BRANDWAGON | PAGE 9 BACK PAGE | PAGE 24 AI steals the show on Day 2 of Goafest INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 10 HowVijay’ssocialmediablitz scriptedapoliticalblockbuster MUMBAI, FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2026 SpaceX’sIPOcouldmake Muskworld’sfirsttrillionaire WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE READ TO LEAD VOL. LXVI NO. 120, 30 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 A TA , 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: 75,183.36 ▼ 135.03 NIFTY: 23,654.70 ▼ 4.30 NIKKEI 225: 61,684.14 ▲ 1879.73 HANG SENG: 25,386.52 ▼ 264.60 `/$: 96.20 ▲ 0.62 `/€: 111.84 ▲ 0.37 BRENT: $108.07 ▲ $3.05 GOLD: `157,838 ▼ `173 NO FURTHER PLANSTO CURB NON-ESSENTIALIMPORTS,HE SAYS IN THE NEWS MARKETS MorestepstocheckCAD ontheanvil,saysGoyal PAGE 7 FINO PAYMENTS BANK CEO RISHI GUPTA RESIGNS FINO PAYMENTS BANK said on onThursday that its board has accepted CEO Rishi Gupta's resignation.The resignation comes despite the board finding him ‘fit and proper’ after reviewing documents and seeking legal opinions.The lender said Gupta sought voluntary retirement to pursue new opportunities.The resignation comes a few months after he was arrested in a GST-related case and later granted bail, reports fe Bureau. MUKESH JAGOTA New Delhi, May 21 Gor: India-US trade deal to be finalised in coming weeks THE TRADE DEAL between India and the US will be finalised “in the coming weeks or months,” and the US will send a delegation to New Delhi in June for further discussions on the deal, US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor said on Thursday, reports Mukesh Jagota. ■ PAGE 3 AFTERTAKINGAseriesofsteps tocurbpreciousmetalimports, the government is now set to announce more measures to prevent the current account from running into a big deficit. “Several steps are under consideration.Various arms of government are working as a team.The situation is globally quite challenging, but we have theconfidenceandthecourage of conviction that we'll come out winners, even in this challenging time,” Commerce and IndustryMinisterPiyushGoyal said here on Thursday, when askedwhat more measures the government could take to containthecurrentaccountdeficit (CAD) and arrest the rupee's slide against the dollar. On Wednesday, one-year outright forward rates for the rupee crossed the psychologicallyrelevant100-levelagainst the dollar during intraday trade. It closed at 96.82, down 29 paise from its previous close of 96.53 in spot market. The minister did not elaborate on the plans, but said that the government has no further plans to curb non-essential imports. Continued on Page 10 Maruti to raise prices by up to `30K from June OBSTACLE COURSE ■ India’s CAD could more than double 2% to or higher of the gross domestic product in FY27 from below 1% in FY26, Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said recently ■ Despite the West Asia war, India’s exports grew 13.6% year-on-year in April PIYUSH GOYAL, COMMERCE & INDUSTRY MINISTER The situation is globally quite challenging,but we have the confidence and the courage of conviction that we'll come out winners ■ The immediate worry is the outflow of capital as Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) ■ According to estimates, FPIs have taken out `2.2 lakh crore since the war began Modi holds marathon meet as govt nears 12 years in office FE BUREAU New Delhi, May 21 AS EXTERNAL HEADWINDS raise the spectrum of serious macroeconomic stress,the governmentwentintoaself-assessmentmodeonThursday.Prime MinisterNarendraModicalleda meeting of the entire Council of Ministers to deliberate on multipleaspectsofgovernance,policy-making and implementationofschemesandprojects.The occasion also assumed impor- tanceastheModiregimeiscompleting 12 years in office later thismonth. According to sources, Modi chaireda“marathonmeeting”to review the NDA government’s achievements and draw up an action plan for the next year, focusing on reform-oriented andcitizen-centricgovernance. The meeting, held in the nationalcapital,wasattendedby UnionCabinetministers,ministersofstate(MoS)withindependentchargeandMoS. RBIliftsRefromrecordlows MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA on Thursday said it will increase prices of its vehicles across models by up to `30,000 from June 2026, citing inflationary pressures and an adverse cost environment, reports PTI. ■ PAGE 6 JSW plugs into India’s electric cab route with Uber UBER AND JSW Group have signed a memorandum of understanding for the joint co-development and deployment of electric vehicles tailored for India's ride-hailing market, reports fe Bureau. ■ PAGE 6 CHRISTINA TITUS Mumbai, May 21 THE RUPEE REBOUNDED sharply on Thursday after hitting successive record lows in recent days, supported by strong intervention from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The currency ended at 96.20 against the dollar,up 62 paise from the previous close, according to Bloomberg. The RBI intervention came after the rupee almost hit 97 on Wednesday. The rupee has been under significant pressure since the onset of the West Asia conflict in late February and has weakened 5.7% during this period. In the calendar year so far, the currency has declined 7%. Currency traders said the PULLBACK MOVE 10 year govt bond yield Intra-day (%), May 21 Rupee vs dollar Intra-day, May 21 (Inverted scale) 96.2 Close 7. 