NATION, P14 COMPANIES, P4 INTERNATIONAL, P12 REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN INSPECTION ORDERED IN JULY 2023 FOREIGN MINISTER WANG YI BLASTS US Gender diversity in boards grows, but tokenism prevails Byju's probe report ‘in a few weeks’: MCA official China warns ‘absurdity’ on trade curbs will harm America CHENNAI/KOCHI, FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XLIV 258, 24 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: 74,119.38 ▲ 33.39 NIFTY: 22,493.55 ▲ 19.50 NIKKEI 225: 39,598.71 ▼ 492.07 HANG SENG: 16,229.78 ▼ 208.31 `/$: 82.79 ▲ 0.04 `/€: 90.26 ▼ 0.17 BRENT: $82.66 ▼ $0.30 GOLD: `65,007 ▲ `587 Wo-manufacturers: Women in Manufacturing A RED initiative appears in today’s edition of Financial Express. 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IN THE NEWS ELECTORAL BONDS: SC MAY HEAR ADR’S PLEAAGAINST SBI THE SUPREME COURT has said it will consider hearing a contempt plea filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms against SBI petition seeking time till June 30 to disclose the details of electoral bonds reports Ananthakrishnan G. ■ PAGE 3 GANGWAL FAMILYTO SELL INDIGO STAKE FOR `3,730 CRORE IN LINE WITH his plan to sell his entire holding in IndiGo over five years, co-founder Rakesh Gangwal now plans to sell a further 3.3% stake in Interglobe Aviation to raise around `3,730 crore, reports fe Bureau. ■ PAGE 4 BARRED FROM MANAGING DEBT ISSUES After RBI, JM Fin feels Sebi heat PIYUSH SHUKLA Mumbai, March 7 THE SECURITIES AND Exchange Board of India (Sebi) onThursday barred JM Financial from acting as lead manager to any public debt issuances over violations of regulatory mandates. TheordercomestwodaysaftertheReserve Bank of India (RBI) halted JM Financial Products, a subsidiary of JM Financial, from extending loans against shares and debentures, including sanction and disbursal of loans against initial public offering (IPO) and non-convertible debentures (NCDs). In its interim order, the markets regulator said that JM Financial as lead manager hadviolated key‘code of conduct’guidelines, including creation of a false market and price rigging or manipulation of an issue. “Such practices have detrimental effect on the orderly functioning of the market and harm the interest of the ordinary investors. They also distort the functioning of price discovery mechanism in the securities market. Given the same,there is an urgent need forthe regulatorto step in and ass interim directions, pending investigation, to prevent any further erosion in market integrity by virtue of such practices,”said the Sebi’s order. Sebi said that the observations made in the order are based on the material available on record and that the investigation into this matter will be completed in six months. However, JM Financial may continue to act as a lead manager for public issue of debt securities for a period of 60 days. In an exchange filing, JM Financial said, MODUS OPERANDI ■ Investors apply for the NCD public issue through JM’s stock broking arm ■ Many of these investors are funded by JMFPL-NBFC On listing day, JMPLNBFC purchases all the bonds it has funded at the traded price plus accrued interest ■ ■ Investors transfer the principal, accrued interest and trading gains to JMFPL-NBFC In an hour, JMFPL-NBFC sells the securities to companies at a discount, or a higher yield, thereby incurring a loss ■ ■ Sebi notes that sale of securities by JMFPL-NBFC acquired by it, on the same day,within a couple of hours of purchase, is 'devoid of commercial considerations' “The quantifiable financial impact on the company cannot be ascertained at this point in time. The company shall fully cooperate with Sebi in this investigation.” Continued on Page 13 `10,372-cr launch pad for AI JATIN GROVER New Delhi, March 7 THE UNION CABINET on Thursday approvedthesettingupofIndiaAI(artificial intelligence) mission with an allocation of `10,372crore.TheprogrammewillbringAI compute capacity under the public-private partnership mode through GPU (graphics processing unit) servers, allocating early stage funding to deeptech startups,setting up of innovation centres and developing a broaderAI sovereign infrastructure. The programme also includes creating adatasetsplatformthatwillhavethelargest collection of anonymised data to drive innovation and enhance capabilities of AI applications.Theapproved corpuswill also be utilised to promote development of AI applications in critical sectors as well as increase AI courses in colleges and univer- EYE ON IndiaAI ■ Compute capacity, innovation centre, datasets platform, app development, FutureSkills, startups financing, and safe & trustedAI CABINET DECISIONS ■ To bring AI compute capacity under the PPP mode ■ Targeted subsidy of `300 per 14.2 kg cylinder to continue till FY25-end under the Ujjwala scheme ■ To create public AI compute infra of 10,000 or more GPUs sities forskill development.It also includes investment in the development of indigenousfoundationalmodelsaswellasfocusingonindigenoustoolsforsafe,trusted,and ethicalAI development and deployment. “PM Modi has democratised technol- P2 ■ Dearness allowance enhanced to 50% of pay/pension, increases in gratuity and HRA too ogy.WithAImission,hewillmakecompute poweravailabletoinnovators,startups,studentsandeducationalinstitutions,”ITministerAshwiniVaishnawsaid. Continued on Page 13 Flipkart eyes quick commerce foray AYANTI BERA Bengaluru, March 7 essential items, electronics, home appliances,fashion,booksandlifestyleproducts. This will be Flipkart’s second attempt WALMART-OWNEDFLIPKARTISplanning to grow big in the quick commerce space to enter the quick commerce delivery seg- after it decided to scale down its Flipkart ment soon and will launch its services in Quick offering in late 2022. around 20 cities in the next few The development comes at a INSIDE months,accordingtopeoplefamitime when orders on quick comliar with the matter.The e-com- Beyond merce platforms have doubled mercemajorwilldirectlycompete grocery over the last year, and now accowith the likes of Zepto, Zomato’s delivery unt for 40-50% of the country’s Blinkit andSwiggy’s Instamart. e-grocery spend, a report by Bain ■ PAGE 5 When contacted, a company & Company noted, adding that spokesperson did not explicitly leading players have improved confirmthedevelopment,butsaidthatover unit economics through a combination of the past few months, it has made several scale, average order value growth, higher investmentstoenhanceitsdeliverycapabil- orderdensityandvalue-added fees. ities.It launchedthe same-daydeliveryservicein20citiesinJanuary,coveringmobiles, Continued on Page 13 IN THE CART ■ May launch 10-15 minutes delivery in as many as 12 cities ■ Likely to target top clusters, including Bengaluru, DelhiNCR and Hyderabad ■ To take on Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto ■ Incumbents corner most of the market with about 10-20 million monthly active users each CHENNAI/KOCHI