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BENNETT, COLEMAN & CO. LTD. NEW DELHI / GURGAON | 18 + 4 PAGES OF ET PANACHE | .` 3.00 OR .` 7.00 ALONG WITH THE TIMES OF INDIA MONDAY, 28 AUGUST 2017

This Wednesday, a distinguished jury will pick the winners of the most coveted business awards of India Inc: The ET Awards for Corporate Excellence 2017.
The jury meeting conducted Westminster style will be held in Mumbai, and will see the Whos Who of India Inc pick the best of the best of their peers.

Arundhati Bhavish Chanda Cyril Shroff Kalpana Natarajan Uday Kotak Vijay Shekhar
Bhattacharya Aggarwal Kochhar Managing partner, Morparia Chandrasekaran Executive V-C, Sharma
Chairman, Cofounder, MD, Cyril Amarchand CEO, JPMorgan Chairman, Kotak Mahindra Founder,
SBI Ola ICICI Bank Mangaldas South Asia & India Tata Sons Bank Paytm

PANEL MAY TAKE UP ISSUE ON SEPT 1

Inside story
Sebi May Bring
Voda CEO Colao Writes to
Rules for Merger Sinha Against Cut in IUC
Govt Receives Maximum Consumer
Complaints Against Ecomm Cos
The maximum number of consumer complaints
were received against ecommerce companies Warns of destabilisation; seeks more time for spectrum payments, lower interest rate Sequoia Plans
last year, prompting the Quality Council of India
tion to safeguard the future of the to Sell Stake
(QCI) to suggest that the government name and
shame these players.
Pure Politics2
of MF Schemes Our Bureau

New Delhi: Making a rare inter-

vention in a local issue, Vodafone
telecom sector and ensure there
should be no further reduction in
MTC as it would destabilise the sec-
tor, defeat governments rural cove-
in Pine Labs
Sequoia Capital is explor-
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Group CEO Vittorio Colao has writ- rage objectives and cause huge in- ing the sale of its port-
Move expected to Cutting Clutter ten to telecom minister Manoj Sin- convenience to citizens, in particu- folio company Pine Labs,
Companies Risk Losing Input ha cautioning against any reduc- lar, in rural India, Colao wrote in
Credit on Fat Finger Errors improve transparency Sebi has been unofficially
tion in interconnect usage charge the letter dated August 22.
one of Indias largest
pushing MFs to merge point-of-sale solutions
(IUC) from the existing 14 paise per
With the Monday deadline looming for filing GST and reduce confusion similar schemes
minute. He also sought relief for IUC Levels Already Below Cost10 provider. It is targeting a
returns, corporates are a concerned lot. The
for MF investors Fewer schemes Govt paved the the debt-laden sector by way of an
offline utility to be used to claim input tax credit valuation of about $1
will reduce way for MF extended spectrum payment pe-
for pre-GST regime was not available till Sunday. confusion scheme mergers riod and lower interest rates.
Jio Halts Pre-Bookings billion for complete exit,
In absence of the utility, details had to be filed Nishanth.Vasudevan
@timesgroup.com
among
investors and
by removing tax
anomalies in the
Colao warned that any move to cut
IUC a charge paid by the network
on Huge Phone Demand report Pratik Bhakta &
online with higher chances of error. Biswarup Gooptu.6
improve previous two from where a call originates to the Reliance Jio has suspend-
Economy: Macro, Micro & More11 transparency Budgets
Mumbai: Indias capital mar- one where it terminates would im- ed the pre-booking of its
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll kets regulator intends to intro- WITH MFs not merging schemes pact the industry and rural telecom 4G feature phone till CPPIB to Call
duce rules that will force mu- voluntarily, Sebi has decided to expansion. IUC is also referred to as
India Set to Achieve Landmark tual funds to merge schemes in introduce rules mobile termination charge (MTC). further notice following overwhelm- Off JV With
Financial Inclusion Vision: FM the same investment categories, We request your urgent interven- ing demand for the device.17
driving long-pending consolida-
ICICI PRUDENTIAL,
Reliance MF, UTI, HDFC
ARINDAM Kotak Group
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said India is within
tion in an industry that has hith- MF have high number of schemes Canada's
the reach of 1billion-1billion-1billion vision of erto ignored informal requests
financial inclusion. That is 1billion unique
Aadhaar numbers linked to 1billion bank acco-
unts and 1billion mobile phones, Jaitley said in
for ending the surfeit of plans.
Broadly put, if a mutual fund
has two equity schemes with
42 asset managers handle over

`19.5
Oppo & Vivo Send Chinese Expats largest pen-
sion fund
CPPIB will call off its

