APRIL 2021, Rs 50

APRIL 2021, Rs 50

EDITORAMIT BRAHMABHATT

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Editor: Amit Brahmabhatt

Volume XVI, No 10Issue date April 1-30, 2021Released on April 1, 2021

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CONTENTS

YOUR GATEWAY TO INDIA INC.

INDIA BUSINESS JOURNAL APRIL 2021 3www.indiabusinessjournal.com

FIRED UPA surge in demand andunprecedented price volatilitycall for an urgent need toaddress problems plaguingthe steel industry.

COVER STORY

22

Viewpoint ..........4COVID-19 second wave and economy

News Round-Up ..........6MiscellaneousFinancePSUCorporate

Insurance ........12

Management Mantra..........28

Oasis Of Pure Self-Indulgence :Beyond Yoga and meditation, thereis something for everyone –including fine dining, splendidnature, adventure sports and muchmore – visiting Rishikesh.

Global Wrap-Up ..........34A quick round-up of news andcurrent affairs across the world

Readers' Lounge ..........36Catch up with new book launches- Landscapes Of Loss- Hits & Misses- Hot Seat

Star Talk ..........38Forecast by GaneshaSpeaks

Knowledge Zone ..........40- Sandeep Kataria, CEO, Bata- Special Purpose Acquisition

Company- Spiritual Corner: Avoid Clashes

Hot Seat ..........42Mitu Mathur, Director,GPM Architects and Planners

A Booster Shot: A hike in FDI limitin insurance sector to 74 per centmay capitalise fund-starved insurersand boost India’s insurancepenetration rate.

Special Report ..........14Uttar Pradesh - India's Economic

Powerhouse: TheYogi Adityanathgovernment's far-reachingmeasures in thelast four years

transform Uttar Pradesh from anunderdeveloped hinterland of Indiato a throbbing hot spot of socio-economic development.

Real Estate ........18

The REIT Push: Real estateinvestment trusts have come as amuch-needed breather and a drivingforce for the battered Indian CREmarket.

“Right Time, Right Place & RightPeople lead to Winning Formula”:Sajeev Nair, Chairman & Founder,Vieroots Wellness Solutions

Travelogue ........30

A second wave of COVID-19 cases is rapidly sweeping across the country.India is witnessing a daily spurt of over 50,000 Coronavirus cases, even

as the country observed the first anniversary of the pandemic-triggeredlockdown last month. Maharashtra continues to lead the surge of the viraloutbreak, while Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and MadhyaPradesh have emerged as other worrying hot spots.

Rising number of COVID-19 infections has sent authorities in a few Statesin overdrive to contain the spread of the deadly virus. Partial restrictions andlockdowns also been announced in some districts and cities of Maharashtra.There are concerns that many other States could follow suit and imposelocalised lockdowns of a week or two. If cases continue to rise in comingweeks, the localised, short-term lockdowns could extend across States and fora longer period of time.

A story of hope and despair is unfolding as they take turns to outdo eachother across many sectors of the economy. Just as a set of macroeconomicnumbers point to a recovery in a particular month, there is another set of dataspreading the gloom of a downturn the very next month. Such a see-saw ofdata related to exports, imports, sale of automobiles and other consumer prod-ucts and factory output shows that the domestic economy is still not out ofthe woods.

Besides, high jobless rate, coupled with wage and salary cuts across sec-tors, has badly dented consumer confidence and battered the sale of goodsand services across segments. Moreover, the weak banking sector and plung-ing private sector investment have further weakened the fragile economicrecovery.

It is against this backdrop that the second wave of the viral pandemicprojects an alarming scenario. However, the reality is not as grim as it is madeout to be. First of all, the second surge of March 2021 is, in fact, a pale shadowof the viral outbreak of March 2020. A year ago, Coronavirus was an unknownenigma, which had created fear in India after having wreaked havoc acrossEurope and America. A year later, India has been fortunate to have limited thespread of the virus, to have achieved better recovery rate and to have wit-nessed a minuscule death rate.

Besides, there is a potent weapon of vaccines available across the world,including India. India has vaccinated almost 2.3 per cent of its population.Considering the pace at which the country is vaccinating its citizens, analystsestimate that 30 per cent of Indian population is likely to be inoculated by theend of this year.

Another silver lining is that even as COVID-19 cases multiply across thecountry at an alarming rate, the death rate is negligible. Medical experts notethat the new strain of the virus may be spreading infection rapidly, but it is aharmless strain, leading to quicker recovery and lower number of death.

This silver lining should become the guiding force of the authorities acrossthe country. The governments – both Central and State – should desist fromsending out alarming messages. They should also stay away from taking dras-tic steps like lockdowns, even as they should advocate pandemic-appropriatebehaviour, such as wearing mask, sanitisation and maintaining physical dis-tancing. But any overdrive beyond these measures into lockdowns and otherstrict curbs could end up emasculating the fragile economic recovery.

Time For Caution, But Not Panic

The governments – bothCentral and State – shoulddesist from taking drasticsteps like lockdowns, evenas they should advocatepandemic-appropriatebehaviour. But anyoverdrive beyond thismeasure into lockdownsand other strict curbs couldend up emasculating thefragile economic recovery.

VIEWPOINT

Resurgence of the pandemic andconsequent lockdowns pose a bigrisk to economic revival.

4 APRIL 2021 INDIA BUSINESS JOURNAL

NEWS ROUND-UPM

ISCELLA

NEO

US In the less-than-10-lakh

category, Shimla was rankedthe highest in ease of living,followed by Bhubaneshwar,Silvassa, Kakinada, Salem,Vellore and Gandhinagar,among others.

EPFO fixes 8.5% interestfor FY21 The Central Boardof Trustees (CBT) of theEmployees’ Provident FundOrganisation (EPFO) hasrecommended an 8.5 per centannual rate of interest to itsmembers’ accounts for 2020-21. A meeting of the CBTheld in Srinagar recentlydecided to send its proposalto the Union FinanceMinistry. The interest ratewould be officially notified inthe government gazette,following which the EPFOwould credit the rate ofinterest into the subscribers’accounts, the government’smedia release has said. Therelease has added that theEPFO has consistentlygenerated returns of not lessthan 8.50 per cent since2014-15.

Centre’s tax mop-up onfuels surges by 300% TheCentral government’s taxcollection on petrol anddiesel has jumped by over300 per cent in the last sixyears following the frequentand sharp hike in ExciseDuty on the two fuels in thepast one year. The Centralgovernment had collectedRs 29,279 crore from ExciseDuty on petrol andRs 42,881 crore on diesel in2014-15. The tax collectionon petrol and diesel rose toRs 2.94 lakh crore in the first10 months of the currentfinancial year (2020-21),according to Union Ministerof State for Finance AnuragSingh Thakur.

392 routes proposedunder UDAN 4.1 TheMinistry of Civil Aviation


MP tops in land recordsdigitalisation MadhyaPradesh, West Bengal,Odisha, Maharashtra andTamil Nadu have been rankedas top performers indigitalisation of land recordsby National Council ofApplied Economic Research(NCAER). The secondedition of NCAER LandRecord and Services Index(N-LRSI) 2021 reveals thatalmost all States and UnionTerritories (UTs) haveshown an improvement indigitising land recordscompared to the previousyear. Madhya Pradeshranked first for the secondtime in a row. West Bengalhas moved up by four ranks,from rank six to two. Odishaand Maharashtra have fallenby one rank each at third andfourth ranks respectively.

Bengaluru, Pune top Easeof Living Index Bengaluruemerged as the top city onthe government’s Ease ofLiving Index (EoLI) 2020

67 coal mines on offer in 2nd tranche of auction The gov-ernment has offered 67 coal mines for sale, launching the secondtranche of commercial coal mining auction. This is the highestnumber of mines on offer in a particular tranche after commence-ment of the auction regime in 2014. Of the total 67 mines offeredby the Union Coal Ministry, 23 are under Coal Mines (SpecialProvisions) Act and 44 under Mines and Minerals (Develop-ment and Regulation) Act. The blocks on offer are a mix of mineswith small and large reserves, coking and non-coking mines andfully- and partially-explored blocks spread across six States –Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtraand Andhra Pradesh.

that was released by Housingand Urban Affairs MinisterHardeep Singh Puri. Punewas second and Ahmedabadwas ranked third among 111cities. Mr Puri announced the

release of the final rankingsof EoLI 2020 in an onlineevent. The other cities thatfollowed were Chennai, Suratand Navi Mumbai withpopulation of over 10 lakh.

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Verbatim...has proposed about 392routes under UDAN 4.1bidding process, coincidingwith the Azadi Ka AmritMahotsav (India@75)launched by the Centralgovernment. The RegionalConnectivity Scheme (RCS)– Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik(UDAN) – is a flagshipscheme of the Ministry ofCivil Aviation envisaged tomake air travel affordable andwidespread in the country.Till date, 325 routes and 56airports, including fiveheliports and two wateraerodromes, have beenoperationalised under theUDAN scheme. The UDAN4.1 round is focused onconnecting smaller airports,along with special helicopterand seaplane routes.

New scheme for touristvehicle operators TheMinistry of Road Transportand Highways has announceda new scheme, under whichany tourist vehicle operatormay apply for an All IndiaTourist Authorisation/Permitthrough online mode. It willbe issued within 30 days ofsubmission of such applica-tions. The new set of rules,to be known as All IndiaTourist VehiclesAuthorisation and PermitRules, 2021, will be appli-cable from April 1, 2021. Allexisting permits shallcontinue to be in force duringtheir validity. The new rulesfor permits are expected togo a long way in promotingtourism across States.

Centre releases entireGST shortfall The UnionFinance Ministry has saidthat it has released the entireRs 1.10 lakh crore estimatedGST compensation shortfallto the States. With therelease of the 20th instal-ment, 100 per cent of thetotal estimated GSTcompensation shortfall of

Rs 1.10 lakh crore for theyear 2020-21 has now beenreleased to the States andUnion Territories (UTs) withLegislative Assembly. Ofthis, an amount ofRs 1,01,329 crore has beenreleased to the States and anamount of Rs 8,879 crore hasbeen released to the threeUTs with LegislativeAssembly, the ministryhas said.

India slips to 56th rank inhome price list India hasmoved down 13 spots in thelatest global home price indexto finish last at the 56th rankin the quarter ended Decem-ber 2020. India saw a declineof 3.6 per cent year-on-year(YoY) in home prices againstits 43rd rank in Q4 2019,leading to the drop in globalposition, according to KnightFrank’s Global House PriceIndex Q4 2020. Indianmarkets have finished last onthe table owing to conditionscreated by COVID-19. Theindex tracks movement inresidential prices across 56countries. Turkey continuesto lead the annual rankingswith prices up by 30.3 percent YoY.

Toll booths to be scrappedin a year Union Minister ofRoad Transport andHighways Nitin Gadkari hassaid that India will do awaywith toll booths within ayear and instead implementGlobal Positioning System(GPS)-based toll collection.Mr Gadkari said that allphysical toll booths in thecountry would be removedwithin a year. This will meanthat the collection of toll willhappen via GPS. The toll athighways will be collectedbased on GPS imaging onvehicles. The Union ministerhas added that 93 per cent ofvehicles paid toll usingFASTag.

