BACK PAGE | PAGE 24 COMPANIES | PAGE 4 The world trusts us, we are for peace: Modi in debut podcast INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 7 Supply chain issues dent luxury car sales in 2024 LosAngeles battles to contain fires, 10 dead NEW DELHI, SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 2025 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL. L NO. 269, 32 PAGES, `12 (PATNA & RAIPUR `12, SRINAGAR `15) 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, MU M B A I , N E W D E L H I , P U N E SENSEX: 77,378.91 ▼ 241.30 NIFTY: 23,431.50 ▼ 95.00 NIKKEI 225: 39,190.40 ▼ 414.69 HANG SENG: 19,064.29 ▼ 176.60 `/$: 85.97 ▼ 0.11 `/€: 88.56 ▼ 0.06 BRENT: $79.73 ▲ $2.81 GOLD: `77,784 ▲ `429 BRITISH TELECOM FIRM Vodafone has sold its entire stake in Indus Towers for `2,800 crore, reports PTI. Vodafone has sold 3% stake in Indus Towers and used `890 crore from the proceeds to clear lenders dues. ■ PAGE 4 NaBFID plans to raise record `40,000 crore in Jan-Mar quarter STATE-RUN NABFID is planning its largest ever fundraising of `40,000 crore from the local-debt market via bonds and loans for January-March, reports Bloomberg. ■ PAGE 6 RBI holds largest VRR auction in a year over liquidity woes AS THE LIQUIDITY deficit worsened further, the RBI held its largest VRR auction rate in nearly a year, with a notified amount of `2.25 lakh crore, reports Sachin Kumar. ■ PAGE 6 FE S P E C I A L S Most Indians bought white and black cars in 2024 There’s a preference for natural, understated shades over brighter tones like blue, red or orange. ■ MOTOBAHN, P9 Meta’s new tack on fact-checking Final test is whether quality vetting of facts will happen ■ EXPLAINER, P7 FY21 90,000* 1,50,000 1,05,551 1,50,000 81,195 1,00,000 FY22 kept at `1.5 lakh cr, the same as FY25 in absolute terms ■ Or the 50-year FY23 FY24 interest-free loans to states may get a 10% hike to `1.65 lakh crore FY25 *Up to December ble amount in FY22, and raised the outlay substantially to `1 lakh crore in FY23, and further to `1.5 lakh crore each in FY24 and FY25. The move to maintain the loan amounts for the next fiscal at comparablelevelisinthewakeofamoderation in public capex in the current financialyear,partlycaused by general elections at the start of the year, but also due to capacity constraints faced by various govern- ments when it comes to implementing projects. Gross fixed capital formation, a close proxy of investments, is seen to grow 6.4% in 2024-25, compared with 9% in 2023-24, as per the first advance estimates of the gross domestic product (GDP) released recently. To ensure that states don’t scale down their own capex, the Centre has linked a substantial portion of ITonly outlier in bloodbath thisweek Jan 03 Adani Ports Jan 10 52,722 56,116 BSE Midcap -5.7% Jan 10 44,240 Jan 03 Rupee at all-time low 46,936 Nifty IT 85.82 2.0% 85.86 85.86 0.13% Ja Jan 10 Jan 03 43,726 Nifty -7.27 -6.0% (weekly, in %) UltraTech Cement BSE Smallcap Top Sensex losers -7.84 77,378 79,223 The bluechip stocks fell on Friday and logged weekly losses on worries about India Inc earnings, while IT shares gained after comments from TCS indicated early signs of a demand revival. The benchmarks — Sensex and Nifty — fell about 2.4% this week. Broader indices small-caps and mid-caps lost about 7.3% and 5.8%, respectively. The only outlier was the IT sector, which saw Nifty IT closing the week with a 2% gain. Jan 10 Tata Steel -2.3% Jan 03 NTPC Sensex -7.86 Vodafone sells shares worth `2,800 crore, exits Indus Towers THE CENTRE WILL continue to turbocharge public capital expenditure by extending liberal capex loans to state governments for the sixth year in a row in FY26. It may either keep the outlay for the 50yearinterest-free loans forthe next fiscal at `1.5 lakh crore,the same as the current year in absolute terms, or announce a 10% hike to `1.65 lakh crore,sources