https://t.
me/srikakulam
SATURDAY, 8 APRIL 2017
20 pages in 2 sections
MUMBAI (CITY)
~9.00
VOLUME IV NUMBER 36
THE MARKETS ON FRIDAY
Sensex 29,706.61
Nifty 9,198.30
Nifty Futures* 9,211.45
Dollar
Euro
~64.28
~68.33
Brent crude ($/bbl) 54.19##
Gold (10 gm)### ~28,775.00
*(Apr.) Premium on Nifty Spot; **Previous close;
# Over previous close; ## At 9 pm IST;
### Market rate exclusive of VAT; Source: IBJA
TAXMEN CONDUCT RAIDS
ON SHELL FIRMS ACROSS
THE COUNTRY
The income tax department on Friday
launched multiple raids in various
prominent cities against shell company
operations on charges of alleged black
money generation worth over ~100 crore.
This is the second day the taxman has
undertaken countrywide searches after
the black money declaration window of
the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana
closed on March 31. 5>
ECONOMY & PUBLIC AFFAIRS P5
Top pharma firms get
notices for overcharging
TheNationalPharmaceuticalPricingAuthority
hasissuedpreliminarynoticestoseveral
pharmaceuticalcompaniesfor613casesofover-
charging.Theofficeorder,issuedonFriday,said
companieswhichhadbeenfoundovercharging
includedSunPharmaceuticals,DrReddys
Laboratories,GlaxoSmithKline,Abbott,Zydus
Cadila,Wockhardt,Cipla,Lupin,amongothers.
CHANGE OF GUARD
Subrahmanyan to be
L&T CEO from July 1
Engineering conglomerate Larsen &
Toubro (L&T) on Friday paved the way for
S N Subrahmanyan to take reins as the
groups new managing director and chief
executive officer in July. Subrahmanyan
joined L&T in 1984 and was inducted into
the L&T board in 2011.
I WILL TRY TO SPEAK LESS
AND WORK MORE AND TRY TO
BE MORE EFFICIENT
S N Subrahmanyan
CEO-designate, L&T
THE BIGGEST GAIN IS THAT FROM
ZERO, WE (EMPLOYEES) BECAME
OWNERS OF THE COMPANY
A M Naik, Outgoing group
executive chairman, L&T
COMPANIES P4
Minority shareholders
clear Grasim-Nuvo merger
MinorityshareholdersofGrasimIndustries
approvedthemergerproposalwithAdityaBirla
Nuvoinashareholdersmeetingheldon
ThursdayinNagda,MadhyaPradesh,shrugging
offconcernsfromadvisoryfirmsandlarge
investorsthatthemergerwasabadmove.
MARKETS P6
About 74% remonetisation
complete by March-end
BytheendofMarch2017,thecurrencyin
circulationhadreached74.3percentofthelevel
prevailingpriortodemonetisation.Thepaceof
growthinthecurrencyincirculationhad
moderatedforfourweeksinMarch,whensome
citieshadwitnesseddifficultyincash
withdrawalsatATMs.Thecurrencyincirculation
fortheweekendedMarch31,2017,roseby1.7per
centto~13,35,270croreoverthepreviousweek.
BACK PAGE P12
Arnies army remembers
a most revered hero
Arnold Palmer is not there
anymore, but he is
everywhere. Tens of
thousands of patrons
(spectators at the Masters)
sported a large button which
proudly declared I am a
member of Arnies army. That army was a
force multiplier to the primeval energy that
was Arnie and egged him on to his famous
charge that caused him to win often, even
against great odds. SIDDHARTH SHRIRAM writes
India Internet Day: Of guerrilla warfare and barbarians at the gate
KARAN CHOUDHURY
New Delhi, 7 April
Carpet bombers, aggressors,
barbarians at the gate these are
among the names by which
global ecommerce majors
Amazon, Uber and Alibaba were
referred to on India Internet
Day, hosting domestic
new-economy companies on
Friday. The event, organised
by TiE Delhi NCR, witnessed a
high-pitched demand for a
level-playing field as well.
Prominent speakers included
Ola co-founder Bhavish
Aggarwal, MakeMyTrips Deep
Kalra and Flipkart Chief
Executive Officer Kalyan
Krishnamurthy.
While most Indian start-ups
and ecommerce companies are
Chg#
220.73
63.65
13.15
~64.54**
~68.83**
54.06**
~90.00
PUBLISHED SIMULTANEOUSLY FROM AHMEDABAD, BENGALURU, BHUBANESWAR, CHANDIGARH, CHENNAI, HYDERABAD, KOCHI, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI (ALSO PRINTED IN BHOPAL), NEW DELHI AND PUNE
RBI proposes wholesale,
long-term finance banks
Discussion paper fixes ~1,000 cr as minimum capital for these specialised banks
ANUP ROY & ABHIJIT LELE
Mumbai, 7 April
T
he Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
on Friday proposed to float
wholesale and long-term finance
(WLTF) banks that would fund
long-term high-value projects some-
thing similar to the development finance
institutions (DFIs) of the past.
Going forward, considering the
existing landscape of banking and non-
banking services in the country, it is felt
that there is a need to explore the possi-
bilities of permitting other types of dif-
ferentiated banks to facilitate progres-
sion to a more mature and deeper
4> financial sector, the central bank said in
a draft discussion paper on WLTF banks.
The minimum capital required for the
bank would be ~1,000 crore, considering
these banks would be very large institu-
tions ab initio to take on large exposure to
industrial, commercial and infrastruc-
ture sector. Therefore, they have to heav-
ily invest in information technology and
skill building to mitigate the risks.
These banks will focus primarily on
lending to infrastructure and small,
medium & corporate businesses. They
will also mobilise liquidity for banks and
financial institutions directly originat-
ing priority sector assets, through secu-
ritisation of such assets and actively
dealing in them as market makers, the
RBI said. The WLTF banks could also
act like market makers in corporate
bonds, credit derivatives, warehouse
receipts, and take-out financing, etc.
These banks will provide refinance
to lending institutions and shall be pres-
ent in capital markets in the form of
aggregators, the RBI said, adding the
HOW THE WORLD REACTED TO US AIR STRIKE ON SYRIA
The benchmark
PHOTO: REUTERS
Sensex dropped
221 points to close at a
one-week low of
29,706.61, while the
Nifty ended below the
9,200-mark on Friday
after the US air strikes
on Syria roiled global
markets. The US
launched a massive
strike on a Syrian air
base in retaliation to a
chemical attack on
civilians, stoking fears
of a geopolitical flare-
up. Russia demanded
an emergency
meeting after deno-
uncing the attack as
an aggression
against a sovereign
state. Oil prices
hovered near one-
month highs though
prices pared some
gains as there seemed
no immediate threat
to supplies. Also,
demand for safe-
haven assets such as
gold remained intact.
RELATED REPORTS ON PAGE 3 >
funded largely by foreign
investors, international firms in
the space were missing at the
event. US-based Amazon and
Uber were part of the previous
editions. Organisers, however,
said that invites were sent to
Uber and Amazon as well.
Pointing at his companys
ongoing battle with Uber, Olas
Aggarwal said while Americans
were carpet bombing India with
capital, he and his company were
fighting a guerrilla war with
them. Reiterating his earlier first thank the person who did
analogy with the Vietnam War,
he said, We are the local
guerrillas. We have the
Americans carpet bombing us
but we will go into every nook
and corner of the country and
find those opportunities in the
niche areas and in the large area.
bubbly
WEEKEND SEPARATE SECTION COMPANIES P2
SHAKEN & STIRRED: PUBS AND DAMANI GETS RICHER BY
LIQUOR SHOPS COPE WITH SC BAN ~4,500 CRORE IN A DAY
www.business-standard.com
PM to vet rates ahead
of GST Council meet
ARUP ROYCHOUDHURY & DILASHA SETH PM to take a final look
New Delhi, 7 April
at fitments and weigh
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is like- in on contentious items
ly to chair a meeting of government
officials early next week to review the Contentious items
NEW BANKS IN fitment of items in tax slabs before include tobacco,
THE MAKING these go to the all-powerful Goods
and Services Tax (GST) Council for a
biscuits, edible oil,
final approval. pharma products and
WHAT ARE WLTF BANKS?
| Wholesale and
The Rajya Sabha had on Thursday
cleared the integrated, central and
medical devices
long-term finance Union Territories GST Bills and com- Fitment of rates is the
(WLTF) banks will fund pensation Bills after the Lok Sabha final action by the
the infrastructure passed them last week. The next step
for the GST Council is to clear the fit- Centre before the GST
sector and corporate
businesses ment of various commodities and Council takes up the
services into five slabs (including matter in May
OBJECTIVE zero-rated products) and four pend-
| To raise funds ing rules on composition, valuation, Various interest groups
input tax credit and transition.
through bonds, Business Standard has learnt that
and industry
current accounts and senior officials of the finance min- bodies have made
minimum term loan istry and Prime Ministers Office representations
of ~10 crore ELIGIBILITY CURRENT RULE
(PMO) will meet in South Block to
| Licencewouldbe | Industrial houses to officials
CONDITION on-tapandeligible and corporate groups
review the process. The meeting will
| WLTF banks will be promoterswouldbe are not allowed to
end with the PMs evaluation. He
might provide inputs on contentious
required to maintain sameascommercial float full commercial items, government sources said. The
CRR, not SLR banks banks upcoming meeting has been sched-
uled for early next week. We were
waiting for the Bills to pass. This will
banks could be allowed to take part in these deposits, the discussion paper said. be the final action by the central gov-
investment banking activities as an Besides, the banks can issue bonds, local- ernment before the fitment of rates
ancillary of its primary duty of providing ly or abroad, in rupee denomination. gets the GST Councils approval, said
deposits and loan products for whole- The banks will have to maintain the a senior official. States are now
sale clients and financing of infrastruc- cash reserve ratio, but would be exempt- required to pass their own GST Bills
ture sector and core industries. ed from the statutory liquidity ratio, or becausetheywillnotbeabletocharge
The bank would be on-tap and the eligi- mandatory bond holding. There could indirect taxes on products and serv-
blepromoterscouldbeanyonewhosatisfies also be relaxation regarding liquidity ices after September 16.
the fit-and-proper guidelines on floating a risk and compliance with liquidity ratios Sources say the contentious issues
regular commercial bank, which means such as liquidity coverage ratio. include rates for bidis, cigarettes, bis-
industrial groups and corporate houses will The primary sources of funds for WLTF cuits, edible oil, pharmaceutical
not be eligible to float these banks. banks could be a combination of term products, medical devices and
These banks should not accept sav- deposits, debt and equity capital raised jewellery. The fitment commit-
ings deposits, the RBI said. Only current from primary market issues or private tee is learnt to be divided on the
account and term deposits of at least ~10 placement, and term borrowings from rate structure for bidis.
crore would be allowed, with reasonable banks and other financial institutions. Turn to Page 5 >
restrictions on premature withdrawal of Turn to Page 5 >
New insolvency norms give
creditors a wider reach
VEENA MANI Consider an insolvent company that has for-
New Delhi, 7 April eign assets of ~200 crore and domestic assets of
~300 crore.
To recover their dues, creditors of an insolvent
company will have more options now.
Now, Indian creditors have outstanding
loans of ~250 crore and foreign ones ~150 crore.
They might be able to tap into an asset size In this case, the assets of the company will be
bigger than what prevails under the current added, making the total ~500 crore.
mechanism. Now from this ~500 crore, Indian creditors
With the regulator, the Insolvency and will be given ~250 crore and foreign ones
Bankruptcy Board of India, notifying the rules ~150 crore. This would leave ~100 crore out of
recently, Indian creditors can lay claim to the which the claims of operational creditors will be
foreign assets of an insolvent met in proportion to their lend-
company in addition to its assets ing or payments.
A US Navy guided-missile destroyer conducts strike ops against Syria on Friday in India. And, foreign creditors In the absence of However, Misha, partner at law
will be able to claim all assets of rules, foreign firm Shardul Amarchand
INTERNATIONAL GOLD PRICE $ /oz MAJOR GLOBAL MARKETS the company. creditors could Mangaldas, is of the opinion that
Apr 7, 17 % chg*
Customers who have made not be part of the this provision will be useful only
advance payments to the com- insolvency if the Indian government enters
Europe - 17:11 IST pany can claim assets in propor-
tion to their payments but they
process, while the
foreign assets of
into appropriate agreements with
those of other countries.
Euro Stoxx 50 3,484.5 -0.1 will not be given priority. the company were Just notifying the provisions
FTSE 100 7,316.0 0.2 In the absence of rules, for- out of the reach of regarding cross-border insolvency
eign creditors could not be part domestic creditors by itself is not enough. It is nec-
Asia of the insolvency process, while essary for the central government
BRENT CRUDE SPOT $/bbl BSE Sensex 29,706.6 -0.7 the foreign assets of the compa- to enter into reciprocal arrange-
ny were out of the reach of domestic creditors. ments with other countries, she said.
Nifty 50 9,198.3 -0.7 First, the claims of financial creditors Sectors that can benefit once such agree-
Hang Seng 24,267.3 0.0 such as banks or any other entities that gave ments are in place include aviation, shipping
loans or cleared external commercial borrow- and infrastructure, according to Misha.
Shanghai 3,286.6 0.2 ings or foreign currency convertible bonds Reciprocal arrangements would be useful
Nikkei 225 18,664.6 0.4 will be met and then the claims of operational in cases where the creditors are pursuing reme-
creditors such as vendors and customers will be dies abroad or the company has overseas
* Over previous close; ** Till 17:07 IST; *** Till 17:08 IST
Compiled by BS Research Bureau Source: Bloomberg looked into. assets, she said.
Ola has in the past raised funds would go overseas. It is about
from Japanese telecom digital independence.
giant SoftBank and Tiger Global Companies like Flipkart
Management based out have to be very careful, Garg,
of the Silicon Valley. a TiE member, said.
Introducing Krishnamurthy Kalra said, I want my level-
to the crowd, Rajat Garg, founder playing field. I do not believe in
of myUpchar.com, said he was protectionism, but I want a
fighting in an environment level-playing field for everyone.
where barbarians are at A senior investor, who has
the gate, in a veiled reference successfully managed to run
to Amazon and Alibaba. To several internet companies
that, Krishnamurthy said, without much help from foreign
Before I begin, I just want to investors, said Indian companies WE ARE THE LOCAL GUERRILLAS. WE I JUST WANT TO FIRST THANK THE
should either bootstrap and
the intros because he started by slog it out or not complain
HAVE THE AMERICANS CARPET PERSON WHO DID THE INTROS BECAUSE
saying barbarians at the gates. about foreign funding. BOMBING US BUT WE WILL GO INTO HE STARTED BY SAYING BARBARIANS
I want to appreciate that Agreed there is a need for a EVERY NOOK AND CORNER OF THE AT THE GATES. I WANT TO APPRECIATE
somebody is recognising
people very well.
level-playing field, but these
players who have taken billions
COUNTRY AND FIND OPPORTUNITIES THAT SOMEBODY IS RECOGNISING
I think heavy capital is being of dollars in foreign investments IN THE NICHE AREAS PEOPLE VERY WELL
brought in by foreign companies. have no right to complain about BHAVISH AGGARWAL KALYAN KRISHNAMURTHY
I think a lot of our GDP in time foreign players, he said. Co-founder, Ola CEO, Flipkart, in a veiled attack on Amazon & Alibaba
https://t.me/srikakulam bubbly

2 COMPANIES
>
MUMBAI | 8 APRIL 2017 1

IN BRIEF

~5,800 crore worth unsold M&As grow in consumer durables sector

inventory after BS-III ban: ICRA Debt-hit companies are under pressure from lenders to sell assets
The Supreme Court order banning sale of BS-III DEV CHATTERJEE
vehicles two days before the actual Mumbai,7April DEAL STREET MARKET
implementation of new emission norms has
CAPITALISATION

