BACK PAGE, P10 COMPANIES, P4 INTERNATIONAL, P8 E-COMMERCE LANDSCAPE STRONG EARNINGS TECH GIANTS INVEST BILLIONS Flipkart leads market with a 48% share, Meesho grows fastest Verizon deal helped HCLTech beat peers, hit a ‘sixer’ in Q3 Microsoft, Amazon & Google kingmakers for AI startups CHENNAI/KOCHI, SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XLIV 223, 10 PAGES, `12.00 P U B L I S H E D F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , B E N G A L U R U , C H A N D I G A R H , C H E N N A I , H Y D E R A B A D , K O C H I , K O L K ATA , L U C K N O W, M U M B A I , N E W D E L H I , P U N E SENSEX*: 70,700.67 ▼ 359.64 NIFTY*: 21,352.60 ▼ 101.35 NIKKEI 225: 35,751.07 ▼ 485.40 HANG SENG: 15,952.23 ▼ 259.73 `/$*: 83.12 ▲ 0.02 `/€*: 90.57 ▲ 0.08 BRENT: $81.83 ▼ $0.60 GOLD*: `62,151 ▼ `168 *Prv close Ola CEO’s Krutrim becomes country’s first AI unicorn IN THE NEWS CENTRE HALVES FY24 INFUSION IN OMCs TO `15K CR THE CENTRE HAS cut down equity infusion in state-owned oil marketing companies to `15,000 crore from the Budget estimate of `30,000 crore for FY24, reports Arunima Bharadwaj. ■ PAGE 2 Raises $50 million at a valuation of $1 billion SPICEJETALLOTS SHARES, WARRANTS WORTH `744 CR SPICEJET SAID ON Friday it has completed the first tranche of capital infusion, aggregating to `744 crore. The airline allotted shares and warrants totalling the amount on a preferential basis. FINTECHS WILL NEED MULTIPLE SROs: INDUSTRY THE DIVERSITY AMONG business models in the fintech industry makes it necessary to have multiple selfregulatory organisation (SRO) structures, say experts, reports Ajay Ramanathan. ■ PAGE 5 INDIA LOOKS TO TAP LONDON FUNDS FOR INFRA INVESTMENT INDIAAND THE UK will likely sign a pact in February to spurt the flow of London-based patient capital funds to India’s infrastructure sector, reports Prasanta Sahu. ■ PAGE 2 ICJ STOPS SHORT OF CEASEFIRE ORDER AGAINST ISRAEL THE WORLD COURT ordered Israel on Friday to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians although it stopped short of ordering a ceasefire, reports Reuters. ■ PAGE 8 FE S P E C I A L S Tata Punch EV: Can this tiny EV punch above its power? It matches the Creta turbo in the race to hundred, and Splendor in running costs. ■ MOTOBAHN, P7 Feeling the heat of high premiums? Negotiate lower premium through no-claim bonus, healthier lifestyle ■ PERSONAL FINANCE, P7 ■ Krutrim is the first unicorn of 2024 in the country ANEES HUSSAIN Bengaluru, January 26 AKASAAIR ORDERS OVER 300 CFM LEAP-1B ENGINES AKASA Air AND CFM International on Friday announced an agreement, under which Akasawill purchase over 300 CFM LEAP-1B engines for its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. ■ PAGE 4 ON THE FAST TRACK President Droupadi Murmu and French President Emmanuel Macron greet the crowd as they arrive in a traditional horse-drawn buggy at Kartavya Path for the 75th Republic Day celebrations, in New Delhi on Friday PTI TATA, AIRBUS INK DEAL TO JOINTLY MAKE HELICOPTERS India, France sew up pact for defence production FE BUREAU New Delhi, January 26 DEEPENING TIES INDIA AND FRANCE have firmed up a road map for defence-industrial partnership that would provide for co-development and co-production of key military and civilian hardware, foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra said on Friday. Amongthekeycollaborationsfinalised during French President Emmanuel Macron’svisit to Indiawas a pact between Tata Group and France’s Airbus to jointly manufacture civilian helicopters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with Macron on a wide spectrum of areas of cooperation between the two countries. Kwatra said,“Production itself is the focus and priority of (India-France) defence cooperation…This road map is to identify opportunities for partnership in the defence industrial sector that prioritises co-designing, co-development and co-production. The whole idea and also building the defence supply chains between two countries...” He said the roadmap will provide for collaboration in the spheres of air, space, EMMANUEL MACRON FRENCH PRESIDENT Agreement inked between New Space India and Arianespace for cooperation in satellite launches ■ ■ Schengen visas with five-year validity for Indian postgraduate alumni; exchange of professionals in 18-35 age bracket ■ Talks on for financing mechanism and localisation for Jaitapur nuclear project underwaterdomain awareness,landwarfare, robotics, cyber defence, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles. In July last