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FEBRUARY 2021, Rs 50

EDITORAMIT BRAHMABHATT

ASSISTANT EDITORSHRIVATSA JOSHI

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REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVESAHMEDABAD: ARBIND ROYCHENNAI: G JACINTHHYDERABAD: B SATYAMJAIPUR: PRASHANT DUBEYRAIPUR: MUKESH SINGH

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Editor: Amit Brahmabhatt

Volume XVI, No 8Issue date February 1-28, 2021Released on February 1, 2021

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CONTENTS

YOUR GATEWAY TO INDIA INC.

INDIA BUSINESS JOURNAL FEBRUARY 2021 3www.indiabusinessjournal.com

BOOSTER SHOTWith some bold reforms andbig stress on public spending,Union Budget 2021-22 tries tokick-start an economy ravagedby COVID-19.

COVER STORY

22

Viewpoint ..........4Sensex: Life After 50,000

News Round-Up ..........6MiscellaneousFinancePSUCorporate

Focus ........12

Telecom ........18

An Alarming Signal: China’s toughactions against Alibaba Group sendout a warning to its private sector,especially tech giants, to fall in line.

Spotlight ..........15Redefining Progress: The

Chhattisgarhgovernment'sminor forestproduce-centricpoliciessuccessfullyredraw the

contours of development.

International Business.....16

Betting On Biden: A stable andopenly-friendly new USadministration can easily take theIndo-American bilateral trade to thenext level.

Prickly Pricing: With a highreserve price, the upcomingspectrum auction is likely to see yetanother tepid response from heavily-indebted telecom companies.

Management Mantra..........28

“Stay Relevant”: Jaideep Mahajan,Co-Founder & CMO, SVISH

Global Wrap-Up ..........30A quick round-up of news andcurrent affairs across the world

Readers' Lounge ..........32Catch up with new book launches- A World Without Work- Azim Premji- The Learning Factory- You Just Got Cheated

Star Talk ..........34Forecast by GaneshaSpeaks

Knowledge Zone ..........36- Soma Mondal, Director

(Commercial), Steel Authority ofIndia

- Positive Pay System For Cheques- Spiritual Corner: Avoid Clashes

Hot Seat ..........38Bianca Louzado,CEO & Founder, Code Beauty

It was a momentous leap for the BSE Sensex in late January. The benchmarkindex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) crossed 50,000 points in intraday

trade on January 21. However, the 30-share index retreated and closed belowthe psychological mark on that eventful day.

The Sensex almost doubled past the 50,000 mark in mere ten months, from athree-year low of 25,639 in March 2020 – battered by COVID-19 – to the all-timehigh of 50,184 in January 2021. It is another matter that after the stunningspring, the benchmark index has been on a downward spiral. The mootquestion now is what was driving the market, and where would it head incoming days.

Incidentally, equity markets globally have had a historical journey in thelast one year despite a gloomy shadow cast by the viral pandemic. The Indianstock market too has been mirroring its global peers in these challenging times.A raft of good news – including opening up of the Indian economy after aseries of stringent lockdowns, record inflow from foreign portfolio investors(FPIs), significant recovery in a few sectors, encouraging sales during thefestive season, good corporate earnings and rollout of COVID vaccines andsliding infection numbers, among others – helped push stock prices sky high.

With the domestic economy opening up gradually, there has been steadygrowth in a few segments, fuelled by rising demand. The festive fervour fur-ther pushed up demand. Besides, Corporate India’s strong focus on cashflows and cost controls helped large companies slash debt. This is how bigcorporate houses have succeeded in improving their balance sheets in theabsence of a broad-based demand.

A series of reform measures of the government helped rekindle investors’ –both domestic as well as foreign – interest in the Indian market. FPIs, in fact,have poured in over a record Rs 2.50 lakh crore into Indian equities since lastApril. The biggest driver of the market is indeed the huge investment by FPIs,with global markets flush with funds. Direct participation by retail investorshas been another key reason behind the sharp market rally.

In fact, central banks across the developed world have eased monetarymeasures. Major central banks have continued to assure that monetary policywill remain accommodative for a considerable period of time as output gapsremain negative. Many of these central banks have lowered their respectivepolicy rates to very low levels and have continued buying back bonds frominvestors, leaving global markets awash with liquidity. It is this easy moneythat is finding its way into emerging markets, including India.

Unfortunately, the exuberance in the stock market is shockingly contrary tothe pain in the real economy. The much-touted rebound in demand is limited toa very few sectors of the economy. Barring these few sectors, there is deepdistress across many other sectors. And this distress is well reflected in theoutput of eight core infrastructure sectors and in the figures of the Index ofIndustrial Production. The informal sector and the rural and agrarian economyare bleeding. A vicious cycle of joblessness, falling investments and wagecuts, among others, has badly battered demand.

So, the Sensex’s leap past 50,000, followed by its immediate retreat, throwsup a dicey situation. Are investors able to see a bright future that could beeluding economists and analysts? Or is the market rally a mere result of easymoney floating around the world that could be jolted as the reality of the realeconomy catches up with the market? The answer to these questions contin-ues to perplex at the moment.

Sensex: Life After 50,000

The Sensex’s leap past50,000 throws up a diceysituation. Are investorsable to see a bright futurethat could be eludingeconomists and analysts?Or is the market rally amere result of easy moneyfloating around the worldthat could be jolted as thereality of the real economycatches up with themarket?

VIEWPOINT

The Sensex has almost doubled inmere ten months.

4 FEBRUARY 2021 INDIA BUSINESS JOURNAL

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required to be locked in forthree years. The marketsregulator has done away withthese norms for FPOs. TheSEBI has said that therelaxation will be available forthose companies which arefrequently traded on a stockexchange for at least threeyears. Also, such firmsshould have redressed 95 percent of investors’complaints.

Govt puts out draft pre-pack IBC scheme Thegovernment has proposed toroll out a pre-pack insol-vency scheme that will allowhonest promoters to submitresolution plans for theirstressed companies.According to the draft pre-pack scheme, a corporatedebtor will have to initiatepre-pack with consent of asimple majority of unrelatedfinancial creditors andshareholders. While eligiblepromoters will be allowed tobid, there will be no dilutionof provisions related to theirdisqualification under theinsolvency law. Under thescheme, market participantswill be allowed 90 days tosubmit the resolution plan tothe adjudicating authority,which shall have 30 days toapprove the plan.

Karnataka tops States ininnovation index Karnatakahas been ranked the mostinnovative among majorStates by the NITI Aayog.Delhi tops the categoryamong Union Territories(UTs). These rankings were apart of NITI Aayog’s IndiaInnovation Index Report2020. The index is dividedinto three categories – majorStates, UTs and hill andNorth-East States. Foursouthern States – Karnataka,Tamil Nadu, Telangana andKerala – occupy the toppositions on the index, apart


Kochi-Mangaluru gaspipeline opened PrimeMinister Narendra Modirecently inaugurated naturalgas pipeline from Kerala’sKochi to Mangaluru inKarnataka via videoconferencing. The 450-km-long pipeline, built by GAILIndia, marks an importantmilestone in creation of onenation one gas grid. TheRs 3,000-crore project,which will carry natural gasfrom Liquefied Natural Gas(LNG) RegasificationTerminal in Kochi toMangaluru, will supplyenvironment-friendly andaffordable fuel in the form ofpiped natural gas (PNG) tohouseholds and compressednatural gas (CNG) to thetransportation sector. Thepipeline will also supplynatural gas to commercial andindustrial units across thedistricts of the State.

SEBI eases norms forFPOs The SEBI has relaxedframework for Follow-on

Big push for dedicated freight corridors Prime MinisterNarendra Modi virtually inaugurated the 306-km-long Madar-Rewari section of Western Dedicated Freight Corridor recently.The New Rewari-New Madar section of the Western DedicatedFreight Corridor is located in the States of Haryana and Rajasthan.Late last December, Mr Modi had dedicated the 351-km-longNew Bhaupur-New Khurja section of the Eastern DedicatedFreight Corridor. With the inauguration of the New Rewari-New Madar section, seamless connectivity between WesternDedicated Freight Corridor and Eastern Dedicated Freight Corri-dor will be achieved. Besides, freight trains will be operated atmaximum speed of 100 kmph as against the current maximumspeed of 75 kmph.

Public Offers (FPOs),making it easier for promot-ers of companies to raisefunds through this route.Earlier, promoters were

mandated to contribute 20per cent towards acompany’s FPO. Besides, incase of any issue of capital tothe public, the minimum

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Verbatim...from Maharashtra. Theframework of the indexincludes parameters formeasuring innovation, suchas percentage of GDP spenton research and developmentand number of highly-skilledprofessionals, among others.

Bengal allows net meter-ing of solar power TheWest Bengal government hasallowed net metering forindividual, household,rooftop solar panels startingfrom 1 kw to popularisesolar energy in the State.Earlier, only institutional,commercial, industrial andcooperative housingestablishments were allowedthe benefit of net meteringand that too for 5-kwcapacity onward. The netmetering concept allows aconsumer to set off numberof units produced from totalconsumption, and theconsumer pays electricitycharges for only what he hasused from the grid ordistribution company.

MSMEs’ import, exportcompliance eased TheCentral Board of IndirectTaxation and Customs haseased Customs compliance

and security requirements foraccreditation of MSMEsunder the AuthorisedEconomic Operatorprogramme. The newmeasure is aimed at promot-ing ease of doing businessamong MSMEs engaged inimports and exports. TheAEO is a voluntaryprogramme under the aegis ofthe World CustomsOrganization’s SAFEFramework of Standards thataims to secure and facilitateglobal trade by enhancinginternational supply chainsecurity and facilitatingmovement of goods.

Bill and Keep replacesIUC regime The Intercon-nect Usage Charge (IUC)regime for domestic voicecalls came to an end fromJanuary 1, 2021. The newregime, called the Bill andKeep regime, means thattelecom operators on whosenetwork the calls originatewill no longer have to paytermination charge (IUC) of 6paise per minute to telecomoperators on whose networkthe calls terminate. The newregime would be revenueneutral for all operators.

“I don’t believe thatspurt in housing

demand in the lastfew months is a pent-

up demand. Theaspirations to own a

home are inherent inevery household, andthe country still facesan immense shortage

of quality andaffordable housing.”

Deepak ParekhDeepak ParekhDeepak ParekhDeepak ParekhDeepak ParekhCHAIRMAN, HDFC

“Competition in thepayments space will

become more mature.In the next two years,

every paymentsbusiness in thiscountry will talk

sustainability andprofitability.”

Vijay Shekhar SharmaVijay Shekhar SharmaVijay Shekhar SharmaVijay Shekhar SharmaVijay Shekhar SharmaCEO, PAYTM

“2020 was a year ofgreat innovation, newopportunities and thewin of much-awaitedtrust in digitalpayments.”Harshil MathurHarshil MathurHarshil MathurHarshil MathurHarshil MathurCEO, RAZORPAY

INDIA BUSINESS JOURNAL FEBRUARY 2021 7

“The pre-COVIDgrowth rates of Indiane-commerce wereroughly 26 to 27 percent. But if you look atpost-COVID estimates,growth has gonecloser to 30 per cent.By FY25, the Indian e-commerce ecosystemwill be bigger thanwhat is termed asmodern trade today.”Kalyan KrishnamurthyKalyan KrishnamurthyKalyan KrishnamurthyKalyan KrishnamurthyKalyan KrishnamurthyCEO, FLIPKART

Suneet Sharma has beenappointed chairman andchief executive officer ofthe Railway Board and ex-officio principal secretaryto the Union government.Prior to this appointment,Mr Sharma was generalmanager of EasternRailway.

Vivek Singh, the formeradditional private secretaryto Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman, hasbeen appointed Officer onSpecial Duty (OSD) to thefinance minister for a

APPOINTMENTS period of four years.

The All India Gem AndJewellery Domestic Council(GJC) has appointedAshish Pethe as chairmanand Saiyam Mehra asvice-chairman of thenational apex body of thegem and jewellery industryfor a period of two years.

The Plastics ExportPromotion Council of India(PLEXCONCIL), the apextrade body for plasticsexports, has appointedArvind Goenka andHemant Minocha as itschairman and vice-chairmanrespectively.

system could be the highestsince March 1997, when itstood at 15.7 per cent,according to historical datafrom the RBI.

Insurers told to provide 3standard products TheIRDAI has asked generalinsurance companies to offermandatorily three standardproducts, covering risk of fireand allied perils from April 1.The insurance regulator hassaid that the Standard Fireand Special Perils (SFSP)Policy must be replaced bythe three standard products –Bharat Griha Raksha, BharatSookshma Udyam Surakshaand Bharat Laghu UdyamSuraksha. Bharat GrihaRaksha is meant for homebuilding and home contents,while Bharat SookshmaUdyam Suraksha and BharatLaghu Udyam Suraksha arefor enterprises with totalvalue at risk up to Rs 5 croreand between Rs 5 crore andup to Rs 50 crorerespectively.

RBI sets up workinggroup on digital lendingThe RBI has formed aworking group to suggestways to regulate the boomingdigital lending spaceefficiently. The six-memberworking group has beenformed to study digitallending in regulated as well asunregulated financial sectorto devise a regulatoryframework for the segment.“Recent spurt and popular-ity of online lendingplatforms and mobile lendingapps have raised certainserious concerns which havewider systemic implications.Against this backdrop, aworking group is being set upto study all aspects of digitallending activities so that anappropriate regulatoryapproach can be put inplace,” the central bankhas said.

Govt looks at BIC model tofund banks The UnionFinance Ministry is examin-ing setting up a bankinvestment company (BIC)for recapitalising of publicsector banks (PSBs). Theidea of a BIC comes amid theRBI raising concern overissue of zero-coupon bondsfor recapitalisation of PSBs.Setting up a BIC as a holdingcompany was suggested bythe PJ Nayak Committee inits report earlier. The reporthad recommended transfer-ring shares of the governmentin banks to the BIC, whichwould become the parentholding company of all thesebanks. BIC will have thepower to make policydecisions and also look atalternative ways of raisingcapital. This would reducedependence of PSBs ongovernment support and easefiscal pressure on thegovernment.

