OPINION, P10 FE LINES WELL BEING Not Modi 3.0,but Modi 2.1 Desi social media copycats THE TRUE YOGA With modern twists, is yoga losing its essence? Page 9 Survival tough for Indian apps aping social media giants Page 6 ACROSS THE AISLE , P CHIDAMBARAM LEISURE Follow us on Twitter & Facebook. App available on App Store & Play Store WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM VOL. XX, NO. 42 RAINBOW IS IN FASHION FINANCIAL EXPRESS ON SUNDAY KOLKATA SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 2024, 14 Pages, `12 (NE States & Andaman `13) 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 , WHAT'S INSIDE C H A N D I G A R H , C H E N N A I , `5,900 cr by 2028 SOCIALMEDIAIS full ofvideos of the ■ WORDS WORTH, P4 Socialised risk In his new book, Ruchir Sharma argues capitalism is ruined unless governments stop stimulating during recoveries FE BUREAU Chennai, June 15 MOTOR INDIA has filed draft documents with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for an initial public offering (IPO),which could become the country’s largest public issue when listed. The much-anticipated public issue will be purely an offer for sale, with the parent company, South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Company, offloading 142 million equity shares of the face value of `10 each. As per the draft papers, Hyundai Motor Company currently holds 813 million equity shares in the Indian entity. The offer for sale would see the company divesting up to 17.5% stake. Up to 50% of the issue is reserved for qualified institutional buyers (including anchor investors),35% forretail investors, and the remaining fornon-institutional investors. The draft prospectus did not have details of the IPO pricing or valuation. But as per reports, WHEELS IN MOTION ■ Hyundai Motor likely to raise $2.5 bn$3 bn at up to $30-bn valuation ■ Up to 50% of issue is ■ Korean auto major currently holds 812 mn equity shares in Indian arm 35% for retail inv- estors; remaireserved for ning for nonqualified insti- institutional tutional buyers investors the company aims to raise $2.5 billion-$3 billion, or around `25,000 crore,at a valuation of up to $30 billion. Continued on Page 2 K O L K A T A , 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 holy destinations up 97% in 2 years in these cities ■ Hospitality majors on a signing spree in places like Katra, Puri and Ayodhya and permanent jobs by 2030 ■ Religious destinations earned `1.34 trn in 2022, up from `65,070 cr in 2021 from tier 2 and 3 cities saw a record-breaking influx of 9.56 million pilgrims. All hospitality majorsareonasigningspreeforreligiousdestinationslikeKatra,Puriand Residents of tier 2 and 3 cities are especially embracing spiritual journeys,with searches for destinations with oraround religious spots growing 97% in the last two years (2023 vs 2021),data from the India Travel Trends Report by MakeMyTrip showed. Searches for Ayodhya grew by585%,Ujjainby359%andBadrinath by 343% in 2023 compared with 2022, according to the report. Badrinath showed a 343% surge, Amarnath 329%,Kedarnath 322%, Mathura 223%, Dwarkadhish 193%, Shirdi 181%, Haridwar 117%,andBodh Gaya 114%. ■ Searches related to Ayodhya.Such is the surge that religious tourism alone is expected to generatearevenueof`5,900croreby 2028, creating 140 million tempo- CONSULTATIONS SOON, SAYS MINISTER Data protection rules in advanced stage: Vaishnaw not give any timeline. Simultaneously, the government is working on creating a digital-by-design platform for implementation of the Act in a digital form.The platform will be created by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Digital India Corporation (DIC). Asked about the framework of the DigJATIN GROVER ital India Bill,Vaishnaw said,“The thought New Delhi, June 15 process of creating a new digital frameELECTRONICS AND IT MINISTER Ashwini work stays absolutely intact.The horizonVaishnaw on Saturday said the govern- tals, which are the telecom Act, the DPDP ment will not rush the process of framing Act, and the Digital India Act, that structure remains intact.” rules for the Digital PerA focus on electronics sonal Data Protection ASHWINI VAISHNAW, manufacturing by (DPDP) Act, but will ELECTRONICS & IT MINISTER developing the compofollow an extensive connents ecosystem is