POLITICS, P22 COMPANIES, P4 INTERNATIONAL, P7 OTHER APPOINTMENTS LATER TOPS GEMS & JEWELLERY IN APRIL-MAY US ESPIONAGE CHARGE Rahul Gandhi to be leader of Oppn in Lok Sabha Apple, Samsung drive electronics to grab third spot in exports Wikileaks founder Assange set to walk free after plea deal BENGALURU, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XXXVII 56, 36 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: 78,053.52 ▲ 712.44 NIFTY: 23,721.30 ▲ 183.45 NIKKEI 225: 39,173.15 ▲ 368.50 HANG SENG: 18,072.90 ▲ 45.19 `/$: 83.43 ▲ 0.04 `/€: 89.48 ▲ 0.02 BRENT: $85.57 ▼ $0.44 GOLD: `71,580 ▲ `128 NEW DELHI and Moscow are exploring a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 8-9. Sources said preparations are underway, but there has been no official confirmation from either side about the visit. ■ PAGE 3 SEBI MAYTIGHTEN F&O, FINFLUENCERS RULES TOMORROW SEBI MAYTIGHTEN rules for stocks to be eligible for derivatives trading and ask brokers and MFs to stop enlisting unregistered financial influencers at its board meeting on Thursday, reports Reuters. ■ PAGE 6 WATER CRISIS CAN WEIGH ON INDIA SOVEREIGN CREDIT AMID RAPID ECONOMIC growth and climate change, the worsening water crisis can hit India’s sovereign credit strength, Moody’s Ratings said on Tuesday, reports fe Bureau. ■ PAGE 3 QIP FUNDRAISING MAY HITA NEW HIGH IN FY2, SAY EXPERTS INDIA INC IS going the whole hog with fundraising plans through QIPs to meet expansion plans, reports Narayanan V. In less than two months, Indian firms have secured board approvals to raise over `60,000 crore through primary issues via QIPs. ■ PAGE 6 FE S P E C I A L S Nifty crosses 23,700 TERIFFIC TUESDAY to a new record high Sensex 0.92% VIVEK KUMAR M Mumbai, June 25 BENCHMARK INDICES SET fresh record highs on Tuesday as shares of private banks rallied by2-4%.While theSensexcrossed78,000points,the Nifty topped 23,700. At the close, Sensex was up 0.9% at 78,053.52 points and the Nifty rose 0.8% to 23,721.30 points.The Sensex took just 10 trading session for the last 1,000 points – same as it had taken between 76,000 and 77,000 points. The banking sector was among the top gainers with heavyweights HDFCBank,ICICIBankandAxisBank together contributing to around 75% of Sensex’s gains.The Nifty Bankindex,too,jumped1.7%torecord high closing level of 52,606 points. However, the overall market breadth was negative as the broader market indices saw profit booking. While the BSE Midcap index fell 0.3%,theBSESmallcapindexended marginally lower.In the Nifty index, 25 stocks ended higher, 24 fell and onewas unchanged. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) remained buyers for the twelfth session in a row, with the provisional 77,529.19 Some award-winning campaigns from this year’s festival ■ BRANDWAGON, P9 Why is Ozempic under the lens? WHO has issued an alert on counterfeit Ozempic. A look at why this drug has spawned a counterfeit market ■ EXPLAINER, P9 First-time hit on Days taken Dec 15, 2023 Close 78,053.52 June 25 (Open) 4 70K-71K Dec 27, 2023 7 71K-72K Jan 15, 2024 June 24 (close) Bank Nifty, Intra-day Mar 6, 2024 Nifty, Intra-day June 25 (Open) 52,606 Close 23,721.3 Close 21 74K-75K 31 75K-76K 51,703.95 June 24 Apr 9, 2024 May 27, 2024 June 24 23,537.85 36 73K-74K 51,759.45 23,577.10 June 25 (Open) 13 72K-73K 77,341.08 Top sensex gainers (%) Jun 10, 2024 3.4 2.5 2.3 Axis Bank ICICI Bank HDFC Tech Bank Mahindra 1.8 1.6 L&T datashowingthattheyboughtshares worth `1,175.91 crore on Tuesday. Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were sellers for the third timein the last foursessions. “Weareseeingsectorrotationand portfolio rebalancing in the market, 10 76K-77K Jun 25, 2024 10 77K-78K withinvestorsfavouringfundamentally good companies, especially largecaps,that underperformed last year,” said Dhiraj Relli, MD & CEO, HDFC Securities. Continued on Page 22 ICICI Bank is 6th company e-rupee transactions slip to hit $100-bn market cap after meeting RBI target ICICI BANK’S MARKET capitalisation on Tuesday crossedthe$100-billionmarkforthefirsttime,making it sixth company to achieve this milestone, reports Sachin Kumar.After hitting a record high, the bank’s shares closed at `1,199,up 2.5 %,valuing the firm at `8.44 trillion ($101 billion). ■ Page 6 USAGEOFTHEe-rupeehasslumpedtojustatenthof the peak hit in December, reports Reuters.The RBI started a pilot for the e-rupee, devised as a digital alternative to physical cash,in December 2022,and successfullyreachedatargetof1millionretailtransactions per day by December 2023. Adani Group plans to invest `1.3 trn in FY25, says CFO RAGHAVENDRA KAMATH Ahmedabad, June 25 Cannes Lions: Creativity counts SENSEX MILESTONES FY25 BY NUMBERS THE ADANI