“Our shareholdersare watching. They

expect India tohonour its obligations

and to quickly bringthis matter to a

conclusion. If Indiadoes not do that, andif India delays, then

our shareholdersexpect us to pursue

our strong powers ofenforcement which

we have to do.”Simon ThomsonSimon ThomsonSimon ThomsonSimon ThomsonSimon Thomson

CEO, CAIRN

“Infrastructure ofIndian Railways willnever be privatised.

However, the ministryplans to monetise its

assets in order togenerate resources to

boost growth.”

Piyush GoyalPiyush GoyalPiyush GoyalPiyush GoyalPiyush GoyalUNION RAILWAY MINISTER

“Crony lending is theelephant in the roomthat we have toacknowledge. Theboard of directorscannot be asleep atthe wheel even aszombie lending andever-greening ofloans go on.Compensation ofsenior management inbanks must becurtailed in suchinstances.”K V SubramanianK V SubramanianK V SubramanianK V SubramanianK V SubramanianCHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER

INDIA BUSINESS JOURNAL APRIL 2021 7

“Central bank’s digitalcurrency is one thing.The cryptocurrenciestraded in the marketare something else.We have flaggedcertain concernsaround thesecryptocurrencies tothe government.”Shaktikanta DasShaktikanta DasShaktikanta DasShaktikanta DasShaktikanta DasGOVERNOR, RBI

government and regulatorymeasures have helped theeconomy recover faster thanexpected, leading to a boostto bank credit growth. Bankcredit is expected to rise to 5per cent in FY21 despite thesharpest contraction in theeconomy since independence.In absolute terms, net creditrose to Rs 2.3 lakh crore inthe first nine months ofFY21. According to theCRISIL report, the economyis likely to grow at 11 percent in FY22.

Government proposeshike in LIC’s capital Thegovernment has proposed toincrease the authorisedcapital of Life InsuranceCorporation of India (LIC)significantly to Rs 25,000crore to facilitate its listing,slated for the next financialyear. Currently, the paid-upcapital of the life insurancecompany with over 29 crorepolicies is Rs 100 crore.Starting with an initial capitalof Rs 5 crore in 1956, LIChas an asset base ofRs 31,96,214.81 crore.

IDBI Bank out of PCAframework The RBI hasremoved IDBI Bank from itsenhanced regulatorysupervision or PromptCorrective Action (PCA)framework after a gap ofnearly four years onimproved financial perfor-mance. The RBI had placedIDBI Bank under the PCAframework in May 2017 afterit had breached the thresh-olds for capital adequacy,asset quality (net NPAs wereover 13 per cent in March2017), return on assets andthe leverage ratio. Theperformance of IDBI Bankwas recently reviewed by theBoard for Financial Supervi-sion (BFS). The bank hasprovided a written commit-ment that it will comply withall the norms.

Banks under PCA mayget Rs 14,500 crore TheUnion Finance Ministry islikely to infuse Rs 14,500crore mainly in the banksthat are under the RBI’sPrompt Corrective Action(PCA) framework to improvetheir financial health. IndianOverseas Bank, Central Bankof India and UCO Bank arecurrently under this frame-work. The PCA puts severalrestrictions on banks,including on lending,management compensationand directors’ fees. Thebiggest beneficiary of thisround of capital infusionwould be the banks that areunder the PCA, according tobanking sector analysts. Thegovernment had allocatedRs 20,000 crore for capitalinfusion into PSBs for meetingregulatory requirement.

Cabinet nod for DFI,Rs 20,000 cr capital TheUnion Cabinet has approveda Bill to set up a Develop-ment Finance Institution(DFI) to generate funds forinvestment in the infrastruc-ture sector, as the govern-ment moves to increasespending on roads, ports and

Compound interest waiver for all borrowers The SupremeCourt has ruled in favour of waiving compound interest, that is,interest on interest, during the six-month moratorium announcedby the RBI last year. The apex court said that banks would notcharge compound interest or penal interest on any amount dur-ing the moratorium period for all borrowers. The Supreme Courtfurther directed banks to credit or adjust the amount alreadycharged by them from borrowers. The top court’s ruling cameon a batch of pleas filed by business associations that had de-manded an extension of this benefit to borrowers who had se-cured loans beyond Rs 2 crore.

energy. The proposedlegislation will give effect tothe Union Budget announce-ment made by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanon February 1. The govern-ment has proposedRs 20,000 crore to capitalisethe institution. The DFIwould start with 100 percent govt ownership, and thegovernment’s stake would

gradually be brought down to26 per cent. The DFI aims atraising up to Rs 3 lakh crorein the next few years.

FY22 credit demand maydouble to 10% Bank creditis seen growing by around500 basis points to about 10per cent in FY22, accordingto a CRISIL report. Thereport adds that timely

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NEWS ROUND-UP

Matam Venkata Rao hastaken over as managingdirector and CEO of CentralBank of India. Prior tojoining the current assign-ment, Mr Rao was theexecutive director of CanaraBank for more than threeyears.

Vivek Wahi has assumedcharge of executive directorof Central Bank of India.Mr Wahi, a BTech graduatefrom NIT, Kurukshetra,was earlier general managerof Bank of India.

Rajeev Puri has joined as

APPOINTMENTS executive director of CentralBank of India. Prior to thispost, Mr Puri was chiefgeneral manager of PunjabNational Bank.

Nitesh Ranjan has assumedcharge as Union Bank ofIndia’s executive director.Prior to this appointment,Mr Ranjan was chief generalmanager of the Mumbai-headquartered bank.

A B Vijayakumar has joinedas executive director of Bankof Maharashtra. Beforetaking up this responsibility,Mr Vijayakumar was chiefvigilance officer of IndianOverseas Bank.

Imran Amin Siddiqui hastaken over as executivedirector of Indian Bank.Prior to this elevation,Mr Siddiqui was generalmanager of the Chennai-based lender.

S Srimathy has assumedcharge as executive directorof Indian Overseas Bank.Prior to this appointment,Ms Srimathy was servingas chief general manager ofCanara Bank.

Pallav Mohapatra, theformer MD and CEO ofCentral Bank of India, hasjoined as CEO and MD ofARCIL.

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CONCOR forays into container manufacturing ContainerCorporation of India (CONCOR) has launched the process ofmanufacturing containers in India. This launch is set to boostindigenous manufacturing of containers and ease container short-age in the country. Indian manufacturers, such as BHEL andBraithwaite, are implementing a CONCOR order to develop1,000 prototypes each, which will be tested and results madeavailable at the end of March. The total annual requirement ofcontainers for CONCOR is 8,000, which the State-run com-pany has been fulfilling through imports from China. CONCOR’sforay is aimed at giving a push to the Atmanirbhar Bharat initia-tive and keeping Chinese advantage at bay.

Committee has noted in itsreport. “The expenditure ofBSNL has reduced fromRs 34,400 crore per annumto Rs 24,687 crore perannum (annualised value ofnine months’ figures) mainlydue to savings in employees’benefits expense, due toVoluntary RetirementScheme (VRS) as a part ofrevival package,” theParliamentary StandingCommittee on InformationTechnology has said in itsreport tabled in the LokSabha and the Rajya Sabha.

Tatas, Spicejet in fray forAir India The Tata Groupand Spicejet, the country’slargest cargo operator, are theonly contenders remaining inthe fray for buying cash-strapped Air India. Aconsortium of Air Indiaemployees, backed by NRIbusinessman Laxmi Prasadand his New York-basedInterups Fund, has beendisqualified. According to anIANS report, the bids of Air

India employees’ consortiumhave been rejected after theevaluation of expressions ofinterest (EoIs), wheremultiple bids were received.According to media reportsEssar, Pavan Ruia of Dunlopand Falcon Tyres had alsoput in bids for Air India.However, their bids havebeen rejected.

BHEL bags first, foreign,solar project BHEL hasbagged its first-ever, overseasorder for a grid-connectedsolar power project inMauritius. The project willbe set up by the State-ownedengineering company atTamarind Falls, Henrietta(Phase-II), Mauritius, on anengineering, procurement andconstruction (EPC) basis,BHEL has said in a state-ment. The contract has beenawarded to BHEL by CEB(Green Energy) Co,Mauritius, a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of CentralElectricity Board, Govern-ment of Mauritius. The

project has been secured byBHEL through a competitive-bidding process. The projectwill be executed by BHEL’sSolar Business Division,Bengaluru, and InternationalOperations Division,New Delhi.

SBI’s digital transactionsrise by 67% State Bank ofIndia (SBI) has seen a 67 percent rise in transactions at itsmultiple digital channels from60 per cent in the pre-pandemic period, SBIChairman Dinesh Khara hassaid. The rise in the numberof digital transactions of thecountry’s largest lender haslargely been driven by a pick-up in e-commerce during thelockdown, Mr Khara hassaid. “When e-commercepicked up, it was actually thedigital channels we areoffering that got widercurrency and acceptability.That is one of the reasonsour digital transactionshave gone as high as 67 percent now,” Mr Khara hasadded.

Indian Bank to diveststake in ASREC IndianBank will be divesting stakein joint venture entityASREC India as a part ofasset-monetisation exercise.The bank holds a 38.26 percent stake in ASREC India.The board of directors of thebank has accorded in-principle approval for partialor full divestment of thebank’s stake in ASRECIndia, Indian Bank has said ina regulatory filing. ASREC isan asset reconstructioncompany, in which Bank ofIndia, Union Bank of India,Indian Bank, LIC andDeutsche Bank are theshareholders. ASREC Indiahas authorised equity capitalof Rs 125 crore and aggregatepaid-up equity of Rs 146.01crore.

RailTel’s paid Wi-Fi plansat 4,073 stations RailTelCorporation of India haslaunched high-speed, paid,Wi-Fi service at 4,073stations. The launch is aimedat monetisation of its internetservices at railway stations,and RailTel expects to earnannual revenue of aroundRs 15 crore once COVID-related travel restrictionsease. RailTel has startedprepaid plans for using itsRailwire Wi-Fi facility,which offers 30 minutes offree Wi-Fi per day at 1 mbpsspeed and a nominal fee forusing a higher speed of up to34 mbps. The listed, Mini-Ratna PSU under the IndianRailways provides band-width, internet and value-added IT services.

RINL eyes Rs 1,000 crorefrom Vizag land sale RINLexpects to garner Rs 1,000crore from sale of its 22.19-acre land located in the heartof Visakhapatnam (Vizag), apopular tourist destination inAndhra Pradesh. State-runconstruction companyNBCC has announced signingan MoU with State-ownedsteel-maker RINL forredevelopment andmonetisation of its 22.19acres in Visakhapatnam. Theamount raised would beutilised to pay back a portionof the company’s debt, RINLhas said. Without anycaptive iron ore mine,RINL produces over 19,000tonnes of hot metal per dayfrom its three, fully-operational blast furnaces atthe plant.

BSNL may be profitablefrom FY24 Bharat SancharNigam (BSNL) will not beprofitable for another twoyears despite saving nearlyRs 10,000 crore annuallywith employees opting forvoluntary retirement, aParliamentary Standing


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equitable workplace andecosystem, while empower-ing women in the hospitalityindustry, IHCL has said in arelease. Located in the OldMahabalipuram-IT corridorof Chennai, Taj WellingtonMews will have 112

spaciously- and luxuriously-appointed residences, led bya woman general manager anda team of over 100 women.