also sultation process. on the government’s The Union minister agenda. “We will have a said the drafting of rules THE COUNTRY IS clear picture on the comis in an advanced stage GETTING INTO THE ponent manufacturing and the government will DIRECTION OF plans in the next start industry consultathree-four months,” tions for it soon. BECOMING A BIG Vaishnaw said, adding The comments from ELECTRONICS that the country is headVaishnaw assume signifMANUFACTURER ing in the direction of icance, as though the becoming a big electronDPDPAct came into exisics manufacturer. tence in August last year, THE THOUGHT Currently, India has its implementation by an electronics manufacthe data fiduciaries was PROCESS OF turing industry of about dependent on the rules. CREATING A $130 billion, with an Industry stakeholdNEW DIGITAL employment generation ers have raised concerns of about 2 million.“Durover exemptions to the FRAMEWORK STAYS ing this term, I can see us government in the Act, ABSOLUTELY INTACT achieving a 5-million transition period for employment number startups and other with about $250-billion companies to implemanufacturing,” Vaishment the Act, composinaw said. tion of the data protecThe minister further tion board, and consent said the approach is to mechanism for dealing become an export hub, with children data, starting with smartamong other issues. phones.Inothercategories “Whatever extensive such as laptops and consultation is required servers,hesaidthecompafor rule-making,we will nies approved under the do that,similar to the IThardwareproductionway we did for the linked incentive (PLI) telecom Act and scheme have already DPDP Act,” Vaishstarted domestic naw told reporters. production. He, however, did ● Focus on electronic parts manufacturing also on govt agenda Hyundai files for mega IPO, likely India’s biggest HYUNDAI K O C H I , ■ Increased interest especially rush at Kedarnath.The long offline registration centres for the Char Dham yatra in Haridwar and Rishikesharenodifferent,whereover 1.4 million have already visited,and average registrations a week cross 25,000.This year in March,Varanasi Equipped with new-age tech and online tools, spiritual gurus are effectively harnessing the power of social media to broaden their reach, spread ideas and also grab a slice of the entrepreneurship pie H Y D E R A B A D , THE HOLYTRAIL ● High demand for ■ Religious ■ To create religious tourism as tourism expected 140 mn pilgrimages also peak to generate temporary VAISHALI DAR New Delhi, June 15 Rise of the ‘monk-fluencers’ READ TO LEAD This summer, travellers choose to go spiritual revenue of ■ SPOTLIGHT, P5 Special merchandise celebrating the LGBTQ community is diverse and all-weather Page 7 raryand permanentjobs by2030. Travel companies show similar trends,withamassiveriseinsearches and bookings for religious tourism. Continued on Page 2 ● YOGA BY THE COAST Personnel of the Western Fleet, the 'Sword Arm' of the Indian Navy, perform yoga on Saturday, ahead of the International Day of Yoga PTI 250 sleeper Vande Bharats by 2029 MANU KAUSHIK New Delhi, June 15 Minister admits withdrawing train ticket concessions impacted poll results RAILWAYS MINISTER Ashwini VaishnawonSaturdaysaid the Indian Railways will start trials of Vande Bharat sleeper trains in the next two months and operations of these trains will likely start six months after the trials. The Vande Bharat sleeper class trains are self-propelled trains that will offer superior features than Rajdhani Express trains. “We are going to have about 250 of these trains by 2029,” Vaishnaw said. Commenting on the weak financial condition of the national transporter,the minister said a major reason is heavy subsidising of tickets. “In a normal scenario, if the cost of a product is `100,wewouldsellitat`105110.Butinthecaseofrailtickets, the government is paying `55 from its pocket. The annual subsidy burden of the government is `59,000 crore,”he said. Continued on Page 2 Mid, smallcaps shine post poll outcome RISING FOR eight consecutive days, the BSE Midcap Index and Smallcap Index recorded gains ofover 13% each postelection results, outperforming the benchmark Sensex and Nifty,which rose by nearly 7% each.Telecom, realty and industrialswere among the top gainers, rising over 13% each betweenJune 5 andJune 