BRANDWAGON | PAGE 11 COMPANIES | PAGE 21 Boost gets more energy with `1,000-cr turnover BACK PAGE | PAGE 22 Mini metros emerge as weak spot for FMCG CHENNAI/KOCHI, FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 2026 BCI halts ban on law grads enrolment fearing backlash WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XLVII 84, 56 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: 78,079.96 ▲ 113.61 NIFTY: 24,395.85 ▼ 40.10 NIKKEI 225: 68,308.59 ▲ 784.53 HANG SENG: 25,396.51 ▼ 43.66 `/$: 95.45 ▼ 0.11 `/€: 110.09 ▼ 0.12 BRENT: $86.76 ▼ $2.22 GOLD: `152,368 ▼ `571 PAGE 2 INDIASEEKS MORE US LPGTO CUT RELIANCE ON US STATEOWNED REFINERS are in talks to secure more US liquefied petroleum gas under annual contracts for next year as the world’s biggest consumer of the cooking fuel seeks to diversify imports, reports Bloomberg. » INSIDE « THE MEDIUM HAS CHANGED, RULES SHOULDTOO,WRITES SANDEEP PAREKH PAGE 10 HDFC Bank taps 4 banks in West Asia to raise $2 billion PRIVATE SECTOR LENDER HDFC Bank is in talks with four West Asian banks – Mashreq Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah, and ADCB – to raise $2 billion to fund its leverage product under the special Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank) scheme, a source familiar with the development said, reports Manju AB. ■ PAGE 8 Succession search starts atTata Sons URVI MALVANIA Mumbai, August 13 THE PROCESS TO find N Chandrasekaran's successor at Tata Sons formally began on Thursday, with the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) passing a resolution to initiate the setting up of a Selection Committee, even as a directive barring the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) from holding meetings leaves a key part of the succession mechanism in limbo. "The Trustees of the Sir DorabjiTataTrust have passed a resolution to initiate the setting up of a Selection Committee as soon as possible in accordancewith theArticles of Association of Tata Sons, for the purpose of recommending a person for appointment as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors," SDTT, the largest shareholder of Tata Sonswith a 27.98% stake,said in a statement. The move came a day after Chandrasekaran wrote to the Tata Sons board that he would not offer himself for reappointment when his term ends on February 20,2027. Continued on Page 9 »OPINION« TATA SONS: CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE PAGE 10 SRTT FREEZE POSES HURDLE ■ Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), barred from meeting under Charity Commissioner's directive, unable to pass matching resolution ■ Committee needs three members jointly nominated by Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) and SRTT — impossible until the freeze lifts Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran enters Bombay House on Thursday, a day after announcing his resignation ■ Trust may move Bombay High Court for a stay in the coming days »INSIDE« Astrong house with a heavy to-do list THE NEXT CHAIRMAN of Tata Sons will inherit a group financially stronger and more diversified than it was a decade ago — but also one carrying expensive bets whose payoffs may still be years away. Three businesses will demand immediate attention:Air India,Tata Electronics and Tata Digital, which together posted losses of nearly `29,000 crore in the last financial year.Then there is the question the group can no longer defer: whetherTata Sons stays unlisted. Pressure to go public has mounted this year, from second-largest shareholder Shapoorji Pallonji Group and from central bank rules that could force a listing unless an exemption is secured. ■ PAGE 6 Goodsexportsjump19.4%inJuly ● Tradedeficitat 6-monthhighas importsrise17.5% MUKESH JAGOTA New Delhi, August 13 HIGHER REALISATIONS ON petroleum products and growth in engineering and electronics goods shipments helped India’s merchandise exports expand 19.6% yearon-year to $44.24 billion in July. This is the fastest export growth since June 2022, and it came on a strong base (13.2%). In June 2022, exports had grown 30.1%, but was PETRO ITEMS WEIGH ON DATA Growth (%, LHS) 40 Exports Imports Trade deficit ($ bn, RHS) 34.8 32.0 30 20 10 0 -10 0.4 19.1 -0.8 24.1 -7.4 -6.5 14.2 10 18.0 20.6 15.5 31.01 19.6 17.5 ECONOMY SDTTMOVESTO FORM SELECTION COMMITTEE SANKHADEEP BANERJEE IN THE NEWS Jan ‘26 Feb Mar Apr May aided by a very low base due to the peak of the Covid pandemic in June 2021. While high crude oil prices led to a 67.64% increase in petroleum exports to $6.91 Jun Jul 40 30 20 10 0 billion in July, they also weighed on imports. Imports during the month increased 17.52% to $76.22 billion with oil imports growing 17.64% to $18.31 billion. AdityaBirlaGroupintroduces brandroyaltyforsubsidiaries ● Payout at 0.25% of revenue,capped at `225 crore VIVEATSUSAN PINTO & KISHOR KADAM Mumbai,August 13 THE ADITYA BIRLA Group has introduced a formal brand royaltyframeworkunderwhichits listed subsidiaries and profitablegroupcompanieswillpay 0.25% of revenue to promoter entity Birla Group Holdings, putting a defined cost on the useofoneofIndia’smostrecognisable business brands. The framework, effective STANDARD PRACTICE Aditya Birla Group shares performance (% fall on August 13) -2.65 -1.33 -1.29 -0.90 No royalty will be -0.73 payable in a financial -0.67 year if a company -0.02 reports a loss before tax June 1, 2026, caps the annual royalty at `225 crore per company. No royalty will be payable in a financial year if a company reports a loss before tax. The move marks a shift CHENNAI/KOCHI HindalcoIndustries GrasimIndustries AdityaBirlaSunLifeAMC AdityaBirlaMoney UltraTechCement AdityaBirlaFashion&Retail AdityaBirlaCapital from the group’s earlier practice of allowing companies to use the brand without a formal royalty arrangement. Continued on Page 9 The trade deficit in July stood at $31.98 billion, which was the highest since January ($34.8 billion). Continued on Page 9 L&Tbags order to build India’s largestAI infra LARSEN & TOUBRO, through its Vyoma.AI subsidiary LTN Compute, has secured a mega order to build what it called the country’s largest singlecluster AI infrastructure, deploying a 10,000-GPU NVIDIA B300 AI Factory at its Chennai data centre campus. In L&T’s parlance, mega orders are those valued at `10,000-15,000 crore. L&T secured the order as part of a partnership with Together AI to build the country’s largest NVIDIA B300 AI Factory. The Chennai campus is a gigawattscale AI infrastructure site, with Phase I designed for 250 MW. ■ PAGE 21