IndiGrid in deal withSterlite to buy NER-II IndiaGrid Trust (IndiGrid) has

signed a share purchaseagreement to acquire NER-IITransmission from SterlitePower as a part of theframework agreement.IndiGrid’s indicative value ofthe acquisition is Rs 4,625crore, and it will boostIndiGrid’s assets by 34 percent to over Rs 20,000 crore.NER-II is a part of Inter-State Transmission Scheme(ISTS) network having twosub-stations of 1,260 mvacapacity and four transmis-sion lines extending over 830circuit km. The project spansacross Assam, ArunachalPradesh and Tripura and hasbeen designed to strengthenthe power transmissionnetwork in the north-easternStates. IndiGrid, the firstinfrastructure investmenttrust (InvIT) in the Indianpower sector, is majority-owned by KKR.

China’s Nanjing to set upmetro plant in AP Chineserolling stock and componentsconglomerate CRRC NanjingPuzhen is setting up a metrocoach manufacturing plant atSri City in Andhra Pradesh atan initial investment ofaround Rs 350 crore. Theplant, for which the ground-breaking ceremony was heldrecently, will be built on aplot of 45.3 acre and will becommissioned by the year-end. The project, aimed atgenerating employment forover 500 people, willmanufacture rolling stock(coaches) for metro projectsin India.

Govt to get Rs 77,814 crfrom spectrum sale Thecountry’s first auction oftelecom spectrum in fiveyears ended last month inmere two days, withRs 77,814.80 crore ofairwaves being bought bybidders. Over 2,250 mhz ofspectrum, which carrytelecom signals, in seven

Wipro to buy Capco in$1.45-billion deal Wipro ispaying $1.45 billion toacquire Capco, a British ITconsultancy, in its boldestbet yet, as the fourth-largestIndian software exporterseeks to keep pace with itsfast-growing peers in thecountry’s $147 billion IToutsourcing industry. TheBengaluru-headquartered ITcompany has said that Capcowill continue to operate as anindependent entity aftercompletion of the deal. Thedeal is expected to helpWipro join select serviceproviders that bring end-to-end consultative, digital cloudand IT-driven solutions atscale to customers.

FDI inflows rise by 40%to $51.5 billion Foreigndirect investment (FDI) inequities in India surged by 40per cent in the first threequarters of this financial yearto a record $51.5 billion,defying COVID-induceddisruptions. Gross FDIinflows – which include FDIin equities, reinvestedearnings, equity capital ofunincorporated bodies andother capital – rose by 22 percent year on year to as muchas $67.5 billion betweenApril and December 2020,according to the data releasedby the Union Commerce andIndustry Ministry. FDIinflows were the highest inthe digital sector, with asizable chunk of these drawnby Reliance Jio alone.

IHCL’s women-runresidences in ChennaiIndian Hotels Company(IHCL) has announced whatit calls India’s first, all-women-managed, luxuryresidences, christened TajWellington Mews, to beopened in Chennai in Aprilthis year. The announcementis in line with the company’songoing efforts in creating an


NEWS ROUND-UP

ArcelorMittal revives Odisha steel plant ArcelorMittal hasrevived its earlier plan to set up a 12-mtpa, mega, steel plant inOdisha with an investment of more than Rs 50,000 crore. TheOdisha government and ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS) have signed an MoU for setting up the integrated steelcomplex in Mahakalapada area of Kendrapara district. This in-vestment will be in addition to other investments of AM/NS inOdisha, including a 6-mtpa pelletisation plant in Paradip. in2006, ArcelorMittal had signed an MoU with the Odisha gov-ernment to set up a similar capacity steel plant in Keonjhardistrict but abandoned it after failing to acquire land for theproject.

IT company Wipro hasannounced the appointmentof Pierre Bruno as chiefexecutive officer for itsEuropean operation.

Salesforce has appointedSanket Atal as senior vice-president and managingdirector of Salesforce Indiabased in Bengaluru.

Ralf Speth, the formerchief executive officer ofJaguar Land Rover, will betaking over as chairman ofTVS Motor Company in2023, replacing VenuSrinivasan, who will bestepping down from thetop post and taking over as

APPOINTMENTS chairman emeritus of theleading two-wheelercompany. Mr Speth hasjoined as director of theboard of TVS Motor.

Caller identifier applicationTruecaller has appointedRishit Jhunjhunwala asmanaging director for itsIndian operations.

Anish Shah will be takingover as managing directorand chief executive officerof Mahindra and Mahindra(M&M) on April 2, 2021,replacing Pawan Goenka,who will retire as MD andCEO on that day. Mr Shahis currently M&M’s deputymanaging director and groupchief financial officer.

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bands worth Rs 3,92,000crore at the reserve or startprice was offered for biddingin the auction. According toTelecom Secretary AnshuPrakash, 855.60 mhz ofspectrum was bought forRs 77,814.80 crore. With justsix rounds of bidding, it wasone of the shortest auctionsin a decade. There were notakers for the airwaves in thepremium 700 and 2,500 mhzbands.

IEX sells stakes in IGX toNSE, ONGC Indian EnergyExchange (IEX) has an-nounced strategic divestmentof 26 per cent of its equityholding in the Indian GasExchange (IGX) to NationalStock Exchange (NSE) andadditional 5 per cent equityholding to Oil and NaturalGas Corporation (ONGC).The value of the deals hasnot been disclosed. IGX hasa robust ecosystem of morethan 6,500 market partici-pants, which include alldistribution utilities in thecountry, major powergenerators as well as over4,500 open access consum-ers. Earlier, IEX hadannounced strategic invest-ments of 5 per cent each byAdani Total Gas, TorrentGas and GAIL India.

Parikh family sells 74%in ZCL to Advent TheParikh family, the erstwhilepromoters of Zandu Pharma,will soon exit ZCL Chemi-cals, the active pharmaceuti-cal ingredients (API)business, after selling a 74per cent stake in ZCL toprivate equity firm AdventInternational for aboutRs 2,000 crore. According tothe contours of the dealsigned recently, AdventInternational will immedi-ately acquire a 74 per centstake in the company,including 19 per cent ownedby Morgan Stanley PE. The

remaining 26 per cent of thestake will be bought afterregulatory approvals.

Government exits TCLafter selling 26% stakeThe government has exitedTata Communications (TCL)by selling about 26 per cent

Finvest at OFS discoveredprice for Rs 3,389 crore. In2002, government haddivested its 25 per cent stakein VSNL to Panatone Finvest,a Tata Sons’ arm, and VSNL’swas renamed TCL.

Adani bags West Con-tainer Terminal projectAdani Ports and SpecialEconomic Zones (APSEZ), asubsidiary of the AdaniGroup, has received a Letterof Intent (LoI) from theMinistry of Ports andShipping of Sri Lanka and theSri Lanka Ports Authority(SLPA) for development ofWest Container Terminal(WCT) in Sri Lankan capitalColombo. APSEZ willpartner with Sri Lanka’sJohn Keells Holdings and theSLPA to develop WCT.WCT will be developed on abuild-operate-and-transfer(BOT) basis for 35 years inthe public-private partner-ship (PPP) mode.

China’s Shunwei Capitalexits Koo Chinese venturecapital (VC) firm ShunweiCapital has exited Twitter’shomegrown rival Koo, theIndian micro-bloggingplatform has said. ShunweiCapital has given up itsminority stake of a little over9 per cent in BombinateTechnologies, the parentcompany of Koo. FormerIndian cricketer JavagalSrinath, Bookmyshowfounder Ashish Hemrajani,Udaan co-founder SujeetKumar, Flipkart CEO KalyanKrishnamurthy and Zerodhafounder Nikhil Kamathparticipated in the buyout ofShunwei’s stake. Koo shot tofame amidst Twitter’sstandoff with the governmentin February this year. Thatled to prominent governmentorganisations and celebritiesjoining Koo.

of its stake in the companyfor about Rs 8,846 crore as apart of the disinvestmentplan. Stake sale of 16.12 percent in TCL through OFS hasfetched the governmentRs 5,457 crore. Besides, 10per cent has been sold off tostrategic partner Panatone

SC upholds Tata Sons’ plea in Tata-Mistry row The Su-preme Court (SC) has ruled in favour of the Tata Group andjunked appeals by Cyrus Investments over dismissal of CyrusMistry as executive chairman of Tata Sons. The long-awaitedverdict puts an end to the Tata-Mistry case, one of corporateIndia’s bitterest-ever boardroom brawls. The ruling comes afteryears of protracted legal procedures, bitter accusations andcounter-accusations and no-holds-barred mudslinging. The casepertains to cross-appeals filed by Tata Sons and Cyrus Invest-ments with respect to the restoration of Mr Mistry as the ex-ecutive chairman of Tata Sons by the NCLAT through a De-cember 2019 order. Delivering the verdict, the Supreme Courtobserved that well-settled principles were overturned by theNCLAT.

M G George Muthoot, thechairman of MuthootFinance, passed away lastmonth after reportedlyfalling from the fourth floorof his house in New Delhi.Mr Muthoot, 71, was forlong based in the nationalcapital even though hisdiversified group – whichruns over 20 businessesfrom gold loans to securi-ties – is headquartered inKochi, Kerala, making itone of the largest businesshouses in the State.

OBITUARIES

Mr Muthoot was largelycredited with makingMuthoot Finance a pan-India and largest gold loancompany. He had alsoplayed a pivotal role inexpanding Muthoot Finance’sreach even overseas.

Mathai George George Muthoot (1949-2021)

INSURNACE


SHIVANAND PANDIT

The Insurance Amendment Bill,2021 has been passed by boththe houses of the Parliament.

The Bill amends the Insurance Act,1938 with an intention of allowing for-eign ownership and control in the In-dian insurance sector. The new lawraises the foreign direct investment(FDI) threshold in Indian insurancecompanies from the existing 49 to 74per cent. The Bill is in sync with theproposal made in the Union Budget2021-22.

The Indian insurance sector wasopened up for foreign investment in2000 by allowing 26 per cent FDI inIndian insurers. The governmentraised the FDI limit from 26 to 49 percent in 2015. Earlier, the governmenthad permitted 100 per cent FDI in in-surance intermediaries, such as insur-ance brokers, reinsurance brokers, in-

A Booster ShotA hike in FDI limit in insurance sector to 74 per centmay capitalise fund-starved insurers and boost India’sinsurance penetration rate.

surance consultants, corporateagents, third-party administrators,surveyors and loss assessors.

The deadly epidemic has uncov-ered the delicate condition of the in-surance sector in India. The pan-demic-linked claims are mounting tre-mendously and a twister of high-amount medical and death claims mayeliminate the fortunes of minor insur-ance companies. These business en-tities lack the ability to invest fundsduring these testing times.Therefore, it is important to enhancethe FDI limit.

Besides announcing a rise in theFDI, the Budget also indicated thatoverseas ownership and control ofIndian insurers will be allowed withsafeguards. The proposal also man-dated that a majority of directors onthe board of the insurer and its keymanagement persons should be in-habitant Indians and at least 50 per

cent of the directors of insurer shouldbe independent directors. Further, toguarantee that adequate capital isheld in the books of the insurancecompany, foreign-owned insurers willbe required to retain a specified per-centage of profits as general reserves.

