BACK PAGE | PAGE 24 BACK PAGE | PAGE 24 Goafest, Day 1: Creativity takes centre stage INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 10 Melody for Meloni, sugar rush for the wrong Parle AHMEDABAD, THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2026 Xi,Putinuniteincriticismof USonnuke,securityissues WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XX 297, 40 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: 75,318.39 ▲ 117.54 NIFTY: 23,659 ▲ 41 NIKKEI 225: 59,804.41 ▼ 746.18 HANG SENG: 25,651.12 ▼ 146.73 `/$: 96.83 ▼ 0.29 `/€: 112.21 ▼ 0.05 BRENT: $107.19 ▼ $4.09 GOLD: `158,011 ▼ `461 » INSIDE « CORE SECTOR GROWTH IN APRILMUTEDAT1.7% PAGE 3 AIRTEL, JIOTAKE SEPARATE GROWTH PATHS PAGE 4 OLAELECTRIC NARROWS Q4 LOSSTO `500 CR PAGE 4 LENSKARTPROFITDIPS 9% TO `200 CRORE IN Q4 PAGE 4 SC declines to halt hearing in KG basin dispute THE SUPREME COURT on Wednesday declined a submission by Reliance Industries to put the hearing in the Krishna-Godavari basin gas migration dispute on hold for the time being as the company and two other foreign firms sought mediation or conciliation with the Centre for an amicable resolution, reports PTI. ■ PAGE 6 PFRDA bats for minimum higher pension under APY PENSION REGULATOR PFRDA is discussing with the government how to enhance the guaranteed pension offered under theAtal Pension Yojana, which currently provides a maximum monthly pension of `5,000, Chairman S Ramann said, reports fe Bureau. ■ PAGE 2 -2,00,000 -3,00,000 -4,00,000 -5,00,000 -6,00,000 -1,85,111 -1,50,871 May 20, 2025 May 19, 2026 RUPEE NEAR 97 MARK 96.50 96.60 96.70 96.80 96.90 97.00 0.30% 96.54 May 19 (close) »INSIDE« GLOBAL FUNDS WORK OUT SCENARIOS FOR RE AT 100 PAGE 7 more than 6% since the Iran war began, pushing up crude. The Indian currency has fallen to consecutive record lows, including an all-time low of 96.96perdollaronWednesday. “It is essentially a liquiditymanagementandFX-stabilisation tool rather than a direct rupee-defence intervention,” (inverted scale) 96.83 May 20 (close) said Kunal Sodhani, treasury head at Shinhan Bank. Sodhani added that the move was aimed at offsetting liquidity tightening caused by foreign exchange intervention andpreventingmoney-market rates from hardening excessively.“Without liquidity support,overnightrates,Commercial Paper/Certificate of Deposit (CP/CD) yields and short-end bond yields could rise sharply. Continued on Page 6 May (till date) (thousand barrels per day) Apr IOC BPCL RIL 116 173 165 -1,00,000 Mar Feb 0 0 imports continue to be near record highs of around 1.9 million barrels per day 151 352 229 196 RBI net liquidity injection/absorption in ` crore ■ Russian crude 166 285 172 208 1,00,000 111 THE RESERVE BANK of India (RBI) on Wednesday announced a $5-billion dollarrupee buy/sell swap auction withathree-yeartenortoinject durableliquidityintothebanking system, as it grapples with tightening domestic liquidity conditionsandmountingpressure on the rupee amid elevated crude oil prices. The auction, scheduled for May 26,will allow banks to sell dollars to the RBI in exchange for rupees,with an agreement to reverse the transaction at a pre-determined exchange rate at a future date. The move is expected to infuse roughly `42,000-43,000croreintothe banking system. Analysts said the swap mechanism enables the RBI to simultaneously manage currency volatility and domestic liquidity without resorting to a formal policyrate cut.Due to the self-reversing nature, banks will receive rupee liquidity immediately, while the RBI adds to its foreign exchange reserves for the tenor of the swap. The move comes at a time when the rupee is facing heightened pressure due to delaysinaceasefireagreement between the United States and Iran. The rupee has weakened ■ Premiums have nearly halved to $56 per barrel from $10-12 immediately after the war began 24 AUCTION ON MAY 26 INDIA’S REFINERSARE sharply increasingpurchasesofRussian crude oil as premiums have nearly halved to $5-6 per barrel from a high of $10-12 immediately after the start of the West Asiawar. This provides critical cost relief to them at a time when West Asia crude premiums, freight charges and war-risk insurancecosts,havesurgeddue to disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz,a senior oil industry official,who did not wish to be identified,said. The development comes even as India’s Russian crude importscontinuetoremainnear record highs of around 1.9 million barrels per day (mbpd) in PREMIUM DEALS 346 315 CHRISTINATITUS Mumbai, May 20 SAURAVANAND New Delhi, May 20 731 831 swaptoaidliquidity 595 US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump on Wednesday said that negotiations with Iran were in the final stages, while warning of further attacks unless Iran agrees to a deal, reports Reuters. Six weeks since Trump paused Operation Epic Fury for a ceasefire, talks to end the war have shown little progress so far. Trump has said this week he came close to ordering more attacks, but held off to allow more time for negotiations. Tehran, for its part, accused Trump of plotting to restart the war, and threatened to retaliate for any strikes with attacks beyond