Home on Low Sales, High Hostility

a Facebook post on Sunday. mandates to invest in large-cap
stocks, the asset manager will
Economy: Macro, Micro & More11 have to merge the investment
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll products once the new rules pro-
posed by the Securities and Ex-
Airlines Fret as Chandigarh Airport
Announces Curtailed Timings
change Board of India (Sebi)
kick in. The step is aimed at im-
proving transparency and re-
Chandigarh airport will curtail daily flight ducing the clutter for investors.
operation timings starting October 3 for up- The Sebi-appointed mutual
fund advisory panel, scheduled
grading and repair work, a move opposed by
airlines, which said they didnt get adequate to meet September 1, will dis-
cuss the matter, said three peo-
advance notice of the change.
ple familiar with the develop-
Companies: Pursuit of Profit14 ment. Exact details of the pro-
posed rules could not be ascer-
tained, but one official said the
norms will require clear cate-
Do you think Nilekani will be able to put gorisation of mutual fund
Infosys back on growth path? schemes, and aim to eliminate
product ambiguities.
67% 23% 10% For about a decade, the regula-
YES NO CANT SAY tor has been informally nudg-
TODAYS QUESTION ing mutual-fund houses to
Do you think underemployment is a bigger merge schemes with similar at-
problem for the govt than unemployment? tributes. But with the industry
www.economictimes.com resisting such moves, Sebi has
been forced to come out with the
LAKH CRORE
across 2000 schemes
proposed set of rules.
Mutual funds have not re-
sponded to Sebis persuasion for
years. So, now it has decided to
come out with the rules, said a
senior mutual fund industry of-
ficial privy to the matter.
In June, Sebi chairman Ajay
Tyagi stressed the need for con-
solidation of schemes.
In India, 42 asset managers
handle more than . 19.5 lakh
crore across 2,000 MF schemes.
Sebi has maintained that the
number is high, and is causing
confusion among investors who
have to choose from an abun-
dance of similar products. In an
attempt to push the merger, the
regulator had stopped giving
several mutual funds the ap-
proval for floating new schemes.
Profitability May be Hit10
Chinese-owned
distribution firms see
most exits, main arms
may also see departures
Writankar.Mukherjee
@timesgroup.com
Kolkata: The military standoff at
the Dokalam tri-junction seems
to have made a major impact far
from the Line of Actual Control.
More than 400 Chinese expats wor-
king for Oppo and Vivo are headed
back home after sharp falls in July
and August smartphone sales,
with anti-Beijing sentiment on the
rise in some of Indias large consu-
mer markets.
proposed joint venture
with Kotak Mahindra
Group to invest in
stressed assets in India,
No More Chini Buy-Buy report Baiju Kalesh &
Oppo and Vivo saw sales Other Chinese smartphone Sneha Shah.14
plummet 30% in July and August brands not affected much
Sales down due to Xiaomis
CMR India smartphone
KKR Chooses
offline debut and anti-China
market share (%)
sentiments in some regions Samsung 18.7
BoB for . 2kcr
Xiaomi 16.2
Oppo and Vivo sending back
expats who are non-performers
Vivo
Oppo
13.2
9.2
Line of Credit
and due to negative sentiments Lenovo 8.3 Bank of Baro-
da has
OPPO, VIVO MAY SHIFT CLOUD SERVICES TO INDIAPAGE 16
snapped up its
Several of the exits involve the signed the Indian Premier Leagues first marquee client
three-dozen Chinese-owned distri- title sponsorship deal for Vivo as its from the private equity
bution companies at these two mo- chief marketing officer, also retur-
bile-phone handset brands. Some ned home earlier this month. space, Kohlberg Kravis
recalls are also likely at the main Industry executives attributed the Roberts & Cos India unit,
subsidiaries of Oppo and Vivo in In- exits to 30% year-on-year sales drop with a line of credit for
dia, four industry executives told at both brands in July and August.
ET. Vivek Zhang, the high-profile
. 2,000 crore, reports
Chinese expat who negotiated and Reshuffling Management10 Sangita Mehta.10
 https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone
2  Pure Politics
ON THE SIDELINES OF FIVE-NATION MEETING Positive signals from the hosts ahead of Sept 3-5
summit could help set agenda for talks between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping
Before PMs China Visit Next Week,
New Delhi Expects Tension to Ease
PLAINSPEAK: Prime Minister Narendra Modis third interaction with additional & joint secretaries in New Delhi on Sunday PTI
PMs trip could begin
process for a thaw in
ties that have remained
frosty since mid-June
DipanjanRoy.Chaudhury
@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: India expects the re-
cent tension in its ties with China
to ease before Prime Minister
Narendra Modi travels next week
to southeaster n coastal city
Xiamen for the BRICS summit.
Positive signals from the hosts
ahead of the September 3-5 summit
could help set the agenda for talks
between Prime Minister Modi and
Chinese President Xi Jinping on the
sidelines of the five-nation meeting
being held amid the continued
rhetoric from Beijing on Dokalam.
Talks between the two leaders
could help ease the row at the cru-
cial tri-junction near Sikkim, stra-
tegic observers told ET.
While there are no early signals of
tensions being defused immediately,
there is a possibility that the prime
ministers forthcoming visit could
begin the process for a thaw in ties
that have remained frosty since mid-
June. President Xis focus will shift to
the Party Congress within a month of
the BRICS summit. It remains to be
MEA Now More
People-oriented:
Swaraj While
Inaugurating
Countrys first
Videsh Bhavan
STUDY BY QCI A report, released by MoS for PMO Jitendra Singh, reveals nature of grievances received by govt;
Centre got nearly 12 lakh grievances at its 88 ministries and depts last year, up from 8.7 lakh grievances in 2015
Centre Gets Maximum Complaints Against
E-Commerce Giants Over Consumer Issues
Illegal cow slaughter
top complaint at
green ministry;
set-top boxes at I&B
Aman.Sharma@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: The Centre received
the maximum complaints against
e-commerce giants last year,
prompting the Quality Council of
India (QCI) to suggest that the gov-
ernment should name and shame
such companies with total number
of pending customer grievances.
This has been revealed in a study by
QCI for the government on the nature
of grievances received by the Centre
areportonwhichhasbeenreleased
by MoS for PMO Jitendra Singh.
According to the report, if illegal
cow slaughter was the top complaint
at the environment ministry, griev-
THIRD
EYE
ANIRBAN BORA
seen if the all-powerful Chinese lead-
er is able to achieve peace along the
Line of Actual Control (LAC) ahead
of the party conclave that is largely
expected to re-elect him, pointed out
one of the persons mentioned above.
China has much to lose interna-
tionally if the Dokalam crisis over-
shadows the BRICS summit held
under its presidency, and Beijing
cant afford that as it seeks to estab-
lish its credentials as the global su-
perpower, according to Sinologists.
To be sure, there are some indica-
tions that the crisis
could still get pro-
longed and the stand-
off may continue be-
yond the Communist
Party Congress. A dif-
China has ferent approach may
much to lose then have to be put in
internation- place. When Indian
ally if Doka- Ar my Chief Gen
Bipin Rawat Saturday
lam crisis
overshad- mentioned the likeli-
ows BRICS
summit
hood of future crises
along other parts of
the 4,057-km-long
LAC, he may have hinted that the
PLA could simultaneously trans-
gress in various areas after failing to
achieve its mission in Dokalam due
to Indias firm position.
Unlike China, India has maintained
restraint and emphasised that it is
focusing on diplomacy to end the cri-
sis. Diplomatic parleys are ongoing
in Beijing and Delhi simultaneously
to achieve status quo at Dokalam.
This is probably the last opportunity
MUMBAI: The external affairs ministry is now more people-oriented and gives priority to
rescuing Indian citizens stranded abroad, which was not the case earlier, Sushma Swaraj
said on Sunday. As many as 80,000 Indians stuck abroad due to various reasons have
been rescued since the BJP government came to power at the Centre in 2014, the external
affairs minister said while inaugurating the countrys first Videsh Bhavan here. The Videsh
Bhavan, which integrates all offices under the Ministry of External Affairs in Maharashtra, is locat-
ed in the Bandra Kurla Complex, a business district in suburban Mumbai. She said that the ruling dis-
pensation has changed the character, the nature and face of the MEA in the last three years. PTI
ances against digital set-top boxes
were the main issue at the I&B min-
istry. The civil aviation ministry
received the maximum complaints
against Air Indias services, says
the report. A ban on all porn sites
were also raised by citizens.
The Centre got nearly 12 lakh
grievances at its 88 ministries and
departments last year, up from 8.7
lakh in 2015. The study is aimed at
analysing these grievances, identi-
fying the root causes and suggesting
systematic changes to the govern-
ment to reduce complaints.
Complaints related to e-commerce
companies pertained to unclear
guidelines for quality check of the
products, lack of standardisation
of refund, delivery and exchange
policy, no regulation on pricing and
discount and poor customer ser-
vice. QCI said the root cause of such
complaints was lack of a policy on e-
commerce transactions and quality
check of products and unclear poli-
cies of some e-commerce companies
on return, exchange and delivery.
QCI suggested a drastic approach
Cong-Vasava
Vs Praful-Nitish
After advertising that Praful Pa-
tel-manned two NCP MLAs from
Gujarat backed BJP in the RS
polls, Congress is sure the same
NCP clique will tie up with JDU
for state polls to launch a third
front with the intention of split-
ting the anti-BJP votes and
blaming Congress for non-ac-
commodation. AICC has decided
to have a tie-up with state JDU
chief Chhotubhai Vasava who is
challenging Nitish-Praful line.
for Modi and Xi to meet each other
this year as the schedule for the rest
Focus on of the year cant squeeze in another
summit-level opportunity. Therefore,
Prez Xi Modis proposed visit to China amid
the border standoff assumes further
President Xis focus will significance. While the Indian PM
shift to Party Congress will travel to Manila in November for
within a month of BRICS the East Asia Summit, China will
summit be represented there by its pre-
mier, not the President.
ET has learnt that, under such cir-
cumstances, efforts are afoot to en-
sure that the visit by the Indian PM
has a positive outcome. The logistics
associated with the visit are also be-
ing put in place. Russia, which con-
siders BRICS important and wants
cooperation among the groups
member states, is working with
both Delhi and Beijing to defuse the
border crisis, according to people
familiar with the developments.
There are indications that President
Vladimir Putin could play a key role
at the high table in Xiamen in help-
It remains to be seen if Xi
is able to achieve peace
ing solve the Sino-Indian issues. A
bilateral meeting between Modi and
along LAC ahead of party Putin is also in the works on the
conclave that is largely sidelines of BRICS Summit.
expected to re-elect him
International affairs experts who
have followed the evolution of BRICS
refer to the fact that such multilateral
There are indications that platforms help member-states
the crisis could still get strengthen their bilateral ties and
prolonged and standoff iron out wrinkles. Member states of
BRICS are toying with various pro-
may continue beyond posals, including a military partner-
the Communist Party ship, a credit-ratings agency, an ener-
Congress gy agency, and a permanent base, to
make the platform more relevant.
Housing Complaint Redressed
Quality Council of India said Centre had redressed the
biggest complaint to the housing and urban affairs
ministry against private builders for not complet-
ing projects on time or not giving possession of
houses despite completion of construction
The Parliament of India passed the Real Estate
(Regulation and Development) Act, 2016,
to protect homebuyers
QCI IN ITS REPORT
name and shame e-commerce com- grievances were taken by the gov-
panies on the basis of total number ernment. On the issue of porn web-
of pending customer grievances sites, QCI suggested that the gov-
and integrate a real-time grievance ernment should institutionalise
forwarding mechanism between e- a process to ban such websites by
commerce companies and the gov- using advanced technology and
ernment for an efficient redressal.
On cow slaughter, the report said
firewalls, though it admitted to
a cumbersome legal process in-
essential measures to address volved in such an exercise.
Step Towards
Transparency
In yet another step towards trans-
parency in awarding projects in
the social sector, tribal affairs min-
istry has developed a portal to re-
duce its interface with NGOs and
voluntary organisations. NGOs
would not have to apply for pro-
jects or grants through tedious pa-
perwork and instead just login to
the portal. The ministry is relieved
as it is often accused of bias in
awarding contracts when NGOs
do not complete paperwork.
THE ECONOMIC TIMES | NEW DELHI / GURGAON | MONDAY | 28 AUGUST 2017
IN NEW YORK
Swaraj may
Meet US and
Japanese
Counterparts
DipanjanRoy.Chaudhury
@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: Amid prevailing
tension between India and
China, foreign minister
Sushma Swaraj may hold a
meeting with her American
and Japanese counterparts in
New York next month, aiming
to hedge Beijings aggressive
foreign policy in the region.
All three sides are planning
to schedule a second trilater-
al meeting between Swaraj,
US Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson and Japanese for-
eign minister Taro Kono on
the sidelines of the United
Nations General Assembly
in New York end-September,
according to a person famil-
iar with the de-
Idea is to give velopment.
momentum
to India-
The idea is to
give more mo-
Japan-US mentum to India-
cooperation, Japan-US trilat-
& send out a eral cooperation,
and send out a
message to
Beijing message to
Beijing for its
policies in Indo-Pacific region
including attempts to unilater-
ally change status quo along
the disputed boundaries. In
Swarajs trilateral talks with
Tillerson and Kono in New
York next month, New Delhi is
likely to focus on stepping up
India-Japan-US maritime se-
curity cooperation.
Swaraj, Tillersons predeces-
sor John Kerry and Konos pre-
decessor Fumio Kishida held
the first such trilateral in New
York in September 2015. The
meeting among Swaraj, Kerry
and Kishida in New York in
September 2015 marked the el-
evation of the dialogue.
On Air India-related complaint,
QCI said the Air Sewa mobile appli-
cation should be positioned as a one
stop information dissipation chan-
nel for flight status, airport infor-
mation, baggage rules and FAQs re-
garding flight cancellations and re-
funds. QCI has also recommended
adopting techniques at Singapore,
Dubai and London Heathrow air-
ports to lessen the congestion at
security, check-in and immigra-
tion counters. This included em-
ploying automatic body scanners,
automatic tray-return systems,
baggage-screening machines that
allow passage of electronic gadgets
in the carry-on baggage without
having to place it in a separate tray
and finger-print based immigration
gates in which passport and finger
print are scanned and registered
before obtaining the boarding pass.
Consumers also complained
against digital TV companies for
charging money but not providing
relevant services, and frequent loss
of connection. Some people have said
private channels need to be checked.
Success or
Failure?
Bengal FM Amit Mitra was re-
cently criticising GST rollout
and explaining how his sug-
gestion of postponement was
ignored. Although Mitra de-
nounced the new tax regime
for its arrest clause and justi-
fied VAT as a better system, he
revealed that during his tenure
only two FIRs could be filed for
non-payment of VAT and
that one of the alleged default-
ers paid just half of the dues.
https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS
VERY LITTLE ELBOW ROOM FOR ALLIES
Shah likely to
Play Role of NDA
Convener Too
SEEKING BLESSINGS: BJP chief Amit Shah & Mumbai BJP chief
Ashish Shelar at a Ganesh Pandal in Mumbai on Sunday PTI
Ruling NDA partners
in states have gained
from the largesse
given by the Centre
RakeshMohan.Chaturvedi
@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: Unlike the previous
NDA regime under Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee where allies
could throw their weight around,
the current BJP led by Amit Shah is
running the ruling coalition al-
most on its own steam, leaving a
limited role for partners.
Sources said Shah was likely to
play the role of NDA convener too.
This was obvious in the past few
months when he ne gotiated
through his core team with prospec-
tive allies and leaders wishing to
jump ship and join the ruling party.
The post of NDA convener was
held by JDU till Bihar chief minis-
ter Nitish Kumar decided to part
ways in 2013. George Fernandes and
later Sharad Yadav played the role
for several years. Fernandes had the
ears of both Vajpayee and then
home minister LK Advani. Yadav,
too, was given ample importance by
Advani. Though JDU is back in the
NDA fold, no party is likely to be
given the post of convener.
BJP also had its say in which lead-
er from any of the ally parties
would be given a place in the Union
Council of Ministers. Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and Shah
were not in favour of Sharad Yadav
being given a Cabinet berth. With
neither a ministerial perch nor the
post of convener coming his way,
Yadav was naturally miffed and
this could be the main reason for
his revolt within JDU.
However, NDA partners which
TALKING BUSINESS
Parl Panel Suggests
69 Ways to Improve
Trade With Asean
Committee says more
interactions of CEO
forums needed to
increase investment
Vasudha.Venugopal
@timesgroup.com
FILE PH0TO
New Delhi: A parliamentary commit-
tee has suggested 69 ways to improve
Indias trade with the Association of
South East Asian Nations (Asean).
The committee comprising 31
MPs, including former ministers
Kamal Nath and Kapil Sibal, headed
by BJP MP Bhupendra Yadav sub-
mitted its report on Friday. The re-
port stated that India should en-
gage Asean for giving better market
access to Indian goods where we
have an edge over them like leather
goods, pharmaceuticals, etc so that
trade balance may be improved.
The committee has made 69 recom-
mendations, including early ratifica-
tion of India-Asean trade agree-
ments, better market access in Asean
countries and safeguarding textile
and pharmaceutical exports. The
committee had met the representa-
tives of 15 ministers for this issue.
The panel notes that Asean coun-
tries are not making much invest-
ment in Indias manufacturing sec-
tor. Hence, it has recommended that
CEO forums should interact regu-
larly. The panel has recommended
that the government should be vigi-
lant against the safeguard measures
being imposed by Asean on textile
exports. It has also taken note of the
non-tariff barriers coming in the
way of exports of pharmaceutical
products to Asean and recommends
that the department of commerce
should come out with appropriate
remedial measures. It has also asked
are in power in various states have
gained from the central largesse.
Those unhappy with the PM
announcing only `500 crore to
Bihar for flood relief can take
heart from the fact that this is the
first allocation and more funds are
likely to be given soon.
Bihar will also benefit from funds
fo r d eve l o p m e n t . S i m i l a rly,
Andhra Pradesh, where ally TDP
is in power, has got huge funds
from the Centre since the carving
out of Telangana. Though special
status cannot be given to a state as
per the recommendation of the
14th Finance Commission, the
Centre has claimed more has been
given to AP than would have been
possible under the special catego-
WHY SHARAD REVOLTED?
Prime Minister
Modi and
Amit Shah
were not in favour of
Sharad Yadav being
given Cabinet berth
ry status. Our ties with TDP are
strong and we are good allies, a
senior BJP leader said.
BJP has had strained relations with
long-time ally Shiv Sena since Bal
Thackerays death, but the ties con-
tinue. Earlier, we had an alliance
with Sena due to ideological affinity.
Now that party is with us for the sake
of sharing power, a BJP leader said.
Perhaps the most robust alliance is
between BJP and Shiromani Akali
Dal. With BJP being a junior partner
in Punjab, SAD plays big brother and
the saffron party has followed it.
As for PDP, our alliance with
Mehbooba Mufti is on, a BJP leader
said. PDP-BJP may, however, part
ways before the next elections in
Jammu and Kashmir.
STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE
Trade with
Asean coun-
tries is of stra-
tegic importance to In-
dia: Bhupendra Yadav
RAISING AN ISSUE
Panel notes
Asean isnt
making much
investment in Indias
manufacturing sector
that steps be taken to improve Indian
banking facilities in these countries.
Yadav said trade with Asean coun-
tries is of strategic importance to India
and it will also boost investments in the
northeastern states of the country.
Recently, commerce and industry
minister Nirmala Sitharaman had
said that if India and Asean coun-
tries were to recognise their full busi-
ness potential, then they need to fast-
track the corridors of connectivity
and corridors of trade.
 https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone
WWW.ECONOMICTIMES.COM
MANN KI BAAT ON DERA VIOLENCE PM Modi says his govt will not tolerate violence in the name of faith and no one
has the right to break the law in the name of belief; Constitution has provision for ensuring justice to everyone
Guilty Will be Punished: PM
Our Political Bureau
New Delhi: Prime Minister Na-
rendra Modi said his govern-
ment will not tolerate violence in
the name of faith and that no one
has the right to break the law in
the name of belief.
Addressing the nation through
his monthly radio programme
Mann Ki Baat, Modi said the go-
vernment will make sure that the
guilty are punished.
In my address from the ram-
parts of the Red Fort, I had said
that violence in the name of faith
will not be tolerated, whether it is
communal belief systems, whet-
her it is subscribing to political
ideologies, whether it is allegian-
ce to a person or customs and tra-
ditions, Modi said in an appa-
rent reference to the violence in
Haryana, Punjab and parts of
Delhi following the conviction of
Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet
Ram Rahim in a 15-year-old rape
case. No one has the right to take
the law into ones own hands in
the name of ones beliefs.
Stop Treating Mob
Justice As Peoples Will
INDRAJIT HAZRA
Where does the will of the pe-
ople start and mob rule end? At
one level, Gurmeet Ram Rahim
Singh protected himself from
the law the same way people
wielding power and those
seeking it shield themselves: by
sheer popularity. It was this
popular mandate that lashed
out in Panchkula when con-
fronted with the very unpopular
prospect of their beloved leader
being sentenced to jail on charges
of rape.
At another level, and a very
heartening one at that, the Dera
Sacha Sauda chief s protective
device of having enough suppor-
ters to make their reactions
count, for facilitators in political
and administrative positions of
power, failed. The law did not
buckle under popular pressure
and treat him with kid gloves, as
many of us may have silently
been afraid of before the senten-
cing on Friday afternoon: Ram
Rahim Singh is now in jail.
Popular will work both ways. In
the case of the 2012 rape of Nir-
bahaya in Delhi, it was the wave
of public mood anger, despera-
tion, and more anger that not
only pressurised the law to act
swiftly against the rapists, but it
also was responsible for the
Indian Penal Code, India Eviden-
ce Act, and the Code of Criminal
Procedure, 1973 to be amended
via the Criminal Law (Amend-
ment) Ordinance, 2013, to toug-
hen sexual offences laws.
Public pressure actually reope-
ned the Jessica Lal murder case
in 2006, after the accused, Manu
Sharma, along with others had
been acquitted by a trial court.
Indias middle-classes, notorious
till then for being the silent
Army Should Focus on Attack Choppers Privatisation
For lesser foreign dependency, reduction in import of major components and long-term manufacturing capability needed
Shaurya.Gurung1
@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: With the Apaches be-
ing sanctioned for the Indian Army,
other attack helicopter program-
mes for the force are also on track.
These are ventures of the Hindus-
tan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), a de-
fence PSU. However, the army sho-
uld also focus on privatisation of
such projects to ensure there are
broader choices of such helicop-
ters, reduction in import depen-
dence of major components, and a
long-term manufacturing capabili-
ty is set up in India.
FOCUS ON INDIGENISATION
In India, HAL is the entity which
PATH OF LAW
Each and every
person will have to
abide by the law;
the law will fix ac-
countability and
the guilty will un-
questionably be
punished
JAN DHAN YOJNA
30 crore new fam-
ilies have been link-
ed to this scheme,
bank accounts have
been opened
Dera Sacha Sauda chiefs protective
device of having enough supporters failed
majority even in matters that
disturbed them, reacted with
adequate anger. Manu Sharmas
protection as the son of a wealthy
and influential MP from Haryana
was no match for popular will.
What was popular will in those
cases, showed its face as the
ugly mob in Haryana last
weekend. With scores of people
dead and property damaged,
ANIRBAN BORA
LEGAL POWER
The law did
not buckle
under popular pres-
sure and treat him
with kid gloves, as
many of us may have
silently been afraid of
Ram Sahim Singhs supporters
went berserk at the news of
their gurus imprisonment.
Denial was followed by angry
bewilderment. But this was no
produces all kinds of helicopters.
HAL will also have to be taken on
board for the Apaches integration,
maintenance and repairs.
But HAL has limited production
capability. In relation, the Advan-
ced Light Helicopter (ALH) and its
two weaponised variants, the Rud-
ra and the Light Combat Helicopter
(LCH) have limited indigenous
content. The Rudra and the LCH
are the armys other attack helicop-
ter programmes, which like the
Apaches will be deployed opposite
Pakistan and China. A 2010 CAG re-
port had stated that 90% of the ma-
terial used in the ALH is procured
from foreign suppliers.
Major components such as the
engines for these helicopters are
imported from different countries,
On the 28th of August 2014, we
ARINDAM
candlelight vigil at India Gate,
but mob atavism although
emoting the same kind of fee-
ling in their own heads that
angry and disappointed good
citizens had felt when they felt
the law of the land letting them
down and justice denied.
For let there be no doubt that
those who went on rampage last
weekend, view the jailed Dera
Sacha Sauda leader as a victim.
It is the same skewed reasoning
of condoning practices such as
the instantaneous triple talaq as
a personal law of a community
in this case, of a cult that
applied to supporters of Ram
Rahim Singh. It isnt that thou-
sands of his supporters believe
him to be innocent of rape; they
just believe that his crime do-
esnt matter and should be
beyond the law by virtue of his
status as a godman.
Which is why it mattered so
much how the law and order
authorities controlled and
defanged this mob. Which is also
why the Punjab and Haryana
High Court firmly stated on
Saturday that the Haryana
government had surrendered
to this mob just to allure the
vote bank.
The charge against the Mano-
har Lal Khattar government is
serious not because of the
political patronage the Dera
chief sought and got -- from
the administration, because
the cult leader sought and got
political support across the
political spectrum over the
years. It is serious because it
shows the danger in this count-
ry of mixing up the will of the
people with the wants of a
mob. Perhaps, the imprison-
ment of the Dera chief itself
can be a landmark case for the
political classes to realise that
no longer can they pass off the
screeches of villagers with
torches and pitchforks as
candlelight vigil protesters.
Be sure, India hasnt seen the
last of mob justice yet. One just
hopes that this mob justice will
no more be delivered.
helicopters, which are made as per
having issued Requests for Infor-
GETTIMAGES
leading to integration and mainte-
nance issues. But these are proces-
ses that take place to move towards
indigenisation.
Experts believe that projects for
the armys acquisition of such air
assets should also be given to Indi-
an private entities. This will enhan-
In the Constitution given to us
by Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar the-
re is every provision for ensu-
ring justice for each and every
person.
I want to assure my country-
men that people who take the law
into their own hands and are on
the path of violent suppression
whether it is a person or a group
neither this country nor any go-
vernment will tolerate it. Each
and every person
will have to abide
PM says
. 65,000 crore
by the law; the
law will fix acco-
had been
deposited
untability and
the guilty will
into the unquestionably
accounts be punished,
opened the prime mini-
under
Pradhan
ster said, promi-
sing strong ac-
Mantri Jan
DhanYojna
tion.
He also referred
to the Pradhan
Mantri Jan DhanYojna, saying
`. 65,000 crore had been deposited
into the acc
ounts opened under the scheme.
the prime minister said.
CBI Was Ready to
Oppose Babas
Defence Appeal
Agency tried to
cover all arguments
which could be
raised if Dera chief
moved HC same day
Raghav.Ohri
@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: Desperate times
calls for desperate measures.
Both the Dera chief s followers
and the legal eagles at CBI knew
this. So, when the CBI Court con-
victed Ram Rahim on rape char-
ges, the agency had already done
its homework to scupper any ap-
peal the Babas defence could ha-
ve put forth.
Although it would have been dif-
ficult for the accuseds lawyers to
prepare and file an appeal the
same day, the agency legal team
decided not to leave anything to
chance. The agency tried to cover
all possible legal arguments
which could have been raised by
the defence before the High Court
in case they appeal against the
verdict. However, the agency got a
temporary breather when the
special CBI Court decided to defer
the quantum of sentence to Mon-
day. Since the quantum was not
pronounced, the defence counsel
had little legal grounds to rush to
the High Court to challenge the
verdict, let alone seek bail for the
rape convict.
We are aware that going by pre-
cedent, the chances were dis-
mal but not impossible. Not-
hing can be ruled out. So, it is
prudent to go prepared for any
kind of eventuality, said a se-
nior CBI official on condition
CBI Judge to Pronounce Term in Rohtak Jail
Panchkula: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court judge
will be flown to Rohtak to pronounce the quantum of sentence
against convicted Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh
on Monday. Rohtak is a Congress bastion. It witnessed large scale
devastation in February 2016 during the Jatstir. Viney Sharma
ce Indias manufacturing capabili-
ties and ensure a wider choice of
the armys requirements.
All this can be done through the
Strategic Partnership model,
wherein Indian private entities
tie up with foreign manufacturers
to make major military plat-
forms. The Indian Navy is wor-
king towards this development by
mation for the procurement of
Naval Multi Role Helicopters and
Naval Utility Helicopters. This co-
uld be the time when the army fo-
cused on further indigenisation of
attack helicopters.
RUDRAS AND LCH
The army has a few squadrons of
https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS
Pure Politics  3
CBI May Seek Life
Term for Dera Chief
had launched this campaign
Agency looking at excuses defence could possibly
raise besides seeking minimum sentence of 7 years
Raghav.Ohri@timesgroup.com
with a dream in our hearts. On
August 28, the Pradhan Mantri New Delhi: The Central Bureau of In-
Jan DhanYojna will complete vestigation (CBI) is likely to seek maxi-
three years, he said. mum possible sentence life impri-
30 crore new families have been sonment for Dera chief Ram Rahim
linked to this scheme, bank acco- who has been convicted of rape char-
unts have been opened. This ges. The agency is making their case as
number is larger than the popu-
lation of many countries of the
iron-clad as possible to push for the
strictest possible punishment as the
world. And, today, I feel a great
sense of fulfilment that within
victims were raped multiple times and
because the guru had misused the faith
three years, the last man on the that the sadhvis had reposed in him. Army Deployments
fringes of society has become a Top sources, privy to the develop- Total Army column deployment
part of the mainstream economy
of the country. His ways have
ments, told ET that the rape charges
merit the strictest possible punish- Panchkula 12
changed, he has now started go-
ing to the bank. He has started sa-
ment. It is different from a normal ca-
se where a victim has been ravished on-
Sirsa 12
ving his money, the PM said. ce. Because, in the instant case, the vic- Mansa 2
In the Pradhan Mantri Jan tims were violated multiple times, sa- Malaut (Muktsar) 02
Dhan Yojna, almost 65 thousand id a senior official requesting *Update on Haryana & Punjab
crore rupees have been deposited
in banks by our underprivileged
anonymity. The CBI had said that the
Dera chief had raped two of his female
brethren. When there is cash in
the hand, or in the pocket or at ho-
followers repeatedly on different occa-
sions in the Dera.
mum is life imprisonment. As per the
rulebook, the court has the power to
me, one is tempted to indulge in
wasteful expenditure. There is
The official quoted above added: Add
to it the inter-se relationship between
award sentence to be undergone con-
secutively than concurrently. In this
now an air of prudence. In a way,
this is a saving for the poor, this is
the offender and the victim. It was that
of faith. Here, the guilty Ram Rahim
case, Ram Rahim stands convicted of
raping two victims. In normal cases, a
his empowerment for future, not only abused the spiritual autho- convict is to undergo a sentence con-
rity he enjoyed over his female follo- currently even if he stands convicted
wers, but he also made gross misuse of of two or more than two charges. But
the faith the sadhvis had restored in courts are well within their legal right
him, whom they treated as their Gu- to award consecutive sentence. Which
ru. The gravity of the offence is furt-
her compounded by the fact that two of
his followers were raped by the self-sty-
led Godman repeatedly whenever he
means that the convict will have to
complete the first sentence and then
undergo the second sentence, said a
senior government legal expert.
desired. The special CBI Judge will pro-
nounce the quantum of sentence in
Rohtak Jail where Ram Rahim is cur-
rently lodged. Legal eagles at CBI are
However, going by the rulebook, the
defence counsel can appeal the CBI Co-
urt order in the Punjab and Haryana
High Court and seek bail. It is only if
also weighing all excuses the Dera
chief s defence could possibly raise be-
sides seeking minimum sentence se-
ven years in the current case.
the High Court finds force in the appeal
and prima facie finds infirmities in the
lower Court ruling will the convict be
released on bail and his sentence su-
Aday before the verdict, the Dera chief spended. Once the appeal is decided,
had tweeted that he had decided to come Supreme Court remains the last fo-
to court despite his backache. Altho- rum for either of the aggrieved par-
ugh he claimed to have a backache, Ram ties who wish to contest HC order.
Rahim chose to travel to Panchkula
FILE PHOTO
from his Dera in Sirsa by road a jour-
ney of nearly five hours rather than
to be flown in a chopper. It is expected
that Ram Rahims lawyer may demand
his shifting to a hospital on medical gro-
The Lady IAS und or demand special treatment kee-
ping in account his huge following, sa-
Officer Who id another senior official on the condi-
tion of anonymity. He added that all
Saved Panchkula kind of tactics will be used (by the defen-
ce) to demand leeway from the court.
Panchkula: The other-
wise macho image of
CONSECUTIVE OR CONCURRENT ?
Haryana police took a
As per the Indian Penal Code (), the mi-
severe beating during the
nimum sentence for rape, under Sec-
Panchkula violence, as the
tion 376 is seven years and the maxi-
local custodians of the
town were the first to show
their back, post the convic-
tion of Sirsa Dera chief
Gurmeet Ram Rahim on
Friday. Panchkula deputy
commissioner Gauri
Parasher Joshi, a 2009
batch IAS officer, was left to
fend for herself. As violence
escalated, this mother of an
11-month-old, suffered
injuries and even her
clothes got torn. Left alone
with a single PSO, Joshi
went to her office and
issued an order to hand
over the situation to the
Army, which helped avoid
further deterioration of
situation.Viney Sharma
of anonymity. From opposing
any exceptions which could be
awarded to the rape convict, to un-
derlining the delay he has mana-
ged to cause in the trial, the agen-
cy had revisited the entire case
and the sequence of events, to co-
unter a possible appeal.
Rudras and plans to have a total of
six squadrons, numbering up to 60
helicopters. While the ammunition
for these multi-utility helicopters
is being procured, the final trials
of their crucial Helina missiles
are on. Meanwhile, Defence Mi-
nister Arun Jaitley launched the
LCHs production in Bangalore
on Saturday. But sources said,
Its prototypes have undergone
trials, and its probable date of
completion is by this years end.
Then it will be ready for produc-
tion, said sources. Last year, the
Centre gave in-principle appro-
val for 15 LCHs for the IAF and ar-
my. They will be evaluated and
thereafter the army will place a
order of 11.5 squadrons, each con-
sisting of 10 to 12 LCHs.
 https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone
4  Pure Politics
PTI PHOTO
RJDS PATNA RALLY Mamata, Akhilesh, Sharad, Ghulam Nabi address rally
Sticking to Plan, Lalu & Allies
Speak in Unison Against BJP
Mamata accuses
Modi govt of using
central agencies
against Opposition
Our Political Bureau
New Delhi: RJD chief Lalu
Prasads rally in Patna aim-
ing at uniting the Opposition
against the BJP drew an im-
pressive crowd on Sunday de-
spite some big leaders giving
it a miss.
While a recorded message
of Congress president was
played at the Desh bachao,
ON A MISSION UGC and AICTE teams to conduct the ranking by the end of this month
Swachhta Drive Begins at 174 Colleges
DID LALU MORPH IMAGE?
LALUS PHOTO
BJP bhagao (save the coun-
try, oust the BJP) rally, Bihar
Congress president Ashok
Choudhari read out the mes-
sage from Rahul Gandhi. Both
appealed to people dislodge
BJP from power.
BSP chief Mayawati, Janata
Dal(S) leader HD Devegowda
did not attend while those
present included West Bengal
CM Mamata Banarjee, SP
chief Akhilesh Yadav, CPI
leader D Raja, and Jharkhand
leaders Babu Lal Maranadi
and Hemant Soren.
The presence of JDU rebels-
Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar-
was seen as a boost to RJD.
BSP had made clear earlier
that it would share dais with
Opposition leaders only after
agreement on seat sharing for
Aanchal.Bansal@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: The Centre has
shortlisted 174 colleges for the
first swachhta ranking of edu-
cational institutes.
This HRD ministry-driven
initiative is the governments
bid to promote cleanliness in
institutes of higher learning.
These institutes, which were
asked to participate in the
ranking last month, will be
gauged on the data they provide
regarding overall cleanliness,
hygiene, and sanitation facili-
ties for students. According to
officials, the government had
received applications from
2019 polls.
In the first rally after Nitish
Kumar and Lalu parted ways,
almost all speakers targeted
PM Narendra Modi and ap-
pealed to peo-
ple to dislodge
the BJP from
power in 2019.
Accusing the
A recorded
Centre of using
central agen-
message
from Con-
cie s a g a i n s t
Opposition
gress presi- l e a d e r s ,
dent Sonia B a ner je e
was played s a i d : H a m
at the rally Da r te Na hi n
Hai. Ladna
Pasand Karte Hai. (We dont
fear anyone. We love to fight).
She also spoke about her previ-
ous visits to Bihar, including
over 3,000 institutes, of which
174 were shortlisted. We have
started sending inspection
teams from the UGC and the
AICTE to conduct the rankings
and this will be done by the end
of the month, an official said.
The top-ranking institutes
will be awarded by the minis-
try on September 15, the official
said. The inspection teams are
expected to focus on basic hy-
giene in kitchens and toilets,
student-toilet ratio at institutes,
and innovative methods used to
dispose garbage.
The basic objective these
rankings is to create peer pres-
sure and awareness towards
cleanliness, the official said.
that for attending the oath cer-
emony of CM Nitish Kumar
in 2015. Earlier, Lalu Prasad
invited Mamata to deliver her
speech by calling out Mamata
Didi, Zinadabad.
Congress Ghulam Nabi
Azad reminded the people
about the success of opposi-
tion parties in Bihar, saying:
In 2015, PM Modi toured
the state extensively, his
ministers camped for more
than a month. BJP spent
money like anything, yet
Mahagathbandhan emerged
victorious.
UP former CM Akhilesh
Yadav underlined the need
for working together to save
the country. He added poor
and farmers are suffering the
most in the NDA rule.
No Impact On
Overall Ranking
While the gov-
ernment feels
it is early for
the swachhta
rankings to affect the
basic rankings of higher
institutes, which the
ministry is working on,
officials said they may
look at considering add-
ing weightage to swach-
hta rankings for overall
rankings in the future.
Write of Centre
Aadhaar has become a weapon in the hands of the poor and
a powerful tool to fight entrenched black money interests
Aadhaar Is Modis Brahmastra
For 2019, Will Sink Opposition
R SRIRAM
S
ince the winter of 2014 when it be-
came apparent that the Narendra
Modi-led BJPs victory in the Lok
Sabha elections was no fluke and that
the party has emerged as the leading
pole of Indian politics, the ragged opposition
that emerged seemed well and truly without
hope. It had no national leader to match PM
Modi in popularity and stature, no national
grassroots organisation to take real issues to
people, appeared bereft of ideas, lacked unity
among its diverse members and a coherent
policy action plan to energise its cadres.
Three years later, with UP and Bihar lost to
the NDA camp and Tamil Nadu on the verge,
the popular caricature about the opposition
as a bunch of rootless, squabbling politi-
cians, pygmies in political cunning and
DESPERATE TO RETAIN POWER
The only hope for
Oppn is Karnataka
where CM Siddara-
miah is throwing the kitchen
sink and everything at BJP
strategising when compared with PM Modi
and Amit Shah appears completely vindi-
cated. The coming elections in Gujarat ap-
pear lost notwithstanding the bravado of
Ahmed Patel, the political secretary to
Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Next
years state elections dont hold out much
hope except for Karnataka where CM
Siddaramiah is throwing the kitchen sink
and everything at the BJP in a desperate at-
tempt to retain power.
This is mainstream public opinion.
Everybody from national political media,
the national political parties to the Lutyens
intellectual mavens have bought into it.
They believe that PM Modi cant be unseated
in 2019. What if they are wrong, not about
the last part but about the opposition not
having a strategy. What if the opposition
does indeed have a strategy, which these in-
tellectuals and political pundits are unable
to fathom due to blinkered group think.
Everybody assumes that the oppositions
aim should be to defeat the BJP. Somehow
prevent it forming a government in 2019. But
what if the opposition, especially the
Congress-Left ecosystem that is driving the
agenda want something less ambitious.
What if they only want to maim and not kill.
What if their strategy is to somehow wound
https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS
THE ECONOMIC TIMES | NEW DELHI / GURGAON | MONDAY | 28 AUGUST 2017
the BJP and only prevent it from crossing
the 272 mark. The BJP would somehow be
able to form a coalition government in such
a scenario but its inability to cross the half-
way mark would be a huge blow to PM
Modis prestige and power. The BJP would
lose a lot of its aura and its march to political
dominance across the country would be
halted. In 2014, the NDA won 106 out of the
162 seats at play in three big states. If you add
Maharashtra, the numbers become even
more skewed. The NDA won 151 out of 210 in
2014. Even if they lose 25% of the seats in
2019 without offsetting gains elsewhere, the
BJP would find it difficult to form a govern-
