COMPANIES | PAGE 4 BACK PAGE | PAGE 20 Revoke existingvisas issued to Pak nationals: Shah to states INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 7 AppletomakemostiPhones forUSinIndiaby2026 BENGALURU, SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 2025 Google ad search helps Alphabet beat estimates FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XXXVII 314, 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 , 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: 79,212.53 ▼ 588.90 NIFTY: 24,039.35 ▼ 207.35 NIKKEI 225: 35,705.74 ▲ 666.59 HANG SENG: 21,980.74 ▲ 70.98 `/$: 85.45 ▼ 0.18 `/€: 96.95 ▲ 0.12 BRENT: $66.09 ▼ $0.46 GOLD: `95,244 ▼ `475 Sensex 42,528 Apr 25 41,980 Apr 17 1.31% Net equity investments 79,408 Apr 21 0.84% 79,212 Apr 25 Top sectoral gainers (weekly, %) 1.14 Apr 17 ■ MOTOBAHN, P9 FPIs DIIs (in ` cr) 1.68 5.87 2.89 2.80 IT TECK Auto Realty Metal 21 22 23 24 April 2025 25 Gensol: IREDA Goyalagainst Govt defends files complaint tradediversion Waqf law STATE-RUN IREDA ON Friday said it has filed a complaint with the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police against Gensol Engineering and its promoters over alleged financial fraud. ■ PAGE 3 INDIA WOULD NOT lend itself to be used for transshipment of exports of countries facing high tariffs in the US as it will dent its image of a trusted trade partner, Union minister Piyush Goyal said. ■ PAGE 2 ASSERTING THAT THE Waqf (Amendment) Act “stands on firm Constitutional ground,” the Centre has told the Supreme Court that the law “respects essential religious practices of the Muslim community”. ■ PAGE 16 3.1 ELECTIONS ARE TIMES when governments loosen the purse strings. So, it is Bihar’s time to fill its pockets. Even as the release of funds under various welfare schemes run by the Centrehasjustcommencedfor thenewfinancialyear,thepollpound state has already cornered a tidy sum. It is the only state to have receivedfundsunderthe Pradhan MantriAwasYojana-Rural so far this financial year. The eastern state, which has the lowest per capita income among Indian states, has got nearly `1,500 crore under the rural housing scheme. Bihar has also got `1,000 crore out of the total `2,400 crore released by the Centre under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) sofarthis financialyear, official sources said. 8%share in Bihar’s 5.7 million Houses under PM Awas Yojana built in Bihar in the first decade of scheme MGNREGS in FY25, despite having 26.6% of poor population in the country 0.35 million `7,897 crore State received under employment scheme in FY24 and Poor families have also been sanctioned pucca houses in state `1,000 crore In the first decade of the PM Awas Yojana, the scheme wassaturated in Biharwith5.7 million units provided to poor families, out of a total of 40 million housing units built all over the country. Inthenewphase,beneficiaries are being identified on a war footing in the state to ensure the scheme’s implementation doesn’t lag. For MGNREGS works in Bihar, out of the total `2,400 crore released in April The Bihar assembly election is due in October-November this year. Nitish Kumar of JanataDal(U)isleadingacoalitiongovernmentinthestatein alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modiwas in Biharon Thursday to announce new projects involving pubic investments and roll out sev- `8,489 crore in FY25 eral schemes, including for housing.Modiannouncedthat in the comingyears,30million more permanent houses will beprovidedtothepoor.Hesaid that across the country, 1.5 million poor families have beenissuedapprovallettersfor the construction of new houses,including 0.35 million beneficiaries from Bihar. He alsohighlightedthatonThurs- 2.4 16.6 7.9 % change JIO PROFIT »INSIDE« ARPU RISESUP 2.4%, PAGE 4 worth,becomingthefirstIndian companyto do so. RIL was the first domestic company to surpass `10 lakh croreinannualrevenueand`20 lakh crore in market capitalisation lastyear. The board approved a divi- 7.3 RELIANCE RETAIL Q4 NET SOARS 16% PAGE 4 dend of `5.50 perequityshare for FY25. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) grew 3.1% year-on-year to `43,832 crore. Continued on Page 16 Maruti profit slides 4.3%, signals muted FY26 growth MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA, the country’s largest passengercar manufacturer, missed analyst estimates for the JanuaryMarch quarter earnings on all fronts on Friday and struck a cautious note on the outlook forFY26,signalling continued pressure in the domestic passengervehicle market. At a post-earnings conference,Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava said that demand in FY26 is likelyto remain subdued due to persistent affordabilityconstraints amongconsumers.“The local market has been soft and growth was extremely limited,”he said. He said broader industry forecasts from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) point to just 12% growth in the current Continued on Page 6 day, financial assistance has been sent to nearly 1 million poor families for their permanent houses,including 80,000 rural families and 100,000 urban families from Bihar. Under MGNREGS, underdeveloped Bihar has been falling behind the developed southern states in terms of funds utilisation under the scheme. However, that may change forthe betterthis time. MGNREGS aims to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every household in ruralareasofthecountrywhose adult membersvolunteer to do unskilledmanualwork,mainly during off-seasons. Tamil Nadu, with about 1.4% of the estimated poor population in the country, claimed almost 11% of all MGNREGS funds released in FY25. As against this, Bihar, accounting for 26.6% of the poorpopulation, used only 8% of total MGNREGS fund releases in FY25. BENGALURU SPEED BUMP RC BHARGAVA, Maruti Suzuki standalone financials (` crore) Q4FY24 Revenue Ebitda Q4FY25 Net profit 3,711 NITIN KUMAR New Delhi, April 25 Biharwinspre-pollbonanza:`2,500cr&counting STATE OF AFFAIRS 17.7 Net profit margin (%) 9.9 Bags all of nearly `1,500 crore released by Centre under rural housing scheme so far this fiscal PRASANTA SAHU New Delhi, April 25 RELIANCE INDUSTRIES’ BOARD of directors on Friday approved a fundraise plan of `25,000 crore through the issuance of listed, secured /unsecured, redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs) in one or more tranches on a private placement basis, according to an exchange filing. The step is intended to provide support to the company’s current growth plans and build its financial strength, the company said. —FE BUREAU Ebitda margins (%) 19,407 18,951 Net profit 3,878 CHINA HAS EXEMPTED some US imports from its 125% tariffs and is asking firms to identify critical goods they need levy-free, according to businesses that have been notified, in the clearest sign yet of Beijing’s concerns about the trade war’sfallout.Thedispensation, which follows de-escalatory statements from Washington, signals that the countrieswere prepared to rein in their conflict,which had frozen muchof the trade between them, raising fears of a global recession. China’sexemptions—which business groups hope would extendtodozensofindustries— pushedtheUSdollarupslightly and lifted equity markets in Hong Kong and Japan. “As a quid-pro-quo move,it couldprovideapotentialwayto de-escalate tensions,” said Alfredo Montufar-Helu, a senior adviser to the Conference Board’s China Center, a think tank. But, he cautioned, “It’s clear that neither the US norChinawanttobethefirstin reaching out for a deal.” China has not yet communicated publiclyon anyexemptions. USPresidentDonaldTrump told the TIME magazine in an interview that US-China talks were taking place on tariffs, and that Chinese President Xi Jinping had called him.Beijing has so far disputed the US characterisation of talks. Ebitda 4,265 REUTERS April 25 Revenue Q4FY25 4,685 China softens tariffblow on US, but denies holding talks Q4FY24 (` crore) 43,832 RELIANCE INDUSTRIES (RIL) on Friday beat estimates on all fronts in its earnings for the January-March quarter,driven by a recovery in its oil-tochemicals (O2C) business and strong performance of digital and retail arms. Its net profit during the quarterrose 2.4%year-on-year to `19,407 crore, exceeding Bloomberg’s consensus estimate of `18,471 crore. Its revenuefromoperationsincreased by10%to`2.64lakhcrore,also above expectations. Total expenditure rose in tandem, climbing 10% to `2.4 lakh crore.RILsaid it has crossed the `10-lakh-crore mark in net Board clears `25,000-cr fundraise Reliance Industries consolidated financials 42,516 RAGHAVENDRA KAMATH Mumbai, April 25 STEADY SHIP 2,64,573 to cross `10L-cr