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QuickPicks

PowerCPSEs register 45%y-o-ygrowth in capex investment

CENTRALPUBLIC sector enterprises (CPSEs) haveregistered a 45%growth in investment on capitalexpenditure over the previous year, the powerministry said, reports PTI. CPSEs incurred a capex

of `22,127 crore till November 2020. For FY22, the capextarget of the CPSEs, under the powerministry, is `50,690.52crore. So far, the CPSEs have invested a capex of `32,137crore,which is 63.4%of the annual capex target.

Labour codes’rollout likelybyFY23asmany states readydraft rules

THE FOUR labour codes onwages, social security,industrial relations andoccupation safety, healthandworking conditions are likely to beimplementedby FY23 as at least 13 states have

pre-publisheddraft rules on these laws, a senior official said,reportsPTI.TheCentre has already finalised the rules underthese codes and nowstates are required to frame regulationson their part as labour is a concurrent subject.

FE BUREAUNewDelhi, December 19

INDIA’S ECONOMIC RECOV-ERY so far while reasonablystrong has been uneven. Theorganised corporate sectorhasbouncedbackasreflectedinthestrong tax collections even astheinformalsectorseemstobestuck in a rut.Sustainable andinclusive growth seems sometime away given rising infla-tion,higher interest rates andweak purchasing power oflower-income householdscould hurt demand in themonthsahead.Indeed,eventheconservative 7-7.5% consen-susGDPgrowthprojectionsfor2022-23arelookingastretch.Recent jobdata isworrying.

Joblessness hit 8.53% in theweek to December 12, for thefirsttimein17weeksowingtoaspike inurbanunemploymentto 10.09% and also elevatedruralunemploymentat7.42%,datafromtheCMIEshowed.AnaddedobstaclecouldbethenewOmicronwave and the inade-quatepaceofvaccinations.Notsurprisingly,capex isn’t

coming back in a big way.Capacity is no doubt beingaddedbysomesteelmakersandequipment is being ordered inother sectors too but on thewholethere’snorealburst.

ContinuedonPage6

RECOVERYBUMPSLACKOF FUNDS E &VBANDS

KIRAN RATHEENewDelhi, December 19

INANEFFORT tousherinbig-gerreforms,thedepartmentoftelecommunications(DoT)willsoon finalise the allocationmethodology for a spectrumbandwhich has the potentialto provide high-speed broad-band services, especially inremote areas and also betterin-buildingcoverage.The issue is a contentious

one. Should spectrum in theconcernedbandbedelicensedor should it be allocatedthroughauctionsas is thecaseforaccess services spectrum?While telecom operators

like Bharti Airtel, Reliance JioandVodafone Ideaare seekingauctions, technology players

like Google,Microsoft,Apple,Facebook, etc, are pittedagainst them.

ContinuedonPage6

ECONOMY, P6'LONG STANDING PROBLEM'

INTERNATIONAL, P8


IndiGoworkingwith peersto address high indirecttaxes issue, says Dutta

COVID SURGE

Biden to issue ‘starkwarning’ onvaccinationtomorrow as cases rise

OPINION, P10AGULATI & S SAINI EDITORIAL

MSPwon’t help insupporting Indianfarmers in the long run

India likely toweather Fedtaperwell; RBIwill guardagainst inflation, rupeemaynot depreciate toomuch



READ TO LEAD

GOOD COMEBACK…

BUT...

Sample of 2,495 companies (excluding banks& financials ) Source: Capitaline

(Net sales; % chg, y-o-y)❚ India Inc bounced back nicely

❚ Tax collections buoyant(April to October, ` crore)

❚ Smart revival in real estate(Absorption; m.sf)

Source: CGA Source: JefferiesOctober 2019 October 2021

FY21

FY21

% chg,y-o-y

13,64,101

8,75,591

55.8

IPOs amount raised (` cr) SensexNo. of IPOs

❚ Capital raising strong

44,000

48,000

52,000

56,000

60,000

64,000

47,868.98

57,901.1416

Source: Prime Database Source: RBI, Sebi * Till NovemberJan 1 Dec 162021

2019

2020

2021 (till Nov)

12,362

26,613

(Bank credit plus corporatebonds; ` lakh crore)

❚ Loan growth picks up

15

52109,188

(April to November, $ billon)❚ Big exports recovery

Source: Ministry of commerce

FY20

FY21

FY22

% chg,y-o-y

17.7

51.3

211.7

174.2

263.6

(%)❚ Unemployment remains high

Jan 2020 Nov 20210510152025

❚ Recovery is uneven(Retail auto sales; % chg, y-o-y)

❚ Consumption demand weak(PFCE at constant prices; % chg, y-o-y)

(Construction GVA at constant prices;% chg, y-o-y

❚ Construction slow off the block❚ Inflation is running high(% chg, y-o-y)

❚ No capex uptrend in sigh(New project announcements; ` lakh crore)

Note: April & May 21 compared withApril & May 2019 Source FADA Source: MoSPI Source: CMIE

-100-75-50-250255075 Passenger vehicles

2-wheelers-87

-88.8 -19.4

-0.8

Q3FY21

May 2020 Nov 2021Q1FY21 Q2FY22

Source: CMIEDec 2019 Sept 2021

Source: MoSPIQ1FY21 Q2FY22

Source: MoSPI, Office of the Economic AdviserOctober 2020 November 2021

Q4FY21 Q1FY22 Q2FY22

102.2

114.1116.4

2019 2020 2021*

0

2010

304050

7.61

1.34.9

14.23

-30-20-1001020 7.22

7

036

9

12

15

CPI

WPI

012345678 7.5

1.1

-49.5

7.5

0.01

17.13

64.48

28.47

0

20

40

60

80

8.6

-26.2

-75-50-250255075

Growth could stayweak asdemand remains subdued

SURYASARATHI RAYNewDelhi, December 19

DECEMBERDATAFORpersondays (work) under theMahatma Gandhi NationalRural Employment Scheme(MG-NREGS)couldturnouttobeoneof the lowestever.In the first 17 days of

December, just 4 crore persondaysweregeneratedunderthepopular scheme that hashelped alleviate rural distressduring the pandemic, com-paredwith over 22 crore eachin the previous two monthsand an all-time peak of 64crore in June lastyear.Post the peak in June, the

person days have been declin-ingalmoststeadilyas thepan-demic’s secondwaveabated.Though the nascent eco-

nomic revival has apparentlyled toagradual fall indemandfor work — there has beenreversemigration ofworkers

tourbanareasoverthelastfewmonths—,therateofdeclineinwork under the scheme hasbeensharper.

ContinuedonPage6

Apple asksCCI to dismissApp Store caseAPPLEHASASKEDantitrustwatchdogCCI to throwout acaseallegingabuseofmarketpowerintheappsmarket,say-ing it is too small a player inthecountry,reportsReuters.The filingwasmadeafter the

CCIstartedreviewingchargesthatApplehurts competitionby forcing appdevelopers touse its proprietary systemwhich can charge commis-sionsofup to30%on in-apppurchases.■Page16

Other employees to get NPS tax sop atparwith central government's staffSIMILARTOTHEcentralgov-ernment staff, employeeswithstategovernments,PSUsand private corporate sectormay also get full deductionforthecontributionsmadeto

the NPS subject to a cap of24%of basic salary andDA,reports Prasanta Sahu inNew Delhi. An announce-ment isexpectedinthecom-ingBudget.■Page6

E&Vbands

Whynoauction

Bestway forward

■Usedasbackhaul toconnectmobilewhere fibre isnotavailable■Have lowpropagationcharacteristic■Usedforbroadbandservices,notfordirectmobile

■Lowvaluedueto lowpropagationcharacteristic■Bandsprovidedforveryshort link■ Managingassignment isaherculeantask

■De-licence them■Light touch regulationbycharging token amount■Trai also against auctioning

■BRANDWAGON,P14

Ikea’s big‘small’plansOn the brand’s retailroadmap are city storesin Delhi, Mumbai andBengaluru, followed bytier I and II towns

■ eFE, P12

BPCL’s ProjectAnubhavThe PSU oil and gasmarketing giant usescloud and SaaS to setnewbenchmarks incustomer centricity

■PERSONALFINANCE,P13

Homeinsurance tipsGo for comprehensiveinsurance that covers allkinds of risks to structure,household items and thepeople living in it

■ INFRASTRUCTURE, P15

On coursedespite Covid-19wavesWhile some infra sectorshavedisplayed resilience,there is need to addressissues that have impactedprivate investment

SPECIALSFE

64.07

24.65

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70(crore)

April 2019 Dec 2021*

June ‘20

MG-NREGSPerson days generated

4.01

*Till Dec 17

MG-NREGSworkoffersmayhit thelowest ever in Dec

Tussle over highspeed spectrum,DoT to decide soonTelcos seek auctionsbut tech playerswant de-licensing

CHENNAI/KOCHI

EconomyMONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2021


❝ ❝

REFORMS PUSHTVNarendran, president, CII

Government's strongemphasis onpublicworks, timelyinterventions toboost liquidity and several reforms carriedout in the recentmonths including easing regulations, PLIscheme, RoDTEPand several other bold reforms havebuoyed theoptimismonhigher economicgrowth

India'sOmicroncount risesto 145INDIA'S OMICRON COVIDcount rose to 145 on Sundayafter a 45-year-old NRI anda teenage boy, who recentlyarrived in Gujarat from theUnited Kingdom, testedpositive for the variant.According to central and

state officials, omicron caseshave been detected in 11states and union territories -- Maharashtra (48), Delhi(22), Rajasthan (17) andKarnataka (14), Telangana(20), Gujarat (9), Kerala (11),Andhra Pradesh (1),Chandigarh (1), Tamil Nadu(1) and West Bengal (1).On Saturday,

Maharashtra had reportedeight more cases,Telangana's tally jumpedfrom eight to 20, whileKarnataka and Keralareported six and four casesrespectively.In Gujarat, the non-

resident Indian testedpositive for the coronavirusinfection in the RT-PCR testcarried out at theAhmedabad internationalairport soon after he arrivedfrom the UK on December15, a health departmentofficial said on Sunday."The man's sample was

later found infectedwith theOmicron variant," Ananddistrict health officer DrMTChhari said.He was scheduled to

reach the state's Anand cityfrom Ahmedabad."But, after he tested

positive for the coronavirus,he was taken to theAhmedabad civil hospitalfrom the airport.The patientis currently recovering atthe Ahmedabad civilhospital," Dr Chhari said.His co-passengers and

other contacts have testednegative for the viralinfection, the official said.A 15-year-old boy from

Gandhinagar was alsodetected with the Omicronvariant after returning fromthe UK, GandhinagarMunicipal CommissionerDhaval Patel said.Maharashtra on Saturday

reported eight newinfections of the Omicronvariant of coronavirus whichtook the total of such casesin the state to 48, the healthdepartment said.

—PTI

IndiGoworkingwith peers to addresshigh indirect taxes issue: DuttaPRESSTRUSTOF INDIAMumbai, December 19

THE COUNTRY'S LARGESTairline,IndiGo,isworkingwithother industryplayers and thecivil aviation ministry toaddress the “long-standingproblem”of high indirect taxrate,whichcurrentlystandsat21%, according to its chiefRonojoyDutta.In his Christmas and New

Year greetings to the employ-ees, the IndiGo CEO alsoflagged that profitability isunder considerable pressureowingtolowairfaresregimeata time when the carrier isfocusingon“repairing”itsbal-ance sheet.His views also come at a

time when the civil aviationsectorisslowlyontherecoverypath after being battered bythe pandemic. The domesticaviation industry has beenpitching for lower direct and

indirecttaxesatvarious levels.“We pay over 21% of our

revenues as indirect taxes tothegovernment.We think it isunconscionable that a criticalinfrastructureindustrysuchasaviation,with its largemulti-plier effects in employment,should be taxed at such ahighrate.Weareworkingwithotherplayers intheindustryandthecivil aviation ministry toaddress this long-standingproblem,”Dutta said.The IndiGo chief also

pointed out that even as thedomestic aviation market isgrowing rapidly, post the sec-

ond wave, which almostgrounded air travel demand,airlineticketpricesinIndiaareamong the “lowest” in theworld.“As income levels in the

country rise, we can expectsome relief in the form ofhigher ticket prices,but in themeantime, there is consider-able pressure on profitability,”he said.During the pandemic,theairlineincurredlargelossesandhasbeenforcedtotakeonalargeamountofdebttofunditscash burn, Dutta said andemphasisedthat“repairingourbalancesheetisanurgenttask”.Outlining the“game plan”

for the future, Dutta saidmaintaining the cost leader-ship position is, of course, of“critical importance” amidheightened domestic compe-titionalongwithinternationalexpansion,as“weseeimmensescope for profitable growth ingeographiesall aroundus”.

● SAME BENEFITS

PRASANTASAHUNewDelhi, December 19

SIMILARTOTHECentralgov-ernment staff, employeeswithstategovernments,PSUsandtheprivatecorporatesec-tormayalsogetfulldeductionfor the contributionsmade tothe National Pension systemsubject to a ceiling of 24% ofbasic salary and dearnessallowance.Anannouncementis expected in the comingUnionBudget.Since financial year 2019-

20, the Central governmentstaff has been eligible fordeduction of 24% of salary(employees' contribution of10% and employers' share of14%) for NPS contributionsunder Section 80C of theIncomeTaxAct. But the limitcontinues to be 20% (10%contribution of each by

employer and employees) forother employees. This isdespite the fact asmanyas 15state governments and publicsector banks have subse-quently enhanced employers'share toNPSto14%.The states that raised the

NPS share to 14% includeMaharashtra, Odisha, Jhark-hand and Karnataka. InAugust, the Centre has alsoapproved the proposal toincrease employers contribu-tion under the NPS to 14%from the existing 10% for

employees of public sectorbanks but no tax deduction isavailable to the additional 4%contribution.“There should be parity in

taxtreatmentofNPScontribu-tion under 80C and theenhancedlimitof24%shouldbeextendedtoallsalariedsub-scribers including corporateemployees,” a Pension FundRegulatory andDevelopmentAuthorityofficialsaid.Forcon-tribution to the EmployeesProvident FundOrganisation(EPFO),subscribersareallowed24% tax deduction (12% ofbasic pay each by employeeandemployer).NPS,whichwasmandatory

for central governmentemployees for new recruitssince April 1, 2004,has sincebeen adopted bymost of thestate governments for theiremployees as well as for theemployees of autonomousbodies, state PSUs, corpora-tionsandboards.With the Centre keen to

widen the coverage of retire-ment schemes to a larger sec-tionofsociety,especiallyinthecorporate sector, it makes

sense to extend it to other eli-gible subscribers, analystsreckon.“Tax incentive should be

equalforeverybodywhoispar-ticipating in a similar scheme.It will provide incentives forhigher savings and growth ofsavings intheeconomyaswellashelpincreasetheretirementcorpus of people,” said saidGautamBhardwaj,co-founderof pinBox, a global pension-Tech committed to digitalmicro-pension inclusion inAsiaandAfrica.After stagnating forovera

decade, the NPS is gainingtraction in the private sectorwith about 10 lakh new sub-scribers (corporate employ-ees and individuals) expectedto join it in FY22, PFRDAchairman Supratim Bandy-opadhyay had told FErecently. Higher tax-savingpotential (additional`50,000deduction availablefor NPS over and above the80C limit) and attractivereturns vis-à-vis other tradi-tional products are seenspurring demand for NPS(over 10% compared with

8.5% in employees provi-dent fund in FY21).With saturation level

reaching in the governmentsector,privatesectorwilldriveNPS growth in the comingyears. Corporate employeesenrollment grew 65% to13.21 lakh as onDecember4,2021 compared with 8.03lakh as on March 31, 2019.During the same period, theCentral government-employee subscribers grew13% to 22.46 lakh whilestate-governmentsubscribersgrew26%to54.5 lakh.Total number of NPS sub-

scribers as of December 4,2021,was 4.78 crore,68% ofwhich are in theAtal PensionYojana(agovernment-backed,voluntary scheme meant toprovide old-age income secu-rity in the form ofminimumassured pension in the unor-ganised sector). However, interms of asset undermanage-ment under NPS, the centralgovernment, state govern-ment and corporate sectorsubscribersaccountfor92%ofthe `6.91 lakh crore as onDecember4,2021.

New cooperativepolicy soon: ShahFE BUREAUPune, December 19

UNION HOME MINISTERAmit Shah,who is alsominis-terofcooperation,onSunday,announced that the Centrewill soon unveil a new com-prehensivecooperativepolicytowiden the reach of cooper-atives at the grassroot leveland strengthen the coopera-tive sector.He also said that the gov-

ernment has decided toamend theMulti State Coop-erative Societies Act 2002 toestablish an effective regula-tory mechanism for multi-state cooperative societiesand remove the loopholes inthe existing act.Addressing the annual

convocation ceremony at theVaikunth Mehta NationalInstituteofCooperativeMan-agement (VAMNICOM) inPune,he said that thegovern-ment shall soon computerisethe PrimaryAgriculture Soci-eties (PAC)and linkthesewiththe District Central Coopera-tive Banks that in turnwill belinkedwithStateCooperativeBanks and the National Bankfor Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (NABARD) toestablish a seamless andtransparent financial system

for cooperative banks. Cur-rently there are at least95,000 PACs in the countryout of which 65,000 areactive, he said. If all the PACswork in a transparent man-ner, theywill directly benefitfarmers and the economyshall get a boost,he said.Shah said there are several

government schemes in 23different departments forvarious sectors like fisheries,micro irrigation,whichwillallbe brought under the com-monumbrellaof theCoopera-tion Department.At present,there is a lot of talk aboutorganic farming but there isno proper system for valida-tionbecauseofwhichfarmersdo not get the right prices fortheir produce, he said. Theministersaidthat thegovern-ment isworkingtoestablishalaboratoryinthecountrythatwill audit land and certifyorganic products so thatfarmersgetmoreprices.Amuland others are working on it.This will encourage organicfarming,hesaid.Cooperativeslike IFFCO,Amul,Lijjat Papadand KRIBHCO have achievedamilestone in areas likemilkandfertilisers,hesaid,addingthatcooperativeshaveplayeda stellar role in the develop-ment of thenation.

Announcementexpected inthe comingUnion Budget

From the Front Page

Growth couldstayweak asdemandremainssubduedTobesure,thespendsbythee-commerceandstart-upspace,while not in plant andmachinery, are huge and thisecosystem is creating jobopportunities.Incontrast,thecorporate sector isn’t addingto workforce; an analysis byCARE shows that the head-countfell1.3%inFY21ontheback of a 2.2% increase inFY21 and 4.1% in FY19.Importantly, the data doesn’tcover outsourced staff,whichisbecomingasizeablecompo-nent of the workforce. IndiaInc is leading the economicrecovery.The share of PAT toGDP,forlistedcompanies,hasrisen from the two-decadelow of 1.8% in FY20 to 3.7%ofGDP in 1HFY22.Corporatesales have soared,helped by afavourablebaseandinflation.Critically, interest coverageratiohas seenavast improve-ment.Much of the improve-menthascomefromefficien-cies, price and productivityincreases and better costmanagement.However,thegrowthinfac-

toryoutputhasbeenrelativelyslow. In October, it grew3.2%y-o-y comparedwith Septem-ber’s 3.3% y-o-y. Althoughtherewasasequentialpick-up,it was uneven.While some ofthiscouldbeattributedtosup-ply-side bottlenecks,demandhas clearly been subdueddespiteitbeingthefestivesea-

son.With supply-side bottle-neckseasingoutofkeysectorssuchasautomobilesshouldgoup;onlyinflationcouldbeabigdampener in the monthsahead as high raw materialcosts get passed on the con-sumers. Exports continue tohaveagoodrunandcouldhelppush up capacity utilisation,currentlybelow70%.