T
MAY 2014 FEBRUARY 2017 (~crore)
left the commercial vehicles (CV) industry with he Indian consumer durables
an unsold inventory of 35,000-45,000 sector is witnessing a consoli- Frances Groupe Havells buys Apr 7, Apr 7, %
vehicles worth up to ~5,800 crore. While exports dation with companies such SEB buys Lloyds 2016 2017 chg
appear to be the pragmatic solution for original equipment as Havells, Voltas and private Maharaja consumer Blue Star 3,755 6,319 68.29
manufacturers (OEMs), as a lowest cost solution, clearing the equity firms bidding for Videocon Whiteline for an electronics
unsold vehicles could take up to two quarters depending Industries Kenstar brand. undisclosed business for Crompton
upon the model-mix and inventory ageing, said a report by In February this year, Havells took amount ~ 1,600 cr Greaves* 8,304 13,491 62.45
ICRA. It also said the domestic CV segment is expected to over the consumer electronics busi- Voltas 8,969 13,562 51.21
register a growth of six-eight per cent in FY18, while exports ness of Lloyds Electric at an enter- APRIL 2015 APRIL 2017
are expected to grow 8-10 per cent. According to estimates, prise value of ~1,600 crore. Advent,Temasek Videocon Havells
the industry had 95,000 BS-III vehicles in March 2017, of Similarly, debt-hit Crompton India 20,119 29,467 46.47
buy35%stakein puts its
which they were able to clear only 50,000-60,000 units in Greaves sold its consumer electronics Crompton Kenstar brand Videocon 3,584 3,467 -3.27
the last two days of FY17, it added. BSREPORTER< business for ~2,000 crore to private Greaves for sale; Voltas, SENSEX 93,52,147 1,22,91,132 31.43
equity firms Advent and Temasek in
Electronicsbiz Havells in *Crompton Greaves year-ago price on May 13, 2016
April 2015.
for~2,000cr race Compiled by BS Research Bureau
IFFCO buys 26% Twenty Two Motors The unmanageable debt of tra-
ditional companies is leading to a
Source: Exchange

stake in Gramin raises $1.6 million in consolidation in the consumer elec-

Health Care pre-series A round tronics sector, said a banker close to market valuation of Crompton Tata group firm Voltas is valued at vast dealer network in the country. which has gone up to ~43,000 crore as
the transaction. Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd, ~13,561 crore while Blue Star Ltd at Videocon is selling the brand of March this year.
Cooperative Gurgaon-bas- We can expect such sales from which is ~13,484 crore as compared to ~6,300 crore. because it has been hit by the spec- The Videocon group has sold an
fertiliser ed electric the old companies that are under ~5,800 crore at the time of the sale Indias top two players, LG and trum licence cancellation in 2012, oil block in Mozambique at ~16,000
major, IFFCO,
on Friday
announced it
had picked up a
~ vehicle
technology
company,
Twenty Two
pressure from lenders to sell assets,
said a banker.
Private equity funds are rolling
the dice as the Crompton Greaves
by the debt-hit Avantha group in
April 2015.
The markets are giving a better
valuation to new-age companies. On
Samsung, are not listed on the local
stock exchanges and have preferred
to increase their market share with-
out any M&As.
which led to the closure of its opera-
tions in 22 circles. This hit the groups
finances hard and its debt shot up.
Videocon Industries, which did a
crore, and also sold its direct-to-home
TV business to Dish TV in an all-stock
merger.
The group is also looking to sell its
26 per cent stake in start-up Motors, has raised deal turned out to be attractive Friday, Videocons market cap was A banker said Kenstar was a valu- series of mergers and acquisitions stake in its general insurance busi-
firm Gramin Health Care $1.6 million in its pre-series A for them. ~3,466 crore while Havells Indias able brand, considering its high mar- during the 1990s, is selling the ness and is in talks with several play-
(GHC) for an undisclosed round funding led by Ishwar Take, for example, the current market value was ~29,465 crore. ket share in various segments and a Kenstar brand to reduce its debt, ers.
figure. The Gurgaon-based Singh, chief executive of
firm aims to provide timely automobile component
medical advice and manufacturer, Haryana
advanced diagnostics
through manned and
digitised health care clinics.
Industries. Farhaan Shabbir,
former director of Harley-
Davidson also participated in D-Mart soars 13% on Sun Pharma slips 3% after
US FDA visit at Dadra plant
IFFCO Managing Director U S the investment round in the

traction from funds

Awasthi said, This new
affordable and easily
accessible health care service
for farmers will educate...
and spread awareness
among them for basic
health. This is a stepping
start-up company, in which
he joined as a founding
member. The firm, incorpor-
ated in 2016, by Parveen
Kharb and Vijay Chandrawat, Promoter Damani ANEESH PHADNIS
aims to make cutting-edge
electric vehicle technology
gets richer by Mumbai, 7 April

stone towards good health
for them. PTI<
Daimler India
expects to be cash
positive by 2018
Daimler India Commercial
Vehicles (DICV) expects to
reach the operational break-
even by this year and to be
profitable by next year. The
German auto majors wholly-
owned subsidiary, DICV, is
one of the leading
commercial vehicle majors in
the country. The company is
betting big on BS-IV, which
will also lead to a level
playing field DICV. Till now,
DICV vehicles are seen as a
affordable for the current
generation. PTI<
Hungary PM Orban
inaugurates ^475-mn
Apollo Tyres plant
Lending more depth to
business ties with India,
Hungary Prime Minister
Viktor Orban on Friday
inaugurated Apollo Tyres
largest greenfield facility in
the country with an
investment of ^475 million.
This is the companys sixth
global manufacturing unit
and the second one in
Europe. Its final capacity at
the end of phase-I would be
5.5 million passenger car
~4,500 cr in a day The US Food and Drugs Admini-
stration (FDA) is conducting a sur-
RAGHAVENDRA KAMATH prise inspection of Sun Pharmas
& PAVAN BURUGULA Dadra plant to check compliance
Mumbai, 7 April of current good manufacturing
practices.
Avenue Supermarts, which runs The Dadra plant is the drug-
D-Mart stores, rose 13 per cent makers second most important
on the stock market on Friday facility serving the US market after
after Thursdays five per cent Halol. The companys stock dipped
rise. The market is abuzz that three per cent on Friday on reports
large fund houses are lapping of the inspection. Sun Pharma did
up the stock. not comment on the issue.
The stock, which opened at
~664, touched an intra-day high
AVENUE SUPERMARTS The US market accounts for
about half the drugmaker's consol-
of ~761 and closed the day at (Price on BSE in ~) idated revenues but the business is
~750.50. The Avenue under pressure because of price ero-
Supermarts scrip has gained 151 sion and regulatory issues. In nine
per cent since listing. Avenue months of FY17, the US market con-
Supermarts diluted only a 10 per tributed over ~10,000 crore in sales.
cent stake in its recent IPO. According to analysts esti- SUN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES
Around 82 per cent of the com- mates, the Dadra plant contributes
| S&P BSE Healthcare | S&P BSE Sensex Price on BSE in ~

29,706.61
premium player in India. and light truck (PCLT) tyres panys shareholding is with the around $250 million (over ~1,600 26,626.46
With BS-IV norms coming into and 675,000 commercial promoters and another eight per crore) to US sales. Any disruption
26,117.54

effect from April 1, existing vehicle tyres. There have cent with pre-IPO investors. in sales will be detrimental to the
players may have to increase been unexpected Radhakishan Damani and company and the stock, said an
16,905.2

the cost by 8-10 per cent. This developments around the his family became richer by analyst.
14,727.59

will narrow down the price of
Daimler products and other
companies products. PTI<
Global M&Adeal tally
touches $678 bn in
Jan-Mar: Report
Global merger
and acqui-
sition activity
got off to a
good start this
year with deals
worth $678.5 billion
announced in the first
quarter, a rise of 8.9 per cent
over last year, says a
Mergermarket report.
According to the global deal
tracking firm, there were
3,554 deals worth $678.5
billion announced in the
January-March quarter of
this year, while in the
corresponding period last
year there were 4,326 deals
worth $622.9 billion. PTI<
world in the global security
arena, Orban said during his
inaugural address. PTI<
Collision ofAI, IndiGo
flights averted at
DelhiAirport
A near collision
of an Air India
(AI) and an
IndiGo
aircraft was
averted at the
IGI airport in New Delhi on
Friday. AIs Delhi-Goa AI156
was about to take off from
runway 28 at 11:15 am when
the air traffic controller (ATC)
asked the pilot to stop and
come back to bay, AI sources
said. IndiGos Ranchi-Delhi
6E398 landed on the same
runway minutes later. There
were 122 passengers on board
the AI plane. The AI aircraft
finally took off for Goa at
12:50 pm. PTI<
~4,400 crore in a day as the D- Compiled by BS Research Bureau The companys stock underper-
15,215.55
Mart stock went up. Since the Source: Bloomberg formed both the Sensex and the
IPO, which was priced at ~299, health care index and fell 23 per
the value of Damanis stake in Avenues Supermart has gone up from cent in calendar year 2016. On a
~15,339 crore to ~38,502 crore, a gain of ~23,163 crore. year-to-date basis (from January 1 Dec 31, 2015 Dec 30, 2016 Apr 7, 2017
Nearly 90 per cent of the float is under a one-year lock-in. Also, the till date) the stock has fared better -12.88
bulk of investors who bought in the IPO are long-term investors and and is 5.7 per cent higher. CY YEAR CY 2016
1.95
the one-month anchor investor lock-in is still applicable on the stock. Sun Pharma's Halol plant has RETURN
There could be just ~2,000 crore worth of shares available for been under the regulatory scanner (%) CY 2017 3.31
active trading. Majority of the IPO investors, especially institutional since September 2014, when it
11.57 Compiled by BS Research Bureau
As on April 7, 2017 Source:Bloomberg ChartMaker
investors, have entered the company from a long-term perspective. received adverse observations
Hence there is a shortage of supply, said a broker. known as Form 483. Subsequently,
On the other hand, demand for the stock has increased since list- no new product approvals have
ing as many investors that did not receive allotments during the IPO
are lining up to buy shares from the secondary market, the broker
been granted from the plant.
Remediation measures under-
Cadila Healthcare says Changodar plant
added. US-based brokerage JP Morgan in a report released on Friday
initiated coverage on the stock with a neutral rating. On Thursday
taken to restore compliance also
hit supplies from the plant, impact-
has got no USFDA observation
credit rating agency CRISIL upgraded the long-term bank facilities and ing overall sales. In December 2015, Ahmedabad-based pharma major Cadila Healthcare on Friday informed
non-convertible debentures of the company. it received a warning letter and last the stock exchanges that no observations were issued by the US Food and
We like Avenue Supermarts execution capabilities, single-for- December the plant received the Drugs Administration (FDA) against its topicals manufacturing plant at
mat focus, best-in-class productivity metrics, prudent store expansion Form 483 again following an Changodar.
strategy and strong focus on customer satisfaction, JP Morgan ana- inspection by the FDA. The devel- The plant was inspected by the US FDA between April 3 and April 7.
lysts Latika Chopra and Ebru Sener Kurumlu said in the report. opment led to brokerages cutting According to a notice to the BSE, no observation (483) was issued. The
The analysts said they believed Avenue Supermarts was a relatively the profit estimate for FY18. company has filed 17 products with the US FDA from the site. Shares of
safe play on Indias consumption growth story, given the non- Sun Pharma has been working Cadila Healthcare ended the session, up 1.5 per cent, at ~454.85 a share on
cyclical nature of the food retail business. to streamline its quality control the BSE. Earlier, in February, the company's Moraiya unit too did not
Despite low gross margins owing to low price positioning, Avenue processes with investments in receive any observations from the US FDA. BS REPORTER
Supermarts had the highest margins among peers owing to tight con- information technology and staff
trol of operational costs, they added. training.

HUL may not toe parents line on F&B, say analysts
THE WAY FORWARD
| The food and beverages
segment is growing
at a healthy clip for
HUL, but it contributes
only 10 per cent to
its revenues
| The FMCG giant derives
about half of its revenue
from the soaps and
detergents business,
with personal products
forming another
20 per cent
| The parents drive to
rationalise costs though
will only ring in higher
margins for HUL,
according to analysts
estimates
| HULs emphasis on driving
operational efficiencies is
reflected in its operating
margin, which has
expanded from 14.9% in
FY12 to 18.4% in FY16 and is
pegged at 18.8% in FY17
SHEETAL AGARWAL
Mumbai,7April
Increasing focus of Unilever on prof-
itability and plans to combine the food
and beverages businesses may have
some impact on its Indian subsidiary
Hindustan Unilever (HUL) as well.
The food and beverages segment is
growing at a healthy clip for HUL, but it
contributes only 10 per cent to its rev-
enues. The FMCG giant derives about
half of its revenue from the soaps and
detergents business, with personal
products forming another
20 per cent.
As the parent announced its strategy
to drive profitable growth, the buzz is
HUL might also toe the parents line on
this front. However, analysts believe
this may not be the case.
Abneesh Roy, FMCG analyst at
Edelweiss Securities, said, Unilever
might adopt different mechanisms for
different markets. In India, HUL has a
very India-specific, R&D developed
products portfolio and most of the par-
ents foods portfolio is not present in
India. While there is a possibility that
they might realign, but I would not rule
out the continuation of existing
schemes because HUL realigned its
business segments just a year back.
He believes it will take another
month for more clarity on HULs plan of
action. HUL had realigned its business
segments in June 2016.
The parents drive to rationalise
costs though will only ring in higher
margins for HUL, according to
analysts estimates.
HUL has maintained its emphasis
on driving operational efficiencies over
the past few years and margin focus is
not new for the company.
This is also reflected in the compa-
nys operating margin, which has
expanded from 14.9 per cent in FY12 to
18.4 per cent in FY16 and is pegged at
18.8 per cent in FY17.
This strategy of focusing on margins,
at least in the current scenario, appears
prudent given that volumes have been
under pressure, not just from rising
competitive intensity, but also from
slowing rural demand.
These pressures limit the companys
ability to push revenue growth
via price hikes. Though it has selective-
ly taken price hikes to pass on higher
input costs in recent months,
firming input prices are likely to cap
scope for price hikes from here on, said
analysts.
Phoenix Mills buys
Interestingly, analysts see further Indore mall for ~235 cr
margin gains for HUL on account of
cost efficiencies. RAGHAVENDRA KAMATH It is also in talks with US-
We expect margins of HUL also to Mumbai, 7 April based real estate developer,
expand over next two-three years JJ Gumberg, and private
because of this cost-cutting exercise Phoenix Mills, the countrys equity firm Lapis India
and GST. GST will aid cost savings in largest mall developer, has Capital to buy North Country
terms of lesser number of warehouses bought an under-construc- mall in Chandigarh. The mall
and other benefits. We expect HUL to tion mall in Indores MR 10 is valued at around ~700
further rationalise ad spends and evalu- area for ~235 crore. crore and the buyer has to
ate performance of small/new business- The mall was take over ~450-
es like water purifier, retail stores, pack- bought in an auction The property crore debt on it.
aged foods, exports, Roy said. conducted by JM has a Blackstone and
He has built in 150 basis points oper- Financial Asset Reco- development Virtuous Retail
ating margin expansion for HUL by nstruction Company. potential of South Asia, a joint
FY19 over FY17 margins. The firm outbid local 2.5 million venture between
Recovery in volumes though is likely mall developer Pintu square feet Xander Funds and
to be more gradual. Sachin Bobade, Chhabra. Sources said APG, are in the
FMCG analyst at Dolat Capital, said, the lenders went for race to buy it.
For March 2017 quarter, we expect auctioning as the mall owners, We want to maintain our
HULs volumes growth at 0 to the Kalani family, were not able leadership in malls and buy
-3 per cent as rural markets continue to to not pay their dues. brownfield assets and build
be soft. Once rural recovers HUL will The property has a devel- new ones in metros and tier-II
start performing. A high base of March opment potential of 2.5 mil- cities, Ruia said.
2016 quarter will also belittle growth lion square feet. Deals in malls have been
numbers in the March 2017 quarter. Atul Ruia, joint managing rising in the past couple of
While rural recovery is crucial for director, Phoenix Mills, said years. Last year, Blackstone
improvement in HULs performance, its they were evaluating the pos- bought a 50 per cent stake in a
focus on profitability will be a key posi- sibility to bring the acquired Pune mall for about ~500
tive. Current valuations of about 42 mall under the newly-formed crore. Earlier, it had bought
times FY18 estimated earnings, though joint platform with Canadian one in Navi Mumbai from
appear full. investor CPPIB. L&T Realty for ~1,450 crore.
https://t.me/srikakulam bubbly

.
MUMBAI | 8 APRIL 2017 WORLD 3 <

US-China relations have made progress: Trump

US fires missiles at STEVE HOLLAND
7April
nuclear ambitions during his
visit to the Spanish-style Mar-
a-Lago resort in Palm Beach,

Syrian airbase
US President Donald Trump Florida, though no major deals
said on Friday he had made on either issue are expected.
progress in talks with Chinese The Republican president,
President Xi Jinping and who took office on January 20,
expected them to overcome tweeted last week that the
many problems, a marked con- United States could no longer
trast to the stridently anti-China tolerate massive trade deficits
STEVE HOLLAND, ANDREW OSBORN rhetoric of Trump's 2016 elec- andjoblossesandthathismeet-
& TOM PERRY tion campaign. ing with Xi "will be a very diffi-
7April Sitting across from Xi on the cult one." On Friday, there was a
second day of a Florida summit change of tone.