Lesson from the pastThe increase of FDI limit in the insur-ance sector is aimed at improving pen-etration of life insurance servicesthroughout the country. The relaxingof limitations on foreign ownership ofinsurers will also offer new avenuesof funding. It will also provide accessto external know-how that can sup-port insurers’ underwriting perfor-mance and unchain fresh functioningefficacies.

However, history has taught usthat increasing the FDI limit alone maynot draw global investors into the sec-tor. Both life and general insurancesectors experienced a series of gov-erning changes after the insurancesegment opened up for FDI in 2000,and till 2014-2015, only limited insur-ance players were profitable.

Even after around five years afterthe level of FDI was raised to 49 percent in 2015, the sector has not wit-nessed huge foreign flows. Only eightlife insurance players out of 23 pri-vate players and four out of the 21private general insurers have over-seas promoters’ holding of 49 percent. According to the data available,several companies still have foreignholding of 26 per cent, while Indianpromoters still retain 100 per centstake in companies such as Exide Life,Kotak Mahindra Life, Reliance Gen-eral, Bajaj Allianz Life, Canara HSBCOriental Bank of Commerce Life, IDBIFederal Life, Future Generali IndiaLife, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance,SBI General and Tata AIG.

Thus, the big picture across bothlife and general insurance companiesshows that raising the FDI level alonemay not ensure easy access to capi-tal. The present foreign institutionalinvestors’ (FII) shareholding in insur-

The FDI hike seems timely amid Indian insurers’ need for at least Rs 15,000crore over the next 36 months.


ance companies reveals that even theexisting levels have not been fullyutilised. Average foreign investmentin insurance entities, both life andnon-life, remains well below the cur-rent limits. Although the inflow of capi-tal was pegged at Rs 25,000 crore af-ter the FDI limit was eased, real infu-sion into the sector has been justaround Rs 5,400 crore.

Furthermore, after the hike in theFDI level, no new foreign companyhas moved into the Indian market.This was not only because an addi-tional relaxation in the FDI limit waspredicted but also because the Indianmanagement control clause confirmedto be a thorn in the side of foreigninvestors. According to the clause,even though a foreign company wereto buy a 49 per cent share in an Indianinsurance company, any board-leveldecision or a change in business strat-egy would need consent from a ma-jority of Indian shareholders. This hasproved to be a discomforting pointfor foreign entities who sought iden-tical privileges with their Indian jointventure associates.

Way to goAccording to industry sources, Indianinsurance companies need at leastRs 15,000 crore over the next 36months. Therefore, allowing foreignbusiness units to raise their shares to74 per cent is a welcome move andtimely for the capital-starved country.The present ambiguity and anxiety ofthe sector is not encouraging Indianshareholders to make investments,and many are heading for exit. For in-stance, the Rajan Raheja Group re-cently announced sale of its complete51 per cent holding in Raheja QBEGeneral Insurance to Paytm’s VijayShekhar Sharma, and Wadhawan Glo-bal Capital decided to sell DHFL Gen-eral Insurance to Sachin Bansal, a co-founder of Flipkart. So, thegovernment’s strategy of FDI hike willdefinitely motivate domestic playersto focus on the game.

Moreover, apart from bringing

more foreign players into the game, arelaxation in FDI limits will create em-ployment opportunities and enhancepenetration of insurance. The hikemay lift India’s insurance penetrationor premiums as a percentage of theGDP that is currently at a sluggish 3.76per cent compared to the world aver-age of 7.23 per cent. Insurance pen-etration for other BRICS (a groupingof Brazil, Russia, India, China andSouth Africa) countries is: South Af-rica 12.89 per cent, China 4.22 per cent,Brazil 3.9 per cent and Russia 1.3 per

(The author is a tax specialistbased in Goa.)

Few Takers For FDIIn Insurance

Only 8 of 23 private life insurersand 4 of 21 private generalinsurers have FDI of 49%.

Many companies still haveforeign holding of 26%, whileIndian promoters still retain100% stake in several insurancecompanies.

Actual FDI inflow is at around ameagre Rs 5,400 crore againstan estimated Rs 25,000 croreafter subsequent rise of FDIlimits in the past.

Easing of norms linked to overseas ownership of Indian insurers is likelyto make Indian market attractive to foreign investors.

cent,. This indicates that India lagsbehind other BRICS nations, exclud-ing Russia.

To conclude, the insurance indus-try occupies a significant place in theevolution and progress of aneconomy. Besides, the importance ofthe segment has been clearly under-stood during the pandemic. The In-dian insurance industry has alwaysbeen an attractive market for globalinsurers to magnify their business inthe country, mainly due to its demo-graphic profile and unexploited busi-ness prospects. Hence, raising the FDIlimit will surely change the face of in-surance in India.

However, the key will lie in the de-tails contained in the executing guide-lines. Quick timelines and clarity onimplementation from the governmentwill make the proposal highly worth-while. The government has beckoneda vibrant change in the policy that haspreviously been debated and dis-puted over a lengthy period. Mean-while, stakeholders now wish that thechanges will be initiated within a rea-sonable time.

SPECIAL REPORT


IBJ RESEARCH BUREAU

Uttar Pradesh (UP) seems tobe swaying in joy as therefreshing breeze of devel-opment blows across the

heart of Hindi heartland. Almost ev-ery nook and corner of UP appears tofeel the winds of change. The YogiAdityanath government just completedits four years in power this March.

In March 2017, the country's larg-est State voted the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) government to power witha thumping majority. The northernIndian State voted hands down forthe BJP, which was contesting thepolls on the development plank in thesummer of 2017.

Four years down the line, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath, who is also

the head priest of the venerableGorakhnath Mutt, has helmed a splen-did transformation that is visible allacross UP. In fact, even the strongestcritics of the saffron robe-clad chiefminister cannot deny him the creditof changing the face of UP.

Whether it is organising the larg-est-ever Kumbh Mela successfully ortackling the COVID-19 crisis, the UPchief minister has shown his astuteadministrative skills. This has won himpraise in both national and interna-tional forums, including the WorldHealth Organisation. On the otherhand, the State government's initia-tives to transform Uttar Pradesh intoan ideal business destination and vi-brant, investor-friendly economy arehard to miss.

In the past four years, the UP gov-

ernment has initiated and success-fully accomplished several projects -such as Global Investors' Summit, fol-lowed by two ground-breaking cer-emonies; innovative, One District,One Product (ODOP) scheme; host-ing of Defence Expo; and kick-start-ing infrastructure projects, like one ofthe two defence corridors of the coun-try; Jewar International Airport -among the world's largest airports -mega Film City; and expresswayscrisscrossing the State.

Incidentally, UP's big jump to thesecond position in the latest Ease ofDoing Business (EoDB) ranking, be-coming the second-largest State in thecountry with Gross State DomesticProduct (GSDP) of Rs 21.73 lakh croreand emerging fifth-largest exporteramong all the States stand testimony

The Yogi Adityanath government's far-reaching measures inthe last four years transform Uttar Pradesh from an underdeveloped

hinterland of India to a throbbing hot spot of socio-economic development.

UTTAR PRADESH

INDIA's ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE

How Uttar Pradesh Is Powering India

LARGEST CONSUMER MARKETIN INDIA

HIGHEST NUMBER OF MSMEUNITS IN THE COUNTRY

SECOND-RANKING STATE INEoDB

SECOND-LARGEST ECONOMYCONTRIBUTING ABOUT 11%TO NATIONAL GDP

FIFTH-LARGEST EXPORTER OFGOODS AMONG ALL STATES

AMONGST THE TOP-FIVEMANUFACTURING STATES

LARGEST RAILWAY NETWORK

FOCUS ON NEW SECTORSUNDER THE POST-COVIDINVESTMENT ENVIRONMENT

SEVERAL INDUSTRIAL PARKSPLANNED ALONGEXPRESSWAYS TO CATALYSEMAKE IN UP

UNIQUE ODOP SCHEMETAKING LOCAL PRODUCTS TOGLOBAL MARKETS

AWARD-WINNING, SINGLE-WINDOW PORTAL FORINVESTMENT FACILITATION21 INVESTMENT-FRIENDLYPOLICIES

STATE BUDGET AT RS 5.5 LAKHCRORE HAS GROWN AT OVER10% YEAR-ON-YEAR

INVESTMENTS WORTHRS 57,000 CRORE COMMITTEDBY DOMESTIC AND FOREIGNCOMPANIES EVEN AMIDCOVID-19

AMONG TOP-THREE STATESWITH HIGHEST EMPLOYABLETALENT

START-UPS SEEINGEXPONENTIAL RISE WITH OVER3,400 START-UPS ALREADYREGSITERED


to the State's achievements and com-mitment for a new Uttar Pradesh whichmeans business. Meanwhile, the StateBudget has also grown at CAGR ofmore than 10 per cent year-on-yearfrom Rs 3,40,000 crore in 2016-17 to awhopping Rs 5,50,270 crore for the fi-nancial year 2021-22, the highestamong all the States. The improvedBudget has ensured that developmentprojects do not languish due to a lackof funds.

UP means businessBehind these stellar achievements lierelentless efforts of the young anddynamic, go-getter chief minister. Im-mediately after taking over the reinsof the State, Mr Adityanath turned hisfocus on laying a firm foundation forthe State's economic growth based oninfrastructure development and in-vestment promotion.

The government came out with theproactive Industrial Investment andEmployment Promotion Policy of UttarPradesh, 2017 to facilitate smooth flowof investments in the State. Subse-quently, it also came out with about20 other sector-specific policies, suchas those for civil aviation, IT and start-ups, electronics manufacturing, agro-and food processing, solar energy,MSME, handloom, textile, film, tour-ism, warehousing and logistics, de-fence and aerospace, among others.Various attractive incentives providedby these policies, like land subsidy,capital subsidy and interest subsidy,among others, are benchmarked as thebest in the country.

With business-friendly policiesand measures in place, the Adityanathgovernment organised its first-everGlobal Investors' Summit, 2018 in Statecapital Lucknow in February 2018. Themega corporate jamboree succeededin garnering investment intents worthmore than Rs 4,28,000 crore. UP hadnot seen this kind of vibrancy andattention from the national as well asthe international business world.

To make sure that the intents didnot just remain on paper, the State ad-

ministration vigorously followed upwith the companies and helped themto move forward with their projects ata brisk speed. This hand-holding re-sulted in whopping over Rs 2,00,000crore of investments fructifying andpromising a multiplying effect on em-ployment creation. Of this, 211projects worth Rs 50,756 crore havealready commenced production cre-ating nearly 1,27,000 employment,while 122 projects worth Rs 35,863crore are under implementation withpotential employment of 2,05,000.The remaining 457 projects worthRs 1,02,924 crore likely to be initiatedsoon.

Besides, UP has attracted invest-ments worth over Rs 11,000 crore un-der its various policies throughPradeshiya Industrial and InvestmentDevelopment Corporation of UttarPradesh (PICUP) . Similarly, under thePost-COVID-19 Accelerated Invest-ment Promotion Policy, 2020, whichwas a one-year scheme, investmentapplications worth Rs 1,400 crore withemployment potential of 977 havebeen received.

In a further boost to MSMEs, theState government has also unveiled aunique programme - One District OneProduct (ODOP) to protect and pro-mote the local industries of the State.