ment on its own. If you look at where the op-
position is focusing its efforts it is only in
these three four states. The strategy is to in-
flict a massive wound, not outright defeat.
tion of welfare benefits. Tomorrow, the BJP
ANIRBAN BORA
Aadhaar, which is after all their invention.
They instead chose to believe in the pseudo-
TARGETING URBAN SUPPORT
Oppn riding piggy-
back on civil socie-
ty protests & try-
ing to scrape away support
to PM among middle class
The second aspect of the oppositions strat-
egy is to ride piggyback on civil society pro-
tests and try and scrape away the support to
PM Modi among the urban middle class.
Hate crime trackers and Notinmyname
protests are part of an elaborate strategy to
show that the country is intolerant is being
run by Hindutva ideologues. Somehow the
Congress-Left spin masters have concluded
that painting PM Modi and the BJP as fascist
ideologues out to wreck civil liberties and
impose Hindu rashtra would work splen-
didly among disaffected urban elite, the mi-
norities and the Dalits. The efficacy of this
theory is yet to be tested. As an electoral
strategy, it has its limits. In UP, Dalits voted
overwhelmingly for the BJP despite a cam-
paign of fear and propaganda.
The anti-Aadhar protests are a different
NOT OUTRIGHT DEFEAT
Oppn is focusing
on 3-4 states that
sealed BJP victory
in 2014. The strategy is to
inflict a massive wound
matter altogether. Here, Congress-Left plan-
ners are playing a dangerous game, one
which will comeback to haunt them.
Supporting right to privacy and anti-Aad-
haar arguments are fine in TV studios but it
could become an electoral disaster on the
ground if they want to make anti-Aadhaar
plank as a key campaign strategy.
Aadhaar today is not just a number. The
Congress envisaged it as a means of identity
but the Modi government has taken it to a
different level. It has become a weapon in the
hands of the poor and a powerful tool to fight
entrenched black money interests. It is now
a symbol of anti-corruption, anti-black
money drives, a symbol of efficient alloca-
could go before the public and say that the
opposition is preventing it from providing
welfare to the needy and going after black
money hoarders in case the opposition and
the courts make it difficult for Aadhaar to be
implemented. The Congress could have
gained a lot of goodwill by supporting
intellectual conspiracy theory about
Aadhaar and thats going to draw them
quicker into the electoral quicksand. The
supreme court verdict on right to privacy
may be a big deal but whats is bigger than
that is the governments relentless push to
widen the use of Aadhaar to combat corrup-
tion and make welfare more efficient. A sec-
tion of civil society opposing it for their own
conceited ends is one thing, but the Cong-
Left stand against Aadhaar in the name of
privacy will only lengthen their political
exile and prove that their brand of politics is
irrelevant to the nations needs.
 https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone
WWW.ECONOMICTIMES.COM
Official FIFA
Merchandise
to have Team
India Jersey
Gaurav.Laghate@timesgroup.com
Mumbai: Coming October, for the first
time in the history of football, the offici-
al team India jersey will be part of the
FIFA merchandise. As India has never
played any FIFA tournament, the team
jersey has never been a part of a global
celebration of the beautiful game.
However, as India is gearing up to
host the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in
October, and the Indian team is also
going to test its mettle, the footballs
governing authority has also inclu-
ded the Indian jersey as part of the of-
ficial merchandise.
Merchandise is something FIFA does
centrally from Zurich. Therefore, when
we came to know that an Indian compa-
ny, Dream Theatre, has the rights for the
next World Cup in Russia, we were also
very keen on Under-17 World Cup, Joy
Bhattacharjya, project director, LOC, FI-
FA U-17 World Cup India 2017, told ET.
For us, we do not look at it as much a fi-
nancial opportunity. But, for every fan
who wears that t-shirt is like a word of
mouth for the tournament, and Indian
football, which is really important. We
are all invested in making this tourna-
ment really successful because this is
what will make Indian football big.
For Dream Theatre also, FIFA 2014 was
the starting point for its journey in the
sport licensing business, which is fairly
at a nascent stage in India. While global-
ly, sports licensing business was valued
at $27.6 billion in 2015 and projected to
reach $48.2 billion by 2024, Indias
sports licensing business is currently
at $30 million, at best.
But the company had rolled out a fair-
ly strong programme across apparel,
bags and watches. FIFA 2014 saw mas-
sive presence across apparel, bags and
watches, toting up close to `16 crore of
sales at retail, said Jiggy George, CEO,
Dream Theatre.
Abercrombie & Fitch May Soon Come to India
US youth brand likely to bring its flagship label and Hollister, in talks with Indian co to open standalone outlets and give online selling rights
Rasul.Bailay@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: US-based youth brand
Abercrombie & Fitch is planning
to bring its flagship label as well as
Hollister to India, joining a host of
global top brands that are coming
to tap the growing market for glo-
bal fashion in India with the idea of
beating the sluggish growth in the-
ir home markets.
Abercrombie & Fitch is in talks
with a host of Indian companies, in-
cluding Myntra.com, to open stan-
dalone outlets of Abercrombie &
Fitch and Hollister and to give their
online selling rights to the Indian
firm, according to two sources. The
head of an Indian retail group said
his company also held talks with
It will Take a Miracle for Trust to be Reposed in McDs: Bakshi
McDonalds
Q&A estranged partner
Vikram Bakshi,
managing director of Connaught Plaza
Restaurants Ltd (CPRL) the equal
joint venture managing the restaurant
chains business in the North and East,
says it would take a miracle for trust to
be reposed between the two, its for
McDonalds to take positive action, no
one should have fears of closing down
and that his business can't be treated
as an escort service. Bakshi tells ETs
Ratna Bhushan in an interview.
Edited excerpts:
Is the relationship beyond repair
between you and McDonalds?
With the years of hostile and dama-
ging action taken by McDonalds
Corporation to throttle the business of
CPRL, unmindful of the damage to its
employees, landlords and wider
business associates, it would take a
Abercrombie & Fitch last year but it
did not conclude in a deal.
A Myntra spokesperson decli-
ned to comment while Abercrom-
bie & Fitch termed it rumours
without answering specific ques-
tions on whether the NYSE-listed
company is in talks with Myntra.
Theres no truth to the rumour
and there are no current plans to
ANIRBAN BORA
open A&F or Hollister stores in In-
dia, an Abercrombie spokesper-
son said in an emailed reply. Howe-
ver, when asked if he was denying
the NYSE-listed retailer is in talks
with Myntra, he said: We have no
comments beyond this statement.
One of the persons cited above
said the talks are in initial stages
and even if they fructify in the
months to come, actual Aber-
miracle of any form for trust to be
reposed in them with their current
team. The McDonalds of today is
driven by a different ethos from the
one we signed with as equal partners
and shareholders. Having to watch
ones back and avoid the traps ahead is
not exactly what one looks for when
operating and building a business,
especially when 22 years have been
invested in it.
McDonalds Corporation has been,
amongst other strictures, restrained
from interfering in the smooth running
of CPRL. Therefore, for a foreign compa-
ny to cock a snook at the Indian judicial
system by terminating the operating
franchise agreement is not only alar-
ming but also reflects a sense of despe-
ration. Having said the above it is for
McDonalds to take positive action.
Have you got any indications from
McDonalds for negotiations, after
crombie & Fitch or Hollister sto-
res can make their debuts in India
only mid to late next year.
Myntra, Indias largest fashion
ecommerce company, is making
its offline debut by selling foreign
VIKRAM BAKSHI
Managing Director, CPRL
The NCLAT has ma-
de a wise recom-
mendation to both
shareholders
thats in the best
interest of CPRL
NCLATs ruling?
No.
Have you approached them for
negotiations post NCLTs decision?
One has approached McDonalds
many times over the last four years
including after the decision of NCLT
in our favour.
Are you willing to lower your
Brands & Companies  5
ANIRBAN BORA
brands with Spains Mango that
in February changed its Indian
partnership from earlier India
franchisees Major Brands and
DLF Brands to Myntra.
ET had reported that Myntra is
have wider ramifications and cause
terms of settlement if McDonalds
makes an offer that does not
matches your expectations?
One does expect a fair settlement
as per laws, as prescribed by the
RBI, which clearly enunciate the
fair market value method on the
basis of internationally accepted
methods of valuation when a
foreign entity purchases the equity
of an Indian. It's a principle well
https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS
planning to let two sub-franchi-
sees run the Mango stores inste-
ad of running offline stores it-
self, at least in the initial phases.
Myntra is likely to appoint Sam-
arth Lifestyle and G&B Fashion
as the sub-franchisees.
Founded 125 years ago, New Alba-
ny, Ohio-based Abercrombie, that is
popular among teens, operates aro-
und 700 stores in its home market of
the US and about 200 outlets in va-
rious other countries in Europe,
Asia and Middle East among
others. California beach-themed
brand Hollister is the other brand
Abercrombie & Fitch owns and is
also popular among teens.
Abercrombies US rival American
Eagle Outfitter is also exploring the
option of entering India and is in
known to all concerned.
You have said you will run the
stores irrespective of the
termination of the JV. But if
McDonalds takes away the brand,
how will you function?
The NCLAT has already addressed this
issue, though temporarily, so theres
no fear anyone should have of McDo-
nalds precipitating any further hostile
actions. For the time being that will
extensive damage to CPRL, employe-
es, suppliers and landlords.
McDonalds has said it will work
with CPRL to protect interests of
employees, store owners and
suppliers? Has any progress been
made on that front?
This is a question that is best addres-
sed to McDonalds.
talks with Aditya Birla Group, ET
had reported earlier this month.
NYSE-listed Abercrombie along
with rivals Gap and American Eag-
le have been under attack from nim-
bler European brands such as Zara
and H&M that offered trendier fas-
hion at affordable prices and their
virtually no logo strategy appealed
to the changing tastes of young con-
sumers.Other US fashion and lifes-
tyle brands including Aeropostale,
Wet Seal and BCBG Max Azria
Group are among the retailers that
have filed for bankruptcy over the
past two years. Earlier this month,
Marquee Brands acquired the
portfolio of brands from BCBG
Max Azria for $108 million.
Since 2010, Abercrombie has
shuttered about 400 outlets.
What happens after 15 days (Sep
6) the deadline by which CPRL is
required to cease using the
McDonalds brand?
The NCLAT has made a wise recom-
mendation to both shareholders
thats in the best interest of CPRL.
This episode has damaged the
brand significantly. Do you regret
not agreeing to McDonalds original
offer to resolve the matter?
Ive always been amenable to a fair
settlement. But as an Indian entre-
preneur one should not be treated as
an escort service to be used, abused
and discarded for a pittance. Hugely
favouring a lower performing entity
by writing off 99.9% of its invest-
ment (Westlife-Hardcastle Restau-
rants is valued at `. 4,000 crore at
BSE), while having an oppressive and
hostile approach towards CPRL.
There is more to it for sure.
 https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone
6  Disruption: Startups & Tech
For comprehensive and
insightful stories about all
things startups and technology,
log on to www.ettech.com
a
Tweet OF THE DAY
JEFF IMMELT
@JEFFIMMELT
I have decided not to
pursue a leadership
position at Uber. I
have immense respect
for the company &
founders - Travis,
Garrett and Ryan.
GEs Immelt
says No to
Driving Uber
General Elec-
tric chairman
Jeffrey Immelt
said he has pulled him-
self out of considera-
tion to take over as the
head of embattled Uber
Technologies. Immelt
tweeted the news on
Sunday. Uber has been
trying to fill the leader-
ship vacuum left by the
June departure of co-
founder Travis Kalanick
and to restore confi-
dence in the business
after months of contro-
versy. Kalanick was
ousted under pressure
from some of the com-
panys major investors.
Immelt recently
stepped down as chief
executive officer of GE,
while retaining his
chairman position. He
was among a number
of executives said to be
under consideration for
the Uber post.
Bloomberg
1,80,000
iOS apps that wont be
supported on iOS 11 due
to no 32-bit support
Quick Byte ANIRBAN BORA
Tech Buzz
iPhone 8 to
Break the
Bank at $999
The iPhone 8 is eagerly
anticipated but it
wont come cheap. Ac-
cording to The New
York Times, the upcom-
ing 10th-anniversary
edition of the iPhone
will be priced at about
$999. The article also
mentions the presence
of the long-rumoured
face scanner, which
would replace the fin-
gerprint reader for se-
cure unlocking and pay-
ments, as well as
inductive charging. BI
Jargon Buster
ZigBee
A wireless protocol
common in connected
products operating
within mesh network.
Season may be Right for
Sequoia to Exit Pine Labs
Venture capital firm looking at $1-b valuation; Pine Labs also plans to raise $100 m
Pratik Bhakta & Biswarup Gooptu
Mumbai | New Delhi: Sequoia
Capital is exploring the sale of its
portfolio company Pine Labs, one of
the countrys largest point-of-sale
(PoS) solutions provider. According
to multiple sources aware of the de-
velopments, the Silicon Valley ven-
ture capital firm, which owns about
two-thirds of Noida-based Pine
Labs, is targeting a valuation of
about $1 billion for it to completely
exit the company. In case, such valu-
ation demands are not met, the
Menlo Park-based powerhouse is
also considering a partial stake sale
in the company in which it had ini-
tially invested $1 million in 2009.
Avendus Capital has been given
the mandate to raise $100 million for
a minority stake.
The formal mandate that is ongo-
ing is for a stake sale. Currently, the
company is being valued at $600-700
million by peers but if a strategic
investor sees long-term potential,
and agrees on the premium that
matches the Sequoia ask, the entire
company will be up for grabs, said
a source privy to the developments.
Sequoia is extremely bullish on the
company and is not desperate to
cash out. Both options are therefore
on the table, he added.
A Sequoia Capital spokesperson
denied that the firm was in talks to
exit its position partially or com-
pletely from the company.
Sequoia has no desire to sell any
of its stake at this time. This is con-
sistent with Sequoias global ap-
proach of staying invested in mar-
ket leaders for the long term,
Shailendra Singh, MD at Sequoia
Capital, said in an email response.
While Avendus Capital declined
Piggybank
CureFit Raises Fresh
Funding of $25 million
Mugdha.Variyar
@timesgroup.com
Bengaluru: Health and fit-
ness platform CureFit, which
was founded by Myntra cofoun-
der Mukesh Bansal and former
Flipkart executive Ankit Nago-
ri, has raised a fresh round of
funding of $25 million from ex-
isting investors Accel Partners,
Kalaari Capital , IDG Ventures
and UC-RNT fund, a joint in-
vestment vehicle of the Univer-
sity of California and Ratan Ta-
tas RNT Associates.
The new round is expected to
go up to $35-40 million in the
next six months, according to
one source familiar with the
matter.
CureFit, which operates an on-
line-offline model of fitness
centres in Bengaluru called
Cult as well as mental wellness
and yoga, also recently started
offering health food services.
The company had last year rai-
sed $15 million in one of the lar-
gest early-stage rounds in the
Indian startup ecosystem.
$7-million Funding in Mobikons Plate
Singapore-based food tech co raises funds from Sistema Asia Fund, Qualgro & C31 Ventures
Supraja.Srinivasan
@timesgroup.com
Mumbai: Marketing and custo-
mer engagement platform for res-
taurants Mobikon has raised abo-
ut . 45 crore ($7 million) in its third
round of institutional funding
from a three-member investor con-
sortium, including Sistema Asia
Fund (proprietary fund of Russian
conglomerate Sistema JSFC), Qu-
algro & C31Ventures in Singapore.
The capital comes two years after
the Singapore-based company rai-
sed $5 million from Jungle Ventu-
res, Life.SREDA, Qualgro, Spring
Singapore and Lion Rock.
The latest round takes the total
CBSE Looks to Open a Fresh Chapter on Entrepreneurship
Education board ties up with Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India to come up with entrepreneurial programme for students
Vishal.Dutta@timesgroup.com
Ahmedabad: Flipkart, Ola, Big-
Basket, OYO Rooms, CarDekho
and ShopClues are just some of the
successful Indian startup case
studies that may soon enter class-
rooms as the Central Board of
Secondary Education (CBSE)
authorities emphasise on creating
an entrepreneurial aptitude
among secondary and higher
secondary students in all CBSE
schools.
CBSE had tied up with Gand-
hinagar-based Entrepreneurship
Development Institute of India
(EDII), a national premier entre-
preneurial training institute, to
create a working group to come up
comment, Pine Labs CEO Lokvir
Kapoor said the company plans to
raise $100 million for expansion of
operations to global markets.
Pine Labs, which was founded in
1998, works with more than 70,000
retailers across the country, includ-
ing major retail outlets such as
Marks and Spencer, Pantaloons,
Shoppers Stop and Westside.
Pine Labs will need fresh funding
as it looks to spread its presence out-
side its home market, and for poten-
tial acquisitions.
According to a
second source,
Blowing in the Wind
Pine Labs Nos
`8,000 crore 20 %
Monthly transac- Market share of to-
tion volume tal offline segment
A round-up of the top funding
stories from the startup world
BALANCING ACT
Apart from the four venture
capital funds, the startup had al-
so earlier raised money from
Gokul Rajaram of US-based pa-
yments firm Square, Aditya
Agarwal of Dropbox, and for-
mer YouTube executive Shishir
Mehrotra.
The two CureFit founders,
who had earlier pooled $5 mil-
lion into the company, also
Under the
Cloche
$12 million
Total funds raised by co
120
Current staff strength
capital raised by the company so
far, to about $12 million.
Mobikon provides restaurants
with a single dashboard for a range
of services, including customer
engagement, marketing, analytics
and business tools for ordering, re-
servations, feedback, payments,
with an educational module and a
teacher training programme in
the entrepreneurship space for
students as a vocational course.
The working group will submit its
report in the next 2-3months.
We will provide hand-holding
support to schools on curriculum,
content, pedagogy of teaching and
evaluation besides sub-
stantial focus on live
business projects. The
emphasis will be on
institutionalisation of
entrepreneurship
education in CBSE
schools, said Dr Sunil
Shukla, director, EDII.
Currently, the seconda-
ry (class 10) and
higher secondary
THE ECONOMIC TIMES
NEW DELHI / GURGAON
MONDAY | 28 AUGUST 2017
Bain Capital is believed to have ex- grow affordability programmes by
pressed interest, but this could not about 100%, launch new services, as
be independently verified by ET. well as a customer analytics plat-
The company, which, till date, has form for merchants, Kapoor said.
raised about $50 million in primary We are also looking at expansion
capital, has recorded transaction into international markets starting
volumes of about $15 billion with with Malaysia and UAE this
about 250,000 merchant touch year, and expanding to 10 coun-
points, according to Kapoor. tries next year, he said.
(We plan to) double our foot- In an earlier interaction with ET,
print in the current year, Kapoor had said that post demoneti-
sation, the transaction volume
through the Pine Labs network dou-
bled to around 1.1 million per day,
from an average of 500,000 before
November 8, 2016.
The company competes with
Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI,
which deploy their own terminals
directly at merchant outlets.
According to data shared by the
Reserve Bank of India, debit card
transactions at PoS terminals has
more than doubled to 2.4 billion
transactions in 2016-17, from
around 1.1 billion last year.
Even the number of terminals has
reached around 2.7 million, against
1.5 million before demonetisation.
In April, the venture capital firm
had scored about $180 million in a
series of secondary transactions,
including one in Pine Labs, after it
sold a portion of its stock in the
company to Madison Capital.
The development comes about two
months after the VC firm topped up
its fourth India-focused fund, which
had initially raised about $530 mil-
lion in May 2014, by adding another
$125 million to the fund, taking its
Recent Funding in the Space overall corpus to over $850 million.
Additionally, it raised its fifth fund of
FUNDING RECEIVED
$930 million in early 2016, which is
Mswipe Technologies $31 m currently making new investments,
Ezetap $16 m taking the total capital under man-
Paytm $1.4 b agement at Sequoia Capital India to
about $3.2 billion.
Doxper gets
$750,000 in
Seed Round
Shashwati.Shankar
@timesgroup.com
Bengaluru: Health tech startup
Doxper, which has created a digital
pen and coded paper system for
doctors to record patient informa-
CureFit will
launch Cult in tion, has raised $750,000 in a seed
EDGAR DEGAS Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando
Gurgaon with five round led by health insurance
company Vidal Healthcare and
centres in Oct
early-stage investment firm
GrowX Ventures.
It will increase
Other investors
existing 15 cen- who participated in
tres in Bengaluru the round include
to over 30 by Capier Investments
year-end and venture capital
firm Globevestor.
Will increase Capital raised
Vidal
kitchen count in Healthcare & will be deployed to
Bengaluru to 4 GrowX scale up operations
by year-end Ventures led and to further en-
the round hance technology
platform by impro-
pumped in more money in ving or adding more layers on top
this round. of the current stack including
The startup will use the fresh machine learning, handwriting
funding to expand Cult centres recognition and AI for better care
outcomes.
to other cities, starting with
Gurgaon in October, and will al- The vision is to make Doxper the
so look to add a new product aro- de-facto choice for healthcare
und medical checkups and pri- digitisation in India and other
mary healthcare under the Ca- emerging markets, said Shai-
re.fit brand by early 2018, the
two founders said.
lesh Prithani, cofounder of
Doxper.
With a presence in six countries,
Mobikon looks to use the capital
RESTAURANTS MOBIKON raised to scale up the business in
OFFERS SERVICES TO India, Southeast Asia and the
Middle East. Mobikon is also loo-
king to penetrate deeper into exis-
ting markets and also expand its le-
Globally India adership team.
3,400 2,000 We will be using the money to hi-
re senior management as we grow
rapidly. We expect to take the emp-
loyee strength from 120 to 180-200 by
marketing, etc. Mobikon offers its the end of the year across all mar-
services to over 3,400 restaurants kets, Samir Khadepaun, founder
globally, of which about 2,000 are of Mobikon, told ET. The firm is
based in India, including Lite Bite looking to hire and expand its te-
Foods that owns Punjab Grill; Spe- am in India, UAE, the Philippi-
cialty Group, which owns Main- nes, Singapore and new markets
land China and also Pizza Express like the UK and Australia in the
and Hard Rock Caf among others. next 12-18 months.
(class 11th and 12) have a system of the entrepreneurial course.
five-plus-one subjects, where one Mainly due to a lack of
subject is an elective, as per readily available educa-
CBSE officials. tional modules and
CBSE provides 28 vocational trained teaching
courses and the entrepreneur staff,
vocational course is one of them, most
but out of the 19,000 CBSE schools, of
only 512 schools are able to provide
https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS
Medlife has $30-m
Prescription to
Scale up Business
With inside money, co
says it plans to be in
over 100 cities by 2018
Taslima.Khan@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: Bengaluru-based ephar-
macy Medlife, which was founded by
one of the founders of pharma compa-
ny Alkem Laboratories, has planned
an internal investment of $30 million
to scale up its epharmacy business.
The self-funded company, which has
largely been funded by capital from the
founders, has so far been operating in a
quiet mode. The company has now
planned an aggressive expansion stra-
tegy to scale up its epharmacy business
to over 100 cities by 2018, strengthen
technology capabilities and enter into
related verticals such as diagnostics
and econsultation.
Medlife, which competes with multi-
ple epharmacies such as 1mg, Net-
meds, PharmEasy and others, was fo-
unded in 2014 by Tushar Kumar, son of
Prabhat Narain Singh, one of the foun-
ders of Alkem Laboratories and Pras-
hant Singh. The company, which cla-
ims to have a positive gross margin, is
operational in 34 cities. The app-based
medicine delivery platform uploads
10,000 prescriptions and executes over
4,000 shipments on a daily basis. The
company is on course to achieve . 300
crore in revenue for fiscal year 2017-18.
Indias pharmacy market is pegged
at `. 1,20,000 crore of which epharma-
cy is about `. 700-800 crore but gro-
wing rapidly.
Online pharmacy is still a nascent
business but is now on a very strong fo-
oting since regulatory hurdles are ex-
pected to resolve soon taking into con-
sideration the governments push for
campaigns like Digital India and Star-
tup India, said Tushar Kumar, CEO,
Medlife. We are looking to target tier-
II and tier-III cities in India.
While Medlife is largely self-funded,
the online pharmacy sector has seen
Paytm puts Postcard
in Festive Envelope
Varsha.Bansal@timesgroup.com
Hyderabad: Digital payments and
ecommerce company Paytm has re-
branded Postcard, its digital version of
gifting money in an envelope on festive
occasions, to Lifafa (which means enve-
lope in Hindi) after India Post sent a no-
tice to the company to stop using the
term postcard.
The notice cited the IPO Act and the
established rules and regulations, say-
ing the usage of the word postcard is
the sole prerogative of India Post.
Alibaba-backed Paytm launched its
gifting solution Postcard about three
weeks ago on the occasion of Raksha
Bandhan and claims to have recorded
half a million transactions since then.
The rebranding exercise is limited to
the name, while the core product rema-
ins the same, said Deepak Abbot, se-
nior vice-president at Paytm. The
word lifafa has a strong emotional
connect in our country and rebranding
our service to Paytm Lifafa will help
the schools are not able to provide
the entrepreneurial vocational
course to students, which in recent
years, has high demand among
students as well as their parents,
said RK Chaturvedi, chairman,
CBSE. According to Shukla, the
purpose is to rejuvenate the entre-
preneurship course at CBSE by
inculcating innovational tempera-
ANIRBAN BORA
ment, entrepreneurial values and
inspire students to explore oppor-
tunities in the entrepreneurship
and technology domain to create
DR SUNIL SHUKLA
Director, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India
The emphasis will be on institutionalisation of
entrepreneurship education in CBSE schools
The Cure
`1,20,000 cr 700-800
` cr
Size of Indias Size of
pharmacy epharmacy
market market
RECENT FUNDINGS IN THE SECTOR
HealthKart $ 15
m
PharmEasy $ 17m
Myra $7m
TUSHAR KUMAR
CEO, Medlife
Online pharmacy is still
anascent business but is
now on a very strong
footing since regulatory
hurdles are expected to
resolve soon
multiple companies raising venture
capital funding from marque investors
this year. These include, Gurgaon-ba-
sed online pharmacy HealthKart
which raised $15 million in series-C
from HBM Healthcare Investments be-
sides existing investors Sequoia Capi-
tal, Maverick and Kae Capital partici-
pating in the round. Also, Mumbai-ba-
sed PharmEasy closed a $17-million se-
ries-B deal from multiple investors
including Bessemer Venture Partners,
Orios Venture Partners and Aarin Ca-
pital. Bengaluru-based Myra reported-
ly raised around $7 million in funding
from Matrix Partners and Times Inter-
net to fund its expansion plans.
SEALED IN AN ENVELOPE
Paytms Lifafa,
previously cal-
led Postcard, is a
digital version of gifting
money in an envelope
in further establishing it as the go-to
platform to exchange greetings and gift
money.
Paytms gifting solution seems akin to
the digital red packets by Chinese gi-
ants Alibaba and its rival Tencent, ba-
sed on the Chinese tradition of gifting
money in red envelopes during the Chi-
nese Lunar New Year.
Paytm also plans to launch promotio-
nal activities to spread more awareness
on the usage of its gifting product Lifa-
fa, while gearing up to launch more
product updates for the upcoming festi-
ve season.
startups. He added that EDII will
provide teacher training pro-
grammes, an instructor handbook,
resource materials and cases on
young entrepreneurs.
On Saturday, about 250 principals
across CBSE schools participated
in an entrepreneurship workshop
at the Gandhinagar EDII campus
from four states Gujarat, Mad-
hya Pradesh, Maharashtra and
Rajasthan. The closed-door works-
hop was organised for the first
time for CBSE schools in India.
 ETMarkets
https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone
TECH VIEWS
Avoid Taking
Aggressive
Positions on
Either Side
SAMEET CHAVAN
We would expect
the Nifty to slide to-
wards 9,6409,620
and even below.
Crossing 10,000 will
be a daunting task in
the near term.
SACCHITANAND
UTTEKAR
Bullish on sectors
such energy, private
banks, NBFCs, tyres,
and fertilisers, which
continue to display
steady strength
ASHISH
CHATURMOHTA
Breaking below
9,700, the Nifty may
see decline towards
9,450. We like Tata
Steel, Hindalco,
Vedanta, Havells,
Ambuja for an upside
in short term.
XX ON SMART INVESTING
MANAGERS COULD find it tough to show wide outperformance with schemes benchmarked against TRI
MFs Adoption of Total Return Index as
Benchmark to Give More Accurate Picture
Rajesh.Mascarenhas@timesgroup.com
M u m b a i : Last week, DSP
Blackrock Asset Management an-
nounced it will benchmark its ac-
tively-managed equity schemes to
the Total Return Index (TRI).
The move went largely unnoticed
among investment advisors and
knowledgeable investors but rival
mutual funds sat up and took notice.
This is because a Total Return
Index a more efficient way to
measure the performance of a
scheme vis--vis its benchmark
could show shrinkage in the prod-
ucts returns compared to the
benchmark, sharpening the ongo-
ing global debate on actively-man-
aged funds versus exchange traded
funds (ETFs).
Currently, Indian fund managers
benchmark their schemes to simple
price index, which considers the
price movements of stocks that
make up the index.
In comparison, a TRI includes
dividends and other gains in addi-
tion to the stock price movements,
boosting the value of the index.
When mutual funds talk about the
JACKSON HOLE speeches a shot across the bow of rules foes; Draghi says rollback especially dangerous amid accommodation
Yellen and Draghi Both Defend Post-Crisis Financial Regulation
Bloomberg
New York: The worlds two most
powerful central bankers on Friday
delivered back-to-back warnings
against dismantling tough post-cri-
sis financial rules that the Trump
administration blames for stifling
U.S. growth.
European Central Bank President
Mario Draghi, speaking at the
Federal Reserves annual retreat in
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, said it was
a particularly dangerous time to
loosen regulation given that central
banks are still supporting their
economies with accommodative
monetary policies.
That warning followed earlier re-
marks by Fed Chair Janet Yellen,
who offered a broad defense of the
Best Fund Managers
Diamond Miners
of Dalal Street
Sanket.Dhanorkar@timesgroup.com
Mumbai: In the past five years, the
stock market has witnessed bear-
ish phases and unprecedented
bullishness, but Neelesh Surana,
CIO (equities) of Mirae Asset
Mutual Fund, doesnt let market
conditions distract his investment
team. Irrespective of the market
environment, our focus remains
on primary research, he says.
Surana, the CIO (equities), Mirae
Asset Global Investments, bags
the top slot in this years ET
Wealth-Morningstar ranking of
best fund managers. He has gener-
ated compounded asset-weighted
annual returns of 26% in the past
five years.
Close on his heels is
Janakiraman Rengaraju, vice-
president and portfolio manager,
Franklin Templeton
Investments, India, with 25.9%
asset-weighted returns, followed
by Sohini Andani of SBI Mutual
Fund, whose funds generated
22.6% returns for investors.
The ET Wealth-Morningstar
ranking is based on weighted av-
ADVISE FOR INVESTORS
Dont sell
a good busi-
ness early,
avoid low-priced value
traps and focus on
management quality
erage five-year performance of
open-ended diversified equity
schemes. We included only those
equity schemes with an AUM of
at least `200 crore. Also, only fund
managers who handled a com-
bined AUM of at least `500 crore
across all qualifying funds and
had a continuous five-year fund
management experience were
included in the study. The rank-
ing is not based on the returns
alone. The aggregate returns
were adjusted for risk to evaluate
Right Measures
YTD 1 Year 3 Year*
Nifty
Price Return (%) 20.42 13.95
Total Return (%) 21.71 15.45
Sensex
Price Return (%) 18.66 12.60
Total Return (%) 19.81 14.26
Source: Bloomberg
performance of their schemes, they
are required to compare it with a
stock benchmark, which could be
the Sensex or the Nifty or the BSE
200, among others. So, if these
benchmarks are considered on a
TRI basis, it could reduce the extent
of outperformance of the schemes.
The move could make it tough for
fund managers to show a wide out-
performance if mutual funds de-
cide to benchmark their schemes
against TRI. Benchmark returns
with TRI will go up by 1% to 3% an-
nually. For instance, the Nifty has
gained 20.42% so far this year, but in
terms of TRI it has given a return of
21.71%. Similarly, Niftys 3-year
steps taken since the 2008 financial-
market meltdown and urged that
any rollback of post-crisis rules be
modest.
The combined effect was a subtle
shot across the bow of those who
seek deregulation, said Michael
Gapen, chief US economist at
Barclays Capital in New York.
The complementary speeches
come at what may be the tail end of
Yellens tenure at the Feds helm.
President Donald Trump is not ex-
pected to reappoint her when her
leadership term expires in
February, according to economists
surveyed by Bloomberg.
DIFFERENT AGENDA
Gapen said that by delivering over-
lapping messages, Yellen and
Draghi could help amplify their
https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS
SMART
INVESTING
CESC Demerger
may Lead to
Stock Upside
of Up to 30%
Beating Volatility WWW.ETMARKETS.COM
NEW DELHI / GURGAON, MONDAY, 28 AUGUST 2017
THE ET WEALTH-
MORNINGSTAR 2017
ranking of best fund
managers identifies
the individuals who
created the most
wealth for investors
in the past five years
ence to the same in recent months,
but he insists that disciplined in-
The Scorecard vesting yields better results. A
disciplined framework becomes
Manager/
Average 5-Year asset- challenging sometimes, especially
Ranking 5-year AUM weighted during risk-on phases of the mar-
AMC
(` cr) return (%) ket. But a consistent approach is
NEELESH SURANA most capable of delivering better
1 Mirae Asset 2282.44 26.00 risk-adjusted returns over a busi-
Mutual Fund ness cycle, he says.
This is especially important at a
R. JANAKIRAMAN
time when the liquidity-driven
2 Franklin 7333.22 25.98 bullishness has pushed the mar-
Templeton kets to an all-time high level.
SOHINI ANDANI Money making appears easy in
3 SBI Mutual 4824.34 22.61 a bull market. But such an envi-
ronment is most conducive for
Fund
CHIRAG SETALVAD committing mistakes if disci-
4 HDFC Mutual 10419.54 24.69 pline is not followed, asserts
Fund Vinit Sambre, senior vice-presi- STOCK NOT OUT OF THE WOODS YET: ANALYSTS
VINIT SAMBRE
dent and fund manager, DSP
BlackRock Mutual Fund.
5
6
DSP BlackRock
Mutual Fund
ROSHI JAIN
Franklin
3655.05
2464.29
28.51
24.66
It is equally important to be
choosy. A funds performance is as
much driven by the stocks the fund
manager did not invest in as it is
Nilekanis Return
may Revive Some
Templeton from the stocks in the funds portfo-
lio, says Andani of SBI Mutual
AJAY GARG
Fund. Others agree. Minimising
7 Aditya Birla Sun 2155.05 22.03 mistakes and reducing downside
Life Mutual Fund
is as important as capturing the
8
S. KRISHNAKUMAR
Sundaram
Mutual Fund
PANKAJ TIBREWAL
5075.47 25.57
upside. The EQ (emotional quo-
tient) and temperament in mar-
kets are more important than IQ
(intelligence quotient), says
Confidence in Infy
9 Kotak Mutual 909.58 24.89 Pankaj Tibrewal, senior vice-pres-
ident & equity fund manager at
Fund
Kotak Mutual Fund. Street expects the new
MRINAL SINGH
10 ICICI Prudential 8876.91 22.38 boss will be able to
Mutual Fund
NOTE: The ranking is based on risk-adjusted returns so some managers with
resolve the differences
a higher asset weighted returns may be ranked lower than others. The study
pertains to the period between 1 July 2012 and 30 June 2017 between the board
and Infosys co-founders
how much risk was taken by the focus on management quality.
managers to generate the re-
turns.
Other fund managers also have
nuggets of investing wisdom to Anandi.C@timesgroup.com
The Mirae Asset Emerging offer. You get rewarded for being
Bluechip Fund managed by patient. However, if valuations Mumbai: Nandan Nilekanis return as
ARINDAM
Surana is the best performing become too expensive, it may non-executive chairman may help prop
mid-cap fund in the past five compromise returns in the me- up Infosys shares in the coming days, but
years. `1 lakh invested in the d i u m t e r m , s ay s C h i r a g optimism on Dalal Street will be meas-
scheme five years ago is now Setalvad of HDFC Mutual Fund, ured as investors will keenly watch how elevated employee attrition, and exits
worth almost `4 lakh, a com- who is at fourth rank with 24.69% For detailed story and the search for a new chief executive pans will continue, though not at the same in-
p o u n d e d re t u r n o f 3 2 . 8 % .
Suranas advice to investors:
returns.
Janakiramans unwavering
methodology, out, said analysts and traders.
Since Vishal Sikka announced his exit,
tensity as feared earlier, thanks to the
stabilising impact of the new chairman.
see todays ET Wealth
Dont sell a good business early,
avoid low-priced value traps and
stress on quality may put him at
odds with the markets indiffer-
shares of Infosys have slumped 10% de-
spite some recovery in the last few trad-
The last time Infosys saw a change in
leadership was in FY 2014 when there
ing sessions. They closed 2% higher at were multiple senior exits, and during
`912.50 on Friday. this time, the quarterly growth rate fell to
Nilekanis re-entry will fuel some re-
vival in sentiments, experts reckoned.
1.7% compared with 3.2% in the prior
four and twelve quarter periods, said a
Nilekanis return was much needed and report by HDFC Securities.
could inspire some confidence among
stakeholders. His statement of remain-
ing with the company until it is restored
to its former glory was quite encourag-
ing, and theres a possibility that he could
Yogesh Nagaonkar, fund manager at
Bonanza Portfolio Management
Services, said that despite the expected
damage control in the earnings and prof-
itability of the company with Nilekani
mance, said Rajesh
attract new, top talent, said Dharmesh
Mehta, managing director, Axis Capital.
Analysts said while Nilekanis appoint-
ment is a step in the right direction, espe-
cially at a time when the boards credibil-
steadying the ship, investors cant expect
much growth in the quarters ahead.
The fall in the share price has been ar-
rested but whether Infosys is out of the
woods is very difficult to say. The IT land-
Krishnamoorthy, managing direc- ity has taken a knock, but who he chooses scape was very different the last time
tor, iFAST Financial. The choice of as the next head and the steps he takes to Nilekani was in charge. Its best not to
5 Year* benchmarks defines whether you navigate the company out of trouble in a hold this stock at this juncture. There are
are making meaningful compari- challenging business environment will better opportunities in the mid-cap space
sons of your products investment determine the outlook for shares of the compared to this, he added.
7.60 12.86
performance versus a benchmark. technology giant. Technical analysts have said that shares
9.03 14.49 ICICI Prudential Asset We believe that Nilekani should be able have just shown a short-term bounce-
ANIRBAN BORA
Management, the countrys largest to solve the differences between the board back in the last week and wouldnt rise
6.14 12.19 mutual fund, it is yet to decide and co-founders, said Urmil Shah, IT much from the current levels.
7.60 13.85 whether to move to benchmarking analyst at IDBI Capital Markets. The The stock faces a resistance at `940-950
*(Annualised) its schemes to Total Return Index. new MD & CEO would hold the key to levels. Also, it can show further decline
We will decide whether to con- drive growth in new technologies which and possibly retest `850 levels in the com-
tinue with the present system of is necessary for Infosys to get back to in- ing two weeks. Investors should sell the
says Kalpen Parekh, president, DSP benchmarking or to adopt TRI after dustry growth rate. This remains an ex- stock on bounces, said Nagraj Shetti,
TOTAL RETURN INDEX BlackRock Investment Managers. internal discussion and studying tremely important monitorable. technical research analyst, HDFC
Includes dividends and We want our investors to have a
true picture of the alpha generated
the global way of benchmarking,
said ICICI Prus CIO S Naren.
A note by Kotak Institutional Equities
said that there are concerns of potential
Securities. Infosys had touched its 52-
week low of `861.5 on August 22.
other gains in addition and also to have the right expecta- Some mutual funds, like Kotak,
tions from their investments. are using principal return index
to the stock price The Securities and Exchange (PRI) as the benchmark. Principal Sikkas Resignation & Brokerage Views
Board of India (Sebi) is yet to return index takes into account
movements, boosting make TRI mandatory for calculat- dividend reinvestment. Recommendation Target Price (`)
the value of the index i n g b e n c h m a rk s b u t D S P
BlackRocks move could result in
From a customer point of view
TRI makes sense, but there are sev-
Brokerage Before
Resignation
After
Resignation
Before
Resignation
After
Resignation
investors and investment advisors eral challenges for the fund manag- JP Morgan Overweight Neutral 1075 905
simple annualised return is 7.6% asking the rest in the industry to ers to benchmark TRI against their
ICICI Securities Buy Add 1124 970
while annualised TRI is 9.03% for move to this measure. schemes, hence we adopted PRI,
the same period. We can now start expecting that said Nilesh Shah, MD of Kotak Nirmal Bang Sell Sell 846 794
The alpha that is shown currently the investment industry will start Mutual Fund. 1010
Edelweiss Securities Buy Hold 1155
may look overstated as dividends are embracing tougher benchmarks to
not added in benchmark returns, evaluate their products perfor- Continued on XX MONEY MATTERS
points, but in practice thats not
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen talks with European Central the agenda the Trump administra- Easing by
Bank head Mario Draghi (Right) and Haruhiko Kuroda, head of the tion is likely to seek.
Bank of Japan, during a break at the central bankers conference at In a talk aimed broadly at defend- Federal
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday AP Photo ing the merits of globalisation, Reserve
Draghi said its crucial to make sure
open policies on trade and global fi- isnt as
nance should be safeguarded with Crazy as
regulations designed to make glo-
balization fair, safe and equitable. It Sounds
We have only recently witnessed
the dangers of financial openness Debt Shouldnt
combined with insufficient regula- Deter US from
tion, Draghi said, referring to the
global financial crisis of 2008-09. Fiscal Spending
Any reversal of the regulatory re-
sponse to that crisis, he added, Longest Outflow
would call into question whether
the lessons of the crisis have indeed
Streak in US
been learnt -- and thus whether fi- Stocks Since 04
nancial integration can still be con- XX ON MONEY MATTERS
sidered safe.
 https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS

8  Smart Investing THE ECONOMIC TIMES | NEW DELHI / GURGAON | MONDAY | 28 AUGUST 2017

What
to Buy, Sell
USE DECLINES TO MAKE A SOLID PORTFOLIO

Avoid Taking Aggressive

Quantitative
Strategies
By Shubham Agarwal,
Day Trading Guide Motilal Oswal Securities

Nifty has been making higher lows from

and Hold
CARE Ratings Price on BSE (`)
1720
1242.2
1480
1455.5
1240
1000
Aug 29, 2016 Aug 24, 2017
Icicidirect.com has a buy on
CARE Ratings with a target
price of `1,750. The broker-
age said CARE emerged as
a strong player in the rating
business with strong margins
and improving market share
with the best brand recall af-
ter Crisil. It said the company
had a strong return on equity
of 30%+, which is expected to
improve by FY19E. It said a
falling interest rate outlook,
peaking of NPA cycle, rising
bond issuances, etc, all au-
gur well for rating agencies.
CARE Ratings fell 3.08% to
`1,455.55 on Thursday.
Systematix Shares & Stocks
has a hold on Dishman
Pharma with a target price
of `315. The brokerage said
taking cues from the first
quarter results it reduced
the earnings estimate from
base contract research and
manufacturing services
and Vitamin-D business in
FY18, which would be par-
tially compensated by the
revenue from commercial
sale of oncology products
starting 2HFY18. Dishman
Pharmaceuticalss last
closing price was `301.05.
last three trading sessions and now it has to
continue to hold above 9820 to witness an
up move towards 9,928-9,950 then 10,050
Head of Quantitative Research, MOSL
Positions on Either Side
zones. On the downside, multiple supports
Option Writing are seen at 9,775 and 9,750 to hold the recent
STRATEGY 1 pull back move in the market. India VIX fell
Writing against Cash / Fut Holding down by 13.17% during the week and cooled
There are chances of the Nifty sliding towards 9,6409,620 levels, or even Sell BEL 180 31AUG17 PE @ 0.90 down from previous weeks close of 14.57 to
12.57. Decline in the volatility with rise in Put-
Target level : `0.05
below that in the coming weeks, before it moves up to 10,000 and 10,400 levels. Call Ratio is giving some stability and hope for
Stop Loss level : `1.40
Sectors such as energy, private banks, NBFCs and tyres continue to display Gross Monthly Yield : 4.78%
bounce back move in the market.
steady strength, and metal stocks, such as Tata Steel, Hindalco and Vedanta, could
ROI : 6.04% CHANDAN TAPARIA,
offer 5-7% returns in the near term. Margin : ~`67,000 Tech Picks Derivatives & Technical Analyst
Days to expiry :3
SAMEET CHAVAN, SACCHITANAND MARUTI
CHIEF ANALYST TECHNICAL & UTTEKAR Writing with Hedging:
Leg 1 : Sell BEL 180 31AUG17 PE @ 0.90
BUY
DERIVATIVES, ANGEL BROKING ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT Decline from 7,920 is now ending and a new
TECHNICAL (EQUITY), TRADEBULLS Leg 2 : Buy BEL 175 31AUG17 PE @ 0.30 leg of uptrend seems to be resuming TARGET
Where are We? If we summarise
the overall price development Where are We? The tug of Target level : `0.05
LAST CLOSE X `7,612 STOP LOSS X `7,475
` 7,885
in the past two weeks, it seems war between the bulls and the Stop Loss (Spread) level : `0.90
the index has slipped into a consolidation mode. bears could continue in the coming weeks as Gross Monthly Yield : 3.18%
INDUSIND BANK
Although, Wednesdays smart recovery in the
latter half was slightly on unexpected lines, we
well. As indicated by the short-term time cycle of
25 days, the index is yet to near the time-wise
ROI : 4.46.% BUY
Margin : ~`60,000 Major trend is positive and recent consolidation
continue to be cautious. reversal zone which could be witnessed near the TARGET
Days to expiry :3 breakout is adding strength to its ongoing setup
What is in Store? The hourly chart shows the first week of September. Broad-ranged action
Volatility is expected to fall based on forecasted ` 1,745
recent rally is still a bounce-back move towards is likely to be witnessed till the early part of LAST CLOSE X `1,667 STOP LOSS X `1,628
the Upward Sloping Trend Line level of 9,855, September series with major support near 9,600 volatility model GARCH along with accelerated
while resistance near 10,000. time decay in nal week to expiry.
which coincides with the 89 EMA. In addition,
HAVELLS
the higher degree (weekly) chart is not very
encouraging, as we saw some distortion in the
What is in Store? Traders should resort to STRATEGY 2 BUY
penultimate week.
mean reversion strategy Writing against Fut Holding It retested its breakout zone and started the up-
TARGET
and avoid aggressive Sell PCJEWELLER 31AUG17 330 PE @ 1.55
move, thus continuing the buying opportunity
Having said that, we must accept that
though markets are on choppy, they are positions on either side. Target Level : `0.05 LAST CLOSE X ` 487 STOP LOSS X ` 475
510
`
not correcting in a big way. Our sense is, We expect the index to Stop Loss level : `2.10
establish a base close
the market is not so heavy at the Gross Monthly Yield : 4.32% DRREDDY
BUY
towards 9,600 for the
moment, and therefore, we are next up move towards
ROI : 5.25%
It is making higher lows from last three ses-
experiencing shallow corrections. 10,400 as we expect Margin : ~`88,650
sions, thus suggesting for this bounce to extend
TARGET
Looking at the recent price action along the secular upmove to Days to expiry :3
2,200
`
with the negative placement of the RSI- remain firm so far as
Writing with Hedging LAST CLOSE X `2,088 STOP LOSS X `2,035
Smoothened on the weekly time frame, 9,440 holds. Therefore
we expect the index to consolidate for a declines, if any, from Leg 1: Sell PCJEWELLER 31AUG17 330 PE @ 1.55
while. But within this, it is likely to trade with Leg 2: Buy PCJEWELLER 31AUG17 320 PE @ 0.70
PIT BULL | ANIRBAN BORA
here on should be utilised
a negative bias. to add quality stocks. Target Level : `0.05
What could Investors Do? Directionally speaking, What could Investors Do? Stop Loss (Spread) level : `1.35
we would expect the Nifty to slide towards the Investors should utilise this opportunity Gross Monthly Yield : 2.37%
daily 89-EMA level of 9,6409,620 and even
below that in the coming weeks, whereas, in the to build a rock-solid portfolio with diverse ROI : 3.11%
upward direction, crossing the 10,000 mark will mix of large- and mid-cap stocks. We Margin : ~`81,750
continue to be bullish on sectors such as energy, Days to expiry :3
be a daunting task in the near term.
private banks, NBFCs, tyres, and fertilisers, which
Traders are advised not to get carried away Volatility is expected to fall based on forecasted
display steady strength. Amongst the stocks, HPCL,
by this bounce-back as such moves in a volatility model GARCH along with accelerated
HDFC, IndusInd, Apollo Tyres, Tata Motors, Deepak time decay in nal week to expiry.
consolidation phase can be deceptive at times. At
ANIRBAN BORA

Motilal Oswal has a neutral Fertilisers, KSCL, Srikalahasthi

on Jyothy Laboratories
with a target price of `395.
The brokerage said poten-
tial speculation around the
Henkel call option will over-
shadow the underlying fun-
damentals in the near term, in
its view. It said management
stated its intention to pre-
serve the existing culture at
the company even after the
potential acquisition of eq-
uity share capital by Henkel.
Jyothy Lab rose 1.06% to
`376.20 on Thursday.
Karvy Stock Broking has
a buy on Bajaj Electricals a
target price of `377. The bro-
kerage expects Engineering,
Procurement & Construction
segment to flourish well
in FY18E as management
is looking to execute fixed
price contracts with healthy
margins. It expects the
revenues to grow at a CAGR
of 6.0% during FY17-19E.
Bajaj Electricals fell 0.06% to
`339.90 on Thursday.
this juncture, a prudent strategy would be to
keep tracking above mentioned levels and
following a stock centric approach.
ASHISH CHATURMOHTA
HEAD OF DERIVATIVES AND
TECHNICALS AT SANCTUM
WEALTH MANAGEMENT
The Nifty closed marginally
higher for the week at 9,857
levels as it consolidated during the week. FIIs
have been net sellers for the past three weeks, but
it has been mostly absorbed by positive inflows
from domestic institutions. The correction from the
rising channel resistance line of 10,138 has taken
levels, which is the previous swing low seen
support at 9,700 levels and the market holding
above it. The basic structure of higher tops
and higher bottom on weekly chart remains
intact which is a positive for the market.
The recent low of 9,686 has taken support at
short term rising trend line and the previous
swing high, which are acting as support for the
market. Now, sustaining above 9,730 levels, index
may rally see towards 10,000 levels. In Nifty
options strike price, 10,000 call has the open
VALUE UNLOCKING Top gainer of demerger will be the power
Pipes , Lupin, Emami & Tata
Pair Trading
Steel are some of the few
STRATEGY 1
names on our radar.
Leg 1: Buy L&TFH 1 Lot 31-AUG-17 @ 175 &
555 shares in cash
Leg 2: Sell BHARATFIN 1 Lot 31-AUG-17 @ 880
interest for calls which will
act as resistance for the Tenure : 3 days
market on the upside. While Target Prot : 3.0%
on the downside Nifty strike Stop Loss : 1.25%
9,800 put option has the open
Statistical reversion is expected in the pair
interest, which will act as a support for market Bloomberg
based on our mean-reversion model. The pair
heading into the expiry week. Thus, the index
is co-integrated and passes the stationary test. CHANDAN TAPARIA,
may see sideways trend in this range of 9750-
10000 going forward. The distribution is around normal. F&O Strategy Derivatives & Technical Analyst
On the downside breaking below 9,700 Bank Nifty: bull-call spread
STRATEGY 2 Buy 1 lot of 24,300 call @ 181
levels index may see decline towards 9,450
Leg 1: Buy MRPL 1 Lot 31-AUG-17 @ 124.50 & Sell 1 lot of 24,600 call @ 64
in June. The Nifty put-call ratio has moved up 2900 shares in cash
Bep : 24,417
to 1.22 from recent low of 1.07 as index has Leg 2: Sell BPCL 1 Lot 31-AUG-17 @ 510
Max risk : 117 points, `4,680
stabilised. India VIX had seen a jump to 15 levels Tenure : 3 days
after consolidating at lower levels. It has again Max reward : 183 points, `7,320
Target Prot : 3.00 %
retreated down to 12.57 levels on Friday. But Stop Loss : 1.25%
going forward, if the VIX starts forming higher RATIONALE :
The pair is well co-integrated. The 1. It has managed to hold above 24,000 zones even after the selling
lows, then it would be cause of concern for the
distribution is not normal and skewed pressure in past two weeks
market. We like Tata Steel, Hindalco, Vedanta,
Havells, Ambuja Cement and CESC for an upside to the left and has evidence of a reversion 2. It has respected its 50 DEMA and surpassed its immediate falling
in short term. within its own distribution. supply trend line
3. Intact put open interest at 24,000 and fresh put writing at higher
strikes suggests an up-move
Six of Top-10 4. Call writing at 24,500 could restrict its upside towards 24,500-
24,600

distribution business as earnings volatility will come down Firms Lose

5. Thus a low risk, bull-call spread is recommended

CESC Demerger may Lead

KISHORE NARNE
Fx Technical
Smallcap Mantra
`3,799 cr in Head Currency & Commodities

USD/INR Status: Sideways-to-positive move is likely to con-

Voltamp Transformers
Market Cap tinue as long as 63.80 is held as support
CMP (`)
1-M Return (%)
52-week H/L
FY17E PE / 5Y AVG
1091.15
-8.35%
1367/751
13
to Stock Upside of Up to 30% PTI

Mumbai: The combined market valu-

Voltamp Transformers is en-
gaged in the manufacturing
of electrical transformers. Its
healthy order-book, strong
balance-sheet and better profit-
ability would keep Voltamps
earnings growth strong in the
next two years. Earnings should
record a 24% CAGR over FY17-
19. A pick-up in power distribu-
tion capex and manufacturing
& capex investments would
lead to a better order book.
We believe that the order book
would improve with capex re-
vival especially in sectors such
as metros rails and commercial
construction, and greater distri-
bution capex. More sales would
ensure better profitability due
to rising utilisation. Risks to
our estimates include intense
competition which might affect
profitability and cause a delay
in capex which would lead to
subdued order inflows. We have
a buy rating on the stock with a
target price of `1,741.
By Anand Rathi Share and
Stock Brokers
MIDCAP MANTRA
Jwalit.vyas@timesgroup.com
ET Intelligence Group: The de-
merger of Sanjeev Goenka-owned
CESC into four businesses power,
generation, retail and others
would lead to value unlocking,
especially of its power and genera-
tion businesses, and strong cash
generation, which will be used to
diversify into unrelated businesses,
say analysts.
Thats why the stock is trading at
only one-time price to book and 10
times its FY19 expected earnings,
which could change post the de-
merger. Analysts reckon that the
fair value for the stock is 1.3 to 1.4
times the expected FY19 book value,
which means an upside of over 30%
from its current price of `952.
The appointed date for the de-
merger is October 1 and the listing
of the demerged entities would be
few months from then. In anticipa-
tion of this, the stock has already
run up 8% in the past one month
despite a general weakness in the
market.
The biggest value unlocking could
be for the regulated power distribu-
tion business as the earnings vola-
Sum-of-Parts Valuation
Business Multiple
Distribution 2 x BV
Generation 1.2 x BV
Spencers 1.2 x EV/Sales
Firstsource 70% to Mcap
Less Debt
Total
CMP (`)
tility will come down sharply
post the demerger. The distribution
business generates nearly 20% re-
turn on equity and would be the
only listed power company with
such high ROEs. It will also be
the only company to offer pure-play
power distribution which has rela-
tively lesser risks such as fuel
costs and uncertain tariff rates.
This could see good demand from
the investors.
Another area of interest for inves-
tors could be the retail business un-
der the Spencers brand which too
will be listed separately. Spencers
has turned around recently and the
management claims that it will to
not only be able to sustain it but fur-
ther improve on its profitability, go-
ing ahead. Retail stocks such as
Value per Share
768
250
150
120
-18
1270
952
Avenue Supermarts, Future Retail
and V-Mart Retail have seen their
stocks more than double in the past
six months.
Two other major businesses that
would be listed include the power
generation and BPO company
Firstsource, both of which are ex-
pected to deliver single-digit earn-
ings growth for the next two years,
say analysts.
In the June quarter, CESCs stan-
dalone sales were `2,184 crore, 14%
higher year-on-year and its EBIDTA
earnings before interest, depre-
ciation and tax was `607 crore,
47% higher. Analysts expect the
company to deliver 6-7% consoli-
dated sales growth and 16-17% con-
solidated net profit growth in FY18
over the previous fiscal.
CMP: 64.03 Target: 64.45 Stop Loss: 63.70
Trade: Short-covering move towards 64.45 64.55 levels
looks likely in short-term. Critical support remains at 63.70.
Buying is still advised.
ation of six of the top-10 most valued
Indian firms fell by `13,799.08 crore
last week, with FMCG major HUL tak-
RESISTANCE 64.40 64.55 64.70
ing the biggest hit. While Reliance SUPPORT 64.00 63.70 63.55
Industries Ltd (RIL), TCS, ITC,
Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), GBP/USD Status: The pair remains in negative territory as long
Maruti Suzuki India and Infosys suf- as 1.3050 is capped as strong resistance
fered losses in their market capitalisa-
tion (m-cap) for the week ended CMP: 1.2810, Target: 1.2625, Stop Loss: 1.3050
Thursday, HDFC Bank, HDFC, SBI Trade: Short-covering could be seen for the pair, but major
and IOC on the other hand witnessed bias remains weak and selling on rise around 1.29 is still ad-
gains. Stock markets were closed on
vised. It is likely to target 1.2625 levels in the short term.
Friday for Ganesh Chaturthi.
From the top-10 list, HULs valua-
tion slumped `4,491.26 crore to RESISTANCE 1.2900 1.2975 1.3050
`2,55,179.55 crore. The m-cap of Tata SUPPORT 1.2750 1.2675 1.2625
Consultancy Services (TCS) declined
by `3,359.58 crore to `4,77,672.18 crore AMIT SAJEJA
and that of RIL dropped by `2,601.52 Commodity Calls AVP Commodities
crore to `5,09,703 crore. Infosys mar-
ket valuation tumbled `2,434.67 crore COMMODITY EXCHANGE STRATEGY
to `2,09,598.35 crore and that of
Maruti slipped `546.77 crore to Buy around 28,900 SL 28,250
`2,29,639.75 crore. Gold (Oct) MCX Target 29,950
The m-cap of ITC fell by `365.28 crore
to `3,42,754.93 crore. On the other Buy around 424, SL 417, Target
hand, HDFCs valuation surged Copper (Aug) MCX 442
`3,321.96 crore to `2,79,761.80 crore.
The market capitalisation of HDFC Sell around 3,130, SL 3,245,
Bank rose by `3,051.55 crore to Crude Oil (Sep) MCX Target 2,900
`4,54,654.36 crore and that of SBI
jumped `1,553.77 crore to `2,42,085.85
Buy around 4,150, SL 3,970,
crore. IOC added `631.27 crore to Guar Seed (Oct) NCDEX
`2,07,881.29 crore in its valuation. Target 4,450

National Pension System (NPS) helps you to save tax in several ways. There are only seven NPS fund managers at present and the
NPS Scorecard
table below compares their performance. The data has been provided exclusively to ET
TIER I: Equity Plans TIER I: Government Bond Plans TIER I: Corporate Debt Plans
Returns(%) Assets Returns(%) Assets Returns(%) Assets
Fund NAV Fund NAV Fund NAV
3-Month 6-Month 1-Year (` cr) 3-Month 6-Month 1-Year (` cr) 3-Month 6-Month 1-Year (` cr)

Birla Sun Life Pension 10.60 8.87 0.41 Birla Sun Life Pension 10.54 3.97 0.2 Birla Sun Life Pension 10.63 5.95 0.2
HDFC Pension Fund 19.07 6.37 11.59 16.99 620.2 HDFC Pension Fund 15.58 3.78 6.84 7.98 490.9 HDFC Pension Fund 15.79 3.41 5.89 10.38 367.3
ICICI Prudential Pension 25.64 4.99 8.25 12.86 663.9 ICICI Prudential Pension 21.05 4.15 7.05 8.10 506.3 ICICI Prudential Pension 24.27 3.49 5.79 10.36 2022.6
Kotak Pension Fund 24.20 6.36 11.53 15.97 116.5 Kotak Pension Fund 20.98 4.23 7.24 8.36 107.9 Kotak Pension Fund 24.22 3.63 6.14 10.70 81.0
LIC Pension Fund 17.07 5.71 8.32 12.92 264.4 LIC Pension Fund 16.41 3.91 7.72 10.53 214.9 LIC Pension Fund 15.82 3.46 5.98 10.02 161.8
Reliance Capital Pension 24.12 5.57 9.90 14.05 67.3 Reliance Capital Pension 20.48 4.34 7.14 8.47 64.8 Reliance Capital Pension 21.87 3.58 5.92 10.44 44.2
SBI Pension Fund 21.96 4.88 9.18 13.71 1224.6 SBI Pension Fund 22.68 4.02 7.10 8.58 1478.0 SBI Pension Fund 24.34 3.46 5.94 10.23 812.8
UTI Retirement Solutions 25.58 5.73 9.48 13.51 159.1 UTI Retirement Solutions 20.54 3.52 6.72 7.86 148.2 UTI Retirement Solutions 22.05 3.34 5.82 10.15 96.7
Nifty 50 Index 5.30 10.26 13.95 Nifty 50 Index 3.66 6.38 8.38 Nifty 50 Index 2.83 5.45 8.68
ANIRBAN Returns as on Aug 24, 2017. Assets as on July 31, 2017 Source: Value Research
 https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS

WWW.ECONOMICTIMES.COM
Money Matters  9
RESEARCH PAPER says expansionary fiscal policies during recessions stimulate output and reduce debt-to-GDP ratios
Longest
Outflow
Streak in
Debt shouldnt Deter US from Fiscal Spending
levels of 4 percent to 5 percent. With cy spending in a downturn could
Christopher Condon its benchmark rate just above 1%, TIME TO LOOSEN THE PURSE STRINGS WHEN THE TIDE TURNS reduce borrowing costs and narrow

US Stocks J a c k s o n H o l e : L aw m a ke r s
shouldnt let a high national debt dis-
the Fed has little room to cut in the
next recession, and it may face ob-
jections from some Republicans in
New findings will add
to debate over how
credit-default swap spreads be-
tween countries.
This result suggests that markets

Since 04 courage them from pumping up fis-

Reuters
London: US equity funds
have suffered their longest
outflows streak since 2004,
Bank of America Merrill
Lynch (BAML) data showed
on Friday.
Investors have been losing
faith that President Donald
Trump can deliver on his
ambitious tax cut and
spending campaign pledges.
The data, which tracks
fund flows from Wednesday
to Wednesday, showed inves-
tors pulled $2.6 billion from
US stocks over the last week,
with tech stock funds losing
$600 million, their biggest
cal spending when the next recession
hits, according to new research by
two economists at the University of
California at Berkeley.
Expansionary fiscal policies
adopted when the economy is weak
may not only stimulate output but
also reduce debt-to-GDP ratios,
A l an J Au e r bach an d Yuriy
Gorodnichenko wrote in a paper
theyll present Saturday at the
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas
Citys annual symposium in Jackson
Hole, Wyoming.
The findings will add to debate
over how Congress should respond
if the US, as expected, tumble into
another downtur n before the
Federal Reserve has had time to lift
interest rates to historically normal
Congress if it turns again to bond
purchases to depress long-term bor-
rowing rates.
That puts the burden on lawmakers
to respond with emergency govern-
ment spending to soften the blow. But
some may balk, the authors note,
when they consider that debt-to-GDP
already lies at 77% for the US. That
would be a mistake, they argue.
A fiscal stimulus in a weak econo-
my may help improve fiscal sustain-
ability along the metrics we study,
they write.
There is evidence that this effect
is undercut when the debt-to-GDP
ratio is elevated, although the pen-
alty for a high debt-to-GDP ratio
does not appear to be high at the
debt levels experienced historically
for developed countries, they
pointed out.
The paper bolsters work by former
Treasury Secretary Laurence
Summers and another U C Berkeley
professor, J. Bradford DeLong,
MIHALY MUNKACSY, Strike
whove argued that fiscal injections
during a recession wont raise debt-
to-GDP levels.
The research also examined the
likely impact of fiscal stimulus on
FUND RETURNS
Congress should
respond if the US, as
expected, tumbles into
another downturn
before the Fed has had
time to lift interest rates
to historically normal
levels of 4% to 5%
short-term borrowing costs for gov-
ernments. While the series of data
they examined doesnt go back far
enough for a firm conclusion, they
wrote, it does suggest that emergen-
Stock Queries
may view fiscal stimulus as a way not
only to accelerate the economy but
also to reduce risks associated with a
prolonged slump, Auerbach and
Gorodnichenko wrote. These re-
sults suggest that effects on fiscal
sustainability through the cost of
government borrowing may be not
particularly important.
The authors cautioned that, inde-
pendent of government action dur-
ing recessions, developed countries
face worrying long-term debt levels
related to aging populations and
accelerating health care costs.
The researchers also estimated
that by 2050, the US will have to re-
duce non-interest spending by 9 per-
cent of GDP if it hopes to maintain
the current level of debt-to-GDP.
Bloomberg
G. Chokkalingam,

Easing by Federal Reserve

outflows in almost a year.
The S&P 500 is down over
1% so far this month, having
rallied almost 9% year-to-
date, whilst US tech stocks
have surged over 22% so far
this year.
But investors have grown
increasingly concerned
about stretched US equity
valuations, with Trumps
inability to usher legislation
through Congress raising
doubts about his campaign
promises to cut taxes and
boost spending.
isnt as Crazy as it Sounds
Expert Take
DANIELLE DIMARTINO
After putting the financial markets
on high alert, central bankers have
eased off their hawkish rhetoric to
such an extent that some investors
ty of investors bravado; QE might
have kindled animal spirits, but it
did precious little to stimulate eco-
nomic growth.
As for the requisite votes on the
Federal Open Market Committee,
hawks have pinned their hopes to
the potential newest member of
the panel, Randal Quarles, who is
expected to be confirmed by the
sible to persuade the public, for the
greater good, that is.
Odds are Fed Chair Janet Yellen
would side with Goodfriend. In
February 2010 she said, If it were
possible to take interest rates into
negative territory, I would be vot-
ing for that.
With public support rising for
Yellen to refuse reappointment as
Adoption of
Total Return
Index
XX From ET Markets Page 1
Fund manager keeps cash, but
indices dont. Indices can in-
clude stock in a day but fund
portfolios cant. Indices take
stock adjustments with no im-
pact cost, but fund do bear im-
Founder & Managing Director
Sell Avenue Supermarts;
Prefer CRISIL to CARE
I bought CDSL at `249.2. Should I
book profit or hold?
PRATEEK JAISWAL
Considering its past growth,
over 45 PE on FY17 earnings
is too costly for CSDL. Sell the
stock.
I have Heidelberg Cement at `118,
Avenue Supermart at `701, Saint

