BRANDWAGON, P9 COMPANIES, P4 BACK PAGE, P18 SUV MANIA Q4 OUTLOOK THE BIG PICTURE In top gear: How Maruti's Fronx raced ahead of its peers Expect to maintain capacity utilisation at 90%: JSW Steel CEO Extending subsidy scheme: Do EV firms need more FAME? CHENNAI/KOCHI, MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE VOL NO. XLIV 224, 18 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 THE GOVERNMENT HAS renewed the internet service providerlicence of USbased telecom service provider, Verizon Communications, reports Jatin Grover. ■ PAGE 4 FE S P E C I A L S ■ EXPLAINER, P6 Rooftop solar installation Will India be able to meet the Pradhan Mantri Suryodaya Yojana’s target of rooftop solar power systems in 10 million homes? ■ PERSONAL FINANCE, P7 Stick to AAA-rated company FDs Highly risk-averse investors can look at small finance banks Continued on Page 2 Continued on Page 2 digitise product catalogues, identify delivery partners, digital payments ■ 30-odd digital applications on ONDC, including Mystore, Paytm, Magicpin and Delhivery Aim is to help FPOs overcome challenges in accessing markets countrywide Bihar governor Rajendra Arlekar, newly sworn-in chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy CMs Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha at Raj Bhavan in Patna on Sunday PTI Nitish rejoins NDA, INDIA falls apart Congress takes biggest hit, loses more ground in the northern belt MANOJ CG New Delhi, January 28 THE JOURNEY OF the Opposition INDIA alliance began at his official residence seven months ago. As Nitish Kumar walked out of the alliance on Sunday and took oath as Bihar’s chief ministerforthe ninth timewith the help of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), theleadersoftheembattledOppositioncoalition were clearly at a loss. TwodeputyCMsfromBJP,SamratChoudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, and six other ministers, including Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Santosh KumarSuman,Shrawan Kumar,also took the oath on Sunday. The biggest setback of Nitish Kumar’s latest is for the Congress.Virtually wiped out of the Hindi heartland in the last round of Assemblyelections,the grand old party’s cold comfort in the northern belt was the Mahagathbandhan(grandalliance)inBiharandthe seat-sharing pact it is negotiating with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. Barring Jharkhand, where it is in alliance with the JMM, the Congress is in a straight fight with the BJP in all other Hindi-speaking states. More than the number of seats it wouldsecure inthealliance andwin,theCongress was hoping that the INDIA bloc would put a stop to the Narendra Modi juggernaut in these two states, which together account for 120 seats. Continued on Page 2 Salary bill growth slows NET SALES RESULTS 12.2 10 7.1 REVIEW A MUCH SMALLER rise in costs — inputs and wages—is the key reason for the jump in operating profits of companies. Results of firms that have disclosed their Q3FY24 numbers reveal that the expenses on employees have gone up by just 11% y-o-y, the slowest in several quarters. In fact, the rise in the salary bill is much slower than the increases seen in the September, June and March quarters. OPERATING PROFIT (% chg, y-o-y) 14.0 (% chg, y-o-y) Q4 FY23 32.8 48.1 31.4 5.6 Q1 Q2 FY24 Q3 EMPLOYEE EXPENSES (% chg, y-o-y) FY23 Q4 VERIZON'S ISP LICENCE RENEWED AFTER CHECK ARUNIMA BHARADWAJ New Delhi, January 28 million in the current fiscal,and the target is increase sales to `10 million in FY25,”Tapas Kumar Pati, chief operating officer, BASIX Krishi Samruddhi, a group which has helped 59 FPOs join ONDC in Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Patisaidinitially,FPOsonlyusedIndiaPost to deliver products given its large network. FPOs have sold 3,100 varieties ofvalueadded agricultural products using ONDC sinceApril 2023 22.8 Q1 THE MINISTRY OF Education on Sunday said no reserved posts can be de-reserved after the UGC proposed that any SC, ST and OBC vacancy can be de-reserved if candidates are not available. ■ PAGE 18 500 mineral blocks to be auctioned by FY26 THE MINISTRY OF mines has set a new target to put on auction 500 blocks of minerals, including rare earth elements and precious metals, by 2025-26, as against 2024end as planned earlier. “The target was to put 500 blocksonauction(by2024),butdue to Covid it cannot be done,” Union ministerforcoal and mines Pralhad Joshi said while addressing reporters. Thegovernmentwillnow strive to reach the target by 202526,he added. The minister said 368 blocks havebeenauctionedsofarandmore notice inviting tenders are in the pipeline. The government began auctioning mineral blocks in 201516.