Defence Industrial CorridorLast year, the State successfullyhosted, for the first time, the 11th Na-tional Defence Expo in Lucknow. Theplatform for alliances and joint ven-tures in the defence industry, inaugu-rated by Prime Minister NarendraModi, also highlighted the emergenceof Uttar Pradesh as major defencehub. The big defence event an-nounced the arrival of UP – whichboasts of one of the country’s twodefence industrial corridors (DICs) –as an attractive destination for invest-

"We have changed the perception ofUttar Pradesh by improving its tarnishedimage. The better atmosphere prevailing

in the State today has become a modelfor the entire country."

YOGI ADITYANATHUP Chief Minister

"The way projects are gettingimplemented one after the other, the

image of Uttar Pradesh is changing. TheState is playing an important role in

building a self-reliant India today."NARENDRA MODI

Prime Minister

About Rs 3,00,000 crore of projectsare in various stages ofimplementation in the State due topositive investment climate createdby the Adityanath government,marked by effective EoDB.

New Uttar PradeshIndia’s Economic Powerhouse

SPECIAL REPORT


ments by notching up investment in-tents worth Rs 50,000 crore. At therecently held Aero India, 2021 inBengaluru, the UP DIC fetched 13fresh investments intents worthRs 4,500 crore.

The prestigious DIC inBundelkhand region - passingthrough Agra, Aligarh, Chitrakoot,Jhansi, Kanpur and Lucknow - isplanned over 5,000 hectares of land,out of which 1,369 hectares of landhas been acquired in Jhansi,Chitrakoot and Aligarh. The defencenode land in Aligarh has already beensold out and allotted to companies.

Ease of doing businessIncidentally, a few years ago, manybig industries were eager to leave UP.But today, they are not only willing tostay back in the State but are also ex-panding their businesses. This hasbeen possible because of the posi-tive investment climate created by theAdityanath government, marked byeffective EoDB. The State, whichranks at the second spot in EoDB rank-ing, implemented record 186 reformsspread across multiple areas such aslabour regulation, inspection regula-tions, land allotment, property regis-tration, environment clearances, pay-ing taxes and many others.

One of the major reforms done bythe government is implementation ofone of India's largest, digital, single-window portal - Nivesh Mitra - pro-viding around 204 services to entre-preneurs. With an average (no-objec-tion certificate (NOC) application dis-posal rate of 93 per cent, the NiveshMitra portal has successfullyachieved an outstanding query-reso-lution rate of 98 per cent.

Besides, a dedicated agency - In-vest UP - has been recently estab-lished for facilitating and hand-hold-ing investors. Invest UP has beenmandated to carry out all activities ofproviding complete investment-lifecycle support to investors.

New focusPost-COVID-19, UP has launched vari-

ous new policies to attract invest-ments under the current changed in-vestment environment. Under thePost-COVID-19 Accelerated Invest-ment Promotion Policy for BackwardRegions 2020, the State is providingattractive incentives on a fast-trackmode to new industrial units to creategrowth centres in the Poorvanchal,Madhyanchal and Bundelkhand re-gions of the State.

Similarly, a new Startup Policy 2020has been launched to promote non-IT based start-ups. Besides these,Sick Industries Policy is also on theanvil. A Data Centre Policy has alsobeen launched to attract investmentsworth Rs 20,000 crore and set up a datacentre industry of 250-mw capacity.

Also, the eligibility limits of privateindustrial parks have been reduced inBundelkhand and Poorvanchal,Pashchimanchal and Madhyanchaland for logistics parks across theState. Grant of industry status to lo-gistics sector and amendment in zon-ing regulations have been done to ap-ply industrial land use to logisticsunits qualifying for infrastructure sta-tus as granted by the government ofIndia (GoI). Moreover, allotment of in-dustrial development authorities' landat industrial rates to such logisticunits has also been allowed.

Post-COVID-19 the State govern-ment has completely abolished Manditax for transactions outside Mandiyards, thereby extending big relief tofood processing industry.

Opportunities galoreThe State already has 20,000 acres ofready-to-move, industrial land bank.Further, the government has set a tar-get of developing around 5,000 acresof land bank in FY21. The governmenthas also identified around 22,000acres along expressways for indus-trial development. Out of the identi-fied land, six high-potential locationshave been identified in Firozabad,Agra, Unnao, Chitrakoot, Mainpuriand Barabanki districts for establish-ment of industrial parks through vari-

Icons ofExcellence

UP is home to one of the twodefence industrial corridors ofthe country. The corridor is notonly enhancing the State'sprofile as a defence productionhub but also redrawing theindustrial landscape of back-ward region of Bundelkhand.

India’s biggest Film City, spreadover 1,000 acres, near JewarInternational Airport isconceptualised to be on a parwith Hollywood studios.

UP houses the country's largest,upcoming, international airportin Jewar near Delhi. With sixrunways, once completed, itwill be among the world'slargest airports. The first phaseof the airport, which will beconstructed by Switzerland'sZurich Airport International, islikely to be operational by2023.


ous development models.Similarly, 7 mega textile parks are

being planned in the Union Budget2020-21, of which UP has pitched infor two such parks in Kanpur andGorakhpur. Besides, MSME park, elec-tronics park, apparel park, handicraftpark and toy park are under activeimplementation along the Yamuna ex-pressway in Gautambuddha Nagardistrict. Similarly, integrated townshipis planned along proposed heritagecity and logistics hub at Raya urbancentre and Bajna urban centre,respectively.

The upcoming Jewar InternationalAirport in Greater Noida spread over5,000 hectares of land will be one ofthe largest airports in the NorthernIndia. The airport will come up with acomprehensive MRO facility andcargo complex. An Aerotropolis is alsolikely to come up.

The State has recently announceda Film City of over 1,000 acres in sec-tor 21 of Yamuna Expressway Indus-trial Development Authority (YEIDA)region along Yamuna expressway, lo-cated just about 6 km from the pro-posed Jewar International Airport.

Also, dedicated medical devicepark is proposed over 350 acres inYEIDA region, for which MoU hasbeen signed with Kalam Institute ofHealth Technology for preparation ofdetailed project report. Meanwhile,UPSIDA is developing a 250 acres in-dustrial area in Bareilly, out of which100 acres will be developed as megafood park.

Uttar Pradesh has established it-self as a State of expressways. After,Yamuna expressway, Agra-Lucknowexpressway and Delhi-Meerut link ex-pressway, the State government hasplanned other expressways ensuringeastern/southern connectivity. Thisincludes Poorvanchal expresswayconnecting Lucknow to Ghazipur,Bundelkhand expressway connectingChitrakoot to Agra-Lucknow express-way and Gorakhpur link expressway.

Also, one of Asia's longest ex-

yielded desired results. Even duringthe challenging period of the viralpandemic, the State has attracted 77investment intents, including thosefrom companies around 10 countries- such as Japan, the US, the UK,Canada, Germany and South Korea,among others - worth aroundRs 57,000 crore. The swiftness of theadministration can be gauged from thefact that out of these, 10 projects insectors – such as data centre, elec-tronics and food processing, amongothers – worth around Rs 5,000 crorehave already been allotted land.

Uttar Pradesh has indeed come along way in a very short span of time.It has become a shining example ofhow good governance can make a bigdifference. Just four years in powerand the Adityanath government hasalready established the State as a ma-jor investment destination for indus-try and enterprise to generate newemployment opportunities and upliftthe economic condition of its citizens.

This positive turn of events in theState is not surprising, given the grit,determination and commitment of thechief minister. As the prime ministeris working towards making IndiaAatmanirbhar (self-reliant),Mr Adityanath is successfully trans-forming Uttar Pradesh into an eco-nomic powerhouse of the countryand playing a pivotal role in realisingthis goal in true sense.

With tremendous growth in infrastructure development, Uttar Pradesh willsoon become the first State to have six expressways covering about 1,700km stretching across its entire length.

Uttar Pradesh is developing itsState Logistics Plan for integrateddevelopment of logistics sector.

UP’s new Data Centre Policy aims toattract investments worthRs 20,000 crore.

pressways - 594-km-long Ganga ex-pressway is in pipeline. Besides, UPis one of the few States in India tocome up with an elevated NationalExpressway over Lucknow-Kanpurnational highway.

Gains of developmentThe relentless efforts of the YogiAdityanath government - be it thepace of development, the COVID-19management or improved law and or-der situation - have not only won thechief minister accolades but also

New Uttar PradeshIndia’s Economic Powerhouse

Several industrial parks have been planned alongexpressways to catalyse Make In UP.

REAL ESTATE


CRACKING DOWN

IBJ BUREAU

In February this year, Brookfield In-dia Real Estate Trust’s real estateinvestment trust (REIT) listed on

the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) atRs 281.70 per unit. The Toronto,Canada-headquartered alternative in-vestment fund’s REIT listed at a 2.4per cent premium against its issueprice of Rs 275.

The Rs 3,800-crore public issue ofBrookfield Asset Management-backed Brookfield India Real EstateTrust’s REIT had closed with an over-all subscription of eight times in earlyFebruary. The issue was subscribed

The REIT PushReal estate investment trusts have come as amuch-needed breather and a driving force for thebattered Indian CRE market.

by nearly 12 times in the retail inves-tors’ category, while the institutionalinvestors’ segment had bought it byover five times.

Brookfield’s REIT comprised about140 lakh sq ft of its total office prop-erty portfolio of 420 lakh sq ft. Be-sides, around 93 per cent of the port-folio value is made up of completedassets. No wonder then that inves-tors lapped up Brookfield’s REIT –India’s third REIT and the first one tobe entirely sponsored and managedby an institutional investor – quite en-thusiastically.

The Canadian asset managementcompany’s successful public issueannounces the arrival of REIT as yetanother popular investment tool in thecountry. It follows the earlier suc-cesses of Embassy Office Parks’ REITin April 2019 – the country’s first REITpublic offer – and the public issue ofMindspace Business Parks in August2020.

3NO. OF REITS

Embassy Office ParksREIT, MindspaceBusiness Parks REIT &Brookfield India RealEstate TrustREIT SPONSORS

768 lakh sq ftUNDERLYING ASSETS OF 3 REITS

Indian REIT:A Snapshot

................................................................

................................................................

Embassy ManyataBusiness Park, Bengaluru


The Rs 4,750-crore REIT of Em-bassy Office Parks had garnered goodresponse with the issue getting sub-scribed by about 2.6 times on the BSE.The public offer of Embassy’s REIT –a joint venture between US privateequity (PE) firm Blackstone andBengaluru-based realtor EmbassyGroup – has underlying assets ofabout 333 lakh sq ft of Grade-A com-mercial property – consisting of 262lakh sq ft of completed and opera-tional properties and another 71 lakhsq ft of projects under development.

Similarly, Mindspace BusinessParks REIT, the country’s secondREIT issue, had defied the despairsurrounding COVID-19 when it hit themarket with its Rs 4,500-crore publicoffer in August 2020. The public offerwas sold by around 10.61 times in theinstitutional investors segment, whileretail investors participated rathervigorously by subscribing to the is-sue by more than 15.77 times. The

ture REITs, enabling them to earn divi-dend income from fully-leased andlisted commercial real estate. “REITsare good news for investors who havea small appetite and yet want to in-vest in the otherwise highly-cost-in-tensive commercial real estate (CRE)market. With REITs, they can literallytake a small bite of the large IndianCRE pie,” points out Anuj Puri, thechairman of Anarock, the country’sleading, specialised, real estate ser-vices company.