T
he United States fired cruise missiles
on Friday at a Syrian airbase from
which it said a deadly chemical
weapons attack had been launched this
week, the first direct US assault on the gov-
ernment of Bashar al-Assad in six years of
civil war.
US President Donald Trump
ordered the step his predecessor
Barack Obama never took: direct-
ly targetting Assad's military with
air strikes in punishment for the
chemical weapons attack, which
killed at least 70 people, many of
them children.
That catapulted the United States
into a confrontation with Russia, which
has military advisers on the ground assist-
ing its close ally Assad.
"Years of previous attempts at changing
Assads behaviour have all failed and failed
very dramatically," Trump said as he
announced the attack from his Florida
resort, Mar-a-Lago, where he was meeting
Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"Evenbeautifulbabieswerecruellymur-
dered in this very barbaric attack," he said
of Tuesday's chemical weapons strike,
which Western countries blame on Assad's
forces. "No child of God should ever suffer
such horror." The swift action is likely to be
interpreted as a signal to Russia, and also to
other countries such as North Korea, China
and Iran where Trump has faced foreign
policy tests early in his presidency.
TheSyrianarmysaidtheUSattackkilled
sixpeopleatitsairbasenearthecityofHoms.
It called the attack "blatant aggression" and
said it made the United States a "partner" of
"terrorist groups" including Islamic State.
HomsGovernorTalalBarazitoldReutersthe
death toll was seven.
A spokesman for Russian President
Vladimir Putin said the strike had serious-
overshadowed by US missile US President Donald Trump (right) with his Chinese "We have made tremendous
strikes in Syria overnight, counterpart Xi Jinping PHOTO: REUTERS progress in our relationship
Trump declared that his rela- with China," Trump said as the
tionshipwiththeChineseleader cerns about North Korea's to raise concerns about China's two delegations met around
was outstanding after they dis- nuclear program. trade practices and press Xi to tables flanked by large US and
cussed trade irritants and con- Trump had said he intended do more to rein in North Korea's Chinese flags. REUTERS
DONALD TRUMP, US president
(Inset) US guided-missile
destroyer conducts strike
operations in the "EVEN BEAUTIFUL BABIES WERE CRUELLY
Mediterranean Sea which MURDERED IN THIS VERY BARBARIC
the US said was
a part of cruise missile ATTACK.... NO CHILD OF GOD SHOULD
strike against Syria EVER SUFFER SUCH HORROR"
ly damaged ties between Washington and US officials and allies described the
Moscow. Putin, a staunch ally of Assad, attack as a one-off that would not lead to
regarded the US action as "aggression further escalation. It signalled Trump's
against a sovereign nation" on a "made-up determination to take "decisive action", US
pretext", spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. officials said.
Russian television showed craters and For years, Washington has backed rebel
rubble at the site of the airbase and said groups fighting against Assad in a complex
nine aircraft had been destroyed. multi-sided civil war under way since 2011
US officials said they had taken pains to that has killed more than 400,000 people.
ensure Russian troops were not killed, The war has driven half of Syrians from
warning Russian forces in advance and their homes, creating the world's worst
avoiding striking parts of the base where refugee crisis.
Russians were present. The US has been conducting air
Western allies of the United States spoke strikes against Islamic State militants
out in support of the decision to launch the who control territory in eastern and
strikes. Several countries said they were northern Syria, and a small number of
notified in advance, but none had been US troops are on the ground assisting
asked to take part. anti-Islamic State militias. REUTERS

Stocks spooked, safe assets jump Gold hits 5-month high

Bonds,goldandtheyenjumpedinAsiaonFriday,whilestocksretreated,as Gold hit a five-month high on Friday as
investorsfledtosafeassetsaftertheUnitedStateslaunchedcruisemissilesagainstan investors looking for safety piled into the
airbaseinSyria,raisingtheriskofconfrontationwithRussiaandIran.TheUSdollar precious metal after the US fired cruise
droppedasmuchas0.6percent,whilegoldandoilpricesralliedhard,thoughthe missiles at a Syrian airbase, escalating
earlymarketpanicebbedwhenaUSofficialcalledtheattacka"one-off",withno tensions with Russia and Iran. Russia, a
plansforescalation."Itwasaknee-jerkreactionbecausemarketsarestartingto staunch ally of Syria, said relations
comebackalittle,asitdoesn'tseemliketherewillbefurtherretaliationcoming," between Washington and Moscow had
saidChristofferMoltke-Leth,headofinstitutionalclienttradingatSaxoCapital been seriously damaged by the strike
MarketsinSingapore.Europeanstockswerealsopoisedforanegativestart,with which was in retaliation for a deadly
financialspreadbettersexpectingBritain'sFTSE100andFrance'sCAC40toopendown chemical attack on a rebel-held area of
0.2percent,andGermany'sDAXtostarttheday0.3percentlower.USPresident Syria. Gold was up 0.9 per cent at $1,262.86
DonaldTrumporderedthestrikesonThursdayagainstanairbasecontrolledby an ounce by 1136 GMT after climbing to its
SyrianPresidentBasharal-Assad'sforcesinretaliationforachemicalattack, highest since November 10 at $1,269.28,
launchedfromthebaseonTuesday,thatkilledatleast70people.Facinghisbiggest putting it on track for a fourth week of
foreignpolicycrisissincetakingofficeinJanuary,TrumptookthetoughestdirectUS gains in a row. US gold futures climbed 0.9
actionyetinSyria'ssix-year-oldcivilwar. REUTERS per cent to $1,264.9 an ounce. REUTERS
https://t.me/srikakulam bubbly

4 COMPANIES
>
MUMBAI | 8 APRIL 2017 1

IN BRIEF N CHANGE OF GUARD AT L&T N

RJio offer not in sync with
regulations: Trai
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(Trai) Chairman R S Sharma on Friday said
Subrahmanyan to be CEO from July
the telecom regulator has advised
Reliance Jio to stop complimentary
Naik to AMRITHA PILLAY
Mumbai, 7 April
LARSEN & TOUBRO
Consolidated figures
service offer as it was not in accordance continue as
E
with the regulatory framework. We ngineering conglomerate Year end Net sales PAT Market cap* RoNW
examined it and found that it was not in non-executive Larsen & Toubro (L&T) on (~ cr) (~ cr) (~ cr) (%)
FY13 74,498 5,219 83,996 13.6
accordance with regulatory framework, so we advised them to
stop it, Sharma told PTI. The regulator on Thursday asked chairman for Friday paved way for
S N Subrahmanyan to take charge as FY14 85,128 4,923 117,962 13.1
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio to withdraw the three-
month complimentary offer of unlimited data usage and free
three years the groups managing director and
chief executive officer in July. FY15 92,005 4,765 159,792 11.3
calls on payment of a minimum ~303. The order came days Subrahmanyan joined L&T in 1984 FY16 102,632 5,091 113,286 13.1
after Jio announced that it has clocked 72 million paid users and was inducted into the L&T board
9MFY17 73,183 3,017 125,855 -
and is extending its one-time ~99 payment membership in 2011. *FY ended; Current Mcap as on Apr 07, 2017 is ~1,57,342 cr; RoNW: Return on Net Worth; PAT: Profit After Tax:
programme Prime for 15 more days till April 15. PTI< L&T executive chairman A M Naik Source: Capitaline; Compiled by BS Research Bureau
is expected to continue as non-exec-
utive chairman from October, for Subrahmanyans key challenges will The company has also been fac-
Flipkart to re-enter RCom asks 380 three years. Approving Naiks be maintaining growth rates the ing execution problems such as regu-
grocery segment staffers to go for appointment as non-executive chair-
man, the company said, The board of
group is accustomed to. Between
FY04 and FY16, L&Ts revenue has
latory issues and client related delays,
which could have a direct bearing on
non-performance directors requested Naik to provide clocked a compounded annual the top line. Analysts will closely mon-
Reliance Communications is advice, guidance and mentorship to growth rate (CAGR) of 20.5 per cent. In itor the companys efforts to reduce
learnt to have sacked nearly the companys executive manage- the December quarter, L&Ts order working capital ratio and monetise its
380 employees for below-par ment in the capacity of non-execu- inflow was ~34,890 crore and its order non-core assets. L&T has chalked out a
performance, and 260 more tive chairman. Naik, 74, was book stood at ~2.58 lakh crore. plan to divest completely or partially
are seen to be in the line of appointed CEO in 1999 and The target revealed at the annual noncore assets to, streamline business
fire. Faced with cut-throat chairman in 2003. general meeting in September 2016 verticals and reduce debt. Some of
competition, RCom had Though chalked out over a requires L&T to generate ~2 lakh crore L&Ts bets have also not paid off as
reported its first ever period of last few years, the revenue and an order inflow for ~2.5 anticipated. The shipbuilding seg-
Locked in an intense battle consolidated net loss of ~531 succession plan does not lakh crore a year by 2021. ment, for instance, continues to make
with Amazon, homegrown crore in the December mean that Subrahmanyan Subrahmanyan is confident the com- losses. The good part is that the econ-
e-commerce major Flipkart is quarter. The merger of SSTL will have a smooth start. As pany is broadly on track with these omy is on the mend, and with increas-
looking at re-entering the with RCom is expected to be the new MD and CEO, his targets. For FY2016, L&Ts consoli- ing spends on infrastructure, L&T and
grocery segment that complete by the end of this task is cut out. One of dated revenue was ~1.03 lakh crore. Subrahmanyan could gain.
accounts for a significant month. RCom is believed to
portion of Indias retail have paid second instalment
industry. Yes we will get into
grocery... 80 per cent of units
bought in India is grocery...
of ~396 crore spectrum
purchased and
interconnection usage charge
Will speak less and Fromzero,webecameowners
work more
$400-600 million is grocery of around ~25 crore, among
market, so we have to get others. In the merger A M NAIK, the outgoing group executive chairman of L&T, speaks to Amritha
into it, Flipkart CEO Kalyan process, the liability spectrum Pillay about his new role as the non-executive chairman and his journey so
Krishnamurthy said at a TiE instalments of SSTL have come far at the countrys biggest engineering conglomerate. Edited excerpts:
event here. This will be the on to RCom. The company S N SUBRAHMANYAN, who will take charge as L&Ts chief executive officer (CEO) and managing
second attempt into the cleared IUC payment to a director (MD) from July, speaks to Amritha Pillay on the challenges ahead and how he does not project in Orissa. I will put that
grocery segment for the telecom operator after gap of expect any drastic changes, both in the team and work strategy, at L&T. Edited excerpts: A M NAIK project in shape in these years.
Bengaluru-based firm. In around two months. The rest Executive chairman, L&T
October 2015, Flipkart had of the payments were as per ment of infrastructure projects. On the cap- How do you plan to spend your
launched a separate schedule, the source said. ital goods side, the Make in India initiative How has the long journey with working hours? Will you pursue
groceries ordering app called The Anil Ambani-led RCom has still not achieved its full momentum L&T been? some hobbies?
Nearby for delivering fruits, did not comment on a query and will take time. Some amount of nation- It has been most eventful... I used to earlier spend three-four
vegetables, soaps and other sent to it. PTI< alism is also being seen in some of the hoursaweekonphilanthropy.Now
staples from supermarkets to S N SUBRAHMANYAN countries where the IT and engineering If you had to pick two hits for I will spend at least one hour a day
customers. However, CEO-designate, L&T orders come from. When you have size and L&T, what would they be? onit.Iwillpromoteoneortwochar-
following a weak response, UGC brings scale, you need to move faster and need to The biggest gain is that from ity projects every year.
Flipkart closed the business a fellowship schemes In your new role as the companys MD be more aggressive and get growth from zero, we (employees) became
few months later. PTI< and CEO, which would be the main areas other areas. Our job is to find solutions. owners of the company. There is What would be the toughest
under DBT of focus to begin with? no precedence to this and per- decision you would have taken
The University Ours is a well-planned succession and Naik The company has an ambitious haps there would not be any. in your L&T journey?
Kotak Mahindra Grants (AM Naik, current chairman) has been strategic plan for 2020-21. Analysts This would be my biggest legacy. I, along with my employees, even-
Bank to float infra Commission grooming me. In the last two-three years we remain sceptical of the group meeting Second, the company has grown tually found a win-win decision to
(UGC) has have had a very close working relationship. its current financial year targets. How 20 times and profit 40 times; make sure L&T remains
debt fund brought its We concluded our strategic plan for achievable, according to you, would be taking the company from ~5,000 I WILL MAKE autonomous, and sold the cement
PrivatesectorKotakMahindra fellowship schemes under the 2020-21, so, as such, all the plans have been the strategic plan? crore to ~1.5 lakh crore (in mar- RETIREMENT PLANS division at a reasonable price to
BankonFridayannounced Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to laid out and Naik is available as non-exec- We are broadly on track with the strategic ket value) was a major success. AFTER SEPTEMBER. Grasim. L&T retained the engi-
planstofloataninfrastructure ensure effective administ- utive chairman. Therefore, in my view, it is plan. Some of the businesses have gone neering division and grew it 24
debtfund.TheUdayKotak-led ration and smooth disb- stability, it is growth and it is ahead of the plan, some have And what would be the two big
RIGHT NOW, THE FOCUS times. That was the toughest deci-
bank,whichreceivedaboard ursement of scholarships to the way L&T would be. I WHEN YOU HAVE not, which is bound to be the miss? IS ON FIRING ALL sion and the biggest legacy.
approvalrecentlytoraiseover students. The UGC implements dont think anything differ- SIZE AND SCALE, case when you are a diversi- We overindulged in develop- CYLINDERS TO ENSURE
~5,000crore,saidithas various fellowship schemes ent will happen from what YOU NEED TO fied conglomerate. As such, ment projects like roads and TASKS THAT SHOULD BE What would you miss most
obtainedtheReserveBankof on behalf of the HRD Ministry, you see right now. we are positive and we feel power, which are highly capital about L&T?
Indianodforfloatinga Ministry of Social Justice and MOVE FASTER AND we have a good traction. intensive and possibly, if I was to COMPLETED ARE L&T is my life. I am devoted to it.
subsidiarytomanagethe Empowerment, Ministry of So it would be business as NEED TO BE MORE rethink, I may not do. COMPLETED I have a great deal of attachment
fund.Thecountrysfourth Minority Affairs and Ministry of usual for you? AGGRESSIVE AND Will you form a new team to and association with L&T and
largestprivatesectorlender Tribal Affairs. Fellowships One can never say in busi- assist you in the new role? Is there any unfinished agenda I will do that after September. Right that is something I would never
hassofarstayedawayfrom under three schemes PG ness business is usual, so I
GET GROWTH There will not be any major or projects you intend to now, the focus is on firing all cylin- want to miss.
lendingintheinfrastructure Scholarship for would put it as it would be FROM OTHER change. All my colleagues complete before you step ders to ensure tasks that should be
segment.TheRBIhadfloated ME/MTech/MPharma to the way L&T would do it. AREAS are there, they have been down? completed are completed. I do What are the challenges for the
thisvehiclein2013,allowing GATE/GPAT qualified groomed, we continue to be We have put seven to eight com- have a plan, but the plan is practi- new CEO?
banksandnon-bankstofloat candidates, BSR Faculty What are the challenges ahead of you? there. One among the best has been chosen panies for restructuring. At least cal enough only if circumstances We invested heavily in nuclear.
IDFsformeetingthe Fellowship and Free We have been going through some tough to be the leader and we continue to look for- some of these have to be fin- are conducive. But for the next But with the Japan calamity, the
requirementsofthe Education for Sports Medal times from the market point of view. ward in the same manner. ished. I think I better finish these three and a half years, I am going to industry collapsed and capaci-
infrastructuresector.According Winners have been migrated Infrastructure, capital goods and engi- and Subrahmanyan should not mentor the next generation of ty is now idling and causing a
totheRBI,IDFsareenvisagedas to DBT mode through UGC neering space have been seeing headwinds Would you be putting in more working be bothered. leaders. If Subrahmanyan is going loss. This is certainly a setback
vehiclesforrefinancing web portal, an official in the last few years. Today, many private hours from now? to be there for the next 15 years, I and a big challenge and I think
existingdebtofinfrastructure notification said. Earlier sector players are highly leveraged and cap- I will try to be more efficient in whatever I Inthetwoandhalfyearsspent will pick five bright guys and posi- this will need collective wisdom
firm,therebycreatingfresh those were disbursed through ital spending is not occurring in the man- do and the time that I spend. I will try to draftingasuccessionplan,have tion them such that to overcome this. Unless the
headroomforbankstolendto respective colleges and ner it ought to. Issues like regulations and speak less and work more and try to be youalsochalkedoutaretirement Subrahmanyan mentors them nuclear industry revives, it will
freshprojects. PTI< universities, it said. PTI< right of ways are still hindering a fast move- more efficient. planforyourself? after that. There is an alumina be difficult.