said. InthewakeofCovid-inducedrevenue constraints, the Centre had, in 2020-21, launched the “scheme for special assistance to states for capital expenditure”. With the scheme gaining traction among states, the Centre made an outlay of `12,000 crore forFY21,allocated a compara- ■ Outlay may be -9.31 SBI CHAIRMAN CS Setty has pitched for the creation of a market infrastructure institution to track the end-use of funds borrowed or raised as equity by small businesses, reports PTI. A "viable mechanism" is needed to ensure that the funds are used for the intended purposes, he said. ■ PAGE 6 PRASANTA SAHU New Delhi, January 10 (` cr) Budget estimate Actual Zomato SBI chief for regime to track end-use of funds raised by small biz 2025-26 Centre’s interest-free 50-year capex loans to states -10.89 EARTH’S WARMING EXCEEDED 1.5°C on an annual basis for the first time in 2024, reports Bloomberg. It’s the most potent evidence yet that countries are failing to meet a Paris Agreement goal of limiting global heating to that level as a decades-long average. ■ PAGE 24 BUDGET STATE OF THE MATTER 14,186 Earth records hottest year in 2024, crosses key 1.5°C threshold RUN-UP TO THE 10,000 INFOSYS HAS FILED a counter-lawsuit against Cognizant and its CEO Ravi Kumar in a US court, accusing them of engaging in anti-competitive practices and misusing sensitive information to undermine Infosys Helix, reports fe Bureau. ■ PAGE 4 Bigger capex loans to states 11,830 Infosys escalates legal row with Cognizant, files counter-lawsuit 50-YEAR FACILITYSEENTO BOOSTPUBLIC INVESTMENTS 12,000 IN THE NEWS 44,609 -2.4% 85.90 Jan 10 85.94 23,431 85.98 Jan 03 24,004 85.97 Jan 9 (close) Jan 10 (close) the outlays to reforms and specific projectsaspartofthevisiontomake India a developed nation. The Centre’s capex hasgrownon an average of 30% between FY22 and FY24 as it adopted a capex-led growth strategy, taking such productive spending to 3% of GDP for the first time in FY24. It had set a target of `11.11 lakh crore, including `1.5 lakh crore for states in FY25,a 17% increase over `9.5 lakh crore achieved in FY24. The Centre has been continuing with the scheme as it promotes decentralised development of the countrywhich maynot be achieved fullythrough railways or highways, themajorvehiclesofitsinvestment. The railways and NHAI also have capacity constraints. In the pre-Budget meeting with Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman last month, state finance ministers demanded an increase in the allocation for capex loans and more flexibility in the scheme. Continued on Page 17 At 5.2% in Nov, IIP expands at highest pace in 6 months INDIA’S INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT texpanded at 5.2%,the highest pace in six months, in November, on the back of a sharp uptick in the manufacturing,accordingtodatareleased on Friday, reports fe Bureau. The manufacturing sector grew 5.8%, aided bya lowbase (1.3%),when the growth was just 1.3%. In October, thesector,withaweightof77.6%in IIP,had grown 4.4%. ■ PAGE 2 Forex reserves at 10-month low on rupee pressure INDIA’S FOREIGN EXCHANGE reserves fell for the fifth week to a 10month low of $634.59 billion as of January 3, reports Reuters.The reserves fell by $5.7 billion in the week, afteracumulative$17.8-billiondrop in the prior three weeks. Reserves havefallenbyabout$70billionfrom theirall-timehighof$704.89billion in late September. ■ PAGE 6 Outrage over L&Tchief’s hard work talk FE BUREAU New Delhi, January 10 LARSEN & TOUBRO CHAIRMAN SN Subrahmanyan’s comments on a 90-hour working week have sparked outrage with a host of his peers in corporate India criticising the idea of working inordinately long hours. CEOs took to Twitter and television on Friday to express their reservations on the remarks by Subrahmanyan, who has exhorted L&T employees to work even on Sundays. Bajaj Auto managing director and CEO Rajiv Bajaj