MFs’ AUM rises 17% toRs 31 l cr in 2020 Mutualfunds’ (MF) assets undermanagement (AUM) grew by17 per cent to top the Rs 31-lakh-crore-mark in 2020 fromRs 27.6 lakh crore in 2019,according to a CRISIL report.In 2020, the 44-playerindustry added around Rs 4.5lakh crore to the total AUM.In 2019, the fund houses’AUMs had grown by 18 percent over Rs 22.86 lakh crorein 2018. “A buoyant run-upin the underlying equitymarket and firm inflows intoopen-ended debt funds andequity exchange-traded funds(ETFs) helped take theAUM of the mutual fundindustry past the Rs 31-lakh-crore-mark for the first time,”CRISIL has said.

Union AMC to doubleAUM to Rs 10,000 crUnion Asset ManagementCompany (AMC) is lookingbeyond top-30 cities to

RBI moots four-tier structure for NBFCs The RBI hasproposed to classify non-banking finance companies (NBFCs)into four categories to prevent a collapse in one of them fromaffecting the financial system. All NBFCs with assets of up toRs 1,000 crore – numbering about 9,200 and are non-deposit-taking and non-systemically-important – will fall under theNBFC-Base Layer category. The NBFC-Middle Layer will con-sist of those companies classified as systemically-importantand deposit-taking. The NBFC-Upper Layer will include asmany as 30 systemically-significant companies, which will beregulated like banks and will have to implement differential stan-dard asset provisioning norms. The NBFC-Top Layer is cur-rently empty. However, the RBI can move an NBFC to thiscategory, if it feels that there is an unsustainable increase in thesystemic risk spill-over from specific NBFCs in the upper layer.

double its asset base toRs 10,000 crore within ayear. Union AMC’s plan

also comes against thebackdrop of amalgamation ofAndhra Bank and Corpora-tion Bank with Union Bankof India, which is the co-sponsor of the fund house,along with Japan’s Dai-ichiLife Holdings. The amalgam-ated entity now has morearsenals in terms of branches,manpower and number ofcustomers.

GNPAs may double to14.8% by Sept 2021 Loanlosses in the banking sector,as measured by the GrossNon-Performing Asset(GNPA) ratio, could nearlydouble to 13.5 per cent bySeptember 2021 in a baselinescenario. The GNPA couldshoot up to as high as 14.8per cent in a severe-stressscenario resulting from thepandemic, the RBI has said.The GNPA ratio stood at 7.5per cent in September 2020.Were the scenario of severestress to materialise, the badloan ratio of the banking

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J Venkatramu, theformer chief digital officerof Equitas Small FinanceBank, has taken charge asmanaging director andchief executive officer ofIndia Post PaymentsBank.

Sanjay Shah, the formerIndia co-head of MorganStanley, has beenappointed as the countryhead of the Americaninvestment bank.

Rajiv Lochan, thedirector of strategy ofSundaram Finance, willassume the role ofmanaging director of theChennai-based leadingfinance company witheffect from April 1.

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NALCO plans Rs 30,000-cr expansion NALCO is invest-ing around Rs 30,000 crore by 2027-28 in various expansion anddiversification plans. Of the proposed investment, the State-runaluminium-maker will spend over Rs 7,000 crore on its fifthrefinery, development of Pottangi bauxite mines, transportationand Utkal D&E coal mines. The remaining Rs 23,000 crore willbe spent on smelter and captive power plant expansion, whichalso includes expansion of the company’s smelter plant in Anguldistrict in Odisha. NALCO accounts for about 32 per cent oftotal domestic production of bauxite, 33 per cent of alumina and12 per cent of aluminium.

design, engineering, manufac-turing, supply, erection,testing and commissioning of1x300 tph coal-fired boiler,18.5-mw steam turbinegenerator and associatedauxiliaries, including FGDand SCR. With this order,BHEL maintains its trackrecord of supplying all ofNALCO’s power plants forboth its smelter plant inAngul and its aluminarefinery plant in Damanjodi.

CIL raises FY21 capex toRs 13,000 cr Coal India(CIL) has scaled up itscapital expenditure (capex)budget for the ongoingfinancial year by an addi-tional Rs 3,000 crore,revising it to Rs 13,000 crore.The increase in capex comesat a time when the govern-ment has directed Centralpublic sector undertakings tostep up their capex tostimulate economic activity.The rise represents 30 percent jump over CIL’s originalcapex target of Rs 10,000

crore for 2020-21, thecountry’s largest coal minerhas said in a statement. CILhas posted a 166 per cent

rise in capex during thefirst nine months of FY21 atRs 7,801 crore.

BEML unveils driverlessmetro train Union DefenceMinister Rajnath Singhrecently unveiled driverlessmetro cars for MumbaiMetropolitan RegionDevelopment Authority(MMRDA), manufacturedby BEML at its Bengalurucomplex. The new metro carswill operate on 25-kv ACtraction. They are designedand developed for driverlessor unattended train opera-tions. The metro cars aremade up of stainless steelbody and are equipped withCCTV surveillance forpassenger safety. Each six-car metro train set has acapacity of carrying 2,280passengers. BEML, a State-owned corporation under theUnion Defence Ministry,operates in three mainverticals – defence andaerospace, mining andconstruction and railand metro.

Pawan Hans bid dateextended to Feb 18 Thegovernment has extendedpreliminary bid submissiondeadline for buying PawanHans by a month tillFebruary 18. The Depart-ment of Investment andPublic Asset Management(DIPAM) had last Decemberinvited bids for strategic sale,along with transfer ofmanagement control, ofhelicopter service providerPawan Hans. The date forbid submission was January19. The government owns a51 per cent stake in PawanHans, while Oil and NaturalGas Corporation (ONGC)holds the remaining 49 percent. ONGC has decided tooffer its entire shareholdingin the company for sale, alongwith the government stake.

BSNL, MTNL turnEBITDA positive BSNLand MTNL have turnedEBITDA (earnings beforeinterest, taxation, deprecia-tion and amortisation)positive in the first half of2020-21. This demonstratesa marked improvement inperformance of the State-owned telecom companieswithin a year of approval oftheir revival plan. EBITDAof BSNL and MTNL rose toRs 602 crore and Rs 276crore respectively during theH1 of FY21. The improve-ment in performance of boththe companies has come onthe back of a sharp reductionin wage bill due to voluntaryretirement scheme, which cutthe workforce of BSNL andMTNL by 50 and 75 percent respectively.

Govt garners Rs 2,664 crfrom SAIL OFS Thegovernment has garneredRs 2,664 crore by offloading10 per cent of its stake inSAIL through an Offer ForSale (OFS). Of the 20.6 croreshares on offer, both retailand non-retail investors hadoffered 88.1 crore bids,leading to a subscription ofover four times. Thegovernment had proposed theOFS of 20.6 crore shareswith an option to selladditionally up to 20.6 croreshares. With this, the totalOFS size went up to 41.3crore shares, and thegovernment mobilisedRs 2,664 crore at the floorprice of Rs 64 per share.

BHEL gets NALCO’sRs 450-cr contract BHELhas secured an order for asteam and power plant fromNALCO, valued at aroundRs 450 crore. The order is forNALCO’s alumina refineryexpansion project inDamanjodi, Odisha. BHEL’sscope in the contract includes


Bharat PetroleumCorporation (BPCL) hasappointed SanjayKhanna as executivedirector of KochiRefinery. He waspreviously headingBPCL’s MumbaiRefinery.

Energy EfficiencyServices (EESL) hassigned a pact withNational HighwaysAuthority of India(NHAI) for setting upsolar power projects,energy-efficient LEDlighting and EV chargingstations across toll plazas,highway lighting and otherestablishments of NHAI.

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product line-up in thecountry. FCA has announcedan investment of $250million in production of fournew Jeep SUVs. This

investment will be in additionto the $450 million that thecompany has alreadyinvested in its Indianoperations in the last fiveyears. The four newproducts will be on Indianroads by the end of 2022,FCA has said in a statement.

Essar to invest 750 mnpounds in UK The EssarGroup in partnership withclean energy specialistProgressive Energy willinvest 750 million pounds tobuild the UK’s biggest, low-carbon, hydrogen-productionhub at Stanlow refinery inEllesmere Port in Cheshire.The investment in two plantswill be a part of the HyNetscheme, a project to supplylow-carbon hydrogen toindustrial sites and homes innorth-west England. Thejoint venture will manufac-ture hydrogen at the refineryfor use across the HyNetregion, both the companieshave said in a statement. Thefirst plant is set to open in2025 and the second onein 2027.

ADQ buys stake inBiocon’s arm Biocon’ssubsidiary Biocon Biologicshas approved a capitalinjection of $75 million fromAbu Dhabi-based ADQ.According to the terms of theproposed agreement, ADQwill get a 1.8 per cent stakein the biosimilar business,valuing Biocon Biologics atpost-money valuation of$4.17 billion. This is thefourth round of funds raisedby the company in the past12 months. Last year, TrueNorth and Tata Capital hadpicked up minority stakes inBiocon Biologics for $75million and $30 millionrespectively. It had also got$150 million from globalbanking and investmentfirm Goldman Sachs lastNovember.

Total buys 20% in AdaniGreen for $2 bn Total ofFrance has decided to acquirea 20 per cent minorityinterest in Adani GreenEnergy (AGEL) and half theownership in operative solarassets for $2.5 billion. As apart of the deal, Total willpick up a 50 per cent stake ina 2.35-gw portfolio ofoperating solar assets ownedby AGEL. Total’s invest-ment in AGEL is anotherstep in the strategic alliancebetween the Adani Groupand the French companyacross various businesses andcompanies of the AdaniGroup, covering investmentsin LNG terminals, gas utilitybusiness and renewableassets across India.

EID Parry revampingretail business EID Parry,a part of the Rs 38,000-croreMurugappa Group, aims toscale up its retail business. Itis also betting big on itsbranded and value-addedproducts through its latestre-launch. Apart from more

Japan’s Kirin Holdings tobuy 10% in Bira Japan’sbeer-maker Kirin Holdings isinvesting $30 million in NewDelhi-based B9 Beverages,the companies have said in astatement. The Japanesebrewer will acquire under 10per cent of stake in B9, themaker of India’s popularcraft beer Bira. Both thecompanies have declined togive further financial detailsabout the deal. The transac-tion will enable Kirin tosecure a spot in India’sgrowing craft beer marketamid falling sales at home. B9had been in talks withinternational brewers,including Kirin, and otherinvestors to sell a stake of upto 20 per cent in thecompany.

FCA to manufacture fournew Jeep SUVs Italian-American auto company FiatChrysler Automobiles (FCA)has decided to expand its


NEWS ROUND-UP

Tesla sets up India unit in Bengaluru Tesla, the US-based,electric-vehicle (EV) company, has registered with the Registrarof Companies in Bengaluru as Tesla India Motors and EnergyPrivate Limited recently. The most-valued car-maker in the worldhas registered itself as a private company with an authorisedcapital of Rs 15 lakh. It has named Vaibhav Taneja, VenkatrangamSreeram and David Jon Feinstein as directors of Tesla India. TheEV manufacturer has also announced setting up of a brandnew research and development unit. Tesla’s India foray isseen as a first step to set up a manufacturing plant for its EVs inthe country.

Publisher’s StatementStatement about ownership and other particulars aboutIndia Business Journal required to be published under Rule 8 of theRegistration of Newspapers (Central) Rule, 1956.

FORM IV (See Rule 8)1. Place of publication : Mumbai2. Periodicity of publication : Monthly3. Printer’s name : Amit M Brahmabhatt

Whether citizen of India? : Yes4. Publisher’s Name : Amit M Brahmabhatt

Whether citizen of India : YesAddress : 102, Rajasthan Technical Centre,

Patanwala Estate, Ghatkopar, Mumbai 400086

5. Editor’s name : Amit M Brahmabhatt Whether citizen of India : Yes Address : 102, Rajasthan Technical Centre,

Patanwala Estate, Ghatkopar, Mumbai 400086

6. Names and addresses of : Amit M Brahmabhatt individuals who own the 102, Rajasthan Technical Centre,

newspaper and partners or Patanwala Estate, Ghatkopar, shareholders holding more Mumbai 400086 than one per cent of total capitalI, Amit M Brahmabhatt, hereby declare that the particulars givenabove are true to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Sd/-Dated: 1st February, 2021 Amit M Brahmabhatt, Publisher

Govt to sell entire stake in VSNL in FY21 The governmentwill sell its entire 26.12 per cent stake in Tata Communications(formerly VSNL). The government has said that a part of theshareholding will be offered through Offer For Sale (OFS), andthe remaining, including any leftover portion in the OFS, will beoffered to strategic partner Panatone Finvest. At the currentmarket price, 26.12 per cent stake in the company would fetchthe exchequer around Rs 8,400 crore. VSNL was privatised in2002 by disinvesting 25 per cent shareholding along with trans-fer of management control to Panatone Finvest.

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premium and contemporarynew packaging, the companyhas extended its sulphur-freeprocess sugar across allmarkets in south India. It isalso planning to strengthene-commerce and expanddistribution of its brandedrange across south India. Thecompany sees Indian,branded, sugar market, whichis less than 5 per cent of theoverall market, as a majordriver of higher growth.

Byju’s to pay $1 bn forAakash Byju’s, India’sbiggest, online-educationstartup, has signed a deal toacquire brick-and-mortar,test-prep leader AakashEducational Services for $1billion. The deal will be oneof the largest ed-techacquisitions in the world andshould close in the next twoor three months. Bengaluru-headquartered Byju’s isvalued at $12 billion and hasbeen on a fund-raising spreeas the pandemic has sentdemand for its online lessonssoaring. India’s second-mostvaluable startup is backed bythe likes of Facebook founderMark Zuckerberg’s ChanZuckerberg Initiative, TigerGlobal Management andBond Capital, co-founded bySilicon Valley investor MaryMeeker.

Messaging app Hike shutdown Hike StickerChat, themessaging app owned byBharti Enterprises, hasofficially been shut down.The news of the messagingservice being shut down wasfirst revealed by its founderand CEO Kavin Bharti Mittalon Twitter. The app hassince been removed fromGoogle Play Store andApple’s App Store.However, the announcementdoes not mean an end toother apps in developmentby the company. Mr Mittalhas announced that the

company will be focusing onVibe and Rush, which willuse Hike emojis and includemini-games. Vibe, forinstance, is an invite-onlycommunity.

Hero MotoCorp on productlaunch spree HeroMotoCorp, the country’slargest motorcycle company,will be introducing over 10products – including variants,refreshes and upgrades –every year in the next fiveyears. In this timeframe, thecompany will aim to furtherconsolidate its leadershipposition, expand its globalfootprint and work oninnovative product concepts,the two-wheeler companyhas said. Hero MotoCorp hasadded that it has also a steepgrowth target for its marketsoutside India.

