BACK PAGE, P22 ECONOMY, P2 INTERNATIONAL, P21 STAR PERFORMER IN KEY CLASH PROJECT AMARAVATI MACRON CALLS SNAP ELECTIONS How ‘problem-solver’ Bumrah turned the Pak game on its head Cost of building TDP chief's 'city of future' doubles to `40,000 cr Far-right gains in EU poll deal stunning blows to France, Germany NEW DELHI, TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL. L NO. 85, 22 PAGES, `12.00 (PATNA & RAIPUR `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 A TA , 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: 76,490.06 ▼ 203.30 NIFTY: 23,259.20 ▼ 30.95 NIKKEI 225: 39,038.16 ▲ 354.23 HANG SENG: 18,366.95 ▼ 109.85 `/$: 83.51 ▼ 0.13 `/€: 89.72 ▲ 1.10 BRENT: $80.07 ▲ $0.45 GOLD: `70,855 ▼ `893 AMIT SHAH GETS HOME, RAJNATH DEFENCE, JAISHANKAR EAM KEY ECONOMIC PORTFOLIOS Modi retains A-team MANOJ CG New Delhi, June 10 PIYUSH GOYAL COMMERCE NIRMALA SITHARAMAN FINANCE JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA TELECOM NITIN GADKARI ROADS & HIGHWAYS SHIVRAJ SINGH CHOUHAN AGRICULTURE ASHWINI VAISHNAW RAILWAYS & IT MANOHAR LAL KHATTAR POWER K RAM MOHAN NAIDU CIVILAVIATION HARDEEP PURI PETROLEUM RESUME AND REFRESH rather than restart or reboot – this was the key signal from Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he allocated portfolios of his Council of Ministers on Monday evening, a day after the NDA government took oath for the third term. Reflecting continuity in critical areas where challenges and opportunities are enduring, there was no change in the Cabinet Committee on Security high table: Amit Shah was retained as Home Minister, Rajnath Singh as Defence Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman as Finance INSIDE Minister and S Jaishankar What lies as the ahead for External Modi’s team Affairs ■ PAGES 6, 7 & 8 Minister. This put to rest Edit: A speculation federal on whether consensus coalition ■ PAGE 9 compulsions would have a role to play in the composition of the CCS. This was also reinforced by the fact that the broad signal was continuity with change. The BJP has kept key portfolios including education, railways, road Statistical system set to be NEWS overhauled to better quality IN THE SUSPENDED BOARD OF JP ASSOCIATES MOVES NCLAT THE SUSPENDED BOARD of debt-ridden Jaiprakash Associates has moved appellate tribunal NCLAT challenging last week's NCLT order which directed initiation of insolvency proceedings against the firm, reports PTI. The petition was listed before a vacation bench of the NCLAT, which declined to grant an interim stay on the NCLT order. CORRECTION RESPONDING TO THE report “Panel proposes up to 50% assured pension,” published on June 10, the finance ministry has said the information is "factually incorrect and misleading.” We regret the error. PRIYANSH VERMA New Delhi, June 10 MINIMISING ERRORS THE NEW GOVERNMENT is likely tooverhaultheentirestatisticalsystem of the country,which includes undertakingadditionalsurveys,fixing data leakages, improving frequency of the survey releases and tweaking the methodologyof computing several macro-economic indicators,official sources told FE. “The entire overhaul of the statistical system is the top priority of the government,” an official said,adding thatsomeofthedecisionspertaining to the same are also part of the 100dayplanofthegovernment.“Thestatisticsministryhadearlierprepareda 100-dayplan,but it’s being reviewed atthemoment,”thepersonadded. One key proposal being considered is to minimise errors and discrepancies in the macro-economic indicators, which are released on a periodic basis. “he GDP (gross additional surveys, fixing data leakages, improving frequency of releases and tweaking methodology ■ The overhaul includes ■ One key proposal being considered is to minimise errors and discrepancies in the macro-economic indicators domestic product) and IIP(index of industrial data undergo significant revisions. We want to minimise that,” another official said.The statistics ministry is mulling on the changes that it should make in the extant data compilation and computation exercise for these two macro indicators. Besides, the ministry is consid- Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives to take charge at South Block in New Delhi on Monday transport and highways, besides agriculture, housing and urban affairs, rural development, petroleum and natural gas. Incidentally, the last four administer the government’s mainstay welfare schemes including PM Awaas. Under Nitin Gadkari’s watch, the BJP government had made significant strides in expansion of highways and road network. Gadkari has been retained as Road Transport and Highways minister. Indeed, as many as 2 ministers in the previous term have retained their portfolios. There is a big leg-up for the two former chief ministers and party veterans: Manohar Lal Khattar and Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Khattar has been given housing and urban affairs and power while Chouhan has got agriculture and farmers welfare PTI and rural development. Under Chouhan’s watch as CM of Madhya Pradesh, during 201314 to 2022-23, the state’s farm sector registered an average annual growth of 6.1%. That’s more than the national average of 3.9% for these 10 years. The state’s gross cropped area (GCA) too had gone up by 48.7%. Continued on Page 11 Cabinet nod to 30 mn Cognizant to acquire houses under PMAY Belcan for $1.3 bn FE BUREAU New Delhi, June 10 MILANAVINN June 10 ering undertaking a quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS),an indicator for unemployment, for rural areas, an official said. Currently, rural unemployment is part of the Annual PLFS exercise and only urban unemployment is reflected in the quarterlyPLFS data. THE FIRST CABINET meeting of the Modi 3.0 government on Monday approved assistance to construct 30 million additional rural and urban houses under Pradhan MantriAwasYojana (PMAY). It has been decided in the Cabinet meeting to provide assistanceto30millionadditionalruralandurbanhouseholds for the construction of houses,to meet the housing requirements arising out of the increase in the numberof eligiblefamilies,asourcesaid. The details of the financial assisINSIDE tanceundertheschemescouldnotbe ascertainedimmediately. Farmers The Centre is implementing Pradset to get hanMantriAwasYojanasince2015-16 `20K cr to provide assistance to the eligible ■ PAGE 2 rural and urban households for construction of houseswith basic amenities.UnderPMAY,total42.1millionhouseshavebeencompleted for the eligible poor families under the housing schemesinthelast10years.Allthehousesconstructedunder PMAYare provided the basic amenities such as household toilets,LPGconnection,electricityconnectionandfunctional householdtapconnectionthroughconvergencewithother schemesofcentralgovernmentandstategovernments. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES provider CognizantTechnologiessaidonMondayithasagreedto acquire digital engineering firm Belcan for nearly $1.3 billion in cash and stock. The deal would expand Teaneck, New Jersey-based Cognizant'sfootprintintheaerospace,defence,spaceand automotive sectors. Cincinnati-based Belcan,which has beenownedbyprivateequityfirmAE Industrial Partners since 2015, employs 60,000 people across60locationsglobally.Someofits clientsincludeBoeing,GeneralMotors, Rolls-Royce,the US space agencyNasa and the US Navy. "I'm excited about the fact that Belkan operates in a sector(aerospace and defence) which is actually growing fasterthan the sectorwe are operating in,which is IT services. So, it gives us an opportunity to evolve on that growth," Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar said in an interview with Reuters."The capabilities that Belcan has - which is engineering,and which is in aerospace - can actually be cross-pollinated into the Cognizant strength area, which is primarily industrial manufacturing and automotive. Continued on Page 11 Continued on Page 11 Continued on Page 11 ■ The statistics ministry is mulling on the changes that it should make in the extant data compilation and computation exercise for GDP & IIP ■ It is also considering undertaking a quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), an indicator for unemployment, for rural areas New Delhi