West Asia. 378 TRUMP CONFIRMS TALKSWITH IRAN IN FINALSTAGES India scales up Russian crude RBIlinesup$5-billion purchases as premiums halve Nayara Energy May,accordingtoKplerdata. “Russian oil premiums have softened amid weaker Chinese crude buying and increased availability of Russian barrels following refinery disruptions caused by Ukrainian drone strikes,whichiscurrentlyweighing on premiums,” said Nikhil Dubey,SeniorResearchAnalyst, Refining&ModelingatKpler. Saudi official selling price (OSP) premiums have surged to nearly $18 per barrel,far above current Russian delivered premiums of $5-6 per barrel, sharply widening the cost gap betweenWestAsianandRussian crudeforIndianrefiners. Continued on Page 18 Bus,truckfleetmayget$1bnfore-shift ALISHA SACHDEV May 20 THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT is considering incentives exceeding $1 billion, nearly `9,700 crore at the current exchange rate, to spur private-sector adoption of electric buses and trucks,in an attempt to cut fossil-fuel use in the segment amid a deepening energy crisis, according to people familiar with the matter. The programme would »INSIDE« MUTED RESPONSE TO PM E-DRIVE SCHEME PAGE 2 span a decade and target the largely privately owned commercial vehicle fleet in the country, with the biggest share likely earmarked for inter-city bus operators, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Continued on Page 6 LONG-TERM PLANNING ■ The incentives being considered include interest subvention benefits worth as much as `15 lakh per vehicle over its lifetime ■ The plan would span a decade, with the biggest share likely earmarked for inter-city buses ■ Meetings with the PMO and stakeholders are expected this month ■ India has more than 2 million buses on the road, but the govt controls only about 5% FMCGvolumesin2026may growat4-4.5%:Worldpanel VIVEAT SUSAN PINTO Mumbai, May 20 VOLUME GROWTH FOR fastmoving consumer goods (FMCG) companies could remain range-bound at 44.5% in CY2026, if the Iran war persists, Worldpanel by Numerator (formerly Kantar) said in its latest March 2026 FMCG Pulse released Wednesday. The projection acquires significance since there has been no breakthrough to end the West Asia conflict so far. Crude oil prices have topped $100 a barrel, remaining volatile since the start of the conflict on February 28. OnWednesday,Indonesian government's move to impose controls on some commodity exports, which could increase the price of palm oil, led to a selloff in consumer staple stocks like ITC and Hindustan Unilever (HUL). HUL was down 1.06% on RANGE-BOUND PROJECTION Hindustan Unilever ITC 310.30 2, 2,231.95 Previous close Previous close 1.03 % 0.89 % 2,209.05 the BSE, closing at `2,209.30 apiecewhileITCendedtradeat `307.55 apiece, down 0.89% versus the previous day's close. Palm oil is used to make daily items such as soaps. According to Worldpanel, the FMCG sector closed the March quarter with a value growth of 13.1% and volume growth of 5.4%. Both urban and ruralwere performing at a 307.55 Close Close level much higher than the same period last year. The market research firm did note that CY26 volume growth could edge up towards 5%, if energy prices stabilise near baseline assumptions (of $80–85 per barrel of crude) andmonsoonoutcomesdonot deteriorate further. Continued on Page 6 Agentic tools take centre stage as search evolves beyond answers Google shifts from search to actionwithAI push SUDHIR CHOWDHARY New Delhi, May 20 GOOGLE ON WEDNESDAY unveiledabroadsetofartificial intelligence-powered products and upgrades centred around agentic capabilities that can perform tasks on behalf of users,signallingthecompany’s attempt to move beyond traditional information retrieval toward helping users complete actions directly within its ecosystem. At its annual I/O developer conference in Mountain View, California, Google introduced AI Mode within Search, expanded capabilities of its Geminimodelsandannounced tools designed to help users conduct deeper research, compare products, plan activities and complete tasks through NEW-AGE SEARCH ENGINE ■ The new capabilities seek to reduce the number of steps between asking a question and obtaining a result ■ Google also demonstrated capabilities where AI systems can perform actions such as finding deals, filling forms It announced deeper integration of Gemini across its products and services ■ The latest updates are what Google describes as a more persistent and ambient AI experience integrated across products ■ »INSIDE« EDIT: BEYOND BLUE LINKS P8 GOOGLE REWRITES SEARCH P9 conversational interfaces.The announcementsindicateashift in focus from providing links and information to enabling outcomes throughAI systems. Unlike conventional search experiences where users navigate across multiple websites and apps, the new capabilities seek to reduce the number of steps between asking a ques- HPCL Source: Kpler « INTERNATIONAL PAGE 10 MOVETO HELPCURTAILTHE FALLING RUPEE « IN THE NEWS tion and obtaining a result. ThroughAIMode,userscanask more detailed and natural questions while receiving conversational responses and recommendations. Continued on Page 6 Ahmedabad