Last week Trump disman-
tled two of his business advi-
sory groups after several
chief executives quit follow-
ing his response to racially
charged protests in
Charlottesville, Virginia.
This further eroded confi-
dence in Trumps ability to
enact his reforms.
A late-September deadline
is now looming for US offi-
cials to raise the debt ceiling
or risk default, leading in-
vestors to anticipate a vola-
tile month.
Since late June investors
have withdrawn $30 billion
from US funds while adding
$36 billion to the rest of the
world, said BAMLs ana-
lysts, citing inflows to
emerging markets, Europe
and Japan.
Japanese equities attract-
ed $3.1 billion over the
week, their biggest inflows
in five months, whilst
emerging markets pulled in
$200 million.
Emerging market equities
continued to top BAMLs ta-
ble of cross-asset winners in
2017, returning 27.1% year-
to-date in dollar terms.
European equities were in
third place, delivering
18.7%, but suffered their
first outflows in seven
weeks, losing $200 million.
have begun to wonder whether the
next major move might be an easing.
Although its barely discernible,
CME futures have priced in a 2%
probability that the Federal Reserve
will cut rates. In a sure sign that un-
certainty has risen, the European
Central Bank announced last week
that its president, Mario Draghi,
would not use the Jackson Hole gath-
ering this week to unveil plans for
the tapering of the central banks
balance sheet growth.
The Draghi news coincided with
the release of a paper urging central
bankers to prepare to implement
negative interest rates. It was writ-
ten by Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard, a
proponent of an eventual move to a
cashless society.
It is time for economists to stop
pretending that implementing effec-
tive negative rates is as difficult to-
day as it seemed in Keynes time,
Rogoff wrote. The growth of elec-
tronic payment systems and the in-
creasing marginalization of cash in
legal transactions creates a much
smoother path to negative rate poli-
cy today than even two decades ago.
How has the discussion shifted so
quickly from exiting unconvention-
al monetary policy to committing
further to it?
Every day of turmoil in
Washington erodes the chances for
passage of legislation that can pre-
vent the onset of recession. The
world and policy makers at the Fed
have recognized as much.
If the Feds tightening campaign
has come to a premature end, policy
makers will be hamstrung when the
time comes to begin the next easing
campaign; normal launchpad lev-
els more closely resemble a 4-percent
federal funds rate versus todays
1.25% starting point.
This raises the whats next factor. in circulation, as opposed to that de-
Part of the stock markets resilience
comes down to the assumption that
the Fed wont pause if equities truly
correct, falling 10% from their near-
record highs. Defcon 1 will magically
trigger Quantitative Easing 4.
The sticking point is the Feds own
staff papers that question the validi-
Senate in the coming months.
Quarles once characterized Fed
policy makers resistance to a
rules-based disciplined approach
to monetary policy making as a
crazy way to run a railroad.
The other potential nominee would,
if anything, ease the passage to a neg-
THE DEBATE CONTINUES
Market watchers are
wasting time debating
tightening when lower
rates could just as likely
be the next move
ative interest rate policy in the face of
inefficacious QE. At last years
Jackson Hole gathering, Marvin
Goodfriend, a former Fed staffer and
now an academic, said the zero-inter-
est-rate bound was an encum-
brance. Echoing Rogoff, Goodfriend
proposed allowing the value of cash
increasingly suggestive of a cycle
posited in a bank, to float. Yes, the ab-
solute buying power of that $100 bill
in your wallet would vary.
As for those nave souls inclined to
take issue with such intrusions?
Goodfriend acknowledged that neg-
ative interest rate policy would have
to be sold, but that it should be pos-
chair, the biggest open question re-
mains the future composition of
the FOMC. Who will be there to
vote for the next major move when
the time comes?
Bear in mind, the current econom-
ic expansion dates to June 2009.
Moreover, the longest expansion on
record ended in March 2001, exactly
10 years after it began. The current
projections among those on the
FOMC thus presuppose that this ex-
pansion will be the second-longest
on record.
For the time being, the debate con-
tinues to revolve around the termi-
nal size of the Feds balance sheet
once its right-sized at the proposed
glacial pace, several billion dollars at
a clip. Given the shifting political
and economic winds, this mental ex-
ercise is no doubt engaging, but also
progressively futile.
Perhaps the only certainty that re-
mains when it comes to predicting
Fed policy is that there will always
be the out of the data flow, which is
gasping for its last breath.
The truth is, unless the new admin-
istration is capable of engineering
an economic miracle, and fast, we
market watchers and investors are
wasting time and energy debating
tightening when easing could just as
likely be the next move.
pact cost.
Some fund managers said that
change of benchmark is not im-
portant as actual returns are
more important for investors.
Benchmark is just a represen-
tation and I dont think all
AMCs will showcases the per-
formance of schemes against a
TRI benchmark as TRI is not
readily available in public do-
main and index providers are
yet to start publishing it, said A
Balasubramanian, CEO, Birla
Sun Life AMC. However, cur-
rently many mutual funds auto-
matically reinvest dividends
depending on the options, so
mutual fund performance fig-
ures are the return of price
gains plus dividends.
If mutual fund schemes adopt
Total Return Index and the re-
turns compared to the bench-
mark are not wide enough, it
could prompt a shift to the
cheaper exchange traded funds,
which are structured to mimic
the returns of the benchmark.
Investors are paying a higher
fee for actively managed funds
for outperformance. But, if
there is very little outper-
formance, why will investors
pay a higher fee? They would
rather go to ETFs, said a senior
mutual fund industry official.
BENCHMARK FACTS
If MF
schemes
adopt Total
Return Index and
the returns com-
pared to the bench-
mark are not wide
enough, it could
prompt a shift to
cheaper ETFs
ANIRBAN BORA
Gobin at `50 and GE Power at `585.
What should I do?
PRASHANT SHARMA
Valuations of Heidelberg Ce-
ment, Avenue Supermart and
Saint Gobin are highly
stretched and hence, sell them.
Generally March quarter re-
sults are good for GE Power.
Hence, the stock has rallied
since March. However, its val-
uation is too high. Sell it if the
stock goes up another 5%.
I hold Moser Baer at an average
price of `10.92 and HFCL at `14.
What is their future?
SUBHANSHU TEWARI
Sell Moser Baer on even any
possible small recovery. Its
FY2017 loss before exception-
al item is little more than its
total operating income, its
debt and other liabilities are
over eight times its annual
sales, and both its major busi-
ness segments storage and
Stocks to et.stocks@timesgroup.com;
solar products make sub-
stantial losses. HFCL trades at
18 times FY2018 expected
earnings sell the stock if it
Every week, an expert selected by ET answers queries
from our readers on stocks
goes up another 5% to 10%.
I want to invest in ONGC and Ansal
Properties for 5 years. Kindly let
me know about these stocks.
RAM KUMAR
You may buy ONGC for the
long term as proposed acquisi-
tions of HPCL with it would
mitigate the volatility arising
from oil & gas prices and
would also provide opportuni-
ty for stable growth in profits
at the consolidated levels. Sell
Ansal Properties as its balance
sheet is under severe stress, in
my view.
I hold shares of Granules India at
the price of `155. I have a time ho-
rizon of 1 year. Should I exit with
the loss or wait? YASH SHARMA
In the short-term, if you get
back your invested price, sell
it as over 18 PE for the current
year earning is fair valuation
for the company.
Between CRISIL and CARE, which
one is better to invest for long
term? SUDHAMOY BHOWMICK
You may consider CRISIL as its
stock price has fallen close to
52-week low and it is likely to
come back to significant profit
growth by next year.
Please send your queries on
Mutual Funds to et.mfs@timesgroup.com
Tax to et.tax@timesgroup.com
Insurance to et.insurance@timesgroup.com
Realty to et.realty@timesgroup.com

Influential Group of
Investors Refuses to
Give up Hope Trump
will Benefit Them

Business Insider

You dont need to follow the market to know that expecta-

tions around President Donald Trump s proposed policies
have dimmed considerably.
But if you look closely enough at the investment universe,
youll notice one area hasnt abandoned hope: equity mutual
funds. Thats according to Goldman Sachs, which says that
mutual funds are still positioned to benefit from tax reform
and deregulation two of Trumps policies that are still
kicking around. The firm analysed 543 equity mutual funds
with $2 trillion under management and found that, on aver-
age, they were overweight a basket of companies that pay
the most taxes. Goldman uses this group as a proxy for senti-
ment around tax reform, and their findings suggest that in-
vestors are still betting Trump can get something done.
In order to arrive at the conclusion that mutual funds still
expect at least some deregulation, Goldman looked at the ex-
cess return for the banking industry, relative to the S&P 500 .
This is because theyve maintained a net positive weight in
banks in excess of the their benchmarks and firms levered
to changes in the 10-year US Treasury yield.
Goldman provided some bonus analysis beyond
Trump policy, pertaining to Federal Reserve rate hike
expectations. In order to assess what mutual funds are
doing, they looked at how the average large-cap manag-
er is positioned relative to stocks that track the 10-year
Treasury yield and inflation expectations, and found
that theyre underweight.
 https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS

10 Finance & Commodities THE ECONOMIC TIMES | NEW DELHI / GURGAON | MONDAY | 28 AUGUST 2017

BoB gets Marquee Client in AGRI COMMODITIES INDEX RISES 1.03%

Cereals, Pulses Rise

KKR, Lends `2kcr to Two Arms
KKR India Financial to get `1,400 crore line of credit while KKR Asset Finance to get `600 crore
Sangita.Mehta@timesgroup.com
Mumbai: State-run Bank of Baroda
Tweet of the Day has snapped up its first marquee cli-
ent from the private equity space,
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Cos India
Jim Rickards unit, with a line of credit for `2,000
crore which would enable the buyout
@JamesGRickards firm with deep pockets and a new
Its a mistake to think India-focussed credit fund to make
Sanjay Nayar, chief executive of KKR
India, said, No comments and not
true, in an email response.
About `1,400 crore line of credit is
sanctioned to KKR India Financial
Pvt Ltd, a company which lends to
enterprises just like to a bank or any
other local non-banking finance com-
pany, said one of the two bankers.
Another `600 crore is sanctioned to
KKR Asset Finance Company, which
Luring Top-rated Clients
Latest move will help Bank of
Baroda refocus its business on
higher credit-rated borrowers
Twin concerns of the banking
industry addressed the bad
loans problem, and the lack of
demand for new loans
The Agriwatch Agri Commodities Index gained 1.03% to 108.65 during
the week ended August 26, 2017 from 107.55 during the previous week,
marking its fourth consecutive weekly gain. Gains in cereals, pulses and
edible oils were partially offset by declines in vegetables, sugar and cotton.
The base for the Index and all sub-Indices is 2014 (= 100). Five of the nine
commodity group sub-indices and 18 of the 29 individual commodity
sub-Indices gained during the week. The commodity group sub-Index val-
ues and their weekly changes are: Cereals: 107.14 (+1.70%), Pulses: 138.18
(+1.97%), Vegetables: 91.51 (-3.30%), Edible Oils: 103.11 (+2.89%), Oilseeds:
92.81 (+2.94%), Spices: 103.49 (+0.39%), Sweeteners: 120.91 (-0.24%), Fi-
BoB has set a 15-day target to
approve corporate loans
bres: 104.54 (-2.06%) and Other Non-Food Articles: 84.17 (-5.18%). Further
details can be viewed on the ET website and on Agriwatch.com.
Lender is 120
digitising 90
WPI (2014-100)
years of records 115
Agriwatch Index

about gold in dollars. bigger bets, said two people familiar is expected to invest in distressed as-
110
with the matter. sets, said the person.

INDEX
Think about it by weight; For Bank of Baroda, it is a giant leap KKR, a buyout fund that made its or even conceived due to excess ca-
thats the coming with it signing a private equity client name with outsized bets, invests in pacity. 105

paradigm that would help it refocus its business India through many ventures, includ- The bank has set a 15-day target
on higher credit-rated borrowers un- ing a private equity vehicle. to approve corporate loans, 100
der a chief executive from the private It has mastered the art of structured cutting the current period
sector that the government is experi- financing in a country like India with of about 30 days, CEO PS

Aug

Oct

Dec

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug

Oct

Dec

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug
menting with, said the people men- weak legal structures and promoters Jayakumar told told ET
Quarts & Ounces tioned. who wield control over the company recently in an inter- 2015 2016 2017

`12,626
CRORE
AMOUNT WITHDRAWN BY FPIS
FROM STOCK MARKETS FROM
AUGUST 1-24 THIS YEAR
Reality Check
More Issuers
Join the Race
for Bitcoin ETFs
The rising tide for
cryptocurrencies
like bitcoin, Ethere-
um and Ripple have
lately shaken the investing
world. In three months, the
price of bitcoin has surged
about 94%. Amid a sky-high
price rise, the digital currency is
gaining favour from ETF issu-
ers, though the SEC is no quite
happy with the concept. The
success of the cryptocurrencies
should benefit semiconductor
ETFs. This is because mining of
cryptocurrencies needs the us-
age of semiconductors. A hard-
ware known as an ASIC is de-
signed explicitly for mining
bitcoin. As per Bloomberg,
there was a 10-fold rise from
April to June in the Ethereum
market which helped shares of
Nvidia Corp NVDA and Ad-
vanced Micro Devices AMD
substantially. On the other
hand, since some view the cur-
rency as digital gold, bitcoin
trading may snatch some buy-
ers from SPDR Gold Trust GLD.
Bitcoins un-correlated nature
to the other asset classes and
KKR chose Bank of Baroda after even with minority holdings. view. The lender is
several rounds of discussion with With deals like the one with KKR, also digitising 90
other lenders who were in the fray, Bank of Baroda is able to have twin years of records.
said one of the bankers involved in concerns of the banking industry ad- These measures
the transaction.
Bank of Baroda declined to com-
dressed the bad loans problem, and
the lack of demand for new loans as
are aimed to at-
tract top-rated
By Invite
ment on specific client transaction. projects are not being implemented, customers.
Asymmetric market structures, restrictive
WORK IT OUT Tribunal asked HDIL, Gammon to work regulations abroad are some challenges
out an amicable solution and avoid proceedings
Irda Wants Capital
Agri Warehousing
Commitment from
NCLT Asks Parties to Pros Seeking
Cos Set to Make a
Negotiate Settlement Insurance Licence
Our Bureau Mark Globally
Saikat Das & Kailash Babar
The story of Merchant of Venice is the
Mumbai: The Insurance Regulatory Develop- vestment plans and cause sig-
correct example of satisfaction with nificant challenges for inves-
ment Authority of India is looking at capital com-
Mumbai: Indias dedicated bankruptcy the amount offered. Otherwise, it may not mitment from professionals applying for general tors. Developing nations are
court, National Company Law Tribunal, be a profitable proposition as heavy insurance licence to ensure that funds continue to sensitive to changes in the glob-
now attempts a novel way to resolve default haircuts would be applied after asset flow for future growth, especially those backed by al economy and an increase in
cases: negotiated settlement without exer- distribution under specific IBC provisions short-sighted private equity players. crude prices can have a detri-
cising the process under Insolvency and We want commitment for long-term investment mental impact on local econo-
Bankruptcy Code. NCLT JUDGE from promoters getting in the insurance space, mies. Moreover, tax systems
In a latest case last week, the Mumbai also not sure of how much would it recov- said an Irda official on condition of anonymity. In
SANDEEP SABHARWAL and regulatory requirements
bench has managed to settle a default case er after completion of bankrupt- case of individuals, we want to ensure that the net may vary from place to place
b e t we e n H o u s i n g D eve l o p m e n t cy proceedings. worth of the promoter is strong and capital is long- and can act as a deterrent to in-
CEO, SLCM Group
Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) and Gammon As per NCLTs guidance, we term and sticky. Irda is looking into applications vestment. Having said that, the
India, a saving grace for the defaulter have settled the matter as from three individuals backed by large funds see- opportunity for investment in
while a sigh of relief for the both the parties agreed to king to operate general insurance companies: Go The Indian agri-warehousing the sector remains high and un-
creditor, with both agreeing to do so. We intent to work Digit General Insurance by Ka- sector is flourishing with the der-tapped not only in neighbor-
the courts sugges- with them (Gammon) hence- mesh Goyal, Acko General Insu- government actively incenti- ing countries like Asia but also
tions. Gammon India fo r t h t o o, s a i d S a r a n g Anyone with rance by Varun Dua and Aspire vising private investments in in places like Africa. Indian
is an operational Wadhawan, MD, HDIL.HDIL has Health Insurance by Rajesh Relan. warehousing. Inclusion of agri- companies might just have an
more than
creditor to the real es- issued a cheque of `5.86 crore in 10% is given The regulator is going slow in gi- warehousing under priority edge in the ASEAN region as
tate company who favour of the operational creditor, promoter ving out licence as it wants to see sector lending, subsidy they are developing economies
had a liability of `5.86 which has foregone interest status, as per who will fund future capital call schemes, tax sops and the Ware- with largely similar develop-
crore. The default amount. Under Section 53 of Irda and ensuring stickiness of capi- housing Act have gone a long mental and regulatory chal-
sum now increases IBC, known as Water Fall in guidelines tal, said one of the applicant. way in promoting the sector. lenges like in India. Indian com-
nearly `8 crore includ- legal parlance, secured They are not keen on individuals Schemes such as Private Entre- panies can also look at crop in-
ing interest. Operational creditors are ranked becoming promoters, therefore asking huge capi- preneur Guarantee Scheme surance, grain management, fi-
debt is a claim in respect of third and unsecured tal commitment from individuals. guarantee hiring of privately nancing, testing and
goods supplied or services ren- creditors at fifth place, in Irda is focused on the ability of promoter to build developed warehouses by FCI
dered. The lender filed for an in- terms of repayment prior- a successful business depending on how well one for up to 10 years, assuring a fair
solvency petition. The court said ity after the resolution or liqui- understands that business and how much money return on investment by the en-
admitting the company insol- dation of the defaulter company can one bring in. Insurance companies need fun- trepreneur.
vency would court larger prob- Successes in domestic oper-
`5.86
is over. The lender Gammon ding support more from domestic sources as fore-
lems for the company, which is cr India filed application a few ign direct investment limit is capped at 49%. ations along with increasing
already down in the dumps. What HDIL Owes months ago. In the second hearing Irda will take up the issue at its board meeting on confidence and depth of do-
Its reputation will be at stake Gammon India itself, the case met an end without Monday. The board will take up applications filed main expertise and operational
with so many HDIL projects like- any admission process. by professionals including Acko General Insuran- competency have emboldened
ly to get affected, said Mukul `8 cr
Kumar Shrawat, a judicial mem- Sum with interest
The court urged both the parties
to go for a settlement as it will be
ce which is founded by Varun Dua co-founder Co-
verfox, backed by Narayan Murthys Catamaran
agri-warehousing companies
to look at the overseas markets
ber, who was presiding the divi- much less time consuming paving and other domestic, foreign venture capital. to expand operations. While im-

` 5.86
sion bench of NCLT Mumbai. the future prospect. It has sought Any one with more than 10% is given promoter mediate neighbours such as
strong momentum may hurt The benefits of amicable solu- for HDILs financial statements status, as per Irda guidelines. Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal
cr
GLD in the current scenario.
INVESTOPEDIA
tions are better than any insol- Amount Gammon
vency proceedings.
examining potential ways to gen-
accepts after NCLT erate cash flows, which was per-
As a promoter, one should demonstrate domain
knowledge either by partnership or on their own,
and Sri Lanka present a perfect
opportunity for Indian compa-
Success in domestic
At the same time, the creditor is intervention haps used to repay upfront. said another individual who is looking to apply
backed by private equity.
nies to establish an overseas
presence owing to their proxim-
operations, depth of
domain expertise and
Profitability ity and similar geo-political
conditions, other Asian coun-

Chinese Cos Reshuffling Management operational

tries and even countries in the

May be Hit African regions present a lucra-

From Page 1
Most funds withstood the regulato-
ry pressure as a wider product bas-
ket has helped them gather more as-
sets, boosting profitability.
Mutual funds do not really benefit
from consolidation, said Manoj Nag-
pal, chief executive, Outlook Asia Ca-
pital, an investment advisor. The pro-
bability of one scheme doing better
than a similar one at any point always
works for the mutual fund.
Nagpal said the industry could also be
worried that consolidation of schemes
could impact the total expense ratiot-
he fee that funds charge investors every
MANOJ NAGPAL
Chief Executive, Outlook Asia Capital
MFs dont really benefit
from consolidation. The
probability of one scheme
doing better than a similar
one at any point always
works for the MF
year for managing their money. At so-
me stage, bigger schemes will have to
bring down their expense ratio. This
will impact their profitability, he said.
From Page 1
The drop in sales prompted the Chi-
nese parent companies to reshuffle
the local management and bring in
new faces who would help counter
the anti-China wave in certain con-
sumer markets since the mid-June
Dokalam standoff. Buyer resistan-
ce in some parts of northern India,
Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and
Odisha has prompted the parent
companies to restrict front-office
roles for Chinese expats in the dis-
tribution establishments in these
markets. In Maharashtra and West
Bengal, too, some distribution set-
ups have seen similar exits.
Another reason for the recalls is
the relatively shorter duration of vi-
sas granted to the Chinese employe-
es. Hence, some of the expats may
return when the Dokalam row sett-
les, one of the executives said.
While Vivo did not respond to an
email until the publication of this re-
port, an Oppo India spokesman did
not answer specific queries on the
Chinese expats returning home, sa-
ying the company is not influenced
by these market rumours. This
year (2017) has been a great year so
far for Oppo India and we are gro-
wing phenomenally year-on-year.
The company will continue to provi-
de the best camera phone, especially
selfie-focused smartphone to the In-
dian youth, he said.
Chinese distributors more
than a dozen for Oppo and two do-
zen for Vivo would have 3-4 ex-
INTROSPECTION
Top executives at both
Oppo and Vivo had also
met trade partners to
understand the reason
for the sudden drop in
sales, and are seeking to
increase the numbers in
the festive season
pats in each district of a state, mo-
nitoring Indian executives who
visit the trade. The Chinese would
hire a building in the district he-
adquarters and set up the distri-
bution office and residential qu-
arters for expats.
The decision-making authori-
ty always remained with the ex-
pats, even in the districts where
there were mostly junior-level
staff. However, after the exit of so
many Chinese employees, some
autonomy has been given to Indi-
an executives at the distributor le-
vel, with a mandate to revive sa-
les, said one executive.
DISTRIBUTION COS FUNCTION
INDEPENDENTLY
While Vivo Mobile India and Op-
po Mobiles India are the main hol-
ding companies locally monito-
ring the businesses, the actual
operations right from the im-
port of handsets to local distribu-
tion, marketing, sales and after-
sales service are handled by
distribution companies, one each
for a state or a region. These com-
panies function independently
with separate profit and loss acco-
unts, sales targets and budgets.
Last week, the Chinese govern-
ment issued a safety advisory for
its citizens in India amid the Do-
kalam row.
Top executives at both Oppo and
Vivo had also met trade partners
to understand the reason for the
sudden drop in sales, and are see-
king to increase the numbers in
the festive season.
Among the scores of brands that
have their origin in China Xiao-
mi, Lenovo, Motorola and OnePlus
largely Oppo and Vivo have the
consumer perception of being Chi-
nese. So, the anti-Chinese senti-
ments have had the maximum im-
pact on them in several states, whe-
re even their outdoor hoardings are
pulled down. Even the entry of Xiao-
mi in offline retail has hit these two
brands, said the chief of a leading
cellphone retail chain.
Another executive said Oppo
and Vivo are trying to break this
consumer perception by associa-
ting with Indian sports and cele-
brities through advertisements
and also at various touch points,
including web sites.
A recent report by market track-
er CMR India said the smartpho-
ne war is now being fought among
the Chinese brands in India rat-
her than between the Chinese and
Indian brands.
CMR said Xiaomi was the ace per-
former in the April-June quarter,
taking the second slot with 16.2%
share. Market leader Samsung was
at 18.7%. Vivo was in the third place
with 13.2%, followed by Oppo at
9.2%, and Lenovo at 8.3%.
tive market for expansion be-
cause of untapped agri-ware-
housing potential. But such
overseas forays are not without
challenges.
Agriculture remains a signifi-
cant contributor to the national
GDP and a main employment
provider for most developing
economies. And one thing that
is common to almost all devel-
oping economies is the high lev-
el of agriculture wastage; a
bulk of wastage takes place
post-harvest at the storage and
transportation stage. This is
where private sector agri-ware-
housing companies play a big
role in bridging the gap in de-
mand and supply of storage fa-
cilities. In developing econo-
mies, workforce development
and skill-base development in
the agri-warehousing sector is
usually lacking since the focus
is on promoting formal sectors.
The challenges of Indian agri-
warehousing companies look-
ing to set up operations over-
seas range from sourcing of
funds, asymmetric market
structures, restrictive regulato-
ry environments and other loca-
tion specific challenges and pol-
icy shortcomings. Lack of sup-
port infrastructure such as
roads and railways can affect in-
competency have
made warehousing
cos expand
certification, weather intelli-
gence apart from warehousing.
Due to lopsided development
in supply, large sections of the
worlds population remains un-
der fed and malnourished de-
spite sufficient production to
meet global food requirements.
Scientific warehousing along
with an efficient eco-system for
transportation, storage, and de-
livery of agricultural products
will be necessary to ensure glob-
al food security. Changing and
evolving food habits will also re-
quire an efficient warehousing
and supply chain solution to
maintain the changing demand
and supply dynamics. India is
well placed to become a world
leader in innovative and scien-
tific agri value chain solutions.
By developing innovative, sci-
entific and efficient warehous-
ing practices that can revolu-
tionise the agri-warehousing
sector, India can play a leading
role in ensuring global food se-
curity through efficient process
management in the entire agri-
cultural value chain.