“As manyas 35 offshore mineral blocks have been given to states,” Joshi said,urging states to expedite the auction of these blocks. Furthernore, in its recent meeting with the mining ministers of states, the Centre handed over 37 G4 geological memorandums to the states. The government has successfully auctioned 76 mineral blocks till lastyeartill December.Of these, 30 were auctioned for mining leases and 46 for composite licences, with which an entity can explore the resource and get a lease to commercially extract minerals. ■ ONDC helps FPOs 17.6 FY24 Q2 CAN’T DE-RESERVE RESERVED POST, CLARIFIES GOVT 4,000 THOUSANDS OF FARMERS’ collectives across states are nowselling a host of agricultural products, including rice, pulses, honey, millets, mushrooms, spices and value added product, on the government’s e-commerce platform — Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). Since farmer producer organisations (FPOs) started joining the ONDC platform in April last year, 4,000 such bodies have sold 3,100 varieties of value-added agricultural products using the facility. Officials said the target is to bring 6,000 FPOs onto the pan-India digital marketplace bythe end of FY24.The platform is being promoted bythe government as an alternative to global e-commerce majors such as Amazon and Walmart to support small enterprises. ONDC supports and trains FPOs in developing and digitising product catalogues,generating shipping labels, identifying delivery partners and facilitating digital payments so that they leverage the platform to market of their products. The network has 30-odd digital applications, including Mystore, Paytm, Magicpin and Delhivery, ranging from intercity logisticsproviderstoplatformsforbuyersandsellers,and more. While ONDC has collaborated with the Small Farmers’Agri-business Consortium, a body under the agriculture ministry to support FPOs,officials said the aim is to support smallandmicroenterprisesasFPOsfacechallenges in accessing markets countrywide. “After getting on board ONDC earlier this year, we are expecting our sales to cross `5 14.3 Q3 FIVE MIDCAP IT firms increased their net headcount during the October-December quarter, reports Sameer Ranjan Bakshi. This was against the top four IT firms seeing a decline of over 21,000. ■ PAGE 4 WIDENING NETWORK READ TO LEAD 10.9 TOTAL EXPENDITURE (% chg, y-o-y) Q4 FY23 Q1 4.8 MIDCAP IT FIRMS’ EMPLOYEE COUNT WENT UP IN Q3 SANDIP DAS New Delhi, January 28 -3.4 THE TOTAL NUMBER of applications filed by investors to the IEPFA to claim unpaid dividends in the current financial year is likely to cross 45,000, up 18% on year, reports Priyansh Verma. ■ PAGE 2 0.9 UNPAID DIVIDEND CLAIMS MAYTOP 45,000 IN FY24 6,000 FPOs on ONDC by March 11.7 NEWS 4,000 COLLECTIVES ON BOARD SO FAR FY23 FY24 Q3 Q2 Q1 Q4 IN THE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM Q2 FY24 Q3 Sample of 308 companies (including banks & financials & IOC); Source: Capitaline JET, CHOPPER SUPPLY ONLY 65% OF DEMAND Private charter industry set to fly higher on the campaign trail SWARAJ BAGGONKAR Mumbai, January 28 THE PRIVATE CHARTER plane industry is set for a blockbusteryear in 2024. After a strong 2023 due to state elections and the six-week long Cricket World Cup, the industry had a good start to the newyearwiththeinaugurationoftheRam temple inAyodhya lastweek. And the general elections are expected to drive the demand forprivate charters to newhighs. Rajan Mehra, CEO, Club One Air, said, “There was a time when election travel started a month or two before the polls. But nowit starts fourmonths in advance.” Club OneAir is India’s largest and the oldest charteroperatorwith a fleet of 10 fixed wing passenger jets. No wonder, players in the sector are already grappling with a demand-supply mismatch. With the waiting period for delivery of new private jets and choppers stretching to two years and beyond, the SOARING DEMAND 70-100 ■ Supply at the time was only 45% and 75%, respectively helicopters and 30-40 ■ In 2023, demand for 100130 helicopters, 50-60 fixed wing planes but supply at 65% fixed wing planes in demand in 2019 ■ Increasing demand for private charters post-pandemic and for VIP, HNWI travel pressure on theplane charterindustrywill be significantly higher in the coming months, according to seniorexecutives of charter companies that FE spoke to. Ashish Kumar, CEO, Flying Birds Aviation, said, “The purpose of increasing our fleet is to target the Lok Sabha elections. During past elections, the demand for twin engine helicopters rose by 300% (of normal demand) from politicalparties, corporate sponsors and local parties.”Flying Birds operates five fixed wing aircraft and four helicopters in India,and another 15 aircraft from its global base. Continued on Page 2 CHENNAI/KOCHI