Amazon forays intoed-tech sector Amazon hasforayed into online educationsegment in India. AmazonIndia is currently running atest-preparation platformcalled Amazon Academy,focused on preparing for IIT-

previously owned. AmazonAcademy is in beta mode,which means that it has stillnot been formally launchedto all consumers. AmazonAcademy runs test series forstudents and is primarilymeant to supplement theirexisting classes.

Ola, Siemens join handsfor EV unit Ola haspartnered with Siemens tobuild its Rs 2,400-croreelectric vehicle (EV)manufacturing facility inTamil Nadu. The agreementwith Siemens will equip Olato digitise certain operationsand all manufacturingprocesses in the plant. Olaclaims that the factory willbe the largest scootermanufacturing facility in theworld and will generate closeto 10,000 jobs and have aninitial capacity to produce 20lakh units a year. It will serveas Ola’s global manufacturinghub, catering to its customersin India and other keymarkets across the world.

Future-RIL deal getsSEBI approval The SEBIhas granted approval to adeal between the FutureGroup and Reliance Retail, asubsidiary of RelianceIndustries (RIL). LastAugust, Mr Biyani hadentered into a Rs 24,713-crore agreement withReliance Retail. As a part ofthe pact, the Future Groupwas to sell its retail,wholesale, logistics andwarehouse businesses toReliance Retail. US-basedAmazon had written to theSEBI over the past threemonths, asking the regulatorybody to stall the Future-Reliance deal. Amazon hadaccused the Future Group ofviolating a pact signed by itwith the US e-tailer byentering into a deal withReliance Retail.

JEE engineering entranceexams for students of classes11 and 12. According to itswebsite, JEE Ready hasrebranded itself as AmazonAcademy. It is not clearwhether this is a startupAmazon acquired or is

ZEE EntertainmentEnterprises (ZEEL) hasroped in NimishaPandey, a former Netflixexecutive, to head theHindi Originals for itsdigital entertainmentplatform, ZEE5.

James Murdoch, the sonof media mogul RupertMurdoch, and UdayShankar, the former StarIndia CEO and presidentof Walt Disney AsiaPacific, will be joininghands to form a newventure to focus ontechnology and mediaopportunities in emergingmarkets.

APPOINTMENTS

TIE-UPS

FOCUS


CRACKING DOWN

IBJ BUREAU

Billionaire, Chinese tycoon JackMa is back. The AlibabaGroup founder made an ap-

pearance in public recently after be-ing unseen for over three months. The56-year-old entrepreneur made a vir-tual appearance recently when he met100 rural teachers in China through avideo call.

The complete absence of Mr Mafor the past three months hadprompted many to wonder if he hadgone missing. An abrupt halt to initialpublic offer (IPO) of the Ant Group –an affiliate company of the AlibabaGroup – by the Chinese authoritiesjust before Mr Ma’s curious disap-pearance had further fuelled specula-tions about his absence.

The former English-teacher-turnedentrepreneur’s absence was first no-

An Alarming SignalChina’s tough actions against Alibaba Group send out awarning to its private sector, especially tech giants, tofall in line.

ticed when he did not turn up as ajudge for the final episode of a TVshow on business heroes. However,the Alibaba Group had clarified thatMr Ma had not appeared on the showbecause of a scheduling conflict.

Mr Ma stepped down as chairmanof the Alibaba Group last September,leaving Daniel Zhang in charge of the$71.985-billion, e-commerce conglom-erate as its chairman and CEO. ButMr Ma still remains the group’s larg-est, individual shareholder with anearly 5 per cent stake, and he isalso the controlling shareholder of theAnt Group.

Rise & fall of MaMr Ma’s ascent to the top of the Chi-nese corporate world is nothing shortof a classic rags-to-riches story.Young Ma was born in a poor familyin Hangzhou in south-eastern Chinain 1964. As a young man, he offered

his services as a guide to foreign tour-ists staying at an international hotelnear his hometown. In return, helearnt English from them. Aftergraduating in English, he became anEnglish teacher.

In the 1990s, he came across theinternet and was convinced that theonline network could work wonders.Beginning with an online yellow pagesbusiness, Mr Ma started a couple ofventures and finally set up Alibaba in1999 as a business-to-business, e-commerce entity. Constantly diversi-fying and innovating, Alibaba grewrapidly and today straddles consumere-commerce, digital payments ser-vices offered by its online paymentsplatform Alipay, various financial ser-vices, including lending, cloud com-puting and digital media and enter-tainment, among others.

As Mr Ma’s businesses grew insize and scale, Alibaba began to bereckoned with global e-commerce gi-ants, such as Amazon and other enti-ties. Everything seemed to be goinggreat for Mr Ma and his business

Alibaba Group Corporate Campus,Hangzhou, China


conglomerate. The stage was set forhis Ant Group’s record-setting, $37-billion IPO last November, and inves-tors were eagerly awaiting what wouldhave been the world’s biggest initialshare sale. Then days before theblockbuster share sale, the AntGroup’s IPO was halted by the Chi-nese regulators, leaving scores of in-vestors high and dry.

The regulators had expressed con-cern over the Ant Group’s lucrative,online, lending business. This waspurported to be the reason for theabrupt scrapping of the mega IPO.However, market analysts opine thatthe shocking cancellation of the IPOwas triggered by Mr Ma’s outburstsagainst the financial market regulatorslast October.

The Alibaba chief had criticised theregulators for “stifling innovation”and had compared the country’s mar-kets regulator to an “old boys’ club”.He had also criticised China for lack-ing a solid financial ecosystem andhad added that Chinese banks werelike “pawn shops”. His criticism of theChinese authorities has cost himdearly. Since then, Chinese officialshave turned the heat against Mr Maand his business conglomerate.Mr Ma’s speech was viewed as anattack on the authority of the Com-munist Party of China and led to itsextraordinary clampdown on his busi-ness activities.

tober, with net worth of around $62billion, the Alibaba chief was rankedthe richest man in Asia on theBloomberg Billionaires Index. Butsince falling out with the regulators,his fortune has dipped to about $50billion, pushing him down to the 25th

spot on the Bloomberg BillionairesIndex. Just months ago, Mr Ma wasvenerated as a national hero and seenas a personification of Chinese gritand entrepreneurial spirit. But thathas all changed, in the last threemonths..

The Chinese markets regulator, inthe meanwhile, has proposed that the

Jack Ma’s downfall began after his outbursts against Chinese regulators.

Ma’s MisfortuneAnt Group’s record, $37-billionIPO suspended just days beforethe share sale

Alibaba accused of anti-competitive practices, squeezingrivals out of the market

Formal anti-trust probe onagainst Alibaba Group

Likelihood of Alibaba Groupbeing broken up or nationalised

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s treatment of private sector is designed toreverse Deng Xiaoping’s past reforms.

Last November, days after sus-pending the IPO, China’s State Ad-ministration for Market Regulation(SAMR) warned that it was con-cerned about the company’s monopo-listic business model. The regulatorcriticised the Ant Group for squeez-ing its rivals out of the market anddisregarding consumers’ rights. Latelast December, the SAMR announceda formal anti-trust probe on theAlibaba Group.

A dire warningEver since the scrapping of the AntGroup’s IPO, there has been a severereversal of Mr Ma’s fortune. Last Oc-

FOCUS


Alibaba has invested over $2 billion in Indian companies, such as Paytmand Zomato, since 2015.

“If you are a big tech companyin China, Beijing is sending avery clear message about whoruns China: It is not you, it is us.”

JEFFREY HALLEYMarket Analyst,

Oanda Corporation

Ant Group be restricted to its originalbusiness of mobile payments and sur-render its more lucrative business inconsumer lending and mutual funds.There are also reports that the Chi-nese government may be working ona plan to nationalise Alibaba and theAnt Group.

Some analysts warn that the groupmay be broken up entirely. JeffreyHalley, a senior market analyst forAsia-Pacific at Oanda Corporation,argues that the Ant Group’s IPO maynever materialise. “I think that thecompany will have to break itself up.The regulators clearly think that Antis too powerful. If you are a big techcompany in China, Beijing is sendinga very clear message about who runsChina: It is not you, it is us.”

The recent actions against theAlibaba Group appear to be sparkedby concerns over the supposed anti-competitive nature of Mr Ma’s con-glomerate. But many analysts reasonout that there is more to the Alibabawrangle than meets the eye. They addthat the Chinese Communist Partyleaders and the government view theirtechnology companies with suspi-cion. They fear that these companieshave amassed too much of power andcannot be counted on to support thegoals of the party.

In recent years, Chinese PresidentXi Jinping has sought to strengthenthe Communist Party’s control over

of China last October. The Chinesepresident unveiled his plan to makethe country a more State-controlledeconomy based on domestic demand.Incidentally, the stringent actionsagainst Mr Ma are aimed at showingthe private companies where they willfigure in the new economic order.Analysts point out that the toughmeasures against the Alibaba Groupare designed to make an example ofthe conglomerate and warn the pri-vate sector – especially technologygiants – to fall in line.

India, in the meantime, is watchingclosely the developments related tothe Alibaba Group. Indian technologystart-ups are particularly interested inthe Alibaba controversy becausemany of them have got big fundingfrom the Chinese conglomerate, whichhappens to be a major shareholder inmany of the Indian companies. Indianstart-ups have already been hit by lastyear’s geopolitical tension betweenIndia and China in Ladakh. Last Au-gust, the Indian government placedcurbs on all Chinese investments intoIndian companies, mandating them tobe routed through the governmentafter its approval.

Following this rule in August lastyear, the Alibaba Group put on holdplans to invest in Indian companies.The current controversy surroundingMr Ma’s business group is further setto shut investments into Indian start-ups. Alibaba has been a major Chi-nese group, having invested morethan $2 billion in Indian companies –including digital payments platformPaytm, online food delivery platformsZomato and BigBasket as well asSnapdeal, Xpressbees and others –since 2015. The current developmentsin China are set to have a minor im-pact on Indian start-ups. However, theAlibaba episode signals a major shiftthat the Chinese economy would takein the near future – the shift markedby State supremacy over the privatesector.

China’s private companies. It has in-stalled more party officials in privatecompanies, issued a raft of detailedguidelines, reminding them to servethe State and deprived wayward busi-nesses of credit from State-ownedbanks. There is genuine fear thatMr Jinping’s heavy-handed treatmentof private business leaders is replac-ing former Chinese leader DengXiaoping’s era of “openness andreforms”.

In fact, the clearest indication ofthe direction that the Chineseeconomy would take in coming yearscame from Mr Jinping’s address to theCentral Committee of Communist Party

SPOTLIGHT

MUKESH SINGH

Minor forest produce, whichis in abundance acrossChhattisgarh, has turned

out to be a valuable product in thecentral Indian State. The Chhattisgarhgovernment’s policies – including ef-ficient purchase of minor forest pro-duce at the support price – havehelped improve the lives of forestdwellers and minor forest producecollectors in the State.

The past two years have particu-larly been promising for forest dwell-ers in Chhattisgarh, thanks to minorforest produce-centric policies intro-duced by the State government, ledby Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.These policies have enabledChhattisgarh to top the country in termsof collection of minor forest produce.

Push for forest produceChhattisgarh has established a newrecord by purchasing 73 per cent ofthe country’s forest produce. Inter-estingly, it is the only State in the coun-try where 52 types of minor forest pro-duce are being purchased at the sup-port price. This is directly benefitingforest dwellers and forest producecollectors across the State.

On the special initiative ofMr Baghel, the State government hasincreased the purchase prices of mi-nor forest produce to help and sup-port hard-working forest dwellers andfarmers. Accordingly, the rate of tenduleaf collection has been increased fromRs 2,500 per standard bag to Rs 4,000per standard bag. This has resultedin about 12 lakh tendu leaf collectorhouseholds receiving additionalwages of Rs 225 crore per year as well

Redefining ProgressThe Chhattisgarh government's minor forest produce-centric policies successfully redraw the contours ofdevelopment.

as additional incentive remunerationbonus of Rs 232 crore. Besides, thesupport price of mahua has been in-creased from Rs 17 to Rs 30 per kg,tamarind from Rs 25 to Rs 36 per kgand chironji kernels from Rs 93 to Rs126 per kg.

A breed apartGoing ahead, the Chhattisgarh gov-ernment has taken an initiative to addvalue to its minor forest producethrough the Vananchal project. Thepurpose of this project is to providedirect and indirect employment oppor-tunities by establishing minor forestproduce-based industries in forestareas of the State. Currently, only 5per cent of the forest produce storedin the State is processed. TheVananchal project has been chalkedout to change this situation and en-courage forest produce-based indus-try in areas like Bastar.

The State government has pro-vided many types of discounts andattractive packages in its new indus-try policy for promotion of minor for-est produce-based industries. So far,

15 entrepreneurs have proposed to setup various types of forest produce-based industries in Vananchal areaswith a total investment of Rs 75 crore.The MoUs for industries based onforest produce – such as tamarind,essential oils, cashewnut, bhilwa,mahua, tora, harra and bahera, amongothers – are being processed by thegovernment.

Establishment of these industriesin Bastar will facilitate additional em-ployment of villagers in the region.Besides, there will also be a constantdemand for forest produce. With theVananchal project taking off, farmersin the Bastar region will also be ableto cultivate herbs, like munga, lemongrass, satwar, patchouli, vetiver, whitemusli, pipli, Ashwagandha and thelike. These crops will produce essen-tial oils, aromatic oils and pharmaceu-tical products – which have huge ex-port potential – and will also give farm-ers twice as much of income.

Farmers across the country appearto be angry with new farm laws. Thereis also disappointment among thefarming community as its income isdepleting. On the contrary, farmersacross Chhattisgarh seem to be abreed apart – happier than their breth-ren in other parts of the country.

Chhattisgarh is the only State in thecountry where 52 types of minorforest produce are beingpurchased at the support price.

Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel: Taking fruits ofdevelopment down to the last man


INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS


IBJ BUREAU

There is hope around the world,with Joe Biden taking over asthe 46th president of the United

States of America (USA). There isoptimism of participatory democraticprocess getting rekindled in the US,with Mr Biden taking charge. Besides,Kamala Harris’ appointment as thevice-president brightens the pros-pects for women and other minoritysections of America.

Mr Biden’s presidency is expectedto bring the US back into variousmultilateral forums – effectively re-versing unilateralism pursued byformer US President Donald Trump.The new president and his team will,of course, be busy with domestic is-sues, such as implementing the vac-cination programme againstCoronavirus, sprucing up consump-tion, tackling rising unemploymentcrisis and recharging a flailingeconomy. Mr Biden is also expectedto focus on the global economy, G-20, other international organisationsand the vexed US-China relations.