Weekend
Business Standard Data the medium and Talking cricket Grasimminorityshareholders
at Goafest clearNuvomerger
message in the ad world
MUMBAI EDITION
Printed and Published by Sangita Kheora FormercricketerandWestIndian
on behalf of Business Standard Private
Limited and printed at M/s. Dangat Media
VIVEAT SUSAN PINTO &
skipperVivRichardswasoneof
thespeakersatGoafest2017and Shrugs off concerns RALLYING MEGA MERGER
Awards at Goafest
Private Limited,
22 Digha M.I.D.C., TTC Industrial Area,
Vishnu Nagar, Digha, Navi Mumbai,
URVI MALVANIA
Bambolim, 7 April
hehailed IndiancaptainVirat
KohliforstandinguptotheAust-
from advisory firms and AHEAD Aug 11, 2016:
400708 and published at 3rd & 4th Floor,
Building H, Paragon Condominium, Opp.
Friday belonged to Taproot, ralianplayersonandoffthefield. large investors Grasim,AdityaBirla
Nuvoannounce
If day one of Goafest, the part of the Dentsu group. It
Century Mills, P. B. Marg, Worli, merger
Mumbai - 400 013 advertising, media and mar-
keting summit at Bambolim,
walked away with 28 metals
on the second day of Stars come calling DEV CHATTERJEE
Mumbai, 7 April Aug 12: Minority
Editor : Shyamal Majumdar Goa, dwelt on the marketers Goafest, which saw the first Actor Sanjay Dutt was at his can- shareholdersvoice
perspective on advertising, set of Creative Abby awards The tally so far for Social did best at Goafest 2017. When Minority shareholders of Grasim concernover
RNI No. MAHENG/2013/53717 day two focused on what agen- declared. Street, founded by adman asked how he felt about a biopic Industries approved the merger proposal
merger
Readers should write their feedback at cies had to say about it. Metals is industry Pratap Bose, was 16 being made on his life, Dutt with Aditya Birla Nuvo in a shareholders
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One would assume that as parlance for awards or metals, while Scarecrow, replied, All I told Raju (Hirani) is meeting held on Thursday in Nagda, Mar 20, 2017:
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sumers. against women, Maneka a 68.7 per cent stake in the company, were become Indias largest telecom player with
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INR 39950 : USD 725 Ad blocking refers to the Gandhi, women and child also concerned that the cash-guzzling a 40 per cent market share. Grasim share-
DISCLAIMER News reports and feature articles in tendency among consumers to Markets such as Europe and Canon, says that marketers development minister said telecom business would eat away the sur- holders were finally placated.
Business Standard seek to present an unbiased picture skip or avoid ads. It is seen the US have an ad blocking and agencies should plan there was a need to create plus of the company. In an interview to this newspaper, Birla
of developments in the markets, the corporate world
and the government. Actual developments can turn out especially in the digital medi- rate of 10-15 per cent. strategically and engage with demand for equalism and to But with 92 per cent of shareholders vot- said the shareholders of group companies
to be different owing to circumstances beyond Business um, though ad blocking could So why are consumers their audience rather than make attitudes (towards ing in favour of the special resolution, they had gained following numerous mergers
Standards control and knowledge. Business Standard
does not take any responsibility for investment or busi- also happen on television when blocking ads in India? Nazerali chase gimmicks on digital. women) more aspirational. clearly sided with Birla. and acquisitions. The management has
ness decisions taken by readers on the basis of reports consumers simply switch points to India still having to Technology can lure an Birla, along with group Chief Financial taken hundreds of hours to set these deals
and articles published in the newspaper. Readers are
expected to form their own judgement.
Business Standard does not associate itself with or
channels during ad breaks.
Speaking on the second day of
play catch-up when it comes
to digital marketing. While
agency or client to embellish
their ads with it. This will New awards on Officer Sushil Agarwal and Chief
Strategy Officer Saurabh Agarwal stitched
and it will take the market some time to
grasp them, he said on March 20.
the anvil
stand by the contents of any of the advertisements
accepted in good faith and published by it. Any claim Goafest, Nazerali highlighted digital remains a buzzword mean nothing if it fails to a plan to allay investors fears. Several Idea Cellular also plans to sell its stake in
related to the advertisements should be directed to the that ad blocking cost Indian among most agencies and engage the audience it is tar- meetings were held with bosses of mutu- Indus Towers. Idea Cellular owns a 16 per
advertisers concerned.
Unless explicitly stated otherwise, all rights reserved publishers $250-300 million marketers, the question is: Do geted at, he says while Marketers can now look forward al funds, government-owned institutions cent stake in Indus Towers, while Vodafone
by M/s Business Standard Pvt. Ltd. Any printing, pub-
lication, reproduction, transmission or redissemination
in advertising revenue a year. we fully understand it at all? dwelling on the subject of the to an exclusive awards ceremony and foreign investors. and Bharti Airtel own 42 per cent each.
of the contents, in any form or by any means, is pro- Indias ad-blocking rate is Rod Findley, executive cre- effective use of technology in called the Marquees, to be The entry of Reliance Jio in the Since the merger announcement
hibited without the prior written consent of M/s
Business Standard Pvt. Ltd. Any such prohibited and
the highest in the world at 30 ative director at US-based dig- digital campaigns on day two organised by the Advertising Club Indian telecom industry was a big Grasim has managed to beat the
unauthorised act by any person/legal entity shall invite per cent, followed by China at ital agency C2K, best-known of Goafest. of Bombay in September. This concern as was how Idea Cellular would Sensex marginally. Grasim shares were up
civil and criminal liabilities. 28 per cent, say digital mar- for its work for clients such as will be the fourth awards take on the competition. 8.8 per cent since August 10, while the
No Air Surcharge keting and media experts. Toyota, Toshiba, Sony and More on business-standard.com property by the Ad Club. Birla on March 20 unveiled a plan to BSE Sensex rose 7 per cent.
https://t.me/srikakulam bubbly

.
MUMBAI | 8 APRIL 2017 ECONOMY & PUBLIC AFFAIRS 5

I-T raids crack down Top pharma firms get

on black money
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
New Delhi, 7 April
he Income Tax depart-
demonetisation. The taxman
also searched 25 premises of a
Hyderabad-based chit fund
company which is said to have
these entities under the scan-
ner, a senior officer said.
The department also con-
ducted similar operations at
notices for overcharging
VEENA MANI
New Delhi, 7 April
The National Pharmaceutical
The authority maintained AstraZeneca appears thrice.
that it was witnessing a large Cipla and Intas Pharmaceu-
number of non-compliance ticals have overcharged in the
cases every month. case of around 25 drugs and

T ment
launched
on Friday
multiple
raids in various prominent
cities against shell company
operations on charges of
alleged black money genera-
tion worth over ~100 crore.
This is the second consec-
utive day that the taxman has
undertaken country-wide
searches after the black mon-
ey declaration window of the
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan
Yojna (PMGKY) closed on
March 31.
The tax sleuths raided sev-
en premises of a Mumbai-
based jeweller and his associ-
ates which had made cash
deposits worth ~6 crore after
made cash deposits worth
over
~80 crore after the notes ban.
It has also conducted
searches and surveys against
real estate players and other
business firms in and around
Delhi as part of its crackdown
on black money. The action
included surveys against enti-
ties and businesses linked to
Anand Kumar, brother of BSP
chief Mayawati.
Over a 100 shell firms are
under the scanner of the
department as part of all these
operations being conducted
on Friday. It is estimated that
over ~110 crore black money
is prima facie generated by
33 locations in Chennai and
adjoining areas and also
searched Tamil Nadu Health
Minister Vijayabaskar and few
others.
The department on Friday
had conducted searches at
over 50 locations as part of its
crackdown against black
money to the tune of over
~100 crore, its first major
action after the closure of the
PMGKY scheme.
The scheme allowed black
money holders to declare
their illegal wealth and come
clean by paying a tax and
penalty of about 50 per cent
on the undisclosed income till
March 31.
Pricing Authority (NPPA) has
issued preliminary notices to
several pharmaceutical com-
panies for 613 cases of over-
charging.
The office order, issued on
Friday, said companies which
had been found overcharging
included Sun Pharmaceutical,
Dr Reddys Laboratories,
GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott, Ale-
mbic Pharmaceuticals, Intas
Pharmaceutical, Sanofi, Torr-
ent Pharmaceuticals, Zydus
Cadila, Wockhardt, Cipla and
Lupin, among others.
The pharma pricing author-
itys previous list in February
said that there were 634 cases
of overcharging.
The latest office order stat-
ed that since violations were
too many, the NPPA would
now issue collective show-
cause notices instead of indi-
vidual ones.
The NPPA has the power
to issue show-cause notices to
companies that charge patien-
ts more than the ceiling price
fixed for drugs that are part
of Schedule 1 of the DPCO 2013.
While the companies
will be given an opportunity
to reply, the regulator can
impose a penalty on them
subsequently.
Abbott and Sun Pharma
feature on the list more than
20 times, Alembic 5 times, and
GlaxoSmithKline in 11, accord-
ing to the order.
The companies could not
be contacted for comments.
Some of the names in the
list are common drugs. These
include drugs to treat bacterial
infections, eye drops, common
tetanus injections and ring-
guard ointment.
According to the notice put
up by the NPPA, overcharging
ranged from a few rupees more
than the ceiling price to
few thousands rupees above
the cap.
The NPPA has fixed ceiling
prices of 680 drugs as part of
the Schedule 1 of the Drug Price
Control Order (DPCO) 2013.

> FROM PAGE 1

RBI proposes wholesale, PM to vet rates...
long-term finance banks The current tax rate is 19.8 per cent, making
it closer to the 18-per cent slab decided by the
The retail presence, if at all, Council.
would be negligible. However, the finance ministry is said to be
These would help take out in favour of classifying bidi as a demerit item
pressures from existing com- with a tax incidence of 28 per cent plus cess
mercial banks that are averse on account of public health concerns. Health
to fund long-term projects due lobbies are also seeking clarity on tax rates for
to heavy bad debts in their chewing-tobacco.
books. Also, niche banks can Fast-moving consumer goods companies
bring expertise to the banking are lobbying to get biscuits taxed in the 5-per
system that could lead to cent bracket under the essential products
enhanced efficiency in terms refinancing agencies under the category, based on nutritional value and
of reduced intermediation cost, oversight of RBI. mass consumption.
better price and The creation of Companies also want clarity on the
improved allocation The Industrial specialised wholesale nomenclature division of refined oil and hair
of capital, said RBI Finance vehicles was proposed oil. Kerala Finance Minister Thomas continue to be exempted under GST as well.
The Industrial Corporation of by the Report of the Isaac said coconut oil should be taxed as Life-saving drugs enjoy exemption from the
Finance Corporation India (IFCI) was Committee on an edible product, categorising it as an essen- central excise duty and countervailing duty.
of India (IFCI) was the the first DFI Financial Sector tial commodity. Besides, companies lobbied to include
first DFI and was set and was set Reforms, chaired by Pharma companies are of the opinion that infant food in the essential list of goods, argu-
up in 1948. Later, oth- up in 1948 former RBI governor as the current rate of tax on pharma products ing that these products provide a balance of
er DFIs either turned Raghuram Rajan. is approximately 9.4 per cent, any increase protein, mineral and other nutrients.
into banks (ICICI Bank, IDBI Later, the Nachiket Mor com- beyond 10 per cent would have a negative Medical devices, currently taxed at 9.9 per
Bank), non-banking financial mittee suggested creation of impact on public health at large. They have cent, should not go beyond 10 per cent, com-
companies (IFCI), or became specialised wholesale banks. argued that certain life-saving drugs should panies have argued.
https://t.me/srikakulam bubbly

6 MARKETS
>
MUMBAI | 8 APRIL 2017 1

THE COMPASS
New launches to sustain
Limaye awaits Sebi nod Mallya moves
SAT against Sebi
JLRs record FY17 show
Indian operations have been
to join NSE, 2 months on market ban
muted due to BS-III ban and lower SomeexpecthimtojoinbyMay,whileIDFCwebsiteshowsheisstillitsMD&CEO Hearing in the matter adjourned
demand for commercial vehicles N SUNDARESHA SUBRAMANIAN for a second time
NewDelhi,7April
RAM PRASAD SAHU SHRIMI CHOUDHARY