Current IUC Levels Already Below Cost

The government, in the previous two
annual Budget announcements, had
paved the way for mutual-fund scheme
mergers by removing tax anomalies.
Earlier, mutual fund investors were
deemed new subscribers for taxation
purposes if a scheme merged with
another. This meant investors had to
pay short-term capital gains tax of
15% for an equity scheme if they ex-
ited it within a year. The Budget this
year clarified that such a merger wo-
uld be considered as a continued in-
vestment, which means there would
be no taxes if an investor exits within a
year of the merger.
A top mutual fund official said con-
solidation of schemes will bring a
level-playing field in the industry.
Hopefully, now Sebi will give per-
mission to mutual funds to launch
schemes that they do not have, the
chief executive of a mutual fund sa-
id, requesting anonymity.
From Page 1
Colao warned that a reduction in
IUC could ravage the sector. We are
seriously alarmed to see reports that
the regulator is considering a reduc-
tion in MTC at a time when the in-
dustry is facing such immense hard-
ships Any move to further reduce
MTC risks destroying the very com-
panies that have invested to build
this industry, he wrote, referring to
media reports that have hinted at
IUC being slashed to as low as 3 paise
per minute.
The contentious issue has pitted the
top incumbents against Mukesh Am-
bani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm,
which wants the fee scrapped.
Jio wants a shift to the bill and
keep (BAK) model, which would
bring down IUC to zero. India cur-
rently follows the calling party pa-
ys (CPP) regime, where incoming
calls are not charged. In a BAK re-
gime, an operator only keeps a re-
cord of incoming calls, but does
not raise any demand from other
telcos. Hence, there is no IUC.
The Big 3 telcos have been vocifero-
us in their demand that there should
be no reduction in IUC. Colaos letter
follows similar missives by Bharti
Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal and
Idea Cellular chairman Kumar
Mangalam Birla, who had both writ-
ten to the Telecom Regulatory Aut-
hority of India (Trai), that is cur-
rently reviewing the IUC charge.
The incumbents contend that the
existing IUC of 14 paise is already be-
low cost. In their representations to
the regulator, these carriers have sa-
id the typical cost for carrying calls
was 30-35 paise a minute, depending
on the input costs.
All three have asked Trai to re-
ject any shift to BAK regime and
have countered the view that lo-
wer IUC would lead to a fall in ta-
riffs, saying the fee was just a sett-
lement between two companies
and would not affect call rates.
INCUMBENTS WOULD BE BIGGEST
LOSERS
Bharti Airtel, Idea and Vodafone
India stand to lose the most if IUC
is lowered or scrapped, as they are
the biggest operators by subscri-
bers and garner a major share of
the termination charge.
The three operators together had
a nearly 60% share of the count-
rys more than 1 billion wireless
subscribers as of end June, accor-
ding to Trai data. If IUC is increa-
sed, Jio, which started services in
September, would need to pay mo-
re to the three telcos.
Trai, in its consultation paper is-
sued on August 5, 2016, had given
indications that the industry sho-
uld move to BAK regime owing to
evolving network technologies.
In IP-based networks, traditio-
nally, there has been no custom of
levying termination charges for
the traffic arriving in a particular
network; BAK is the natural regi-
me in the public Internet.
But Colao countered this view. No-
where in the world do BAK and CPP
co-exist as is being proposed by new
operator. In BAK regimes, the consu-
mers pay for incoming calls, which
is unrealistic for Indian consu-
mers, the Vodafone top executive
wrote in his letter.
Colao also hoped the inter-mini-
sterial group (IMG) will recom-
mend a reduction in the interest
rate for deferred spectrum pay-
ments to 6.25% in line with impro-
ved macroeconomic trends as well
as an increase in the period of the-
se payments.
The group was set up to look into
the financial health of the sector
saddled with debt of Rs 5 lakh cro-
re, which banks have pegged at Rs
7.29 lakh crore, and is set to finali-
se its report on Monday.
Mild relief measures may be on
the cards, include doubling the pe-
riod of installment payments for
spectrum, lower interest rate on
payments and penalties, and re-
laxation of spectrum caps for mer-
gers and acquisitions. A final deci-
sion on the report will be taken by
the Telecom Commission the
highest decision-making body
on September 1.
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Economy: Macro, Micro & More  11
Above- Monsoon active over 16% excess rainfall Heavy rainfall Delhis maximum

Monsoon
Heavy rainfall
normal rain sub-Himalayan West recorded over the likely over likely over temperatures to
Bengal, parts of country on Aug 26 parts of parts of south stay at 32-33
likely over central India & south northeast over

Watch
peninsula till degrees Celsius
the country peninsula CURRENT next few days Aug 30 over next 5 days
in next 10 5% deficit in WEATHER &
normal Delhi, adjoining
days rainfall over South peninsula FORECAST Parts of Central India to states to receive
the country recorded 56% excess receive widespread rain scanty rainfall over
till Aug 26 rainfall on Aug 26 in 2-3 days next 3 days

Short Takes
Cos Fear Losing Credit JAM Revolution
Over GST Filing Errors to End Financial
 EPFO Plans Crediting
ETF Units to PF Accounts
NEW DELHI: Retirement fund body

EPFO is considering crediting
subscribers share of its invest-
ments in ETFs to their provident
fund accounts which may be redeemed at the
time of taking advances. The Employees'
Provident Fund Organisation has sought views
from Comptroller and Auditor General in this
regard. As per estimates, EPFO's investment in
ETFs is expected to touch `45,000 crore by the
end of the current fiscal. The CAG is likely to
give its comments shortly, Central Provident
Fund Commissioner VP Joy told PTI. After
CAGs views, the proposal will be placed before
the Central Board of Trustees.
 Country Facing Severe
Under-Employment : Niti
NEW DELHI: Making a case for
promoting highly productive and
well paid jobs, Niti Aayog has said
that not unemployment but a se-
vere under-employment is the main problem
facing the country. The think tank, in its three-
year action plan, has said a focus on domestic
market through an import-substitution strategy
would give rise to a group of relatively small
firms behind a high wall of protection. Contrary
to some assertions that India's growth has been
'jobless', the Employment Unemployment
Surveys of NSSO have consistently reported low
and stable rates of unemployment over more
than three decades, it said.
 India, EFTA to Meet Over
Free Trade Agreement
NEW DELHI: Senior officials of India
and the EFTA, a bloc of four Europe-
an countries, will soon meet here
for the next round of talks on the
proposed free trade agreement. India and the
EFTA countries (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland
and Liechtenstein) are working on the nuts and
bolts of the pact, officially dubbed as the Trade
and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA).
Issues which could come up for discussion
include number of goods on which duties will
either be eliminated or reduced significantly
and liberalisation of norms in the services
sector, a commerce ministry official said.
Industry bats for extension of filing deadline citing delay in getting offline utility
Deepshikha.Sikarwar
@timegroup.com
New Delhi: A company with `100-
crore credit in lieu of taxes paid in
the past regime, risks losing it now
under the goods and services tax
(GST) reign simply because of the fat
finger, as it is popularly called.
With the August 28 (Monday) deadli-
ne looming for filing returns and en-
suring GST compliance, corporates
are a deeply concerned lot. The offline
utility for GST TRAN 1 form to be
used to claim input tax credit for the
pre-GST regime was not available
till Sunday, leaving just a day for filing
returns and causing a weekend rush.
In absence of the utility, details had
to be filed online with higher chances
of error. Tax practioners struggled to
meet the deadline, having had to de-
ploy additional manpower to manu-
ally key in invoices, some running in-
to thousands.
What has compounded the indust-
rys worry is that there is no clarity
on whether TRAN 1 can be revised la-
ter for any inadvertent human error
(or fat finger) due to manual entry or
will it simply mean losing tax credit.
This has led to a clamour for another
extension of the deadline or a provi-
sion allowing amending of the form
later. The government had already
extended the deadline once for those
seeking to claim transitional credit
from the past regime from August 20
to August 28, following industry re-
presentations.
WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT
An offline utility allows entry of deta-
ils, careful scrutiny and subsequent
submission, reducing chances of er-
rors while online filing may lead to
fat finger errors.
One company ET is aware of has al-
ready made errors in filing online
and is worried about losing its accu-
mulated input credit.
Taxpayers are required to provide
all details separately invoice-wise
or challan-wise. These can pertain to
Race Against Time
Inaccurate inputs No clarity on possibility Cos clamour for extension
may affect cos tax of revising TRAN 1 of Aug 28 deadline to
credit claims inputs for manual errors amend any errors online
Weekend rush to For some cos, invoice details
file returns to offset run into thousands of line items
GST liability with
GSTN working overtime to
taxes paid
ensure all IT requirements on
Offline utility for compliance are met
GST TRAN 1 form
was not available
till Sunday
Another official said the govern-
BIG WORRY ment is keeping a close watch on the
One company said it has situation.
already made errors and is POSTPONE COMPLIANCE
Tax experts are pitching for pushing
worried about losing input forward the compliance calendar.
Problems in filing TRAN 1 returns
credit accumulated in the due to absence of (offline) utility is
compounded by inadvertent errors
previous tax regime made in filing, with no recourse or vi-
sibility of a change in the returns...
claim of Cenvat or value added tax The compliance calendar should be
credit on capital goods, details of pushed forward to allow GSTN to be
stocks at job workers premises, con- fully ready with its software, said Bi-
cessional rate of central sales tax cla- pin Sapra, partner, EY.
imed under the previous regime and Without any utility on GSTN for fi-
claims where invoices were not recei- ling TRAN 1, companies have to ma-
ved till June 30. nually punch thousands of invoice
In some companies, these details and other details on the portal. It is
would run into thousands of lines of both time-consuming and error-pro-
items, where each line would need to ne. Also, there is confusion as to whet-
be punched manually in the specified her TRAN 1 can be revised later (or
field in the online forms. Further, not), said Pratik Jain, indirect tax le-
TRAN 1 (and consequently, all such ader, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
details) is to be submitted for each ju- Jain said the industry would hope
risdiction where the entity has regi- for an extension of the timeline for fi-
stration. Absence of the offline utili- ling TRAN 1 once the utility is in pla-
ty thus becomes a significant issue. ce and an immediate clarification
The GSTN, an official said, is wor- that it can be revised at least till Sep-
king overtime to ensure that all IT re- tember 30.
quirements with regard to complian- MS Mani, senior director, Deloitte
ce are met. Haskins & Sells LLP, pointed out that
The industry, however, has already service providers are equally hit.
demanded a tech audit of the GST Several businesses that had filed
Network. The Confederation of All their service tax returns by August 15
India Traders last week asked the go- and thereafter realised they are requ-
vernment to order a tech audit of ired to revise the service tax returns
GSTN in the wake of filing issues. are now in a quandary.
Exclusion: Jaitley
Our Bureau
Triple Billion
New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley FM says govt schemes have unleashed a JAM
has said India is within the reach of 1billion-1 (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar & Mobile) revolution
billion-1billion vision of financial inclusion,
recounting the success of three-year old plan
that began with an ambitious attempt to
bring formal banking to every household.
That is 1 billion unique Aadhaar numbers
linked to 1billion bank accounts and 1billion
GOVTS 1 BN-1 BN-1 BN VISION
mobile phones. Once that is done, all of India 1 billion Aadhar numbers linked to 1 billion
can become part of the financial and digital bank accounts and 1 billion mobile phones
mainstream, Jaitley said in a Facebook Jan Aug
post on Sunday on the third anniversary of WHERE WE ARE: 2015 2017
the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
(PMJDY).
Jan Dhan Total `12.55 `29.52
accounts(Cr) Rural `7.54 `17.64
The scheme targets a bank account for all Avg. balance in Jan Dhan a/c`837 `2,231
those who are financially excluded.
Jailtey said that while the scheme aimed at
Zero balance accounts 76.81%*
Number of RuPay cards (Cr) 11.08
21.41%
22.71
providing financial services to the poor
bank accounts, electronic means of pay- *Sept 2014
ment (via RUPAY cards), and ability to avail FINANCIAL INCLUSION INSURANCE
credit and insurance the underlying vi- FOR WOMEN SCHEMES
sion was much broader.
nothing short of ending the financial,
March 2014 -28% of
all savings account or
Pradhan Mantra
Jeevan Jyoti Bima
and hence economic, digital and social ex- about 33.69 cr accounts Yojana (PMJJBY)
clusion faced by Indias poor. Indias poor belonged to women 3.46 cr enrolments
would not only be able to overcome their eco-
nomic deprivation but they would also beco- March 2017 40% of Pradhan Mantra
all savings accounts, Suraksha Bima
me an integral part of the social mainstre-
based on data from 40 Yojana (PMSBY) --
am, he wrote.
banks and RRBs. 10.96 cr
JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile) is
nothing short of a social revolution because
it has brought together financial inclusion fully operational, Jaitley said adding it
(PMJDY), biometric identification (Aadha- will allow poor to become part of digital ma-
ar) and mobile telecommunications, finance instream through this secure and seamless
minster said. About 52.4 crore unique Aad- payments infrastructure.
haar numbers are linked to 73.62 crore acco- The JAM social revolution will allow the
unts in India. poor access to financial services and cus-
This has allowed the poor to make pay- hion them against lifes major shocks, Ja-
ments electronically. itley said, adding that government finances
Every month now, about 7 crore successful will improve because of the reduced subsi-
payments are made by the poor using their dy burden.
Aadhaar identification, he said. Besides, the government will also be legiti-
Besides, the government now makes direct mised and strengthened because it can
transfer of `74,000 crore to the financial ac- transfer resources to citizens faster and mo-
counts of 35 crore beneficiaries annually, at re reliably and with less leakage, he said.
more than `6,000 crore per month for the va- Just as GST created one tax, one market,
rious government anti-poverty and support one India, the PMJDY and the JAM revolu-
schemes such as PAHAL, MNREGA, old age tion can link all Indians into one common fi-
pensions, student scholarships etc. nancial, economic, and digital space. No In-
Now with the BHIM app and the Unified dian will be outside the mainstream, the fi-
Payments Interface (UPI), JAM can become nance minister said.
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12  THE ECONOMIC TIMES The Edit Page THE ECONOMIC TIMES | NEW DELHI / GURGAON | MONDAY | 28 AUGUST 2017

How To Forestall China and India have a lot to lose in an open conflict. They need some kind of competitive cooperation

State Repression
State authority must be on routine display
The state has monopoly over the use of force in a civilised
It Takes Two to Untangle The rupee has appreciated by 15-
20% over the last decade in real terms.
polity. The greater the degree of social acceptance of this Indias exports to China, mostly raw
norm, the less the actual deployment of force by the state.
That acceptance, in turn, depends on the states credibili-
materials, have been declining since
2010-11as the Chinese economy slowed Be Happy
down. But Chinese exports into India
ty in enforcing the rule of law in pursuit of a just society.
That authority and the respect that flow from the states
mostly manufactures and heavy
equipment have increased rapidly
On The Way
and exceed $60 billion. This is small
role as the keeper and enforcer of social justice must be Ajay Chhibber potatoes for China, whose global ex-
VN MITTAL
made manifest all the time. Unfortunately, the conduct of

T
the Indian state falls far short of this ideal, on many co- he Chinese Ambassador to
unts. The result is that when an occasion arises when the- the US, Hu Shih, once said,
India conquered and domi-
re is no alternative to exercising the authority of the state nated China culturally for
to overcome violent resistance to it, the state is compelled 20 centuries without ever
having to send a single soldier across
ports are around $2,300 billion. But Your entire energy and con-
with India poised to grow rapidly, it co- centration gets dissipated if
uld be shut out of a lucrative market. you are not consciously aware
of your focus. Focus is a funda-
Chinese FDI mental aspect of volition.
Chinese investment in India remains Focus helps us deepen our
very small. The total Chinese FDI into spiritual experiences, bringing

to use force on a large scale. What happened in the wake of
the head of a religious cult in Haryana being found guilty
of rape must be understood in this perspective.
India harbours, in its cities, ghettoes where the police
dare not enter. Religious and quasi-religious places are
deemed beyond the reach of the state, both by sections of
civil society and by the state itself.
This must change. No place of wors-
hip or some other religious pursuit
should be outside the reach of routine
policing. When Sant Bhindranwale
made the holiest shrine of the Sikhs,
the Golden Temple, into a den of terro-
rists, the accumulated debility of for-
gone policing finally resulted in the unfortunate Opera-
tion Blue Star. A similar logic was at play in Pakistani se-
curity forces assault on Lal Masjid in 2007. Dera Sacha
Sauda and other such cult headquarters function as in-
dependent enclaves beyond the reach of the Indian state.
They should not.
No temple, monastery, mosque, church, seminary, gu-
rudwara or dera should be beyond the reach of the rou-
tine policing that must serve all public places. To abdi-
cate this responsibility in the name of religious senti-
ments is to lay the ground for extreme repression at so-
me point of time. The government must take all
political parties into confidence to arrive at such a con-
sensus, even as recriminations for short-term political
her border. But more than half a cen-
tury after the 1962 war, China is posi-
tioning to send its troops across the
border in Dokalam. While China-In-
dia economic and financial relations
have grown considerably, border issu-
es remain unresolved. They may even
have worsened as a muscular China
asserts its version of sovereignty in
the Himalayas, the South China Sea
and the East China Sea.
Both China and India have a lot to
lose in an open conflict. India needs to
keep its focus on economic develop-
ment as it tries to double its economy
from $2.5 trillion to $5 trillion before
2030. China has grown to over $10 tril-
lion, but is now looking outward with
its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and
needs a cooperative India. An open
conflict could also coalesce many co-
untries with concerns over Chinas
growing assertiveness, fuelled by gro-
wing nationalism at home.
Trade between India and China has
grown hugely. It was barely $2 billion
in 2001-02. In 2015-16, it exceeded $70
billion. But a huge trade imbalance of
almost $50 billion in favour of China
reflects Indias lack of competitive-
ness and, to some extent, passive trade
and wrong exchange rate policies.
One way to reduce trade imbalance would be to get
FILE PHOTO
India is under $2 billion, according to about deep awareness, leading
official figures, but could be over $4 to new life-giving connection to
billion if investments through indi- spiritualty. One is enabled to
rect routes, such as Hong Kong, are in- If they can break naan in Beijing... work through religious and
cluded. Indias FDI into China is un- spiritual issues. It is for this
der $1billion. occupied Kashmir (PoK), and is also generation reforms in labour and reason that the practice of
One way to reduce the trade imba- wary of the Maritime Silk Road with land. The problem of growing non- meditation emphasises on
lance would be to get more Chinese ports in the Indian Ocean (String of performing assets has slowed down focusing on an object or God.
firms to invest and manufacture in In- Pearls) which could be used to encir- investment. A bungled demonetisa- When we focus thus, we auto-
dia. This would also support the Ma- cle India. Nevertheless, India has gi- tion has also hurt growth. A new go- matically and instantly attain a
ke in India campaign. But distrust ven positive signals on the Bangla- ods and services tax (GST) law gave so- meditative state. The Bhagwad
and political issues keep Chinese in- desh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) me hope, but a complicated structure Gita talks of focus in relation to
vestments down. Case in point: India road corridor that links Kolkata to and likely implementation problems action; to perform karma
recently rejected a Chinese invest- Kunming through Bangladesh and have reduced its potential benefits. without anticipating the result.
ment of $1.3 billion in Gland Pharma. Myanmar. India recently slapped an anti-dum- The best way to focus is to
India and China have seen selective China faces huge internal adjust- ping import duty on 93 Chinese im- operate with the realisation
cooperation on international issues. ments as it tries to rebalance its econo- ports, mostly in the steel sector. It is that the present moment is all
India joined the $100-billion Chinese- my. Its debt-GDP ratio has grown considering further restrictions in te- you have. Remember, your
led Asia Infrastructure and Invest- dangerously rapidly from around lecom and power. These are seen by so- focus determines your reality.
ment Bank (AIIB) as the second-lar- 150% of GDP in 2008 to around 280% me as a sign of an impending trade If you wake up and try to focus
gest shareholder. India and China are today, as it expanded credit to keep its war between China and India. Shrill on what a wonderful gift your
also equal shareholders of the Shang- economy growing in the face of slo- nationalist posturing could become a life is, you will have a great
hai-based $50-billion BRICS Bank and wer export growth. It now takes eight downward spiral, which would hurt day. All that we are is the
a $100-billion contingency reserve ar- units of credit to generate one unit of both sides. result of what we have tho-
rangement (CRA). India recently joi- GDP, according to the IMF. But this in- India must somehow manage an ught says the Buddha.
ned the Shanghai Cooperation Orga- vestment credit-led recovery has crea- aggressive China without an open Often, even when goals are
nisation (SCO), a gathering of China, ted enormous excess capacity. conflict, just as Japan and Taiwan ke- realised, we are not happy.
Russia and Central Asian countries. The BRI, with heavy investment in ep economic links growing despite Story goes that a person was
But India has not formally joined infrastructure links, is seen as a way contentious issues with China. trying to climb to the top of a
the BRI, objecting to the China-Pakis- to utilise some of this excess capacity. China must also learn from Ambas- mountain when his friend with
tan Economic Corridor (CPEC), But it has huge risks for China and re- sador Hu that in the long run it could a helicopter appeared. He tried
which has investments in Pakistan- cipient countries as it could create win big in India without soldiers, mo- to persuade his friend to hop
white elephants. Many see it less as an ney and knowhow. Some form of com- into the helicopter to cut short
economic project and more a geo-stra- petitive cooperation is the way for- the journey but the climber
tegic move. ward for both. declined. Because happiness is
not only in reaching the top but

gains, par for the course, go on. more Chinese firms to invest and manufacture in India. Slowing Economy
Indias economy has slowed down, as
The writer is former UN Assistant also in the adventure of under-
taking the journey to reach the
Secretary General for Asia and the
This would also support the Make in India campaign. it has been unable to carry out second- Pacific goal that seems to leave a
permanent sense of accomp-
lishment on your mind. Hence,
focus on the journey rather

Neighbours Solidarity Liquid Markets

MEMES THE WORD than on the destination. Be
happy on the way.

Is Rivals Envy Here is another way to look at stock exchanges by finding out their turnover
velocity. This indicator which gives a sense of the markets liquidity is
simply the ratio of traded turnover to market capitalisation. It shows the
breadth and depth of a market. Weighed on this scale, Indias stock exchanges
Chat Room
Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deubas promise not are way behind their global peers...
to allow his country to be used for any activity against its fri- Knowledge Turnover velocity of domestic shares (Top 15 & Indian exchanges) Focus On
endly neighbour is welcome indeed, in the backdrop of the
standoff with China at Dokalam. It illustrates the need for
will give you Exchange
Shenzhen Stock Exchange
2016 Average
374%
Social Uplift
New Delhi to refocus its energies on strengthening its rela- power, but Shanghai Stock Exchange
Taipei Exchange
192%
171%
The mob violence in Haryana
on Friday following the convic-
tions in the neighbourhood.
Having established itself as an economic power, China is fo-
character Borsa Istanbul
Korea Exchange
169%
129%
tion of Dera Sacha Sauda chief
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is
cused on acquiring proportionate geopolitical power. Chang- respect. Japan Exchange Group
BME Spanish Exchanges
117%
condemnable. Politicians must
Source: World Federation of Exchanges

98%
es in US foreign policy aid these ambitions. Chinas attempt to The Stock Exchange of Thailand 81% stop seeking political support
Bruce Lee B3 S.A. (Brazil) 2016 Average through so-called godmen.
cultivate Pakistan as a client state, especially useful in trying Martial Artist
79%
Judiciary has done a commen-
46%
Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) 77% National Stock
to tie India down to South Asia, creates direct friction with Deutsche Brse 75% dable job to uphold the rule of
Exchange
New Delhi. India must sustain efforts to build mutually bene- Australian Securities Exchange 64% law. The rational way to uplift

7%
TMX Group (Canada) 63% the lives of gullible people is to
ficial partnerships with countries in the SIX Swiss Exchange
BSE
61% them provide proper educa-
region and beyond. In terms of sheer eco- Taiwan Stock Exchange 59%
tion to emancipate their
nomic capacity, India cannot compete Note: Turnover velocity is the ratio of electronic order book (EOB) turnover of domestic shares
minds. Here, the government
traded divided by their market capitalisation. The value is annualised by multiplying the monthly
with China. However, unlike China, India average by 12, according to the following formula: (monthly EOB domestic shares traded / month- plays a huge role. The vision of
end domestic market capitalisation) x 12.
is not mercantilist, making New Delhi a a New India will succeed only
when the country is rid of such
better partner. For its part, India needs to
debilities.
improve its delivery to be seen as a reliab-
le partner. New Delhi may not have Be- NEUTRON TO NYLON Citings PARTHASARATHY SEN
New Delhi
ijings cheque book but it can work together with countries

Following Cult Followings

like Japan to counter Chinas economic advantage. The EXIM
bank needs to be empowered as well to give India an invest- Learning Is Cheer Right
ment edge. India can gain through focus, on the one hand, on
Never Static to Privacy
challenges that developing countries struggle with, such as
The Supreme Courts unani-
climate change, besides perennial ones such as education, he- The initiation process of getting into thousands to be a part of his dera. mous verdict declaring the
althcare and adoption of new technologies and skills, and, on ROMILA THAPAR
a cult may not seem a radical move to There is a huge sense of entitlement right to privacy as a funda-
the other, with historical and cultural ties. the families of the victims. Often the among cult leaders. Like sociopaths, It is fashionable these days to mental right of every citizen is
The range of discussions and agreements signed during Deu- pattern of manipulation is subtle and these people crave attention and quote from the texts of the Ve- not just victory of our Consti-
nuanced. Psychologists have observed adoration. Most of the time they cover dic culture when speaking of tution but victory of democra-
bas visit indicates that the government understands the impor- cases where former cult members did it well (remember Asaram Bapu, the access to knowledge. So let me cy as well. The right to privacy
tance of strong relations in South Asia. Under the Neighbour- not even remember what special other godman, accused of rape) while follow the fashion. It is stated is intrinsic to
hood First policy, it has taken proactive steps in strengthening Debkumar Mitra qualities attracted them to be a part of presenting themselves as the most in the Upanishads and the the rights to
its partnerships in region. New Delhi must stay the course. the gang. The issue here is not camo- enlightened among the sufferers who Brahmanas on more than one life and liber-
uflaging, but creating a situation has it in himself to lead humankind occasion, that among the ty. Hopefully,
In April 1993, the town of Waco in where the victim does not even realise out of this morass. This often works most-respected rishis and the judgment
Texas was in the news worldwide. what lies ahead if they became a magic among followers resulting in scholars of that time were tho- will put an
David Koresh, the leader of the member of the cult. mass hysteria. se who are described as dasi- end to every
Branch Davidians cult, was holding Cult leaders often manipulate In most cults, there is an inner core putrah, those that were the organisation
Couch potatoes will welcome the idea on to a 51-day FBI siege of a ranch that emotions to forge relationships, group handpicked by the leader sons of the lowly dasis. They asking for
of exercising without moving a muscle he and his followers called their home. which they later dominate. And himself. Researchers say irrespective either had the required know- ones Aadhaar number. The
It ended in a bloody conflict with more there is no shortage of buyers for of the nature of the cult, the core ledge or were searching for it. government should come up
than 70 dead. Nearly 25 years on, anything, however ridiculous what group has all the power and looks after Such little nuggets of informa- with a mechanism that secu-

No Sweat, Exercise Panchkula, near Chandigarh, evoked

the same memories when thousands
of supporters of the Dera Sacha
Sauda cult leader, Gurmeet Ram
is being peddled may sound to some.
As showman PT Burnum once famo-
usly said, Theres a sucker born
every minute. Religion is the com-
the emotional, financial, and even the
sexual needs of the leader. These
people manipulate members to serve
the purposes of their power-crazy,
tion provide insights into the
values not only of education
but also of society. They also
remind us of the centrality of
res Aadhaar details, and
ensures that these are used
only for programmes that
either benefit citizens or end

Pills Are On the Way Rahim Singh, went on a rampage after

their leader was sent to prison on
charges of rape.
monly used manipulative measure
to net cult members.
The same is true for arcane, poverty
know-it-all leader.
According to psychologist Marga-
ret Singer, cults are born and flou-
ethics to a worthwhile society.
If we have for various reasons
moved away from this central-
corruption.