Trade & moreIndia, like the rest of the world, iswatching the Biden regime with highexpectations. Mr Biden is no strangerto India. He had played a valuable roleas a legislator in getting the civilnuclear deal sealed between the twocountries. He is also familiar with theessential continuity in the Indo-USbilateral relationship. HenceMr Biden’s agenda for the next fouryears is likely to carry forward theprogress achieved in Mr Trump’s ten-ure as well as repair the damage done.

Fortunately, the new US president

Betting On BidenA stable and openly-friendly new US administrationcan easily take the Indo-American bilateral trade tothe next level.

has more expertise on India than anyof his 45 predecessors had at the be-ginning of their White House tenure.The president has engaged with In-dia for decades, first as the chairmanof the powerful Senate Foreign Rela-tions Committee and then as vice-president during the Barack Obamaregime.

The US had taken a significant stepof designating India as a major de-fence partner way back in December2016. At that time, Mr Biden was thevice-president in the Obama adminis-

tration with considerable sway in for-eign policymaking. This designationhas allowed India to receive licence-free access to dual-use American tech-nologies ever since. Mr Biden is setto build on the number of armssales and defence agreements thatwere formalised under the Trumpadministration.

The change of guard, in the mean-while, may mean a less acrimoniousapproach to trade relations. However,even with Mr Biden in charge, therewill not be a drastic change in US pri-orities. Analysts note that the US willnot easily concede on long-standing,sticking points between the two coun-tries, including agriculture, dairy,poultry and intellectual property (IP).

There is general consensus amongforeign policy experts that the Bidenregime will result in reversal of theTrump-era policies. This opinion isbased on public statements by theBiden administration and heavy sup-port of the Indian-American commu-nity to the Democratic Party. However,Mr Trump had couched his policiesin the America First idea, which has astrong nationalistic echo. Hence, itwould be difficult, if not impossible,for the Biden administration to reversethe policies pursued by Mr Trump.

So, for instance, even though thecurrent US president would be morethan willing to increase the quota ofH1-B visas for Indian professionals,especially IT personnel, he would beconstrained by the nationalistic de-sign weaved in by Mr Trump. In H1-Bvisa and many such prickly issues,the Biden administration will treadcarefully and ease up gradually infavour of India, point out analysts.

Trade was certainly a contentiousissue during the Trump presidency.Mr Trump had removed the General-ized System of Preferences (GSP) – aset of trade concessions accorded toIndian exporters shipping goods tothe US – reasoning out that India wasno longer a developing country. Res-toration of the GSP would go a long

The new US president has moreexpertise on India than any of his45 predecessors.

The US will not easily concede toIndia on long-standing issues, suchas agriculture and dairy products.


way in benefiting Indian exporters,who have been badly battered byCOVID-19 and global economic slow-down. But it would be too unrealisticto expect Mr Biden to reverse the de-cision immediately. He may pursuenegotiations on the GSP as well ascontinue to talk on the Indo-US tradeagreement with India, which had madesome progress.

Mr Biden has talked of a “middle-class foreign policy”, which gives pri-macy to promoting export of Ameri-can goods to the whole world. India’shuge market will be an attraction forhim, as he pursues his foreign policy.Similarly, Mr Biden may encourage im-ports from India to replace the Chi-nese supply chain, which has beendisrupted in the wake of the Sino-UStension.

The Indian market provides a hugepotential for American companies.“On the economic side, there will bemuch stronger collaboration betweenthe countries vis-a-vis China, be-cause companies are looking at shift-ing some of their supply chain out ofChina to de-risk their global supplychain,” opines Dr Mukesh Aghi, thepresident of the US-India StrategicPartnership Forum.

There is the likelihood of more co-operation and collaboration betweenthe two nations in pharmaceutical,healthcare, including vaccines, infor-mation and communication technol-ogy (ICT), start-ups, education, cli-

mate change and renewable energy,among other sectors.

Stronger tiesThe roller-coaster trajectory of Indo-US relations cannot be correlated tochanges in the US leadership. It bilat-eral ties have always transcendedparty and personal considerations.They have in essence been shapedby geopolitical developments, twistsand turns in priorities of the two coun-tries and global milestones, such asthe Cold War, emergence of a uni-po-lar world, terrorism, climate changeand rise of China. Some US presidentslike John F Kennedy, Bill Clinton,George Bush and Barack Obama standout as friends of India, regardless oftheir party affiliations. Even

Mr Trump, with all his idiosyncrasies,was seen as a friend.

One point of concern with the newUS regime is the activism of the Demo-crats, in general, and Mr Biden andMs Harris, in particular, in champion-ing the cause of human rights, reli-gious freedom and democratic prac-tices. In fact, Mr Trump had closedhis eyes to such matters even whenriots had taken place in Delhi whenhe was dining at the RashtrapatiBhavan. Mr Biden and Ms Harris maysee some issues in India inconflict with the standards theyexpect of India.

Meanwhile, in 2019, at the heightof Mr Trump’s idiosyncratic policies,the Indo-US bilateral trade in goodsand services stood at $146.1 billion –the official figures for 2020 are not yetout. A stable and openly-friendlyBiden administration can easily takethe bilateral trade to the next level.There are higher chances of Indo-UStrade and other ties strengtheningfurther.

The best change for the better isthat the US will have a consistent, ra-tional and responsible administration,with which India can do business.There may be more grey areas thanblack and white in bilateral relations.But there will be a greater room fornegotiations, discussions and recon-ciliation – a basic requirement in themanagement of international relations.

Mr Trump had couched his policiesin the America First idea with astrong nationalistic echo.

BILATERAL RELATION

SURPLUS

23.4 bn

5.4 bn

28.8 bnIndia's Import From US India's Export To US

All figures in US$ for 201945.9 bn 5.0 bn

FDIUS To IndiaIndia To US

TRADE

GOODS

SERVICES

TOTAL

34.3 bn 57.7 bn

24.3 bn 29.7 bn

58.6 bn 87.4 bn

IBJ BUREAU

After four years, the govern-ment is venturing into auctionof spectrum once again. A to-

tal of 2,251.25 mhz are being offeredat a reserve price of Rs 3,92,332.70crore at the auction, slated to beginon March 1, 2021. The airwaves thatwill be auctioned off are expected tohelp telecom operators boost theirnetwork capacities.

In May last year, the Digital Com-munications Commission – the apexdecision-making body of the Depart-ment of Telecommunications (DoT) –

Prickly PricingWith a high reserve price, the upcoming spectrumauction is likely to see yet another tepid responsefrom heavily-indebted telecom companies.

had approved the spectrum auctionplan. Later, last December, the UnionCabinet had approved the next roundof auction.

A single auction process will becarried out for assigning spectrumblocks in various bands, ranging from700 mhz to 2,500 mhz. Telecom opera-tors have been asked to submit theirapplications by February 5, and theycan withdraw their applications byFebruary 22.

Validity of the spectrum won in theupcoming auction will be for 20 yearsfrom the effective date. MSTC hasbeen appointed as the adviser to the

government in this spectrum auctionand will act as the auctioneer for thee-auction.

Successful bidders will have to paythe bid amount within 10 days of theissue of demand note. The govern-ment has eased the payment processfor winning bidders in the auction,given the precarious, financial condi-tion of telecom companies. As a partof the payment conditions, success-ful bidders can either pay the entirebid amount upfront or shell out a por-tion of the amount upfront.

In case of part payment, telecomcompanies will have to pay upfront25 per cent of their respective bidamounts for spectrum won in 700-,800- and 900-mhz bands. The upfrontpayment will have to be 50 per centfor bid amounts in case of spectrumwon in 1,800-, 2,100-, 2,300- and 2,500-mhz bands. The remaining amount canbe paid in up to a maximum of 16equated annual instalments after amoratorium of two years. A 7.3 per centinterest will be charged for theinstalments. The successful bidderswill also have to pay 3 per cent ad-justed gross revenue (AGR), exclud-ing wire-line services, as spectrumusage charges.

Muted responseThe telecom industry appears to berelieved with the auction timelinefinalised. The industry had beenpitching for the 4G auction to takeplace as some licences in the bandsare expiring in 2021. The incumbents

TELECOM


Last dateforsubmittingapplicationsby telecomoperators

Last dateforwithdrawingapplications

Ownershipdetails ofbiddersto bepublished

Bidderownershipcompliancecertificatesto be issued

Bidders tobeprequalifiedby DoT

Final listof biddersto bepublished

Mockauctionto beconducted

Spectrumauctionto start

February22

February12

February15

February19

February24

February26

March1

Auction Timeline

February5

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5G Still A Distant Dream For India

Many analysts and telecomcompanies, except for RJio,

are of the view that India is not yetready for rollout of 5G services.There is a general view that thecountry will be ready for 5G tech-nology in the next two to threeyears. So, the government hasrightly refrained from putting 5Gspectrum in the 3.5-mhz bandfor sale in the upcoming Marchauction.

In February 2020, two Chinesesmartphone brands Realme andiQoo were the first to launch 5G-ready smartphones in India. Thelaunch happened even as therehas been no definite timeline forrollout of 5G services in thecountry.

Some analysts opine that Indiansmartphone users have missed out onseveral benefits of the 5G technologyover the last 12 months. Some of thebenefits that early 5G global users areseeing include better quality videocalls (66%), faster downloads (59%)and ability to stream UHD videos(55%), suggests a new study byCyberMedia Research, a market re-search firm. The 5G services are cur-rently available across 34 countries,including South Korea, China, theUK, the US and so on.

In fact, 5G translates into superiorspeeds while uploading, sharing onsocial media or in streaming better-quality videos without any lags. In-dia is a fit case for quick adoption of5G services. Being the second-larg-

est user of smartphones across theworld, Indian consumers have accessto cheap data. But the internet speedin India is woefully slow. Accordingto the Speedtest Global Index byOokla, India is ranked at 131 for mo-bile internet speeds, much behind itsneighbouring nations like South Ko-rea, Sri Lanka and even Nepal and Pa-kistan. The country’s average mobiledownload speed is 12.07 mbps,much lower than the global averageof 35.26 mbps.

The country requires proper poli-cies for early implementation of 5Gservices. High spectrum prices haveled to a substantial outlay for anycompany. Besides, high revenue shar-ing with the government, resulting inhuge AGR dues and heavy debts, has

“We expectmoderateparticipationin theupcomingauction,largely limitedto renewal of

the expiries in the 800- and1,800-mhz bands. This wouldleave little participation in the700-mhz band.”

ANKIT JAINAssistant V-P, ICRA

are likely to bid for spectrum wherethey need renewal or their spectrumis about to expire.

The incumbents have beenrefarming 2G and 3G airwaves to suitthe needs of 4G subscribers. Besides,the incumbents have seen the quan-tum of their spectrum growing withmerging of telecom companies thatexited the industry in the consolida-tion process. There is hence acutedemand for spectrum in some bands,

which are likely to see stiff competi-tion from bidders. “We expect moder-ate participation in the upcoming auc-tion, largely limited to renewal of theexpiries in the 800- and 1,800-mhzbands. This would leave little partici-pation in the 700-mhz band,” pointsout ICRA Assistant Vice-PresidentAnkit Jain.

The ensuing spectrum auction, inthe meanwhile, will not include bandsin the range of 3,300 to 3,600 mhz that

support 5G services. As such, no cleartimeline has been drawn up for the 5Grollout yet. Most of the mobile opera-tors – except for Reliance Jio (RJio) –were against the auctioning of 5Gspectrum in the March auction, asthey are not able to find a strong busi-ness case in India at present. Besides,the telecom companies are right whenthey add that India currently woefullylacks the infrastructure required tosupport 5G services.

But RJio has already announcedits plan to roll out 5G services in thesecond half of 2021. With 5G spec-trum not on the block, analysts opinethat RJio may have to use spectrumin other bands bought through theauction to launch 5G services. RJiohas already revealed that it has de-veloped an in-house 5G solution thatit plans to deploy to launch services.

Need for rethinkMeanwhile, the Cellular Operators’Association of India (COAI), thetelecom industry body, is relieved thatthe upcoming auction will enable the

"Lowering thereserve priceswould haveprovidedtelecomcompanieswith additionalresources for

their network expansion. Highreserve prices in the past auctionshave resulted in large amounts ofspectrum remaining unsold.”

S P KOCHHARDirector General, COAI


industry to cater to exponential in-crease in data usage. However, theindustry body is unhappy with thehigh reserve price of the spectrum.

“The government has addressedthe requirement for availability of ad-ditional spectrum. But lowering thereserve prices would have providedtelecom companies with additionalresources for their network expan-sion. High reserve prices in the pastauctions have resulted in largeamounts of spectrum remaining un-sold,” points out COAI Director Gen-eral S P Kochhar.

The last spectrum auction of 2016was rather disappointing. The gov-ernment had offered 2,354.55 mhz at areserve price of Rs 5.60 lakh crore,which the telecom companies hadfound too exorbitant. Ultimately, thegovernment managed to sell only 965mhz or about 40 per cent of the spec-trum that was put up for sale, mop-ping up a total amount of a mereRs 65,789 crore.

Following the 2016 spectrum auc-tion debacle, the Telecom Regulatory

Authority of India (TRAI) in August2018 recommended a lower reserveprice for the next spectrum auctioncompared to the reserve price of 2016.For instance, the telecom regulatorreduced the reserve price of the pre-mium 4G spectrum in the 700-mhzband for the March auction to Rs 6,568crore per mhz. This works out to a 43per cent discount to the 2016 auctionreserve price of Rs 11,485 crore forthe 700-mhz spectrum.

But telecom companies find thenew, discounted price too on thehigher side. In fact, at Rs 6,568 croreper mhz, each of the telecom compa-nies would still have to shell out Rs32,840 crore for a pan-India, 5-mhzblock in the premium 700-mhz band.The high reserve price comes in thebackdrop of a financial mess thattelecom companies find themselves in.

Currently, liability level of Indiantelecom companies is collectivelypegged at about Rs 3 lakh crore. BhartiAirtel had about Rs 1.29 lakh crore indebt, while that of Vodafone Indiastood at around Rs 1.7 lakh crore. RJiois the only telecom company that hasmanaged to turn debt free, having soldnearly a third of its equity to top for-eign entities. Top bankers expect thedebt to expand further, as companiesbid for 4G spectrum in the upcomingauction.