Favourable normsREITs are slowly but surely becom-ing an important investment tool inIndia. But these investment trustshave been around for more than sixdecades in the US. It was way back in1960, that the US legislature signed alaw and introduced REITs to bring thebenefits of CRE to common Americans.

REITs are securities linked to realestate that can be traded on stock ex-changes once they get listed. Theyfunction like mutual funds with theunits of REITs having CRE – such asrent-yielding commercial properties –as their underlying assets. The valueof these rent-yielding assets is di-vided into units by an REIT entity –which is often a real estate companyor an investment company – and soldto investors. The money collected byan REIT is employed in the businessof building and developing real es-tate. Besides, the income generatedby an REIT from rent-yielding com-mercial complexes is distributedamong unit holders, and the moneythat remains after it is distributed toall unit holders is profit for the REIT.

In the past decade, the Indian realestate industry has witnessed a mas-sive shift from traditional finance toan era of structured finance, includ-ing PE and initial public offers (IPOs).Foreign investors, including global PEfirms, have shown keen interest inIndia’s real estate market, owing to itsstrong economic fundamentals, highpotential for prolonged growth andfavourable demographics. As share of

What’s DrivingIndian REITs?

Liberalisation of FDI norms inreal estate

Opening up of domestic mutualfund to foreign investments

Mandatory 80% of rent-yieldingassets in public offer

Must for REITs to distribute 90%of their taxable income toshareholders

Minimum application sizereduced from Rs 1,00,000 toRs 50,000, paving the way forretail investors

Income Tax exemption ondividends distributed by REITs totheir investors

There is a major shift inthe Indian office real

estate landscape withGrade-A developers

owning large, modern,corporate IT parks with a

rich mix of amenities.

public offer of Mindspace BusinessParks REIT, jointly owned byMumbai-headquartered K RahejaGroup and Blackstone, comprises 295lakh sq ft of commercial properties.

A promising start to the REIT mar-ket seems to have re-energised thecountry’s cash-strapped real estatesector, especially the commercial realestate (CRE) segment. The REITs areparticularly a lifesaver for the realtysector that has seen funding frombanking and private equity drying upin recent years. Industry experts notethat the buoyant public issues of thethree REITs will encourage morebuilders to monetise their rent-yield-ing commercial assets through thisroute. “REITs will help raise capitaland improve the fund flows into thesector. REITs are a great indicator ofthe strong future that commercial realestate has in India,” opines KnightFrank India Chairman and ManagingDirector Shishir Baijal.

Moreover, the REITs act as a majorinvestment tool for investors. Ana-lysts note that participation of retailinvestors will further increase in fu-

REAL ESTATE


structured finance in real estate in-vestments grew, introduction of alter-native investment vehicles in the sec-tor became the next logical step, fi-nally leading to REITs.

Incidentally, the Securities and Ex-change Board of India (SEBI) intro-duced the draft REIT regulations asearly as 2007. However, it was onlyseven years later, in 2014, that theSEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts)

Regulations, 2014 were enacted. Theregulations provided a sound legalfoundation and a definite direction forREITs to grow. Besides, other reforms,such as liberalisation of foreign directinvestment (FDI) norms in real estateand opening up of the domestic mu-tual fund industry to foreign invest-ments helped the market become re-ceptive to REITs.

Meanwhile, the biggest push to

REITs came from many market-friendlynorms. In fact, proactive measuresfrom the government and the SEBIand subsequent amendments to thenorms and regulations paved the wayfor REITs to hit the market for the firsttime in the country in April 2019.

Many disclosure and listing normsin recent years have brought trans-parency to REITs and enhanced in-vestors’ confidence in them. A ruleregarding the mix of underlying as-sets in an REIT offer has made theinstrument quite lucrative for inves-tors. Accordingly, an REIT public of-fer must comprise 80 per cent of rent-yielding assets, while the remaining20 per cent can be a property or prop-erties under construction. Anothernorm mandates that an REIT must dis-tribute at least 90 per cent of its tax-able income to its shareholders.

Minimum application size for anREIT issue has been reduced fromRs 1,00,000 to Rs 50,000, making theREIT more attractive and viable to re-tail investors. Market experts revealthat the SEBI is considering furtheropening up REITs to retail investorsby relaxing the current minimum ap-plication size of Rs 50,000. Besides,widening the definition of strategicinvestors to include mutual funds andinsurance companies has turned theREIT market robust. And to top it all,the Income Tax exemption on divi-dends distributed by REITs to theirinvestors has made REITs a rage inthe market.

“A large part of Indian investorsput money in government bonds andfixed deposits. Interest rates havedropped significantly, and that makesREITs very attractive since there arechances of higher return,” notesAnshuman Magazine, the Chairmanand CEO (India, South-East Asia,Middle East & Africa), CBRE. Besides,investors can exit REITs any time byselling the shares in the stock market,adds Mr Magazine.

A major shift in the Indian officereal estate landscape is playing a vi-tal role in turning REITs into a hot in-

“REITs will help raise capital and improve the fundflows into the sector. REITs are a great indicator ofthe strong future that commercial real estate has inIndia.”

SHISHIR BAIJAL, CMD, Knight Frank India

“The focus of developers on Grade-A commercialdevelopments has increased investments by highly-reputed institutional investors, pushing up demandfor REITs.”

ANKUR GUPTA, Managing Partner, BrookfieldAsset Management

“Work from home could look like an inflection pointin the office space segment. But there is a steadyincrease in footfalls across tech parks, and withvaccine rollout, employees will be back in office.”

VIKAASH KHDLOYA, Deputy CEO, EmbassyOffice Parks REIT

REIT landscape in India is likely to evolve further to include varied assetclasses in the medium to long term.

Mind Space Madhapur-01 Hyderabad

vestment tool. From a majority of of-fice stock being largely unorganisedin small-format, non-institutionally-owned buildings with few amenities,the landscape has now consolidatedwith Grade-A developers owninglarge, modern, corporate IT parks witha rich mix of amenities. This change inoffice realty is set to fuel the growthof REITs further.

“The focus of developers on Grade-A commercial developments, backedby increasing demand from multina-tional tenants, has led to the onset oflarge-format campus developmentswith increased investments by highly-reputed institutional investors. Thishas resulted in REITs becoming a well-recognised concept and investmentproduct,” stresses Ankur Gupta, themanaging partner and head of India-real estate, Brookfield AssetManagement.

Bright futureThe Indian REIT market has just hada robust start. It has, however, a longway to go to match the growth of theglobal REIT market. According to es-timates of the European Public EstateAssociation, total global value oflisted real estate companies is around$3.864 trillion. Property under REITsis worth $2.042 trillion, accounting fornearly 53 per cent of the total value oflisted real estate companies.

According to industry estimates,the three listed REITs in India hold768 lakh sq ft of the total of 5,000 lakhsq ft of Grade-A office space in thecountry. A healthy demand and sup-ply dynamics for office space, highpotential of the CRE market and ris-ing interest in the Indian CRE marketamong global PE funds and other in-vestment companies are likely to wit-ness healthy growth of Indian REITs.Realty market experts foresee anotherfive REIT listings to take place in thenext two years.

“While work from home (WFH)could look like an inflection point inthe office space segment, the demandfor office space is not going any-

“REITs are good news for investors, who canliterally take a small bite of the large Indiancommercial real estate pie.”

ANUJ PURI, Chairman, Anarock

“Interest rates have dropped significantly, and thatmakes REITs very attractive since there are chancesof higher return. Besides, investors can exit REITsany time by selling the shares in the stock market.”ANSHUMAN MAGAZINE , Chairman (India), CBRE

The country’s top-10 commercial real estate owners own around 1,840lakh sq ft of commercial properties, which have the potential to raise Rs1,50,000 crore in REITs.

where. There is a steady increase infootfalls across tech parks, and withvaccine rollout, employees will beback in office,” points out VikaashKhdloya, the Deputy CEO and COOof Embassy Office Parks REIT.

According to rating agencyCRISIL, the country’s top-10 commer-cial real estate owners, including de-velopers and funds, own around 1,840lakh sq ft of commercial properties,which could fetch annual lease rentalincome of Rs 17,000 crore. CRISIL fur-ther adds that these companies havethe potential to raise Rs 1,50,000 crorein REITs. Besides, the Indian REITlisting could expand beyond officespace to include other segments ofthe CRE market, foresees the ratingagency.

Analysts note that the REIT land-scape in India is likely to evolve fur-ther to include varied asset classes inthe medium to long term. The outbreakof COVID-19 has accelerated adop-tion of cloud-based and informationtechnology (IT) services. This wouldamplify the demand for data centres,and they would soon be an essentialpart of any REIT portfolio in the nearfuture. Besides, growing thrust onmanufacturing and Goods and Ser-vices Tax (GST)-induced growth of lo-gistics would lead to industrial parksand warehouses becoming an integralpart of any future REIT offers. Inshort, REITs have come as a much-needed breather and a driving forcefor the battered Indian CRE market.


Brookfield Candor TechSpace, Sector 21, Gurugram


COVER STORY

IBJ RESEARCH BUREAU

Steel prices are finally head-ing south after spirallingsky high in the past fewmonths. Some of the largemanufacturers of the coun-

try – the world’s second-largest pro-ducer of steel after China – haveslashed prices of various steel prod-ucts in the past one month. Softeningprices have brought a huge relief forinfrastructure and other steel-basedindustries.

Steel prices are expected to fall fur-ther over the next few months as aresult of iron ore – the chief raw mate-rial in producing the alloy –turningcheaper over the past two months.Besides, Customs Duty cuts on vari-ous steel products as well as steel

scrap would lead to cheaper importsflooding the market. This has nudgedthe country’s top steel-makers to bringdown prices in anticipation of com-petition from cheaper imports.

Prices of steel across different cat-egories had surged sharply in the lat-ter part of 2020 and put pressure onmany industries and infrastructureprojects. The price of hot-rolled (HR)steel coil – a flat steel product used intransport, construction, shipbuildingand capital goods – shot up fromRs 36,250 per tonne in June last yearto over Rs 58,000 per tonne this Janu-ary, a 60 per cent jump in sevenmonths. Thermo-Mechanical Treat-ment (TMT) steel reinforcement barsor rebars – used in construction ofcritical infrastructure projects, suchas dams and flyovers, and in high-

rise buildings – too had shot up tomore than Rs 50,000 per tonne duringthe same seven months.

Prices of most of the steel prod-ucts, including HR steel coil and TMTsteel rebars, have softened in Marchthis year, thanks to lower iron oreprices and Customs Duty cuts on im-ports. HR steel coils are currentlypriced at around Rs 53,750 per tonne.However, they are still 40 per centcostlier than their price in March lastyear. Similarly, even though TMTsteel rebars are trading lower ataround Rs 47,000 per tonne, their priceis 38 per cent higher compared to thatof last March.

Blame gameA rather sharp spike in prices has putsevere pressure on profit margins ofvarious steel-based industries. Build-

A surge in demand and unprecedented price volatility call foran urgent need to address problems plaguing the steel industry.