Tata Motors UK-based sub-
sidiary Jaguar Land Rover
(JLR) reported its highest-
ever sales for a year with vol-
umes topping the 600,000
units-mark for FY17. Led by a
21 per cent growth in March
2017 sales and robust per-
formance in China and the
US, JLR reported a 16 per cent
growth for FY17. Most of the
growth was on account of
Jaguars new launch F-
PACE, coupled with traction
in XE and XF models which
helped the brand post 83 per
cent sales in the last finan-
cial year. Most other luxury
carmakers (BMW, Audi and
Mercedes) are trailing the
company on the sales growth
front.
Growth going ahead is
expected to come from the all
new Discovery launched in
February, a mid-sized Range
Rover called the Velar in the
June quarter and the new
Range Rover/Range Rover
Sport towards the end of
CY17. Land Rover sales for
FY17, which was up by just
one per cent, was due to
stocks running out for
Discovery and Defender and
given the new launches, this
situation is expected to be
normalised. Analysts at JP
Morgan say there are multi-
ple tailwinds which will drive
JLRs net profit performance
in FY18. The launch of six
new sports utility vehicles
over the next one-and-a-half
years is expected to improve
revenues and margins as also
increase the companys mar-
ket share. Over 90 per cent of
the companys sum of parts
valuation is on account of
JLR.
The story on the Indian
operations, however, is dif-
ferent. March quarter per-
After dull FY17, Coal India
set to shine in FY18
Improving volume trends, price
hikes and higher realisations
should boost FY18 performance
UJJVAL JAUHARI
Coal Indias FY17 volumes
were not something to write
home about. Against a target
of 598 million tonnes (mt)
during FY17, it delivered only
543.16 mt, about nine per
cent lower than the target,
and grew just 1.6 per cent over
FY16 volumes. However, this
is due to sales getting impact-
ed by the destocking at pow-
er plants during the first sev-
en months of FY17. However,
after October, sales have
caught pace as demand from
the power sector has
improved.
The volumes, which had
remained flat during the
April-October period, have
grown five-six per cent in
the November-April period,
which is positive. The com-
pany reported 6.3 per cent
year-on-year (y-o-y) growth
in dispatches in March 2017,
making it the fifth consecu-
tive month of good growth
(of over five per cent). The
formance is expected to be
muted given volume pres-
sures in the medium and
heavy commercial vehicles
(M&HCV) segment and jump
in raw material costs.
Analysts estimate the com-
pany could be stuck with
inventory worth ~4,000
crore, which will need to be
exported. Commercial vehi-
cle sales, despite the dis-
counted offers, were down six
per cent year-on-year.
Uncertainty related to GST
implementation as well as
muted industrial activity has
led to declining demand for
M&HCVs. Analysts expect
demand to improve on the
back of a scrappage policy,
regulatory changes and strict
compliance on overloading
restrictions.
At the current price, the
stock trades at 2.7 times its
FY19 enterprise value to oper-
ating profit, which analysts
at Nomura believe are rea-
sonable. Further at 9.6 times
its consolidated FY19 earn-
ings, it is the cheapest auto
stock among large-cap auto
companies. Most analysts
have pegged their target price
around the ~560- 570 levels
which, from the current lev-
els offers an upside of over 20
per cent.
tion realisations, as demand
from the power sector
declined and lower interna-
tional coal prices did not
help. However, as coal prices
have rebounded from lows
and as demand is improving,
e-auction realisations that
had seen lows of about ~1,348
a tonne in the September 16
quarter have already
improved to ~1,564 in the
December 16 quarter.
Analysts at Ambit indicate
the prices have touched
about ~1,900 a tonne-levels.
I
t has been over two months since the Mumbai, 7 April
countrys top bourse, the National
Stock Exchange (NSE), zeroed in on its Beleaguered liquor baron
choice of managing director and chief Vijay Mallya has moved the
executive officer. But, Vikram Limaye is Securities and Appellate
yet to take charge as the Securities and Tribunal (SAT) challenging
Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has not yet the markets regulators order
cleared his appointment, according to barring him from the securi-
three people familiar with the matter. ties market for allegedly
Interim CEO J Ravichandran has begun diverting ~1,880 crore from
his fifth month at the helm. United Spirits (USL).
Meanwhile, 50-year-old Limaye con- The Securities and
tinues to be listed as the managing direc- Exchange Board of India
tor and CEO of IDFC, the listed infrastruc- (Sebi) had on January 25
ture financier. passed an order against
One of the persons cited above said, Mallya and six other entities
The Sebi clearance is expected any time for violating Sebis ing substantial funds from
now and he is expected to join NSE in May. (Prohibition of Fraudulent USL to companies of the UB
Meanwhile, the bourses nomination and and Unfair Trade Practices) Group, Mallya and others
remuneration committee met this week to regulations. have engaged in an act or
discuss various human resources-related SAT adjourned the hearing practice that prima facie oper-
issues. An NSE spokesperson did not
respond to an e-mail sent on Thursday,
CHANGE OF GUARD on Friday. This is the second ated as a fraud or deceit on
time Mallyas the public share-
seeking comments. December 2, 2016: NSEs Thorat, NSE public to appoint Vikram Limaye case has been Mallya hit out at the holder/ investors
A second person aware of such high- previous chief Chitra interest directors TV (pictured) adjourned by Sebi order. of USL, Sebi had
level appointment processes said, Ramkrishna steps Mohandas Pai and March 7: The shareholders the appellate tri- Allegations of fund said in a 32-page
Usually, such appointments happen in a down citing personal Dinesh Kana, appointed bunal. diversion out of USL order.
of NSE, which include
nuanced manner, where all approvals are reasons The regula- are baseless. USL Citing reports
more or less synchronised and happen
Mid-January, 2017: state-run institutions and tor had given 21 accounts were from consultan-
within a matter of few days. However, this December 5: A selection Interview of candidates foreign private equity days for USL to approved by top cies PwC and E&Y,
seems a slightly long wait. panel, including done by panel funds, clear the provide infor- auditors, an which examined
The persons quoted above suggested industrialist Anand February 3: The board of appointment at an mation on the eminent board of transactions
the new dispensation at Sebi might be in Mahindra, former RBI directors led by chairman extraordinary general steps taken by directors, involving USL and
the process of getting a grasp of various deputy governor Usha Ashok Chawla decides meeting the company to shareholders, he Mallya-owned UB
NSE-related issues under consideration. recover the tweeted Group companies,
New Sebi Chairman Ajay Tyagi took over money from Sebi had said those
on March 1. They also pointed out that it included clearance by shareholders, have senior executive Ravi Varanasi, IFCIs Mallya and the companies to banned were prima facie
has been only a month since NSE share- taken longer than it took for the bourse to Deputy Managing Director Sanjeev which the amount was alleged to have committed
holders cleared the appointment. select its new head. NSEs previous chief Kaushik and Indostar Capital CEO Vimal diverted. fraudulent and unfair activi-
Apart from the clearance of Limayes Chitra Ramakrishna stepped down from Bhandari were some of the candidates who Mallya hit out at the Sebi ties, prohibited under various
appointment, the regulator is also exam- her position, citing personal reasons on were said to be in the race for the top job at order. Allegations of fund sections of PFUTP Act.
ining the unfair access issue and the offer December 2. NSE. Candidates were interviewed in mid- diversion out of USL are base- Sebi also said it was sepa-
document of NSEs proposed ~10,000- On December 5, a selection panel, January. less. USL accounts were rately examining a settlement
crore initial public offering. including industrialist Anand Mahindra, In less than two months since the panel approved by top auditors, an agreement of $75 million
After Sebis clearance, Limaye would former RBI deputy governor Usha Thorat, wasformed,onFebruary3,theboardofdirec- eminent board of directors, between Mallya and USL, fol-
also need time to wrap up his IDFC role. An TV Mohandas Pai and Dinesh Kanabar, torsledbyChairmanAshokChawladecided shareholders, he tweeted. lowing which he'd resigned as
IDFC spokesperson did not respond to an was appointed. toappointLimaye.TheshareholdersofNSE, Sebi had said the viola- chairman and director. As on
e-mail seeking comments on succession The bourse received about 90 applica- which included state-run institutions and tions were serious and have March 2016, Mallya held the
planning and the scenario at the company tions for the job, most of them from non- foreign private equity funds, cleared the larger implications on the chairmans position in United
after Limaye departs. financial market professionals. Besides appointment at an extraordinary general safety and integrity of the Breweries, United Breweries
In fact, the approval processes, which Limaye, IAS officer Sanjeev Kaushik, NSE's meeting on March 7. securities market. By divert- (Holdings) and KFA.
Markets fall after Syria strikes spook investors About 74%
remonetisation
Sensex, Nifty fell buyers to the tune of ~415 crore. complete by
India 2nd-most March-end
Despite the FII selling, the
0.7% each rupee closed at a 20-month MARKET MOVERS
high against the dollar, gain- Sensex (Intra-day) preferred Asian
BS REPORTER & BLOOMBERG ing 23 paise to end at 64.28.
market: Survey Currency in
Mumbai, 7 April The rupees gains came a day
circulation up
after the Reserve Bank of India India is the second-most pre-
The Indian markets posted (RBI) expressed concerns over ferred market (overweight) in
1.7% in week
their biggest single-day drop on
Friday in nearly two weeks after
inflation.
Unpleasant geopolitical
the Asia (excluding Japan)
region, an investor sentiment ending Mar 31
US missile strikes on Syria. developments are never good survey carried out by Credit
The move triggered a risk- for markets and economies, Suisse shows. Chinese stocks ABHIJIT LELE
off sentiment among global said Sanjay Sinha, founder, listed in Hong Kong are the Mumbai, 7 April
investors with stocks slipping Citrus Advisors. Investors most-preferred, while those
and gold and bonds inching up. would wait and watch for Top 5 (Share prices on BSE in ~) listed on the mainland are the By the end of March 2017, the
The Indian markets, however, reactions from countries relat- third-most preferred, accord- currency in circulation had
were among the worst-per- ed to the Syria civil unrest over LOSER Apr 7,17 % chg* ing to the survey. Meanwhile, reached 74.3 per cent of the
forming markets on Friday, with the next few days before act- Sun Pharma 665.65 -3.04 Pakistan, Malaysia, and level prevailing prior to
the benchmark Sensex and ing decisively, he said. Australia were the least pre- demonetisation.
Lupin 1,410.35 -2.61
Niftydropping0.7percenteach. Bharti Airtel and Idea rallied ferred markets (underweight). The pace of growth in the
Market players said the nearly one per cent each after Adani Ports 347.55 -2.37 The survey was conduct- currency in circulation had
global developments triggered the Telecom Regulatory Reliance Ind 1,405.55 -2.28 ed during Credit Suisses 20th moderated for four weeks in
profit-booking in stocks that Authority of India asked rival Asia investment conference March, when some cities had
had seen sharp gains in recent Reliance Jio Infocomm to with- Dr Reddys 2,657.70 -1.97 held between March 27 and witnessed difficulty in cash
weeks amid fears of earnings draw a promotional offer. GAINERS March 30. Participants withdrawals at ATMs.
disappointment. Experts said the end of Jios pro- choose Asia ex-Japan as the Currencyincirculationforthe
Reliance Industries dropped motional offer would ease pric- TCS 2,427.10 1.14 region that will provide the week ended March 31, 2017,
2.3 per cent, Tata Steel fell near- ing pressure on the industry. Bajaj Auto 2,832.70 1.13 biggest upside for equity rose by 1.7 per cent to
ly two per cent, and ICICI Bank Meanwhile, aviation stocks investors in 2017, followed by ~13,35,270 crore over the pre-
Bharti Airtel 344.50 0.83
and State Bank of India (SBI) fell after the US strikes trigged Europe and US. Investors saw vious week. According to
dropped more than one per a jump in crude oil prices. Hero MotoCorp 3,216.60 0.35 US trade policies as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
cent each. The NSE VIX index, InterGlobe Aviation fell 1.1 per NTPC 167.70 0.27 biggest risk to the markets, data the currency in circula-
a gauge for market volatility, cent, Jet Airways dropped 4.5 * Change over previous days close
followed by geopolitical risks. tiononNovember4,2016,was
rose nearly four per cent. per cent and SpiceJet declined Compiled by BS Research Bureau BS REPORTER ~17,97,460 crore. The pace of
On Friday, foreign institu- 6.1 per cent. incremental growth of cur-
tional investors (FIIs) sold Oil futures in New York and rency in circulation per week
shares worth around ~260 London surged more than two barrel. Whether the market reactions from the interna- to digest, said Ayako Sera, showedmoderationinMarch.
crore, while domestic institu- per cent to the highest in a reaction is temporary or will tional community. We cant see market strategist, Sumitomo It rose by four per cent in the
tional investors (DIIs) were net month and traded near $53 a continue will depend on the that at the moment so its hard Mitsui Trust Bank. weekendedMarch10overthe
previous week. But the pace
dipped to 2.8 per cent for the
next week (March 17) and

Bond yields rise, rupee strengthens

March quarter, too, wit-
nessed a strong 5.8 per cent
y-o-y growth in dispatches.
The outlook for volume
growth from here on
remains strong. Analysts at
Kotak Institutional Equities
say they expect the growth
momentum to continue,
aided by a favourable base
of weak volumes in the first
half of FY17. Improving price
trends and continued vol-
ume momentum have led
them to upgrade ratings.
Analysts at Ambit expect
offtake to grow seven per
cent annually over the next
couple of years, anticipating
power demand growth of
about six per cent, keeping
coal demand from the sec-
tor at a stable level. Also,
they expect import substi-
tution to push further
growth with about 20-25mt
of imports getting substi-
tuted by supplies from Coal
India.
Coal India had not only
disappointed analysts and
investors on volumes during
FY17, but also on soft e-auc-
Overall realisations will also
get a boost as the company
had taken fuel supply agree-
ment (FSA)-related price
hikes in May last year.
Though fuel supplies under
FSA may have been low in
FY17, after the recovery now,
the benefits will flow. The
company had also taken a 10
per cent price hike for coking
coal supplies that contributes
about 10 per cent of overall
sales.
On employee wage hikes,
analysts estimate about 15
per cent increase in employ-
ee costs and it has been fac-
tored in. Analysts at Kotak
Institutional Equities, too, say
while stock prices factor in
net profit impact from higher
wages, stronger volumes in
March quarter, coking coal
price revisions, and improv-
ing trends for e-auctions
make for a more promising
FY18. Meanwhile, a good div-
idend yield is an added posi-
tive and also provides down-
side support.
a day after monetary policy
ANUP ROY
Mumbai, 7 April
Bond yields have started mov-
ing up after the Reserve Bank
of India (RBI) tightened its rate
corridor on Thursday.
Some market participants
said they expect the 10-year
yields to touch 7 per cent from
the Friday close of 6.81 per
cent. As yields rise, prices of
bonds fall. The rupee, mean-
while, continued to strengthen
and rose to a 20-month high,
as the dollar remained largely
stable, despite geo-political
tensions in Syria. Foreign
investors continued to buy
local equities and bonds.
This is because even with
ample liquidity around, short-
term rates have started inch-
ing up and the RBIs policy lan-
guage indicated that chances
of rate cuts in the coming
months were slim.
The Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) kept the repo rate
unchanged but hiked the
reverse repo rate by 25 basis
point. When liquidity is ample,
the reverse repo rate (the rate
the central bank pays to banks
to absorb liquidity) becomes
the operative one.
A rise in operative rate
should have the impact of a
rate increase, said bond deal-
ers. Therefore, bond yields
should soon reflect that.
Also, RBIs guidance on
inflation being on the higher
side and beyond the comfort
zone would be a dampener for
the bond market, as these
could push the central bank to
raise rates. However, some
market participants said bond
yields might not rise sharply as
there were mitigating factors.
Harihar Krishnamurthy,
slowed further to 2.5 per cent
for the week ended March 24.
The pace of remonetisa-
tion gathered pace in
February. By the last week
end of February, the currency
in circulation was about 64.7
per cent of the currency in the
yields under check, he added. system on November 4.
RUPEE/DOLLAR 10-YEAR GILT Foreign investors have this
year put about $5.35-billion-
The amount rose from
56.6 per cent in January
(Inverted scale) (Yield in %) equivalent in the Indian debt 2016, up from 52.2 per cent at
market. Plus, the comfortable the end of December 2016.
liquidity situation would con-
tinue to boost bonds, he said,
adding the 10-year bonds CURRENCY IN
should not cross 6.90 per cent in CIRCULATION
the near future. IDFC Bank, in
a report, said clarity on liquidi-
ty management also kept the
yields under check and should
be around 6.90 per cent for the
Compiled by BS Research Bureau Source:Bloomberg ChartMaker first half of this financial year.
The rupee, meanwhile,
The rupee, meanwhile, continued to strengthen and rose would continue to strengthen
to a 20-month high, as the dollar remained largely andthis hasledto exporterssell-
stable, despite geo-political tensions in Syria. Foreign ing huge amount of dollars in
investors continued to buy local equities and bonds the forwards market, leading to
forward premium collapsing
head of treasury at First Rand ble reasons for that movement, around 0.50 per cent in the past
Bank, said bond yields were cor- so a correction was due. two days. The rupee rose to a
recting from a recent rally, when However, foreign investors 20-month high against the US WoW;- Change over previous week
the 10-year yields fell to 6.65 per interest in emerging market dollar, closing at 64.28, from its Compiled by BS Research Bureau
Source: RBI
cent level. There was no tangi- debt papers would keep the previous close of 64.51 a dollar.
https://t.me/srikakulam bubbly

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MUMBAI | 8 APRIL 2017 7
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https://t.me/srikakulam bubbly

8 ISSUES AND INSIGHTS

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MUMBAI | 8 APRIL 2017 1

Ambedkars Assembly polls over, Pak back in focus in the resolutions. The delegation reported suc-
cess. Pakistan met India halfway, and no refer-
ence was made to Kashmir. It was important
not just that India attended the meeting but that
Re-engagement with Islamabad before the end of the year cannot be ruled out
diagnosis, Nehrus unless Pakistan shoots itself in the foot again
Pakistan conceded its request.
The accurate Indian reading of internal con-
ditions in Pakistan could be what clinched the

treatment Parliamentary Union (IPU), a meeting of which

just concluded in Dhaka.
That a delegation went from India amid a
Pakistan remained in touch through bilateral
diplomatic channels, including for addressing all
urgent humanitarian and other matters concern-
issue in its favour. In February, Pakistan
launched Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad, a plan that
has as its objective, indiscriminately eliminat-
ing the residual/latent threat of terrorism, con-

L
ast month I had
written of an Indian
economist who,
exactly 99 years ago, wrote
of the problem of unem-
ployment, under-employ-
ment and low productivity
in the Indian economy. He
was called Bhimrao
Ambedkar. He became Dr
MARGINAL UTILITY Ambedkar only after he
got his doctorate nine
general no-engagement-until-terrorism-ends
refrain is remarkable in itself. Although Pakistan
put Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba under
house arrest in January and deprived his col-
leagues of their arms licences, India only sniffed
with disdain at such tokenism and declared it
didnt believe a word of what Islamabad was
saying or doing on terrorism.
PLAIN POLITICS But in February, when independent MP Rajiv
Chandrasekhar moved a Private Members Bill in
ADITI PHADNIS
the Rajya Sabha to get the government to declare
Pakistan a terrorist state and to impose legal, eco-
ing people-to-people ties. In March, India attend-
ed a meeting of the Indus Water Commission in
Islamabad (a similar meeting, to be held in 2016,
was cancelled because of the attack in Uri).
Within weeks, an Indian delegation went to
Pakistan to be part of an initiative born in 1999,
the Association of Asian Parliaments for Peace,
now known as APA.
What is this entity? And why was it so impor-
tant for India to send its MPs to attend the meet-
ing in a country with which it is supposedly not
on talking terms?
solidating the gains made in other military oper-
ations, and further ensuring the security of
Pakistans borders as per the Inter Services
Public Relations (ISPR). Ostensibly aimed at pre-
venting Taliban elements from Afghanistan
crossing into Pakistan, it also saw a slew of arrests
of radical Islamic groups and preachers in
Punjab and elsewhere.
Of course, India could continue to sneer and
say that all this is part of Pakistani optics. But the
fact is that as Pakistan heads for general elec-
tions (due in early 2018), a change of guard in the