E &Vbands:Tussle overhigh speedspectrum,DoTto decide soonTheconcernedspectrumistheE (71-76GHzand81-86GHz)andV(-64GHz)bands,usedasbackhaul for connectivitywhere fibre is not available.Sources said communica-

tionsministerAshwiniVaish-naw is likely to take the finaldecision soonaround its allo-cation methodology — auc-tion or some light touchlicensing — following adetailedpresentationbytele-com secretary K Rajaraman.The department may a legalopinion on whether it needsto move the Supreme Courtfor greater clarity on themethodology route, sourcesadded.The telecom operators are

of the view that the spectrumin the concerned band shouldbe auctioned as not doing sowouldleadtolossofrevenuetothegovernmentasthesebandshave a very high commercialvalue proposition.Telcos haveconveyed the sameto thegov-ernmentthroughtheirassoci-

ation,CellularOperatorsAsso-ciationof India (COAI).Opposed to theirstandare

technology players, whothrough their associationBroadband India Forum (BIF)have said that the spectrumshould be delicensed and notauctionedas it isnot thesameas spectrum for access ser-vices.Questioning theCOAI’sstand, BIF has pointed outthat auctioning of spectrumin these bands would goagainst international bestpractices.Sources in the DoThave in

the pastmaintained that auc-tion is ruled out but so isadministrative assignment,whichmeans allocating spec-trumonfirst-cum-first-servedbasis.What’spossible is a lighttouch licensing.Infact,theTelecomRegula-

toryAuthority of India,whichsubmitted its recommenda-tions to the DoTway back inAugust2014hasalsofavoureda light licensing approach andnotauctioning this spectrum.The Trai had recom-

mended that both E and Vband should be opened with‘light touch regulation’ andallotment shouldbeona‘linkto linkbasis’.It had said thatEband carrier should becharged at `10,000 perannum per carrier of 250MHzeachandthereshouldbeinitial promotional discountof 50% for three years fromthe date of allocation of firstcarrier in this band. In case ofcharging ofVband carriers, ithad said that it should be Rs1,000 per annum per carrierof 50MHz each. It has saidthatpriceswouldbereviewedafter five years based on

deployment andusage.The argument against

auction isbecause there’snotmuch the government isgoing to get by doing sounlike access spectrum.Thevalue of a spectrum banddepends upon various fac-tors, like ecosystem but themost important factor is itspropagation characteristics.The lower frequency spec-trum is more valuable com-paredto thehigherfrequencyas the radio waves riding onthe former travels further,thereby requiring fewer basestations, which means lessoperational costs.The value of E and V band

spectrum is low because theyhave very poor propagationcharacteristics as they fallbetween 71-76 GHz and 81-86GHz (E band) and between57-64 GHz (V Band). Thesebands are like fibre and canbeused for broadband servicesbut not for directmobile con-nectivity.According to some ana-

lysts, the telecom operatorsare opposed to the move todelicense theEandVbandsasthey fear that technologycompaniesmayenter into thebroadband market and usethe delicensed spectrum,which would come free ofcost, to provide services toconsumers.Thismaylead toanon-level playing field astelecomoperatorshave spentbillionsof rupees inacquiringaccess spectrum to offer thesame kind of services. Com-panies likeMicrosoft,Google,Facebook etc have in the pastshowntheir intent toprovidebroadband using delicensedspectrum.

Otheremployees to getNPS taxsops at parwithCentre’s staff

Lack of funds:MG-NREGSworkoffersmayhit the lowest ever in DecIt isobvious thegovernment,mindfulofastressfulfiscalsit-uation,hasbecomemoreeco-nomicalwithreleaseoffundsfor the scheme.It had raisedthe Budget outlay for thescheme and released fundsliberallywhen thepandemicwas wreaking havoc in thecountry,especiallyduringthefirstwave.“Lack of funds has led to

heavy rationing of employ-mentgenerationthisDecem-ber.Such(sharpregulation)ofallocationdemonstrates theanti-poor stance of the gov-ernment,” said RajendraNarayanan,professoratAzimPremjiUniversity.DebmalyaNandyofMGN-

REGASangarshMorcha said,“While 20 crore persondaysweregenerated inDecember2019,inthesamemonthlastyear,whichwas a pandemicyear,over28crorepersondaysgot generated. Consideringthe trend over the past fewyears, the performance inDecember this year looksabysmal and this could beattributed to non-release offunds.”Comparedwithanalloca-

tionof`1,11,500croreforthescheme in the last fiscalyear,the budgetary outlay (BE) inthecurrentfiscalwas`73,000crore.However,anadditional`25,000 crorewas allocatedforthe schemewhensupple-mentarydemandsonexpen-

diture was placed in Parlia-mentrecently.Against thetotalexpendi-

turerequirementestimatedat`82,794 crore under thescheme so far in the currentfical,theCentrehas released`74,762 crore, suggestingthatitisyettoreleasethesup-plementaryfundsand there-fore,therehasbeenaspurt inpending payments to theworkers.“Everyyear80-85%funds

provided in the Budget getexhaustedwithin the first sixmonths of the financialyearand an inadequate supple-mentary allocation is thenmade in the ninth or tenthmonth bywhenworkers getcompletelycash-strappedandimplementation of the pro-grammehas sloweddowntoanextentthatitwon'trecovertill the end of the financialyear,”Nandysaid.MG-NREGS is ademand-

driven scheme for theenhancement of livelihoodsecurityof thehouseholds inrural areas by providing atleast one hundred days ofguaranteed wage employ-ment to every householdwhoseadultmembersvolun-teer to do unskilled manualworkineveryfinancialyear.Againstthescheme’sman-

date to provide at least 100daysof‘wageemployment’ina financialyearto everyruralhousehold, 40.76 days ofemploymenthavebeenpro-vided in the current fiscal onanaveragetoruralhouseholdscomparedwith51.52days inthelastfiscaland48.4daysin2019-20.Atotalof260croreperson

daysofworkhasbeengener-atedunderthe schemeso farinthecurrentfiscalcomparedwith 389.16 crore in FY-21,265.35 crore in FY20 and267.96croreinFY19.

Govt in hurry toget out of banksUnlikeearlier, bank strikesdonotget the samekindofpress.Due to increasedusedofdigital payments, the twodaystrikepassedoffwithoutmuchnotice.Thegovernment is in ahurry togetoutofbanks. Itmustconsider the fateofvariousschemes it has implementedin the future. PSB's carriedout the instructionsof thegovernmentwithoutobjections. But it is hard toenvisageprivatebanksdoingthe same.—Anthony Henriques,Maharashtra

Omicron setsoff alarm bellsTheWHO, sounding theOmicronbugle followingcasesdoubling in1.5 to3days in areaswithcommunitytransmission, has setoffalarmbells. Europeannationsscrambled to reimposecurbsandacceleratebooster shotsas theWHOwarned thathospitals couldbeoverwhelmedwithcasesrising so rapidly in someplaces. But it is unclear if thedoublingofcases isbecauseof thevariant’s ability toevade immunity, its inherentincreased transmissibilityor acombinationofboth.—N J Ravi Chander,Bengaluru

LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR

●Write to us [email protected]

Zomato,Swiggy stare at GSTcomplexities from January1PRASANTASAHUNewDelhi, December 19

E-COMMERCE OPERATORS(ECOS) such as Zomato andSwiggy,whichwill be liable topay the 5%goods and servicetax on restaurant services sup-plied throughthemfromJanu-ary1,are staring at anoneroustaskof changing theirsoftwarein less than two weeks as theinvoicingresponsibilityhasalsoshifted from restaurants tothem.In September 2021 it was

announcedthattaxliabilitywillbe on ECOs for restaurant ser-vices provided through them.However, procedural aspectslikeinvoicingandothercompli-anceswereonlyclarifiedbyacir-cular issued by the revenuedepartment onDecember17.According to this circular,

invoicing of the above servicehasbeenmade the responsibil-ityofECOs.Since this gives ECOs only

two weeks to implement thesame from January1,2022,anextension of time should begiventothemforimplementingsuitablechangesintheirinvoic-ingsoftware,saidAnitaRastogi,Partner,PriceWaterhouse&Co.Classificationofeachrestaurantitemandmakingthenecessarychangesinsoftwareisahumon-goustask,shesaid.Thereareothercomplexities

in compliance aswell.Restau-rants through these apps notonlyproviderestaurantservicesbut also supply goods. Forexample,people buyPizza andCoke in their combo orders.Pizza is a restaurant service onwhich these appswill pay5%GST and complywith 1% tax

collected at source (TCS) normonCoke.Cokeattracts28%GSTand is paid by the restaurant.These two items in the sameorderwillrequiretwoinvoices—onebythe apponPizza andonCoke by the restaurant,whichcouldhavebeenavoidedbyhik-ingTCSrateto5%.“Considering the above, if

the government could clarifythatECOisonlyresponsible forpaying the tax and restaurantscancontinuetodotheinvoicingthewaytheyaredoingcurrently,itwouldmakecomplianceoftheabove smoother. Itwould alsofulfil the objective of the gov-ernmentwhichisthatECOsdis-charge the above tax liability,”saidRastogi.TheGSTCouncil’s decision

to bring food delivery appswithin theambitof restaurantservices andmake them liabletopaythe tax isaimedat shift-ing the responsibility fromrestaurants to apps to makecompliance wider and easiereven though the move willlikelymarginally increase thetax incidence on small restau-rants otherwise exempt fromGST(annualturnoverlessthan`20lakh).

CHENNAI/KOCHI

7FINANCIALEXPRESS

WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2021

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Newanti-monopolybureauhead: Chinato tighten antitrust legal enforcementREUTERSBeijing, December 19

CHINA’S ANTI-MONOPOLYBUREAU will step up legalenforcement againstmonop-olisticbehaviourandpushfor-ward the amended anti-monopoly law to improve theregulatory framework, saidGan Lin, chief of the nationalanti-monopolybureau.China lastmonth elevated

theseniorityofthemarketreg-ulator’s antitrust unit, theNational Anti-monopolyBureau and appointed Gan aschief,amovewhichwouldhelpantitrust investigators gainresources when examiningmergersandacquisitions.Gan said China still faces

“insufficient punishment”forsomemonopolistic activities,while some antitrust regula-tionsremainattheelementarylevel.“With the rapid develop-

ment of the digital economy,and new industries and busi-ness models emerging oneafter another, there are great

differences in competitionmodes between the new andthe traditional economy,”Gansaid in an interviewpublishedon theofficialwebsite of StateAdministration for MarketRegulation(SAMR)onSunday.“There’s an urgent need to

further improve the anti-

monopoly legislation andindustryregulation.”China shed its once rela-

tivelylaissez-faireapproachtomarketregulationoftheinter-net sector in dramatic fashionthisyear,blockingmergersandimposing a record $2.75 bil-lion fineone-commercegiant

Alibaba Group Holding forabusing its market position.Alibaba was found to haveengaged in the practise of“choosing one from two”, inwhich an e-commerce plat-formbarsvendorsfromsellingonrival sites.Gan said this practicewas

not evident during China’sannual“618shoppingfestival”and Singles’Day online shop-ping festival thisyearafterthebureaukickedoffasector-widerectification.InOctober,it levieda$527

million fine on food deliverygiantMeituan for abusing itsdominance.“The orderliness ofmarket

competition has shown greatimprovement,andthesmallerbusiness operators have nowgained broader space,” Gansaid. For the next step, thebureau will step up antimo-nopoly reviews of concen-tratedbusinesses,andwillcon-tinuetopreventmergers fromdisrupting the market, andcurb excessive capital expan-sion,Gansaid.

UKBrexitminister Frost resigns in another blow to Boris JohnsonGUYFAULCONBRIDGELondon, December 19

BRITISH BREXIT MINISTERDavid Frost resignedonSatur-dayoverdisillusionmentwiththedirectionofBoris Johnson’sgovernment, dealing a majorblow to the embattled primeministerastheOmicronvariantsweepsthecountry.The resignation of Frost, a

core architect of Johnson’stumultuous Brexit strategy,raised questions about thefuture tone of the EU divorceand the immediate course oftalksonNorthernIreland.Italsoadded to a sense of turmoil inJohnson’sConservativegovern-ment.Frost said hewas confident

thatBrexitwas secure,but saidhehadconcernsaboutthegov-ernment’sdirection.

“You know my concernsabout the current direction oftravel,”Frost told Johnson in aletter released by DowningStreet.“I hopewewillmove asfastaspossibletowhereweneedtogetto:alightlyregulated,lowtax,entrepreneurialeconomy,atthecuttingedgeofmodernsci-enceandeconomicchange.”His resignation was first

reportedbyTheMailonSunday,which said itwas triggered byJohnson’s tougher Covid-19restrictionsbutalsobyabroaderdiscontentwithtaxrisesandthecostofenvironmentalpolicies.Frostsaidhehadagreedwith

Johnson earlier this month toleaveinJanuary,butbecausehismovehadbeenleakeditshouldhappenwith immediate effect.“We also need to learn to livewith Covid,”Frost said.“I hopewe can get back on track soon

andnotbetemptedbythekindof coercive measures we haveseenelsewhere.”Johnsonsaidhewassorryto

receiveFrost’sresignation.Thedepartureof theBritish

government’s most seniorBrexit negotiatorcomeson top

ofwarningsfromsomeofJohn-son’s own Conservative Partylawmakers that he mustimprovehis leadershiporfaceachallenge.Johnson, who won a land-

slideelectionvictoryinDecem-ber2019, is facing the biggest

crisis of his premiership afteralitanyofscandalsandmissteps,whichhis opponents sayshowheisunfittobeprimeminister.Hehas faced a barrage of criti-cism since a video emergedshowinghis staff laughing andjoking about aDowningStreetpartyduringa2020Christmaslockdownwhensuchfestivitieswere banned.Downing Streethaddeniedapartytookplace.The loss of a parliamentary

seat in an election defeat in aConservativestrongholdearlierthisweekshowedpublicdismayoverthescandals.Frost,aformerdiplomatwho

was repeatedlyhailed by John-son as“the greatest Frost sincetheGreat Frost of 1709”,was acommitted Brexit supporterwho negotiated Johnson’srevised EU divorce deal and atradeagreement.

Having a true “Brexitbeliever”at theheart of Britishpower gave reassurance toBrexitsupportersintheConser-vativePartythatJohnsonwouldremaintoughontheEU.Frost,until his resignation,

wasleadinganattemptbyLon-don to renegotiate parts of thedivorcedealconcerningNorth-ernIreland.BeyondBrexit, though,the

56year-oldwas unhappy. In aspeech last month, Frostexpressed his discontentwiththecourseofpost-BrexitBritishpolicy.“Wehavenotsuccessfullyrolled back the frontiers of theEuropean Union from BritainwithBrexit,onlyto import thatEuropean model after all thistime,”hesaid inaNovember22speechattheMargaretThatcherConferenceonTrade.He disagreed with “those

who thinkwecan treat thepri-vate sectoras just a convenientwayofkeepingthepublicsectorrunning”.“Itisn’tjustasourceoftaxes,”Frostsaid.“Wecan’tcarryonaswewerebefore,andifafterBrexit all we do is import theEuropean socialmodelwewillnotsucceed.”TheoppositionLabourParty

said the government was inchaos and Johnson shouldpro-videclarityonwhatwouldhap-penintalkswiththeEUovertheNorthernIrishProtocol,apartofthedivorcedeal.“BorisJohnsonneedstogeta

grip,tellushisplanforthenextfewweeks and bring certaintyfor the people ofNorthern Ire-land by unblocking the stale-mate over the Protocol,” saidJenny Chapman, Labour’sshadowministerof state at theCabinetOffice. —REUTERS

‘UKPM’spositionnot tooweak formoreCovid curbs’Biden set to issue‘stark

warning’onvaccination

●COVID SURGE

JENNIFERA. DLOUHYAND JENNIFER JACOBSDecember 19

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN is settowarnthenationoftheperilsof remaining unvaccinatedagainst the coronavirus in aplanned speech onTuesdayastheomicronvarianttakesholdin theUSandthenationexpe-riencesa surge incases.“We are prepared for the

rising case levels, and@POTUS will detail how wewillrespondtothischallenge,”White House Press SecretaryJen Psaki said on Twitter.“Hewill remind Americans thatthey can protect themselvesfromsevereillnessfromCovid-19 by getting vaccinated andgetting their booster shotwhentheyareeligible.”Biden’s planned speech

comes amidmounting Covid-19hospitalisationsanddeathsin the US,with outbreaks that

haveforcedthecancellationofBroadway shows and footballgames.Nationsworldwide areweighing newborder controlsand restrictions on indoorgatherings.Biden will announce new

steps the administration istakingtohelpcommunities inneed of assistance,while alsoissuingastarkwarningofwhatthe winter will look like forAmericans that choose toremain unvaccinated, accord-

ing toaWhiteHouseofficial.Healthexpertshavewarned

of a wave of new infectionscoincidingwith the arrival ofthe omicron variant, holidaytravel andcolderweather.In the US,800,939 people

havediedofCovid-19,accord-ing to the Centers forDiseaseControl and Prevention. Andthe seven-day average of newUScaseswas122,297asofFri-day,according toCDCdata,up1.5%fromthepreviousweek.Biden’s speech is set to

build on a strategy to combatthe coronavirus he unveiledearlier this month thatincluded new travel require-ments, more accessible freehome Covid-19 tests andencouragingboostershots.So far, the administration

hassteeredclearofmorestrictmeasures,includingrequiringvaccination for domestic airtravelandquarantinerequire-ments. —BLOOMBERG

Humanitariansituation inAfghanistandeteriorating,saysOICSAJJAD HUSSAINIslamabad, December 19

REPRESENTATIVES OFMUS-LIMnationsataspecialmeetinghere on Sundayacknowledgedthedeterioratinghumanitariansituation in Afghanistan andcalledformeasurestotackle it.The17thExtraordinarySes-

sion of the Organisation ofIslamic Cooperation (OIC),Council of Foreign Ministers(CFM),called at theproposal ofSaudiArabia isbeinghostedbyPakistanwith the objective tobringto thenoticeof theworldthe humanitarian situation inAfghanistan.Official sources said about

70 delegates of countries andinternational organisations,including the UN,are partici-pating in the day-long confer-ence.Theyincludeabout20for-eignministers and 10 deputyministers.PrimeMinisterImranKhan,

in his keynote address, askedthe US to de-link its policytowardstheTalibanfromthe40million people ofAfghanistan,while asking for action to helptheAfghanpeople.“Iftheworlddoesn’tact,this

will be the biggestman-madecrisis which is unfolding infrontofus,”hesaid.HewarnedthatAfghanistan

wouldendupinchaosifimme-diate action was not taken.Chaos means the end of gov-ernment, which wouldstrengthen IS, enabling it tocarryout acts of global terror-ism,hesaid.Khan also highlighted the

threatofIslamophobia.MartinGriffiths,headofthe

Office for the Coordination ofHumanitarianAffairsspeakingon the behalf of UN SecretaryGeneral,AntonioGuterres,said,“TheAfghaneconomyis infreefall,needingurgentsteps.About23 million people are facinghunger,”he said. He also calledfor international engagementwith thede factoauthorities inKabul. —PTI

SocGen, BofAset toadoptMonday-Fridayworkweek in UAEBEN BARTENSTEINDecember 19

BANKOFAMERICA (BofA)andSocieteGenerale (SocGen)willadopt a Monday-Friday workweek in the UnitedArab Emi-rates from the start of January,peoplefamiliarwiththemattersaid,followingtheGulfnation’sdecisiontoswitchweekends.ABofAmemosaid thebank

welcomedthemoveas italignsthe country with majoreconomies, and employeesrequiring flexibility on Fridaycan discuss schedules withmanagers,according to a per-sonwho has seen the internaldocument.The shift is unlikely to have

a major impact on SocGen,which doesn’t have tradingdesks in Dubai or Riyadh,according to two people whohave seen a memo from thebank.WhileDubai is the region’s

main business and financialhub,most international banks

have staff in SaudiArabia, theMiddleEast’s largest economy.Theinitialmemosdidn’thintatanyimminentrelocations.BofA and SocGen weren’t

immediatelyavailableforcom-ment.LikeotherArabGulfnations,

includingSaudiArabia,theUAEcurrentlyhas a Sunday-Thurs-dayworkingweek.ThechangeswillcomeintoeffectonJanuary1andapplytothepublicsectorand schools. There will be a 41/2-dayweekwith Friday— aholydayinIslam—beingahalfday, the federal governmentsaidearlierthismonth.TheUAEhasn’tsaidwhether

theprivatesectorwouldhavetoadopt the newweek,with thedoorbeingleftopenforcompa-nies to decide how to allocateresources.This could set firmsupforapotentiallytrickyjugglebetween regional and globalmarkets at a timewhenwork-ing practices worldwide havebeen transformed by the pan-demic. —BLOOMBERG

ARUN DEVNATHDecember 19

BANGLADESH’S ECONOMICGROWTH is expected toincrease to 6.6% in the fiscalyearendingJune2022,accord-ing to the InternationalMon-etary Fund (IMF), as thecoronavirus pandemic abatesand policies remain accom-modative.Growth may rise to 7.1%

the fiscal year after that, theIMF said in a statement on itswebsite, citing an improve-ment in the external environ-ment and progress with thedomestic vaccination pro-gramme.“The uncertainty around

the outlook remains high andrisks are tilted to the down-side,” IMF economist RahulAnandwas quoted as saying,

following a visit to capitalDhakafromDecember5to19.Gross domestic product

rose 5.43% for the financialyearendedJune2021,accord-ing to a provisional estimatefromtheBangladeshBureauofStatistics. In June, the govern-mentproposeda12%increaseinthebudgettospureconomicactivity and offset the pan-demic’s fallout.

“An orderly exit fromCovid-19 related financialpolicies remain important toreduce the build-up of finan-cial sector vulnerabilities,”Anandsaid.“With the economy

rebounding, the central bankshould closelymonitor infla-tionary pressures and standreadytonormalise,”he said.