FIRED UP


ers’ Association of India, Indian Con-struction Equipment Manufacturers’Association and many other steel-user industry associations haveflayed steel producers for hikingprices steeply in a short span of time.Rising steel prices, in fact, irkedUnion Road Transport and HighwaysMinister Nitin Gadkari so much thathe recently accused the big playersin the steel industry of increasingprices through cartelisation.

On the other hand, the Indian SteelAssociation (ISA), a steel producers’body, has written to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, explaining variousfactors behind the rising prices. “In-ternational prices surged to over $750per tonne from the bottom of $397 pertonne in 2020 due to a temporaryshortage of steel in the wake ofCOVID-19 disruptions. As India is anopen economy, steel prices in thecountry moved up with globalprices,” notes ISA Secretary GeneralBhaskar Chatterjee. He also mentionsthat iron ore price have more thandoubled from Rs 1,960 to Rs 4,160 pertonne between June and December2020.

In fact, steel-makers have accusediron ore miners of exporting the oredespite a shortage in the country,profiting from it and compelling steel-makers to hike prices. The ISA hasprimarily blamed surging prices of ironore for high steel prices and de-manded a temporary ban on iron oreexport for six months.

However, iron ore miners refute thischarge and blame the steel-makers forthe current crisis. In letters submittedrecently to the Ministries of Steel andCommerce and Industry, the Federa-tion of Indian Mineral Industries(FIMI) notes: “Any shortfall in pro-duction due to COVID-19 pandemicin the eastern States can be madegood by procurement of stocks lyingat mine-heads. No mining lease-holderwould like to export if there is a do-mestic buyer. Currently, what is beingexported is what is not being sought

by domestic steel mills.” The lettershave been written in response to thecall by steel-makers for the temporaryban on iron ore exports from thecountry.

The FIMI adds that Indian steelmanufacturers choose to buy onlytop grades of iron ore with above 62per cent of Fe (iron) content. There isabundant supply of iron ore in thecountry, mostly of lower grades be-low 62 per cent of Fe content. It isthis ore that is exported, while ironore above 58 per cent of Fe contentattracts an Export Duty of 30 per cent,which makes Indian exportsuncompetitive.

The miners’ body further adds thatiron ore stocks lying across mine-heads have soared to 162 mt during2018-19 from 151.44 mt in 2017- 18.Steel-makers could very well usethese ore stocks instead of blaming

exports for shortage of the raw mate-rial and high steel prices. “Japan andSouth Korea import their raw materialand still produce their steel cheaperthan Indian steel. Indian steel plantsare making windfall profits while thefinal consumer is faced with high steelprices,” opines FIMI Secretary Gen-eral R K Sharma.

COVID ImpactInterestingly, the blame game betweensteel-makers and iron ore miners is notnew. This tussle, in fact, has been go-ing on for over a decade. The sharpspike in prices of steel and iron orebrought this old rivalry back to thefore last year. Besides, 2020 turnedout to be quite awful, with outbreakof COVID-19 and consequentlockdowns across the world sendingiron ore and steel prices to dizzyingheights

A series of stringent lockdowns in

“Japan andSouth Koreaimport their rawmaterial and stillproduce theirsteel cheaper

than Indian steel. Indian steelplants are making windfall profitswhile the final consumer is facedwith high steel prices.”

R K SHARMASecretary General, FIMI

“Internationalprices surged toover $750 pertonne from thebottom of $397per tonne in

2020. As India is an openeconomy, steel prices in thecountry moved up with globalprices.”

BHASKAR CHATTERJEESecretary General, ISA

Volatility in steel prices has put pressure on many industries and hitinfrastructure projects.

COVER STORY


India in the April-June 2020 quarterbattered many industries, includingsteel. Consumption of steel plungedsharply during the lockdowns. Butdemand for the vital alloy surged asIndia started relaxing the lockdownfrom last July and as economic activi-ties reached normal levels in the nexttwo months.

Unfortunately, during the latter partof 2020, supply of steel failed to matchthe rising demand, leading to soaringprices. According to data of the WorldSteel Association, Indian steel pro-duction slid by 10.6 per cent to 99.6mt in 2020 as against 111.4 mt in 2019.On an average, the country has beenproducing around 110 mt annually inthe past few years.

Even as the country’s steel outputfell in 2020, a rise in exports of thealloy further aggravated the shortagecrisis. The country exported a littleover 10 mt of steel during the last cal-endar year against average annualexports of around 7 mt. This rise inexports of over 10 mt – coming on theback of lower production of 99.6 mtand amid an average annual con-sumption of 100 mt – led to a severeshortage of steel in the country, push-ing up prices sky high.

Incidentally, India’s shortfall ofsteel output and the rise in its exportsseem to have happened by a quirk of

mand for steel to feed its massive in-frastructure development led to a ris-ing demand for iron ore in the Asiancountry. According to market intelli-gence firm SteelMint, Indian iron oreexports had more than doubled to 40.7mt in calendar year 2020 from 19.1 mtin 2019. Of the 40.7 mt of total Indianexports, China alone accounted for38.1 mt in 2020 as against 16.6 mt in2019.

Rising demand for iron ore, mainlytriggered by the Chinese demand,sent the price of the raw material spi-ralling to $170 per tonne last year asagainst $100 per tonne earlier. Indianiron ore miners naturally took advan-tage of rising prices and exported theraw material.

Indian iron ore production, in themeanwhile, plunged to 92.08 mt be-tween April and October 2020, a fallof 30 per cent of the production dur-ing the year-ago period. However, ironore output recovered in subsequentmonths to close 2020 at around 220mt, the same level as that of 2019. Itwas particularly in these months ofthe shortfall that Indian and globaliron ore prices shot up sharply.

Indian steel-makers – particularlysmall, secondary steel producers –were deeply impacted by the severeshortage of iron ore and its risingprices. However, fully-integrated steelproducers, such as Tata Steel, JSWSteel and ArcelorMittal Nippon,were largely unaffected by iron oreshortfall, thanks to their captive ironore mines.

Sliding pricesFortunately, after touching new highsin the new year, steel prices have beeninching downwards in the past twomonths. However, they are still at ahigh level compared to the prices ayear ago. The good news is that ana-lysts tracking the steel sector foreseeprices dropping by as much as 10 percent from their January highs over thenext few months. They add that soft-ening global prices, the recent UnionBudget’s Customs Duty cuts and

fate. China, the major exporter of steel,announced a huge stimulus packagefocused on domestic infrastructuredevelopment last year. So, Chinesesteel-makers cut back on exports andfocused more on the domestic mar-ket. This led to a shortage in manycountries where China used to sup-ply steel. This forced those countriesto look for exports from alternativecountries, including India, leading tothe rise in Indian exports.

Interestingly, China’s growing de-

Severe shortage due tohigher exports on the backof lower production

Lower production by small,secondary steelmanufacturers reeling undersevere shortage of iron ore

Iron ore prices more thandoubled amid high shortage,mainly driven by higher oreexports

Iron ore shortage aggravatedby delay in operationalising13 mines in Odisha that wereauctioned last year

Why Steel PricesSurged?

Miners are irked that steel-makers are blaming exports for shortage ofiron ore when over 162 mt of the raw material is lying idle at mine-heads.


“There is no wayIndian prices willbe costlier thanthe landed costof imports. IfIndian prices are

not aligned with the landed costof steel, imports will flood themarket.”

SESHAGIRI RAOJMD, JSW Steel

weakening of iron ore prices are setto bring steel prices down in the nextfew months.

The Union Budget’s proposal toslash various Customs Duties on steelscrap and other steel products hascome as a huge relief for micro, smalland medium enterprises (MSMEs) andthe government itself, which has em-barked on massive infrastructure de-velopment projects. Customs Duty of2.5 per cent on import of iron and steelscrap has been reduced to nil up toMarch 31, 2022. This will encouragesecondary steel producers to increaseoutput, help improve supply of TMTsteel rebars and put pressure on steelprices.

The Budget has also cut the BasicCustoms Duty on several steel prod-ucts from 10-12.5 per cent to 7.5 percent uniformly. Additionally, the Anti-Dumping Duty and theCountervailing Duty on specifiedsteel products have been temporarilyrevoked up to September 30, 2021.These measures are expected to pro-vide much-needed respite for MSMEsand other steel-based industries. Re-

duction in Customs Duties is likely tolead to excess supply of steel in thedomestic market and thus compel In-dian steel-makers to cut prices.

“There is no way Indian prices willbe costlier than the landed cost of im-ports. If Indian prices are not alignedwith the landed cost of steel, importswill flood the market,” opines JSWSteel Joint Managing DirectorSeshagiri Rao. Jayanta Roy, the se-nior vice-president of ICRA, alsoagrees with Mr Rao’s views and adds:“Considering the lead time of abouttwo months for the imports to arriveat the Indian shores, domestic steel

prices could correct by up to 10 percent to align with the internationalprices and remain competitive in thedomestic market.”

Steel prices would also drop be-cause of a fall in domestic prices ofiron ore. Some of the issues related toiron ore are being eased out, facilitat-ing a smoother supply of the vital rawmaterial in adequate quantity. “Non-operationalisation of 13 working min-ing leases in Odisha after their auc-tion in March 2020 was one of the rea-sons for shortage of iron ore and itshigh price. The government has takensteps to ramp up production of ironore and steel to increase their domes-tic availability to bridge the demand-supply mismatch,” said Minister ofSteel Dharmendra Pradhan in a writ-ten reply to the Rajya Sabha recently.

Mr Pradhan further added: “Themeasures to step up iron ore supplyinclude ramping up production andmaximum capacity utilisation by gov-ernment mining companies; grant ofpermission to SAIL to sell 25 per centof fresh fines and 70 mt of dumps andtailings; accelerating auction of iron

India Steel Sanpshot

India the world’s second-largest producer of crudesteel after China

Steel production above 100 mt (about 100 mt in2020 and 111 mt in 2019) in the past two years

India net exporter since last two years, shippingout 7 mt and 10 mt in 2019 and 2020 respectively

Imports stagnant at about 5 mt in both 2019 and2020

India’s finished steel consumption estimated toincrease to 230 mt by 2030-31 from a little over100 mt in 2020

Per capita consumption of finished steel to rise to160 kg by 2030-31 from 74.7 kg in 2019-20 againstworld average of 229 kg

Steel production to rise to 300 mt by 2030according to National Steel Policy 2017

COVER STORY


World's Top 10-ProducersCountry 2020 2019 Change ( )

ore fines by SAIL; and earlyoperationalisation of forfeited work-ing mines of Odisha by State and Cen-tral PSUs.”

With iron ore supply easing a bit,the result is already visible. State-owned National Mineral DevelopmentCorporation (NMDC), the country’slargest iron ore producer and exporter,has recently reduced prices of iron oreby Rs 600 per tonne to a little overRs 4,200 per tonne. “Prices are cor-recting across the valuechain. Pellet prices havegone down after NMDC re-duced prices and increasedthe supply of iron ore,”points out Amit Dixit, a re-search analyst of Edelweiss.