T C A SRINIVASA-RAGHAVAN years later, upon which he
gave up economics.
Now, almost a century
later, India still has exactly the same problems. And when
you peel the onion to its core, the reason is dare I say it
Nehrus fascination with western economic ideas. That
fascination has cost us a lot.
Whats worse, we are not going to solve Ambedkars
unemployment, under-employment and low-productivi-
ty problem because it has now become impossible to pro-
vide employment of the sort that guarantees a
smoothened monthly income flow, over 35 years, for 700
million people. It just cannot be done.
So we should stop saying yes, we can, and instead,
focus on what can be done. And what can be done is not
more cousins of MGNREGA, which may be politically nec-
essary, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Parliament
in 2014, or because they bring salve to the conscience of
Sonia Gandhi and Jean Drze. We need to focus, as
Ambedkar said, on investments in agriculture.
O
bscured by the din of the Uttar Pradesh
victory (well take the adjectives as read)
of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
some important foreign policy footwork by the
government in relation to Pakistan has not got
full attention.
As BJP politicians headed to Lucknow to cel-
ebrate the partys victory, another set of BJP
members of Parliament (MP) notably
Meenakshi Lekhi and Swapan Dasgupta along
with Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, travelled to
Murree, Pakistans iconic hill station. The pur-
pose was to attend the Asian Parliamentary
Assembly (APA), an association of parliaments
in Asia along the lines of the International
LUNCH WITH BS > BANMALI AGRAWALA, PRESIDENT & CEO, GE SOUTH ASIA
nomic and travel sanctions on Pakistani citizens for
promoting terror, the Ministry of Home Affairs
virtually forced him to withdraw the Bill. We have
diplomatic relations with the neighbouring coun-
try, which includes High Commissions as well as
trade relations. It will not be prudent to declare any
country as a terror state as India is bound by inter-
national norms, Chandrasekhar quoted the home
minister as having told him.
Other baby steps of rapprochement were visi-
ble. Chandu Chavan, the soldier who had strayed
into Pakistani territory, was returned to India in
January. In February, External Affairs Minister
Sushma Swaraj told the Lok Sabha that despite
Pathankot and Uri, the governments of India and
The APA comprises parliaments of Asian
countries with such diverse political systems as
Jordan and Iran, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
Most of these countries are united by a history of
anti-colonial movements, poverty and a general
anti-West stance. Obviously, this becomes more
relevant in the current global, post-Trump sce-
nario. But it was all the more imperative for India
to assert itself in 2017, given that the 2016 plena-
ry session of the APA held in Siem Reap
(Cambodia) adopted a declaration that, despite
Indias presence, committed itself to resolving all
disputes including Kashmir, as per UN Charter.
The mission of the delegation was to per-
suade Pakistan to drop any reference to Kashmir
political establishment is inevitable. Observers
see his brother and Punjab Chief Minister
Shehbaz Sharif as succeeding him, with daugh-
ter Maryam Nawaz Sharif taking charge of the
party. That is, assuming the fiercely independent
Supreme Court of Pakistan does not intervene
orders in the Panamagate corruption case are
reserved and could be made public any day.
Coincidentally, Nawaz Sharif is reported to be
suffering from stones in his kidney and is report-
edly considering going to London for treatment.
In the circumstances, re-engagement with
Islamabad before the end of the year cannot be
ruled out. Unless Pakistan shoots itself in the
foot again.
more conscious of hierarchy than elsewhere
in the world? The next generation of busi-

As Ambedkar pointed out in 1918, employment isnt
only a problem of income; it is also largely one of produc-
tivity. If you dont solve the productivity problem, all you
get is government service and MGNREGA which, some
would say, are one and the same thing.
The harm that Nehru did
It is astonishing that Ambedkars 1918 paper was com-
pletely ignored by Nehrus brigade of economists even
though it focused on productive employment for the mil-
Making a difference
ness leaders, owners, entrepreneurs, and
management are not like 30 years back when
I started to work. They are not servile any
more. They want a much more open system.
They want direct conversation.
Out meal arrives in a large steel tiffin car-
Agrawala tells Jyoti Mukul that GE is transforming itself on several fronts from going local rier. The waiter unlocks it and places each of
the three boxes coloured pink, yellow and
and becoming a digital industrial company to how it deals with the government blue in front of us. The aroma of authen-
tic spices is irresistible we dig right in.

lions of under-employed people in agriculture.
Nehruvian policies, albeit with the best of intentions,
took their cue from a host of western economists like Paul
Rosenstein-Rodan on the one hand, and Soviet-style plan-
ning on the other. Rosenstein-Rodan formulated the Big
Push theory and Stalin decided to finance industrialisation
by expropriating agriculture.
That said, Nehru and Co did try, somewhat half-heart-
edly, to do what Ambedkar had suggested, namely, to shift
the surplus labour of agriculture to manufacturing by
channelling the lions share of national investment
into industry.
But they got the sectoral allocation completely wrong.
Ambedkar had wanted industrial investment to come from
the private sector and the bulk of state investment to be in
agriculture. Nehru ignored this sage advice after the first
five-year plan which was hardly a plan, that is, in 1957.
The consequences of those skewed investment priori-
ties are still haunting Indian agriculture, which now hosts,
in one way or another, almost 800 million people who
have neither employment nor productivity. They truly are
what Frantz Fanon described as the wretched of
the earth.
Ambedkar had pointed to another aspect that Nehru
neglected: Small farms were not responsible for the low pro-
ductivity of labour, the de-industrialisation of India was.
The 1950s saw Indias intellectual framework being
captured by economists subscribing to Simon Kuznets
view of economic transition and changes in the occupation
structure and the Feldman-Mahalanobis view of savings
and investment. This latter held that higher consumption
is only possible if a country first invests in capacity to
build capital goods.
Gary Feldman was a Soviet economist, who had written
his paper in 1928 exactly 10 years after Ambedkar. He
had never heard of comparative advantage. The
Mahalanobis model, likewise, also assumed zero trade.
There were a lot of objections to the Feldman-
Mahalanobis vision. The Economic Weekly of the 1950s is
full of them. All were ignored.
As things have turned out, India has proved Kuznets
wrong, though not by design: Its occupation structure now
resembles that of developed economy because there is no
manufacturing sector worth the name. But there is a major
difference: Low productivity and underemployment have
now been transferred from agriculture to services.
Nehrus attitude to warnings on the economic side by a
galaxy of eminently sensible people is very similar to
Narendra Modis attitude to warnings on the saffronisation
of politics and society bash on regardless.
The birds will come home to roost long after he has
demitted office.
(This is the fourth of a six-part series)
W
hen I request a lunch with Banmali
Agrawala, president and CEO, GE
South Asia, I am told that he would
like to focus the conversation on how GE is
transforming itself into a digital industrial
company. We decide to meet at Amaranta
at The Oberoi in Gurugram. Because of the
hotels unusual construction, one has to go
down from the lobby right at the entrance to
reach the restaurant a few levels below.
I am one of the first ones to reach the
restaurant. When Agrawala joins me, we
decide to get over with ordering the food
first. My guest opts for a vegetarian express
luxury lunch, choosing the Niligiri paneer
kurma option, and some fresh lime and
soda. I go for a Chettinad curry with aspara-
gus and a broccoli poriyal with curry leaf-
tempered tapioca and sannas, avoiding the
south Indian makeover of the ubiquitous
north Indian paneer.
As we settle down I ask why GE needs to
change in the first place. There were a cou-
ple of themes which Jeff Immelt (chairman
and CEO, GE) brought in when he assumed
office and one of them was to become
global. The international business of GE out-
side the US at that time was just 30-35 per
cent. Today, it is 60-65 per cent. He drove the
agenda of getting global very hard and
that meant getting stronger talent,
says Agrawala.
We are interrupted by a server, who places
some tomato and lentil rasam with lentil
chekkalu before us. Agrawala takes a look
and decides to skip the soup.
We come back to the point he is making.
For GE, globalisation meant buying from the
cheapest source and selling where the price
was the highest. Today, globalisation means
being more local in local markets. From that
perspective, we have made a shift from being
a more product-led company to a solution-
driven company over the last five years, he
tells me.
The other theme is to make GE a pure-
play industrial company, so it sold off GE
Capital and bought Alstoms power business.
The way the company deals with the gov-
ernment has also changed. Earlier, we used
to have a mile-long list of deviations from the
tender and as a result, we didnt bid.
Through a process of consultation with the
government and PSUs, we now bid for gov-
ernment projects with zero deviation.
We are willing to take on more risk and
execute it.
That came on the back of doubling of its
business in South Asia over the last three
years. Now the company sees substantial
growth here since GE plays right at the
heart of every infrastructure business where
the government is spending money. We
have positioned ourselves to win and
make opportunity.
So what did he learn from the whole
change process? I have got GE to change a
little bit and I have changed myself. The two
have converged. In terms of me changing, I
learnt here the focus on performance and
on delivering results in a timely manner. In
terms of changing GE, just the understand-
ing of the market who are the likely part-
ners, who are willing to take suitable risk
was big. I have been able to persuade and
convince GE to be more aggressive. Today,
GE in India is a very local company.
I ask him how different things are at GE
from the way they were at Wartsila and Tata
Power, where he worked just before joining
GE. I used to be a gentle and soft guy and
now I am a pretty tough taskmaster, he
seems amused as he says that. There is a
sharp focus on deliverables and results here,
he adds. Now I am confident that if I make
certain decisions, I will be backed up by
the management.
Is it possible for an old-economy compa-
ny to become more like an IT company, like,
perhaps, an Apple? We do believe that the
physical and digital will converge. You see
software companies making devices, cars
and here you have a hardware company
making software. Remember, the internet
of things has internet and things. Both have
to go together, he says.
At the same time, it is important for a
company to remain attractive as an employ-
er, he adds. In many ways, we are fighting
for the same talent as Google and Apple in
the technology space. So what is that key
question GE asks a potential employee when
it spots one? We ask youngsters if they want
to write code for computer games or want to
do something for medical devices and aero-
planes? When they see you can make an
impact, they get charged up.
The organisation had to be more agile.
of the year is to take a summary and review.
ILLUSTRATION: BINAY SINHA
In these times, if you have a company that
has stiff hierarchy and too many layers,
which by definition will slow things down, it
is not a place where youngsters would want
to work, he explains.
Is it a fact that Indian companies are
Over the past one year, GE has introduced
some new practices. One such is Fastworks,
the basic idea of which is to improve speed.
We want people to experiment, but if you
realise that a trial is not going well then you
need to stop and move on. You cannot wait
to perfect a product or a solution before you
take it out to the market. If you have a broad
idea, you take it out to the market, get a
quick feedback and tune the product fur-
ther and keep on making improvements. In
a sense, it is an anti-thesis of the Six
Sigma approach that GE had earlier,
Agrawala says.
The other concept is a mobile app,
PD@GE, a unique performance develop-
ment system. Since things change fast, we
cannot sit at the end of the year to give feed-
back. It will be a prepared session. We have
done away with annual performance
appraisal. If I am able to give feedback
almost instantly, all one has to do at the end
The new appraisal system was started
in 2016.
How different is working in a company
like GE from working in an Indian company?
In the Indian context, the purpose of busi-
ness is important. You cannot say that the
only objective you have is to drive profit.
You have to have a larger purpose in the
Indian market. Once you begin to serve the
people, business follows. Outside, where
basic needs have been met, the focus can be
much sharper on shareholder return, stock
price etc. The context is different, he says.
Such differences in context also teach
one important life lessons. Getting out of
your comfort zone teaches you so much.
Reaching Finland in 1992 while working for
Wartsila after spending his growing-up years
in Pune a sleepy old place he was hit
hard by two things: One, there was hardly
any vegetarian food available, and two, the
temperature would fall to minus 32-40
degrees. It wasnt normal for me, but it
taught me something. You learn to deal with
discomfort and make your way through.
Agrawala sees growth coming from tech-
nology and data that can make assets more
productive. I would like to seed this idea in
business and in the government. At the
moment, we have a dozen conversations; I
would like to have a 100.

A happy story, for a change
initially, arguing that he only needed to
worry about marrying her into a good
family and not about enabling her to find
a good job. I explained to them that in
this day and age, parents should worry
equally about the education and careers
of their sons and daughters, he said.
So, when his daughter was old enough,
he enrolled her in the best government
school in his neighbourhood. Spurred by
her father, the girl proved to be a good stu-
PEOPLE LIKE THEM dent. But Singh wanted her to do even bet-
ter. When she was promoted to Class 6, he
GEETANJALI KRISHNA decided it was time to get her some extra
coaching. After all, none of us at home
well as extra classes did not cost him a
single penny.
After school, she was able to secure a
seat in a good Delhi University college
because Singh belonged to an Other
Backward Class, and had the papers to
prove it. I realised what a difference a
good college made when I saw the expo-
sure she got there, he said. While com-
pleting her graduation, Singhs daughter
began working on a SAP certificate course.
We didnt even know what SAP was all
about, until she landed a job that paid her
over ~1 lakh per month, he said.
His daughter married one of her col-
The good, the bad, the worst
enter your room in complete darkness
and have to switch on the mobile phone
light to track the room masterswitch.
When it comes to switching off lights,
there isnt a hotel that has been able to
get its control panels right, letting most
rooms resemble spooky film sets. Why
do some hotels vary their elevator secu-
rity panels so youre left searching for
them like a drunk person? And fancy
bathrooms with glass walls may make
PEOPLE LIKE US the room look bigger, but spare a
thought for company officials who are
KISHORE SINGH asked to share rooms to save costs
they might prefer extra soaps and toi-
a doctor in a strange city.
Airports now, thankfully, have a
choice of restaurants, but I avoid the
curry kind, and especially those that
also serve alcohol. I also find arriving
early at an airport is worthwhile if you
plan to pack in some shopping, partic-
ularly for clothes, bags or gadgets.
Again, New Delhi has the best stores,
though the airport in Mumbai offers a
better experience. The southern air-
ports are all glitz and gild but boring.
Goa has the worst departure lounge in
India, and Pune reminds you of how
airports used to be in India till just

I H
dont often tell very happy stories in this
column, and for good reason.
Sometimes, problems seem more news-
worthy while one takes happiness and sat-
isfaction for granted. Also, I dont often meet
people who tell me happy stories. But
Bhupinder Singh was different, and that is
why I so enjoyed chatting with him.
Bhupinder Singh is an electrician in
Delhi who is street-smart but having
studied merely up to Class 10, has always
been restricted by his lack of education.
That is why, when his eldest daughter
was born, he promised to give her the
best education possible, even if he could-
nt afford it. I didnt want her to have
the sort of problems that I have had in
making a career for herself, he says. His
wife and mother didnt agree with him
could help her with her studies, he said.
However, coaching classes in his neigh-
bourhood were prohibitively expensive.
By then, hed also had two more children.
Just when I was wondering how to appor-
tion my earnings between the household
and my three children, I got to know that
a benefactor at our local gurdwara was
offering needy girls full scholarships, he
said. He promptly put in an application for
his daughter, and she was selected.
After this, Singh became inspired to
apply for every scheme the government
launched that his daughter could possi-
bly benefit from. Whether it was the
Ladli scheme or any government-spon-
sored health benefits for girls I ensured
my daughter could avail of them, he
said. Consequently, her school fees as
leagues soon after she started working.
The couple took a joint loan to buy a flat in
Gurgaon. Recently, she gave me the good
news that she was expecting, he said. So,
I gave her the good news that she was now
entitled to 26 weeks of paid maternity
leave from her place of work. Singh said
the look of relief on his daughters face
told him that hed done his duty as a father.
I may not have had a lot of money to
spend on her, but I certainly make sure
the government did, he said.
Our conversation left me ruminating
how unfortunate it is that there arent
many like Singh, who keep track of gov-
ernment schemes they are entitled to. If
they did, perhaps there would be many
other happy stories for me to share in
this column.
aving spent the last few months
on the road, I can say with a
degree of assurance that it is the
small things that make a hotel great
like when you have a cold, and the chef
sends you a soup to make you feel better.
The Taj group has some of the best serv-
ice staff but some of the worst towels
youre likely to find in a guest room
and I speak from experience, whether in
Goa, Chennai, Hyderabad or Bengaluru.
The Oberoi group is quick to find solu-
tions, ITC has the best pillows in the
business, and the Marriott has the best
breakfast in town and thats saying
something considering the spreads
most hotels offer at breakfast time.
Of late, hotel room design has got so
complicated, you feel like a fool as you
letries over such architectural fripperies.
Im not a great fan of room service
but I avoid buffets, too. Just last
evening, the manager of the coffee shop
at an international hotel chain in
Hyderabad confirmed that there was
no change in the menu at the lunch and
dinner buffets. I am partial to a la carte
dining for reasons of wanting to eat less
rather than more, but recycling is the
hospitality industrys worst-kept secret,
and who wants to survive on leftovers at
those prices? Off the menu, I try and
order something thats not part of
the buffet, therefore requires to be
cooked fresh, or simply opt for a spe-
cialty restaurant over the all-day diner,
even if the meal costs so much
more. You dont want to be summoning
a few years ago and thank god,
theyve changed.
I wish IndiGo would offer frequent
flyer miles; for my money, theyre the
best airline in the business, stick (most-
ly) to their schedule, and even though
ground staff are often so harried they
can be rude, their on-board service
remains the best. I avoid Jet Airways if
I can help it, and dont bother to give
them my frequent flyer number when
Im forced to take a flight, because
everything about it is jaded. Spicejet
and GoAir look and feel budget, and
Vistara has the best seats and food,
though Ive often wondered why the
stewardesses have been given uniforms
that resemble night suits made of
upholstery fabric.
https://t.me/srikakulam bubbly

>
OPINION 9
Volume IV Number 36 ILLUSTRATION BY BINAY SINHA

2017 does not justify some fundamental shifts in

MUMBAI | 8 APRIL 2017 approach to Pakistan and Kashmir as well. Is our
traditional insistence on pure bilateralism with
Pakistan not outdated now? Was it rooted in a sense
WEEKEND RUMINATIONS of national confidence, or insecurity? Why did India
so fear the idea of a third party? Was it just because
T N NINAN of the legacy of the unfulfilled UN Security Council
plebiscite resolutions of 1948? Should India con-

