OPINION, P10 MIND & GAMES Appeal to reason in an unreasonable age FE LINES MAPPING THE SENSE OF WHAT’S GOING ON X marks your location Will X’s new location feature serve as a boon or a bane for its users? Page 6 Scientists are examining the flow of signals that travel from within the body to the brain Page 11 ACROSS THE AISLE, P CHIDAMBARAM LEISURE Follow us on Twitter & Facebook. App available on App Store & Play Store WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM VOL XXV NO.5 ‘RETAIL IS ALL WE KNOW’ FINANCIAL EXPRESS ON SUNDAY NEW DELHI SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2025 24 Pages, `12 (Patna `12, 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 , Won by one Solitude is becoming the new luxury, reshaping the way we eat, travel, unwind, and even where we live. Businesses, in turn, are giving them company by offering standalone experiences How the global financial system is so concentrated that it can be weaponised with stunning speed to achieve political ends (H1 FY25 to H1 FY26) ■ Payment value up from `1.5 lakh cr to `1.9 lakh crore accounted for 92.6% of the total turnover, with `1.05 lakh crore. In the F&O segment, the combined notional turnover at the NSE and BSE declined 5.1% to `480.70 lakh crore, marking the first drop in five months. Compiled by Kishor Kadam 104,576 8,296 98,740 7,662 98,312 7,743 93,545 9,172 94,995 7,189 285.3 221.0 166.0 151.7 229.5 270.1 128.1 217.8 177.7 127.1 221.0 236.9 138.6 229.6 Apr 2025 Source: NSE, BSE 208.6 Nov 2025 272.0 Apr 2025 ■ India’s food ■ Indians now spend service market to cross $120 bn by 2030 `1,056 cr/day eating out vs `810 cr/day a year earlier) eating out in H1FY26, compared with `810 crore in the same period a year ago. And, small towns are equally caught up in this phe- nomenon. Restaurants are responding by moving their expansion beyond saturated metros into the heart ofTier-II and Tier-III cities. The once- Nov 2025 overlooked markets like Indore, Kasauli, Meerut are now brimming with opportunity for the restaurant industry, driven by rising incomes, P U N E Passengers wait in line at Haneda airport in Tokyo on Saturday following grounding of Airbus planes AP/PTI »INSIDE« AIRBUS CEO APOLOGISES TO AIRLINES, PASSENGERS PAGE 18 planes have been affected,and software upgrades have been completed for 184 of them, while in the case of Air India, 113 aircraft have been impacted and upgrades have been done for 69 of them, DGCA data showed. AP Fronx Hyryder, and Volkswagen Taigun. Of late, its sales have also been impacted by Maruti Suzuki Victoris—an SUV sold by the Arena channel, but which shares platform and Sales (in units) XL6 Ciaz Grand Vitara engineswith the GrandVitara. The second biggest drop is with the Baleno—once India’s largest selling car—whose sales dropped by almost 10,000 units, or 6.8%, from 1,46,689 Jimny 3,022 2,757 4,146 6,646 84,273 1,05,506 4,521 6,234 29,944 Jan-Oct 2024 Jan-Oct 2025 35,716 1,44,130 1,30,602 1,36,664 SALES DROP 1,46,689 ■ Dining out in emerging cities growing 2× ■ Organised sector growing at 12–14% CAGR vs 5–7% for unorganised digital penetration, and an aspirational consumer base. A recent report by the National Restaurant Association of India and GrantThorn- Continued on Page 2 1,394 ALL TRADITIONAL EXPORTS totheUnitedStateswereinthe red in October, as the 50% additional tariffs continued to bite India for the second consecutive month. It is only telecom instruments—largely mobile phones—that kept overall exports to the US from going into deep contraction,as per data released by the commerce ministry on Saturday. Drug formulations, biologicals 729 -14.5 -7.5 -20.2 307 Readymade garments 204 Electrical machinery & equipment 252 1.5 Petroleum products 251 94.4 Products of iron & steel 210 -26.4 Marine products 200 -22.5 214 -51.2 Gold and other precious metal jewellery Pearls, precious & semi-precious stones 146 Overall exports 6.3 Continued on Page 2 -77.2 -8.5 Chaturvedi appointed new CBIC chairman ‘Politicsnowtrumps economics,haveto hedgeagainstallodds’ FE BUREAU New Delhi, November 29 Continued on Page 2 Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese married his partner Jodie Haydon on Saturday in the national capital Canberra. Albanese is the first prime minister to marry while in office in the 124-year history of the Australian government Baleno even within 2 years PRESS TRUST OF INDIA Kolkata, November 29 VIVEK CHATURVEDI,A 1990batch Indian Revenue Service officer, has been appointed as the new chairman of the Central Board of IndirectTaxes and Customs Vivek (CBIC), the Chaturvedi apex body for administering the goods and services tax (GST), customs, central excise and other indirect taxes. The software upgrades have been completed for 270 A320 familyplanes of the total 338 aircraft, as per data as of 5.30 pm.A total of 200 IndiGo ● AUSTRALIAN PMTIESTHE KNOT Ignis 78% expect to break ● Overall exports TOP 10 EXPORTS TO US IN OCT Value (Oct 2025, $ million) Growth % (year-on-year) fell 8.59% in Oct, 1,502 Telecom instruments telecom up 204% MUKESH JAGOTA New Delhi, November 29 21,772 to 10,28,426 units. Automotive analysts pointed out that while Maruti Suzuki’s overall sales have been under pressure, its premium arm has taken a biggerhit from carmakers such as Mahindra, Hyundai,and Tata Motors —all ofwhommostlyplayinthemidweight to premium segment. Model-by-model analysis of Nexacarsshowsthatbarringthe Fronx and Invicto, sales of all cars dropped. Midsize SUV Grand Vitara witnessedthebiggestdrop—of 20.1%,from 1,05,506 units to 84,273 units.Once touted as a competitor to Hyundai Creta, the Grand Vitara has also been hit by other SUVs such as Kia Seltos, Skoda Kushaq, Toyota ton Bharat, titled “Course Beyond Metros: Recipe for Growth” reveals that 94% of restaurant operators are actively planning to expand into smaller cities. The shift is not just a trend, it’s a strategic business imperative.“India’s F&B growth story is shifting decisivelybeyondmetros.TierII andTier-III cities offerlower costs, faster breakeven, and digitally savvy consumers,” said Naveen Malpani, partner & consumer industry leader at Grant Thornton Bharat. The appeal ofTier-II and III markets lies in cost-efficiency, faster returns, and a young, brand-aware population. Engineering products AVIATION REGULATOR Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Saturday ordered airlines to ground all aircraft in the A320 family till they complete mandatory modifications and software fixes, following an Airbus warning that solar radiation could corrupt flight-control data on certain in-service jets. DGCA said IndiGo and Air Indiadidnotcancelanyflights, while Air India Express cancelled four flights due to the system modification process. Flight delays have been 60-90 minutes at various airports, sources said. 23,908 NEXA,THE PREMIUM carsales channel of Maruti Suzuki, is slowing down. An analysis of January-October 2025 sales data vis-à-vis the same period last year shows that sales of Nexa models dropped 6.5%, from 4,58,058 units to 4,28,472 units,even as sales of the mass-market Arena channel increased marginally by 0.25%, from 10,25,939 units D E L H I , Phones saving grace as exports to US decline EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER S Jaishankar on Saturday saidpoliticsincreasinglytrumps economics in the present era, and in an“uncertainworld”,it is important that “we continuouslydiversifysupplysourcesto guarantee nationalneeds”. Jaishankarwasaddressinga gatheringafterbeingconferred anHonoraryDoctoratebyIIMCalcutta at its campus. He also said India has been actively pursuing self-reliance and makingitselfa manufacturing base for industries. “Thisisanerawherepolitics increasingly trumps