7.08 Pre Previous close 0.64% 96 96.83 Previous close »INSIDE« RATE-HIKE OPTION ON RBI’S TABLE P7 100JUSTANUMBER, LETRE DEPRECIATE: PANAGARIYA P2 RBI heavily intervened,to the tune of around $4-5 billion, in both the spot and offshore markets to support the rupee . They added that the central 0.05% 7.07 07 Close bank sold dollars even before trading hours. “In the last few sessions, the movement was quite sudden and sharp.I think today’s intervention was aimed at bringing that a bit under control,” said Dhiraj Nim, economist and FX strategist, ANZ Bank. Continued on Page 6 ● VINAY DUBE , FOUNDER & CEO, AKASA AIR ‘West Asian disruption impact limited to 15% of operations’ Despite geopolitical uncertainties and disruptions across the aviation industry,Akasa Air remains bullish on the longterm growth of Indian aviation.The airline is continuing to expand its network and fleet while sharpening its focus on operational reliability,customer experience,international expansion and maintenance infrastructure.Vinay Dube, founder and CEO ofAkasa Air, tells Akbar Merchant that despite near-term volatility, the airline remains confident about the sector’s long-term trajectory.Excerpts: time performance,cancellations and baggage deliveryalso remained strong. Today,Akasa operates 38 aircraft,has an orderbook of 226 aircraft,and has flown over27 million passengers and more than 11,000 pets since launch. & HowwasFY26forAkasaAir? Itwas a strongyearforus despite challenges such as the Pehelgam terrorattack,Operation Sindoorand theAirIndia tragedy,all ofwhich impacted travellersentiment.Even then, Akasa delivered over40% topline growth,while Ebitda margins and unit revenues improved significantly.Reliabilitymetrics including on- HowimportantisinternationalexpansiontoAkasa’s strategy? Last yearwe added Phuket and expanded Jeddah operations,while this yearwe announced Vietnam.Akasa today serves 34 destinations,including 27 domestic and seven international cities. ❝ THE GOVERNMENT HAS DONE AN IMPRESSIVE JOB IN AVIATION Whathaspassengergrowth beenlikeandwhatistheoutlookforFY27? Demand inApril and May has remained healthy.However,given the ongoing Iran conflict and broadergeopolitical uncertainties,it is still too earlyto make projections for the fullyear.The outlookwill depend on how long the situation persists. Howhasthe WestAsian conflict impactedoperations? Beforetheconflict,weoperatedtoKuwait,Doha,AbuDhabi, RiyadhandJeddah.Nearly8085%ofourWestAsianoperationswereconcentratedinAbu DhabiandJeddah,whichhave beenleastaffected.Wearecurrentlyoperatingfullschedulesto AbuDhabiandJeddah.Riyadh, KuwaitandDoharemainsuspended,thoughtheseroutes accountedforonlyaround15% ofourWestAsianoperations. Haveyoureducedflightsthis summeramidrisingfuel costsandgeopoliticaluncertainty? No.Other than temporary suspensions to Riyadh,Doha and Kuwait,we are operating planned schedules.These suspended routes account for onlyaround 14 weeklyfrequencies out of more than 1,000 weeklyfrequencies operated byAkasa.Compared to last year,our schedule remains significantlylarger due to fleet growth. Continued on Page 10 The stocktaking exercise fuelled expectations of possible Cabinet and organisational changesinthecomingweeks. Accordingtosources,Cabinet SecretaryTVSomanathanmade a detailed presentation on governancepriorities,includingthe need for ministries to improve response time,expedite implementation of policy decisions, and streamline the handling of Cabinetproposals. Continued on Page 10 Sebi proposes review of IPO,re-listing price rules ANJANATHERESE ANTONY Mumbai, May 21 THE SECURITIES AND Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed the price discovery for initial public offerings (IPOs) and re-listing of shares through the preopen call auction. The proposals, released on Thursday, are aimed at better price discovery and follow comments from market players about artificially suppressed prices for re-listings and volatility on listing days. Public comments on the recommendations are to be submitted by June 11. These changes, if implemented, could enable automatic and faster expansion of price bands in case of high investor demand and reduces the need for stock exchange's manual intervention. Sebi made a series of recommendations following its consultation with the Secondary Market Advisory Committee on FAIR PRICE MECHANISM ■ The call auction session is a one-hour window before regular trading session starts ■ Sebi said that ■ The proposals are aimed at better price discovery for IPOs and re-listings ■ Current mechanism is prone to artificially suppressed prices for re-listings and volatility on listing days matters such as base price, dummy price, and price discovery. Meanwhile, no changes are proposed for the issue price of a scrip. The call auction session, a one-hourwindowbefore regular trading session starts, for IPO and re-listing shares was introduced in January 2012, functioning at a dummy price LIC posts record profit in FY26, 23% rise in Q4 LIC REPORTED ITS highest-ever consolidated annual net profit of `57,419 crore in FY26, up from `48,151 crore in FY25, aided by growth in group insurance premiums and investment income. For the fourth quarter, LIC reported a 23% year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit to `23,467 crore, compared with `19,039 crore in the year-ago period. PAGE 7 the existing guardrails during the pre-open session were rejecting large buy orders band to avoid fat finger errors (inputmistakes) or order at non-genuine prices. Sebi said that the existing guardrailsduringthepre-open session were rejecting large buy orders, leaving little room for the market to find a fair opening price. Continued on Page 6 ITC March qtr profit up 5% but revenue slides ITC'S NET PROFIT for the fourth quarter of FY26 exceeded analysts' estimates after rising nearly 5% year-on-year, the firm disclosed on Thursday, reports Viveat Susan Pinto. The FMCG major posted a standalone bottom-line of `5,113 crore from its continuing operations, compared to `4,875 crore in the yearago period. Revenue declined 7% to `16,050 crore from `17,249 crore a year ago. PAGE 4