BACK PAGE, P18 COMPANIES, P4 INTERNATIONAL, P7 T20 WORLD CUP IN SLOW LANE EARLY RETURN FROM FRANCE For Pakistan, USA turns out to be Team India H-1B Automakers step up discounts to clear unsold inventory Campaign trail stumble: Sunak apologises for skipping D-Day events CHENNAI/KOCHI, SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XLV 28, 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 SENSEX: 76,693.38 ▲ 1,618.87 NIFTY: 23,290.15 ▲ 468.75 NIKKEI 225: 38,683.93 ▼ 19.58 HANG SENG: 18,366.95 ▼ 109.85 `/$: 83.38 ▲ 0.10 `/€: 90.82 < > 0 BRENT: $79.93 ▲ $0.06 GOLD: `71,748 ▼ `779 — ‘Slow-moving elephant’ hangs over RBI pivot IN A BID to expand its presence in the electric scooter market, Bajaj Auto on Friday launched a sub-`1 lakh variant of the Chetak, reports Geeta Nair. The Chetak 2901 is priced much lower than the two existing variants priced in the `1.23-1.47 lakh range. ■ PAGE 4 FE S P E C I A L S On a Hyundai Exter from Delhi to the George Everest peak — far from city lights. ■ MOTOBAHN, P9 Make your online purchases safer Virtual credit card does not reveal the details of your actual credit card ■ PERSONAL FINANCE, P9 Q1 FY25: 7.2 icystance at‘withdrawal of accommodation’,faced increasing dissent with two out of six members of the Monetary Policy Committee — JR Varma and Ashima Goyal — voting for a change in stance to ‘neutral’. 4.6 4.5 Q2 Q3 FY25 Q4 FY25: 4.5 Until April, Verma was the lone voice against the status quo in rates and policy stance. The good news is the BENCHMARK INDICES recorded their biggest weekly gains in calendar year 2024, as both closed at record highs on Friday. However, it wasn’t a smooth ride through the week. The Indian stock market started the week with extreme euphoria following the exit polls, on Monday. But it was driven to despair the very next day when election results showed that the BJP would be unable to cross the magic figure of 272 on its own. Things settled down after alliance partners gave comfort that NDA would be able to form a government. On Friday, the Sensex rose 2.2% to close at 76,693.36 points and the Nifty ended the day 2.1% higher at LIZ MATHEW & VIKAS PATHAK New Delhi, June 7 Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi arrives for the NDA parliamentary party meeting at Samvidhan Sadan in New Delhi on Friday Sensex SHORT OF A majority and needing the supportofhisallies,PrimeMinister-designate Narendra Modi on Friday framed the mandate and the road ahead in terms that wereconciliatorysignallingareachingout to states and to parties across the aisle. Addressing the elected MPs of the NDA Friday, including BJP chief ministers and deputy CMs,Modi described the NDA as a “30-year-old”, “organic” alliance, and underlined that it had run successful governments for three terms during this period. He also stressed that the NDAmirrored “India’s diversity”, mentioning different social groups, referring to the coalition multiple times in his speech and avoiding mentioning himself in the third person. Clearly, this was a signal that this wasn’t a one-man showand that the partywas readyto showaccommodation as needed. More importantly,that this was not a setback for the BJP but a“continuation”. The tone of the NDA meet was set by defence minister Rajnath Singh who, speaking before Modi and proposing the resolution to elect him as the leaderof the NDA parliamentary group, described the NDA alliance as not a “compulsion” but a “commitment”. Union ministers Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari then seconded it. Having runa tightship for10years,the PMwrapped up his speech telling the new MPstobewaryofmediaspeculationabout the new ministry. 23,290.15 points. While the Sensex also hit lifetime high of 76,795.31 points intraday, the Nifty was 20 points short of its intraday peak. Investors’ wealth rose by `11.4 trillion in a week to `423.5 trillion as of Friday, little shy of the record BSE mcap of `425.91 trillion seen on Monday. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) turned buyers on Friday, but net sold equities worth `12,581 crore ($1.5 billion) during the week. Among sectors, the Nifty PSU Bank index was the sole loser, down 1.4%, while all the other indices closed in the green, with Nifty IT topping the chart. Compiled by Akshata Gorde and Kishor Kadam ■ RELATED REPORT ON PAGE 6 Return (in %) 76,693 Sensex June 7 (close) PTI Before the oath, reachout to allies, states & Oppn VIKAS PATHAK New Delhi, January 7 Continued on Page 14 Since Tuesday’s pain, steady gains for indices Modi stakes claim to form ‘consensus’ govt AFTERTHE NDAunanimouslyelectedhim as its parliamentary party leader, Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi met thePresidentonFridayandstakedclaimto form the government. ModiwillbesworninasPrimeMinister fora third consecutive term at a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan at 7.15 pm on Sunday. Heading a coalition in which the BJP, forthefirsttimeunderhisleadership,lacks majority,Modisaid,“Weneedamajorityto form the government,but there should be consensustorunthecountry.” Termingthe NDA an “organic alliance” for which “the seedwassown”byitsleadersthreedecades ago and “nurtured by INSIDE people with trust”, he said it will strive to Thaw in ties? Muizzu ensure unanimity in may attend all decisions. Addressing the swearing-in NDA meeting before ceremony leaders headed to RashtrapatiBhavanto stake claim,Modi said,“I assure the people of the country that the majority they gave us to run the government, it will be our effort that we will strive towards consensus and leave no stone unturned towards taking the countryforward.” Later, emerging from the Rashtrapati Bhavan, he told reporters: “There was an NDAmeetingthismorning.NDAmembers havechosenmeonceagain.Theyhavesupported me again.The President called me today. I have told her that the evening of June 9 will be good (for the swearing-in). The President’s office will decide. By that time,Iwillsendthelistofministerstoher.” “NDA 1.0, NDA 2.0 and NDA 3.0 are a continuity.Wewilltakethiscontinuityforward with even more energy and a better vision.I have experienced this work for 10 years. I was new in 2014. So, it will be easy for us to take the work forward immediately this time,”he said. The governoralso countered the view that in matters of monetary policy,the RBI is guided bythe principal of‘follow the Fed’. .“Iwould like to unambiguously state while we do keep a watch on whether clouds are building up or clearing out in the distance horizons, we play the game according to the local weather pitch conditions,” said Das. 76,583 June 3 Investors wealth gain/loss Nifty June 7 Q4 3.8 0.9 0.9 2.2 2.1 Q2 Q3 FY25 7.2 3.2 3.4 7.3 APPOINTED PM-DESIGNATE BY PRESIDENT Continued on Page 14 Travel: The darkest nights often bring the brightest stars Q1 7.2 Economists see FY25 GDP growth below 7% PAGE 2 June 6 BAJAJ AUTO ROLLS OUT SUB-`1 LAKH E-CHETAK VARIANT 7.3 4.9 June 5 WITH TDP AND JD(U) emerging as key NDA coalition partners, both are looking for central assistance to overcome financial difficulties their states face, reports Prasanta Sahu. Andhra Pradesh and Bihar have exceeded both debt and fiscal deficit targets set by the 15th Finance Commission. ■ PAGE 2 THE RESERVE BANK of India (RBI) on Friday kept its key interest rate unchanged in a widely expected move, saying robust economic growth will give it “greater elbow room” to focus on bringing down inflation towards its medium-term target of 4%. RBI governor Shaktikanta Das summed up the latest monetary policystancebysaying“theelephant is walking slowly and we have to be very watchful”. In the April policy, the governor had referred to inflation pain as the “elephant in the room which has left for the jungle”. India’s retail inflation in April eased marginally to hit an 11month low of 4.83% on an annual basis as against 4.85% in the previous month. However, the cheers that retail prices were easing was damped by concerns around rising food prices. However, the RBI’s decision to hold rates at 6.5% for the eighth time in a row and maintain its pol- CPI inflation Das flags gap in credit, deposit growth PAGE 7 -5.7 June 4 -5.9 ANDHRA, BIHAR BATTLE HIGH FISCAL DEFICIT, DEBT SACHIN KUMAR Mumbai, June 7 Real GDP Sticky inflation delays rate cut hopes to Dec PAGE 6 3.4 3.3 A DELHI COURT on Friday granted bail to former Unitech directors Sanjay Chandra and Ajay Chandra in a money laundering Sanjay case related Chandra to alleged cheating of several home buyers, saying the purpose of pre-trial detention can never be punitive, reports PTI. ■ PAGE 5 DISSENT ON RATE, STANCE STATUS QUO RBI FORECAST INSIDE Editorial: MPC decision a prudent approach PAGE 8 June 3 UNITECH’S SANJAY, AJAY CHANDRA GRANTED BAIL ● TWO OUT OF SIX MPC MEMBERS Top sectoral gainers (weekly, % gain) gaine Nifty IT Nifty FMCG Nifty Auto Nifty Media Nifty Realty (in ` trillion) 5.4 4.9 7.1 6.8 8.6 Net equity investments Jun 7 THE SECURITIES AND Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has proposed to allow mutual funds (MFs) to buy and sell credit default swaps (CDS) in their schemes, reports Akshata Gorde. “The same shall serve as an additional investment product for mutual funds and also aid in increasing liquidity in the corporate bond market,” Sebi