COMPANIES, P4 BACK PAGE, P22 INTERNATIONAL, P5 DISTRIBUTION MIGHTTO GIVE AN EDGE THE BIG PICTURE AFTER 3 WEEKS OF UNCERTAINTY Reliance’s ‘Jio’ moment in media is here with Disney merger deal Birla’s bold shade of ambition in the paints market Shehbaz Sharif elected Pakistan prime minister for second time CHENNAI/KOCHI, MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XLIV 254, 22 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 IN THE NEWS IT FIRMS’ REVENUES FROM TOP CLIENTS SLOWING DOWN REVENUES ACCRUING TO IT firms from top clients shrunk in the October-December quarter, reports Sameer Ranjan Bakshi. While the decline was for all the firms on a year-on-year basis, it was for about half of the firms on a q-o-q basis. ■ PAGE 4 GREEN LIGHT SOON FOR 5-DAYWORK FOR BANK STAFF THE CENTRE MAY approve the muchawaited five-day working week for banks before the the model code of conduct kicks in later this month for the general elections, reports Prasanta Sahu. Currently, both public and private sector bank employees work on the first and third Saturdays of the month. ■ PAGE 2 CONDITIONS SET FOR UNTIED CAPEX LOANS TO STATES TO RECEIVE INTERESTFREE capex loans from the Centre under the “untied” category, states will have to comply with the branding norms for centrallysponsored schemes and deposit interest accrued on the unutilised central-schemes funds lying with the state-level single nodal agencies by March 31, reports Prasanta Sahu. ■ PAGE 2 IFFCO MOVES NCLT AGAINST SWAN ENERGY, TRIUMPH IFFCO HAS MOVED the NCLT against Swan Energy and their joint venture Triumph Offshore to restrain their JV firm from passing any resolution without its approval and issuing any share/ security to the lenders against loans, reports PTI. ■ PAGE 12 FE S P E C I A L ■ BRANDWAGON, P9 On a fresh page: Taking the right turn Ginger Hotels is working overtime to expand its footprint Apple’s India output: 100-day action plan $10 bn in 10 months COUNCIL OF MINISTERS READIES VISION PAPER after polls finalised VIKSIT BHARAT 2047 HARIKISHAN SHARMA New Delhi, March 3 MEETING IN NEW Delhi for the last timebeforetheannouncementofthe schedulefortheLokSabhaelections, the Union council of ministers,confident that the ruling alliance would be returned to powerfora third consecutive term, discussed a 100-day actionplantobeimplementedbythe newgovernment afterthe polls. Itislearntthattheday-longmeetingoftheUnioncouncilofministers, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saw presentations by secretariesonavisiondocumentforViksit Bharat 2047 and a detailed action plan forthe next fiveyears. In these presentations,the Prime Minister’svisionforViksitBharatwas outlined, sources said, underlining thattheseincludedzeropoverty,skill toeveryyouth,and100%saturation ofwelfare schemes. Modi was quoted as having told thetopbureaucratsthattheyshould “work on preparing the future roadmap of the country during the elections… aap chhutti mat samajhiye, kaam par lag jaaiye (don’t think you are on holiday, get down to work)”. “TheroadmapforViksitBharatis a result of more than two years of intensive preparation. It involved a whole-of-government approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi and defence minister Rajnath Singh at a meeting of the Union council of ministers, in New Delhi on Sunday ANI involving all ministries and wideranging consultations with state governments, academia, industry bodies,civilsociety,scientificorganisations and mobilisation of youth for seeking their ideas, suggestions and inputs.More than 2,700 meetings,workshops and seminars were heldatvariouslevels.Suggestionsof more than 20 lakh youth were received,”sources said. The roadmap for Viksit Bharat, the sources said,has a“comprehensive blueprint with clearly articu- lated national vision, aspirations, goals and action points”. The goals include economic growth, sustainable development goals (SDGs), ease of living, ease of doing business, infrastructure and social welfare. A 100-day agenda for“immediate steps”was also worked upon for quick implementation afterformation of the newgovernment in May, the sources said. Continued on Page 12 RISHI RAJ New Delhi, March 3 APPLE’S PRODUCTION OF iPhones in India crossed the $10billion mark during the 10-month period of April-January of the current fiscal.This INSIDE is nearly 30% higherthanthe Why Apple veered away $7-billion production by the from the EV tech giant in highway FY23. Accord■ PAGE 6 ing to sources, over 70% of the total production has been exportedacrosscountriesinEurope, the US andAsia. The current fiscal is also the first year where Apple is averaging over $1 billion of production each month, compared to $620 million per month in FY23. This produc- BIG BITE 70% Nearly 30% higher than $7 bn production $1 billion of total India-made of production on average iPhones exported to each month vs $620 million European, Asian and a month in FY23 US markets of the total production has been contributed by FoxconnHon Hai 70% of 30%andthe total output from Pegatron Wistron by Apple in FY23 tion has been achieved by Apple’s three vendors — Foxconn Hon Hai, Pegatron, both in Tamil Nadu, and Wistron, now owned by the Tata Group,located in Karnataka. According to industry data and information filed by the vendors, a lion’sshare—over70%—ofthetotal production has been contributed by Foxconn Hon Hai. Pegatron and Wistron have together contributed the remaining30%. Continued on Page 2 India Inc boards set for major churn RAJESH KURUP Mumbai, March 3 INDIA INC IS all set to refresh its boardswith 900 NSE-listed companies looking to recruit nearly2,000 independent directors this year. Data sourced from primeinfobase.com also show that as many as 23 Nifty50 companies will need to recruit 47 independent directors between them. They include Hindustan Unilever, ITC, UltraTech Cement, L&T and Tata Consultancy Services. REFRESH MODE Independent directors in NSE-listed firms in last 5 years No. of appointments No. of cessations 1,360 1,360 1,348 978 792 915 786 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024* *till 29 Feb ‘24 This high turnover is a fallout of the regulatory guidelines imposed in 2013 after the Satyam Computers scam.All independent directors ROLLED OUT LOOKING FOR A piece of the action in the digital payments space, Flipkart on Sunday rolledoutitsUnifiedPaymentsInterface(UPI) service foronline and offline payments in collaboration with Axis Bank. Currently available for Android smartphone users via the Flipkart app, customers can create a newUPI ID forfund transfers and in-apppayments.PotentialusersincludeFlipkart’s 500 million registered users and 1.4 million sellers on its marketplace. The entry of a new product in the UPI space comes against the backdrop of the Reserve Bank of India’s directive to Paytm PaymentsBanktovirtuallydiscontinueoperations post March 15. Paytm Payments Bank had a share of just 13% of UPIvolumes in December,as perdata from National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).The market is dominated by PhonePe, which commanded 46% of the volumes in December while GooglePay had a share of 36%.These shares may have risen post January after the RBI’s directive to Paytm. Both Flipkart and PhonePe,which recently launched anAndroid-based store called Indus Appstore taking on Google's Play Store, are promoted byWalmart. NPCI has been attempting to restrict the market shares of individual players in the UPI space to 30% but has delayed the enforce- ■ Flipkart has over 500 mn registered users and 1.4 mn sellers on its marketplace ■ Customers Continued on Page 12 ■ UPI facility will be spread across group companies, including Myntra, Flipkart Wholesale, Cleartrip can create UPI ID on the Flipkart app to make payments to both merchants and individuals ■ The service, launched in collaboration with Axis Bank, will initially be available for Android users ment of the rules to end of this year.With the absence of Paytm Payments Bank, it will be harder for NPCI to enforce the cap. Continued on Page 2 62 ROUNDS WITH INVESTMENTS OF $30 MILLION Angel rounds see uptick in Jan-Feb AYANTI BERA Bengaluru, March 3 KARAN VERMA, CO-FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, FAAD NETWORK NEERAJ TYAGI, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, WE FOUNDER CIRCLE WHILETHELARGERfundingenvironment still remains gloomy, funding by angel investors seems to be picking up.The January-February period has seen 62 angel rounds investing about $30 million, data fromPrivateCircleshowed.Forcomparison, NovemberandDecemberhadrecordedonly 23roundsof angelinvestmentswitha total of $7.2 million.The data includes funding rounds in which the participation by angel investors is exclusive and excludes fresh or follow-onroundsthathadmixedparticipation from angels,venture capitalists or corporateventure funds. Although 2023 had gotten off to a good start with January-February seeing about 130 angel rounds, interest tapered off through the year,as the funding winter set it.The dip in angel investments was in line with the fall in the larger funding environment.Thenumberofprivateequityandventure capital deals fell by 33% in 2023, primarilydrivenbyasubstantial42%dipinthe startups segment,an analysis byEYfound. Neeraj Tyagi, co-founder and CEO, We INVESTORS ARE CAUTIOUS. THEY ARE FOCUSING ON STRONG FUNDAMENTALS AND RISK MITIGATION STRATEGIES THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF ACTION IN THE LAST 2 MONTHS, BOTH IN EARLY AS WELL AS SERIES A AND B MITESH SHAH, CO-FOUNDER, INFLECTION POINT VENTURES IT’S ABOUT CURATING STARTUPS WELL, GIVING THEM A REASONABLE VALUATION WHILE NOT GETTING CARRIED AWAY WITH THE FEAR OF MISSING OUT FounderCircle,believes things are certainly looking very positive this year.“There has been a lot of action in the last two months, bothinearlystageaswellasinSeriesAandB,” Tyagi pointed out.The fund has made six investmentssofarthisyear,whilefourofits growth-stage startups were able to close theirfunding rounds during this time. Continued on Page 2 122 appointed prior to 2014were reappointed in 2014 as per the newAct. Flipkart adds UPI to cart FE BUREAU Bengaluru, March 3 233 1,307 1,062 1,342 CHENNAI/KOCHI