It is very heartening that the prime minister has pointed out Psychologists have been studying
the phenomenon of cults, their lea-
in his latest Mann Ki Baat that playing fields are more impor-
tant than playstations though Sony may not agree as ex-
ders and followers for a while. The
accepted definition of a cult is a group
ercise is indeed necessary for couch potato generations. Ha- of people who come together under a
charismatic leader who joins them
ving well-toned fingers and thumbs are no substitute for a fit
together on a common ideological
body with strong limbs. However, the PMs exhortations may platform. In this sense, from Bolshe-
be stymied by the supposedly imminent creation of a so-cal- viks to Dera Sacha Sauda supporters,
led exercise pill. The very idea that the benefits of physical are all members of cults. But why are
activity can be availed of by the mere ingestion of a tablet is some so destructive?
Science believes that the destruc-
sure to excite those who prefer virtual to real anyway. But it tiveness of a cult is a function in the
may be still too early to mothball running shoes and put away mathematical sense of its leaders
racquets, bats and balls, as researchers in Britain have only personality. Primarily male, these
just figured out what switches on our exercise response. individuals identify their victims, or
followers, and first use their charms
A protein called Piezo1 in our arteries detects increased to make the latter believe in his path of
pressure of blood flow from the heart caused by exercise and truth or glory. When the charisma
constricts vessels so that more is routed to the brain and starts fading, several coercive tech-
muscles than the stomach. And scientists are now experi- niques, including mass rape of wo-
men in the ranks, violence and black-
menting with a compound named Yoda 1 to force Piezo1 to mailing are used to put pressure on
do the needful, without the actual exertions of exercise. Of the followers to remain inside the cult.
course, even they admit any such pill cannot actually be a Koresh has been known to rape
SN KABRA
alleviating economic theories, out- rish during periods of social and ity, as it would seem these days, Mumbai
landish science as a saviour of man- political change and during break- then we need to return to it.
kind, and free sex all these have
been used in the past to create destruc-
downs in the structure and rules of
the prevailing society. The fear of
The meaning of education
has never been restricted only Talaq Ignorance
tive cults. If one looks closely at the
lifestyle and the films of Ram Rahim,
the unknown drives people to look
for individuals who can give them
to the gathering of informa-
tion. Its purpose is also to ad-
& Exploitation
the self-fashioned guru of bling, they support and lead them to light. vance knowledge and to teach The Supreme Court judgment
may appear to be ostentatious to say Researchers have been able to link students how to do so. Stu- in the triple talaq case brings
the least. However, that did not deter the rise in the number of cults with dents are taught to understand relief to Muslim women. The
epochal changes in history, such as and assess existing knowled- judgment is an embarrass-
the fall of ancient Rome, the Indust- ge, by questioning it, to think ment to the Muslim clerics
rial Revolution, the two World Wars critically when enquiring into who till now were misleading
and the turbulent 1960s. it and through this process ad- and exploiting women who are
Reason always seems to take a back- vance knowledge. Learning is ignorant about their religion.
seat when the crisis of the individual not learning if it remains sta- What should have come from
accelerates. These are the times when tic. The process of thought within the community had to
Ram Rahim and Koresh appear to that asks questions and seeks be done by the court. It would
save the world. In India, with a large answers has an ancient ancest- be appropriate if the ways and
illiterate, superstitious and poor ry but the questions change as reasons for a talaq and the
population, the crisis is omnipresent. knowledge changes. It is a pro- maintenance clause are clear-
It is little wonder that cults are born cess that remains embedded in ly mentioned in the nikah-
here every day. The unfortunate bit is the mind once it is taught, nama, in case the worst step of
the political patronage that lets babas whether one chooses to use it talaq has to be taken.
and dera chiefs to become alternate in later life or not.
centres of power. While it is difficult SYED ABDUL MONIM
FILE PHOTO

minors in his commune. The unnamed to change human behaviour, the Extract from Romila Thapars Vashi ( Maharashtra)
substitute for exercise; it will but merely act as an effect
letters written by sadhvis that formed agencies of law can at least protect speech accepting the honoris
magnifier. But lazybones will now have more reason to take the basis of the case against Gurmeet innocent people, including cult mem- causa from Presidency Universi-
Letters to the editor may be addressed to

it easy, in anticipation. Ram Rahim point to the same. Not just on the sleeve bers, from exploitation and violence. ty, Kolkata, on August 18, 2017 editet@timesgroup.com
 https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS

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Houston: Rescue crews raced
against rising floodwaters early
on Sunday to pull hundreds of
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homes and cars in southeast
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erful storm to hit the state in
more than 50 years, roared in-
land. The storm has killed at least
two people and Harris county
sheriff Ed Gonzalez said on
Twitter the death toll could rise,
with his deputies responding to
reports of a deceased woman
and child inside a submerged
vehicle on Interstate 10 near
Houston. One resident described
seeing a womans body floating
in the streets during a flash flood
in the same western part of the
city. The flash floods were sev-
eral feet high, the resident told
local TV station abc13. Houstons
William P Hobby Airport can-
celled all inbound and outbound
flights early on Sunday due to
standing water on the runway.
The second confirmed fatality
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on Houstons west side, said
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Police Make 2nd Arrest in
Buckingham Palace Attack
London: Scotland Yard on Sunday
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nection with an alleged terror
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Three police officers were injured
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US Security Aid to Pak Will UK Should Stay in
EU Single Market in
Be Conditioned: WH Official Transition: Labour
US is monitoring situation carefully in Pak and expects some progress
Trump has warned Pakistan that Washington will no longer tolerate
Pakistan offering safe havens to extremists AFP
Washington: Americas aid to
Pakistan will be conditioned
on the steps Islamabad takes
against terrorist groups such as
the Taliban and the Haqqani net-
work, a senior Trump adminis-
tration official has said.
There have been long stand-
ing relationships between the
Pakistani intelligence officials
and these terrorist groups. So,
we dont expect things to change
overnight. We expect incremental
changes over time, the official
told PTI.
His comments came days after
US President Donald Trump hit
out at Pakistan for providing safe
havens to agents of chaos that
kill Americans in Afghanistan
and warned Islamabad that it has
Neuralink Gets $27m to Build Brain Computers
Brain-machine
interface hopes to
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Dana Hull
Neuralink Corp., the startup
co-founded by billionaire Elon
Musk, has taken steps to sell as
much as $100 million in stock to
fund the development of technol-
ogy that connects human brains
with computers.
perfect and thats my boxing record FLOYD MAYWEATHER, JR.
much to lose by harbouring ter-
rorists.
We will be able to see when
these changes start to happen.
They (might) not become imme-
diately apparent to the public,
but were confident that when
Pakistan takes the steps were
asking it to do, well know it and
well be able to assess. And so, our
security aid will be conditioned
on the steps that we expect them
to take against, in particular, the
Taliban-Haqqani Network, the
official said.
The United States, the official
said, is monitoring the situation
carefully in Pakistan and expects
some progress.
It wouldnt be appropriate for
me to give exact timelines that
were dealing in. But, certainly
Elon Musk: The company is hiring
engineers and scientists
said via Twitter on Friday that
Neuralink isnt seeking outside
there is an expectation that well
start to see some changes in the
very near future, the official said
when asked if the Trump admin-
istration has set a time line for
progress in action being taken
by Pakistan against the terrorist
groups.
The official was responding to a
series of question on the statements
coming out of Pakistan, which are
generally in strong opposition to the
Trumps South Asia strategy. How
do you see Pakistans reaction? Do
you think that they would be, given
these kind of reactions thats com-
ing up in public domain, think they
will be cooperating
The official
was
this time with you on
counter-terrorism
responding issues? the official
to a series was asked.
of question I think the presi-
dent was very clear
on the
statements that we are going
coming out to take a different
of Pakistan approach to t hat
stand. Theres a lot
of frustration (in the US) with
the continued safe havens in
Pakistan. But we believe there
is hope for greater cooperation
from Pakistan on these issues.
Its Pakistans choice. Pakistan
has much to benefit from by coop-
erating with the US and cracking
down on some of these groups,
the official said. And Pakistan
has much to lose if it fails to do so,
the official warned. PTI
Exploration Technologies, and
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the responsible development of
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Few details are known about
N e u r a l i n k . T h e c o mp a ny s
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No neuroscience experience is
Around the World  13
London: Britain should stay in the
European single market and accept
free movement of people during a
transition period after it leaves the
EU, the main Opposition Labour
Party said on Sunday.
In a major policy shift, Labours
Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer
wrote in the Observer that con-
tinuity immediately after Brexit
would avoid a cliff edge for our
Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer
economy. Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron
Labour would seek a transitional lationship or by working up from a
deal that maintains the same basic
terms that we currently enjoy with
bespoke trade deal, he said.
Labour had previously been am- Most French now
the EU, Starmer wrote.
That means we would seek to re-
biguous on whether it would seek to
retain single market and customs Dissatisfied with
main in a customs union with the
EU and within the single market
union membership, arguing only
that it wanted a jobs-first Brexit.
Macron: Poll
during this period. It means we Starmer dismissed fanciful and
would abide by the common rules unachievable proposals set out Paris : Most F rench voters
of both, he said, meaning unim- by Brexit minister a r e now d i s s at i s f ie d w it h
peded immigration from the EU David Davis. Emmanuel Macrons perfor-
Labour had
could continue. He also war ned mance, a poll showed on Sunday,
previously
Starmer added that curbs on im- been about t he gover n- marking a dramatic turnaround
migration must be addressed in ambiguous ments ideological for a president who basked in a
the final deal as it was a key issue on whether obsession with tak- landslide election victory less
in last years Brexit referendum. it would ing Britain out of than four months ago.
But he hinted that Labour could seek to all of the EUs struc- The poll, conducted by Ifop
aim to retain some form of mem- fo r n e w s p ap e r L e Jou r n a l
retain single tures when the coun-
bership of the customs union even du Di manche (J DD) showed
market and try leaves the bloc in
once the transition period has customs March 2019. Macrons dissatisfaction rat-
elapsed. Remaining in a form of union The Labour party ing at 57%, 14 percentage points
customs union with the EU is a pos- membership a re i n a power fu l worse than Ifops last poll in July.
sible end destination for Labour, p o sit io n b e c au s e Forty percent expressed satis-
but that must be subject to negotia- Prime Minister Theresa Mays faction with the
tions. Conservatives lost their major- cent rist leader
It also means that Labour is flex- ity in elections in June and have The poll, a l s o dow n 14
ible as to whether the benefits of the to govern with the suppor t of conducted points from July.
single market are best retained by Northern Irelands Democratic by Ifop for Macron, who is
negotiating a new single market re- Unionist Party. AFP newspaper midway through
JDD showed a schedule of offi-
What Hard Brexit Means for British Breakfast
Macrons dis- cial visits to vari-
satisfaction ous Eu ropea n
rating at capitals, has suf-
Should the UK end up leaving under hard Brexit conditions, the cost of a fried 57%, 14 fered a number
breakfast will see significant cost increases, as per a new analysis by KPMG. If
negotiations on trade with the EU fail, the UK will, at least initially, have to fall back on
percentage of setbacks since
points worse b ei n g e le c t e d ,
WTO rules, leading to much higher tariffs on some products.
Pure orange juice
than Ifops
last poll in
including tough
debates in parlia-
34%
Olive oil 30% July ment over labour
reform, a stand-
Butter 25%
off with the military and cuts to
Strawberry jam 24%
housing assistance.
Pork sausages 20% The Ifop poll showed the cumu-
Baked beans 18% lative drop in Macrons popular-
Chopped tomatoes 14% ity ratings since May was bigger
than that of previous president
Closed cap mushrooms 13%
F rancois Hollande over the
Brown sauce 10%
same period of his tenure.
Unsmoked back bacon 9%
The poll also showed a drop in
Instant coffee 8%

arrested on suspicion of terrorism The San Francisco-based com-
pany has already gotten $27 mil-
offences. PTI
lion in funding, according to a
filing with the US Securities and
Exchange Commission. Musk
investors. A spokesman didnt
respond to questions about the
source of the funds.
Musk, 46, is the chief execu-
tive officer of Tesla and Space
Source: Statista
required: talent and drive matter popularity for Prime Minister
far more, the company says on Milk* 0% Edouard Philippe, with 47% ex-
the site. We expect most of our Eggs* 0% pressing satisfaction with him
team to come from other areas Bread* 0% * Products sourced from the UK down 9 points from last month.
and industries. Bloomberg Reuters

France Plans 430-Million

Iraq Loan: Foreign Ministry
France will give Iraq a 430-mil-
lion loan this year after the na-
tions budget was crimped by the
fight against Islamic State and the
drop in oil prices, AFP reported,
citing the French government.
Foreign minister Jean-Yves Le
Drian, visiting Baghdad, told Iraqi
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi
at a meeting on Saturday that
the money will be delivered
before the end of the year. The
loan requires an improvement in
Iraqs management of its public
finances and the governance of
state-owned enterprises, as well
as greater energy efficiency. BB
Seven Members of Trumps
Cybersecurity Advisors Resign
Washington: Seven members of
Donald Trumps cybersecurity
advisory council have resigned,
citing the US presidents insuf-
ficient attention to cyber threats.
According to a Fortune report
late on Saturday, seven members
of the National Infrastructure
Advisory Council, whose pur-
view includes national cybersecu-
rity, resigned en masse expressing
concern over how Trump and his
administration undermined the
moral infrastructure of the US.
The members cited speci fic
shortfalls in the administrations
approach to cybersecurity.
You have given insufficient at-
tention to the growing threats to
the cybersecurity of the critical
systems upon which all Americans
depend, including those impacting
the systems supporting our demo-
cratic election process, the group
resignation letter stated.
Those who resigned included
former US chief data scientist DJ
Patil and former Office of Science
and Technolog y Policy chief
of staff Cristin Dorgelo both
Obama-era appointees. IANS
Angry at EU, Greece Warms to Chinas Cash
Jason Horowitz & Liz Alderman
Athens : A fter years of strug-
gling under austerity imposed by
European partners and a chilly
shoulder from the United States,
Greece has embraced the advances
of China, its most ardent and geo-
politically ambitious suitor.
While Europe was busy squeez-
ing Greece, the Chinese swooped
in with bucket-loads of investments
that have begun to pay off, not only
economically but also by apparently
giving China a political foothold in
Greece, and by extension, in Europe.
Last summer, Greece helped
stop the European Union from is-
suing a unified statement against
Chinese aggression in the South
China Sea. This June, Athens pre-
vented the bloc from condemning
Chinas human rights record. Days
later it opposed tougher screening
of Chinese investments in Europe.
Greeces diplomatic stance hard-
ly went unnoticed by its European
partners or by the United States,
all of which had previously wor-
ried that the countrys economic
vulnerability might make it a ripe
target for Russia, always eager to
divide the bloc.
While the Europeans are act-
ing towards Greece like medieval
leeches, the Chinese keep bring-
ing money, said Costas Douzinas,
head of the Greek parliaments for-
eign affairs and defense committee.
A KIND OF NEOCOLONIALISM
Along more than 20 miles of coast-
line outside Athens, a forest of
cranes at the Piraeus port load
and unload thousands of contain-
ers from China and around the
world. An ultramodern f loating
dock is scheduled for arrival in
November from China. A planned
new Chinese-financed passenger
hub is also in the works.
China has transformed Piraeus
into the Mediterraneans busi-
est port, investing nearly half-a-
billion euros through the state-
backed shipping conglomerate
COSCO. It hopes to make Piraeus
the entry point to Europe under its
One Belt, One Road project.
COSCO has brought around 1,000
jobs to the area, but it has outfitted
cargo docks with cranes made in
China, not in Greece, and expand-
ed the docks with building mate-
rials from China. And as Greece
struggles through record jobless-
ness, the company has used sub-
contractors to hire around 1,500
workers mostly on short-term
contracts at wages far below what
unionized Greek dockworkers are
paid. NYT

TIPS, TRIVIA & TRENDS YOUR DAILY DIET OF FUN AND FACTS
Crossword 6222

Saudi Factory Stitches UK Police Holds Sikh

Gold-Laced Cover for
Islams Holiest Site
Dozens of Saudi craftsmen are hard at work in a
factory in Mecca preparing an embroidered black
and gold cloth to cover the Kaaba, the holiest site in
Islam. Known as the kiswa, the cloth is woven from
silk and cotton and adorned with verses from the
Koran. A new one is made each year to be placed on
the Kaaba in Meccas Grand Mosque during the
annual Muslim haj pilgrimage, which begins on
Wednesday. A cube-shaped stone structure, the
Kaaba is a focal point of the haj, during which some
two million pilgrims walk around it in a mass ritual.
When Muslims anywhere in the world say their
prayers five times a day, it is towards Mecca and the
Kaaba that they face. Nearly 670kg of silk, enough
to cover a structure estimated to measure about 50
feet high and 35 to 40 feet long, is imported from
Italy. Silver and gold-plated thread comes from
Germany. But the kiswa is embroidered and stitched
together in Saudi Arabia and paid for by the
kingdom each year at a cost of $6million. Reuters
Naked Models are Living
Art at S Korea Festival
The bodies of dozens of female models were turned into living
canvases at a festival in Seoul this weekend, as delicate brush
strokes and flamboyant illustrations covered up their bare skin.
Near-naked women wearing only panties and strategically placed
pieces of tape on their breasts packed the 2017 Daegu
International Bodypainting Festival, surrounded by teams of artists
and onlookers. Top artists from across the world took part in the
event in South Koreas southeastern city of Daegu. In just six hours,
the models were turned into walking works of art as they strutted
down an open air stage in front of hundreds of spectators. The
artists, who compete for cash prizes, are judged on a range of
criteria including the use of colour, painting techniques and
originality. AFP
Man at Gunpoint after
Misunderstanding
A 47-year-old Sikh man and his son were
held at gunpoint and handcuffed by the
UK police in England after someone
complained about hearing a gunshot,
which was actually his cars tyre blowing.
Sukhi Rayat parked his car in his yard in
Hitchin, Hertfordshire. Shortly after a
dozen armed policemen with dogs ran into
his garden, then pushed him against a wall
and put him in handcuffs. Id been sitting
in my car for a minute because I was
calling the company I lease it from. As
soon as I stepped out, police came out of
nowhere with the dogs and rifles and
everything, Rayat was quoted as saying
by the online newspaper Metro. Rayat
said that his 17-year-old son Harkeert was
also rammed up against a wall and
handcuffed. I unlocked the door and the
officer pointed his gun at me and told me
to put my hands up. Then he grabbed me
and threw me against the wall. They had
me out there on the main road, being
searched in handcuffs, said Rayat, who
has lived in his home since 1979. The raid
on Wednesday happened after someone
called police to report a gunshot coming
from Rayats car, however, the
complainants allegations changed three
times. PTI

Star Trek-Inspired Virtual Reality Arena Pak-Born A Pakistan-born deputy headmaster of one of
Britains most prestigious schools Eton College has

Built for Animals
Scientists have developed a holodeck a
virtual reality arena inspired from the sci-
fi series Star Trek that can replicate any
environment to study behaviours in
animals. Dubbed FreemoVR, the arena is a
cylindrical space in which the floor and
wraparound wall are made from flexible
computer displays. Animals placed into the
environment can be monitored by
overhead cameras and sensors that track
their movement and behaviour around the
3D space. In the Star Trek series, the
holodeck was used as a training platform, or as a recreational space, where officers
immersed themselves in nature. However, the new arena at University of Freiburg in
Germany will be used as a controlled setting for examining animal perceptions and
behaviour. The principal benefit of the FreemoVR system is that the device allows
animals to move about freely within the environment. PTI
Eton Deputy quit after being found guilty of breaching exam
security by leaking confidential information
Headmaster before a paper whose result has now been annulled.
Mo Tanweer, head of economics and deputy
Quits over headmaster of academics at the posh school whose
alumni include Princes William, Harry and many Dilbert by S Adams
Exam Leak British prime ministers, left after an investigation
by the Cambridge International Examinations
Board (CIE), The Telegraph reported. The
embarrassing disclosure emerged after a letter was
circulated to Eton students informing them about
Tanweer leaving the school, and that a number of
students marks for an economics paper voided due
to a breach of exam security. The letter, dated
August 3, confirmed that the CIE, an exam board
which administers international GCSE, A-level and
equivalent qualifications, had found that Tanweer
had shared confidential information and practice
questions which had then been shared with pupils
ahead of their exam. PTI
 https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS

14  Companies: Pursuit of Profit THE ECONOMIC TIMES | NEW DELHI / GURGAON | MONDAY | 28 AUGUST 2017 *

CHANGE IN TRACK With Canadas largest pension fund pulling out, the Kotak Mahindra Group will go it alone for investing in Indian
stressed assets. The $525-million fund announced in 2016 will be closed down as it failed to find the targeted investments

CPPIB to End Kotak JV Plan for Stressed Assets

tar Investment Authority to buy year, Piramal Group floated the In response to an email query, a
Baiju Kalesh & Sneha Shah stressed assets from NCLT. largest $1 billion distressed fund CPPIB spokesperson said, We
Last year, in a joint press relea- The Break-up WAY in joint venture with Bain Capi- have no comment on your story.

Remove Agri Mumbai: Canada's largest pen-

sion fund CPPIB will call off its
proposed joint venture with Ko-
tak Mahindra Group to invest in
se, CPPIB had said it had the abi-
lity to invest up to $450 million in
the fund that was to have initial
corpus of $525 million. This in-
MAR 2016
CPPIB & Kotak
AHEAD
Kotak to
approach
sovereign
tal and this fund is now in talks
with steel maker JSW Steel to
buy distressed Bhushan Steel.
JC Flowers tied up with Ambit
Kotak Mahindra Group spoke-
sperson did not respond to ETs
email till press time Sunday.
As stressed loans in banking

from Essential stressed assets in India. The

$525-million fund that was anno-
unced in March 2016 will be wo-
vestment will address the gro-
wing opportunity arising from
the current stress in Indian ban-
Mahindra Group
together launch
a distressed
wealth funds
and funds
from the
Holdings for a $100-million dis-
tressed assets fund.
Kotak Mahindra Group might
sector peak, distressed and spe-
cial situations funds see oppor-
tunity in it.
asset fund of

Commodities und up as it failed to find invest-

ments in stressed assets, said
two people with direct knowled-
ge of the development.
king and corporate sectors, and
has a flexible investment man-
date providing bespoke finan-
cing solutions, in addition to in-
$525 m
MAR 2017 REASON
Middle East choose to approach the middle
eastern funds and go ahead with
its plans to launch the fund.
CPPIB may commit capital on a
A June 2017 report by global in-
vestment bank Credit Suisse tit-
led India Corporate Health
Tracker, co-authored by Ashish

Act: Niti Aayog Kotak Group will now go alone

Yogima.Sharma@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: Premier think-tank NITI Aay-
og has pitched for completely removing ag-
riculture commodities from the Essential
Commodities Act, and a shift towards or-
ganised trading wherein lower number of
traders with enough capital will dominate
the market. This will reduce handling
costs, bring economies of scale, reduce pri-
ces and increase returns for farmers.
The idea has been discussed at the hig-
hest level of the government and the Cent-
re is likely to reach out to states for such an
enabling provision after full consultation
with the ministry of consumer affairs, a
senior government official told ET.
The Aayog is of the view that removing
with commitments from some
sovereign funds such as Abu
Dhabi Investment Authority
(ADIA) and Qatar Investment
Authority on a deal to deal basis.
Both ADIA and Qatar Invest-
ment Authority are investors in
some of the funds of Kotak.
Our venture with CPPIB will
end by August, a person with di-
rect knowledge of the develop-
ment said. We will now invest
from our proprietary book while
also looking to join hands with
our investors like ADIA and Qa-
Chandigarh Airport to
vesting in stressed asset sales by
banks with the aim to restructu-
re, recover and turnaround com-
panies in distress, the company
had said at that point of time.
For CPPIB that changed track
by choosing to directly invest in
the Indian market after being an
investor in PE funds as investors
who in industry parlance are cal-
led Limited Partners or LPs, , a
stressed asset fund was part of
the larger India specific strate-
gy. The company claimed the
new fund was a step in CPPIBs
strategy to build a diversified
CPPIB was
to commit
JV is called off
internally, CPPIB
may invest on a
$450 m deal-by-deal basis
credit business and will add to
its direct credit investment ca-
pabilities in India.
The 'patient capital' that was
committed to the Phoenix ARC,
the arm of Kotak Mahindra Gro-
up, aimed to capitalize on the
stressed assets market.
A number of funds have been
launched to invest in or acquire
Couldnt find stressed
assets in time & many
future opportunities to
invest alone
stressed assets in India as bad lo-
ans at banks mount and debt-la-
den companies seek to generate
liquidity by selling assets. In Fe-
bruary 2017, IL&FS teamed up
with global PE fund Lone Star
Funds to create a $550 million
stressed assets fund to buy stres-
sed Indian assets from the ban-
king system of $2.5 billion. Last
SUITS & SAYINGS
deal by deal basis in such a sce-
nario," said another person with
knowledge of the development
Gupta and Kush Shah, pegs total
stressed assets with banks in the
fourth quarter of 2016-17 at `. 14.5
said. The alternate assets mana- trillion, or `. 14.5 lakh crore,
gement business of the Kotak which is marginally less than
Mahindra group, set up in 2005, the `. 14.8-lakh crore figure from
has raised around $2.49 billion the December 2016 quarter.
across different asset classes in- The report says that in the last
cluding private equity funds, re- few years, Indian banks have
al estate funds, infrastructure written off loans worth `. 2.3 lakh
funds and the special situations crore already. Infrastructure,
credit fund. ICICI and Aion Capi- power, utilities, telecom and ste-
tal also teamed up to raise a $825 el sectors contribute the most
million fund in 2014 but has not stressed assets with a combined
been able to deploy much in the total of around `. 6.5 lakh crore of
last three years. bad loans.
ETs weekly roundup of the wackiest
whispers and murmurs in corporate
corridors and policy parlours

Reduce Ops from Oct 3

stock restrictions from agriculture com-
modities will lead to organised trading,
improve scale and logis-
tics benefit and bring abo- Moriya Maange More
Think-tank a ut more capital into trade and flights, the federation said. Inter- If you thought all roads lead to Lalbaug Cha Raja during
shift towards
organised
with handful of big tra-
ders competing with each
Airlines oppose move national and domestic passenger traf-
fic at Chandigarh increased 42% to
Ganesh Chaturthi, you would be mistaken. If you want high-
powered congregations, you need to be seen either at the
trading, with
less number
other, the official said on
condition of anonymity as
for upgrade, saying they 216,694 in June, according to data on
Airports Authority of India website.
Ambanis Antilia or next door, at mantri Piyush Goyals. We
spotted Kumar Birla and Ajay Piramal hobnobbing with
of traders
with enough
the idea is still being wor- didnt get adequate The federation suggested Chandi- Supriya Sule and family; bankers Rana Kapoor, Pramit
ked out with ministry of garh follow the model adopted at Am- Jhaveri mingle with Nikhil Meswani, Amitabh Jhunjhunwala,
capital will consumer affairs. advance notice ritsar airport, where runway work Manish Kejriwal and Jalaj Dani and Mrs and Mr Sanjay Reddy
dominate the The other argument in fa- was carried out between 8 pm and 5:30 at the Ambanis. Birla, Dilip Shanghvi, Vijay Sheth, Shaina NC
ARINDAM

market vour of the Aayogs propo-
sal is that with frequent
changes in rules and stock limits, traders
have no reason to invest in better storage
infrastructure. Also, stock limits curtail
the functioning of food processing indu-
stries which need to maintain large stocks
of underlying commodity to run their ope-
rations smoothly. In such a situation, lar-
ge scale private investments are unlikely
to flow into food processing and cold stora-
ge facilities which are essential for ensu-
ring framers get better remuneration for
their crops, the official explained.
Ministry of consumer affairs, which is re-
sponsible for implementing the legislation,
argued that lesser number of traders will
lead to price manipulation as they would be
tempted to hoard and black marketeer.
The idea is good but two policies cannot
co-exist, meaning there cannot be simulta-
neous MSP for agri products if we want to
remove them from the Essential Commo-
dities Act," DK Pant of India Ratings said.
MihirMishra@timesgreoup.com
New Delhi: Chandigarh airport will
curtail daily flight operation timings
starting October 3 for upgrade and re-
pairs, a move opposed by airlines,
which said they didnt get adequate ad-
vance notice. The airport will stop
functioning from 3 pm to 5 am daily,
airline executives said.
The Federation of Indian Airlines op-
posed the plan and asked the Indian
Air Force, which owns the airport, to
shift renovation timings to night to mi-
nimise impact. Runway work will re-
sult in restricted operating hours, the
federation said in a letter earlier this
month. Airlines had planned to incre-
ase daily flights from 74 to 84 in the
winter schedule and closure every af-
ternoon will affect 28 flights, it said.
Reduction in operation timings will
lead to a 35-40% drop in passengers
am for a year, without affecting sche-
duled operations. Airlines sought at le-
ast six months advance notice regar-
ding such closures and/or closure at
Chandigarh from 10 pm to
5 am so as to minimise im-
pact on operations, accor-
ding to the letter.
This is not the first time
airlines have objected to restriction of
operations at defence-owned airfields
that are also used for commercial pur-
poses. Airlines said the country is ree-
ling under infrastructure deficit and
defence airfields add to the burden.
Defence airfields are not available
for commercial operations throughout
the day because defence forces need it
for their practice. Such restrictions on-
ly complicate the problems further,
which can be overcome by building go-
vernment civil infrastructure in these
cities, said an airline executive, who
did not want to be identified.
Board Games
Will the Infy board soon see some new faces? A little bird tells us
that some of the founding fathers really admire two academic
heavyweights who had deep associations with the tech bellwether.
Some even want them back, along with a leading banker known for
his tough talking and gumption. We will keep you updated.
Speedy Recovery
Hes known for building ground-breaking projects and a passion
for golf. But we were sad to hear he has been keeping unwell. Our
best wishes go out to the septuagenarian billionaire who, we hear,
is recovering overseas. We hope to see his usual garrulous self
back in months. He would be needed now than ever before.
Like A Rolling Stone
Word coming in from Mint Street two more heavyweights from
top European banks have decided to move on. Officially, we are
told this is due to global realignments. While one will be pursuing
his PhD, we are not sure what the other has in mind. Veteran that he
is, he may want to do what veterans do these days join a PE fund
and move to the other side of the negotiation table.
Privy to the whispers in power corridors or juicy tips on India Inc?
Do share with us at etsuits.sayings@gmail.com
and others were also seen with the Goyal family at their
Napean Sea Road residence. The Bollywood brigade was
there too at the Ambanis Big B and family, Salman Khan
and Rekha, among others, trooped in to pay their respects.
This was a contrast to the rather private, as always,
ceremony at Ratan Tatas beachfront Colaba bungalow.
In The Crossfire
The ongoing siege on the Chidambaram family may
soon see collateral damage in the investor
community. We all know some of Karti
Chidambarams investments have been under the
scanner of investigative agencies, with the
Enforcement Directorate raiding the homes and
offices of marquee PE and VC funds and their top
brass, last year. We now hear a top fund manager is
seriously contemplating quitting, to insulate his firm.
Bad Beat Jackpot
When it comes to high rolling in the newly-launched poker
league, millennial millionaires have been upping the stakes as
much as scions of business families. But, we now hear, its
creating some unwanted repercussions, especially for those
involved in the financial sector. One of the team owners, we
hear, has taken a severe knock to his bottomline ever since it
became public that he is a team owner. Some of his clients have
not taken too kindly to his passion, perhaps worrying that he
may mix his business with pleasure and gamble all their
investments away. Thats a bad beat, brother.