The bankers opine that upfrontpayments by telecom companies forspectrum would be far less, with therest to be paid over 16 years in equalinstalments. However, the upfrontpayment of nearly Rs 1.5 lakh crore

still represents a fat sum, the accessto which would require companies tofurnish corporate guarantees andstronger proof of cash flows. Mosttelecom players in India are bleedingcurrently, with the AGR dues – de-spite having got deferred paymentconcession – battering their balancesheets.

The upcoming auction against thebackdrop of this bleak situation islikely to see a tepid response from thetelecom industry. Analysts note thatcompanies looking to renew their li-cences in bands that are expiring in2021 and those seeking to plug exist-ing gaps may pick up spectrum in less-expensive bands. Premium spectrumbands are set to witness muted de-mand, they add. Rating agency ICRAestimates that the auction may fetchthe exchequer between Rs 55,000 croreand Rs 60,000 crore or about 15 percent of the amount targeted by thegovernment.

Unfortunately, the governmentdoes not seem to have learnt any les-son from the past auctions. The gov-ernment has been advocating allalong that beyond revenuemaximisation, the main aim of the auc-tion is to expedite pace of mobile revo-lution and usher in a robust digitalecosystem. Sadly, pricing of airwavesat every auction reflects thegovernment’s obsession withmaximising its revenue. It is time thatthe government introduced industry-friendly prices to realise the objectiveof digital India.

There is unlikely to be any decentdemand from debt-laden telecomcompanies for 700-mhz banddespite a 40% cut in its reserve price.

Indian smartphone users havemissed out on several benefits of5G technology in the past 12months.

killed the once-sunrise sector thattelecom industry was.

Amid this gloom, it will not beeasy to launch 5G. First of all, thegovernment will have to go beyondrevenue maximisation objective andset a low reserve price for the 5Gspectrum. Besides, the infrastruc-ture required for 5G rollout will alsobe extensive. Radio components inthe towers, which constitute 60 to80 per cent of the capital expendi-ture (capex) will have to be substan-tially upgraded or replaced, andeventually, even the remaining part,called the core, will also have to beupgraded so that the true powerand speed of 5G can be delivered.There is also the requirement ofadditional towers that will be neededto get the 5G services up andrunning.


COVER STORY

IBJ RESEARCH BUREAU

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman’s Union Bud-get 2021-22 comes amidunusually-challengingtimes. Quoting

Rabindranath Tagore and Tamilpoet-philosopher Thiruvalluvar,Ms Sitharaman’s third Union Budgethas tried rather brilliantly to breathelife back into the economy that hasbeen reeling under recession.

The Budget – which was paperless,with the government deciding not toprint the Budget documents for thefirst time amid COVID-19 –gives anextra push to public spending, espe-cially on health and infrastructure.“Our fiscal deficit, which started at 3.5per cent of GDP (Gross DomesticProduct) in February 2020, has goneup to 9.5 per cent (for FY21). So, wehave spent, we have spent, and we

have spent. Otherwise, your fiscaldeficit wouldn’t have reached thisnumber,” said Ms Sitharaman, speak-ing to mediapersons after presentingher Budget.

at Rs 15,06,812 crore or at 6.8 per centof the GDP for FY22. Besides, the fi-nance minister has set a target to bringthe fiscal deficit down gradually to 4.5per cent of the GDP by FY26.

Going beyond the numbers, theUnion Budget treads a bold path witha number of reform measures. Thereare proposals to clean up non-per-forming assets (NPAs) of banks andnon-banking financial companies(NBFCs) by constituting an asset re-construction company (ARC) or anasset management company (AMC).A development finance institution(DFI) is also on the table to provide afillip for funding infrastructureprojects.

There are no populist measures inthe Budget despite large-scale expen-diture taking centre stage. The financeminister has left direct tax rates – be itIncome Tax or Corporate tax – un-changed, while introducing an agri-

With some bold reforms and big stress on public spending, Union Budget2021-22 tries to kick-start an economy ravaged by COVID-19.

“We have spent, we havespent, and we have spent.Otherwise, the fiscal deficitwouldn’t have gone up from3.5% of GDP in February2020 to 9.5% for FY21.”

NIRMALA SITHARAMANUnion Finance Minister

Absence of spoilers, such as aCOVID cess or a wealth tax,spurred benchmark stock indicesto post biggest Budget day gains in24 years.

BOOSTER SHOT

It is indeed an expenditure Budget,with total spending pegged atRs 34,83,236 crore. The stress onspending is certainly justified andnecessary to kick-start the economy,ravished by the viral epidemic. How-ever, it is also heartening to seeMs Sitharaman trying earnestly to reinin the fiscal deficit, which is estimated

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamanand her deputy Anurag Thakur beforepresenting the Budget in Parliament

BOOSTER SHOT


cultural infrastructure cess withoutplacing any additional burden on con-sumers. Absence of spoilers, such asa COVID cess or a wealth tax, whichwere widely anticipated, has enthusedinvestors. No wonder, the stock mar-ket made the biggest gains on a UnionBudget day since 1997. The S&P BSESensex and the Nifty 50 kept soaringall through the one-hour-and-50-minute speech of Ms Sitharaman. TheSensex and the Nifty finally closed theday, rallying by 2,314 points or by 5per cent and by 646 points or by 4.74per cent respectively.

“The Union Budget has the visionof atmanirbharta (self-reliance) andaddresses all sections of society,while keeping farmers and villages atits heart,” lauded Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, reacting to the Bud-get. The finance minister, in fact, dis-played that self-reliance quite el-egantly by reading out her Budgetspeech from a red-coloured, made-in-India tablet, which resembled a bahi-khata (a traditional accounts book)covered in a red folder with the gov-ernment emblem on it.

Spending spreeMs Sitharaman’s Budget tries to cutthrough the fog of despair that hasengulfed the economy. The country’seconomy contracted by a massive23.9 per cent in the June 2020 quarter– the first such shrinkage of GDP inover 40 years. It was followed by aneconomic contraction of 7.5 per centin the September 2020 quarter, throw-ing India into recession.

The finance minister estimatesnominal economic growth rate of 14.4per cent at Rs 222,87,379 crore forFY22 after an estimated plunge by 7.7per cent to Rs 194,81,975 crore inFY21. In line with this projection, theBudget has earmarked capital expen-diture of a whopping Rs 5.54 lakhcrore for FY22 – a big 34.46 per centjump over the FY21 Budget estimate(BE) capex – to propel growth. Thehuge capex is set to provide a majorleg-up for cement, steel and other core

“The Union Budget has the visionof atmanirbharta and addressesall sections of society, whilekeeping farmers and villages atits heart.”

NARENDRA MODIPrime Minister

Budget At A Glance

GDP for FY22 has been projected at Rs 222,87,379 crore after estimating14.4 per cent nominal growth over the estimated GDP of Rs 194,81,975crore for FY21.

BE – Budget Estimates RE – Revised Estimates All figures in Rs cr

FY21 BE FY21 RE FY22 BE

Revenue Expenditure 26,30,145 30,11,142 29,29,000

Capital Expenditure 4,12,085 4,39,163 5,54,236

TOTAL EXPENDITURE 30,42,230 34,50,305 34,83,236

Tax Receipts 16,35,909 13,44,501 15,45,396

Non-Tax Receipts 3,85,017 2,10,652 2,43,028

Revenue Receipts 20,20,926 15,55,153 17,88,424

Recovery Of Loans 14,967 14,497 13,000

Other Receipts 2,10,000 32,000 1,75,000

Borrowings & Liabilities 7,96,337 18,48,655 15,06,812

Capital Receipts 10,21,304 18,95,152 16,94,812

TOTAL RECEIPTS 30,42,230 34,50,305 34,83,236

FISCAL DEFICIT 7,96,337 18,48,655 15,06,812

Fiscal Deficit % Of GDP 3.5 9.5 6.8

sectors and create jobs. “The focusof the Budget is on the expenditureside rather than the tax part, and this,in turn, will have a multiplier effect oncreating more jobs,” stresses CareRatings Chief Economist MadanSabnavis.

The over Rs 100-lakh crore Na-tional Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP)has got a big boost with Rs 1.10 lakhcrore for expansion of Indian Rail-ways and Rs 1.18 lakh crore for scal-ing up road networks across the coun-try. Moreover, there is also a provi-sion of Rs 40,000 crore for upgradingrural infrastructure.

Of the Rs 1.10 lakh crore allocatedfor Indian Railways, a lion’s share ofRs 1.07 lakh crore is reserved forcapex. The national transporter is ex-pected to commission the prestigiousEastern Dedicated Freight Corridor(EDFC) and Western DedicatedFreight Corridor (WDFC) by June2022. The finance minister has re-vealed that the government wouldmonetise the two freight corridors indue course to shore up more funds.

Besides, Ms Sitharaman has alsoadded that Indian Railways wouldsoon take up future dedicated freightcorridor projects – such as East CoastCorridor from Kharagpur toVijayawada, East-West Corridor fromBhusawal to Kharagpur to Dankuni

COVER STORY


and North-South Corridor from Itarsito Vijayawada – to spur economic andindustrial growth across those regions.

At Rs 1.18 lakh crore, the Ministryof Road Transport and Highways hasgot the highest-ever allocation, ac-cording to the finance minister. Be-sides, of course, poll-bound WestBengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu andKerala have got highway projectsworth over Rs 2.27 lakh crore. The fi-nance minister has revealed that 8,500km of road projects and an additional11,000 km of national highway corri-dors will be awarded by March 2022.

There is something in the Budgetfor the real estate sector, especiallyaffordable housing. The time limit forbenefits for both home buyers (addi-tional deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh peryear from Income Tax) and develop-ers or builders of affordable houses(tax holiday) has been extended byanother year to March 31, 2022.

Textile and automobile – the othertwo job-generating sectors apart fromreal estate are set to push up employ-

ment – have got the attention of theUnion Budget. Mega Investment Tex-tile Parks (MITRA), in addition to theProduction-Linked Incentive (PLI)Scheme, is set to provide a majorthrust for the textile industry. TheMITRA scheme entails setting up ofseven textile parks over three years.The scheme will create world-classinfrastructure with plug-and-play fa-cilities and make the Indian textile in-dustry globally competitive.

The finance minister has unveiledthe much-awaited Voluntary VehicleScrapping Policy to phase out old andpolluting vehicles. Under the policy,which is likely to drive growth of theautomobile sector, personal vehicleswould undergo fitness test after 20years, while commercial vehicleswould require it after completion of15 years.

The policy is expected to boostsales of automobiles, which have beensagging over the past few quarters.However, the auto industry has wel-comed the scheme with caution. “Wehope that there is a deliberateincentivisation of scrapping. The in-centive has to be strong enough tobe a tipping point for a person to re-place his vehicle. A scrapping policywithout positive incentives will re-main only on paper,” notes VipinSondhi, the vice-president of Societyof Indian Automobile Manufacturers(SIAM).

Meanwhile, steel-user industries,such as automobile, construction andengineering goods, have welcomedthe Budget proposal to slash CustomsDuty on steel products to 7.5 from 12.5per cent and exempt steel scrap fromthe Customs Duty. The Budget hasalso revoked Anti-Dumping Duty andCountervailing Duty on certain steelproducts, making their importscheaper. The measure is particularlyexpected to provide relief to metal re-cyclers, which are mostly micro, smalland medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The cut in the duty comes in thebackdrop of an unprecedented rise in

Many provisions in the Budget aredesigned to relax compliancenorms and improve ease of doingbusiness.

“The focus of theBudget is on theexpenditure siderather than thetax part, andthis, in turn, will

have a multiplier effect oncreating more jobs.”

MADAN SABNAVISChief Economist, Care Ratings

Rs 1.10 lakh crore for several projects of Indian Railways

Three new rail freight corridors – East Coast Corridor, East-WestCorridor and North-South Corridor – on the cards

Rs 1.18 lakh crore for scaling up road networks across the country

Over Rs 2.27 lakh crore highway projects in the works in poll-boundWest Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala

8,500 km of road projects and an additional 11,000 km of nationalhighway corridors to be awarded by March 2022

Provision of Rs 40,000 crore for upgrading rural infrastructure

Seven ports to be managed by private partners under public-privatepartnership model in FY22

Infrastructure: A Big Push

The huge jump in capex atRs 5.54 lakh crore is set toprovide a major leg-up forcement, steel and other coresectors, spur demand and helpincrease generation of jobs.


prices of steel, which has put manyindustries, especially MSMEs, in aspot. “Slashing Customs Duty uni-formly to 7.5 per cent on key iron andsteel items, along with Customs Dutyexemption on steel scrap up to March2022, is a big positive. It is a greatmove for Atmanirbhar Bharat and forthe MSMEs which had been hit hardby an unprecedented increase inprices in recent months,” points outMahesh Desai, the chairman of Engi-neering Export Promotion Council ofIndia (EEPC).

A major portion of path-breakingreforms revolves around the bankingand finance segment. The idea of abad bank in the form of an ARC or anAMC is quite significant, coming asit does in the wake of major concernsover the growing problem of NPAs inthe banking sector, which is expectedto more than double to 14.8 per centby September 2021 from 7.5 per centin September 2020.

The specifics of the proposedARC or AMC are yet to be disclosed.But experts opine that the ARC couldeither be funded privately or publiclyor set up by banks themselves. TheARC would take up all the NPAs ofbanks and NBFCs and perhaps issuesecurity receipts (SRs) and cash at adiscounted value of the loans to thebanks concerned. The money for buy-ing up the NPAs could be raised bythe ARC from the market. The ARCwould then recover the loans, perhapswith deep haircuts, and transfer therecovered amount to the banks aftercharging a fee.

The ARC model would clean up thebanks’ books and help in recoveringNPAs. “If consolidation of impairedassets takes place in the ARC, theimpaired assets will fetch better valueand take lesser time to be recovered.An attempt is being made by the gov-ernment to ensure that the capital isbeing put to optimum use,” stressesState Bank of India (SBI) ChairmanDinesh Kumar Khara.

A provision to set up a DFI ad-dresses the long-term funding prob-

A bad bank in the form of an ARC or an AMC to take on all the NPAsof banks and NBFCs and recover the bad debts

Provision of Rs 20,000 crore to set up a DFI to addresse long-termfunding problem of infrastructure projects

Rs 20,000 crore allocated for recapitalisation of PSBs

FDI limit in insurance sector raised from 49 to 74 per cent

Privatising two PSBs and a State-owned general insurancecompany

Banking & Finance: Cleaning Up

The ideas of a bad bank, DFIand privatisation of two PSBsand a State-owned generalinsurer are bold, reformist,challenging and require amasterstroke by thegovernment to realise them.