Indias trade kink tinue to presume that if any big powers were to get
involved as mediators or enablers, as the Soviets did
in Tashkent in 1966, these will more likely exert pres-

T
he trade numbers for 2016-17 will be released in the next week or so. They sures for a conclusion detrimental to India?
will show total merchandise exports at about $270 billion. This is against At the peak of his power, Narendra Modi can afford
a backdrop of exports topping $305 billion in 2011-12, and staying above the to review this ossified notion. A firm policy position,
not debated for 44 years, should be thrown open for

New big idea vs failed,

300-mark for the next three years before dropping off sharply in 2015-16.
discussion. Times change, so do issues and so, most
The fall is explained in part by the drop in oil prices since 2014. Consequently, the importantly, does the negotiating power of nations.
export of petroleum products has shrunk in value. Even allowing for this, though,
the picture is one of stagnant exports over the last five years. imla Accord's central proposition was that it
You could argue in defence of this performance that world exports show a sim-
ilar trend. Global merchandise exports in 2016 may not have been very different from
the 2015 figure of $16.5 trillion which was down by about 10 per cent from $18.2 old bilateralism S redefined Kashmir as a purely bilateral issue,
making the Security Council resolutions irrel-
evant. But Simla was a very long time ago. If look
trillion in 2011. In percentage terms, this broadly matches the shrinkage in Indias from 1989 onwards, when freshand continuing
troubles in Kashmir started, the India-Pakistan equa-
exports relative to 2011-12. As a consequence, the countrys share of global exports
has remained more or less unchanged since 2011, at about 1.7 per cent. It bears point-
Pakistan is not an equal or stable neighbour. Only the stamp of a global tion has changed radically. Then, Pakistan was still
a considerably richer economy than Indias (in per
ing out, though, that prior to this period India had been steadily improving its power can assure lasting peace with India capita incomes). Now that has reversed radically,
share of world merchandise exports, from 0.8 per cent in 2004. and the gap is further changing in Indias favour at
here are three words voters Republicans say. almost 5 percentage points per year, with the com-

T
Perhaps more importantly, the two major reasons for the lack of momentum
in world exports do not affect India. One is the growing energy self-sufficiency of the the world over love now, and
US, which has sharply reduced its energy imports. The other is the enormous suc- three they detest. The things
they like are change, disruption,
cess that China has had in import substitution supplanting imports from East
even political and ideological icon-
Asian countries with domestic inputs into the manufacturing supply chain. By one oclasm. The three they abhor: Status
count, domestic value addition has gone up from 35 per cent to 60 per cent. Neither quo, establishments, political cor-
of these two factors has affected Indias trade prospects, except perhaps through lim- rectness. Donald Trump is only the
ited second-round effects. If we are to look for the reasons behind the countrys stag- latest personification of this. This is
nant exports, we have to look elsewhere. precisely what brought Narendra
Some would argue that we dont need to look beyond China, which single-hand- Modi to power and keeps his popu-
larity going.
NATIONAL INTEREST
edly accounts for about half the trade deficit. India-China trade is one of the most unbal-
In fact, it was Modis approach SHEKHAR GUPTA
anced anywhere, with an export-import ratio of about 1:5. But would imports come to politics that targeted Lutyens
down if China were removed from the map, or would other countries replace China and all old establishmentarian elites,
as a supplier of everything from mobile phones to domestic electrical gadgets, and their thought processes, networks and fake polite-
from solar panels to plain steel? Given that India runs a trade deficit with about two- ness much before Mr Trump made impact with his
thirds of its most important trading partners, the problem is at home, not abroad. assault on the Washington Beltway. This is what
even Arvind Kejriwal had targeted in his heyday
A few commentators have argued in recent months that Indias exports are con-
centrated in too few products and too few markets, making the country vulnerable
to negative swings in world trade. This argument is contra-indicated by the coun-
trys score on the Economic Complexity Index, which gives India a 2014 rank of 45
with the war cry of sab mile huye hain, meaning that
all elites, even while pretending to be rivals, are com-
plicit in controlling and sharing power.
If you dismiss the entrenched establishments as
in a list of 124 countries; this is substantial improvement from the rank of 61 for 1995. effete, corrupt, fake, bankrupt and self-serving failures,
The index measures two broad metrics: The diversity of the export basket (greater it should follow that you should also reject their cen-
diversity reflects more broad-based capacities in the system) and the knowledge con- tral ideas. Particularly when these are ideas shared
tent of the basket (exports with greater knowledge content are more sustainable and across party-lines because that represents classic elite
also have greater potential for growth). India scores relatively well on both metrics; complicity. Among the many things Mr Trump prom-
ised was to radically change Americas view of Europe.
its 2014 rank is better than for all Brics countries except China (ranked 20th), and bet- Until now, there was agreement among
ter also than for all its South Asian neighbours, including Sri Lanka. Republicans and Democrats on Europe as a central
The heart of the problem is not world trade stagnation, or Chinese mercantilism, pillar of an ideal American construction of the world.
or a narrow export base though all of them are contributory factors. The nub of the It had to be protected at all costs. Thats what justified
issue is the all-too familiar failure to develop an efficient manufacturing base. India the enormous American commitment to NATO. Now,
has a surplus in services trade, it even has a surplus in the agricultural goods trade (be- Trump has been true to his promise in asking Angela
ing the sixth largest exporter), and it has a surplus in transfer payments (remittances Merkel to pay hundreds of millions of dollars as
Germanys share of NATOs costs for its defence.
come in from non-residents, and go out as dividend or royalty payments, among oth-
Until now, an American president demanding
er things). The only sector where it does not have a surplus is in manufacturing wh- protection money from its European allies, especial-
ose share of the total trade in goods and services combined has been declining steadily. ly Germany, would have only been a rogue, or a deep
Since space has run out, exploration of this manufacturing failure and for pes- undercover Russian spy somehow elected to that
simism about the prospect of change must wait for another weekend. office in a Tom Clancy yarn. Now it is a reality. Mr
Trump has ignored all that the respected Washington
think-tanks, talking heads, establishment
We have seen the change in
India as well. Narendra Modi has
dumped the old, MEA caution on
the outreach to America. He has
downgraded the Non Aligned
Movement in his worldview. He has
actively baited China rather than
merely stand firm as his predeces-
sors may have done. He has done
much else to defy the old Lutyens
mafia. He has, in fact, done so not
just by demolishing the old one, but
actively building a new one in his
own, and his ideologys image.
Which is fine. Thats why we can seek change in
another important area.
ikki Haley, Mr Trumps Ambassador to the
N United Nations, said earlier this week that
the US was concerned about continued
India-Pakistan hostility and could not simply wait
until something went really bad. And then she used
that most dreaded M word, offering to mediate
between them. As youd expect, there was outrage in
Indian commentariat and government. The same
old lines were repeated: All India-Pakistan issues
are to be resolved bilaterally, and no third party has
a business to intervene.
The key words here are as youd expect. If you
were a Modi voter, or more specifically, one among
his fast-growing fan club in the Lutyens commen-
tariat, wouldnt you have expected something other
than what youd expect? Why repeat a line on
India's most vital foreign policy and strategic ques-
tion that's been spoken by every leader, diplomat and
policy wonk since the Simla Accord? Shouldn't you
be disappointed that the Lutyens commentariat and
Modi government are agreeing on the old, Holy
National Consensus on this most important issue?
Didnt you vote to disturb the status quo, disrupt
established thinking and demolish boring old polit-
ical correctness?
Its time we debated if the status India enjoys in
bined impact of higher economic growth rates and
a population growing at half the pace of Pakistans.
For 15 years after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
in 1979 Pakistan was a stalwart ally of the Western
powers. Pakistan got a strategic reprieve with 9/11.
Now that cycle has fully run out.
India has risen to the status of an intermediate
power globally, an economic giant and its military is
becoming stronger. Political stability is at its peak
since Indira Gandhis heyday and this is acknowl-
edged by friends and adversaries. This should give
India the confidence to toss insecurities and craft a
new, post-2014 approach to Kashmir and Pakistan.
Its a politically incorrect thing to say that two sov-
ereign nations arent equals, but isn't that how we
wanted to be? Today, India and Pakistan are not
equal on any scale, not even in cricket, hockey and
Sufi music. For bilateralism to work there has to be
equality between negotiating parties. This doesn't
exist anymore and there is no reason why India
should complain. Or not use it to its advantage.
Further, bilateralism works between constitu-
tionally stable states. Pakistani democracy has come
a long way since Musharraf, but isn't quite in control
of the key levers of policy yet. So who do you sign up
with? If so often new rulers take power in Pakistan
after killing, jailing or exiling their predecessors,
even bringing their own bespoke constitutions, why
would they honour their international commit-
ments? Think, if the next election brings Imran Khan
in power. Can you reasonably expect him to keep
Nawaz Sharif's commitments?
That is why Pakistan has calmly repudiated the
Simla, Lahore and Islamabad declarations, and will
continue doing so. This is evidence enough that
bilateralism has failed. My proposition, therefore, is
that any settlement with Pakistan wont last unless
it comes with big-power guarantees. So go, seek out
big power help from a position of strength. Breaking
out of the Cold War black box is a thought worth
debating in Modis India.
Twitter: @ShekharGupta

Kishori Amonkar: A tempestuous diva Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne, a 1964

ngh in Delhi trying to connect cul-
turally with a traditional baithak
in an opulent chandeliered hall.
The photographer Raghu Rai, also
present, recollects this week her
sharp reprimand when he made
the cardinal mistake of lighting a
cigarette. Among her legions of
permanent home, the Kamani
auditorium, and featuring such
greats as Girija Devi and Rashid
Khan this year, has just ended. It is
the bequest of the late Sumitra
Charat Ram who put her hus-
bands fortune to good use by gath-
ering the great and the good
the vanishing courtesy and grace
of Uttar Pradesh made more
disarming against a backdrop of
museum-quality treasures that
filled her grand home. (For an
unusually frank appraisal of
Sumitrajis life, read her son
Siddharth Shrirams birth cente-
potboiler by V Shantaram.
Of the ameliorative power of
Being human is
so yesterday
her music my best recent example
is of two young women my
daughter and her close childhood
friend going through a taxing
time in foreign capitals. It was a
time of tedious struggle; when ver-
EYE CULTURE a close merger between biological intelli-
gence and digital intelligence. Be under no
bal succour failed, I sent them a SAYANDEB CHOWDHURY illusion that this new company is a playground
link to a composition by Kishori for a billionaire who wants to squander some
Amonkar, a profound solace to me n the very second stanza of The Cyborg dollars on a fancy start-up. Given the success

AL FRESCO
fans, he later captured her gaunt
features and something of her
obsessive performing style vividly
in black and white images.
SUNIL SETHI My encounters with her were
the result of a friendship with
it up, she shouted into Delhis greatest patrons of the per-
among Indias legendary per-
formers. Her legacy, glowingly
enhanced by her daughter Shobha
Deepak Singh, is unique: Neither
ticketed nor sponsored, the festi-
val, as she points out, is sustained
by avid followers.
nary tribute to her in Business
Standard, November 15, 2015).
Utterly humble before her,
Kishori Amonkar turned from
ferocious feline to docile kitten.
She promptly agreed to the
recording; in the candid interview
in times of sadness or stress.
This is a 48-minute-long khay-
al in the Raga Hamsadhawani, an
invocation to the Remover of
Obstacles, whose fame is so uni-
versal that when Barack Obama,
after his India visit, was asked what
I Manifesto (1985) her game-changing of PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX, Musk will make
thesis about feminism and identity poli- a case of the new company too, and before you
tics American feminist philosopher Donna know, an innocent and colourful headphone
Haraway claimed that the boundary between that promises to connect your brain straight to
social reality and science fiction is an optical a computer might be on offer, first and excl-
illusion. Late 20th century capitalism, she usively, on Amazon. You will thus be twice
contended, had made human identity unsta- wired first through your flesh and then

S the mike, her voice a

shrill rasp. A front-row
member of the audience was
lolling on a bolster. Looking up
while tuning her instrument she
went for him again. "Sit up! I said
SIT UP!... Did you not hear me!
The evening screeched to a st-
andstill before it started. It was a
first up close view of Kishori Amo-
nkar, the tempestuous diva of Hin-
dustani classical music, who quie-
tly passed away in her sleep, at 84,
this week a few days after her last
concert.
The occasion was an ill-starred
performance at an odd venue in
the early 1980s the Taj Mansi-
forming arts, the Shriram family.
From a young age, my brother and
I were taken to the Shriram
Shankarlal Music Festival each
spring, then held on the open
grounds of Modern School on
Barakhamba Road. This was a sort
of late-night mela with hundreds
streaming in and out before a vast
stage on which the musicians
came and went. Often carried
home in the early hours, our joy
was when our mother announced,
All right, no school tomorrow.
The music (not the holiday) was
among their many gifts.
The 70th edition of this annu-
al music festival, now held at its
On the numerous occasions I
sought an interview with the iras-
cible, mercurial Kishori Amonkar
I was dismissed. On one occasion
she was downright rude.
In 2000 she was the festival's
star performer. On behalf of
NDTV I importuned Ms Deepak
Singh to help. She was under-
standably non-committal but
added, Mummy is giving a lunch
for Kishoriji. Come if you like and
well see if we can persuade her.
Sumitra Charat Rams was a
remarkably benevolent and calm-
ing presence. In her simple cot-
ton sari, large bindi and mangal-
sutra she presented a picture of
she spoke movingly about her life
and art. She recalled the hardships
her mother, Mogubai Kurdikar,
faced as a young widow. She had
to travel to concerts in third class
compartments. I would often go
to sleep in her lap as her accom-
panist. We lived in a one-room
chawl. She needed every penny
to educate me and my siblings.
She dwelt on how she sought to
create an architecture of sound
by exploring the colour of each
note. For me the audience also
becomes the raga. Later, off the
record, she was unsparing about
playback singing, and her rejec-
tion of film music after singing for
without notice.
he brought home, he delved into
his pocket and produced a little
Ganesh. The piece is largely devoid
of the soaring taans and shrutis
(virtuoso and micro-notes) that are
hallmarks of her style. In an unruf-
fled contemplation of Ganapatis
playfulness and prescience she
draws eternal truths. Namita Devi-
dayal, author of the bestselling
musical memoir The Music Room
(Random House; 2007) concurs
that it is possibly one of her most
inspiring pieces.
Kishori Amonkars greatness
was that, from her troubled life
and temperament, she produced
music of transcendental healing.
that any foreign national can get by
ble and unsustainable and pushed humans through your cerebrum. Whatever you call it,
in life as in labour into a war with it is no more in the realm of being human.
machines. Her counteroffensive was in bring- Precisely what Mr Harari predicts.
ing forth the idea of the cyborg creatures Epicenter and Mr Musk represent grow-
simultaneously animal and machine a ing, predatory corporations that canni-
species without gender, without history and balise on bio-data. This is not the bio-data
without an originary mythology. Not that of your education, schooling, experience or
this idea was entirely new to science fiction; salary. They are so yesterday. We will indi-
Karel Capeks Rossums Universal Robots (the vidually and together generate an ocean of
source of the robot) did venture into this big data, available for mining and con-
possibility much early. Ms Haraway politi- trolled, Matrix-like, from the new infor-
cises the possibility, infusing the cyborg with mation Swiss banks which will then sell
an entrenched radicalism than seeing them them to a handful of companies for
merely as placid humanoids. astounding profits. This is the data of your
In three decades since, cyborgs seem to being a human, a record of your life as a liv-
have arrived. But from a different register. ing organism. Led by Facebook, all social
The new book from Yuval Noah Harari, media thrive on an ever-hungry global
whose Sapiens was a global industry of big-data mining,
phenomenon, calls itself Homo The more which, when put through a
Deus or godmen. In this book, connected a society complicated mathematical
Mr Harari predicts a supra- is, the more readily process, can predict human