—BLOOMBERG

Russiaweighs highertax onwheat exportsif price increasesYULIYAFEDORINOVADecember 19

RUSSIA IS CONSIDERINGimposing a higher tax onwheat exports,based on a for-mula that links the tax rise toincreases in the price of thecommodity.Under the formula, the tax

will rise if prices reach $375 atonandagainiftheyhit$400aton, according to documentspublished on the govern-ment’s proposed regulationswebsite.Russia could revise the for-

mulaforthetaxifthereisasig-nificant increase in globalprices, agriculture ministerDmitry Patrushev said at agovernment meeting inNovember.Thelevyhasbeeninplace since mid-year in aneffort to slowsales abroadandcool domestic food inflation.Russiaalsoplanstosetagrain-export quota again in the firsthalfofnextyear,he said.Pricesarestilltradinglower

than the level atwhich the taxwouldberaised.Russianwheatexport price from Black Seaports was at $335.50 per tonlastweek.Russia also plans a wheat

export quota of 8million tonsfor February 15 through June30, according to a statementfromtheeconomyministry,onFriday. —BLOOMBERG

Philippines typhoon deaths top 100,mayors seek aidJIM GOMEZManila, December 19

THEGOVERNOROFanislandprovince in the central Philip-pines said on Sunday that atleast72peoplediedinthedev-astationwrought byTyphoonRai in more than half of thetownsthatmanagedtocontacthim,bringing the death toll inthestrongesttyphoontobatterthecountrythisyeartoat least146.Governor Arthur Yap of

Bohol province said 10 othersweremissing and 13 injured,and suggested the fatalitiesmaystill considerablyincreasewith only33 out of 48mayorsable to report back to himduetodownedcommunications.Officialsweretryingtocon-

firmasizablenumberofdeathscausedbylandslidesandexten-sive floodingelsewhere.In statements posted on

Facebook,Yap orderedmayors

inhisprovinceofmorethan1.2million people to invoke theiremergency powers to securefoodpacksforlargenumbersofpeople along with drinkingwater. Bothhavebeenurgentlysought in several hard-hittowns.After joiningamilitaryaer-

ial surveyof typhoon-ravagedtowns,Yap said“it is very clearthat the damage sustained byBohol is great and all-encom-passing”.He said the initial inspec-

tion did not cover four towns,wherethetyphoonblewinasitrampaged through central

island provinces onThursdayandFriday.

Thegovernmentsaidabout780,000peoplewere affected,includingmore than 300,000residentswho had to evacuatetheirhomes.At least 64 other typhoon

deaths were reported by thedisaster-response agency, thenational police and local offi-cials.Mostwere hit by fallingtrees and collapsed walls,drownedinflashfloodsorwereburied in landslides.Officials on Dinagat

Islands,one of the southeast-ernprovinces firstpoundedbythe typhoon, separatelyreported10deaths just fromafewtowns,bringingtheoverallfatalitiessofarto146.President RodrigoDuterte

flew to the region on Saturdayand promised 2 billion pesos($40million) inaid.Hemet officials inMaasin

CityinSouthernLeyteprovince

where hewas born.Duterte’sfamily later relocated to thesouthern city of Davao. “Themoment I was born into thisworld, I toldmymother,‘Let’snotstayherebecausethisplaceis really prone to typhoons’,”Duterte toldofficials.Atitsstrongest,thetyphoon

packedsustainedwindsof195km perhourandgustsofupto270 kph,making it one of themost powerful in recent yearstohit thedisaster-pronearchi-pelago,which lies between thePacific Ocean and the SouthChinaSea.Floodwaters rose rapidly in

Bohol’sriversidetownofLoboc,where residentswere trappedontheirroofsandintrees.Theywererescuedbythecoastguardthe following day.OnDinagatIslands, an official said theroofs of nearly all the houses,including emergency shelters,were eitherdamagedorblownawayentirely. —AP

INTERNATIONAL8 FINANCIALEXPRESS


REUTERSLondon, December 19

BRITISH PRIME MINISTERBoris Johnson isnot toopoliti-callyweak to bring in furtherCovid-19restrictions ifneces-sary,healthministerSajidJavidsaidonSunday.Johnson is facing the

biggest crisis of his premier-ship after a litany of scandalsandmissteps. Earlierthisweekmorethan100ofhisownlaw-makersvoted against the gov-ernment’s latest measures totackle thespreadofCovid-19.Asked on BBCTelevision if

Johnsonwas tooweak tobringin any further restrictions,Javid said: “No, I don’t thinkthat’s the case…if the govern-ment felt that further actionhad to be taken of course wewould present that to parlia-ment and itwould be for par-liament todecide.”

Monitoring Coviddata closely: JavidThe British government is

monitoring the latest Covid-

19 data on an almost hourlybasis and will do whatever isnecessaryto tackle thespread,JavidtoldSkyNewsonSunday.Javid said analysis of the

datasuggestedaround60%ofallnewCovid-19cases inEng-land are the fast-spreadingOmicronvariant,butthecoun-try was in a better positionthan last Christmas thanks tothings such as vaccinations

andtesting.Askedaboutreportsofpos-

sible further measures, Javidsaid,“Wewilldowhat isneces-sarybut ithasgot tobebackedupbythedata…wearewatch-ingthedata,discussing itwithour scientists and our bestadvisers almost on an hourlybasis andwewillmonitor thatvery carefullywewill keep thesituationunderreview.”

Peoplewalk through Covent Garden in London. UK healthminister Sajid Javid said any further Covid-19 restrictionswill have to be backed up by the data REUTERS

President Joe Biden seen in ameetingwithmembers of theWhite House Covid-19 response team REUTERS

“The uncertainty aroundthe outlook remains

high and risks are tilted tothe downside,” IMF

economist Rahul Anandwas quoted as saying,following a visit tocapital Dhaka fromDecember 5 to 19

Under the formula, thetaxwill rise if prices reach$375 a tonne and again ifthey hit $400 a tonne

China shed its relatively laissez-faire approach tomarketregulation of the internet sector this year, imposing arecord $2.75 billion fine on Alibaba Group Holding REUTERS

Ahouse damaged byTyphoon Rai lies along a road inSurigao del Norte province, southern Philippines AP/PTI

A file photo shows David Frostwalking outside DowningStreet in London earlier this year REUTERS

REUTERS

REUTERS

Bangladesh economy to grow6.6% in FY22, forecasts IMF

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❝ ❝

TAKING FARMERS FORWARDPM Narendra Modi

India’s farmers can’t live in the stateofbackwardnessanymore.Themodern facilities,which are available tofarmersof thedevelopedcountries, should alsobeavailableto Indian farmers.Therecan’t beany furtherdelay

Opinion

Regd. No.TN/CPMG/722/2000 R.N.I. Reg. No. 37821/80 Printed and published by HSGadhadar on behalf ofThe Indian Express (P) Ltd Published at NewNo.36/47, Eldorado building, Unit No.1C, 1st floor, NungambakkamHigh Road, Chennai 600 034. Phone: (044)6679 1000.Printed at MNS Printers Pvt. Ltd.No.76/1, Bhuvana NurseryAvenue,Velappanchavadi, Poonamallee High Road, Chennai - 600 077. Chairman of the Board: ViveckGoenka, Editor (Chennai): Shobhana Subramanian* (*Responsible for selection of news under the PRBAct )

© Copyright: The Indian Express (P) Ltd All rights reserved. Reproduction in anymanner, electronic or otherwise, inwhole or in part,without priorwritten permission is prohibited. The Financial Express®

THE INCREASINGVOLUME, velocityandvariety of digital payments in India hasbroughtindiscussionsontheeconomicsofpayment systems, including the costincurred bypayment processors and sys-temprovidersalongwith theaffordabilityofpaymentsforendcustomers.It is inthiscontext,RBIiscomingupwithadiscussionpaperoncharges relating tovarious chan-nelsofdigitalpayments,withtheobjectiveofstudyingtheeconomicsofpaymentsandsettingitattherightbandtodrivethenextphaseofgrowthdigitalpayments.It is safe to expect that the discussion

paperonvarious charges in the paymentsystem will take a holisticview of the issues involvedand possible approaches tomitigatetheconcernsregard-ing affordability of digitaltransactions.Whileotherpay-ment systemsare alsounderthe purview of discussion,retaildigitalpaymentswouldbe a major focus. Review ofzero charge-out regime forUPI andRupaywill be primefocus,given the surge invol-umes in these systems.Amongst other factors,zerochargesforUPIandRupayhasclearly supported the rapidadoptionofdigitalpaymentsinIndia.Whileittookmorethanfourdecadesforphysicalcard acceptancenetwork to reach57 lakhterminalsinIndiaafterthelaunchofcreditcards in1980,it tookmerely fiveyears todeploy7.5croreQRterminals.Zerocostoftransactions andnot having to spend onphysical infrastructurehas ledtotherapidadoption,apart from the incentives pro-videdbythepayment systemoperators tomerchantsandcustomers.Forthecommonman,digitalpayments

havebroughtinalotofconvenience.Simplyput,withUPI,onedoesnotneedtoscourgefor change, carry lot of cash or evenvisitATMs forcashwithdrawal.Cashbacks andrewards have benefitted the customers.

Withallpaymentsgettingloggedandstate-mentsavailable,onedoesnotneedtokeepameticulousrecordofhowmuchispaidtowho andwhen.With clearly recorded ofpayment history,creditwill also becomemoreaccessible.For government and regulators, for-

malisation of payments addsmoremus-clefortransactionmonitoringandtaxcol-lection. India has 36%of its populationbetweentheageof10-25years.Whiletherest ofworld, including China, is slippinginto aged population with lower birthrates, India remains young andwill havelarge working-class population in the

world. It is no surprise thatwe have adopted smart-phones and digital pay-mentsfasterthananywherein theworld.The sheer sizeand scale at which India’sdigital payments operateequals to 1.5 times that ofChina and 20 times that ofUS.Aswespeak,wehave4.2billion transactions onmonthly basis gettingprocessed throughUPI sys-tems and one billion trans-actions through other pay-ment systems.With such astrong share of young pop-

ulationthatwouldlargelycompriseofdig-ital natives, it is imperative for Govt. tourgently develop comprehensive frame-works foradigitaleconomyWhile payments system such as UPI

lookssimpletoaconsumer,itishighlycom-plexwithmanymovingparts and severalecosystemplayers.Banks,PSPsandsolutionprovidershave absorbeda lot of complex-ityand cost tomake thingshappenat thebackend.BanksandPSPsarespendinghun-dredsofcroresinayearonprocessingthesetransactions intheareassuchasreconcili-ation,settlement,disputes,and riskman-agement.Thereistremendouspressureoninfrastructure required to support theexpected growth in digital transactions.

Nowthequestionis,howcanRBImakesurethese transactions continue tobe secured,protected,and followregulatorynorms ifthe revenue model is not sustainableenough to cover the expenses and createsurplus for investments? A classic casewould be the slowdown in ATM deploy-ments after 2017, where among manyotherfactors,lowerinterchangecombinedwithhigher compliance costs stiflednewdeployments and replacements. Withincreasing requirements fordata privacy,datalocalisation,cybersecurityetc.,digitalpayment service providers will have toinvestmore ongovernance and riskmiti-gationmechanisms.Thoughsomepartsofthese costs are already taken care bygov-ernment sponsoreddigital infrastructure,theultimateresponsibilitycomplianceandriskmanagement lieswith theBanks andPayment serviceproviders.Add to this thenecessitytospendonconsumerawareness,theeconomicsinthesectorisathreattofur-therinnovationandriskmanagement.ItisthereforecriticalforIndiatohaveawell-bal-anced,transparentcharge-out frameworkthat can be adopted by these players.Thediscussionshouldconsidertheneedforfur-therpenetrationofdigitalpayments,keep-ingpaymentsaffordableforconsumersandmerchants andhealthy revenue and sur-plusforecosystemplayersforinvestmentsAwell-framed charge-out framework

should facilitatehealthymarket competi-tion,thuspushingthePSPstofurtheropti-mise their costs and continuous improve-mentonefficiencies.Thereareotherissuesalsotobeaddressedsuchascompensationtocustomers incaseoffailedtransactions.Givenwith thepragmatic approach fromregulatorandgovernmentoninclusivedig-ital growth,we can certainly look forwardto RBI having a series of meaningfulengagementswithexpertsinthepaymentsspacetocomeoutwithanenablingcharge-outframework.Awell-orchestratedframe-workwith focus on affordability,growthandsustainabilityofecosystemisundoubt-edlytheneedofthehour.

SEVERAL COUNTRIES,ESPECIALLY theG-20,sup-port their agriculture.Research evidence tells usthat thebestwaytosupport

agriculture in a sustainable and com-petitive manner is to invest in agri-R&D, agricultural-extension systems,and connect farmers to lucrativemar-kets, domestic and external, by build-ing efficient value-chains. Givingfarmers theirright tochoosebest tech-nologies and best markets is funda-mental to robust functioning of agri-systems and augmenting farmers’incomes.But inademocratic system,policies

are not always framed on scientificbasis.Theyareoften influencedbyvar-ious lobbies,includingpoliticianswho,atelectiontimes,offerfreebies likefreeelectricity, farm loanwaivers as ‘dolesfor votes’. This short-sightednessresults in sub-optimal or even irra-tional policy choices, which, in duecourse, harm the economy, environ-ment,and even farmers.Let us discuss here the case ofmin-

imum support prices (MSP), whichmany political parties are demandingtomake a legal instrument.LegalityofMSPmeans that no one is allowed tobuy a MSP crop below MSP. If thisdemand is accepted, this will not onlymess up the economy but also ulti-mately turn out to be anti-farmer.Thereason is simple: It ignores the basiclogic that prices are largely decided bythe overall demandand supply.In case of surplus, which usually

happensatharvest time,theprices falltoclearthemarket.IfMSPisabovethatmarketclearingprice,noonefrompri-vatesectorwillbewillingtobuy.Inthatcase, the government will have tobecome the buyer of last resort. Else,farmers will be left high and drywithno buyers for their produce, makingfarmersworse-off.The issue is how much govern-

ment canbuyofhowmanycommodi-ties, and what will be the cost to the

government.Asof today,theCentredeclaresMSP

for23crops—sevencereals (rice,wheat,maize,bajra,sorghum,ragiandbarley),fivepulses (tur,moong,chana,uradandmasur), seven oilseeds (soybean,groundnut, rapeseed-mustard, sesa-mum, safflower, sunflower andnigerseed) and four commercial crops(sugarcane,cotton, jute and copra).The main procurement, however,

happens largely for riceandwheat to feed thepublic distributionsystem (PDS).The PD-issue-pricesofriceandwheat are subsidisedbymore than 90% oftheir economic cost tothe government. In2020-21, the foodsubsidybillwasalmost30%ofthenettaxrev-enue of the centralgovernment, reflect-ingclearlyahugecon-sumer-bias in the sys-tem.Unless this PDS is

reformed either byrestrictingthis to,say,the bottom 30% ofthe population or raising the issue-prices to,say,half the economic cost ofrice andwheat, giving a better deal tofarmers is likelytoblowupthe fiscal ofthe central government.Itmayalso be remembered that the

MSP regime has its genesis in 1965,when India was hugely short of basicstaples and living in a ‘ship-to-mouth’situation.Itwasanindicativeprice (not

legal price), and procurement of riceandwheatwasdonetogiveasupporttofarmerswhen theywere adopting newseeds (HYV technology) and domesticprocurementwas to feed the PDS.Butnow,with granaries overflowingwithrice and wheat, there is the need torethink and redesign the procurementpolicy. In crop year 2020-21, about 60million metric tonnes (MMTs) of riceand 43MMTs ofwheatwere procured

by Food Corporation ofIndia (FCI).Nafedpro-cured about 0.66MMTsofpulses.Even after procur-

ingmorethan50%ofthemarketed surplusof rice andwheat, themarket prices of riceand wheat remainedbelowMSP in severalstates.Forexample,inNovember2020,mar-ket prices of paddy inChhattisgarh werebelow MSP by morethan`300/quintal; inUP, the gapwas about`102/quintal. Thissituation prevailedwidelyinBihar,Jhark-

hand,Assam andmany eastern states.Similarly,inwheat,where the crop soldat belowMSP in the two largestwheat-producing states (UP andMP).One ofthe reasons behindmarket prices hov-ering belowMSP is possibly the largeleakages from the PDS suppressingmarketprices.If this is the situation in the case of

rice and wheat, where even after

procuringmore than 50%of themar-keted surplus,prices ruled belowMSP,extending the system to cover all 23crops under MSP will need a muchdeeper thought.Our back of the envelope calcula-

tion, assuming only 10% of the pro-duction of the remaining crops(excluding sugarcane) is procured,shows it will cost the governmentabout `5.4 lakh crore annually to pro-cure theseotherMSPcrops.This cost isestimated based on economic costs ofoperation that are usually about 30%higherthanMSP(inthecaseof riceandwheat, it is 40%). But, it appears that,despite this, market prices may rulebelowMSP, especially during harvesttime. It also raises the question whyonlysupport thesecropswithMSP,whynot other agri-produce, say,milk, thevalue of which is more than the valueofrice,wheatandsugarcanecombined.Oneargumentthat is floated is that

instead of physical procurement, onemay use price deficiency payments(PDP), implying that government paysto farmers the gap between marketpriceandMSP,whenevermarketpricesare belowMSP.We know very well that Madhya

Pradeshadoptedthis scheme(Bhavan-tar BhugtanYojana) in kharif 2017 foreight crops (maize, tur, urad,moong,soybean, groundnut, sesamum, andnigerseed) but had to give up the verynextseasonastradersgamedit,widen-ing thegapbetweenmarketpricesandMSP,andbenefitedmassivelyfromthisscheme.And thegovernment incurredheavyexpenditure.What’s the way out to give a better

deal to farmers? Itmaybebetter to usean income policy,on perhectare basis,to directly transfermoney into farm-ers’ accounts without distorting mar-kets through higherMSPs or PDP.Thiscanbe improvisedbybetter identifica-tion of tenants and owners, throughtransparency in land records.There isno easy substitute to ‘getting themar-kets right’.

● FROM PLATETO PLOUGHMSPSWON'THELP.APERHECTARE INCOME-SUPPORTPOLICY,WITH BETTER IDENTIFICATIONOF

TENANTSANDOWNERSTHROUGHTRANSPARENTLANDRECORDS, COULD

JAIKRISHANGPartner (financial services)GrantThornton Bharat

ASHOKGULATI& SHWETA SAINI

Respectively, Infosys chair professor ofagriculture, and senior visiting fellow, ICRIER

Awell-framed charge-out framework should facilitate healthymarket competition, thus pushing the PSPs to further optimisetheir costs and continuous improvement on efficiencies

Supporting agriculturethe smartway

Our back-of-the-envelopecalculation, assumingonly 10% of theproduction of theremaining crops

(excluding sugarcane) isprocured, shows itwillcost the governmentabout `5.4 lakh croreannually to procure MSPcrops other than rice

andwheat

Learn from theslowdown inATMdeployments after2017,where amongother factors, lower

interchangecombinedwith

higher compliancecosts stifled newdeployments

All set toweatherthe Fed taper

RBIwill act tominimise import of inflationarypressures, rupeemaynot depreciate toomuch

IFMARKETSAROUNDtheglobehaven’tgotthemselvesintoatizzyaftertheUSFedsignalledlastweekitwouldnowwithdrawatafasterpacethepandemic-induced stimulusmeasures,it is probablybecause someofitwas anticipated.The Fedhas decided itwould scale back asset pur-

chasesbyMarchratherthanJune.Expertsexpectinterestratehikestofollowsoonafter.ProjectionsreleasedposttheFed’stwo-daymeetingshowedmostcentralbankersarebaking inat least three rate increases,of25basispointseach,in2022.Tobe sure,this is a big change inviewsbecause,even inSep-tember,aroundhalfthebankersbelievedratechangeswouldn’tbecalledforuntil2023.Indeed,this timearound,the Fedhas chosen toprioritise the economic

recoveryandhasbeenfarmorecautiouswiththenormalisationprocess.How-ever,inrecentmonths,inflationarypressureshavebeenbuildingupfastandaremorewidespread; inaddition,the labourmarketshavebeentightening.FedChairPowellsaidhebelievedinflationmaybemorepersistentandthattherisksofhigherinflationbecomingentrenchedhadincreased.In thepast,a shift in theFed’s stancehasupset theglobal sentimentand

resulted inoutflows fromemergingmarkets (EM) as investors sought safehavens.However, the repercussions this time should bemuchmilder. InIndia’scase,theexternalsectoris infarbettershapethanin2013;althoughtheCADiswidening,itwouldbewellwithincomfortable limitsaswouldbethetotalexternalliabilities.Althoughthefundamentalsofthelocaleconomymayhavesomefragilities,maskedbytheheadlineGDPnumbers,therecov-eryisontrack.Therealworriesareinflation,whichwhilelowerthanitwasinfiscal2014,couldworryinvestorsandgovernmentdebtthatiscloseto90%.AnanalysisdonebyCRISILinSeptembershowedthatincomparisonwith

sixEMpeers,India’smacroindicatorswereaverage;itrankedfourthintermsof the catch-upof expectedGDPthis fiscal to pre-pandemic level,third intermsofinflationrate,andfirstinratioofgovernmentdebttoGDP.Nonethe-less,the impactofa fastertaperandtheconsequentrise inUSinterest ratesisunlikelytobeverysignificant.TheoutflowsfromIndia’sequitymarkets—$4billionsinceOctober—haveledtotalkthattheFed’sfastertaperingwouldseeabigsell-offinstocks.However,theoutflowsseemtobetheresultofstocksbeinghighlyover-valued.Given theUSmarkets havenot been in the leastspookedbythe Fed’s announcement,a sell-off on this account is unlikely.Unless there is a big sell off in global equities,a steep correction in India’sequitymarketsisunlikely.RemembertheIndianstockmarkethashadasharprunthisyear.Tobesure,thetaperingwouldimplyaphasedpull-outofgloballiquiditywhichhasbeeninabundancethispastyear.However,therearethosewhobelievesignificantcross-borderflowsareunlikelysincerealinterestratesin theUScould remain in thenegative formanymonths.Athome,RBIwillnotwant inflationarypressures to becomeentrenchedandwill act soonerratherthanlater.Itwouldcertainlywanttominimiseimportinginflation,asimportspickupinlinewiththerecovery.Whilesupplysidebottlenecksper-sist,prices of commodities should stabilise oreven ease,given theChineseeconomyis slowing.The inclusion of Indian bonds in a global bond indexwouldcushionthefall;anestimated$15-20billionisexpectedtobeinvestedinthefirstyear.Tothatextent,there is limiteddownsidetotherupeewhichhasbreachedthe76markagainst thedollar.Therefore,unlessexports slowdownverysharply,therupeeshouldnotdepreciatesignificantly.