GROUP plans to invest `1.3 trillion in FY25 across its businesses, said Jugeshinder ‘Robbie’ Singh,group chief financial officer, onTuesday.Bulkoftheinvestments will be made INSIDE in the airport green $2-trn green and sector, energy energy plan added Singh. by 2030 The fund■ PAGE 4 ing plan for these projects includes raising equitycapital of up to $3 billion (`25,000 crore) across Adani Enterprises and other group portfolio companies,he said. Adani Enterprises and Adani Transmission have already taken shareholders’ clearances to sell shares to investors. The group is planning to refinance debt worth Green will spend about ■ Of the total, Adani `34,000 cr ■ To refinance ■ Plans to raise mn $3-4 bn $500project in of its loans in FY25 financing ■ The group plans to raise up to $3 bn in equity JUGESHINDER SINGH, GROUP CFO, ADANI GROUP SOME SEBI NOTICES ARE TRIVIAL. THEY COULDN'T FIND ANYTHING $3 billion in the ongoing year. At the media briefing, the CFO also deemed some of the notices sent by market regulator Sebi last month to group firms, citing alleged regulatory lapses, as “trivial” in nature. “Some (notices) are trivial,” the CFO said. Continued on Page 22 PRIVATE CAPEX CHAMPIONS - III SWARAJ BAGGONKAR Mumbai, June 25 THE COUNTRY'S AUTO companies havetakenthesuperfasttrackonthe roadtoexpansion.Inanindicationof how confident they are about the demand trajectory, they have committed close to `3-trillion investments in the next 7-10 years. Crisil estimatesthataround`85,000crore willbespentbyFY26.That’sabout1.6 times the investment of `53,000 crore inthelastthreefinancialyears. The spends are not surprising given that Crisil estimates demand for passenger vehicles to grow at a compound 4.5-6.5% between FY24 and FY29 to reach 5.2-5.7 million units. Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming increasingly popular – sales in FY24 at 1.67 million were 21% higherthan in FY23. The Tata Motors management expects commercialvehicle (CV)volumes to grow at a compound 4-5% $-3 TRN INVESTMENT PLAN ON THE ROAD Company Investment (in ` cr) over the next 5 years.It also believes the CV industry is likely to be less cyclical now as there are no major newregulationsexpected.RishiVora, analyst at Kotak Institutional Equities(KIE),believesCVvolumeswould be led by a 5% compound growth in M&HCVsandacompound7%CAGR inLCVvolumes,takingthecombined growth rate to 6% overFY24-27. Telcos place bids worth `11,164 cr JATIN GROVER New Delhi, June 25 ON THE FIRST day of the spectrum auctions onTuesday,telecom operators Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea placed bids worth `11,164 crore against airwaves worth `96,000 crore put up for sale. This means of the total spectrum of 10,523 MHz on sale,only 131 MHz or 1.2% got sold on the first day, which sawfive rounds of bidding. However, with demand seen in the 1800 MHz band in West Bengal,Bihar,MP,and UP (East) circles; 900 MHz in Punjab, Rajasthan, UP (East) andWest Bengal; and in 2100 MHz inAssam,J&Kand North-East, the auction is expected to continue for a few more days. While the proceeds are higher than the government’s internal estimate of around `10,000 crore, it’s nearer the lower band of estimate of around `14,000crore byanalysts. The maximum action was seen inthe900MHzbandwithtotalbids worth `7,004 crore, followed by `3,614croreinthe1800MHzband and `546 crore in the 2100 MHz band. In the 900 MHz band, a total of 60.4 MHz spectrum was sold. In the 1800 MHz band, 50.6 MHz spectrumwassold,whereas20MHz was sold in 2100 MHz. until FY31 until FY33 until FY30 until FY27 Unspecified Unspecified until FY26 until FY27 unspecified unspecified until FY30 until FY29 FY25 FY25 Source: Company disclosures Day 1 of spectrum auction Only 131 MHz out of 10,523 MHz sold Period Maruti Suzuki 125,000 Hyundai Motor India 32,000 Tata Motors (EV) 16,000-18000 Mahindra & Mahindra 26,000 Vinfast 4,200 ($500 million) Ola Electric 7,614 Toyota Kirloskar 3,300 Kia India (EV) 2,000 JSW MG Motor India 5,000 JSW Group 40,000 Stellantis 2,000 Renault Nissan 5,300 TVS Motor Company 1,000 Bajaj Auto 800 ALL IN A DAY 900 MHz MOSCOW & DELHI WORK ON MODI’S VISITTO RUSSIA Sensex tops 78,000 Automakers taking the fast lane on expansion Revenue: `7,004 cr Spectrum sold: 60.4 MHz 1800 MHz NEWS PRIVATE BANKS’ SHARES RALLY BY UP TO 4% Revenue: `3,614 cr Spectrum sold: 50.6 MHz 2100 MHz IN THE Revenue: `546 cr Spectrum sold: 20 MHz While the 10-year growth rate for two-wheelers has been a compound 2%, demand is expected to pick up on the back of a rural recovery.TVS believes the uptick in rural demand could benefit not just the entrylevelbutalsotheexecutiveand premium segments. Continued on Page 22 New index may soon rank states on welfare