COMPANIES | PAGE 4 EFE | PAGE 10 Maximising manufacturing in India, the Zetwerkway BRANDWAGON | PAGE 9 AI will drive the next laptop innovation, saysAsus IndiaVP NEW DELHI, MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2024 From influencers to digital radio, big themes of2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL. L NO. 258, 34 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 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 IN THE NEWS Crypto markets gear up for a breakout 2025 ATATIME global markets weighed Donald Trump's return as the US president, cryptocurrency traders celebrated his promise to transform the US into a crypto hub — a move expected to buoy the cryptocurrency market well into the coming year, reports Akshata Gorde. ■ PAGE 6 Beauty startups trim losses amid cost-cutting drive BEAUTY AND PERSONAL care startups, including Sugar Cosmetics, mCaffeine and Wow Skin Sciences, have successfully reduced their losses in FY24 by tightening their advertising & promotional expenses, reports Ayanti Bera. ■ PAGE 4 PM Surya Ghar subsidy disbursal at 58% till October EVEN AS THE government is focusing on increasing the number of installations under the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, subsidy disbursal to households has been delayed, with only 58.3% of the installations receiving it, reports Arunima Bharadwaj. ■ PAGE 2 FE S P E C I A L S AMID RIFTBETWEENTECHTITANS & MAGABASE Trump backs H-1B visas: Great system FE BUREAU New Delhi, December 29 US PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD Trump has signalled his support for the H-1B visa programme, a move that aligns himwithprominenttechleaders like Elon Musk but risks further dividing his base, which has long rallied behind sharprestrictionsonimmigration. In an interview with the New York Post, Trump described the programme as“a great system,” highlighting its role in filling critical gaps in the US workforce. “I’ve always been a believer in H-1B. I’ve used it many times,”Trumpsaid,referencing the employment of H-1B visa holders at his own properties. The comments come amid a fiery debate over the programme,whichallowsUScompaniestoemployhighlyskilled foreignworkers,particularlyin thetechsector.Indiansoftware firmsarekeybeneficiariesofH1B visas.Employees of IT com- Some of the recent decisions of the GST Council confounded many ■ PERSONAL FINANCE, P7 ‘Stick to diversified equity funds’ Interview with PPFAS Mutual Fund CIO Rajeev Thakkar ■ eFE, P10 When EVs go mainstream Affordable EVs sport features available in high-end models I have always been in favour of the visas. I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I've been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It's a great programme panies such as Infosys, Cognizant, and TCS account for a significant share of H-1Bvisas. The controversy pits tech stalwarts like Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, both tapped by Trump to cochair a government cost-cutting panel, against staunch anti-immigration conservativeswhowereinstrumentalin Trump’s rise. Musk, who migrated to the US on an H-1B visa,postedonhissocialmedia platformXthat attracting elite engineering talent from abroad is essential for maintaining US competitiveness. “There is a permanent shortageofexcellentengineeringtalent,”Muskwrote,adding that limiting the programme could leave America lagging behind global rivals like China. Continued on Page 5 Food subsidy may top BE by `20,000 crore THE CENTRE,STATES, and central public sector enterpriseswill likelyinvest around `27.5 lakh crore in 2025-26, a sub-10% growth in public capex for the second consecutive year, reports Prasanta Sahu.The Centre is unlikely to go for a big increase in its budgetary capital expenditure target for the next fiscal year. ■ PAGE 3 THE CENTRE’S FOOD subsidy expenses for FY25 may exceed `2.25 lakh crore, which is `13,000 crore more than the revised estimate (RE) for 2023-24 and `20,000 crore higher than the budget estimate (BE) for the current financial year, according to official sources, reports Sandip Das. ■ PAGE 2 Legacyfirmsahead ine-scooterrace brands off track Why keeping GST simple gets difficult PRESIDENT-ELECT, US Public sector capex growth hits a plateau ● Drive smaller ■ EXPLAINER, P6 DONALD TRUMP, IN THE SLOW LANE Hero Electric 90 NARAYANAN V Chennai, December 29 THE RISE OF legacy twowheeler giants like Bajaj Auto andHeroMotoCorp,andmajor EVstartupssuchasOlaElectric and Ather Energy is hurting smallerelectricscooterbrands. Increasing consumer preference for premium, branded electrictwo-wheelers(E2Ws)is making it harder for smaller players.