The Budget tries to cut through the fog of despair that has engulfed theeconomy by focusing on huge public spending.

“I had oneexpectation fromthis Budget thatwe should bevery liberal interms of the

targeted fiscal deficit. That box isnow ticked.”

ANAND MAHINDRAChairman, Mahindra Group

“If consolidationof impairedassets takesplace in theARC, theimpaired assets

will fetch better value and takelesser time to be recovered.”

DINESH KUMAR KHARAChairman, SBI

COVER STORY


push is a rather bold move, consider-ing the stiff opposition toprivatisation across the political spec-trum. Ms Sitharaman has, in fact,added that the government is think-ing of keeping a few public sector un-dertakings (PSUs) in around four orfive nationally-strategic sectors andprivatising all the other PSUs in othersectors. This move is a good one toraise resources and improve competi-tion across sectors but may be easiersaid than done.

A lot has been done in the UnionBudget to relax compliance norms andimprove ease of doing business(EoDB). The finance minister has fur-ther eased provisions related to set-ting up of one-person companies(OPCs), proposed to revise definitionof small companies under the Compa-nies Act, 2013 and promiseddecriminalisation of the Limited Liabil-ity Partnership (LLP) Act. Dedicatinga separate portion of her Union Bud-get speech to company matters,Ms Sitharaman has added that MCA21 – the portal used for submittingvarious documents by companies inmeeting various compliance require-ments – will be driven by dataanalytics, artificial intelligence and

Extension of tax incentives for affordable home buyers and developers byanother year is set to pep up realty sector.

“The Budgetdoes notadequatelyaddressconcerns overinequitablegrowth, which

has been a worry across theglobe due to the pandemic.There has been no specificsupport for sectors stressed dueto the pandemic.”

ABHEEK BARUAChief Economist, HDFC Bank

Increase in agriculture credit target to Rs 16.5 lakh crore in FY22

Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess on certain items to fund farm sector infrastructure

Rs 900 crore allotted to fund infrastructure development across APMCs

Allocation to Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare at Rs 1,23,017 crore in FY22,down by over Rs 10,000 crore compared with FY21 BE of Rs 1,34,399 crore

Provision for PM-KISAN cut by Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 65,000 crore in FY22

Agriculture: An Unkind Cut

The cut in allocation for someschemes appears to send awrong signal at a time whenfarmers are staging a long-drawn protest against thegovernment’s new farm laws atthe borders of the nationalcapital.

lem of infrastructure projects.Ms Sitharaman has proposed to setup a Rs 20,000-crore DFI with a viewto mobilise up to Rs 5,00,000 crorefrom the market and thus fund thecapital-starved infrastructure sector.Besides, Rs 20,000 crore has been al-located for recapitalisation of publicsector banks (PSBs).

The other major provisions are in-creasing the foreign direct investment(FDI) limit in the insurance sector from49 to 74 per cent and privatising twoPSBs and a State-owned general in-surance company. The privatisation


machine learning features in the nextfinancial year.

Smart executionThe finance minister’s expenditureBudget has come in for praise fromalmost all quarters. The big spendingtarget is certainly the need of the hourto take the economy out of crisis. Butthe big question is: Where and howwill the government find funds tospend?

It would not make sense amid thecurrent economic contraction to relyon tax receipts in a big way.Ms Sitharaman too has intelligentlyprojected lower tax revenue for FY22.So, the obvious solution is marketborrowing and non-debt capital re-ceipts, such as revenue from disin-vestment and other sources.

The Union Budget has targeteddisinvestment proceeds at Rs 1,75,000crore – including privatisation of twopublic-sector banks and a State-owned general insurer – for FY22,much lower than the FY21 target ofRs 2,10,000 crore. But the governmenthas revised the FY21 disinvestmenttarget sharply downwards to Rs 32,000crore and has mopped up a minus-cule Rs 19,499 crore in the ongoingfinancial year (FY21) so far.

So, the FY22 stake sale target toois quite ambitious. However, the di-vestment line-up of this year – includ-ing stake sale of BPCL, CONCOR andSCI in addition to the long-awaiteddivestment of LIC – have been car-ried over to FY22. The governmentwill have to be proactive to reach theFY22 stake sale target. The proposedprivatisation of two PSBs and a pub-lic sector general insurer is also quitechallenging. The tough task ahead,in fact, only becomes too evident, ifone were to look at the numeroushurdles confronted by the strategicsale of Air India.

The Union Budget also looks atraising funds by leasing out infra-structure projects, like roads, railwaylines and airports, and selling landand other assets owned by the gov-

The MITRA scheme, with world-class infrastructure and plug-and-playfacilities, is aimed at making Indian textile industry globally competitive.

“SlashingCustoms Dutyuniformly to 7.5per cent on keyiron and steelitems, along with

Customs Duty exemption onsteel scrap, is a great move forAtmanirbhar Bharat and for theMSMEs.”

MAHESH DESAIChairman, EEPC

“The incentivehas to be strongenough to be atipping point fora person toreplace his

vehicle. A scrapping policywithout positive incentives willremain only on paper.”

VIPIN SONDHI, V-P, SIAM

ernment. The government has notprovided an estimate of money to beraised through monetisation of assets.However, this process is, in all prob-abilities, likely to be a long-drawn oneand may not fetch the governmentfunds when it needs the most.

Meanwhile, the proposed bad bankis a good idea but a very big chal-lenge to realise. It would require amasterstroke from the government to

get the bad bank in the form of anARC or an AMC up and running.Many experts caution that the badbank’s structure and functions shouldbe carefully designed, and that itshould be staffed by professionals topull off the daunting task of recover-ing the NPAs swiftly and diligently.

“The Budget does not adequatelyaddress concerns over inequitablegrowth, which has been a worry acrossthe globe due to the pandemic. Therehas been no specific support for sec-tors stressed due to the pandemic, likethe hospitality sector,” opines HDFCBank’s Chief Economist AbheekBarua. In fact, Mr Barua’s concern isechoed by many analysts and indus-trialists.

However, it would indeed havebeen more than daunting for the fi-nance minister to design sector-spe-cific provisions in her recent Budget,given the large number of sectors indistress and severe funds crunch. So,Ms Sitharaman perhaps chose to scaleup public spending and thus revivecore industries, spur demand and gen-erate jobs. The key to public spend-ing, of course, is the timely availabil-ity of funds, which will need effectiveimplementation of the big ideas. Withthe Budget done and dusted, it is nowtime to put the big ideas to work ef-fectively and efficiently.

MANAGEMENT MANTRA


Amidst a pandemic that caughteveryone off guard, JaideepMahajan, began his entrepre-

neurial journey with launch of SVISH,which claims to be the first made-in-India range of sanitisation products.The year 2020 forced everybody inthis world to relook at life. Work fromhome became the new mantra.Sanitise and disinfect became the newkeywords.

For Mr Mahajan, who has spent22 years of his life in advertising, anadversity like COVID-19 provided anopportunity to start anew as an en-trepreneur. Mr Mahajan was on a sab-batical and had recently relocated toCanada with his family. On a two-weekholiday to Delhi, he got caught in thelockdown. Bored and alone, hecounted the days when borderswould open up. But then boredombecame the mother of creativity, anda new business idea cropped up inhis mind.

As Mr Mahajan went from day today, dodging the virus with varioussanitisers and disinfectants, herealised that if one had to apply some-thing to one’s skin 10 to 12 times aday, it needed to be more personalised,eco-friendly and something thatwould satisfy one’s taste for aesthet-ics. The market was flooded withsanitisers, but they were either toooily or too sticky or too smelly. Notto mention the not-too-impressivepackaging.

The advertising experience in himgot him to spot an opportunity inthese tough times. Getting togetherwith a bunch of like-minded people,Mr Mahajan co-founded SVISH,which is based out of Gurugram,Haryana. His eye for design and hisinnate respect for the environmenthelped him conceptualise, craft and

“Stay Relevant”

“There is no secret to mysuccess as such. Youwork hard, keep yourfocus, be consistent andhope to lead to somethingpositive.”

JAIDEEP MAHAJAN, Co-Founder & CMO, SVISH

market a brand of sanitisers that is notonly gentle and appealing to the skinbut also the environment. The designand packaging of SVISH bear his sig-nature class and genius.

Before, COVID-19 and beforeSVISH happened, Mr Mahajan wasthe national creative head ofRediffusion, India’s prominent, inde-pendent ad agency. He has alsoworked with reputed advertising com-panies, such as Leo Burnett, McCannWorldgroup, Lintas, JWT and Con-tract Advertising, to name a few.

In his career spanning over two de-cades, Mr Mahajan has representedseveral brands – such as Bharti Airtel,Tata Sons, Tata Trust, Taj Hotels,Volvo Cars, Panasonic, Pizza Hut,Amway, Four Square, Moods, Sonyand many more iconic brands. His cali-bre for out-of-the-box thinking hasalso won him numerous awards at topadvertising conventions.

No wonder, Mr Mahajan has takenon the role of the chief marketing of-ficer (CMO) at SVISH. He has put inall his experience and expertise of ad-vertising to build the new brand as aleading, sanitiser of the country. Inan engaging conversation withSharmila Chand, Mr Mahajan speaksabout his management principles andpractices that have helped him excelin his career.

Five management mantrasaccording to you

Put in your best and encourageothers to do the same.

Do the right things at the right time.Teamwork wins. Collaboration is

the key.People first, especially in these

timesMistakes are lessons you needed

to learn.


Who is your sounding board?My wife is my biggest critic and alsomy ardent supporter.

Are there any favourite books?I am not much of a reader. I am a vi-sual person, and I learn by keepingmy eyes open to the world around me.

What is your fitness regime?How do you keep yourself fit?I am careful about my health, but Ilike to keep it simple. I try to eat asclean and healthy as possible, and Itry not to miss my morning walks.

Lastly, what are your five man-tras for success in business?

Do not bullshit.Show up every time.Communicate clearly.Follow your gut.Stay relevant.

What message would you liketo give to youngsters?There is no shortcut to success.

Do you play any gamewhich helps you in yourwork?I play a few games online totake my mind off work, butnothing too strategic. Ithelps me relax. The GoogleChrome Dino game whenyou are offline is so simpleand yet so addictive.

Please share with usthe turning point in yourlife related to yourcareer.I would have to say thatworking with late YasminAhmed during my stint atLeo Burnett Kuala Lumpurwas a turning point in mylife. She taught me that itwas okay to be yourself andthat authenticity leads to thebest form of creativity. If youdon’t feel it, don’t do it.

What is the secret ofyour success?There is no secret as such. You workhard, keep your focus, be consistentand hope to lead to somethingpositive.

What is your philosophy ofwork?I am a practical man. I don’t compro-mise, and I don’t cut corners. Work isworship for me.

Is there any particular personyou admire who has inspiredyou?Once again, it is Yasmin Ahmad. Shewas brilliant and was very grounded.Her work had the power to move theaudience emotionally because what-ever she created was from the heart.

What is the best adviceyou got?There are too many. Right from myparents who taught me the value ofmoney to my kid who thinks that Ishould be cool with the GenZ memesif I want to stay relevant, there havebeen some excellent advisers inmy life. Write to us at [email protected]

“Working with late YasminAhmed during my stint atLeo Burnett Kuala Lumpurwas a turning point in mylife. She taught me that itwas okay to be yourselfand that authenticity leadsto the best form ofcreativity. If you don’t feelit, don’t do it.”

GLOBAL WRAP-UP

Yellen first womanTreasury SecretaryThe US Senate has votedoverwhelmingly to confirmeconomist Janet Yellen as USTreasury Secretary. Analystsnote that Ms Yellen, theformer chairperson of the USFederal Reserve, will requireevery ounce of her vastexperience to pilot theeconomy through a dauntingconfluence of challenges.How Ms Yellen, the firstwoman US TreasurySecretary, manages theeconomic recovery fromCOVID-19, the financialrisks from climate change andinequality will determine thechances of American prosper-ity over the coming decades.

Amon new CEOof QualcommQualcomm, the world’sbiggest supplier of mobilephone chips, has named itspresident and chip divisionhead, Cristiano Amon, as itsnew chief executive officer.Mr Amon, who has beenwith the San Diego-basedcompany since 1995 andbecame its president in 2018,will replace outgoing CEOSteven Mollenkopf on June30. In recent years,Mr Amon has overseen thecompany’s chip division,which supplies processors tomost Android phones. Astrong proponent of 5G,Mr Amon has ledQualcomm’s push to put 5Gchips into low- and mid-priced handsets.

Alibaba to shut downXiami Music appThe Alibaba Group will closeits music streaming platform,Xiami Music, on February 5.The decision marks a stepback from Alibaba’sambitions to push intoChina’s entertainmentindustry. Alibaba hadacquired the music service in2013 and invested millions of

Debenhams to shut all storesUK departmentstore chainDebenhams willshut all its outletswith loss ofaround 12,000jobs, FRP Advi-sory, the admin-

istrators for the collapsed group, has said. Debenhams willsee its brand live on however after British online fashiongroup Boohoo bought the group’s intellectual property as-sets. The department store chain collapsed last December,having struggled to adapt from a bricks-and-mortar busi-ness long before the Coronavirus pandemic forced shop-pers online. Its stores will reopen following the lifting ofthe UK lockdown to liquidate stock. Post-stock liquida-tion, Boohoo will start online sales of products under theDebenhams brand.

Centene to buy Magellan for $2.2 bnHealth insurerCentene is buyingMagellan Healthin a $2.2-billiondeal, offering $95per share in cash,both the compa-nies have said in a

statement. Magellan Health provides mental health servicesto patients with serious mental illness, autism and opioidand substance use. The move by Centene to expand mentalhealth support comes as more than two out of five Ameri-cans are struggling with mental or behavioural health issuesassociated with COVID-19. The deal, which includes debt,will add 2 million pharmacy-benefit members and 16 mil-lion medical pharmacy members to Centene’s portfolio.