said that most people were already working 12 hours a day thanks to long com- 90-HOUR WORK WEEK DEBATE ■ Bajaj Auto's Rajiv Bajaj says the quality of work is more important than quantity InfoEdge founder Sanjiv Bikhchandani notes that working 12 hours a day for seven days was not sustainable ■ ■ Ad guru Piyush Pandey says it should be heart-mind balance over work-life balance ■ Veteran stock market investor Devina Mehra says this type of working is bunkum mutes. The practice of working 90-hour week should start at the top,he said,adding it was the quality and not the quantity of work that matters. “We need a kinder, gentler world more than ever before,” Bajaj said, emphasising that the quality of work was more important than quantity. Advertising guru Piyush Pandey observed that rather than a work-life balance, what was needed was a heart-mind balance, adding PAGE 2 L&T should be called “Lynch &Torment”. Pandey said it was important to be hard-working but not to be slaves. InfoEdge founder Sanjiv Bikhchandaninotedthatemployees must meet a deadline,when there is one. However, working 12 hours a day for seven days a week was not sustainable,Bikhchandani said. »INSIDE« EXPERTS PICK HOLES IN GOVT’S JOBS CLAIMS Continued on Page 17 Sebi in favour of doubling floor for FPI disclosures FE BUREAU Mumbai, January 10 IN A MOVE that will bring relief to foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed a doubling of the additional disclosure threshold forFPIswith an exposure of `25,000 crore.The suggestion — toraisethe floorto`50,000 croreof equityassets undermanagement— has been made with a view to keeping exposures in sync with the increase in market volumes, the regulatorobservedinaconsultation paper floated on Friday. Sebi’s August 2023 circular had set out the rules for the additional disclosure to be made, for an AUM exceeding `25,000 crore,requiring FPIs to provide granular details of all theirinvestors and stakeholders, having an ownership or economic interest,on a“look-through”basis. The consultation paper noted that the ‘potential to disrupt the functioningofmarket’hastobeevaluated relative to the size of the market. In this regard, a broad market parameter such as turnover can be used as a factor to assess the size of market,itsaid.Dataforaveragedaily turnover—inthecapitalmarketsegment on the NSE — for FY 2022-23 and FY 2024-25, until December 2024,shows an increase of 122%. The threshold had been put in place to ensure that the regulations ofPressNote3werenotbreachedby FPIs.The regulator had been apprehensive that some of the bigger foreign players might disrupt the market.Press Note 3 was issued in 2020 to regulate flows coming into India from countries that shared a land INFLOWS BOOST ■ Additional disclosure threshold for FPIs may be raised to `50,000 cr of equity AUM ■ Suggestion has been made with a view to keeping exposures in sync with the rise in market volumes ■ Consultation paper notes that ‘potential to disrupt the market’ has to be evaluated relative to the size of the market Sebi’s August 2023 circular had set out the rules for the additional disclosure to be made for an AUM exceeding ■ `25,000 crore border. The rules made the prior approvalofthegovernmentmandatory for such direct and indirect investments into India. The August 2023 circular had also mandated the disclosure of granular details of all entities holding any ownership or control in an FPI, without any threshold if they held more than 50% of theirIndian equity AUM in a single Indian corporate group.The regulator’s intention was to guard against possible circumvention of minimum public shareholding (MPS), and substantial acquisitions of shares and takeovers (SAST) regulations. E-gaming firms get big SC relief on over `1L-crGSTnotices PRESS TRUST OF INDIA New Delhi, January 10 THE SUPREME COURT on Friday stayed show-cause notices issued by GST authorities