MakeMyTrip Targets DLF Expects RENTAL ARM STAKE SALE

SME Corporate Travel to Close GIC

Instead of reaching out to
cos directly, MMT will tap
Deal by Nov
existing users to propagate Promoters may infuse
MyBusiness in their firms funds into co by yr end
Kailash.Babar@timesgroup.com
Anumeha.Chaturvedi@timesgroup.com
Mumbai: Realty developer DLF ex-
New Delhi: Nasdaq listed MakeMyTrip, pects the transaction to sell 33.34%
India's biggest online travel agency (OTA) stake in its rental arm DLF Cyber
is entering the growing corporate travel City Developers (DCCDL) for $1.39
segment with a new product called MMT billion to Singapore sovereign fund
MyBusiness. The new business is aimed GIC to be concluded by November,
ARINDAM

at capturing the majority of the SME cor- including funds inflow to the pro-
porate travel segment in the country. moter family. The listed company is
Rajesh Magow, cofounder and CEO of expected to see promoters infusing
MakeMyTrip told ET MyBusiness will this money, net of taxes, into the
work on the lines of Uber for business and unced it acquired corporate travel servi- company by December end for its
will work as a self-booking tool that emp- ces provider Air Travel Bureau to streng- proposed debt reduction plan.
loyees can use from the same MakeMyT- then its position in the corporate travel We are looking at a target of 30-45
rip app for their business travel needs. segment. Magow said while MakeMyTrip days from closure of deal between
He said instead of reaching out to com- is not looking at acquisitions in the corpo- GIC and our promoters to get mo-
panies directly, the company is tapping its rate travel space for now, it has an aggres- ney into DLF for debt reduction. We
existing MakeMyTrip active users for sive plan in place to tap into the fast-gro- expect funds to come by end of this
MyBusiness to propagate it in their com- wing business travel market by moving calendar year, DLF group CFO As-
panies and amongst their officals. complex offline processes to a convenient hok Tyagi told ET.
MakeMyTrip will focus on SMEs for gro- and efficient online booking experience. Receipt of all regulatory appro-
wing the segment and around 2,500 SMEs Magow said MyBusiness will also be vals, including the Competition
have already expressed interest in adop- helpful under GST as it will facilitate the Commission of Indias
ting the product that offers flight and ho- process for companies to claim GST cre- nod for the deal, is lik-
tel bookings for business needs, he said. dits in a more transparent manner. Make- ely to be secured by mid
MakeMyTrip believes the new corpora- MyTrip will pass GST details of the com- to end October, DLF sa-
te wallet on MyBusiness will help compa- pany to the hotelier. When the hotel crea- id in an investor pre-
nies reduce payment inefficiencies, liabi- tes the bill, these will be incorporated in sentation filed on the BSE on Sun-
lities and potential corporate card abuse the invoice, ensuring that tax charged on day. Gross proceeds to the promo-
and that it will provide employees and the invoice will be uploaded against the ters from the transaction would be
companies greater flexibility. MyBusi- companys GST account. Companies will `. 11,900 crore, while the net proceeds
ness would be supported via corporate also be able to claim GST benefits against are estimated to be over `. 10,000 cro-
helpdesks which will be operational 24x7. convenience fee charged by MakeMyTrip. re, post applicable taxes.
Rising corporate travel has led services It will provide free cancellation and mo- DLFs consolidated net debt is abo-
providers to take a greater interest in the difications in flights and hotel bookings ut `. 26,000 crore, of which `. 5,500 cro-
segment. In July, India's second largest for employees alongside complimentary re is attributable to DCCDL. DCCDL
online travel operator Yatra Online anno- in flight meals and seat selection. will also buy back `3,000 crore of
preference shares held by promo-
ters in two tranches, taking total
money accruing to DLF's promo-
Hotels to Be 75% of Biz by 2020 ters to `11,900 crore. This entire
amount, after paying requisite tax-
New Delhi: MakeMyTrip has said it is looking at hotels to contribute es, will be ploughed by promoters
around 75% of its overall business by 2020 going forward. The compa- into DLF Ltd as equity, and will be
ny is also upbeat on smooth integration it has undertaken with ibibo used to reduce the developer's debt.
group post merger. Hotel is currently 57% of our business. By 2020, The 6.66% stake to be bought back
75% of our total business will come from hotels. We are very bullish about the by DCCDL will be extinguished.
future, said MakeMyTrip founder Deep Kalra. The company at present has The first buyback tranche will be
over 45,000 hotels in India on its platform, he added. Air business has now worth `. 1,600 crore and will be con-
come down to around 35% and up to 10% is holiday packages and cars. Now, the cluded concurrently with closing of
company also has bus too, Kalra said. PTI the deal. The second tranche of
`. 1,400 crore will be after 12 months.
 https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone
16 Companies: Pursuit of Profit
Higher Airport Charges, Taxes
Shackle Industry: Naresh Goyal
Mumbai: Raising the issue of
increasing airport charges and
levies along with high taxa-
tion, Jet Airways chairman
Naresh Goyal has said such fac-
tors continue to shackle the
airline industry.
Goyal, in the airlines annual
report for 2016-17, sent to the
shareholders ahead of the com-
panys AGM next month, said
the existing airport infrastruc-
ture has not been able to match
with the rapid growth in pas-
senger volumes and aircraft
movement. He, however, main-
tained that the domestic avia-
tion sector remains robust.
For aviation to truly realise its
potential, several areas must be
addressed. Escalating airport
levies, surcharges and high
taxation continue to shackle
the industry, he said. PTI
RIL, BP to Use Floating System
at Deepest Gas Discovery
Press Trust of India
New Delhi: Reliance Industries and
its partner BP plc of the UK plan to
use a floating production system at
high-sea in the Bay of Bengal to bring
to production the deepest gas disco-
very in the flagging KG-D6 block.
The MJ-1 gas find is located about
2,000 metres directly below the cur-
rently producing Dhirubhai-1 and 3
(D1 and D3) fields in the eastern off-
shore KG-D6 block and is estimated to
hold a minimum of 0.988 Trillion cu-
bic feet (Tcf) of contingent resource.
An executive in the joint venture
said floating production storage and
offloading (FPSO) will be used to
bring the gas to the surface, treat it
and pump it to the pipeline system
that will take it to the shore.
In May 2013, RIL, BP and Niko Reso-
urces of Canada had struck a 155-
metres thick gas condensate co-
lumn in the exploration well KGD6-
MJ1, which was later named as D55
or MJ-1 discovery.
MJ-1 is one of the three clusters
that the partners are focusing on re-
viving the flagging output at KG-D6.
The commerciality of the disco-
very was approved in December last
year and we have one year time from
that date to submit an investment
plan called the field development
plan (FDP). If need be, the deadline
can be extended by six months. So
we have time till mid-2018 to firm up
investment, he said.
THE ECONOMIC TIMES | NEW DELHI / GURGAON | MONDAY | 28 AUGUST 2017
Oppo, Vivo Plan to Move
Cloud Storage to India
Another co calls off talks to have bundled apps on handset after govt order
Gulveen.Aulakh
@timesgroup.com
New Delhi: Chinese smartphone
makers Oppo and Vivo plan to mo-
ve their cloud service locations to
India, while an up and coming
brand from the Asian country has
called off talks with developers of
apps to be pre-loaded on its devices
after the Indian government asked
handset companies to share their
customer data security protocols.
According to senior industry ex-
ecutives, some domestic device
vendors are also seeking clarity
from pre-loaded app developers
about security features to protect
user data after the IT ministry re-
cently ordered almost 30 smartp-
hone makers mostly Chinese to
share their information security
protocols by August 28.
Oppo and Vivo have their cloud
outside India, which is usually
outsourced to enterprise cloud
service and data server providers
like Amazon. They are now asking
them to change the location of the-
se clouds to Indian territory, said
a senior executive, asking not to
be identified.
https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS
Right Call
Moving cloud services will be rst
step for handset cos, say experts
Cos will have to take more
measures in line with govts
focus on data security
Home-grown cos also seeking
clarity from pre-loaded apps
about security features used to
protect user data
Experts said regulation must
address if data will leave India
for processing, analytics
Amazon Web Services and Mi-
crosoft Azure are the leading clo-
ud and server providers and both
have a presence in India. The com-
panies did not respond to queries
about whether Chinese, multina-
tional or Indian handset makers
had discussed shifting of their re-
mote data-storage locations.
Vivo and Oppo, which are No. 3 and
No. 4 in India by market share, decli-
ned to comment.
A relatively new Chinese entrant,
which has soared up the handset
market ranks, has halted talks with
app developers after getting the go-
vernment order. Its CEO said while
the companys servers and cloud sto-
rage were local, it wants to ensure
compliance with any upcoming go-
vernment rules before entering into
agreements with app developers.
A leading Indian handset brand
with servers in the country has as-
ked developers of apps that were
being pre-bundled on some of its
devices to share their user infor-
mation protection protocols.
We have asked them internally,
so we can tell the government, a
senior executive of the company
said, asking not to be identified.
Cyber security experts said mo-
ving cloud services to India would
only be the first step that compani-
es would have to take considering
that the governments long-term
view is to keep data of mobile pho-
ne users within the country.
If companies are moving their
cloud-based data to India, its fine
as that is the first level where data
is stored and it can be easily ac-
complished. But the more impor-
tant aspect to address is whether
data would leave India at any point
for processing, analytics, etc., sa-
id Amit Jaju, partner, cyber foren-
sics and data analytics, at EY.
Keep
Airfares
in Check
Mumbai: Aviation re-
gulator DGCA on Sun-
day asked airlines to ke-
ep ticket prices in
check on flights to
Chandigarh, Amritsar
and Jaipur after noti-
cing that passengers
were being charged
high fares in the wake of
disruption in road and
rail transport services
in Haryana and Punjab.
While some airlines ha-
ve been allowed to opera-
te additional services to
Chandigarh, Amritsar
and Jaipur from Mum-
bai and New Delhi, Air
India has been asked to
explore an additional
flight to Jammu from
Delhi and back, a senior
DGCA official said.
According to the offici-
al, the fares for a two-
way flight to Amritsar
from Delhi were as high
as `19,800, while for a re-
turn flight to Chandi-
garh from Delhi, fares
were hovering between
`4,414 and `18,063. PTI
Tower Cos
Need Nod for
Generators,
Says NGT
New Delhi: Cellular
service providers need
to take consent from the
state pollution control
boards for installing
and operating generator
sets, the National Green
Tribunal has ruled.
A bench headed by
NGT chairperson Jus-
tice Swatanter Kumar
declined to quash the
order dated March 31,
2009 passed by Madhya
Pradesh Pollution Con-
trol Board (MPPCB).
We hold and declare
that the applicants/ap-
pellant are obliged to
take consent of the
MPPCB for installing
and operating diesel
generator sets in the
state under the provi-
sions of the Air (Pre-
vention and Control of
Pollution) Act, 1981,
the bench said. PTI
Green Nod for
Supertechs
Sports Village
Project
New Delhi: Realty
firm Supertech has re-
ceived green nod for de-
veloping a sports-cent-
ric housing project in
Greater Noida that wo-
uld entail an invest-
ment of `1,130 crore.
The proposed residen-
tial project 'Sports Vil-
lage' will be launched
during Diwali this year
and will be completed
in four years.
The 62-acre project
will be developed in
Sector 27 of Greater No-
ida (west), known as
Noida Extension.
The Union environ-
ment ministry has gi-
ven its clearance to the
proposed Sports Villa-
ge project after taking
into account the recom-
mendations of its ex-
pert panel, said the EC
letter issued to the com-
pany. PTI
 https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS

WWW.ECONOMICTIMES.COM
Companies: Pursuit of Profit  17
Q&A CLAUDE SMADJA
FORMER BOARD MEMBER,
Jio Feature Phone Pre-Booking
INFOSYS
Suspended on High Demand
Only Option Our Bureau

Mumbai: Reliance Industries (RIL) has su-

is effectively priced zero where customers
will be required to pay a one-time deposit of
`. 1,500 for the handset, to be refunded after

for Nilekani
three years on return of the handset.
spended the pre-booking of its newly laun- With voice free for life, a Jio
ched 4G VoLTE feature phone, Jio Phone, till Phone user will get unlimited
further notice after demand for the device SMS services and half a GB of
far exceeded the target of making available data a day for . 153 a month

is to Revamp
5 million phones a week.
The customers can, however, register the-
ir details but we are not taking any pre-boo-
king as of now, said a person familiar with
the matter. A message on Jios website
about one-thirtieth the price
of data in the market and ac-
Demand for cess to various Jio apps on mu-
the device far sic and movies among others,
exceeded the besides YouTube and Facebo-
target of

the Board
uploaded on Sunday reads that the custo- ok. There are also sachet op-
mers will be informed when the company re- making tions for recharges of smaller
available 5m
sumes pre-booking. amount for a shorter time.
phones a
RIL and Reliance Jio Infocomm didnt re- week Through the phone, Jio is tar-
spond to an email seeking comment. geting 500 million Indians who
Claude Smadja has seen Infosys go through several transformations The Mukesh Ambani-led firm had also of- are still on feature, or basic, phones using pri-
for over a decade as a board member of the company. The former fered customers the option of booking the marily voice services and havent moved to a
managing director of the World Economic Forum was on the board of device through the offline channels through smartphone due to affordability or because
Jio retailers and multi-brand device retai- they dont really feel they need one.
Infosys between 2001and 2010. In an interview with ETs TV Maha-
lers, including the Reliance Digital stores
lingam, Switzerland-based Smadja, who runs his own strategic network. Sources say pre-booking has stop-
advisory firm, spoke about the problems Infosys faces, how things ped across those
could have been handled differently, and the way ahead for the offline outlets as
company. Edited excerpts: well.
What was your experience Jio Phone boo-
kings with a `. 500
on the Infosys board? Whats
advance had cros-
your take on the happenings sed the 3 million
at Infosys? mark within a co-
There was this extreme atten- uple of hours of
tion for every single aspect of opening on Au-
compliance in terms of corpo- gust 24.
rate governance. On many
The device,
which was unvei-
occasions, some of us as in- led at the Reliance
dependent non-executive Industries AGM,
directors made a number of
suggestions to improve some
elements of corporate gover-
nance and expand a few prac-
tices. And every time, the
decisions were welcomed and
followed.
Amongst the founders there
was this notion that Infosys
had to be whiter than white in
terms of corporate governance.
And, of course, the founders
TRUE CONCERN left the board and a new mana-
gement took over. My observa-
My observations tions while talking to certain
while talking to people during my regular visits
to India was that Murthy and
certain people... was not just Murthy had genuine
concerns that corporate gover-
that Murthy and not nance was not as tight. Rightly
just Murthy had or wrongly, the whole issue of
the departure of two top
genuine concerns that executives in conditions that

corporate governance are not fully clarified created a

feeling that some alarm bells
was not as tight had to be rung. For reasons
which might have been purely
psychological but I wouldnt speculate on that the board might not
have been fully responsive to the concerns that were expressed, and
then we had this kind of escalation between the board and Murthy.
When the board took on Murthy for Vishal Sikkas resignation, I
thought it was a bit unfair. At least to my knowledge, in all his public
pronouncements Murthy had criticised the board on corporate
governance, but I have not seen any public statement from Murthy
criticising Sikka. At the same time, I understand that Sikka felt more
and more in a difficult situation. The deadlock which was created and
the lack of good accommodation between the board and the group of
founders led to a situation which really threatened the sustainability
of Infosys. In a way, it was not possible for the board to continue
functioning. The solution proposed that Sikka would resign as CEO but
remain as executive vice-chairman was not optimum, creating new
uncertainties, with the company functioning for seven months with a
besieged board and a CEO whom all knew would be leaving by March.
The appointment of Nandan Nilekani in the current situation is the
best possible solution: he's respected inside and outside the compa-
ny, and he has the stature of a global business leader.

Is the letter from the board criticizing Murthy an error?

It was a big error. Because when you had, for instance, the documents
exonerating the conditions of the departure of the two executivesthe
refusal of the board to publish even some edited elements of the
report. May be, there was no specific reason and it was a psychological
reaction I'm not saying there was anything to hide but it was a mista-
ke. It was the moment when may be an accommodation with the help
of a third party could have stopped the situation from deteriorating.

Some board members have quit. What will happen now?

The only option for Nandan is to revamp the board. Maybe, he
will want to keep some members off the board, but the logical
step in this difficult situation is to have a board with whom he
can work in full confidence. This, of course, doesn't mean Nan-
dan would want a rubber stamp board; he'd want a board where
the discussions will not be clouded with any kind of legacy.

The founders tried to let go of board control completely but

that hasn't worked. Should they go for an insider as CEO?
With respect to the selection of CEO, there should be an open,
360-degree approach looking for the next CEO. Whether it is an
outsider or somebody who has been in Infosys, the important
questions are what kind of profile do you expect, what kind of
experience you want, what kind of capabilities you are looking
for and what kind of stature would you expect. I would not look
at this question as an insider or outsider.

Nilekani Must Stay at Infosys

for 2-3 Years: Balakrishnan
New Delhi: Infosys ex-
CFO V Balakrishnan
has said new chairman
Nandan Nilekani should
continue his stint for 2-3
years to chart out a pro-
per succession plan and
ensure that efforts of the
company to be professio-
nally-managed do not
fail again.
Balakrishnan, one of
the most vocal critics
flagging alleged erosion
in corporate governance
standards at Infosys, al-
so stuck to his demand
that co-chair-turned- in-
dependent director Ravi
Venkatesan step down.
...it was a big experi-
ment that happened in
2014 with professional
board handling the com-
pany, CEO replacing fo-
unders but because the
board has not functio-
ned well, that experi-
ment failed. The experi-
ment should not fail aga-
in, he said.
He added Nilekani sho-
uld focus on getting a go-
od chairman to ensure
the board is in safe
hands. For 2-3 years he
should be there because
he has several things to
do... Board recast, get a
CEO, handhold him for
sometime and create
succession plan for cha-
irman post. The (earlier)
board was weak, it was
not able to communicate
well... the board was a
big let-down.
...the first priority for
him should be to recast
the Board because wha-
tever happened in the
past, the position of so-
me of the board mem-
bers is untenable, like
(that of) Ravi, Balak-
rishnan said. PTI
 https://telegram.me/TheHindu_Zone https://telegram.me/PDF4EXAMS

18  Sports: The Great Games THE ECONOMIC TIMES | NEW DELHI / GURGAON | MONDAY | 28 AUGUST 2017

WATCH OUT, WORLD

Indian badminton has PV Sindhu in
Mystery Unresolved
Akila Dananjaya shows
what India is missing in its
spin arsenal
Akila
Dananjaya
-AFP

action against
been on the rise for Japans Nozomi Chetan Narula, Pallekele
Okuhara during
many years now, but their womens
singles final This week has been a party for Akila
this bunch looks good at the World
Championships
Dananjaya. He got married on Wednesday
and then brought the celebration to
to dominate the next -Reuters Pallekele the very next day. Sample this:
18th over, he rocked Indias formidable
middle order within five balls three goog-
Olympics lies, three wickets.
Overall, that spell read 6 wickets, 11 runs,
21 balls. The mid-week crowd at Pallekele
had overcome the Sri Lankan line-ups
frailty with the bat, and even though the
stadium was not jam packed, the grass
banks were brimming to capacity. The
music soared with every wicket, and they
Boria Majumdar were dancing, with beer flowing freely. It
was a party all right.
SINDHU SETTLES

I
Wedding was in the afternoon. When
t was a month after the Rio Games FOR SILVER I got back to the team hotel it was around His arrival is a shot in the arm for
and PV Sindhu was the toast of the PV Sindhu 19 22 20 11:30 in the night. I wanted to reach earlier Lankan cricket as they plan for the depar-
nation. The first Indian woman to than that but it took a little longer. The wed- ture of Herath. Sure, they have got left-arm
win an individual silver medal at N Okuhara 21 20 22 ding was at Moratuwa. Finished around spinner Malinda Pushpakumara who is a
the summer Olympics, she had res- 4pm and we were bit late when we came, prolific wicket-taker in domestic cricket,
cued the contingent from ignominy at Rio. said Dananjaya after picking 6-54, his maid- but what Sri Lanka craves is a bowler with
Endorsements poured in and cash awards en five-wicket haul in his fourth ODI. some element of mystique, whether in
wouldnt stop. Life had changed. He wasnt happy with the outcome bowling action or variations.
Or had it? I went to Hyderabad to see it tossed her way. Reaching out to the shut- over the local favourite Kirsty Gilmour. falling by the wayside in the QF, there was a of the game though. MS Dhoni and While there may be a sufficiently wide
for myself. Will Sindhu be seen practis- tle wasnt an issue and recovery a natural Though she had to settle for bronze, it was sense of gloom in the Indian camp. Sindhu Bhuvneshwar Kumar were in no mood gulf in quality between the two sides, it is
ing at P Gopichands academy at 6 am, her corollary. With Gopi in her corner, every a performance that had never say never stepped up. With Saina losing steam after to offer a wedding gift, not on the field at also a fact that Indian cricket is currently
ritual for years? Was the hunger the same moment of uncertainty has an answer sit- written all over. With the Commonwealth three hard fought games, it was heart- least. It was a peculiar strategy though, struggling in terms of
or had the silver dimmed the fire? I must ting just behind her. For 14 years he has an- and Asian games less than a year away, the break. Sindhu was soon there as balm. taking the mystery spinner off the attack Kuldeep its spin wares, particu-
say I wouldnt have faulted her for being swered every question she has posed and is return of Saina is huge for Indian sport. In Rio every jump smash that fetched a after he had bowled eight overs and left Yadav is as larly in limited-overs
late. Rio was still fresh and, in a way, she now more alter ego than coach. K id a mbi Sr i k a nt h point was followed by a carnal scream. It India reeling. It allowed Kumar to settle close as it games. If the Champions
deserved special treatment. If there is anything called the perfect Apart from too was in good shape. was her way of reinventing herself. Being down and build that partnership, and in a comes to T r ophy i s a ny t h i n g
But there she was. 6.30 am and ready to match, Sindhu played it in the semi-final Sindhu, He may have left it a aggressive and giving out a message. In way, it was representative of the inexperi- Dananjaya for to go by, a lack of poor
go. Ready to follow Gopis every instruc- against Chen Yufei. Every little mistake Sainas tad too late against the Glasgow, however, we have a different ence of this Lankan side. India with his fielding fitness isnt the
tion and sweat it out for hours. And when was followed up with multiple winners and continuing Korean world No 1, hav- Sindhu. She doesnt really need to scream. Even so, this is more about the spark that unorthodox only serious take-away
I asked her if life had changed, she said: every point lost resulted in a silent self ad- return from ing played a couple of It isnt her style. She doesnt have to meas- Dananjaya has provided than the state of left-arm leg- from that World Cup
Life surely has changed. PV Sindhu monition. A scowl was all she would give injury and lose shots in the second ure up to opponents. Rather, it is the other affairs with Sri Lankan cricket. While spin dry run. The pairing of
hasnt. away and it was back to the resolve of win- Srikanths game that cost him the way round. Every woman on the other side this whole tour has been a one-sided af- R Ashwin and Ravindra
She has matured since Rio and has learnt ning the next point. rising stock match, but his fitness of the net knows they are playing Pusarla fair, it has seen spurts of resistance, defi- Jadeja picked 5 wickets between them in 8
to deal with pressure much better. Almost Life has changed but Sindhu hasnt. And are all positive and tenacity are both Venkata Sindhu, badmintons hottest ance even, from a select few. Kusal Mendis matches during that tournament.
down and out in the pre-quarterfinals, the final was no different. All guts and fight- signs proven. He is right up property and one of the most improved is one, and Niroshan Dickwella another. More than that though, underlined
her big match temperament saved her. back. Unfortunately she lost a close match among the worlds best players on the circuit. And while a lot of people hope that Mendis by the stunning loss to Sri Lanka in the
She knew she could take it deep and win dictated by great shows of endurance. and could well be Indias lead medal pros- Indians from across Scotland queued up will follow in the footsteps of Kumar group game at the Oval, it was prominent
the moments that mattered. In addition Overall it has been a fantastic World pect come the Tokyo Games in 2020. With all week to see her play. Cheer for her and Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, that Ashwin-Jadeja is a defensive pairing.
she has the fitness to turn up day in and Championship for India. Very few had B Sai Praneeth also doing well and beating celebrate her. Live the dream with her and this island nation has given us more than Both of them look to contain, particularly
day out. expected Saina Nehwal, back from injury higher-ranked opponents regularly, Indian soak in her ecstasy. And in doing so have splendid batsmen. in batsmen-friendly conditions, and in the
Sun Yu was no match with Sindhu mov- and still feeling the after effects of sur- badminton has rarely had it as good. proven that Indian badminton has indeed It is the mystery spinner that has been middle overs it is not sufficient to reign in
ing around the court like a supernatural gery, to beat the Korean world No 2 and In sport it is winner takes all and thats changed. But as Sindhu keeps reminding the true gift of Sri Lanka to world cricket. scoring. It is why the team management
athlete, retrieving every bird Sun Yu follow it up with a hard fought 3-set win where Sindhu stands out. With Srikkanth us all, she hasnt. This is the land of Muttiah Muralitharan has looked at different spin options since
and Ajantha Mendis, and they are search- then, while affording rest to both Ashwin
VITALS ing for the next wonder bowler nay,
spinner to come forth. With his game,
and Jadeja.
Kuldeep Yadav is as close as it comes to
India Win U-15 SAFF Championship Dananjaya has possibly fuelled a lot of Dananjaya for India with his unorthodox
Hamilton Wins in Belgium, Trims Lead hopeful fires.
I am an off-spinner, but to take wickets, I
left-arm leg-spin.
Lewis Hamilton completed his 200th Lalrokima (58) and Vikram (74)
Getty Images struck in the second half to guide rely on leg-spin and googlies, he had said
Grand Prix in victorious style on
India to SAFF U-15 Championship post-match. It is a pointer to why Mendis SCORECARD
Sunday when he claimed a much- and Rangana Herath were the witnesses
title win as the visitors edged past INDIA WIN SERIES 3-0
needed win for Mercedes to trim at his wedding ceremony, for he looks up
Sebastian Vettels championship lead to hosts Nepal 2-1 in the final. The SRI LANKA - 217/9 INDIA - 218/4
India team, which had players to both for motivation.
seven points. Another victory in next
Sundays Italian GP could give him the from AIFFs Regional Academy,
PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETORS, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. by Rajeev Yadav at Times House, 7, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New
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