of workers PRIYANSH VERMA New Delhi, June 25 All the spectrum were sold at reserve prices except for circles in Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and UP (East) in the 1800 MHz band. In the 900 MHz band, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP (East) and West Bengal saw spectrum prices exceedingreserverates.Inthe2100 MHz band, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, and North-East saw bidding above the reserve price. THE CENTRE IS developing a“Labour Welfare and Employment Index” (LWEI), which would rank states/UTs on parameters of employment, labour welfare, social security coverage and productivity. The aim is to encourage “healthy competition” between the states andenhanceeaseofdoingbusiness, official sources told FE. The labour ministry is likely to unveil the LWEI in a fewweeks after consultations with the states, NITI Aayog, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and otherUnion ministries,the sources added. An official said the index would ensure uniformity in labour laws’ implementation across states and will have the broader objective of improving welfare of workers. The plan may be announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharman in her Budget speech, set to be presented in the fourth week of July. Globally, the Labour Rights Index is a comparative tool and an international qualification standard that allows users to compare labour legislation around the world, encompassing markets in 135 countries. Continued on Page 22 Continued on Page 22 ■ No bidswere placed for spectrum in other bands Circles where spectrum prices exceeded reserve prices: ■ 1800 MHz: Bihar, MP, UP(E),WB ■ 900 MHz: Punjab, Rajasthan, UP(E),WB ■ 2100 MHz: Assam,J&K, NE RECRUITERS SEE TRADITIONAL JEWELLERY, BABIES, ABSENTEEISM AS 'RISK FACTORS' Foxconn’s Chennai iPhone factory hangs up on married women PRAVEEN PARAMASIVAM, MUNSIFVENGATTIL & ADITYA KALRA Sriperumbudur, June 25 THE TWO WOMEN standing near the entrance to the iPhone factory in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, were upset.Parvathi and Janaki,sisters in their 20s, had come to the plant, run by major Apple supplier Foxconn, for interviews in March 2023 after seeing job ads on WhatsApp. But they had been turned away at the main gate by a security officer who stopped them and asked:“Are you married?” “We didn't get the jobs aswe both aremarried,” Parvathilatersaidinan interviewat hervillage shanty.“Even theauto-rickshawdriverwhotookus from the bus stand to the Foxconn facility told us they wouldn't take married women,” she added. “We thoughtwewould still give it a shot.” AReutersinvestigationhasfound that Foxconn has systematically excludedmarriedwomenfromjobs at its main India iPhone assembly plant, on the groundstheyhavemore family responsibilities than their unmarried counterparts. S Paul, a former HR executive at Foxconn India, said the recruitmentrulesareverbally conveyed to agencies, which Foxconn tasks with scouting for candidates, bringing them in for interviews and employing them. Foxconn typically doesn’t hire married womenbecauseof“cultural issues” and societal pressures,saidPaul,whosaidheleft the company in 2023 for a betterpayingroleat a consultingfirm.The view was that there were “many PHOTOS: REUTERS INSIDE Wipro's female workforce declines by 22,490 PAGE 5 Third-party recruiters say jewellery (inset) worn by married women could interfere with production; (centre) job aspirants talk with a hiring agent outside the Foxconn plant in Sriperumbudur; (above) a job ad posted on YouTube by recruiter Cumans, a third-party vendor used by Foxconn, in July 2023 issues post-marriage”, Paul added. Among them: Women “have babies after marriage”. “Risk factors increase when you hire married women,”he said. Paul’s account was corroborated by 17 employees from over a dozen Foxconn hiring agencies, and four current and former HR executives. Twelveofthesesourcesspokeoncondition of anonymity.The agents and the Foxconn HRsources cited family duties,pregnancyand higherabsenteeism as reasons why married women were not hired at the plant. Many of these people also said jew- ellerywornbymarriedHinduwomen could interferewith production. Thebanisn’tabsolute.Threeformer Foxconn HR executives told Reuters that the manufacturer relaxes the practice of not hiring married women during high-production periods when it sometimes faces labour shortages. In some cases, hiring agencies help female candidatesconcealtheirmaritalstatus to secure jobs,Reuters found. In response to questions from Reuters,AppleandFoxconnacknowledged lapses in hiring practices in 2022 and said they had worked to address the issues. Continued on Page 7 BENGALURU