worth over `1 lakh crore to online gaming companies and casinos over an alleged tax evasion.Abench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said the matters requiredhearingandallproceedings against the gaming companies should remain stayed in the meantime. Additional solicitor general N Venkataraman,representingtheGST department, said some show-cause notices would come to an end in February.Thematterwaspostedfor furtherhearingon March 18. GST authorities in October 2023issuedshow-causenoticesto online gaming firms fortax evasion. The government amended the GST law, making it mandatory for overseas online gaming companies to register in India from October 1, 2023, onward. In August 2023, the GST Council clarified 28% GST would be levied on the full value of bets CASE FILE ■ E-gaming firms grappling with 28% GST instead of 18% for the period up to October 2023 ■ Companies argue 28% tax is applicable only starting October 1, 2023, govt says it's from August 2023 Govt says Oct 2023 revision only provided clarity to a law that was already in force ■ placed on online gaming platforms. Gaming companies moved various high courts against such GST demands, contesting the claims of the revenue authorities. Continued on Page 17 The 2-lakh-crore business opportunity India Inc is vying for HowMaha Kumbh is a pitching ground forbrands GARIMA SADHWANI New Delhi, January 10 WITH 400 MILLIONpeopleinattendance, and manifold eyeballs on it, the Maha Kumbh is gargantuan not onlyin human presence,but in businessopportunityaswell.Thefigureis `2 lakh crore to be precise,put forth by Uttar Pradesh chief ministerYogi AdityanathonWednesday. This makes the event a pitching ground no brand wants to miss. So, devotees will find changing rooms for women by Dabur Amla and Vatika at the ghats,and special baby care rooms being set up by Dabur Lal Tail. ITC’s brand Bingo! will be making reels on local songs, and KukuFM,anaudiostorytellingplatform,will use the event tolaunch its MONEY MELA `3,000 cr estimated to be spent by India Inc `5 lakh spend for tier-1 brand activation `10 lakh for hoardings or flex boards `5 lakh for 10second ads on LED screens ■ Up to `1 cr brands may spend for 'significant visibility' ■ Changing rooms for women by Dabur Amla and Vatika at the ghats ■ Special baby care rooms by Dabur Lal Tail, Dabur Dant Snan zones ■ ITC’s brand Bingo! will be making reels on local songs OTTapp‘Bhakti’,with a 360-degree campaign with tent branding, kiosks and contests. Reports estimate `3,000 crore is set to be spent by India Inc dur- ing the religious mela. Industry reports say for tier-1 brand activation, companies have to shell out `5 lakh. Hoardings or flex boards throughout the duration of the fes- tival can cost `10 lakh, while 10second ads on LED screens can cost `5 lakh. For 'significant visibility' during the 45-day-long 'mela', brand will have to spend anywhere ■ Mother Dairy is setting up 45 kiosks ■ Kuku FM will use the event to launch its OTT app ‘Bhakti’ ■ ITDC is offering a luxury tent experience ■ Onora Hospitality's two luxury tented accommodations between `50 lakh and `1 crore. As even Vivek Chaturvedi, additional district magistrate of Maha Kumbh, told FE, “A huge influx of crowd and devotees from all around New Delhi the globe makes the Maha Kumbh a huge potentialarea forbranding.” The UP government itself is spending `5,000 crore on theevent. Sharing details with FE, Mohit Malhotra, CEO of Dabur India, said, “We are setting up exclusive Dabur Dant Snan Zones inside the 'mela' premises with unique automated toothpastedispensers.Thecompany has also planned a life-size Amrit Kalash installation with Dabur Honey,withavirtualstorytellingfeature about Samudra Manthan and the significance of Kumbh. Special kamandal shaped packs are also being created,which would be given topilgrimsforcarryingbacktheholy waterwith them.” Continued on Page 17