year, India’s Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) gave approval for the procurement of 26 Rafale-M fighters to operate off the aircraft carriers and three additional Scorpene-class diesel-electric submarines from the European country. “Industrial partnership (has been signed) between Tata and Airbus heli- 30,000 INDIAN STUDENTS IN FRANCE IN 2030. IT’S AVERY AMBITIOUS TARGET, BUT I AM DETERMINED TO MAKE IT HAPPEN copters for production of H125 helicopters with a significant indigenous and localisation component,”Kwatra said. Tata and Airbus are already cooperating to make the C-295 transport aircraft in Gujarat. Discussions were also held on the possibility of French engine maker Safran assisting in the manufacture of fighterjet engines in India. Continued on Page 9 Disney mulls taking Zee to court PRESS TRUST OF INDIA New Delhi, January 26 DISNEY STAR IS considering legal action against Zee Entertainment for backing out of a $1.4-billion sub-licensing agreement for telecast of international cricket matches in India, according to industry sources. This could brew more legal trouble for Zee Entertainment Enterprises, which is alreadyfacing an arbitration plea by Sony Group at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, claiming $90 million for breach of conditions of their merger deal. Disney Star, an Indian subsidiary of media conglomerate The Walt Disney Company, is working on its strategy over the development,said industry sources. If the rescinded agreement contained an arbitration clause, Disney Star would have to resort to arbitration proceedings forthe resolution of the dispute and if the agreement is short of the arbitration clause, then Disney could initiate legal proceedings to sue Zee for damages. There were no immediate comments either from Zee or Disney Star over the development. Zee,which has already missed the first instalment of around $200 million, has informed DisneyStarit does not intend to moveaheadwiththedeal.Accordingtothe sources,theinstalmenttobe paidwaspart of the $1.5 billion investment committed by Sony Group after its merger with Zee, said another industry source. Continued on Page 9 OLACO-FOUNDERANDCEOBhavishAggarwal’s artificial intelligence (AI) startup, Krutrim, which was launched on December 15, 2023, has turned unicorn by raising $50 million at a valuation of $1 billion. Krutrim thus not only becomes the first unicorn of 2024, but also the first AI startup in the country to have achieved that mark. It is the fastest to reach the milestone in India, Krutrim said in a blogpost. Matrix partners India, an early backer of Aggarwal’s other ventures Ola Cabs and Ola Electric,ledthe funding round.Krutrim plans to use the funds raised to expand its reach globally,drive innovation,and accelerate the company’s goal to reshape the AI landscape. Aggarwal said in a statement that the funding round“not onlyvalidates the potential of Krutrim’s innovative AI solutions but also underscores the confidence investors haveinourabilitytodrivemeaningfulchange out of India for the world”. “Bhavish has consistently brought cutting-edge tech innovation to India at scale with Ola and Ola Electric.Now,with Krutrim, he’s poised to power the digital transformation of ‘Viksit Bharat’,”Avnish Bajaj, founder and MD of Matrix Partners India,said. “We’re incredibly privileged to deepen our partnership with Bhavish and Krutrim.” The homegrown large language model (LLM) and generative AI platform is on the ■ Launched on December 15, it is the fastest to reach the milestone, Krutrim said ■ Matrix partners India, an early backer of Ola Cabs and Ola Electric, led funding round BHAVISH AGGARWAL, FOUNDER, KRUTRIM "(THE FUNDING ROUND) UNDERSCORES THE CONFIDENCE INVESTORS HAVE IN OUR ABILITY TO DRIVE MEANINGFUL CHANGE OUT OF INDIA FOR THE WORLD" linesofOpenAI’sChatGPT,andGoogle’sBard. It is trained on two trillion tokens orpieces of textual information, having the largest representation of Indian data. Krutrim, which means ‘artificial’ in Sanskrit, will come in two models: a base model and a Pro model. Just like ChatGPT, the current basic version of Krutrim is capable of answering people’s prompt or query. It can understand 22 Indian languages and generate text in 10 Indian languages. Continued on Page 9 Pvt banks continue to bet on personal loans SACHIN KUMAR Mumbai, January 26 PRIVATE BANKS CONTINUED to grow their personalloanbooksintheSeptember-December quarter, even after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised risk weights for unsecured loans. Theirpersonalloanbooksrosebetween 