Paytimefordigitalpayments?

THECENTREANNOUNCEDapackageof`120,000crorethroughPFCandRECin2020underUday,asalsolettersofcredit(LCs) for payment guarantees, to bringdowntheamountoutstandingfromdis-comstogencos.Itisnecessarytoevaluateperformance on these counts fromPRAAPTI data.PRAAPTI data,providedbythediscom/stategovernmentforcen-tral gencos, IPPs , and RE generators, ismissingdataontheoutstandingowedtostategencos.So,forcalculatinggrossout-standingtogencos,atleast25-30%willhavetobeaddedtothePRAAPTIfigures.The accompanying graphic shows theoutstandingatthebeginningandendofthemonthin2021.Few things become quite clear.

Approximately `17,000 crore in themonth ofMarch.And `8,000 crore inSeptembermusthavebeenreleased.So,only during these two months, theamount outstanding dipped. In all theremaining months, the outstandingamount onlygoesup—because thedis-com is unable to pay the power-pur-chase costs.This is compounded by thelate-payment surcharge that keeps onmounting.Evenafterthe largecentralpackage,

the outstanding amount increased byabout `600 crore from January toDecember.Thus, at the national level,therehasvirtuallyno impactofUday.Inthelightofthenationalscene,it is

worth exploringwhether there is anydistinction between states dependingon the ruling party.The accompanyinggraphic shows the outstanding in fourstates,Uttar Pradesh,Karnataka,TamilNaduandMaharashtra,in2021.As stated earlier, thanks to the

amount released underUday, the out-standing dipped in March andAugust/September.Else, it has been onthe upward trajectory in all the states,irrespective of the party in power.Bearin mind the following facts. UP gotalmost `11,000 crore in March, the

highest for any state in anymonth.Theoutstanding forTamilNaduandMaha-rashtrafiguresareextremelyhigh.Ifweadd Rajasthan's, then the three states'outstanding is 50%of national figure.In Maharashtra, in March, the out-standingshotupby`9,000crore,likelybecauseofachange in the law.The states being unable to pay

power-purchase costs, and the out-standing going up is the commontheme.Gujaratisanexceptiontoallthis.Generally, they pay earlier than stipu-lated and hence get early payment dis-count.Also,eventhoughJammu&Kash-mir iswith the Centre, the outstandinggoes up, and dips only when Udaymoneyflows in.Three major players supply the

power,andhence,theoutstandingowedto them needs looking into. They areCentre-owned (NTPC, NLC, DVC, etc),IPPs (Adani,Lalitpur,DBPower,etc] andREgenerators.As itcanbeseenfromtheaccompanyinggraphic,thebiggestben-eficiaryaretheCentre-ownedgencos,forwhomoutstanding decreased by50%.IPP and RE gencos’ outstanding hasincreased by almost 35 %. In valueterms,outstandingowedtoREgencosis

almostequalto,andthatofIPPgencosisalmosttwice,thatowedtoCentre-ownedgencos.It appears that IPPsandREgen-erators areworst sufferers at the handsofdiscoms,whiletheCentre-ownedgen-coshavebeenthebiggestbeneficiary.Every month, gencos confirm to

State Load Dispatch Centres that theyhave the LCs.This is for normally eightdays of supply.So,legally,the conditionis fulfilled.The question then iswhy isthe outstanding going up.Discoms arepayingwithin 12-18weeks. Suppose agenerator revokes LC.Then, it will getmoney for amaximum of oneweek ofsupply.Itwillhavetogotothesamedis-comfor11-17weeksofpayments.Obvi-ously,thediscomwillmakethesituationtough for the genco.Suppose the gencostops supply and sale on exchange.Atpresent, the tariff is `3.50-4. On theexchange, it will be around `2.5-3. So,generators have no choice but to getdragged into the discommess. In prac-tice, LC is not making any difference.Unless discoms become financiallystrong,this scenewill continue,requir-ing continuedUday-like support. Also,support IPPs and RE gencos; else, theywill addto theNPAburden.

Unless discoms get financially stronger, theywill needmore bailouts, PRAAPTI data shows

Little gain frompowerpackages

ASHOKPENDSEThe author is a power-sector regulation expert

Beginning End ofof month month

JAN 99,583 99,330FEB 99,318 1,00,323MAR 1,00,318 83,451APR 83,444 83,984MAY 83,975 93,542JUN 93,584 99,477JUL 99,865 1,03,791AUG 1,03,787 1,02,893SEP 1,02,839 94,572OCT 94,519 97,046NOV 97,046 99,140DEC 99,140 1,00,206

Centre-owned IPP RE gencos

NTPC NLC Adani Lalitpur Adani Tata

JAN 16,449 6,778 16,708 4,686 1,545 2,534

DEC 4,156 2,751 25,245 4,503 2,032 2,888

UP Karnataka Tamil Nadu Maharashtra

JAN 14,762 5,364 21,286 9,804FEB 13,761 5,834 21,706 9,871MAR 1,952 4,747 18,051 18,258APR 3,154 5,290 16,902 17,158MAY 4,815 6,100 18,901 18,330JUN 6,764 6,371 20,533 17,581JUL 7,603 6,527 22,589 17,990AUG 6,016 5,729 23,805 18,116SEP 6,288 5,884 18,099 18,193OCT 6,968 6,074 18,751 18,677NOV 7,148 5,770 19,887 18,411DEC 7,276 5,884 20,318 18,642

How the outstanding stacks up (in ` crore)

Centre REowned IPPs gencos

Jan 43,479 39,629 15,158

Apr 26,510 41,095 14,940

Sep 23,212 50,286 18,803

Dec 22,940 54,479 20,575

CHENNAI/KOCHI

RAPIDLY-CHANGING technology,intan-demwith the evolving learningmechan-ics,hasfast-trackedtheedtechspaceinthelasttwoyears,morethaneverbefore.Withphysical schools and colleges being shutand education getting affected, onlineeducation took the centre-stage andbecametheessentialmodeoflearningforstudentsaswellasworkingprofessionals.This year saw copious investments in

technologiessuchasgamification,AR,VR,etc,as also the adoption ofmultiple new-ageexammonitoringsystemssuchasthedual-proctoring approach that support afairgradingsystem.Therapidshifttodig-ital learning brought to the surface theimportance of lifelong learning, andweonly see it accelerating as the problem of

skill redundancyis everywhere.Let’s rewind ourselves and retrospect

some of the key trends of 2021 thatwillcontinuenextyearaswell.

Reskilling and upskilling becomemore relevantBy 2025, theWorld Economic Forum

predictsthataround85millionpeoplewilllose their jobs. Whilst, over the sameperiod,97millionnewjobswillbecreated,these will require very different skills.Without the ability to reskill peoplequickly, and at scale,millionswill poten-tially be displaced from work. It willrequire new technology and a freshapproach to partnerships between thegovernment,industryandacademia.In a tech-drivenmarket, upskilling is

one of themost important things profes-sionals candotonotonlyretain theircur-rent jobsbutalsomoveup in theircareersormakemeaningful careertransitions.

Online learning becomesmainstreamThis year saw increased acceptance of

the value of anytime, anywhere learningthat is accessible across devices.Multiplesegments of Indian edtechhave emergedas against only K12 which was the caseearlier.Highereducation,hobbylearning,etc,have foundquitea fewtakers.Top universities across the globe have

democratised the learning process bymakingcoursesavailableonline.Adoptingtech-based education in both the acade-

mic and industry sectorsbrings the advantage of versatility andflexibilitywhilebeingcost-effective.

Year of capital flow, leading toconsolidationThis year saw an influx of capital into

the education sector aswell as increasedacceptance of all key stakeholderswhichled to consolidation in themarket.Thisyear also saw the largest number of uni-cornsfromourcountryandsomeofthem

are fromtheedtechspace.Stakeholders have accepted that col-

laborationswillbevitalforedtechcompa-nies and educators to maximise value.Given the market depth, the continuedcapital flow into edtech firms and thefocus onbuilding scale, Indiawill emergeas a global hub for edtech and educationwherein online learning will become adefaultoption inhighereducation.

Hybrid learningmodels

In June, the University Grants Com-mission released a Concept Note on theBlendedModeofTeachingandLearning.Ithighlightedtheflexibilityitwouldprovidewith application to any programme thatcombinestraditional learningvalueswithdigitalmedia.Providingfreedomandflex-ibility, blended learning can be effectiveandlikablewiththebestofbothworldsasitmoves fromclassroomtoonline.Globally,blendedlearningisoneofthe

mostfrequentlyadoptedlearningtoolsasit frees students, academicians and poli-cymakersfromtherestrictionsofthefourwalls of a classroom.Inavast country likeIndia,blendedlearningwillallowaccesstothebestof educationaluniversities to thesmallest of towns andvillages,and fosterthenextgenerationof learners.

Coaching andmentoringIn online education,other than deliv-

ering content virtually, assisting learnerswith the best professional guidance dur-ing their career progression is equallyimportant.Educationoredtechisasubsetof a larger ecosystem of coaching, guid-anceandmentoringandsomeoftheplay-ers have differentiated themselves byleveraging the human touch deliveryengine bybuilding a strong coaching andmentoring layer.This helps in surpassinggeographical barriers and gives learnersthebestmentorsandcoaches,fromacrosstopuniversities and largecorporates.

TheauthorisMD&co-founder,upGrad

● INTERVIEW:CHANDRAHASPANIGRAHI, CEO &Co-Founder, Edukemy



Education

Inspired by Shark Tank, forkids under the age of 17

● 2021

Let’s rewind ourselves andretrospect some of the keytrends of 2021 thatwillcontinue next year aswell

State education departmentsets up a communityplanning board at HEIs

FE BUREAU

ITHAS BEEN observed that engaging incommunity service provides studentswith the opportunity to become activemembers of their community and has apositive impact on society at large.Com-munityserviceenablesstudentstoacquirelifeskillsandknowledge,aswellasprovideservices/solutions to those who need itmost.TheAndhraPradeshgovernment isnow looking into ways to amalgamatehighereducationinstitutes(HEIs)withthecommunity at large. This initiative hasbeenappreciatedbytheNITIAayogaswell.

Thestatehighereducation depart-ment issettingupacommunity plan-ning board at HEIs.The communityengagement ofHEIs is incorpo-

ratedintoacourseoraseriesofcoursesbywayofaprojectthathasbothlearningandcommunity action goals. The project isdesigned via collaboration between fac-ultyandcommunitypartners.Theprojectwill ask students to apply course contenttocommunity-basedactivities.The community planning board aims

to advise the government on mattersaffecting community development byincorporatingtheservicesofHEIs,includ-ingengineering,pharmacy,education,lawandconventionaldegreecolleges.NeduramalliRamKumarReddy,com-

munityplanninganddevelopmentboardchairman,APstategovernment,said,“Theboardactsasabridgebetweenthegovern-mentandthepeople.This stepwill enablestudentsbecomesociallyresponsible.”

APwantsHEIs toengage in social,communitywork

PlanetSpark startsSparkTank

FE BUREAU

AHEAD OFTHE release of Shark Tank’sfirst season in India, edtech firm Plan-etSpark has announced the ‘Spark Tank’.Aspartofthis,childrenundertheageof17yearswillpresenttheirmillion-buckbusi-ness ideas to impress the jury, in a bid tobag investment from‘sharks’.Duringthiseventspanningfourweeks,

kids aged 7-17 years from India, the US,theUAEandEuropewill bepitchingbusi-ness ideas to becomeone of theyoungestentrepreneursglobally.Participants must make a video pre-

sentation of up to 3minutes explainingthepreliminarybusiness ideaandsubmitit by December 23. The competition isopen to all students of PlanetSpark aboveGrade3,ofwhichthetop15entrieswillbeshortlistedforthenextround.Postthefol-lowing rounds of screening,only six stu-dents will be given a chance to presenttheirideastothejury,inthemaineventtobeheld liveonYouTube,on January10.

❝ ❝

SIX SCHOOLS BY2023YSR Murthy, Vice-Chancellor, RVUniversity

We startedwith eight programmes offering degrees inthree schools (liberal arts, design, economics and finance).The School ofComputer Science & Engineering and Schoolof Businesswill start from next academic year.Wewill havesix schools and 20 programmes offering degrees by 2023.

Ourgoal is toexpand intoall test-prepsegments inthecountry

Startedduring the first lockdown last year,thetest-prepstart-upEdukemywasabletoplace 51 students in the total 761 UPSCselections this year (seven of its studentswere in top100).“Wehappenedtobe in theright place at the right time,”ChandrahasPanigrahi, co-founder & CEO, Edukemy,says. In an interview with FE’s VikramChaudhary, he adds that while Edukemycurrently caters to government job exams,the goal is to expand into all test-prep seg-ments, including school to college and col-lege to jobs.Excerpts:

Did the lockdown provide Edukemy ajumpstart inthetest-prepmarket?Edukemywas started during the first

lockdownlastyear,andithelpedusexploitabigdeficit in the test-prep space,almostimmediately.Historically, test-prep hasbeen concentrated in Kota (Rajasthan),and Old Rajendra Nagar andMukherjeeNagar (Delhi). But the lockdown led to abehaviour shift, as students could studyfrom anywhere,online. Weexploited thischange inbehaviour bygiving studentsthe benefit ofonline withoutlosing theessence ofoffline teaching(real-timedoubtclearing andpeer-to-peerlearning).Thegoal is to

bring good fac-ulty, curatedcontent and expert content delivery toplaces where quality teaching is scarce,suchasvillagesandsmallertowns.

Whatkindofmarketperformancehaveyourecorded inthe lastyearandahalf?We have more than 3 lakh learners,

over15,000paidsubscribers(enrolledstu-dents), over 10 crore minutes of watchtime on YouTube, and of the 761 UPSCselections, 51 students were fromEdukemy (seven in top 100). Also, 50%aspirantsfromEdukemy’sfirstbatchhavecrackedOPSC(OdishaPublicServiceCom-mission).By2023,weexpecttodoubleournumbers and grow by 18-20X as com-pared toourinceptionyear.

Will you continue with the phygitalapproach?Based on our research and student

demand,we identified a gap and beganwith the phygital approach.We are con-sideringwhatwillworkonphygital,goingforward, andwill work on feedback pro-videdbyourstudents.

What isyourfacultyprofile like?Theyareindustryexperts,withmostof

themhaving 10-plus years of experiencein theirrespectivedomains.

Will you continue focusing on govern-ment jobexampreparations?While we currently cater to govern-

ment jobexams,ourgoal istoexpandintoalltest-prepsegments,includingschooltocollegeandcollege to jobs.

Which all languages are used for train-ingatEdukemy?We deliver content in Hindi, English

andkeyvernacularlanguages,butourgoalistodeliverintheregional languageofthespecificgeographywecaterto.

Why do you call yourself India’s firstnon-STEM-focusededtechstart-up?We are the first company to provide

end-to-end learner profiling, preparingstudents fornon-STEMtestpreparation.Our end-goal is to cater to asmany as

750 test-prep exams and impact over 15crore students.We are deep into person-alised feedback via our app Korrecto,where we provide detailed feedback onanswers writtenwith line-by-line com-mentsonanswers.

Ayearwhen edtech took the giant leap

ILLUSTRATION: SHYAMKUMAR PRASAD

PORTRAIT: SHYAMKUMAR PRASAD

Mayank Kumar

In a year and a half,we havemanagedto attract over 3lakh learners, andof thesemore than15,000 are nowpaid subscribers(i.e. enrolled

students). Our goalis to cater to 750test-prep examsand impact over 15crore students

This stepwillenable studentsbecome sociallyresponsible

TIM LOH

THE RISK OF rare heart inflammationside effectswas asmuch as four timeshigherinpeoplewhoreceivedModernaInc.’s Covid-19 shot than in thosewhogot the vaccine from Pfizer Inc. andBioNTechSE,accordingtoresearchersinDenmark.About 4.2 people per 100,000who

got the Moderna vaccine developedmyocarditis ormyopericarditiswithin28daysofvaccination,withthehighestrisk seen in thoseage12to39andafterpeople received their second doses,according to the study,whichwas pub-

lished intheBMJ.WiththePfizershot,meanwhile,1.4peo-

pleper100,000developedtherareheartsideeffects, although a heightened risk wasobservedinwomen,thestudysaid.The prevalence of such side effects

was nonetheless low and when itoccurred,people had“predominantlymild”experiences, the authorswrote.Thegreaterhealthrisksbyfarwereseenin the unvaccinated,who,among otherthings,had a 14-fold increased risk ofcardiac arrest and death in the 28 daysfollowingapositivetest,theresearcherssaid.The research “supports the overall

benefitsof suchvaccinationonan indi-vidual, societal, and global level,”wrotethe authors, led by Anders Husby, aresearcher of epidemiologyand biosta-tisticsat ImperialCollegeLondon.Moderna’smessenger-RNAshotcon-

tains more genetic material thanPfizer’s, which may help explain theincreased side effect profile, the com-panyhasacknowledged.Eachdosecon-tains100microgramsofmRNAencasedin lipidnanoparticles,compared to just30micrograms per dose in the Pfizer-BioNtechvaccine.The studydrawsonayear’sworthof

Danishhealthcaredatacovering4.9mil-

lionpeople,themajorityofthecountry’spopulation.Earlier this week a study from the

UniversityofOxfordfoundthattherareformof heart inflammation some peo-ple get after a Covid shot occurs far lessoften in response to vaccination thanafter the disease itself. The scientistsfound that the number of cases ofmyocarditis was at least four timesgreaterafterCovid-19,according to thelargeststudytodateonthetopic.Moderna did not respond immedi-

atelytoarequest forcomment.

