KOCHI, TUESDAY, JULY 16, 2024 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE VOL NO. XLV 60, 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 WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD SENSEX: 80,664.88 ▲ 145.54 NIFTY: 24,586.70 ▲ 84.55 NIKKEI 225: 41,190.68 ▼ 1,033.34 HANG SENG: 18,015.94 ▼ 277.44 `/$: 83.60 ▼ 0.07 `/€: 91.23 ▼ 0.30 BRENT: $85.07 ▲ $0.04 GOLD: `73,011 ▲ `268 LONG-TERM LEASING OF RAILWAY STATIONS TO PICK UP HUL to sell Pureit to AO Smith India for `601 crore Monetisation target set to be raised to `10 trn Plan for FY26-30 to include leasing out of metro networks PRASANTA SAHU New Delhi, July 15 THE CENTRE IS likely to set an ambitious target of `10 trillion for the secondphaseoftheNationalMonetisation Pipeline(NMP-II),tobeimplementedin the five years ending FY30. “The highways, mining, power and petroleum sectors will take the lead in (monetisation of) assets in the second phase, while metro rail networks in major cities will give an impetus to the asset recycling for the first time,” a senior official said. The first phase of NMP, unveiled in FY22, had set an ambitious `6-trillion asset recycling target for four years up HIGHWAYS, POWER, MINING FOCUS AREAS Pace satisfactory; private capex in mining a key driver `6 trillion Monetisation goal under NMP-1 (FY22-25) `3.85 trillion Achievement in FY22-24 `2 trillion 90% NMP-1 achievement in the first three years Target for FY25 to FY25 through monetisation (longterm leasing) of brownfield assets in sectors such as roads, mining, power, petroleum and airports. Despite the railway sector lagging far behind the target, the NMP-1 achievement has been `3.85 trillion, or 90% of the `4.3 trillion targeted in the first three years. Thiswasmainlyduetothehigher-thanexpected revenues from the coal and mining sectors in terms of upfront revenues as well as via revenue sharing from operations.Even capex by private parties was included as receipts. Continued on Page 6 HINDUSTAN UNILEVER (HUL) on Monday announced the sale of its water purifier business, Pureit,totheIndiansubsidiaryofAmerican major AO Smith for `601 crore ($72 million), reports Viveat Susan Pinto. HUL MD & CEO Rohit Jawa said the sale was in line with the company’s strategic intent to focus sharply on its core categories. ■ Page 4 Sectoral, thematic funds see fourfold increase in inflows THEMATICAND SECTORAL funds have become the flavour of the season with both fund houses and investors,registering overfourfold rise in monthly inflows over the past six months and drawing more than 55% of the total equityinvestments in June, reports Akshata Gorde. Last month alone,ninenewfundofferings raisedas much as `12,974 crore. ■ Page 7 We’re way beyond caller ID: Truecaller JATIN GROVER New Delhi, July 15 TRUECALLER’S CAPABILITIES GO much beyond just caller identification (ID) and the company does not consider as threat the government’s calling name presentation (CNAP) service for which the telecom operators have started doing trials.“Our services can coexist with CNAP,” Rishit Jhunjhunwala,chief product officerand managing director of Truecaller India,told FE in an interview. “Truecaller is now also telling users why somebody is calling, telling them what otherpeople are saying about this caller,andwhetherthis call is a scam or fraud,”Jhunjhunwala said,adding that the company’s offering has enough 74% SALES FROM INDIA ■ India is the largest market forTruecaller contributing about 74% ofthe company's total sales globally ■ Out of its monthly active user base of 383.4 million as of March-end, 272.6 million users were in India alone value in a consumer's life beyond just showing KYC-based caller ID to users, on which the government’s CNAP service is based. Truecaller shows spam statistics with a red colour on the screen of users to help them identify RISHITJHUNJHUNWALA, MD, TRUECALLER INDIA IT IS A MISCONCEPTION THAT ONCE USERS INSTALL TRUECALLER, WE TAKE THEIR PHONE BOOK AND THAT IS THE DATATHAT POWERS SEARCH RESULTS. THAT’S NOTTRUE the call is from a spamster. The same feature is not present in CNAP. His confidence stems from the experience of a similar feature being rolled out by governments in countries like the US, Canada and the UAE, and easy existence of Truecaller in those areas. India is the largest market for Truecaller contributing about 74% of the company's total sales globally. Of the company’s total monthly active user base of 383.4 million as of March-end, 272.6 million users were in India alone. Owing to the traction in Truecaller for Business offering, increased number of users, new ad formats, and ad income from the Indian Premier League (IPL) season, the company reported an 8% year-on-year (y-o-y) increase in sales from India operations at around `244 crore in the JanuaryMarch quarter. Continued on Page 6 KOCHI