10% and 86% year-on-year,according to the banks’latest quarterlynumbers. Leading banks like ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Axis Bank have grown theirbooks37%,32%and28%y-o-y,respectively.Others like IndusInd Bank and Federal Bank have been more aggressive by growing at 57% and 86% y-o-y. The largest private lender, HDFC Bank, saw a relatively slower growth of 10% y-o-y. However,bankers say the rise in the lending has not been in the low-ticket segment of less than `50,000, where the risk buildup is perceived to be comparativelyhigher.In fact, they say they do not have a significant presence in this segment.Also,theyare extending loans to existing customers with a healthy credit history. In ICICI Bank’s post-earning call,Anindya Banerjee, group chief financial officer, said, “On the unsecured loan mix, as far as personal loans are concerned, we have taken some steps in terms of refining the credit parameters.Basically,in anyportfolio, you have certain cohorts which contribute more to the delinquencies, and you try to PERSONAL LOAN BOOK (as of December,, figures in ` crore) % growth Q3FY24 Q3FY23 HDFC Bank 10 1,64,641 1,81,500 ICICI Bank 37.3 80,932 1,11,099 Axis Bank 28 Kotak Mahindra 32.8 Bank* Federal Bank 86 IndusInd Bank 57.5 50,688 65,083 14,542 19,310 1,957 3,647 4,756 7,491 *figures include consumer durable and business loans figure out what are the origination markers of those cohorts and then cut origination in those particular segments, which is what we have done.” He said the bank has also rationalised,for example, sourcing payouts, as well as moved pricing on personal loans by maybe 20 basis points,25 basis points. Continued on Page 9 LACK OF TRUSTED, EXTERNAL REGULATORY BODY A WORRY, SAY INVESTORS Mental health firms grow, but therapist shortage a hurdle AYANTI BERA Bengaluru, January 26 MENTALHEALTH STARTUPSareon theriseinIndia,asmorepeopleseek treatment. Sample this: more than 200 investors have invested in such firmsinjustthelastthreeyears,with startupssuchasAmaha,Wysa,Trijog and Lissun raising $25.4 million, of the total $42.7 million which has flowed into the sector so far, data from Tracxn shows. There are 456 such startups in the country. What is fuelling this rise? An increase in willingness to talk about mentalhealthstruggles,particularly among the younger population, say investors who FE spoke to, even though mental health awareness is still in a nascent stage, and demand MAPPING GROWTH ■ Mental health app market expected to grow at 15% CAGR in next four years 456 mental health startups in the country $42.7 million has flowed into sector so far for practitioners hasn’t yet reached the level of developed economies. Availability of certified mental health practitioners, however, continues to be a problem.“India faces a Only 0.3 psychiatrists per 100,000 people in India, against 6.6 in developed countries significantgapwithonly0.3psychiatrists,0.07 psychologists,and 0.07 social workers per 100,000 people. This stands in sharp contrast to developednations,wheretheratioof psychiatristsis6.6per100,000,”says Tracxn co-founderNeha Singh. According to Ankur Khaitan, principalatventurecapitalfirmFiresideVentures,an investorinAmaha, stresslevelsareontheriseacrossage groups. “More importantly, as the recognition of mental health issues gatherssteam,peoplesufferingfrom these issues are seeking treatment. This is also driven by an increased propensityto pay,”says Khaitan. Amaha,which recently raised $6 million, offers therapy, psychiatry andself-careservicesonitsplatform, along with virtual support groups and digital mental health tools. The companyis competingwith startups such as Lissun and Clarity to capture a part of India’s mental health app market, expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 15% in the next four years as per data from UnivDatos Market Insights. Amahahasmorethan150thera- pistsandpsychiatristsonitspayroll, anditsclinicalpsychologistsareregistered with and regulated by the Rehabilitation Council of India. It also has in-person clinics in DelhiNCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Both online and in-person, the platform handlesmorethan10,000consultationsamonthatpresent,itsfounder and CEOAmit Malik said. When asked how Amaha stands out from in-person mental health clinics,Malik said,“One thing that is differenthereisthatyouareworking with an entire ecosystem that includestherapistsandpsychiatrists working together, based on clinical care protocols aligned with international guidelines.” Continued on Page 9 CHENNAI/KOCHI