economics...andthatisnotapun...Inan uncertain world, it is all the more important that we continuously diversify supply sources to guarantee our nationalneeds,”Jaishankarsaid. “The United States,long the underwriter of the contemporary system, has set radically new terms of engagement.It is doing so by dealing with countries on a one-on-one basis,” he Premium woes for Maruti Suzuki as Nexa skids VIKRAM CHAUDHARY New Delhi, November 29 N E W SECOND MONTH OF TARIFF-LED DROP Continued on Page 2 ● Hit by launches in same segment by rival brands M U M B A I , Market outlook NITIN KUMAR New Delhi, November 29 Cash market turnover - daily average (` crore) 7,944 of restaurant operators plan expansion beyond metros ● 80% of Indian planes updated, rest by today Cash market turnover growth at 6-month high 113,440 94% A320s grounded over software fix F&O notional turnover - daily average (` lakh cr) L U C K N O W , Tier-II & III take off GLITCH LED TO JETBLUE PLANE LOSING HEIGHT THE MONTH-ONMONTH GROWTH in combined cash market turnover at NSE and BSE stood at 6.1% in November, reaching `1.13 lakh crore, the highest monthly growth in six months. The NSE K O L K A T A , 34% 10.4 bn to 14 bn INDIA IS EATING out more. Spending at restaurants and eateries shows a 34% rise in Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions to 14 billion in the first half of FY26, up from 10.4 billion a year ago. The value of these payments rose to `1.9 lakh crore from `1.5 lakh crore in the same period. On average, Indians spent `1,056 crore daily on A war sans gunpowder 111,075 7,536 K O C H I , jump in UPI eating-out transactions: VAISHALI DAR New Delhi, November 29 ■ WORDS WORTH, P4 100,329 5,943 H Y D E R A B A D , EATING OUT SURGE ● Restaurants find sweet spots in Tier-II,Tier-III cities ■ SPOTLIGHT, P7 BSE C H E N N A I , READ TO LEAD Small town India reveals big appetite to eat out WHAT’S INSIDE NSE C H A N D I G A R H , Interview with Avni & Ashni Biyani Page 9 Invicto unitsto1,36,664units,primarilybecausetheSUVmodelbased on the Baleno,the Fronx,is seeing rising demand, at the expense of the Baleno. Even though the Fronx is `80,000-90,000 costlier than the Baleno,variant-to-variant, aGurgaon-baseddealertoldFE that because both the models are displayed in the same showroom, people tend to choose the Fronx, also considering that when it comes to EMI, the difference is a little over `2,000. Sales of Maruti Suzuki’s premium MPV, the XL6, dropped16.2%—from35,716 units to 29,944 units—and it has been largely impacted by Kia’sCarensClavis.Inaddition, Maruti Suzuki discontinued its premium sedan,the Ciaz,in July, following which those numbers also disappeared. Continued on Page 2 S JAISHANKAR, EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER We are forging new trade deals, connections noted.Theexternalaffairsminister said that China has “long played by its own rules”, and is doingso even now. In the ensuing scenario, other nations are unclear whetherattentionshouldbeon visible competition orthe trade offs and understandings that punctuateit,hesaid.“Facedwith suchpullsandpressuresofglobalisation,of fragmentation and of supply insecurity, the rest of the world responds by hedging against all contingencies,”Jaishankarsaid. Continued on Page 2 Air India is a Govt, ADB sign responsibility, not $800 mn loans for just biz: Tata Sons development TATA SONS CHAIRMAN N Chandrasekaran on Saturday said Air India, which is undergoing a transformation, is not just a business opportunity but a “responsibility” for the Tata Group, adding that the sector faces continuous challenges. ■ PAGE 3 New Delhi THE GOVERNMENT OF India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed agreements for three loans worth over $800 million for projects in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, a finance ministry statement said on Saturday. ■ PAGE 3