NYSE’s flip-flop on delisting Chinese cosNew York StockExchange (NYSE)recently said thatit would delistthree Chinesetelecom compa-nies – China Mo-bile, China

Telecom Corp and China Unicom Hong Kong – doing a U-turn on the matter within days. The stock exchange hadoriginally announced plans to delist the three Chinese com-panies in accordance with the former Trumpadministration’s order, barring Chinese companies withdeemed military ties from US’ bourses. But the US Trea-sury later decided to keep the companies listed, leading toNYSE reversing its decision of delisting the companies.

yuan to compete in China’sonline music market,dominated by Tencent.Alibaba’s efforts howeverhave not paid off, and theapp currently only has 2 percent of China’s musicstreaming market, behindKuGou Music, QQ Music,KuWo and NetEase CloudMusic, according to Beijing-headquartered data intelli-gence company TalkingData.

Amerisource to buyWalgreens’ unitUS drug wholesalerAmerisourceBergen Corp willbe buying Walgreens BootsAlliance’s distributionbusiness, AllianceHealthcare, for $6.5 billion toexpand in Europe as well asto compete better in the UShealthcare sector. The dealwill help Walgreens focusmore on core pharmacy unitand its retail business, wheresales have tanked due toCOVID-19, resulting in anearly 30 per cent slump inshares in 2020.AmerisourceBergen will getaccess to Alliance Healthcare,one of the largest distributorsin Europe that has weatheredthe impact of the globalhealth crisis.

Geely, Foxconn tie upfor EV productionTaiwan’s Foxconn andChinese auto-maker ZhejiangGeely Holding Group will bepartnering to providecontract manufacturing forauto-makers. Both thecompanies will each hold 50per cent of a venture that willalso provide consultingservices on electric vehicle(EV) technologies to auto-makers. This partnershipmarks the latest move byFoxconn, a major Applesupplier, into automobilesafter a tie-up with Chineseelectric car startup Bytonand comes amid reports thatApple is likely to launch a



Boeing, US in $2.5-bn settlement dealBoeing will paymore than $2.5billion in fines andcompensation af-ter reaching asettlement withthe US Depart-ment of Justiceover two plane crashes that killed a total of 346 people andled to grounding of its 737 MAX jetliner. Boeing has saidthat it will take a $743.6-million charge against its fourth-quarter 2020 earnings to reflect the deferred prosecutionagreement, a form of corporate plea bargain. The JusticeDepartment deal caps a 21-month investigation into thedesign and development of the 737 MAX following thetwo crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in 2018 and 2019respectively.

Steris to snap up Cantel for $3.6 bnMedical equip-ment-maker Sterisis buying rivalCantel MedicalCorp for about$3.6 billion. Thecash-and-stockdeal will helpSteris expand into dental care and add endoscopy equip-ment to its products, Steris has said in a statement. NewJersey, US-based Cantel produces infection preventionequipment, including filtration, sterilisation products anddisposable products, used in endoscopy procedures forhospitals and dental clinics. The transaction is expected toclose by the end of Steris’ first quarter of 2022. Steris islegally based in Dublin, Ireland, though its operational head-quarters is in Mentor, Ohio in the US.

GM unveils futuristic flying CadillacGeneral Motors(GM) has pre-sented a futuris-tic, flyingCadillac, a self-driving vehiclewhich takes offand lands verti-cally and carries passengers above the streets and throughthe air. A senior GM executive described the concept as“reimagining the future of personal transportation”. Thesingle-passenger Cadillac – technically, a vertical take-offand landing drone – will be able to travel from urban roof-top to urban rooftop at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. It isfully autonomous and all-electric, with a 90-kw motor, aGM Ultium battery pack and an ultra-lightweight bodywith four pairs of rotors.

self-driving electric car. ForGeely, the partnership willallow it to share its first EV-focused platform with otherauto-makers.

Oil may hit $60by mid-year: UBSUBS has raised its forecastfor Brent oil prices to $60per barrel by mid-year. Thisfollows Saudi Arabia’ssurprise unilateral productioncut and expectations of asharp recovery in demand inthe second quarter of 2021on vaccine rollouts. WithSaudi Arabia’s move,OPEC’s production increaseof 0.5 million bpd forJanuary is reversed in full,which will result in a tighteroil market, analysts at theSwiss bank have written in anote. But if demand falls to alesser extent, the Saudi movewould help accelerate inreducing oil inventories.

Prison term forSamsung heirBillionaire Samsung heir LeeJae-yong has been sent backto prison after a SouthKorean court sentenced himto two-and-a-half years overhis involvement in a 2016corruption scandal. The issuehad spurred massive streetprotests and ousted SouthKorea’s then-president, ParkGeun-hye. In a retrial, theSeoul High Court had foundMr Lee guilty of bribingMs Geun-hye and her closeconfidante to win govern-ment support for a 2015merger between two Samsungaffiliates that helpedstrengthen his control overthe country’s largestbusiness group.

Citrix Systems to buyWrike for $2.25 bnCitrix Systems will beacquiring Wrike, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) collabora-tive work managementplatform, for $2.25 billion incash. Citrix provides a digital

work platform, from whichcompanies can deliverunified, secure and reliableaccess to the systems,information and tools peopleneed to get work donewherever they may beworking. With the addition ofWrike’s offerings, Citrix willexpand its platform toinclude new, collaborativework management capabili-ties that enable companies tosimplify work execution andboost employee effective-ness. Together, Citrix andWrike will serve over400,000 customers across140 countries.

China’s e-paymentcos face tough normsChina has proposed measuresto curb market concentrationin its online payment market.This move potentially deals amajor blow to financialtechnology giant Ant Groupand its biggest rival, TencentHoldings. The central bankhas said that any non-bankpayment company with halfof the market in onlinetransactions or two entitieswith a combined two-thirdsshare could be subject toanti-trust probes, accordingto draft rules released by thePeople’s Bank of China. If amonopoly is confirmed, thecentral bank can suggest thegovernment to imposerestrictive measures,including breaking up theentity by its business type.

TV show host LarryKing no moreLarry King, a long-time CNNhost who became an iconthrough his interviews, hasdied. He was 87. Mr Kinghosted Larry King Live onCNN for over 25 years,interviewing presidentialcandidates, celebrities,athletes, movie stars andeveryday people. He retiredin 2010 after taping more than6,000 episodes of the show.

READERS' LOUNGE

Future Of WorkIn a visionary account, an Oxford economist dwells upon how technology willtransform the world of work and what should be done about it.

From mechanical looms to the combustion engine tothe first computers, new technologies have alwaysprovoked panic about workers being replaced by

machines. For centuries, such fears have been misplaced,and many economists maintainthat they remain so today. Butas author Daniel Susskinddemonstrates, this time reallyis different. Breakthroughs inartificial intelligence (AI) meanthat all kinds of jobs are in-creasingly at risk.

Drawing on almost a decadeof research in the field,Mr Susskind argues that ma-chines no longer need to thinklike us in order to outperformus, as was once widely be-lieved. As a result, more andmore tasks that used to be far

AuthorDANIEL SUSSKINDPublisherMETROPOLITAN BOOKSPages: 320Price: Rs 1,919

A WORLDWITHOUT WORK

Premji UnveiledFor over five decades, Azim Hasham Premji has been

one of the trailblazers of India Inc. Taking over hisfamily business of vegetable oils at the young age of 21after the untimely demise of his father, he built one ofIndia’s most successful software companies along with amulti-billion-dollar conglomerate. As of 2019, he was thetenth richest person in India, with an estimated net worthof $7.2 billion.

Yet, the one facet of the man which has overshadowedeven his business achievements is his altruism. His com-mitment to the Azim Premji Foundation, a non-profitorganisation focused on education, totals around $21 bil-lion, making him one of the world’s top philanthropists.

This book, the first authorita-tive biography of the icon,shows how Mr Premji is a phi-lanthropist at heart and busi-nessman by choice.

Based on interviews withhundreds of current and pastWipro executives, who have,over the years, worked closelywith him, as well as with com-petitors, analysts, family friendsand industry associates, this isa journalists’ account of MrPremji the man, the businessmanand the philanthropist.

AuthorsSUNDEEP KHANNA

& VARUN SOODPublisher

HARPERCOLLINSPUBLISHERS INDIA

Pages: 241Price: Rs 699

AZIM PREMJI

beyond the capability of computers – from diagnosingillnesses to drafting legal contracts, from writing newsreports to composing music – are coming within their reach.The threat of technological unemployment is now real.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, the authoremphasises. Technological progress could bring aboutunprecedented prosperity, solving one of humanity’s old-est problems: How to make sure that everyone has enoughto live on. The challenges will be to distribute this pros-perity fairly, to constrainthe burgeoning powerof Big Tech and to pro-vide meaning in a worldwhere work is no longerthe centre of our lives.Perceptive, pragmaticand ultimately hopeful,this book shows the wayhow the future of workwill unfold.

About the authorDaniel Susskind is co-author of The Future of the Professions, named as one of the best books of the year by the FinancialTimes, the New Scientist and the Times Literary Supplement. He is a fellow in economics at Balliol College, Oxford.

About the authorsSundeep Khanna is a regular columnist for Money Control as well as The Morning Context, a subscription-only businessnews outlet. Varun Sood is a Bengaluru-based technology journalist. In the past 14 years, he has worked with a number ofpublications.



The Tata Way

AuthorARUN MAIRAPublisherPENGUIN VIKINGPages: 272Price: Rs 499

THE LEARNINGFACTORY

About the authorArun Maira is a thought leader and author of several bookson leadership, institutional transformation and the future ofIndia. He was a member of the erstwhile PlanningCommission from 2009 to 2014. Prior to that, he was withthe Tata Group in India and abroad for 25 years, consultedin the USA for ten years with Arthur D Little Inc and was thechairman of the Boston Consulting Group, India.

This is a book full of anecdotal stories that offer differ-ent teachings and lessons for students, business pro-

fessionals as well as those curious about the Tata way ofbusiness. This first-hand narration of interactions and in-cidents with the Tata Group leaders gives a new insightinto the group’s leadership and strategy and helps betterunderstand its value-driven business.

Founded in 1868 by Jamshetji Tata, the Tata Groupsymbolises the great Indianstory of hope, growth andphenomenal success. Thegroup played the role of a na-tion-builder in post-indepen-dence India. Its companieswere headed by legendarychairpersons, all of whomfirmly believed in the impor-tance of continuously learn-ing and growing.

In this book, author ArunMaira narrates people-centricepisodes that bring alive thevalues of the Tata Group, stan-dards that combine the high-velocity practices as well as

the old-fashioned principles that make the Tata Group thegiant it is today. With insightful stories of conduct thatare as practically implementable as they are inspiring, thisis a blueprint for the individual as well as the business

that seeks success throughits community of leaders,workers and thinkers.

What can we learn fromthe individual stories thatcome together to form thisinspiring narrative? Likeall great successes, this isnot one story – it is manyaccounts that are so pow-erful that the whole is somuch greater than the sumof all its parts.

UnravellingWhite-Collar Crimes

AuthorSIBICHEN K MATHEW

PublisherSAGE PUBLICATIONS

INDIAPages: 400

Price: Rs 339

YOU JUST GOTCHEATED

About the authorSibichen K Mathew is a commissioner of Income Taxin the Indian Revenue Service. He is a passionateresearcher, blogger, TEDx speaker and author ofbestselling books.

Most of us have been victims of frauds and re-lated crimes at some point or the other in our

lives. We may not have answers to pertinent ques-tions such as: Who is responsible for the fraud com-mitted? Why do people commit white-collar crimes?What makes us vulnerable to such crimes? Who couldhave prevented thecrime? What could indi-viduals and entities do toprevent the crime in fu-ture, and what actionshould we take to recoverthe losses? Unlike streetcrimes, where victims areclearly identified and theirlosses and concerns aresuitably recorded and at-tended to, the victims ofwhite-collar crimes arenot given proper atten-tion, and many times,such crimes are consid-ered to be victimless.

This book attempts toexamine the above questions by analysing varioustypes of white-collar crimes, drawing examples of suchcrimes that have happened across the world. As scamsand frauds per-petuate, there isa need for a sys-tematic analysisof the pattern,the impact andthe preventivesteps. The in-sights given inthe book wouldbe helpful forprofessionals aswell as commoncitizens.

STAR TALK

CANCER

ARIES Mar 21-Apr 20

You may come across various chances to earnprofit apart from making a major investment inland or property. But do be legally careful whenmaking the final payment along with being

completely clear in your conversation with the dealingparty. This time may also provide you with a lot of wealthand monetary gains from family as well as friends. How-ever, do keep an expenditure plan in the time of need. Asfar as relationships are concerned, you can expect somedrastic and sudden changes, cautions Ganesha.

Jun 22-Jul 22

During the month, transit of Jupiter may helpyou, and you would attain good growth at theworkplace. You are likely to get some goodopportunities to showcase your abilities. This

will be the month to make a solid financial plan and imple-ment it in a step-wise manner. Mercury’s aspect indicatesthat your actions during the middle of this month are likelyto determine your financial status for this month. Hereyour wrong or hasty judgments may lead to problems.Despite good income flow, you may have some pressureposition in money matters during the latter part of the month.

You can expect a busy month ahead. You mayexperience some stress with all work pressureand unforeseen complications. Consequently,you may have to be well prepared for a jour-

ney. This month can give you a hard time to get a loan.Besides, ensure that all tax-related aspects are clear toavoid issues pertaining to legal matters. Businesspeoplemay receive some legal benefits or support from the gov-ernment, notes Ganesha.

TAURUS Apr 21-May 21

Eccentricity that you carry with you may makepeople laugh at you. But this same state mayprovide you with a lot of benefits. You will bethe centre of attention in get-togethers and

parties. You may also experience some stress and strainbecause of how your close relatives may behave. How-ever, it is crucial to maintain the calmness and peace re-quired while dealing with such situations. The best partabout this period is that you will be at your best mentallyas well as physically, adds Ganesha.

May 22-Jun 21GEMINI

You may experience a very good start in thebeginning of the month, making your waythrough the negativity and towards progress.So, become optimistic in your approach and

channel your energy in the right direction. The influenceof Mars may provide you a good opportunity in the middleof the month as well, which can help you increase yourincome. However, there can be some uncertainties becauseof the transiting Mercury, which may create some commu-nication gaps in your life. But remember that this phase istemporary and that you may receive ample chances to bemore stable monetarily.

LEO Jul 23-Aug 23

Aug 24-Sep 23

It is safe to say that you may get a lot of op-portunities to grow during the month. It isalso crucial for you to get out of your comfortzone to make sure that you are heading in the

right direction. Even though you may feel quite optimisticas far as your career is concerned, influence of Saturn andJupiter may test you and your patience in times to come.Financially, the planetary combinations will be in yourfavour. Transiting Mercury indicates that you may needto avoid starting a new project or taking decisions impul-sively, points out Ganesha.