“Themarketisincreasinglygravitatingtowardshighspeed, feature-rich scooters offeredbyestablishedplayers,” said an industry expert. Once-dominantnameslike Okinawa,Hero Electric,Okaya, and Pur Energy are losing ground. Data from Vahan reveals that Okinawa’s sales plummeted by 85% year-onyear to 4,671 units between Okinawa Autotech 85 Okaya EV 61 29,396 2,856 30,652 4,671 15,117 5,897 32 6,519 4,451 Lectrix EV 14 5,433 4,693 Pur Energy Units sold in 2023* 2024* y-o-y chg (in %) *Jan to Nov Source: Vahan January and November, while Okayasawa61%y-o-ydecline, with only5,897 units sold. Continued on Page 5 South Korea plane crash kills over 175 A BOEING 737-800 aircraft operatedbyJejuAircrashedand caughtfireafterskiddingdown an airport runway in South Korea, killing most of the 181 people on board in one of the country’s worst-ever aviation disasters.The flight was carrying175passengersandsixcrew from Bangkok to Muan in the country’s south. Only a pair of flight attendants are reported to have survived the crash. The crash is the second majorairdisasterin less than a week. An incident in Russian airspace led to the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft on December 25, killing neraly 40 people. ■ REPORT ON PAGE 5 Proceeds highest in at least five years Promoters pick up `1.5 lakh cr through share sales in 2024 2020 2021 2022 2023 Source: primedatabase.com from 19.7% to 17.7% over this period.However,the share of active domestic mutual funds has gone up from 2024 Interglobe Aviation (Chinkerpoo Family) Top 10 sales by value in 2024 149,050 126,273 62,828 Annual share sales by promoters (` crore) 86,969 INDIA’S PROMOTERS HAVE sold shares worth `1.5 lakh crorein2024sofar,thehighest in at least five years,cashing in on a rallying stock market and frenzy in the primary market. The cash realised by promoters in 2024 of `1.49 lakh crore, data from Prime Database reveals, was higher than the value of `1.26 lakh crore realised in the previous year. Theshareholdingofprivate Indian promoters,as a share of the total market capitalisation of firms listed on the National Stock Exchange, stood at 32.8% at the end of September.Thiscompareswith36.4% in December 2021. The share of foreign portfolio investors too has fallen RIDING THE BULL MARKET 104,928 KISHOR KADAM Mumbai, December 29 Vedanta (Finsider International) `9,549 cr `5,922 cr Indus Towers (Vodafone Telecom (I) Bharti Airtel (Pastel) `8,450 cr `5,849 cr Sanofi Consumer Health Piramal Enterprises (Sri Krishna Trust) (Hoechst Gmbh) `6,927 cr `5,006 cr Interglobe Aviation (Rakesh Gangwal) Ambuja Cements (Holderind Investments) `6,786 cr `4,251 cr Mphasis (Bcp Topco Ix Pte) Whirlpool Of India (Whirlpool (Mauritius) `6,736 cr 6.10% to 7.7%,while for passive domestic mutual funds the share has risen from 1.3% to 1.8%. The share of retail `3,881 cr investors has remained more or less flat at 9.6%. Continued on Page 11 ● GAUTAM ADANI, CHAIRMAN, ADANI GROUP Down but neverout SHOBHANA SUBRAMANIAN New Delhi, December 29 A DDRESSING STUDENTS at Mumbai’s Jai Hind College in Septemberthisyear,Gautam Adani summed up his life’s philosophy.Resilience,he said,is“not about avoiding the falls.It’s about rising strongeraftereveryfall”.Not even his worst detractors can accuse him of at least not trying towalk his talk. The Adani Group chairman is,thus, far from being battle-weary even though he has been forced to navigate two existential crises in as manyyears of his three-decade-long entrepreneurial journey.Consider this: Barely a month after being at the centre of charges of bribery and misrepresentation of facts by the District Court of NewYork and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Adani was seen seated virtually next to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Rajasthan Investment Summit.There was no sign of a slowing down and his growth plans haven’t seen the slightest pruning.In fact,the projects promised at the event were the biggest of those outlined by other industrialists. The comeback is truly remarkable. The charges,this time around,are far more serious coming as they do from US legal authorities.Experts say the case against the industrialist appears to be backed by documents,but Adani is not one to be cowed down.He remains unfazed,vehemently denying the allegations and going about his business as usual. After some initial reactions,the »INSIDE« KEYTHEMES: FINANCIAL REGULATORS IN PROBLEM-SOLVING MODE PAGE 19 NEWSMAKERS OF THE YEAR - VI ● Few businessmen would have been able to recover from such existential crises in the manner that he has stock markets too have taken things in their stride.However,access to the dollar bond markets could be difficult; the group said it would hold back any dollar bonds for some time until legal formalities are complete. The same never-say-die spirit was seen in January 2023 when US shortseller Hindenburg Research alleged that a web of Adani-family controlled offshore shell entities in tax havens — from the Caribbean,Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates — were allegedly being used to facilitate corruption, money laundering and taxpayer theft, while siphoning money from the group’s listed companies.The report resulted in nearly $120 billion of market capitalisation — of group companies — being wiped out.Bonds issued by group companies lost value. Adani played the nationalist card responding to the attack on its business as though itwas an assault on India; the group’s chief financial officerwas seen standing before the Indian flagwhen he spoke on television.And although the groupwas compelled towithdrawan equityoffering of $2.5 billion (`20,000 crore),it has been able to mop up equity capital.Indeed,there is much to be said forhis abilityto dealwith serious allegations.Aprobe bythe Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has yielded little and the role played by Adani’s elderbrotherVinodAdani,in the group’s transactions,remains unclear. To be sure,Adani deserves the benefit of the doubt,since nothing has been conclusivelyproved.But, fewbusinessmenwould have been able to recover from such episodes, unscathed,in the manner that he has. Continued on Page 11 SHYAM KUMAR PRASAD