OPINION, P11 WORDS WORTH WELL BEING ACROSS THE AISLE, P CHIDAMBARAM In the country’s only city of literature, the written word is celebrated in myriad ways, and not just at a litfest Page 4 There has been a lot of buzz, but do you even need them? Page 10 State of economy before the Budget The truth about multivitamins A CITY & ITS LITERATURE Vol. 17 No. 46 LEISURE Follow us on Twitter & Facebook. App available on App Store & Play Store WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM ‘ART MARKET REMAINS RESILIENT’ FINANCIAL EXPRESS ON SUNDAY MUMBAI SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 2025 20 Pages, `12 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 , CONSTITUTION@ THEY, THE PEOPLE Know some key figures behind framing of the Constitution ■ PAGE 6 A VISUAL RECAP Take a photo tour of the Constitution’s journey and its major amendments ■ PAGE 7 HOWWELL DO YOU KNOWYOUR REPUBLIC? Take a Republic Day quiz ■ PAGE 7 IN THE NEWS Murmu bats for 'One Nation One Election' PRESIDENT DROUPADI MURMU on Saturday advocated for the "One Nation One Election" initiative, asserting it has the potential to redefine "good governance" in the country by promoting consistency in governance and preventing policy paralysis. ■ PAGE 2 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 T A , 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 Unified Pension Trump’s Paris exit may be Scheme takes good for the world: Duflo effect inApril IVINDER GILL Kozhikode, January 25 ● Assured pension at 50% of basic pay ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA PRASANTA SAHU New Delhi, January 25 THE CENTRE ON Saturday notified the new Unified Pension Scheme (UPS),to be effective from April 1, 2025, which will have most of the features of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) like assured 50% of the pay as pension but with adequate cost mitigations built into the scheme to make it sustainable. After Narendra Modi returned to power in June 2024, the Cabinet approved the new assured pension scheme in August for the Centre’s 2.3 million staff under the market-linked National Pension System (NPS), fulfilling a long-pending demand. UPS will provide an assured pension of 50% of the last drawn salary (average basic pay of last 12 months of service) upon superannuation for all employees completing a minimum of 25 years of service. Dearness relief will be available on the assured payout and family The pursuit of innovation is in all of us We are developing and manufacturing a diverse range of products in India that propel the aerospace industry forward and bring the country closer to becoming Aatmanirbhar in aerospace and defence. Learn more at boeing.co.in Jaya Asokan, fair director, India Art Fair Page 8 READ TO LEAD Employee with service of 25 years ■ All the contributions of the employee have been credited regularly ■ Employee has opted for ‘default pattern’ of investment ■ Employee did not make any partial withdrawals payout in the same manner as the dearness allowance applicable to serving employees. “The main assured benefit is based on 12 months average monthly“basic”salaryonlybutcontributions are based on basic+DA,a subtle but important sustainability measure in the design,” said Kulin Patel, CEO, partner at KA Pandit Consultants and Actuaries. Continued on Page 2 NOBEL PRIZE WINNER Esther Duflo on Saturday said America’s newly-elected President Donald Trump perhaps did a favour to the world by pulling out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. “It puts an onus on countries like India to take action. Climate change is upon us, everywhere, and not just the rich countries. So, when a country like the US turns its back on climate action, it sort of turns the tables and puts other countries of the world into the picture. “They can step up and ESTHER DUFLO, NOBEL PRIZE WINNING ECONOMIST Climate change is upon us, everywhere, and not just the rich countries. So, when a country like the US turns its back on climate action, it puts other countries into the picture push for action. This is the silverlining I see inTrump’s decision,”said Duflo,speaking at a session at the ongoing Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode. AFrench-American economist servingasaprofessorofPovertyAlleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),Duflo was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for economics in 2019 alongside Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer “for theirexperimentalapproachtoalleviating global poverty”. Trump had on his first day in office announced America’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, a globaltreatytocheckclimatechange, terming it“unfairand one-sided”. Trump’s action is nothing new; he had done the same in his previous stint in 2017 as well.However, that was just for four months. Now, the pullout will take effect after a year and last for the rest of his term. Continued on Page 2 ICICI Bank Q3 profit rises 15% SACHIN KUMAR Mumbai, January 25 ICICI BANK ON Saturday reported a splendid set of numbers,posting a 15% year-on-year rise in the net profit to `11,792 crore for Q3FY25, supported by strong growth in advances and interest income. The country’s second- »INSIDE« largest private bank surpassed Street expectations as Bloomberg estimates had pegged the profit at `11,495 crore. Thenetinterestincomeof the bank, the difference between interest earned and paid, rose 9% to `20,371 crore in the December quarter of the current financial year from YES BANK Q3 NET SURGES TO `612 CR `18,678croreinthesamequarterof the previous year. Net interest margins of the lender stood at 4.25% in the third quarter, down from 4.27% in the second quarter of the current financial year and 4.43% in the same quarterayearago. Continued on Page 2 PAGE 3 IDFC FIRST BANK Q3 PROFIT FALLS 53% PAGE 3