VIRGO

It is crucial to realise that the more efforts youput to energise your mind via meditation andcaring, the better the results will be. This isalso a time when you will be more creative and

inventive, which will make you enjoy things more. Be-sides, money or resources spring up for entertainment.Well, you also like to have fun with friends and discoveryourself in the process of taking risks. Some people mayalso find an interest to invest money in real estate andcars apart from being able to get the required credit facilityfor the same.

LIBRA Sep 24-Oct 23

The start of the month may seem a little slow,but it will pick up pace quickly and give yousome positivity. You may find it easier to buildnew alliances, especially while dealing with

business partners and activities pertaining to them. It isalso a good time to invest in property. Although, you mayhave to make sure that you do not fall for any credit facil-ity that can cause trouble and problems later. Some peoplemay come across new roles and responsibilities at workthat can be physically and mentally demanding. You willtry to maintain good health.

SCORPIO Oct 24-Nov 22



Gold Prices Will ContinueTo Grow Steadily

Gold, the royal, yellow metal, has attracted peoplesince time immemorial. It has been important to

people across the world, cutting across all barriersand divisions. Gold forms a very significant commod-ity in the prevailing financial world.

In India, gold is not just an investment option butalso a lucky commodity during auspicious occasions.Astrologically, the Sun’s movement is quite importantfor ups and downs in the gold market. And if we talkabout India’s horoscope, it has a Taurus ascendant inthe horoscope. And the Sun is in conjunction withfour other planets. With the price of gold rising,Ganesha presents the future of gold in months to come.

Astrological analysisPrices of gold will be moving around the surface in

Continuing its forward movement, there may besome minor phases when gold price may go a bitdown.

CAPRICORN Dec 22-Jan 20

Things may seem a little tough this month, asthe first phase of the sade sati has begun.Therefore, you may witness its effects duringthis month. Investing money in real estate

should be avoided due to the retrogression of the planetof Venus. You may also see an irregular flow of income,which is why delaying any work of renovation in the houseis a good plan for now. The good news is that you mayalso get some good work opportunities, although oneshould be careful if he or she is planning to enter a newventure or partnership.

The month may seem to be quite average ini-tially, but you may witness rise of events astime goes by. In the beginning, the month maypose you with some challenging times, and

you may not be able to take any wise decisions. But gradu-ally, you may witness some progress in different areas ofyour life. You may feel happy among your family members.As far as commercial development is concerned, you willget optimistic results, especially in the second half of themonth. However, this month may not provide you with en-couraging outcomes when you travel for long-distance trips.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23-Dec 21

Transit of planet Venus will result in you try-ing to groom yourself and change your per-sonality for the better. You may need to payheed to your intuitive mind, as it can help you

get good monetary gains, and if you don’t, things can getpretty tricky. A proper planning will always help you keepa tab on your expenses, which is very important this month.Unplanned expenses pertaining to travelling can alsocause some trouble for you. Besides, there is a good chanceof you getting a job outside the country as well.Freelancing can give you good financial gains.

Feb 19-Mar 20

This month is all about spending valuable timewith yourself. You may have to deal with someunplanned work and responsibilities duringthis month. Thus, it is crucial to avoid com-

mitting to work that you may not be able to fulfil. A properplanning will help you get the desired results, and that toowithin the timeframe required. You may witness some dis-agreements and ego clashes with your business partner,which, in turn, will give you a lot of stress and strain.Thus, it is best to be more transparent about sharing in-formation. Do not be very aggressive in life.

AQUARIUS Jan 21-Feb 18

PISCES

the early days of 2021. This means that prices will bestable and largely static. There won’t be any fast orrapid fluctuations in prices. The growth will be there,but it will be gradual. At the same time, it won’t bevery slow either.

While gold will continue its forward movementtrend, there may be some minor phases when it maygo a bit down. But these downward fluctuations maybe too small and too short-lived. Thus, these down-ward fluctuations may not impact the sustained up-ward movement of gold price. These fluctuations maybe like exceptions and not the rule.

Besides, at times, the rise in prices may seem dulland boring. It may seem that there is nothing signifi-cant happening out there. However, it is here that in-vestors’ patience may be put to test. If an investor isready to hold on to the investments, facing allfluctuations and bad weather, he or she may get richdividends.

KNOWLEDGE ZONE


Soma Mondal has got off to an ex-ceptional start in the new year.

Ms Mondal, who until recently wasdirector (commercial) of Steel Author-ity of India (SAIL), has taken over aschairperson of one of the country’slargest steel-makers.

For Ms Mondal – who is originallyfrom Bhubaneswar, Odisha – the toppost of the New Delhi-headquarteredsteel producer is yet another achieve-ment. She becomes the first womanchief of the State-owned steel com-pany, replacing her predecessor, AnilKumar Chaudhary. Ms Mondal alsohappened to be the first woman di-rector of SAIL, when in 2017, she hadjoined the steel behemoth as commer-cial director.

A graduate in electrical engineer-ing from Odisha’s National Instituteof Technology (NIT), Rourkela, thenew SAIL chief has spent over 35years in the metal industry. After pass-ing out of NIT, she joined NALCO –one of the country’s largest, inte-grated aluminium producers – in 1984.

novel marketing strategies and playeda major role in the over Rs 62,500-croresteel-maker’s comprehensive turn-around plan. Since 2017, SAIL hasincreased its sales and expanded itsmarket reach progressively year onyear. In fact, SAIL achieved the best-ever sales volume consecutively forthree financial years from 2017-18 to2019-20. Besides, the growth momen-tum is still continuing despite chal-lenges posed by COVID-19.

Under her leadership, the companylaunched niche branded products, likeNEX for PF structural sections andSAIL SeQR for TMT bars. She set uptwo-tier distribution network for im-proving sales through retail channels.And Gaon Ki Ore workshops wereorganised in almost all States andUnion Territories to educate and tapthe vast potential of rural India.

Ms Mondal also reformed and re-structured SAIL’s marketingorganisation to meet evolving expec-tations of the challenging domesticmarket. She carved out three verticals

Stepping into a man’s world, she vis-ited plants, even worked on the shop-floors and finally rose to become com-mercial director of NALCO in 2014.Three years later, she joined SAIL ascommercial director.

At SAIL, Ms Mondal spearheaded

F A C T SF O R Y O U

POSITIVE PAY SYSTEM FOR CHEQUES

A new rule for cheque paymentshas come into effect from Janu-

ary 1 this year. Termed the PositivePay System For Cheques, this facilityis available for account-holders attheir discretion. Under the new sys-tem, re-confirmation of key details isneeded for payments beyondRs 50,000. Going forward, banks mayconsider making it mandatory in caseof cheques for amounts of Rs 5 lakhand above.

The new system was announcedby Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Gov-ernor Shaktikanta Das last August. Ithas been designed, keeping con-sumer safety in focus and for lower-ing cases of fraud and abuse with re-

through channels – like SMS, mobileapp, internet banking or ATM – cer-tain minimum details of that cheque –such as date, name of beneficiary orpayee, amount, etc – to the draweebank. These details are cross-checkedwith the presented cheque by ChequeTruncation System (CTS) – an onlineprocess of the RBI for faster clearingof cheques. Any discrepancy isflagged by the CTS to the drawee bankand the presenting bank, which wouldtake further measures.

National Payments Corporation ofIndia (NPCI) has developed the facil-ity of Positive Pay in the CTS. Thisfacility is made available to participantbanks. Banks, in turn, will enable ac-cess to the facility for all account-hold-ers issuing cheques for amounts ofRs 50,000 and above. This facility iscurrently available at the discretionof the account-holder. But banks mayconsider making it mandatory in case

spect to payment of cheque. The con-cept of Positive Pay System ForCheques involves a process of recon-firming key details of large-valuecheques.

Under this process, an issuer of acheque submits electronically

Positive Pay System is designed tolower cases of fraud and abuse ofcheque payment.

AT THE HELM

SOMA MONDAL

A Science Worth UnderstandingDadashri: To have divisiveness due todifference of opinion with someone and tocollide into a wall are one and the same;there is no difference between the two. Aperson bumps into a wall because he cannotsee, and divisiveness due to difference ofopinion also arises when one cannot see.He cannot see beyond (the situation). He isnot able to come up with a solution beyondthis, so divisiveness due to difference ofopinion arises. All these – anger, pride, deceitand greed – arise due to the inability to seewhat lies beyond! Shouldn’t we understandthis point? The fault is of the one who getshurt; is the wall really at fault? So everythingin this world is indeed a wall.

When we bump into a wall, we do not setout to establish who was right and who waswrong, do we? We do not go through thetrouble of fighting with it that, ‘I am right,’ dowe? In the same way, right now this (person)is indeed in the state of a wall. There is noneed whatsoever to prove to the person thatyou were right. You should consider anyone who collides to be a wall.Then if you set out to investigate where the door is, you will find the dooreven in the dark. If you move ahead while moving your hand like this,would you then not find the door? And you should make your escapefrom there. You should make it a rule not to clash with anyone whom youdo not want to get into clashes with.

This Is How to Live LifeDadashri: As it is, people do not know how to live at all. People do notknow the first thing about marriage, yet they get married without a choice!One does not know how to be a father, yet he becomes a father anyway.Now, one should live life in such a way that it makes the children happy.Everyone should decide in the morning: ‘Let’s agree on not getting intoclashes with anyone today.’ Show me what you gain from clashing. Whatbenefit do you gain?Questioner: We get hurt.

Dadashri: Not only do you get hurt, hurt not only arises through this clashright now, but your entire day gets ruined, and moreover, you will forgohuman birth in your next life. Human life form remains as long as thereis virtuousness. But if there is beastliness, if one keeps prodding others,keeps ramming his ‘horns’ into others, then would a human life form beattained again? Do cows and buffalos ram others with horns or do people?Questioner: People seem to do so more.

Dadashri: If a person does so more, he will then have to take birth in theanimal life form. So, there, he will have four legs instead of two and a tailin addition! Do you think life is easy there? Is there no suffering there?There is tremendous suffering. You will have to understand this. How canit go on in this way?

Spiritual Corner Avoid Clashes– sales, marketing and services – toprepare SAIL for better managementand marketing of enhanced volumesafter its modernisation and expansion.

Taking charge of SAIL,Ms Mondal said recently: “Our im-mediate focus is to improve the topline and the bottom line of the com-pany. We are charting out all strate-gies to improve value for all our stake-holders and make SAIL structurallystronger.” Undoubtedly, the newSAIL chief has her work cut out to putthe steel-maker on a fast-growth track.

Meanwhile, the domestic steel in-dustry is facing many challenges, in-cluding high input costs and unavail-ability of coking coal, among others.Besides, severe shortage of second-ary steel, owing to COVID-19 andlockdowns in the past, has hamperedthe steel industry badly. The metalindustry veteran in Ms Mondal has,in the meantime, hit the ground run-ning to take SAIL to the next level ofgrowth.

PUJYA DADASHRI

of cheques for amounts of Rs 5,00,000and above.

The RBI has said that only thosecheques that are compliant with thePositive Pay System’s instructionswill be accepted under the disputeresolution mechanism at the CTSgrids. The central bank has also addedthat banks will be free to implementsimilar arrangements for chequescleared and collected outside the CTS.

According to the RBI, 202 cases ofcheque frauds worth Rs 39 crore werereported in FY20 as against overallfrauds in the banking system of overRs 1.13 lakh crore during the sameperiod. Fraudulent transactionsthrough cheques are hence not a bigpart of the overall bank frauds in thecountry. Yet the Positive Pay Systemto tackle cheque frauds is a welcomemeasure in cleaning up the bankingsystem.

COMPILED BYDR NIRU MAA

For more information on Dadashri's spiritual science,log on to www.dadabhagwan.org. Also visit kids.dadabhagwan.org


To be continued...

HOT SEAT


How do you define yourself?Very focused, headstrong andconstantly obsessed about to-do lists

What is your philosophyof life?Work hard, work smart and setsmall goals along the way tohelp you achieve bigger ones.

What is your passion in life?I am really passionate aboutmakeup and making peoplelook and feel good aboutthemselves.

What is your managementmantra?If you look after your teammates and be more like theirfriend rather than being a boss,you are definitely going to bringout productivity in them.

A business leader youadmire the most...Elon Musk

Your kind of music...French and Jazz music andmusic of the ’80s and ’90s Write to us at [email protected]

Meet Bianca Louzado, one of the most highly- regarded celebrity makeup artists on thebeauty and fashion circuit today. Having

honed her skills for over a decade withinternationally-renowned makeup artists,Ms Louzado noticed a glaring gap in hygiene in useof beauty tools and makeup products. Thismotivated her to conceptualise the country’s first-ever, cosmetic-sanitising label, Code Beauty.The onset of COVID-19 has provided her label a bigpush, given the concern over hygiene andsanitisation following the pandemic. With uniquely-formulated cosmetic sanitisers, anti-bacterialcosmetic sanitising wipes and hand-pouredcleansing balms for brushes and sponges, Mumbai-based Code Beauty ensures that beauty andhygiene need not be mutually exclusive. In anenlightening chat with Sharmila Chand, Ms Louzadoshares her strengths, weaknesses, hobbies andother interesting details.

Hygienic Beauty

Your source of inspiration...An inner voice, which I believe isthat of my late dad, is constantlytelling me to create and innovate.

Your strength...My husband and my mum arethe ones who constantly keepencouraging me when I fail andkeep lifting me high when I fall.

Your weakness...I have a sweet tooth! It’s mostoften for chocolates. And I love allthings vintage too.

Your favourite holidaydestinationParis (hands down), Chantilly,in particular

You are a tough, seriousboss or...Fun boss

What do you enjoy the most inlife, generally?Taking trips with my family,indulging in local cuisine whiletaking in the beautiful sights andbaking and cooking

Golf or Bridge or…Yoga and Netflix and Chill

How do you de-stress?I light my Oudh and Lavendercandle in my beautifully-designed black-and-whitebathroom in my new home,listening to some soothing andcalming instrumental music onmy waterproof speakers, have awarm bath and treat myself toluxurious body and skincareproducts.

What is your fitness regime?I do Yoga four times a week,take a walk around the buildingcomplex when time permitsand have cold-pressed juices inthe morning.

Ten years from now, wheredo we see you?I see myself continuing to travelglobally and seeing my beautyline successfully reaching newheights.

BIANCA LOUZADO,CEO & Founder, Code Beauty

february 2021, rs 50

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