Aadhaar: One ID to bind them all Its not secure: This massive
database of personal information
is wide open to fraud, attack, and
virtue of being a resident. Would
you trust this government, which
prevented a Greenpeace worker
wired future. In Mr Hararis it compromises

agree to give up meaning in

that one piece of paper to cut
through the mess! A billion of us
ran out and got it.
Its got to be the biggest bait-
and-switch in history.
I failed to educate myself abo-
ut how the Unique Identification
Authority of India (UIDAI) was bu-
ilding and handling the database
to which I was voluntarily offering
my most intimate, personal, irre-
INTER ALIA placeable biometric information
fingerprints and iris scans.
MITALI SARAN
Nandan Nilekani was spearhead-
ndians have serious red tape ing it knows his stuff, modern
Imperfect authentication: So-
me peoples fingers are too crack-
ed or dirty for prints to properly
register. People lose eyes. Chil-
drens biometrics change. Machi-
nes dont always work. Authentic-
ation failure means that millions of
people could be turned away from
their entitled food rations, despite
having a valid Aadhaar number.
Its illegal: The Supreme Court
has repeatedly stated that Aadha-
ar is voluntary, and barring further
orders, nobody can be denied any-
thing for lack of it. Despite that,
theft. Someone was issued two
separate Aadhaar numbers. A dog
was issued an Aadhaar number. A
simple Google search can reveal
Aadhaar-linked bank details. If
your whole life is Aadhaar-based,
a hacker or an official need
only hack one database number
to take over your entire identity
and assets, or erase you entirely,
with no way to appeal.
It violates privacy: If youre
forced to use Aadhaar to book tra-
in tickets, get pensions, use cyber
cafes, get phones, verify passports,
from making a presentation in
London on grounds of national se-
curity, to exercise the slightest rat-
ionality in that department? Wou-
ld you trust this government,
which defends murderous gau rak-
shaks and denies their crimes, not
to enthusiastically profile minority
communities? Would you trust it
not to penalise people for their
choice of spouse, or food, or enter-
tainment? But no government is
entirely benevolent. Would you
trust any government not to target
inconvenient journalists, whistle-
behaviour and political out-
future world order, humans will freedom and choice comes sufficiently enough to
manipulate them. In other
exchange for power and a few extremely words, the more sophisticated and con-
powerful techno-tsars godmen will nected a society is, the more readily it com-
control 99.9 per cent of others by control- promises freedom and choice, individual-
ling the information they generate. In short, ity and liberty. It is actually quite simple.
we will be equal parts cyborgs, but as is the The more you reveal yourself through the
rule, some cyborgs will be more equal, way binary codes that make up our digital
more equal, than others. world, the less you are capable of working
And the process is well underway. At outside the prophesy of data. This is exact-
Stockholms a high-tech office block ly how Donald Trump won the US presi-
Epicenter a deeply meaningful name if dential elections, backed by Russian hack-
there ever was one employees are insert- ers and a company called Cambridge
ed with a rice-grain sized Radio Frequency Information Group. If under monopoly
Identification (RFID) chip on the fleshy parts capitalism, you were reduced to being just
of the their palm, at the bottom of their a placid and aphasiac consumer, under
thumb. At the moment the chip eases things cyborg capitalism you are as good as the

I PTSD. We live with chronic

anxiety about the documents
that get us the entitlements and
paid services we need food, coo-
king gas, SIM cards, sale deeds,
passports and so on. Were so tyran-
nised by bureaucracy that when
we hear of an official document
that might simplify life, we fall
upon it with cries of joy. We lamin-
ate and file it, make 294 copies of it,
and scan the sucker just to be sure.
Thus it was with Aadhaar, the bio-
metrics-based unique identificati-
on number. It was going to be pure-
ly voluntary, and could be used in
lieu of other identification. Imagine
man, benevolent tech, security,
privacy, right? My bad.
Critics of Aadhaar have been
trying for years to alert us to its
real and serious problems, mostly
in vain. Today, as we discover that
our voluntary, secure, private inf-
ormation is no longer voluntary, or
secure, or private, their voices ring
loud. Heres my five-point layper-
sons recap of the most disturbing
problems put forward by legal sch-
olars, economists, and technolo-
gy and security experts. We all ne-
ed to consider them, and read up
on them, before blindly furnish-
ing our Aadhaar numbers.
the government is trying to huge-
ly widen the range of services for
which Aadhaar is mandatory. The
Aadhaar Act, forced through the
Lok Sabha as a money Bill last year,
makes enrolment compulsory for
those wanting subsidies. This year,
the BJP used the Finance Bill to
smuggle in many more Aadhaar
requirements, including for filing
income tax, and giving children,
whose biometrics keep changing,
their midday meals, to which they
are entitled not just by law, but by
basic human decency. The cherry
on top: The government can also
revoke or deactivate your number
make provident fund transactions,
open bank accounts, transact in
real estate, register on matrimoni-
al sites, pay property tax, and visit
your favourite jailbird even
though it would be illegal in all
those cases your life is an open
book, from the porn you watch, to
how healthy you are, to who you
sleep with, and how you spend
your money. Not only the govern-
ment, but also private companies,
can access that database.
It enables mass surveillance:
The government reserves the right
to use your information for natio-
nal security this for a number
blowers, opposition funders, or
political dissidents? If DNA is ever
included in the biometrics, think of
how justice might be abused.
Given these and other issues,
thoroughly and better articulated
by experts like Usha Ramanath-
an, Reetika Khera, Sunil Abra-
ham, Pranesh Prakash and many
others, why this unseemly haste
to mainstream Aadhaar? Wheres
the fire? Until the Supreme Court
has passed judgment on Aadhaar,
wed be wise to read up, and to
refuse to be bullied.
As they dont say often enough:
Aadhaar in haste, repent at leisure.
that a biometric card will otherwise do data you are able to generate.
open the door at the wave of a hand, run the This is the new biopolitics a state of
photocopier, get you a coffee and give you supreme control of your body and mind
access to other, similarly-chipped smart from surface to spleen that is deeper than
machines which seem to know what you the predictions of French philosopher
want from them before you do. But it will Michel Foucault and way more precarious
only get more controlling from here. Thus than that of Italian philosopher Giorgio
chipped, you will become available for sur- Agumben. This is posthumanism. What
veillance every nanosecond you are alive, Anthropocene is to climate, posthumanism
while the chip records and sends real-time is to being human. And if you still think it is
data to a server buried in the Arctic. You are an optical illusion, you may want to change
slowly little more than a cyborg. You are a your Google Glass.
cyborg slave.
This happened last year. And last year is The writer teaches at Ambedkar University, Delhi
another country. Last month, the formidable Every week, Eye Culture features writers with an
Elon Musk announced he was backing entertaining critical take on art, music, dance,
Neuralink, a company that hopes to develop film and sport
https://t.me/srikakulam bubbly

10 STOCKS MUMBAI | 8 APRIL 2017

https://t.me/srikakulam bubbly


MUMBAI | 8 APRIL 2017 STOCKS 11
<
https://t.me/srikakulam bubbly

12
>
MUMBAI | 8 APRIL 2017 1

SJM alleges Monsanto brought Arnies army remembers a

in carcinogenic Bt cotton seeds most revered hero
SIDDHARTH SHRIRAM when marking his ball on the green, always tion occurred and that also up to the time
going well past the ball and placing his thescorecardissignedbytheplayerandthe
Monsanto counters saying glyphosate is safe herbicide with 40-year history of use Arnold Palmer is not there anymore, but he marker directly behind his ball in the gen- marker. Else, the rules will continue to be a
is everywhere. Tens of thousands of patrons eral direction of where he is likely to putt mockery of justice.
SANJEEB MUKHERJEE samples collected from six (spectators at the Masters) sported a large from that position. This way, when he So, the hurly burly portend of the witch-
New Delhi, 7 April fields tested positive for round- button which proudly declared I am a replaces the ball, it is almost exactly on the es is still not done! The clear odds-on tour-
up ready flex packaged as boll- member of Arnies army. That army was a spot from where he lifted it in the first place. nament favourite, Dustin Johnson, has

T
he Swadeshi Jagran
Manch (SJM), along with
Vandana Shiva of
Navdanya, on Friday alleged
globalseedmajorMonsantohas
illegally introduced an herbi-
cide-resistant genetically mod-
ified organism (round-up ready
flex Bt cotton) known to cause
cancer into the country.
Monsanto has denied the
charge.
Round-up ready Bt cotton
was introduced in bollgard-2
packages, the organisations
alleged. They also sought a ban
on the biotech major, alleging it
illegally introduced a genetical-
ly modified cotton variety in the
country that led to severe envi-
ronmental and health hazards.
The Manch and Shiva in a
joint press conference on Friday
said round-up, a glyphosate-
based herbicide, has been
declared a probable carcino-
H1B visa application cap breached
The US on Friday said the cap of
65,000 H1B visas for financial
year 2018 has been breached
within four days of the opening
of the window to apply.
The US Citizenship and Im-
migration Services (USCIS), the
agency handling immigration,
also said it had received ade-
gard-2.
Monsanto replied it con-
ducts its businesses in a trans-
parent and ethical manner and
in adherence with the laws of
the land. Commercialisation of
any new technology in India
happens only after it secures the
requisite permissions from the
regulatory authorities, it said.
Glyphosate is one of the
most widely used and compre-
hensively evaluated herbicides
with a 40-year history of safe
use. The European Chemical
Agency (ECHA) as recently as
March 2017, after a rigorous
and comprehensive assess-
Round-up ready Bt cotton was introduced in bollgard-2 ment of the safety data on
packages, the organisations alleged glyphosate, affirmed glyph-
osate is safe and not a carcino-
gen by the World Health areas and sent them to the gen. ECHAs conclusions are
Organization (WHO). Central Institute for Cotton highly regarded within and
After reports of contamina- Research, where the presence outside Europe as an impor-
tion in their fields, farmers col- of round-up ready Bt cotton tant reference for chemical reg-
lected samples from various was confirmed. SJM also said ulation, Monsanto said.
quate applications for the providers, who traditionally The Trump administration
20,000 H1B visas issued for tho- had been using the visa pro- would clearly like to introduce
se who have advanced degrees. gramme to send people to the more protectionist policies.
The US had come out with US for projects. In addition, sev- However, it is also clear that the
fresh measures, including eral Bills have been presented Congress has limited appetite
increased scrutiny of H1B visa in the US Congress to impose to enact significant protection-
holders in America, which higher wages for these visa ist legislation, Peter Bendor-
would favour US technology holders to discourage sending Samuel, CEO of Everest Group,
firms over Indian IT service Indian engineers. said. AYAN PRAMANIK
force multiplier to the primeval energy that
was Arnie and egged him on to his famous
charge that caused him to win often, even
against great odds. A great champion
alright, but what made him a
legend in his lifetime, hon-
oured and revered by one and
all, was his unfailing grace,
courtesy, kindness and a smile
for all players, to the thronging
fans demanding autographs,
to the service staff at innumer-
able functions, to the sponsors
of each event he entered, and
of course for the invaluable advice he freely
offered to up and coming young golfers.
This years flagging off of the Masters
championship by honourary starters was
the most emotion laden ever. Chairman
Billy Payne delivered a fitting eulogy to the
most pre-eminent of heros and then
draped Arnies green jacket over Kit
Palmers (Arnolds wife, who had been spe-
cially invited for the occasion) shoulders,
while the two surviving starters, Jack
NicklausandGaryPlayer,bothgreatfriends
of Arnold, nervously and emotionally, kid-
ded each other as to who drove the longest
off the tee that morning. Jack doffed his
cap and raised his eyes heavenward in a
final tribute to the departed King. It had
ceased raining at 4:00 am but there was
scarcely a face without considerable mois-
ture on it at 8:00 am this morning.
Much in the news has been the rather
harshfourstrokepenaltythatwasvisitedon
Lexi Thomson last week. Jack Nicklaus, the
winner of the most majors and innumer-
ableothertournaments,summeditupbest.
He said that he is always extremely careful
But many players, and in this instance
Lexi, are not always so careful and end up
placing their marker on the side of the ball
because of not taking the trouble to go past
the ball so as to place the mark-
er directly behind it. Thus,
when the ball is replaced in
front of the marker, the posi-
tion of the ball may have shift-
ed up to an inch from the orig-
inal spot. (By the way at the
Delhi Golf Club, and possibly
at other clubs in India, where
non-competition players do
not typically mark their balls themselves,
preferring that their caddies do it, the prob-
lem of proper replacement of the ball is
endemicandtheyshouldallbepenalisedor
learn to have their ball marked correctly!).
Therefore a two stroke penalty was is in
order for Lexi. In this honourable sport,
players typically call penalties on them-
selves for unknowingly transgressing rules.
Lexi transgressed but she did not know that
she had.
However, for a TV viewer to call in the
foul about 24 hours later when the player
has obviously already filled in her card,
without adding two shots for the penalty
which she did not know she had incurred,
and for the rules administration to take cog-
nisance of this by docking a further two
shots for therefore signing a wrong score
card, has caused consternation throughout
the golfing world at every level.
There is zero doubt that this rule will
change, and because playing partners may
notspotintentionalorunintentionalinfrac-
tions, the role of armchair rules officials is
likely to be limited to the day the infrac-
been injured and is not playing; the. 30-50
mph gusting winds on this cold day, easily
slice through ones clothing and stab one
with near icy fingers; pine cones and nee-
dles and other assorted flora floated onto
greens causing an army of attendants to
constantly remove these offending items
with electric blowers; most players wear
drain pipe trousers so there is no flapping
around in the wind when they are putting
onthesetreacheroussurfaces;suddengusts
lifted up sand from bunkers onto fairways
andgreens andseveral patronshadtochase
down their caps/hats as they flew off unex-
pectedly; and those, like Pieters and
Michelson, who quickly climbed the ladder
into red figures were bitten by dangerous
snakes sitting atop those ladders and tum-
bled down to reality pretty quickly.
Whatisbrewinginthatcauldron?
Jordan Spieth had another quadruple
bogey when he was vying for a birdie on the
easy par 5 fifteenth; several of the leaders on
the money list were seen floundering and
the clubhouse lead was taken by the unher-
alded Charlie Hoffman at -7. 11 players are
under par with only two in the 60s. The
course played to 74.95 instead of 72 so one
can gauge the difficulties today. Friday will
be less severe but will otherwise offer more
of the same. Those who pass through these
gruelling two days will be rewarded with
near perfect playing conditions over the
weekend and we should see some really
low scores and new records could be set. I
still favour Rickie Fowler as someone whose
time must come, however one expects that
Rory might finally win the Grand Slam.
Any takers?

BJPKisanMorcha
chieftakesaswipeat
RBIguvonloanwaiver
Demands farm
loan waiver in
Maharashtra
ARCHIS MOHAN
New Delhi, 7 April

The Bharatiya Janata Party

(BJP)s Kisan Morcha chief on
Friday demanded that the
Maharashtra government
write off loans to provide
immediate relief to farmers.
The Uttar Pradesh govern-
ment had announced a farm
loan waiver on Tuesday.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
Governor Urjit Patel on
Thursday criticised farm loan
waivers.
On the comments by the
RBI governor, Kisan Morcha
chief Virendra Singh said the
banking sector was driven by
the bottom line and neglected
the human aspect. The RBI
governors statement reflects
that, but the government
needs to be sensitive to the
needs of the people, Singh, a
third-term parliamentarian
and a Lok Sabha member from
Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh, said.
The governments of
Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu
should take a decision like the
UP government to provide an
immediate solution to distress
among farmers and to put a
stop to farmers ending their
lives. Maharashtra has a BJP-
led government. Chief
Minister Devendra Fadnavis
had recently told the
Maharashtra Assembly the
state didnt have the funds to
write off farm debts, and had
sought help from the Centre.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,
however, has ruled out any
central assistance for such
loan waivers.
Singh said farm loan
waivers might not solve long-
term problems in the agrarian
sector but was a necessary
temporary solution. The
record of recovery of bank
loans from farmers, and from
villages in general, was far bet-
ter than that from big busi-
nesses he said.
BJP chief Amit Shah had
appointed Singh the head of
the partys Kisan Morcha, or
farmers cell, in December.
Since then, Singh has emerged
as the partys voice on agrarian
issues, even defending
demonetisation as farmer
friendly. While none in the
council of ministers could
have been seen criticising the
RBI governor, Singh has no
such limitation. As for the next
few pro-farmer steps by the
Yogi Adityanath-led UP gov-
RBI GOVERNOR URJIT
PATEL HAD SAID FARM
LOAN WAIVERS WERE
BAD FOR CREDIT
DISCIPLINE
ernment, Singh said interest-
free loans would be provided
to farmers in the state. Small
farmers would get up to 90 per
cent subsidy to purchase
milch cattle and use of solar-
powered irrigation pumps
would be encouraged to help
single-crop land become dou-
ble crop.
Singhs public statements
critical of the RBI governor are
significant in the context of
the Narendra Modi govern-
ment and the BJP making a
conscious attempt to keep a
pro-poor image. The govern-
ment and the party have assid-
uously countered any percep-
tions to the contrary since the
Modi government was termed
suit boot ki sarkar, a govern-
ment of and for moneybags,
in early 2015.
Singh said under the PMs
Gram Sadak Yojana, more
roads between fields and vil-
lages would be constructed,
and dedicated power supply
would be provided for irriga-
tion under the Deen Dayal
Gram Jyoti Yojana.
On Thursday, RBI
Governor Patel had said loan
waivers undermined honest
credit culture and impacted
credit discipline. In other
words, waivers engender a
moral hazard, Patel said, after
announcing the first bi-
monthly monetary policy for
2017-18. On Tuesday, the UP
government had announced
~36,000-crore loan waiver for
small and marginal farmers.
Singh said he has written
to senior ministers in the gov-
ernment seeking the constitu-
tion of an inter-ministerial
group to look at the agrarian
sector for greater unity of pur-
pose in decision making for
the sector.