—Bloomberg

ERIC ROSTON

FEWTHINGSSIGNALsomething'sgonehaywire on the planet quite like frozenland on fire.Nowscientists have deter-minedthatArcticfires,evenmilderones,can reshape a landscape for decades, inways that maymake it even harder tokeepglobalheatingfromeclipsinginter-nationalgoals.It'smostly rising temperatures that

arethawingoutfrozenArcticgroundbutnorthernblazes—alreadyincreasing—arenowunderstoodtoplayadispropor-tionate role, according to a studypub-lishedlastweekinthejournalOneEarth.Previous research has shown that

highertemperatures,driersoilandmorelightning stormswill lead tomore fires.That work,with the new paper,meanthat“inthefuturewemightexpecttoseeanoutsized influenceon thawfromthefiresthatwill likelyincrease,"saidRóisínCommane,aColumbiaUniversityassis-tantprofessorwhostudiesatmosphericcompositionandwasn’t involved in thenewstudy.The papermight help explain small

increases in methane and CO2 fromAlaska’s North Slope seen over the past40 years, she said, but there’s been nomassive increase yet from abrupt per-mafrostmelt—alongstandingconcernamongresearchers.When frozen ground melts, it can

destabilize the earth above it somuchthat the ground subsides or collapses,leaving behind a landscape ofwhat sci-entistscall thermokarst.Theterraincantake on the appearance of large, round,shallow pits, sometimes abutting socloselythat scientistsmonitoring themhavetostepcarefullyalongnarrowstripsbetweenthem.Aerialimagesoftheselandscapescan

be striking or beautiful as long as youdon't thinkaboutwhythey'vegrownbyabout 60% in the Alaskan Arctic

between1950and2015.Mostofthat isfromairtemperaturesrisingattwicetheglobal average.Byanalyzing70years ofsatellite and overflight images, andapplyingamachine-learningmodel,sci-entists have determined that north-western Alaskan fires have a lastingeffect.Theyburnedjust3.4%oftheareabut are responsible for 10.5% ofthermokarstinAlaska’sNoatakNationalPreserve,theareaunderstudy.Globalwarming ismaking fire con-

ditionsmore common near the top ofthe world, and the study’s results arelikely applicable to the uptick in fireselsewhere around theArctic rim. In theperiod right after a fire, thermokarstrates are dozens of times higher thannormal.After40years,the ratewas stilltwice as high, returning to normal per-hapsonlyafterabouteightdecades.“That'sthemaintake-homemessage

about this project,” said Yaping Chen,lead author and a postdoctoralresearcherat theCollegeofWilliamand

Mary,whoconductedtheworkasaUni-versityof IllinoisPhDcandidate.“Manypeople think that an ecosystem willalwaysrecover.Thereisactuallyathresh-oldpointafterwhichtheecosystemmayneverrecover.”Whendeadbiomass freezes,hungry

microbescan'tfeastonitandreleasecar-bon dioxide in the process. But that’swhathappenswhenthethawcomes.Orworse,thermokarstpitscanflood,form-ing lakes that cut off oxygen to theground.Thatmakes the land swampyand attracts microbes that producemethane,amuchmorepowerfulgreen-housegasthanCO2.Permafrost is chock full of carbon

and it sits underneath 20% of theworld's land,holding twice asmuch asthe atmosphere. Scientists don't havemaps as detailed as they'd like ofwhereallthepermafrostis.Remotesensingcanonlypenetrate so far down the surface,sotheyhavetomakeassumptionsabouthowmuchpermafrost there isbasedon

thekindof landinanarea.Ultimately,they'dliketoknowwhen,

howmuchandhowfastpermafrostwillrelease more heat-trapping gases,accordingtoamajorUNclimate-scienceassessment published in August.Thiswouldhelp themmakeestimatesof therateandextentofglobalwarmingmoreprecise.How thermokarst transformslandscapes, releasing more CO2 ormethane in the process, isn't capturedwell inclimatemodelsnow.“I like to think of it as a 10%effect,”

saidDavidLawrence,aseniorscientistatthe National Center for AtmosphericResearch who wasn’t involved in thestudy.Permafrostmelt“isgoingtomakeclimate change about 10% harder tocombat.Wehavetoreduceemissionsby10%more toget to the sametargets,orwe’re going to get 10%morewarming.That number could rise to 20%, but Idon’t think it’sgoingtobe50%.”

—Bloomberg

Moderna shot hadmore heart risk than Pfizer’s: Study

Science& techAnewanalysis shows that fires inAlaskahave an influence on landscape farbeyond the area theyburn

Arctic fires aremeltingpermafrost

PORTRAIT: SHYAMKUMAR PRASAD

CHENNAI/KOCHI

❝

❝TECHMATTERSRishad Premji, chairman,Wipro

Skilling in new-age technologies is criticalto stay relevant andmake India the digitaltalent hub for theworld.

SUDHIRCHOWDHARY

INTERMSOF digital transformation,thelast few years have been dramatic. TheIndian market has tremendous digitaldevelopment possibilities, and both thepublic and the commercial sectors areequally committed to the project.BharatPetroleumCorporationLtd(BPCL),aFortune500 firm, is one such participant,with arobustnetworkofaround19,000retailout-lets across India.BPCLis the second largestIndian oilmarketing companyandone ofthepremierintegratedenergycompanies.“Technology is playing apivotal role in

BPCL’s digital transformation journey.Thedeveloping technologies fromsomeof theleadingcloudproviderswill alsohaveasig-nificant impactonthe futureof theoil andgas industry in the Indian market,” saidRahulTandon,head,DigitalTransformation(ProjectAnubhav),BPCL.

Tofosterdigitalchangethroughoutitsmarketingdivision,BPCLhas initiated itsProjectAnubhav,withtheaimtoprovideaunified BPCL experience across differenttouchpoints to its enormous retail (B2C)andcommercial (B2B)clientbase.Theini-tiativebolstersBPCL’smarketingactivitiesand gives it a single perspective on theconsumer, with the goal of improvingbusiness process efficiency, improvingsupply-chaintransparency,andgatheringmarket information.The key initiativeslaunchedaspartof theprojectare:

■ SalesBuddy, a CRM application todevelopandmaintainclientrelationships;

■ IRIS, the Digital Nerve Centre, it

enhances supply chain transparency andassists indeliveringonBPCL’sbrandcom-mitments;

■Urja, a chatbot powered by artificialintelligence (AI) thatcancommunicate in13 languages;

■HelloBPCL, a unified and integratedsoftwarethatprovidesasinglewindowviewof BPCL. It is also a one-stop solution forBPCL’ssalesandserviceactivities.Consumer-centricityisoneoftheinitia-

tive’smainfocuses,andBPCLhasteamedupwithOracle for its pilot digitalmarketingprogrammeproject to improve customerinteractionsthroughdigitalchannelsandtocross-sellfueltoitsLPGcustomers.

“Customerstodayseeksolutionsthataresimple touse,intuitive,multichannel,andtailored in real-time, and they prioritiseseamlessworkdeliveryacrossmanychan-nels.These business objectives have beensuccessfullymet throughourdigital pilotwithOracle,”saidTandon.On the responseondigitalmarketingbyusingOracleMar-keting Cloud–Responsys,he added,“Wehave receivedpositive feedback on this,sowe’replanningtodevelopadatalake,andonthatdatalake,whateveranalyticsoranalyt-icscentreofexcellenceperforms,wewillbe

constructing multiple-use cases that wemaydeployfurther.”BPCLhopestohaveathoroughgraspof

digital marketing platforms and howthesemay improve customer experiencethrough end-to-end digital marketingcustomer journeys as part of this project.Analytics on BPCL’s data is used to createbusinessknowledge forsimplerdecision-making.“Analytics and artificial intelli-gence are also playing a pivotal role inboostingcustomersatisfaction.Parallelly,digitalmarketingenabledcloudsolutionssuch as Oracle Responsys have helpedBPCL boost customer engagementthroughdata-drivenchoicesandimproveourrevenuestreams,”headded.“By developing this distinct edge for

itself and its stakeholders,BPCL is reapingthe rewards.A project of this magnitudeneedsvisionemphasis tobecomeadigital-first company.We live in a digitally linkedworld,andtechnologyispushingchangesinbusinessmodels,”saidRakesh Jaitly,seniorsalesdirector,OracleApplications.BPCL’sTandonaddedthatthepublicsec-

tor petroleum marketing company hasmadeastrategicdecisiontoprioritisecloudand software-as-a-service solutions.It hascreated an innovative fuelling solution,acloud-first software that is more secure,quick,andsimpletouse.Thishasbeenquitepopularwith a largenumberof customersutilising this solution. These developingtechnologieswillbegame-changersfortheindustryinthenearfuture.

SUDHIR CHOWDHARY

WIRELESSHEADPHONES—EARBUDSandneckbands—are the newbuzzwordin the audio segment.Their usage hassurgedduringthesepandemic-inducedwork and learn from home times.Theyare built with modern technology toprovideaseamlessexperience.Wirelessearbudsareeasytouseduetotheircom-pact shape and size. You can connectthese to various types of gadgets, rightfrom smartphones to laptops.Young-sters, in particular, love them for the

simple reason that they can changesongs or take calls without having topick up the phone. In addition,you canuse them during your gym sessions orvideochats.WetakealookatBlueiTrue-pods-1 earbuds that are ideal for use inthe gym or running trackswithout thefearof losing them.With the advent of even moreadvanced versions of Bluetooth, truewireless in-ears have become anessential piece of kit for many.Take for instance,theTruepods-1 wireless earbuds from thehomegrown audio and wear-able brand Bluei. Priced at amodest `2,199, these areunique curved design earbuds

poweredwith activenoise cancel-lation.Theearbudscomepackedinan

exquisiteandcompactchargeableblackcase and in three noise-cancellingmodes.BlueiTruepods1comeswithbattery

capacityof 40mAh and this delivers upto six hours of playback time (100 hrsstandbytime).TheearbudsfeatureBlue-toothv5.0technologythatdeliversasta-ble connection that lets your rock onwithout connectivity issues.The stereocalling feature of these earbuds allowsyou to enjoy calls via its built-inmicro-phone and 10-mm drivers and thedevice is IPX5water resistant.Bluei ear-buds are powered up by the IWP tech-nology featured in them the momentyou open the case. The presence of aType-C charging port ensures you caneasilychargeitwithanychargerthathasa compatible cable.Accessing the voiceassistantfunctioniseasy,asall it takesisa single press of easy accessmultifunc-tionbuttonsfeaturedontheTruepods1.Thesmoothtouchcontrols letonecom-mandplayback,hands-freeandactivatevoiceassistantwithease.

■ Estimated street price: `2,199

●DIGITALDIVIDENDS

OVERTHE PAST18-plusmonths,organi-sationalchangehasbeenforgedbyinternalandexternal pressures.Organisations thatdrove forwardwith an agilemindset andadopted the right digital technologies tosupport their teams and customers haveseengreatreturns.Now,onthecuspofanewera,organisations have a briefwindowforintrospectionandtoconsiderhowtheywanttooperateandfinetunetheirapproach.Hybrid multicloud, cybersecurity,

automation and artificial intelligence aresomekeytechnologies thatwill have a bigpart toplay in increasing customerexperi-ence and accelerating business growth in2022.HereishowfourofIndia’skeysectorswill use these technologies as theyaim tobuildaresilientdigitalfuture:

BFSIRecentrapiddevelopmentsinfinancial

services fromnewerplayers and fintechshave challenged the dominance of tradi-tional banks.So,a large focus for all BFSIswill be on transforming their digital cus-tomerexperienceswhile retaining,engag-ingandacquiringnewcustomers.BFSIswilllook to automate theirmanual processes,developmore digital products anddeliverbetterservicesoverall.ModernisingtheirITinfrastructure and applications,andmov-ing to hybridmulticloud solutionswill beessential tothismodel.

IT/ITeSThehyper-digital transformationwit-

nessedsincethepandemicwill continuetoaccelerateasIndia’senterprisesseekfaster,value-drivensolutionstosecuretheirwork-force,applicationsanddata.IT/ITeSorgani-sationswill lean onhybridmulticloud foroperational consistencyacross theirwork-loads,sincetheywillneedunifieduserexpe-riences,policies,securitypostures and ser-vice-level agreements. In the face of anevolving security threat landscape,‘zero-trust’will become the defence strategyofchoice.Andaspartof this strategy,securityautomationwill play a large part in con-stantlyprotecting anenterprise’svulnera-bilities fromexternal and internal threatsboth.Finally,enterpriseswill turn toAI andautomationtohelptheircurrentworkforceaddressoperationalchallenges.

HealthcareThe sector’s ultimate focus is on saving

lives,soweedingout any issues thatmightobstructfromthatpurpose,especiallyfroman ITstandpoint,will be themain goal for2022.OurlastEnterpriseCloudIndexreportidentified thatmanyhealthcare organisa-tions have a five-year-plan to switch tohybridmulticloud,andwill continue look-ingatITmorestrategically.ThisarchitecturewillprovideCIOsagility,flexibilityandcon-trol,andalsohelpposition the industryforfurther innovation in areas such asAI,IoT,AR,VRandrobotics.AllhealthcareCXOswillprioritise fortifying their ITenvironmentswiththeabilitytorapidlyrecoverfromran-somwareattacks.

PSUs/GovernmentSincetheseroutinelydealwithimmense

volumes of data, data management andcybersecurity,alongwithanupgraded,scal-able infrastructure like hybridmulticloudthatcaneasilysupportheavyworkloadsdur-ingcrucialperiods,willremainparamount.The future enterprise is taking shape,

with strong focus on process redesign toimprove and simplify work. In 2022, asdata further cements its position as thecurrencyofdigitalbusinesses,investmentsin hybrid multicloud, cybersecurity,automationandAI,willhelpIndia’sorgan-isationsbecomemoreresilient.

Thewriterismanagingdirector–Sales,India&SAARC,Nutanix

Building aresilientdigital future

SUDHIR CHOWDHARY

READING IS A dying habit. Blame it onthe rapid proliferation of devices in oureveryday life, butmany among us havelost the zeal to read. However, anyonewho likes to read bookswill find them-selves readingmore often once theygeta Kindle.Amazon Kindle’s ease of use,longbatterylife,andinstantbuyingabil-itymeansit’smorelikelytogetyouread-ing books,newspapers,magazines andother digital media content.On a per-sonalnote,I alwayswantedto introducemydaughtertoreadingforquiteawhile.I simply gifted her a Kindle Paperwhiteand it’s been just a delight to to see herdevelop themuchneeded readinghabitin thisdigital era.Cut to present. Amazon has intro-

duced the next generation of KindlePaperwhite with two newmodels: theall-newKindlePaperwhiteandthefirst-ever Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edi-tion.Wegotthelatterforreviewpurpose.Foryears,KindlePaperwhitehasbeenthemostpopularKindle,andthenewgener-

ation combines premium hardware,faster performance, and a redesigneduserinterfaceforamoreenjoyableread-ingexperience.Startingat`13,999,Kin-dle Paperwhite comeswith a larger dis-play, a new adjustable warm light, andincreased battery life,while thenewSignature Edition addsanauto-adjustinglightsen-sorandisthefirst-everKin-dle to offerwireless charg-ing. It retails for `17,999and is available in Blackcolour. Whether reading inthesun,orinthedark,thenewKindle Paperwhite deviceshave a smoother experienceenabled by all-new hardwareandaredesigned interface.The Kindle Paperwhite and

Kindle Paperwhite SignatureEdition have been purpose-builtto help you get lost in yourfavourite book. Thin, portabledesign,andatonly205gforKindlePaperwhiteand208gfortheSigna-tureEdition,it’seasytocarryaroundor read for hours.Plus,8GB of stor-age onKindle Paperwhite and32GBof storage on the Signature Editionmeans there’s room for thousands oftitles andmore space for comics andmagazines.Letme list out someof thekeyfeatureshere.Larger and brighter display: Fea-

turinga6.8-inch,300ppiglare-freedis-play that reads like real paper even inbright sunlight,Kindle Paperwhite now

has smaller bezels, and is 10%brighterat themaximumsetting.Longerbattery:AnewUSB-Ccharg-

ingportandupto10weeksofbatterylifeallowyoutoenjoyyourbookwithouttheworryof findingapoweroutlet.You cancharge from zero to full battery in 2.5

hourswhenusinga9Wadapterorlarger.Warm light: Built-in adjustable

warmlightanddarkmodeofferflexibil-ity for reading, so you can easily transi-tionfromdaytimetonighttimereading.Faster and smoother: The latest

generation E-ink display offers betterperformanceanddeviceresponsiveness,including20%fasterpage turns.Waterproof:With the IPx8 rating,

you can take Kindle Paperwhite almostanywhere youwant to read—it’swater-proof fromthebeach to thebath.Unique toSignatureEditionare some

interestingfeatures.Oneisauto-adjustinglight sensor. This ambient light sensorautomatically changes the brightness ofthe display to the lighting around you.Then,there iswireless charging featurethatoffersflexibility,andcanbeusedwithanycompatibleQiwirelesscharger.Switchedon,wearelookingatacom-

pletely redesigned Kindle interface,addingseveralnewfeaturesforaneasierandmore intuitiveexperience fromthemomentyoupickupyourdevicetostartreading.The updated experience pro-videsaneasywaytoswitchbetweenthehome screen,your library, or your cur-rent book,while a new library experi-ence includes new filters and sortmenus, a new collections view, and aninteractive scroll bar.

One of the things I really likedabout thenewKindle is that it hasnoglare and won’t distract you withsocialmedia,emails,textmessages,ornotifications.TheSignatureEdi-tion offers more features thanstandardmodel, includingwire-lesschargingandautomaticfrontlight adjustments, the latter is agenuinelyusefulfeature.Indeed,one of the finest devices toinculcatereadinghabitsamongthedigital-savvylot.

■ Estimated street price: `17,999

The Signature Edition hasa larger 6.8-inch displaywith colourwarmth,32GB storage,wirelesscharging and an adaptivefront light

●OUTLOOK 2022

The PSU oil and gasmarketing giant sets newbenchmarks in customercentricity using cloud andsoftware-as-a-service;achieves 100%RoIwithinthe digitalmarketing pilotwith Oracle Cloud

Investments in hybridmulticloud, cybersecurity,automation andAI,will helpIndian enterprises becomemore resilient

BPCLchampionschangewithProjectAnubhav


Gadgets

eFEMONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2021

LTI opens new deliverycentre in HyderabadTECHCONSULTINGANDdigitalsolutions firmLarsen&Toubro Infotech(LTI)hasexpanded itsHyderabadoperationsbysettingupanewfacility inthecity.The110,000sq.ft.facility isdesignedtohouseover3,000employees.Thecentrewill focusondeliveringdigital,data,andcloudsolutions toglobal clients.The facilityhostsnew-ageamenities related to the safety,security,andoverallwellbeingofemployees.Located in theSkyViewCampus,HitechCityMainRoad,Madhapur,thecentre isLEEDGoldcertifiedbyUSGBS.NachiketDeshpande,executiveBoard

Member&COO,LTI said,“ThecityofHyderabadhasa specialplace in theglobal technologyspace that is furthercomplementedbythevast talentpoolandanencouragingsupportbythegovernment.LTI’snewcentre in thecitywill strengthenouroperationsandplayacritical role inourgrowthaspirations.”LTIalso signedamemorandumofunderstanding (MoU)with IndianSchoolofBusiness,Hyderabad,toconducta studyondigital readiness.Thisdigital readiness indexwill serveasa tool toassess thestateofdigitisationinenterprises.

GivingwingstocreatorswithAdobesoftwareADOBEHASDEBUTEDCreativeCloudExpress,aunified task-based,webandmobileproduct thatmakes it easytocreateandsharebeautiful richmultimediacontent—fromsocialmediapostsandstories to invitations tomarketingmaterials like logos,flyersandbanners.CreativeCloudExpressenablesdrag-and-dropcontentcreation,empoweringeveryusertoexpress theircreativitywith justa fewclicks.It offersthousandsofhigh-qualitytemplates,20,000premiumAdobe fontsand175million licensedAdobeStock images.CreativeCloudExpress leveragesAdobeSensei,Adobe’spowerfulAI/MLframe-work,andthecutting-edge technologybehindAdobe’s flagshipapplications likePhotoshop,PremiereandAcrobat.“Everyonehasa storyto tell and it’s

ourmission toempowereveryone toexpress their ideas,”saidScottBelsky,chiefproductofficerandexecutivevicepresident,CreativeCloud,Adobe.CreativeCloudExpress is free to start andavailable immediatelytoeveryoneonthewebatadobe.com/expressandasa freeapp fromtheMicrosoftStore,GooglePlayStoreandAppleAppStore.

TechBytes

Faiz Shakir

●AMAZON PAPERWHITE (SIGNATURE EDITION)

Purpose-built for reading, it’sthin and portable too

● BLUEI TRUEPODS-1 EARBUDS

Sound quality is top-notch on these buds

RahulTandon, head, DigitalTransformation (ProjectAnubhav),BPCL

Nachiket Deshpande, executive BoardMember & COO, LTI

Truepods-1 ensures a greataudio experiencewhileplaying games or listeningtomusic, and even fortakingwork-related calls

CHENNAI/KOCHI

USFDA’sVAI for Lupin’s Goa site implies steps takenby themanagement to resolve the issuewereadequate.Thiswould accelerate the efforts toresolve issues at other sites aswell

—Motilal Oswal

EXPERTVIEWInvestor

AFTER ALMOST 4.5 years of regulatoryhurdles,LPCreceivedafavourableclassifi-cation (VoluntaryAction IndicatedorVAI)for itsGoa facility fromtheUSFDA.This isabig relief fromacompliance standpoint,given the reasonable contribution in thebasebusinessaswellasdoubledigitANDAspending approval from the Goa site.Weexpect21%earningsCAGRoverFY21-23eandraiseour12-monthforwardP/Eto25x(tofactorinGoacompliance)from24xear-lier and arrive at our TP of `990/share.While the regulatory clearance removes akeyoverhangontheGoafacility,wemain-tainourNeutralratingasvaluationleaveslimitedupsidefromcurrent levels.