14.All the BSE Midcap Index members turned gainers during the period , while only 14 ofthe 998 BSE Smallcap Index constituentswere losers. —Kishor Kadam Sensex Nifty 115 112 109 106 103 100 97 BSE Midcap Index BSE Smallcap Index Relative performance Base: June 4, 2024 = 100 June 4, 2024 June 14 Top sectoral gainers (%*) Telecom Realty Oracle 30.4 Financial LIC Housing Finance 27.0 Vodafone 26.5 Idea BHEL 24.2 Aditya Birla 23.8 Fashion Top smallcap gainers (%*) PTC Inds 16.8 79.0 IFB Inds 51.0 15.5 Industrials Top midcap gainers (%*) 14.3 Mazagon Dock 44.6 Services 13.2 GTL Infra 43.3 Capital goods 13.0 Bajaj Hindusthan 42.5 *between June 4 and June 14 IN THE N E W S Maruti’s Swift reclaims pole position in May with new avatar G7 LEADERS BACKED FAIRER GLOBALTAX SYSTEM: ITALIAN PM LEADERS OF THE Group of Seven gave strong political support for a fairer international taxation system, based on a global minimum tax, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday. Speaking at the end of the G7 summit, Meloni said a multilateral convention on a global minimum tax was ready to be signed off at a technical level. "It is now up to countries to express their political will. Italy's (support) is there and I hope it will be done as soon as possible," Meloni said. ■ PAGE 14 VIKRAM CHAUDHARY New Delhi, June 15 MARUTI SUZUKI'S SWIFT regained its numero uno position in May, selling the most number of units during the month, on the back of the launch of an all-new model. The hatchback model was the country’s largest selling car in 2023, but lost the position with sales dropping beginning January. Maruti launched a refurbished variant in May, which sawsales of around 19,393 in just 23 days of the month — May 9-May 31. Tata Punch,a micro-SUV,was at the second position during the month, having sold 18,949 units, followed by Maruti Suzuki Dzire, a sedan,with 16,061 units. THE TOP SELLERS 19,393 18,949 Maruti Swift Tata Punch (units sold in May) 16,061 14,662 14,492 Maruti Suzuki Dzire Hyundai Creta Maruti Suzuki Wagon R ■ Swift was the country's largest selling car in 2023 ■ Lost the spot as sales dwindled startingJanuary ■ Revampedversion launched in May ■ New model's fuel efficiency helped woo buyers At the fourth position was Hyundai Creta,a midsize SUV,having sold 14,662 units, and then Maruti Suzuki Wagon R (14,492). The sixth to 10th positions were taken by Maruti Suzuki Brezza (14,186 units),Maruti Suzuki Ertiga (13,893),MahindraScorpio(13,717), Maruti Suzuki Baleno (12,842),and MarutiSuzuki Fronx (12,681). Tata Nexon — India’s largest sellingcarinFY23andFY22,andfeaturinginthemonthlytop10overthelast manyyears—waspushedtothe11th position,with 11,457 units sold. “If the all-new Swift was launched a couple of days before May 9, it could have broken the 20,000-barrierinMay,”anautomotive analyst told FE.“It proves that even in this age of SUVs, a good hatchback enjoys solid demand.” The analyst added thatword-ofmouth onfuelefficiencyworkedfor the all-new Swift. “The claimed fuel efficiency of the Swift AMT is 25.75 km/litre (14% better than the previous model, which returned 22.56 km/litre),andthatoftheSwiftmanual gearbox is 24.8 km/litre (11% better than the previous model’s 22.38 km/litre),” he said, adding: “These are insane numbers, even better than some hybrid cars. In comparison, an SUV such as the Punch returns just 20.09 km/litre in MT and 18.8 km/litre in AMT.” Despite the craze for SUVs, fuel efficiency is still valued, said GauravVangaal,associate director,light vehicle forecasting, S&P Global Mobility.“SUVs have been attracting people to car showrooms, but buying decisions aren’t made just by body style. Buyers consider many factors before taking a decision and fuel efficiency is still a big factor,”he added.“The Swift has an aggressive design and very good fuel efficiency.” Som Kapoor, EY India automotive, future of mobility leader (consulting), and partner, told FE that the shape of the car of the future cannot be only SUVs.“There will be SUV fatigue, going forward. Premium hatchbacks that are loaded withfeaturesonthedashboard,and offer you SUV-like styling, enjoy gooddemand.Therearealwayscustomers who want a hatchback that offersallfeaturesofasmallSUV,but is far easier to manoeuvre in congested areas,”Kapoor said. Continued on Page 2 Kolkata