 16 INTANDEMWITH a rebounding economy and steep rise in project spends,the order book of infrastructure firms surged 18.3% in FY24 and the momentum is expected to continue. The total order book of 25 top companies – across infrastructure, power and capitalgoods – rose to `12.22 trillion as of March 31, compared with `10.33 trillion as of FY23-end. Engineering and construction major LarsenandToubro(L&T)toppedthecharts with an order book position of `4.75 trillion, a 19.1% rise from `3.99 trillion recorded last year. Bharat Heavy Electricals,with an order book position of `1.31 trillion(44.1%rise) came in at second,followed by Hindustan Aeronautics at `94,000 crore (up 14.9%). L&T expects the order book to rise by another `1 trillion in FY25 as it is bullish on India and other markets. “My sense is that investment in infrastructure in the countrywill continue and that's the backbone for a competitive economy. We continue to be bullish on other markets where we operate in, such as the Middle East,Far East orAfrica,”L&T president and CFO RShankarRaman said. The total orderbook position of top 25 firms had risen 9.7% in FY23 from `9.42 trillion during the year-ago period. “Manyaspectsadduptotheorderbook building. To sustain and drive the GDP growth to enable India to reach a $5-trillion economy by 2025 itself calls for huge spending on the basic industrial and urban infrastructure building,” N S Rao, Group CFO at Ramky Group said. MOMENTUM TO CONTINUE Order book (` cr) L&T FY23 FY24 399,500 475,809 % chg 19.1 91,336 131,600 44.1 Hindustan Aeronautics 81,784 94,000 14.9 Bharat Electronics 60,690 76,000 25.2 45,918 58,415 27.2 BHEL Kalpataru Power Transmission Continued on Page 7 CONTRIBUTION FROM NON-ENGLISH & HINDI OFFERINGS SET TO HIT 25-30% IN COMING YEARS Edtechs chart regional language path for revenue growth ■ EXPLAINER, P9 Is there a shortage of phone numbers? The numbers represent an exceedingly valuable public resource which is not infinite ■ PERSONAL FINANCE, P8 Sectoral funds: Bet on manufacturing funds now These sectoral funds also have high concentration risks S SHANTHI Bengaluru, June 16 EDTECH STARTUPS THAT have been primarily focusing on Hindi and English content so far,are now ramping up their other regional language offerings. The reason is simple.The total industryrevenues from non-English-Hindi offerings, which is currently around 10%, is likely to reach around 25-30% in the coming years. The reason being that in the last one or two years,languages such as Assamese,Odia,Sanskrit,Kashmiri, Konkani,Manipuri,Punjabi,Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu have seen GROWTH ENGINE ■ The total industry revenues from non-EnglishHindi offerings is currently around 10% ■ In the last one or two years, ■ The edtech startups have been strengthening their regional marketing efforts, leveraging artificial intelligence better and collaborating with local educators languages such as Assamese, Odia etc have seen demand rising in the kindergartengrade 12, entrance prep and state exam prep segments demand rising in the K-12 (kindergarten-grade 12), entrance prep and state exam prep segments. PRATEEK MAHESHWARI, co-founder, Physicswallah AI WILL PLAY A CRUCIAL ROLE INTRANSFORMING VERNACULAR EDUCATION BY TRANSLATING MATERIALS INTO REGIONAL LANGUAGES Especially, Odia, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati and Tamil,have seen maximumuptick,accordingtoanalysts. Take the case of Google-backed edtech startup Adda247. The startup offers online courses for over 500 exams in more than 12 languages. Founded in 2016, it has observed a 100% year-on-year growth in this segment since 2020. InFY24 and FY23,around 40%and 36% of its total revenue respectivelycame from non-Hindi-speaking regions.“Weplantoextendto23 more states and languages this year,”Anil Nagar, founder and CEO, Adda247 told FE. These startups have been strengthening their regional marketing efforts, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) betterand collaborating with local educators. Vidyakul, an edtech startup catering to class 9-12 students in UP and Bihar, expanded to Gujarat less than one-and-a-half years ago. Today, 20-25% of its revenue comes from the belt. “We also source educators locallyto staytrue tothedialectsspokenintheregion,” Tarun Saini, co-founder and CEO, Vidyakul said. The overall nonHindi contribution has also led to 3x growth in registered and paid users for Vidyakul. The startup expects its revenue from these offerings to grow 4x, its paid user count 10x and registered users 7x by FY25. These startups expect an average of2x-5xgrowthyear-on-yearin these belts in the next 5-6 years. Continued on Page 7 Kolkata