GoaregulatorybackgroundLPC’sGoasiteregulatoryhistorywassoundtill USFDA issued aWarning Letter to thissite after its Apr’17 inspection. The keyobservations cited byUSFDA in itsWarn-ingLetterwerefrequentinvalidationofini-tialOutofspecification(OOS)resultswith-outadequate investigation.Subsequently,the sitewasagain inspected inFeb’19andwas classified asOfficialAction Indicated

(OAI). In fact, the inspection conducted inSep’21highlightedasimilarobservation.TherecentVAIclassificationbyUSFDA

implies enhanced remediationmeasuresimplementedbyLPCtoresolveissuesindi-cated byUSFDA.The ‘OOS’ related obser-vation has been cited byUSFDAat othersites of LPC as well. VAI at the Goa siteimpliesstepstakenbythemanagementto

resolve this issue were adequate. Thiswould accelerate the efforts to resolveissuesatothersitesaswell.

OtherinspectionupdatesLPC’sMandideepUnit 1was inspected inDec’18,afterwhich the facilitywas issuedaWarning Letter in Sep’19. No ANDA ispendingapproval fromthissite.Its Indore

(PithampurUnit2) plantwas inspected inMay’17.Subsequently,it receivedaWarn-ingLetter.Itwas inspectedagain in Jan’19andwasclassifiedasOAI.PithampurUnit2receivedsixobservationsduringtheJan’19inspections.Onthepositiveside,keyprod-uctAlbuterolisbeingproducedattheNag-pur facility and has an EIR in place.Thislimits thedownsideoncurrentrevenue.

ValuationandviewWe expect LPC to record 21% earningsCAGRover FY21-23E, led by: (i) ramp-upinthemarketshareofg-Proair/g-Brovana,(ii) new launches in US Generics, and (iii)improved outlook for DF, especiallyChronic Therapies.There could be head-windsrelatedtorawmaterialandlogisticscostovertheneartermaswitnessedacrossthe industry. We arrive at our TP of`990/share andmaintainNeutral ratingascurrentvaluationsadequatelyfactorinhealthy earnings CAGR as well as afavourable regulatoryoutcome.

MOTILALOSWAL

● LUPIN RATING: NEUTRAL

INSPITEOF twosuccessiveCovidwaves inIndia inCY20andCY21,listeddevelopershaveweathered the stormremarkablywelland sector consolidation has acceleratedalongwithbalance sheet de-leveraging.InCY21,the clearwinnerwas the residentialsegmentwith a combinationof lowmort-gage rates,stable residential prices,strongsalary/hiring growth in the IT/ITeS sector,and continuedWork-from-Homedrivingdemand.Whileannuityassetsacrossoffices,mallsandhotelssawamutedCY21perfor-mance,greenshootsarevisiblefromOct’21intheformofincreasedofficeleasing,recov-eryinmallconsumptiontopre-Covidlevelsandimprovedhoteloccupancies.BarringanythirdCovidwavedisruption

acrossIndia,weexpectresidentialhousingdemand to sustain in CY22 and annuityassetplaystoseerecoverytopre-Covidlev-els.Whilethe59%CY21YTDreturnsintheBSERealtyIndexfactors inthesepositivesto a large extent,we remainbullishon themedium-termoutlook for the sector.Toppicks: DLF,Oberoi Realty,EmbassyREIT,PhoenixMillsandBrigadeEnterprises.

Crackerofafestiveseason,residentialoutlook remains bright: While initialexpectations were for new residentiallaunchesto commencefromOct’21tocoin-cidewith the beginning of the festive sea-son,thewaningof the secondCovidwave,record lowmortgage rates and stronghir-ing/salarygrowthintheIT/ITessectorledtodevelopers pre-poningmany launches toAug-Sep’21 which saw strong buyerdemand.Asperourchecks,themomentumhas carried into Q3FY22, and we expectdevelopers to post record sales bookingnumbersinH2FY22ledbynewlaunches.We believe that owing to healthy bal-

ance sheets, access to capital andmanyunlisted,weakerdevelopersbeingshuntedout of the market, the market share oflarge organised developers is set to growfurther in the next 2-3years.Most devel-opers in the listed space have aggressivelaunch plans fromH2FY22 and are look-ing to grow at a double-digit sales valueCAGRoverthenext2-3years.Weestimatethe pan-Indian residential market sharefor our coverage universe to grow from25%inFY21to31%inFY24e.Office leasingrecoveryonthecards

from CY22: While vacancy levels mayremain flat in Q4CY21, we expect thistrend to reverse from Q1CY22e (Jan’22onwards)withtheimprovedpaceofvacci-nations across India, select corporatesrecallingemployeestoofficesandgradualpick-up in international travel.While thejuryisstilloutontheeventualoutcomeofthe back-to-office plans of corporates,wemodel for pan-India net absorption of18.5msf in CY21 (11.5msf achieved in9MCY21)andbuildinarecoveryinCY22ewithnetabsorptionof26.8msf.Mall consumption showing green

shoots in festive season:While rentalwaiversmay result inmall owners incur-ring~30%rental lossattheindustrylevelin FY22e, consumption levels in Q3FY22during the festive season range between80-100% of pre-Covid levels. Withresumption of Food andBeverages (F&B),gamingandmultiplexes,mallrentalsmayrevert back to 90%minimumguaranteefromQ4FY22 as consumption stabilisestopre-Covid levelsheading intoFY23e.

ICICI SECURITIES

Residentialsegment thewinner in year

MINDA INDUSTRIES ENTERED into a JVwith FRIWO to combine theirmanufac-turing and technical expertise tomanu-factureandsupplyvariouselectricvehiclecomponents for 2Ws and 3Ws in Indianmarkets.TheJVwillhelpMNDAaccelerateEVproduct launches and provide awiderange of offerings to 2WOEMs.The com-pany iswell-positioned to benefit from–(i) premiumisation leading to increase incontent per vehicle, (ii) import substitu-tion(alloywheels)andincreaseinlocalisa-tion of electronic components (sensors)and (iii) rapid adoption of EV technologyin2Ws.Givensuperiorgrowthopportuni-ties,MNDA remains our top pick in theautoancillaryspace.Minda Industries forms JV with

FRIWO: This JV will help the companyoffernewerproductadditionssuchasbat-terypacksandoffboardchargers (FRIWOalready has anchor customers for theseproducts inIndia)aswellasaccelerate theproduct development for motor con-troller.Theentitywillofferfull linee-drivesolutions for electrical two-and threewheelersinthedomesticmarket.Thetotalcapex to be incurred by the proposed JVwill be`3.9bnoverthenext sixyears,outofwhich`1.6bnwill be invested over thenext twoyears.JVwill furtheraccelerate2WEVini-

tiatives for MNDA: The company hascommencedtheproductionofEV-specificproducts for 2WOEMs.Furthermore, theJVwillaidthecompanytoaccelerateprod-uct development timeline as well asincreasethekitvalueofferingto2WOEMswithnewproducts.Mindawell-positioned:Wehavefine-

tunedourFY2022-24eEPSestimates.WeexpectMNDAto continue to outperformindustry.MaintainBuywithrevisedFVof`1,130 (from`950earlier) based onDCFmethodology aswe have increased long-term growth rate assumptions for thecompanyandroll overtoMarch2024e.

KOTAK INSTITUTIONALEQUITIES

JVwith FRIWOto enlarge EVproduct basketFirm to continue to outgrowindustry; ‘Buy’ retainedwithTP up to `1,130 from `950

●MINDA INDUSTRIESRATING: BUY

● REALESTATE

EPSCAGRof 21%estimatedover FY21-23e; TP revisedto `990; ‘Neutral’ retainedas valuation leaves limitedupside from present levels

USFDAclearance forGoaunit removesoverhang



(` billion)Financials & valuationsYear to March 2021 2022E 2023ESales 150.9 162.2 184.8EBITDA 25.3 25.5 33.6Adj. PAT 11.8 12.6 17.3EBIT Margin (%) 10.9 10.4 13.2Cons. Adj. EPS (INR) 26.0 27.9 38.0EPS Gr. (%) 11.5 7.2 36.5BV/Sh. (INR) 304.2 275.2 301.5RatiosNet D:E 0.1 0.3 0.3RoE (%) 9.0 9.6 13.2RoCE (%) 7.5 18.9 10.8Payout (%) 30.4 -56.9 30.8ValuationsP/E (x) 36.3 33.9 24.8EV/EBITDA (x) 17.6 18.5 13.8Div. Yield (%) 0.7 1.0 1.1FCF Yield (%) 1.8 0.9 3.3EV/Sales (x) 3.0 2.9 2.5Source: MOFSL

Momentum likely to sustainin CY22while annuity assetplays are expected to seerecovery to pre-Covid levels

Affordability* of homes is at3.2x, best in last 25 years

50

40

30

20

10

0

16.00

14.00

12.00

10.00

8.00

6.00

4.00

2.00

0.00

Property value (`1,00,000)Affordability

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Annual income(`1,00,000, RHS)

4.74.8

4.64.74.6 4.44.13.83.73.53.33.2

Source: HDFC Limited Investor Presentation, Isec Research* Affordability equals property prices by annual income

Financials & valuations2022E 2023E 2024E

EPS (`) 12.8 21.7 28.9EPS growth (%) 68.8 70.4 32.9P/E (X) 81.5 47.8 36.0P/B (X) 8.9 7.5 6.2EV/EBITDA (X) 31.6 22.9 18.3RoE (%) 10.9 15.7 17.2Div. yield (%) 0.2 0.3 0.4Sales (` bn) 84 105 123EBITDA (` bn) 10 13 16Net profits (` bn) 4 6 8Source: Company, Kotak Institutional Equities estimates

FE BUREAU

BETWEEN2016AND2021,thefinancialsectorwasthelargestwealthcreatingsec-torand is likely to spearheadwealth cre-ation for quite some time in the future,saystheMotilalOswal26thAnnualWealthCreation study.Reliance Industries is thelargestwealthcreatorforthethirdtimeinsuccessionwith total wealth created at

`9.7 lakh crore,thehighest eversurpass-ing its own record of `5.6 lakh crore in2014-19.ThestudysaysAdaniTransmis-sion is the fastestwealth creatorwith aprice CAGR of 93%. Adani Enterprisesranks the third fastestwealth creator. Infact,AdaniEnterpriseshasemergedastheBestAll-roundWealthCreator,followedbygroupcompanyAdaniTransmission.During2016-21,whileSensex'sCAGR

wasmutedat14%,thepaceofwealthcre-ationwashealthyat24%CAGRindicatingthatwealth creationhappens in all kindsofmarketconditions.So,investorsarebet-teroff focusingonwhich stocks to investin,ratherthantimingthemarkets.

LosingoutThewealth creation performance of

state-owned companies was the worst

duringtheperiod2016-21.Thestudysaysthereareonlytwopublicsectorcompanies(PSUs) in the top100wealthcreators andthewealth created by these two PSUs—GujaratGasandIndraprasthaGas—islessthan1%ofthetotal.The totalwealthdestroyedduring the

period2016-21is`11lakhcrore,whichis15%ofthetotalwealthcreatedbytop100companies. Five of the top 10 wealthdestroying companies are in the publicsector.Interestingly,thefinancialsectorisboth the top wealth creating and topwealthdestroying.While theprivate sec-torbanksandnon-bankingfinancialcom-panieswerewealth creators,theirpublicsectorpeerswere thewealth destroyers,accordingtothestudy.

Atoms toBitsGlobally, there is a shift fromAtoms,

which do businesses dealing in physicalmatter,toBits,whicharedigitalinnature.UnlikeAtoms,Bitsdealinintangibleassets,enjoy very low cost of replicating theiroffering,andbenefitfromnetworkeffects.ThesefactorsenableBitsfirmstoscaleupveryrapidly.ThesuccessofBitscompaniescentres around rapid growth in order toachieve critical mass.While Atoms usefinancialcapitaltoacquirephysicalassetswhich reflect in their balance sheet,Bitsmainlyusehumancapitaltoself-generateintangible assets, (e.g. technology plat-form), which gets fully charged to theincomestatement,resultinginopticalloss.

Financial services leadinwealth creation

VIKRANTVIKRAM SINGH

THE DECISIONTO buyyour first homeis exciting. Many people find thatspendingmoney on real estate is morebeneficial in the long run than rentingitout.Whetheryouarebuyinganapart-ment or constructing a house, homeinsurance is amust toprotect thehomeand personal belongings. There aremanyways to save moneywith insur-ancewhenbuyingyourfirst home.

Buyyourpolicy onlineIf you buy home content insurance

online, your premiumwill be lower asthere are no intermediaries in onlinemode and very few documents arerequired.Buyingonlinecanalsosaveyoua lotof timeandeffort.If you agree to pay a portion of the

damageintheeventofacomplaint,thiswill significantly reduce yourmonthlypremiums. In thisway,you can save onmonthly premiumswhile being prop-erlycovered.

Comprehensive coverItisanerrortoestimatetheinsurance

amount for the past price of propertiespurchased.Infact,furniture,fixturesandfittings should be insured on a regular

basis after taking intoaccount the depreciation.Expertssuggestguarantee-ingthebuildingstructureofthe property based on thetotalbuildingarea.There are separate

insurance policies for thestructure,householditems,andpeopleinthehouse,butit is best to have a com-pletely comprehensive insurance thatincludes all of them.The contents areinsured against fire, robbery, terroristactivity,or electrical ormechanical fail-ureandincludejewelleryandothervalu-ables. In-house compensation coversemergencies, accidents,workers' acci-dentcompensation,andthecostofalter-native housing after accidental familyhospitalisation. Fully comprehensive

insurance usually meansthat the premiums arelower than if you had indi-vidual insuranceforeachofthese insurances.If you want to save on

your home insurance pre-miums, refurbishing yourproperty is essential. Con-sider completing thewiring to repair the dam-

age and avoid the risk of breakdown orfire and make the roof of the housemore impact resistant.

Be smart about filing a claimClaiming is an important step in

recovering the damage.Also, there aremanywaystomaketheprocessofbillingeasyandfreefromflaws.Firststepinthisdirection is to keep proper records of all

property documents, data, and keepsafely all important receipts and docu-ments.Also,maintainan inventoryofallthe items inyourhome.Youcanalsousetheapporwebsitetotrackitemsdigitally.

When filing a claim,make sure youhave this information and all otherdetailsaboutyourhomeareathandandready to share. Insurance companieshavedifferenttimeframesforreportingclaims. Make sure you submit withinthesedeadlinestomakesureyourlossesare covered.Check your policy related rules and

important updates on a regular basis.Changes toyourhome,andeven inyourneighbourhood,canincreaseordecreaseyourinsurancepremiums.Ifyouexpandyour home, for example, if you remodela basement orpool,youwant to replen-ishyourinsurancepolicysothatyouwillnot beuninsured in the event of seriousdamage to yourproperty or liability.Onthe other hand, if the risk is mitigated,insurance premiums may go down.Adding new roofs, security alarms,fences,poolcovers,etc.,toyourhomecanreduce your risk and reduce your insur-ancepremiums.

Take help from expertsThebestwaytodetermineyourcov-

erage needs is to consult an indepen-dent agent.Your agentwill reviewyoursituation,home and location and comeupwith the best policy recommenda-tions for you.The agent can also elabo-rate on the policies and optional cover-age that itmayadd.

Thewriter isassistantprofessor,AmityBusinessSchool,AmityUniversity,

MadhyaPradesh

Personal Finance● INSURANCE

Tips for buying a home insurance policy

During 2016-21,whileSensex’s CAGRwasmutedat 14%, the pace ofwealthcreationwas healthy at24%CAGR


Home Insurance

It is best to go for acomprehensive insurancepolicy that covers all kindsof risks to structure,household items and thepeople living in it


●YOURMONEY

Changes toyour home, andeven in your

neighbourhood,can increase ordecrease yourinsurancepremiums

CHENNAI/KOCHI

BrandWagonVAISHNAVIGUPTA

AFTER LAUNCHINGTWO large-formatstores in India in a span of three years—one each inHyderabad andNaviMumbai— Ikea opened its first small-format storeinWorli,Mumbai,tobecome“moreacces-sible and convenient”.About 90,000 sq ftinsize,these‘city’storesarealreadypresentinmarketssuchasNewYork,London,Paris,MoscowandShanghai.The furnituremarket in India stood at

$17.77billion in2020,and is expected toreach$37.72billionby2026,growingat aCAGRof13.37%,according to aResearchandMarkets report.Godrej Interio,Urban-Ladder and Pepperfry are among the bigplayers in this space,allwith a significantonlinepresence,too.GodrejInteriohas300exclusivestoresinIndia,whilePepperfryhasmorethan110Studios.

BrickbybrickSpread across three floors, Ikea’s first citystorehas9,000productsinfocus,ofwhich2,200 are available for takeaway and therest forhomedelivery.“Wehaveobservedthat it is not easy to find large retail loca-tionsincitieslikeMumbaiandBengaluru.The small store offers convenience andaccessibility for consumers to experienceIkeaproducts,”saysPerHornell,areaman-agerandcountryexpansionmanager,IkeaIndia.This launch is in linewith the com-pany’s aim to become accessible to 200million homes in India by2025,and 500millionhomesby2030.More launches are being planned:

anothercitystoreinMumbaiinthespringof2022andalarge-formatstoreaswellasa city store in Bengaluru by the end of2022. For its retail expansion in Maha-rashtra, the company plans to invest

`6,000croreby2030.“Weareon track toexceed the investment commitment of`10,500 croremade for India in Decem-berlastyear,”addsHornell.Delhi,Mumbaiand Bengaluru are the three cities on itsradar at the moment,which will be fol-lowedbytierI and II towns.Furthermore, Ingka Centres, part of

Ingka Group that includes Ikea Retail, is

comingupwith its first shoppingcentre inGurugram(followedbyNoida),whichwillbeintegratedwithanIkeastore.In India,unlike its organised furniture

market competitors, Ikea doesn’t have apan-India online presenceyet. It has beenfollowinga“cluster-basedexpansionstrat-egy”foritsonlineoffering,butthecompanyinsists this is not a limitation.“At present,

30%of ouroverall India sales come fromonlinechannels,”Hornellinforms.Throughits e-commercewebsite andmobile shop-pingapp,thecompanycurrentlyoperatesinHyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru,Surat,AhmedabadandVadodara.On the otherhand,players likeGodrej

Interio andPepperfryhavebigplans to tapnewmarkets.The former aims to add 50

exclusive stores eachyear,while Pepperfryaims to achieve the 200 Studiosmark byMarch2022.In September this year,Pep-perfryforayedintothecustomisedfurnituresegmentwiththePepperfryModularoffer-ing,which focusses onmodularkitchens,wardrobesandentertainmentunits.

Goodstart?This is agood time forIkea toestablish itspresence in the Indianmarket,saysAlaguBalaraman,CEO,Augmented SCM.“Ear-lier,people used to rely on carpenters forfurnishing their homes; now, they prefertobuyreadymadefurniture.Themarketismoving towards acceptability, makingplenty of headroom for growth for thesecompanies,”he says.Ikea’scautiousexpansionapproachina

market like India where several localdynamicsareatplay,is tactful,analystssay.DevangshuDutta,founder,ThirdEyesight,says,“In thepast,Westernbusinesses havemade themistake of simplycopy-pastingformatsandstrategiesinemergingmarketsfrom their more developed markets.” Hebelieves there is“nothingwrong”in beingincremental while growing footprint.“There’s no sense in carpet-bombing themarketwithstores,whenmanymayendupbeingloss-makingorsub-optimal,”headds.Getting the product mix and pricing

right would be key in realising the fullpotential of thismarket.Balaraman saysIkeawill have tobalance its globalportfo-liowithwhat it is doing locally,andmakesure it isprofitable.FortheIkeamodeltosucceed,adequate

demand-concentration is crucial,which isbeingcurrentlyprovidedbythebiggercitiesinIndia.Givenitsglobalpopularity,thefur-niture giant, analysts say, is poised to seetractioninthemetrosandtierIcities.

● RETAIL

The furniture brand’s retail roadmap includes city stores inDelhi,Mumbai andBengaluru, followed by tier I and II towns



Anisha Iyer namedCEO of OMD India

OMNICOMMEDIAGROUPIndia’smedianetworkOMDhasnamedAnisha Iyeras itschief executiveofficer.Shewillbe responsiblefor“leadingfuture-readyteams,

enhancingclient relationshipsanddeliveringbest-in-class solutionsacrosstheboard”.Iyerwill report toKartikSharma,groupCEO,OmnicomMediaGroupIndia.Shehad joinedOMDin2019asmanagingdirectorforMalaysia.

TataStudipartnerswithMullenLintas

TATASTUDI,THElearningappfromedtechfirmTataClassEdge,hasawardeditsbrandandcreativecommunications

mandatetoMullenLintasMumbai.Theagencywillcraftthecreativestrategyforthelaunchofthelearningapp.Itsmission,theofficialstatementsays,is“toinculcateeffectivestudyhabits ineverychildandinspirethemtobeindependentlearners”.