said in a consultation paper on Friday, inviting public comments by July 1.Sebi’s proposal comes after the RBI issued revised CDS framework 2022, which sought to increase the base of protection sellers including selling of protection by all major non-bank regulated entities, including MFs. ■ PAGE 14 WHILE WE DO KEEPAWATCH ON WHETHER CLOUDS ARE BUILDING UP OR CLEARING OUT IN THE DISTANT HORIZON, WE PLAYTHE GAME ACCORDING TO THE LOCALWEATHER AND PITCH CONDITIONS 13.2 7.8 7.6 SEBI PROPOSES TO RAISED TO 7.2%; INFLATION FORECAST OPEN CDS MARKET FOR MUTUAL FUNDS FOR THE FISCAL STAYS AT 4.5% apex bank revised the GDP growth forecast upwards to 7.2% for the current financial year from 7% earlier,but kept its outlook on inflation unchanged at 4.5%. “Globally, there are concerns that thelastmileofdisinflation might be protracted and arduous amidst continuing geopolitical conflicts, supply disruptions and commodity price volatility,”said Das. The stock market cheered the hike in GDP forecast, with theSensexrisingover 2% or 1,619 points, to the 76,693 level soon after the policy announcement. SHAKTIKANTA DAS, RBI GOVERNOR 13.8 ● FY25 GDP GROWTH PROJECTION Jun 3 Jun 4 Jun 5 Jun 6 NEWS 2024 June 3 FPI ($ mn) 824 FPI (` cr) 6,847 6 Continued on Page 14 June 4 -1,466 -12,24 -12,244 June 5 -31.1 IN THE -576 -4,804 June 6 -811 -6,771 June 7 527 4,3 4,391 DIIs (` cr) 1,914 -3,319 4,555 3,718 -1,290 PLATFORM AGGREGATES GENAI SERVICES INTO SINGLE INTERFACE TCS rolls out WisdomNext to reap first fruits of GenAI RAJESH KURUP Mumbai, June 7 WITH GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL intelligence (GenAI) — the new kid on the block — starting to gain ground, IT behemoth Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Friday launched a platform to accelerate the adoption of the technology. The platform, TCS AI WisdomNext, aggregates multiple GenAI services into a single interface and enables firms to rapidlyadopt nextgen technologies at scale and helps in lowering costs. It removes barriers for customers to develop and launch business solutions,and permits real-time experimentation across vendors and open-source large language models (LLMs). “While AI has been around for some time and GenAI is the newkid on the technology block; the combination of GenAI andAI is starting to materialise. Last year was all about organisations trying to understand this technology,where to use it and how good it is,” said Harrick Vin, chief technology officer at TCS. This will continue, he said,asdifferentorganisationshave experimented at different speed. “Scaling of the technology will take time, like cloud which took time to reach a scale. The adoption of GenAI will be much faster than that of many other technologies, but it will still take time. It’s not going to happen in six months or one year…,”Vin told FE on the sidelines of the platform launch. HARRICK VIN, CTO, TCS THEADOPTION OFGENAI WILLBE MUCH FASTER THAN MANYOTHER TECHNOLOGIES, BUTWILL STILLTAKETIME. IT’S NOT GOINGTO HAPPEN IN SIX MONTHS OR ONEYEAR According to Vin, on the GenAI front, companies are moving up the value chain from proof of concepts to production. The TCS AI WisdomNext plat- form offers pre-configured blueprints — with built-in guardrails to ensurecompliancewithregulations — for industry-specific solutions that use GenAI.Thesewould enable businesses from across the spectrum to use these blueprints to design and deploy AI solutions much faster. Siva Ganesan, head, AI.Cloud Unit at TCS, said: “The platform helps customers to unlock the full potential of theirdata,drive greater business innovation and efficiency, and gain a competitive edge”. TCS AI WisdomNext helps customers to harness the power of GenAI to solve business problems, Ganesan said,adding,the platform was showcased to its over 100 customers. The platform is seeing interest from across verticals such as BFSI, retail, consumer goods, travel,manufacturing,life sciences and healthcare,he added. Vin flagged two challenges in the implementation of GenAI. One is technical,as there are 100ways of implementing this technology or there are 1,000 use cases. “The question is, how does one design and build a solution?” The second is “change management”. Change management challenges basically relate to where should the data reside, who is able to do what with the data and what kind of models will get trained. Both challengeswill take time to get addressed,Vin added. TCS has already trained more than 300,000 employees in AI, its CEO and MD K Krithivasan had said earlier. TCS’ share price closed at `3,892.90,up 1.62% from the previous close,on the BSE on Friday. CHENNAI/KOCHI