mark in net worth 2,40,715 ● First Indian firm 40,674 BSE Midcap RILbeats the Street,net rises 2.4% 38,235 BENCHMARK INDICES MANAGED to close the week in the green, 80,116 marking their second straight Apr 23 weekly gain, despite a lateweek sell-off triggered by rising tensions between 79,801 India and Pakistan, Apr 24 reports Kishor Kadam. FPIs were net buyers 79,595 during the week. Apr 22 78,553 Challenges we faced while riding the new TVS iQube in Delhi and nearby cities Continued on Page 6 Markets swing,end in green FE SPECIAL Living with an electric scooter in Delhi NCR times to 100 gigawatts by 2047.The sources said anyforeign nuclear investments would still require prior government approval rather than be allowed automatically. The sources said the necessary legal changes were likely to be placed before the Union Cabinet soon. 2,952 3,540 INDIA'S FOREIGN EXCHANGE reserves rose for seven weeks in a row and stood at a sixmonth high of $686.15 billion as of April 18, the RBI said on Friday. ■ PAGE 6 ited exposure in the event of any accident and no foreign investmenthasbeenallowedin India’s nuclear plants. If the latest proposals go through,togetherwithplansto ease nuclear liability laws and allowdomestic private players into the sector, they could remove the impediments to government aims to expand nuclear power capacity by 12 5,426 Forex reserves jump to 6-month high of $686 bn ■ Foreign firms like Westinghouse Electric, GE-Hitachi, Electricite de France and Rosatom have shown interests in India's nuclear sector -535 THE CENTRE IS likely to use the price stabilisation fund (PSF) for purchasing pulses from farmers at market prices to boost buffer stock, reports Sandip Das. Sources said government agencies would dip into the PSF to buy pulses varieties. ■ PAGE 2 nuclear power capacity by 3,967 Govt to buy pulses at market rates to ramp up stocks nuclear power generation now is just over 8 GW, 12 times to 100 GW by 2047 2% of total electricity capacity ■ Govt seeks to ■ Investment in raise nuclear power nuclear power sector as it reduces coal has the potential to use to meet carbon spur tariff negotiations emission goals with the US ■ Government aims to expand INDIACOULDALLOWforeign companies totakeastakeofup to 49% in its nuclear power plants, three government sources said, as New Delhi draws up plans to open up its most-guarded sector to help achieve goals to cut carbon emissions. The government has considered changing its nuclear foreigninvestmentframework since 2023. The need to increasenuclearcapacity,however, has become pressing as India seeks to replace carbonintensive coal with cleaner sources of energy. Investmentinthesectorhas the potential to spur tariff negotiations with the US, althoughtheofficialscouldnot saywhetherthe issuewould be linked to any trade deal. In 2008,acivilnuclearagreement with the US provided for deals worth many billions of dollars with US companies.The companies, however, have been deterred by the risk of unlim- -1,234 THE BOARD OF Bizongo, a B2B marketplace and financing platform, has launched a fresh probe after its auditors flagged a potential financial fraud in FY24, a company spokesperson said, reports Urvi Malvania. ■ PAGE 5 ■ India's 1,965 Bizongo initiates fresh probe into potential fraud FOR A GREENER FUTURE SARITA CHAGANTI SINGH New Delhi, April 25 -886 THE CENTRE’S DIRECT tax collections stood at `22.26 lakh crore in FY25, falling short of the revised estimate (RE) of `22.42 lakh crore by 0.7%, largely due to a surge in refunds, reports fe Bureau. Corporate tax mop-up came in at `9.86 lakh crore. ■ PAGE 3 Nuclear plants may get 49% FDI nod 1,750 FY25 direct tax collections fall a tad short of RE GOVTTOAMEND LAWS IN JULYPARLIAMENTSESSION 247 IN THE NEWS Ebitda margin (%) 12.3 10.5 6.4 9 4.3 CHAIRMAN, MARUTI SUZUKI High growth cannot be expected when 88% of India’s households cannot afford cars above `10 lakh % chg, y-o-y financial year.The income tax relief announced in the Budget would not be enough to revive small car sales, as only 12% households with an annual income above `12 lakh currently have the financial capability to purchase a vehi- cle, Bhargava said. “People can’t afford small cars because they have become unaffordable due to the high cost of implementing regulatory measures,”he said. Continued on Page 6