Wavemaker’snewunit tofocusonSouthcinemaWAVEMAKERINDIAHASunveiledaspecialisedunit incollaborationwithOneMercuri tohelpbrands leverage theentertainmentandcontentbusiness inSouth India.Thiswill includecreatingoriginal content IPs,enablingbetterbrandassociations in filmsandOTTcontent (audio&video),andmeasurementandcollaborationswithwriters,amongotherthings.

BookMyShowrollsoutTVserieson-demandBOOKMYSHOWSTREAM,THEtransactionvideo-on-demandservice,hasexpanded its content librarytoincludeTVseries.Theplatformwill rolloutexclusive titlesandmini-seriesacrossgenresand languages,includingitsoriginals.

DDBMudraelevates IrajFrazBatlaDDBMUDRAHASELEVATEDIraj FrazBatla to thepositionof creativehead–North.Priorto this,he servedasexecutivecreativedirector–West.

In TheNews

VENKATASUSMITABISWAS

CHUMBAK,THE11-YEAR-OLD companythat startedwith a collection of souvenirsand collectibles inspired by India, hasevolved into a lifestyle brand over theyears. It now claims to sell over 2,000products, from magnets and bags tobenches and smartwatches. Recently,Chumbak expanded into categories suchasfurniture,homelinen,andbeautyprod-ucts.Can the retailer stand out in productcategories that have other utilitarianvaluesbeyondcleverdesign?

DécorandmoreAfocusareaforthecompanyishomeprod-ucts.CEOVasantNangia says that 60%ofthecompany’srevenuecomesfromthiscat-egory,which includes sub-categories likefurniture and furnishing,kitchenanddin-ing,andhomedécor.“Wehaveobservedabigspurt in interest in products such as bedlinen,planters,walldécor,etc,”Nangiasays.Thispromptedthecompanytoforayinto

theniche categoryof accent furniture thatincludes products like wing chairs, foot-stools covered in fabric,andbenches.“Thehomefurnishingandhomedécorcategoryhasbeenalaggardinmovingonline.This isamarket that is ripe forgrowth and is bigenough for several brands to coexist,” headds.Theseproductswillbeavailableonfur-nituremarketplaces, in addition toChum-bak’sownofflineandonlinestores.With its foray into thebeautycategory,

thebrandnowsellslipsticks,nailpaints,fra-grances,make-upproducts,etc,withaneyeonconsumers inthe18–25agegroup.Theproducts are designed to be convenient tocarryaroundinvanitypouchesorhandbags.As it expands its product range, the

company is increasing its focus on onlineandomnichannelsales.Inthewakeof thepandemic, the brand had to shut some ofits stores — Chumbak, at present, hasaround 53stores in thecountry, downfrom 70 in2019.Nangia

expects60-70%ofthecompany’sbusinesstocomefrom onlinesales. “Onlinereaches 20,000postalcodesinthecountry;thatsimplycan-not be achieved through a retail presence.Wealwaysplannedtogrowouronlinebusi-ness; thepandemic accelerated this shift,”headds.

Magneticpull?Since the timeChumbakentered themar-ket,severallifestyleandhomedécorbrandshave cropped up in theD2C space.WhileChumbakhastheadvantageofhavingbuiltits brand over a decade,more affordablebrands with low or no investment in anofflinepresencearesellingviaInstagram.To reach awider,more price-sensitive

audience, Chumbak launched a budgetsub-brandcalledTealaboutsixmonthsago.“This isprimarilydesignedtoappeal to thediscount-mindedconsumer,andisavailableonmarketplaces like Flipkart,Myntra andAmazon,”saysNangia.Adrasticshift towardscategorieswhere

the brand does not have an edge in termsofproductexpertisecoulddilutetheequityit has built over a decade, analysts say.“This move to expand the canvas of thebrandcouldhavebeenpromptedbythelim-ited nature of the gifting and souvenircategory,”says SaurabhUboweja,founder,BODConsulting.Nangia says that Chumbak is choosing

products where it can make a differencethrough its ‘unique’design language andphilosophy. However, Uboweja says, thechallenge forthebrandwillbe“to retain itsidentityandpurpose as it risks resemblingothermarketplacesnow”.It isworthnotingthat beauty retailerNykaamade aplay forthehomedécorsegmentinJunethisyear.Anchit Chauhan, cluster director,

TBWA,India,saysthatconsumersarelikelytosampleChumbak’sbeautyproductsandhome décor pieces. “The brand has an‘urban cool, but proud of my desi roots’positioning.Consumerswillbuyfurnitureor home décor pieces from Chumbak toadd quirkiness to their homes,but not filluptheirhomeswithitsproducts,”henotes.

Unconventionalforays

● LIFESTYLE

Frombeauty to homedécorproducts,Chumbak is on anexpansion spree

Growth expectations fromglobal ad industry by end of 2021:■30.5% – Digital advertising■11.7% –Television advertising■30.5% –Audio advertising

—GroupM report

●NUMEROLOGY

To reach awider,more price-

sensitive audience,Chumbak

launched a budgetsub-brand calledTeal about sixmonths ago

EuronicsbringsHrithik Roshanonboard asbrandambassador

Ikea’s big‘small’plans

HyundaiMotorIndiaLtd (HMIL)—whichhadlaunchedtheKonaelectricvehicle(EV)in 2019,a CKD car assembled in India—will have as many as six EVs by 2028.“These will be across body shapes—fromcrossovers toSUVs—andcatertomultiplesegments, including mass market andmass premium,” Seon Seob Kim, MD &CEO,HMIL,says.InaninterviewwithFE’sVikramChaudhary,Kim—whowillsoonmovetoSeoulafterleadingHMILforthreeyears—adds thatas faras localmanufac-turing ofEVs is concerned,HMILis tryingtofindtherightpartnerswhospecialiseinmanufacturingbattery cells.Excerpts:

Will all these six EVsbemanufacturedinIndia?That’stheaim.Wewillfindlocalpartnerswhospecialiseinmanufacturingbatterycells;wearealsohavingdiscussionswithlocal vendors on other EVparts, such asmotorand inverteretc.Wewill introduce our dedicated EV

platformcalled theE-GMP,short fortheElectric Global Modular Platform (formanufacturing/assemblingtheseEVsinIndia).We are investing about `4,000crore in R&D towards the expansion oftheEVline-up.Bynextyear(2022)weshouldbeable

tolaunchoursecondEV,andtheremain-ingovertheyears till 2028.

What kind of EVusage patterns haveyoulearnfromKonacustomers?We’veseenthattheKonaisusuallyasec-ond car formost customers, and a largenumber of Kona customers charge thecar at home instead of using publicchargers.The driving range of the Kona(over400 km) is good enough forweek-long citycommute.Weare alsoworkingtowardsthedevelopmentofEVchargingsolutionswithafocusonhomecharging,public charging stations,charging facil-itiesatdealernetwork,anda24x7road-sidechargingassistance (cartocar).

What are some key sales trends youhave observed in the post-lockdowncar-buying?Anotabletrendis thatthesalespercent-age of top variants has been increasing.Forexample,inthei20,thesalesshareofthe top two trims in 2019was 18%butthishasincreasedtoover30%inthelastfewmonths.In theCreta,the sales shareofthetoptwotrimswas44%,butnowithas gone up to 47%; in theVerna it hasincreased from 82% to 89%. Thisimplies that customers want featuressuchassunroof,connectivityandalotoftechnology on the dashboard.They alsowanttheirvehicletostandoutandthat’s

whyalotof thempreferuniqueexternaldesign touches.We have also seen that Indian cus-

tomers are spendingmore time in theircars.Earlier,if forvacationsbeyond,let’ssay, 300-odd km they used to take aflight or train, now they are travellingevenupto500kmintheirpersonalvehi-cles with family. So, they want safety,convenienceandcomfort,andthat’s thereason for choosing top variants, andthat’salsothereasonalotofthemarechoosing six- and seven-seatSUVssuchas theAlcazar.

Whatwas the rea-son behindlaunching theN Line brandin India ear-lier thisyear?Indian carbuyers aregettingyounger; theywant powerful,exciting-to-drive cars,which can be person-alisedtotheirtaste,butwhich are accessible aswell. That’s the reasonwelaunchedtheN Line in thei20 this year.These cars have turbocharged petrolengines, and their design helps themstandoutontheroads.Gradually,wewilllaunch other products in the N Linerangeaswell.

Do customers seevalue in buying con-nectedcars?At Hyundai India, con-nectedcartechnologyisavailable across sevenmodels and 34% ofsales in those modelsare of ‘connected’vari-ants. In theAlcazar, forexample, all variantshave the connectivitytechnology; in theCreta,more than 45%sales are of connectedvariants.

Butwhen a person alreadyhas a con-nectedsmartphone,whydoessheneedaconnectedcar?Your phone is your personal space. Letthe cardo its own things,such as takingyou from placeA to B, showing you livetrafficonthescreen,openingsunroofon

a voice command or navigating you toyourfavouriterestaurant.Onemustalsoremember that using phonewhile dri-ving—let’s say you’re using maps onphone—isnota safepractice.

Sales of sedans arefalling over the years.Will you continuefocusing on sedans,goingforward?Not just SUVs, we aredoing quite well in thesedan segment aswell;in the last twoyears,weintroducedtheAuraandthenewVerna,ofwhichwe are selling about4,000 units and 2,000units, respectively, permonth.The Elantra is aniche segment, but we

will continuewith that caraswell.

Hasthefocusondieselpost-BS6emis-sionnormspaidoff?Therearemanyregionswheredieselout-sells petrol in cars that cost above `10lakh. For example,while about 55% of

all-IndiaCretasalesareofdieselvariants,in Punjab it’s 68%, inMadhya Pradesh67%, in Andhra Pradesh 66%, inUttarakhand65%,and inUttarPradeshitis63%.Themoreexpensivethecar,thehigher is thedieselmodel salespercent-age. What has helped in the case ofHyundai is thatwe are able to offer thedieseloptionatamarginallyhigherpricethan the petrol.Yes, our focus on dieselhasbeenpayingoffwell.

Howmuch has semiconductor short-agerestrictedproductionatHMIL?Allcarmakersarefacingthisissue,andatHyundai we’re trying to mitigate asmuch as possible and minimise theimpact of semiconductor shortage onourproduction.Wehavebeensuccessfulinmanaging the situation till now,andhope to do our best in the comingmonthsaswell.

(OnFriday,HMILsaid thatSSKim—whohad joinedonDecember4,2018—willtakeupaglobal roleatHyundaiMotorCompanyheadquarters inSeoul,and

UnsooKimwill take charge fromhimonJanuary1,2022.)

MotobahnFocusondiesel, SUVspaysoff…getting readyfor electric cars now

● INTERVIEW: SEON SEOB KIM, MD & CEO, Hyundai Motor India Ltd

❝❝

Akey sales trendwe haveobserved in the post-lockdown car-buyingbehaviour is that thesales percentage of topvariants has been

increasing; people arespendingmore timewiththeir cars, and that’swhytheywant more features

on the dashboard

PORTRAIT: ROHNITPHORE

CHENNAI/KOCHI

Foundation stone laidfor Ganga Expresswayin Uttar PradeshPRIMEMINISTERNARENDRAModionSaturdaylaid the foundationstone fortheGangaExpresswayinUttarPradesh'sShahjahanpur.The594-km-longsix-laneexpresswaywill bebuilt at a costofover`36,200crore,thePrimeMinister'sOffice (PMO)said inastatementonThursday.StartingnearBijaulivillage inMeerut,theexpresswaywill extendtillnearJudapurDanduvillage inPrayagraj,passing throughHapur,Bulandshahr,Amroha,Sambhal,Budaun,Shahjahanpur,Hardoi,Unnao,RaeBareli,andPratapgarh.Uponcompletion,itwillbecomethe longest expresswayinUttarPradesh,connecting thewesternandeastern regionsof thestate,thePMOsaid.A3.5-km-longairstrip forassistingemergencytake-off and landingofairforceplaneswill alsobeconstructedontheexpresswayinShahjahanpur,it said.An industrial corridor is alsoproposed tobebuilt along theexpressway.

Defaultingdiscomsmaynotbeable tochangesuppliersTHEUNIONPOWERministryisplanningtoframerulestobarstate-rundiscomsfrombuyingelectricityfromothersourcesaftergencoswithwhichtheyhavepurchaseagreementscutsuppliestothemonpaymentdefault.UnionPowerMinisterRKSinghsaidonTuesdaythedraftversionoftherules isbeingcirculatedamongstakeholders.Meanwhile,FEreportedonFridaythattheministryhasaskedStateBankofIndia(SBI) tofollowstrictprudentialnormswhenitcomestolendingtodiscoms,warningthatuncheckedlendingtothefinancially-stressedentitiescanexposethebank’s loanassetstorisks.

Vedantadropscasesagainstgovt inretro taxdisputeMININGGROUPVEDANTAsaidlastMondayithadwithdrawncasesintheDelhiHighCourtaswellasbeforeaninternationaltribunaltosettlea`20,495croreretrospectivetaxdisputewiththegovernment.Postslappingofa`10,247-croretaxdemandonUK'sCairnEnergyPlcforallegedcapitalgainsmadeona2016internalrejigpriortothelistingof its Indiabusiness,theIncomeTaxDepartmenthadsought`20,495croreintaxes (includingpenalty) fromCairnIndia.CairnIndiawasin2011boughtbytheVedantagroupandsubsequentlymergedwithVedantaLtd.

QuickView

Adani Green signsmega 4,667-MWsolarPPAwith SECIADANIGREENENERGY(AGEL)onTuesdayentered intoapowerpurchaseagreement (PPA)withstate-runSolarEnergyCorporationof India (SECI) tosupply4,667MWofgreenpower.This isthe largestPPAtheSECI,the state-rungreenpoweraggregator,has clinchedwithanyproducer;AGELcalled thepacttheworld’s largest.Thecontract is apartof thesolartenderawardedbySECI toAGELon June9,2020.The tenderenvisages thesettingupof8,000MWofgenerationcapacityandadditional2,000MWofsolarcells andmodule-manufacturingcapacity.With this,AGELhas signedPPAswithSECI fora totalgenerationcapacityof close to6,000MW.AGELsaid it expected toclose thebalance2,000MWPPAin thenext twotothreemonths.Theexecutionof theentireproject is seen tocost the firmaround`45,000crore ($6billion).

Umbrella irrigationschemeextendedtill2026THEUNIONCABINETonWednesdayapproved the continuationof theumbrella irrigation scheme—PradhanMantri Krishi SinchayeeYojana—through2026,with a total fundingrequirement of `93,068 crore.The planincludes `37,454 crore of centralassistance to states and`20,435 croreof debt servicing forpast loans availedforPMKSY.States are also expected topart-fund the scheme.Under thescheme,90%grantwill be provided totwonational projects—Renukaji(Himachal Pradesh) andLakhwar(Uttarakhand)— that are critical forwater supply toDelhi and also to otherparticipating states (UttarPradesh,Haryana andRajasthan) and forrejuvenation of the riverYamuna.

99coalminesputupforsaleinfourthroundofauctionsTHEUNIONGOVERNMENTonThursdaylaunchedthe fourth roundofauctionof coalmines forcommercialmining.Withcoalmines rollingoverfromthe third roundof commercialauctionandthesecondattemptofsecondtrancheof commercial auctions,therewill bea totalof99mines,including24newmines,onoffer,thecoalministrysaid inastatement.Ofthese99mines,59are fullyexploredand40arepartiallyexplored.

QuickView

InfrastructureFINANCIALEXPRESS15 WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM


THECENTREANNOUNCED itsinfrastruc-turevisionforIndiainFY2020throughtheNational Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP),envisagingan investmentof`111trnoverafive-yearperiod.Theannualinvestmentof~`22trnonaveragethroughFY2025wouldbeastep-upof~2.5 timesvis-à-vis thehis-toricallevel.ThiswasfollowedbyaNationalMonetisationPipeline (NMP),co-terminuswiththeNIPperiodofFY2020-25.This indicates the government’s focus

on infrastructure remains sharp as ever.Together,NIPandNMPprovidedacompre-hensiveviewtoinvestorsanddevelopersofgreenfieldaswellasbrownfieldinvestmentavenues in the infrastructure sector.Indeed,despitetheimpactofCovid-19overthepasttwoyears,someinfrastructuresub-sectors,suchashighwaysandcleanenergy,remain resilient. A brief, sector-wiseoverviewmaybeinorderhere.

Roads andhighwaysThe length of national highways con-structed last fiscal stood at ~13,300 km(36.4 kmperday),up ~30%on-year.Thisfiscal,asofthesecondquarter,theNationalHighwaysAuthority of India (NHAI) hadawarded projects forhighwaystretches ofabout1,930km,up~8%on-yearcomparedwith ~1,400 km in the corresponding

period ayear ago.To finance these initia-tives,theNHAIhasventuredintomonetis-ing its operational asset pool with thelaunchofitsfirstinfrastructureinvestmenttrust,raisingover`5,000crore.On the flip side, as many as 888 road

projects under the ministry, spanning~27,665kmandinvolvingatotaloutlayof~`3,15,370 crore,were delayed last fiscal.Tobesure,thegovernmenthasundertakenmeasures to boost public private partner-ship (PPP) via the hybrid annuitymodel(HAM) route.Last fiscal, theNHAI’s HAMproject e-auctions sawincreased competi-tionfollowingrelaxationofbiddereligibil-ity criteria. Smaller regional players cor-nered 33%of theHAMprojects awarded.Whiletheirbidswerenotaggressive,finan-cial closures and project executionwill bekeymonitorables inthefuture.

AviationThe sectorwas affected adversely duringthe pandemic year and is on course torecovery now,with domestic passenger

traffic reaching ~80% of the pre-pan-demic level in November.The twin focuson assetmonetisation and privatisationshould serve the sector well,with addi-tional/freed-up funds being ploughedback to fuel the next phase of growth.Additional steps such asmaking changestotheNationalCivilAviationPolicy(NCAP)and introducing NCAP 2.0 for boostingpost-Covidrecovery,andbringingaviationturbine fuel underthegoods and servicestax,to providemuch-needed relief to air-lines,couldbehelpfulpolicymoves.

RailwaysThe railways is looking anewat efforts toattract private sectorparticipation,whichhavemetwithonlypartialsuccesssofar.Forinstance,therailwayshadcalledforbidsforthe operation of private trains in 12 clus-ters.Whiletherequestforquotationsstagesawgoodparticipation,bidswere receivedforonlythreeclustersintherequestforpro-posalstage,withonlytwofirmssubmittingbids.The railways has since scrapped thisbidprocessforprivatetrainoperations.The railways is reviewing itsPPPstrate-

gies/policies and is expected to revampthese.MeasuressuchasrevampofexistingPPPpolicies,establishmentof an indepen-dentregulatortofacilitaterationalisationoffreight tariffs,andpromotionof PPPs andenabling of private investment in rollingstockbystreamlining theResearchDesignand Standards Organisation approvalprocesscouldbehelpfulinthiscontext.

Renewable energyThe sectorhas revived after a brief hiatus.PosttheCovid-19ledslump,capacityaddi-tions surged in the first 8months (rising~3xon-yearto7.3GW)of this fiscal,ledbyastrongprojectpipeline(solar~30GWandwind ~9GW).Tariffs discovered in recenttendershaveremainedcompetitiveowingto aggressive bidding by IPPs aswell as bycreditworthycentralcounterparties.Going forward, investments are

expected to continuewith a strong thruston RE sector as well as support for tech-nologiessuchasstorage.Overall,despatch-able RE through hybrid/round-the-clock

tenders, timelypayments fromdiscoms,sanctity of contracts, thrust to domesticsolarmanufacturing through the produc-tion-linked incentive (PLI) schemewill bekeymonitorablesforsustainablegrowth.Theweaklinkhere—andforthepower

sector in general— is the powerdistribu-tion sector. Discom financial healthremainsweakowingtohightechno-com-mercial losses (21% as of FY20) and rev-enuegap(25paise/unitinFY20).Thegov-ernment’s recentlyannouncedrevampeddistributionscheme(plannedoutlayof`3trn) with clear focus areas and stringentimplementationguidelinesisexpectedtoimpact the sector positively.However, ifthere is another unsuccessful round ofsupport,statesmayneedtoexplorediffer-ent PPPmodels or outright privatisationmaybecome imperative.

SummingupThe sectoral variations apart, some issuesimpact private sectorparticipation acrosssectors.TherecentmovebyPunjabtorene-gotiatecontracts,forinstance,violatesbasicprinciplesofcontractsanctity.Itisessentialtoundertakemeasures toprotect contractsanctity,have due process and forums forquickarbitrationofanycontractual issues,and ensure developers have adequate andreasonablypricedaccesstoinfrafinancing.The Centre’s move to institutionalise

specialised infrastructure finance entitiesvia theNational Bank forFinancing Infra-structure andDevelopment Bill,2021, iscommendable.The execution of this newdevelopmentfinancial institutionwillbearwatching,alongwithrevampingofPPPs tospurprivateinvestmentinthesector.

ThewriterisSeniorDirector,CRISILInfrastructureAdvisory

While the Union government's focus on infrastructure remains sharp as ever and some sub-sectors havedisplayed resilience, there is need to address issues that have impacted private investment

Oncourse despite beingbuffetedbyCovid-19waves

●OUTLOOK FOR SECTORATENDOF 2021

Vivek Sharma

2,055

1,099

1,620

622

39

2,503

1,020 1,768

433

43

2,980

1,334

1,841

326

106

3,118

1,480

1,750

354

116

3,476

1,614

1,662

284

87

0500

1,000

Notes: 1. FY21 values are estimates; 2. Aviation only includes Airports; 3. Conventional energy/power includesThermal, Nuclear, Hydro, Gas and Transmission and Distribution; 4. Renewables includes Solar andWind

1,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,000

Roads

` billion

Railways Conventionalenergy/power

Renewableenergy

Airports

FY17FY18FY19FY20FY21E

SECTOR-WISE INVESTMENT

SRINATH SRINIVASAN

WITH DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONsweeping the business landscape atscale,GreneRoboticsaimstobuildatruecomputer technology company fromIndia,withitsownplatform,greneOS,atthe core of everything, promisingautonomous decision-making andhyper-automation. The startup cutsacross sectors such as healthcare,

defence, hospitality, banking amongstmanyothers.“Wespentoveradecade inR&Dtocomeupwiththeplatform.Hav-ing our own platform enables our cus-tomers to gain 100% control overvari-ous digital functions in theirorganisations,” says Kiran Penumacha,CEOandfounder,GreneRobotics.“Forinstance,currentlyasalesperson

using a CRM has to manually enterdetailsofhis/heroutreach into thesoft-ware. But with our platform, we canextract important details alone fromcommunicationchannelsreal-timeandload it to the system,” he adds. Withrespect to other contexts, this couldmean largemachines or systems inter-actingwitheachotherandwithhumansthrough the greneOS platform. Thisresultsinenhanceduserexperiencetoallstakeholderswhoareusing thesystem.“Usually, we deploy our platform

where we see a potential 10X RoI buthyper-automationpromisesevenhigherreturns in the long run.We drasticallybring down the cost,boost revenue andunifyfunctionsinabusiness,”saysPenu-macha.This also has a direct impact onhowabusiness gets incrementallyeval-uated in the longterm.Foroneofitsbiggestclients,Vodafone

Idea, the company has solved issues inorderprocessing,turnaroundtimepostreceivinganorder,issuesinfillingrepet-itive forms and generating real-timeintelligence.“For instance,everymonthit has over6000ordersworthoverabil-lion dollars and over 500mission-criti-cal issuesthatneedaninsaneamountofcomputation.WearecompetingwiththeOracles and SAPs of theworld and notSaaS products that can be downloadedand installed,”saysPenumacha.The Grene Robotics CEO expects to

take the companypublic by2025.It hasreceived seed funding of $10 millionsinceitsinceptionin2007,withanorderbook of $6million this year.“We expecttotaketheorderbookto$30millionnextyear,”saysPenumacha.

SUDHIR CHOWDHARY

ITISAwell-knownfactthatagricultureisone of the primary employers and con-tributes significantly to the country’seconomy.Being apredominantlyagrar-ianeconomy,onemightthinkthatfarm-ers and retailers have ample income,good produce, and easy access to creditandmarketplaces.Unfortunately, for amajority of the country’s farmers, thisisn’t the scenario. Several farmers facechallenges in access to credit,market-places,qualityfarminputs,andguidancetoimprovetheircropyield.Additionally,agriculture has also been one of the lastindustries to integrate technology intoitsoperations.ThiswaswhenAshokPrasadandAmit

Sinha decided to launch Unnati, a new-age fintech powered agritech platformthat had robust technology infrastruc-ture and could enable farmers to boosttheir livelihoods. Having closely wit-nessed the issues faced by farmers,including the unavailability of high-qualityfarminputproducts,insightsonmarket requirements and linkages, thelack of technology innovation in theagriculture space, and the challengesthey face inmanaging operations, theduodecided to launchUnnati.A fintech-driven agriculture ecosys-

tem,Unnati,foundedin2017,iscommit-

ted to enabling farmers to improve theirlivelihoodthroughdata-drivendecisions,easy access to credit, and bettermarket

linkages, says Sinha, the co-founder.Analumnusof IITandIIM,hehashadstintswith several notable organisations,includingInfosys,PricewaterhouseCoop-ers(PwC),BhartiAirtel,andPaytm.Ontheotherhand,Prasad holds anMS in Soft-wareSystemsfromBirlaInstituteofTech-nologyandScienceandanMBAin Inter-national Business from the IndianInstituteofForeignTrade.With a farmingmodel that acts as a

guideforfarmers,allowingthemtomakeinformed decisions regarding crucialaspects such as plant protection, weed

management,nutrientusage,maximisingoutput,andpredictingmarketconditions,Unnati is looking to empower themwiththe knowledge required to boost theirincomesthroughbetteryields.Withinfouryears, the tech-driven platform hasachievedagrowthtrajectorythat isnoth-ingshortofremarkable,saysSinha.Today,Unnatihasadigitalpresencein

allmajorstates in thecountrywithanet-workofover20,000uStoresandisassoci-atedwithprominent brands that ensuresteadysupplyofhigh-qualityinputs.Addi-tionally, the platformhas impacted thelivesofoverthreelakhfarmersbyallowingthemtoprocurefarminputs,andofferingmarketlinkagescreditaccess,andpredic-tivediagnostics thathelp inmaintaininga high qualityof produce.Having facili-tatedfarmers tobuild financial resilienceandstrengtheningtheagrivaluechain,According to Sinha,Unnati is acting

as a one-stop solution for both farmersandretailerstohelpthemstreamlinethebusinessprocess.“The platform also facilitates better

payment methods and supply chainmanagement of inputs as per thedemand,”hesays.With a16xgrowth rateyear-on-year,

Unnatirecentlyreceivedafundingof`60crore as a part of its SeriesAround fromIncofin InvestmentManagement,Nab-Ventures,andOrios.Setting its sights onfurthergrowth,Unnati plans to continueexpanding its footprintgeographically inUttarPradesh,Bihar,Maharashtra,AndhraPradesh,Telangana,Haryana,andPunjabbyincreasingitsnetworkofuStores.“Theplatformislookingtoaugmentits

offerings to address the issues faced byfarmers in agronomy and help themstreamlinetheirbusinesswhilemaximis-ingprofitability,”concludesSinha.

This startup is enhancingfarmers’ lives andlivelihoods throughincreased access to creditand end-to-end support

●GRENE ROBOTICS

Made for theworld, from India

Startups●UNNATI

Building a fintech-driven agri ecosystem

The startup’s hyper-automation platformGreneOS connects, unifies,andmanages 100% ofpeople, processes, data, andsystems in an organisation

Kiran Penumacha, CEO and founder,Grene Robotics

❝ ❝The platform alsofacilitates better paymentmethods and supply chainmanagement of inputs asper the demand.AMITSINHA, CO-FOUNDER, UNNATI

CHENNAI/KOCHI

BACK PAGE16 FINANCIALEXPRESS


CareersEXPRESS

�� (A Government of Tamilnadu Undertaking)

Tiruvallur Branch

86 C&D, 2nd Main Road, Ambattur Industrial Estate, Chennai-600 058.

Phone: 26257664, 26248644, Mail: [email protected], Web: www.tiic.org

E-Auction Sale Notice

TheAssets of the following concern(s) taken possession under Section 29 of State Financial Corporations

Act 1951 will be sold by Tender cum Public Auction “AS IS WHERE IS” by our branch as given below:

DIPR/1170/Display/2021

Chennai

17.12.2021

BRANCH MANAGERThe TIIC Ltd.,

Tiruvallur Branch

��

The Growth Catalyst

Item No.1 : E-Auction Sale Notice

Name of the Unit/Address Details of assets for auction / Upset Price / EMD

1) M/s. Sri Sivasakthi ModernRice Mill - Factory:

S.No.168/2, 168/3 (NewS.No.1061/11 & 1061/12) &159/11, 11-A, EkkadukandigaiVillage, Ekkadu Post, TiruvallurTaluk & District 602 021.

Loan Outstanding Rs.98.35 lakhsas on 31.10.2021

Primary (Machinery)

Soaking Tank - 2 Nos, Boiling Tank-2 Nos, Paddy Cooler-1No, Bed Dryer with Blower unit -1 No., Paddy cleaner withdust collection system - 1 No, Hot Air furnace with digitalmoisture control system -1No, Paddy Storage-1 No, PaddyDryer unit with standard items - 1 No, Boiler with steampipe arrangements for boiling tank, soaking tanks - 1 No,Storage tank-1 set, Paddy Precleaner-1No, Rubber RollSheller-1 No, Paddy Separator-1 No, Elevators of differenttypes -11 Nos, Structural works such as frame work,working platform and electrical items.

Upset Price: Rs.7.83 lakhs, EMD Rs.5,00,000/-

Collateral - (Land & Building)

Factory land at S.No.168/3, 168/2, New S.No. 1061/12Gramanatham, New S.No. 1061/11 and S.No. 159/11AGramanatham - altogether measuring 69 cents and 298sq.ft Ekkadu Kandigai village, Tiruvallur Taluk and District& Building thereon about 8557 sq.ft and drying yard 6000sq.ft owned by Thiru. C.S. Dharaneswara Rao, Proprietor

Upset Price Rs.50.84 lakhs, EMD Rs.5,00,000/-

Item No.2: E-Auction Sale Notice

2) M/s. Jain Cable IndustriesPvt. Ltd.Factory:F-71, SIPCOT Industrial Complex,Gummidipoondi Tk,Tiruvallur Dist - 601201

Loan Outstanding Rs.3303.04lakhs as on 31.10.2021

Primary (Land & Building)

Land: Leasehold land at F-71, SIPCOT Industrial Complex,Gummidipoondi Tk., Tiruvallur District - Extent - 99 centsowned by M/s. Jain Cable Industries Pvt. Ltd.

Building

Factory Building-ACC - 7180 sq.ft, Godown & Landingarea - GF-RCC 2365 sq.ft, Office & Landing area - FF -RCC - 2365 sq.ft, EB Room, Workers Rest Room, Toilet,Compound wall, fencing etc.

Upset Price Rs.65.45 lakhs

EMD Rs.5,00,000/-

(The highest bidder shall clear dues and obtain NOCfrom the Commercial Tax Dept & Central Excise Dept.Before execution of fresh Lease deed by SIPCOT).

Item No.3:Tender cum Public Spot - Auction Sale

Office :The TIIC Ltd.,Tiruvallur Branch,86, C&D, II Main Road, Ambattur,Chennai - 58.

Mahindra Bolero Jeep Model 2008 -Bearing Regn. No.TN-20BW-0160Upset Price : Rs. 30,000/-EMD Rs. 25,000/-

Date of inspection ofProperty & Place

Last date forsubmission

of tender, KYCdocuments &

payment of EMD

Last date forsubmission of tender,KYC documents &payment of EMD

Date / Time ofAuction

For Item No.1 & 2:Date: 12.01.2022

Between 11 A.M. & 4.00P.M. at the respective

factory address

For Item No.3-Between 11 a.m. & 4

p.m. On all working days

For Item No.1 & 219.01.2022before 4 p.m.at TIIC Ltd.,

Tiruvallur Branch,Chennai - 58.

For Item No.3 Tenderalongwith EMD to besubmitted on or before20.01.2022 at 11.00 am.

EMD shall beremitted directly at

Branch on 20.01.2022at 11.00 am.

Date: 20.01.2022Item No.1 & 2:

11 A.M. to 1.00 P.M(Through Onlinee-auction), Item

No.3: 11 A.M. (Spot-auction at the Officeof TIIC, Tiruvallur BO.

1. The sale / auction will be conducted on 20.01.2022 at 11 A.M. - 1.00 P.M. for itemno.1&2 by the undersigned through E-Auction platform provided at the Web Portalhttps://www.bankeauctions.com (For ItemNo.3 Public-Spot auctionwill be conductedat Tiruvallur Branch at 11.A.M. on 20.01.2022)

2. Extension of time of the E- Auction from the last bid is 5 minutes each and the extension isunlimited times (if bid received in the last 5 minutes). (Not applicable to Item. No.3)

3. Further interest wil be charged as applicable, as per the loan agreement on the amountoutstanding and incidental expenses, costs, etc is due and payable till its realization.(Not applicable to Item. No.3)

4. The Bid amount shall be more than upset price.The Incremental bid amount is Rs.10,000/- or itsmultiples for item No.1&2 & Rs.1,000/- or its multiples for Item No.3.

5. EMD shall be payable through DD in favour of the TIIC Ltd, payable at Chennai and shall besubmitted at the Tiruvallur branch office. The interested bidders shall submit the EMD alongwith the bid participation form / KYC Documents etc, before the date and time specified above.For Item No.3 Sealed tenders with 25% of bid amount or EMD as indicated above whichever ishigher by way of DD/pay Order (payable at The TIIC Ltd., Tiruvallur) shall have to be submitted,

6. The bidders are advised to go through the detailed terms and conditions of E-Auction available inthe Web Portal of https://www.bankeauctions.com before submitting their bids and taking part inthe e-Auction. (For Item No.3,Terms & Conditions shall be collected from Branch Office)

7. The prospective qualified bidders may avail online training on e-auction from the Service providerM/s. C1 India Pvt. Ltd., prior to the date of e-auction and can contact the Service providerM/s. C1 India Pvt. Ltd., Plot No.301, Gulf Petrochemical Building, 1st Floor, Udyogvihar Phase - 2,Gurgaon, Haryana 122015, India, Phone No.0124 - 4302020 / 4302010 and having Chennai NumberThiru Prabhakaran 7418281709 and Email ID as [email protected] Neither the authorised officer, TheTIIC Ltd. nor M/s. C1 India Pvt. Ltd shall be liable for any internet network problem and the interestedbidders to ensure that they are technically well equipped for participating in the e-auction event. (Notapplicable to Item No.3)

8. For ItemNo.1 & 2:The Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) of the successful bidder shall be retainedtowards part sale consideration and theEMDof the unsuccessful bidders shall be refunded.EMDshall not bear any interest. For Item No.1& 2: The successful bidder shall have to deposit 25%of the sale price, adjusting the EMD already paid before 4.30 pm of the next working day after theconclusion of the e -Auction. The balance 75% of the sale price shall be paid on or before 30thday of sale confirmation or within such extended period as agreed upon in writing by and solely atthe discretion of theTIIC Ltd., In case of default in payment by the successful bidder, the amountalready deposited by the offerer shall be liable to be forfeited and the property shall be put tore-auctionanddefaultingborrower/biddershallhavenoclaim/rightinrespectoftheamount/property.For Item No.3: The highest bidder should pay 25% of the highest bid amount (including EMDremitted already) immediately, failing which EMD will be forfeited. TIIC reserves the right toreject the tenders / offers without assigning any reason and the decision of the Corporatiorn inthis regard is final.

9. All Statutory dues including GST are payable by the successful bidder in respect of respectiveassets / vehicle(s) being auctioned.

10.The TIIC Ltd., is not responsible for any liabilities upon the property which is not in theknowledge of the TIIC Ltd.,

11. Every bidder of the e-Auction / public auction shall submit the attested copies of KYC documentsconsisting of

a) PAN Card b) Address Proof (Aadhar card, Driving licence, Passport) c) ID Proof

Original documents shall be produced for verification.

For further details contact the Branch Manager, The TIIC Limited, Tiruvallur Branch.

(Phone: 044-26257664, 9444396836)

To register, SMS- IEEXP<space>"IE”<space>”Your name and email ID” to 56161

Dec22 2021 06:00PM

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Apple seeksdismissal ofappsmarketantitrust caseADITYAKALRANew Delhi, December 19

APPLE INC HAS asked theCompetition Commission ofIndia (CCI) to throwout a casealleging abuse of marketpowerintheappsmarket,say-ing it is too small a player inIndia where Google is domi-nant, a filing seen by Reutersshows.The filing was made after

theCCI startedreviewingalle-gations thatApple hurts com-petition by forcing app devel-opers to use its proprietarysystemwhichcanchargecom-missions of up to 30% on in-apppurchases.Apple denied the allega-

tionsinitsfilingtotheCCIandstressed that itsmarket shareinIndia isan“insignificant”0-5%,while Google commands90-100%as itsAndroid oper-ating system powers mostothersmartphones.

“Apple is not dominant inthe Indianmarket...Withoutdominance, there can be noabuse,”Apple said in the sub-mission dated November 16whichwas signed by its chiefcompliance officer KyleAndeer. “It has already beenestablished that Google is thedominant player in India,” itadded.Apple and the CCI did not

respond to a request for com-ment. A spokesperson forAlphabetInc'sGoogledeclinedtocommentwhenaskedaboutApple'sassertionsinthefiling.The complainant in the

case,alittle-knownnon-profitgroup called 'Together WeFight Society', saidApplewithiOS dominates themarket fornon-licensablemobileoperat-ingsystems.Apple countered that in its

filing,sayingtheentiresmart-phone market – whichincludes licensable systemslike Android – is the marketthat should be taken into con-sideration.Apple also described the

Indian complaint as a “proxyfiling” in its CCI submission,saying that the complainantwas “likely acting in concertwithpartieswithwhomApplehas ongoing commercial andcontractual disputes globallyand/or that have complainedtootherregulators.”The US tech company did

not give any evidence in itssubmission to support itsclaim. The non-profit toldReuters that Apple's remarkwas “made to prejudice themind”of theCCI“without anyiotaofproof”. —-REUTERS

CSC,Infosystie up toupskill6 crore studentsPRESSTRUSTOF INDIANewDelhi, December 19

CSC E-GOVERNANCE SER-VICES India and IT giantInfosys have collaborated toimpart digital skills among sixcrore students of the age of 10to 22 years, mainly in ruralareas inthecountry.“Common services centres

(CSCs), an SPVunder theMin-istry of Electronics and IT,hastied up with leading IT com-pany Infosys to empower stu-dents in theagegroupof10 to22 years with digital skillsthroughInfosysSpringboard,adigital platform that helpsaccelerate reskilling andimproves employability,”accordingtoastatement.Through this engagement,

CSC and Infosys will worktogether to upskill studentsand learners fromunderprivi-legedcommunitiesinruralandsemi-urban areas across Indiaand help them develop voca-tionalandprofessional skills.CSCe-GovernanceServices

India managing directorDinesh K Tyagi in the state-ment said,“The foundation ofCSC is based on education.Wehave amandate of training sixcrore rural citizens in digitalskills under the PradhanMantri Gramin Digital Sak-shartaAbhiyan(PMGDISHA).”

NHPCplans clean energyprojects of 27GWin9 states,NepalABHISHEK SONKARNew Delhi, December 19

STATE-OWNED NHPCPLANS to set up new hydroand solar projects of morethan 27,000MWcapacity innine states and in Nepal,according to CMD AbhayKumarSingh.The newcapacitieswould

come up in Uttar Pradesh,Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan,Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maha-rashtra andAndhra Pradesh,SinghtoldPTI inaninterview.NHPCis in talkswithsomeofthese states, which haveshown interest in the pro-

jects. Others will also beengaged for the purpose, theCMDsaid.Singh said Nepal has also

shown interest in hydro pro-

jects in a joint venture withNHPC.Hemet Nepal’s primeministerduringa recentvisitto that country.When asked about fund

availabilityfortheprojects,hesaid, “At present, NHPC willnothaveaprobleminmakinga capital expenditure of

`10,000 crore. We are inprofit of about `3,500 croreand itwill increase further to`5,000 crore, substantiallyhelping us to increase ourcapex to`13,000crore.”He said therewere certain

NHPC projects, especially inthe Northeast, which hadbeen stalled. Efforts havebeen taken to resume them.The 2,000 MW Subansirilowerhydroelectricproject inAssam and ArunachalPradesh is progressing. InDibang, all hurdles haveended and the 2,880-MWdamprojectwill beginsoon.NHPC is working on pro-

jects of total 6,000 MWcapacity and another 9,000-10,000MWisinthepipeline,Singh said.He said the com-pany will meet its target of50,000MWenergy capacitywhich includes solar,withintime.“Wehavemadeabreak-up

of the target — by 2025,2030,2040howmuchcapac-ity we have to install — andaccordinglywewill bemeet-ing our targets,” the CMDsaid. NHPC,under themin-istry of power, is the largesthydro power company inIndia.

—PTI

NHPC CMDAbhay Singh

said Nepal has also

shown interest in hydro

projects in a joint venture

with NHPC. Singh had

recently met Nepal’s

primeminister

CHENNAI/KOCHI

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