Bright prospectsSoftening steel prices bodewell for a spectrum of indus-tries across the world, in-cluding India. Besides,large fiscal stimulus pack-ages rolled out by govern-ments in Europe, the USand other major economies,such as China and India,have brought energy andenthusiasm back to variousinfrastructural and indus-

trial project developers. Steel-makersworldwide expect this combination offalling prices and rising demand todrive the steel industry as well as theglobal economy.

In India, the biggest push to steelwould be from government spendingon infrastructure projects, contribut-ing around 60 per cent of the incre-mental demand for the alloy. “Thepath-breaking, progressive and pro-

growth Union Budget 2021-22 pro-vides unprecedented focus on infra-structure creation for future. This willcertainly result in increased demandfor steel. Investments in core sectors,like railway, roadway and petroleumand natural gas, which have the po-tential for spurring demand for met-als, have seen a healthy increaseacross the board,” points out MrPradhan.

Moreover, strong growth in end-user industries – primarily automobile,white goods, bearing and forging, pip-ing, drums and barrels and packagingindustries – holds out bright pros-pects for the steel industry. Addition-ally, introduction of the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme in end-use sectors is also expected to spursteel industry growth.

Prickly issuesAnalysts point out that buoyant de-mand for steel will set the alloy on fireand heat up its prices in the near fu-ture. They add that infrastructureprojects in China and India alonecould gobble up most of the steel pro-duced across the world, putting pres-sure on the prices of the alloy.

The likelihood of steel prices soar-ing again is a matter of grave concern,

especially for India, wheresupply constraints have of-ten botched up the best-laidgrowth plans. A long-termsolution would hence be toincrease supply of iron oreand steel to usher in rela-tive stability in their pricesand economic growth. It ishere that the Centre’s pro-duction target of 300 mt ofsteel by 2030 –three-foldgrowth in a decade – israther bold andvisionary.

However, the targetlooks little challenging, par-ticularly in the case of thedomestic steel industry thatis struggling with a raft ofproblems. The issues range

Domestic steel industry is struggling with a raft of problems, including alack of capital to shortage of vital raw materials and bottlenecks inlogistics and infrastructure.

CHINA 1,053.0 1,001.3 5.2

INDIA 99.6 111.4 -10.6

JAPAN 83.2 99.3 -16.2

RUSSIA 73.4 71.6 2.6

US 72.7 87.8 -17.2

S KOREA 67.1 71.4 -6.0

TURKEY 35.8 33.7 6.0

GERMANY 35.7 39.6 -10.0

BRAZIL 31.0 32.6 -4.9

IRAN 29.0 25.6 13.4

%

Steel production figures in mt


“The pro-growth Union Budget2021-22 provides unprecedentedfocus on infrastructure creationfor future. This will certainly resultin increased demand for steel.The government has taken stepsto ramp up production of ironore and steel to increase theirdomestic availability to bridgethe demand-supply mismatch.”

DHARMENDRA PRADHANUnion Minister of Steel

from a lack of capital to shortage ofvital raw materials and bottlenecks inlogistics and infrastructure.

Steel is a capital-intensive indus-try, and according to an estimate, a 1-mt plant would require an investmentof around Rs 8,000 crore. The cost offinancing a new steel plant or evenexpanding an existing one is quite ex-pensive in India. Besides, bank creditto the iron and steel sector has beenon the decline between 2011 and 2020.These issues are particularly worri-some – coming on the back of plung-ing private-sector investments.

Shortage of raw materials is yet an-other major hurdle for the Indian steelindustry. Iron ore, of course, has of-ten been in the limelight for its deficit.But there are other vital raw materials– such as high-grade, lumpy manga-nese ore, chromite, coking coal, steel-grade limestone, nickel and ferrousscrap – whose limited availability inthe domestic market leads to their im-ports. This is one of the factors thatputs Indian steel-makers at a price dis-advantage to that of their globalcounterparts.

The government needs to stream-line its processes and procedures toensure that there is sufficient supplyof iron ore and the other raw materialsin the country. The measures shouldrather be permanent in nature insteadof ad hoc, as seen in the recent caseof debottlenecking of iron ore sup-plies on the back of steep rise in pricesof both steel and iron ore.

There is also the urgent need toincrease and improve logistics and in-frastructure and ensure competitive-ness of Indian steel producers in theworld. Transportation of raw materi-als to steel mills and finished steel todemand centres is still quite an ardu-ous task in India, given severalinfrastructural gaps. “The freight costfrom Jamshedpur to Mumbai can beas high as $50 per tonne of steel incomparison to $34 per tonne fromRotterdam to Mumbai,” points outMr Chatterjee, referring to a govern-

ment-backed study.Steel and iron ore are heavily reli-

ant on Indian Railways, which catersto more than 70 per cent of theindustry’s transportation needs. NITIAayog estimates a relative cost dis-advantage at around $25 per tonne offinished steel for Indian steelmakers.This high cost is the result of com-pulsion of Indian Railways tosubsidise the cost of passenger travelwith earnings from freight. The capac-ity of Indian Railways is also con-

strained with availability and place-ment of rakes, which creates bottle-neck points in the entire supply chain,causing delays and leading to highercosts.

Similarly, ports also suffer from lowproductivity, slow loading and un-loading, delayed stevedoring andother myriad issues. A lack of appro-priate digitalisation of the supplychain nodes – like document process-ing and clearances at ports and track-ing and tracing of goods –hitscompetitiveness of Indian steelmanufacturers.

Unlike many countries where steelplants are located closer to ports, steelplants in India are in the inlands, of-ten in remote areas with severe logis-tical challenges. As a result, raw ma-terials and steel travel through a net-work of ports, railways and roads toreach their destination, yet again caus-ing delays and making the productsexpensive.

Though enthusiasm surroundingIndia’s target of tripling its steel out-put fades amid these multiple chal-lenges, but one can hope the govern-ments, state enterprises and privatesector work shoulder-to shoulder tomake this happen as a stable and pros-perous iron and steel industry goes along way in revitalising the economy.

Steel prices are expected to cool down in the near term as a result of ironore turning cheaper, Customs Duty cuts on various steel products as wellas steel scrap. But buoyant demand for steel will set the alloy on fire andheat up its prices in the near future.

MANAGEMENT MANTRA


It would not be exaggerating to say thatSajeev Nair, the chairman and founderof Vieroots Wellness Solutions, literally

breathes marketing. The chief ofBengaluru-headquartered Vieroots, a healthand wellness company, has over 20 yearsof experience in marketing wellness prod-ucts and services.

Interestingly, Vieroots envisions a worldwhere people are empowered to live long,healthy, fulfilling lives by taking charge oftheir own body and mind by convergingscience and technology and modern andancient wellness concepts. With a catchymotto of Live Longer and Stay Younger,Vieroots provides personalised, holistic,lifestyle-management solutions which arescientific and based on evidence for en-hancing physical, mental, social, spiritualand financial well-being of a person.

Mr Nair has covered a successful jour-ney as a serial entrepreneur. He has createdmany successful ventures, like BrammaLearning Solutions, Bramma IT Solutionsand Wellness Solutions, among others.

The Vieroots chief has proven himself ina diversity of domains, including wellness,information technology, direct selling, man-agement consulting and hospitality, amongothers. Inspiring young minds with his mo-tivational journey, Mr Nair is setting an ex-ample for them to fuel their passion andstrive for success. He has also added an-other feather in his cap by establishing him-self as the inventor of Thought ProcessReengineering (TPR) and has conductedthe much-acclaimed Rise Up conventionsfor rapid transformation in attitudes andbeliefs.

He is also recognised as a noted bio-hacker and has a book to his credit too.Bio-hacking can be described as do-it-your-self biology. For many bio-hackers, thisconsists of making small, incremental dietor lifestyle changes to make small improve-ments in one’s health and well-being.

“Right Time, Right Place & RightPeople lead to Winning Formula”

His latest book, The Making of a Super-human, details much of the bio-hacking sci-ence and practice behind Vieroots’ Solu-tions. The book will soon hit the marketand is anticipated to get the attention ofyouths.

An out-and-out team player, Mr Nair hasbeen encouraging and empowering his teammembers to perform to the best of their abili-ties. He rightly believes that employeesneed to be given enough power and free-dom to get the team to deliver to their full-est potential.

A staunch people’s man, the Vierootschief believes that it is people who finallymatter. People are your employees, yoursuppliers as well as your customers. So,maintaining good relationship with yourpeople in business well help take your busi-ness to the next level.

Contributing to Vieroots and reachingnew heights of success, Mr Nair has beenan asset to the industry. In his free time, hehas an inclination towards connecting withnature and likes to invest his energy in help-ing people achieve peak performance lev-els. In an engaging conversation withSharmila Chand, Mr Nair talks about hismanagement principles and practices thathave helped his businesses grow and prosper.

What are your five managementmantras?

Innovation and creativity are the keysto growth.

Stick to principles, as principles are time-less and strategies are timely.

Empower people, and create‘entreployees’ (entrepreneurial employees).

Leveraging is the essence of wealthcreation.

Transparency gives you peace of mind.

What is the turning point in your liferelated to your career?I would say that the turning point in mycareer life was when I took a decision to

“When you startany business,you should havea strong ‘why’.Some peoplejump intobusiness seeingthe success ofothers. But ifyou don’t have astring why to getinto a business,better not do it.”


quit my job and start a business.

What is the secret of your success?It has to be building productive teams thatare totally empowered.

What is your philosophy of work?Show the vision, share the strategy, andsupport the team.

What would be the best advice thatyou have got?Follow your consciousness.

What is your sounding board?My conscience

What is your fitness regime? How doyou keep yourself fit?I exercise five days a week and do intermit-tent fasting for one day and go easy onone day.

What are your five mantras for suc-cess in business?Being at the right time with the rightpeople: I believe that in business, if you arenot at the right time at the right place, howmuch ever hard you work, you will onlystruggle. Equally important is the kind ofpeople you associate with. Right time, rightplace and right people definitely lead to awinning formula.The why factor: When you start any busi-ness, you should have a strong ‘why’.Some people jump into business seeing thesuccess of others. But if you don’t have astring why to get into a business, betternot do it. Your success is not decided bythe market; it is decided by you and thestrength of the reason you have. Write to us at [email protected]

Have a vision: You should know where youare going. People, who have no idea aboutwhere they want to reach, end up nowhere.This is critical for leading a team, as peopleare ready to follow you; they want to knowwhere you are going to take them. Thestrength of your strategy is purely basedon the vision you have.Gain first-hand knowledge: There are manystart-ups which fail because the foundersnever go to the market and test their prod-uct or service. Never appoint a marketingmanager without an entrepreneur himselfhaving experienced the market response.For this, the entrepreneur himself shouldbe the first salesman of the company.Manage your finances well: The first per-son you should have on your payroll is anaccountant. Many people start a businessand also try to manage accounts by them-selves, thinking that as the business grows,they would appoint an accountant. But Ihave seen many such entrepreneurs end-ing up in real trouble.

What message on managementwould you like to give to youngsters?Do your best in whatever you do. Manyyoungsters waste their time in their profes-sion or job, thinking that this was not some-thing which they were supposed to do.What I have experienced in life is thatwhatever happens in your life, it is all a partof some plan. So, accept it without beingjudgemental.

SAJEEV NAIRChairman & Founder,

Vieroots WellnessSolutions

“Never appoint amarketing

manager withoutan entrepreneur

himself havingexperienced the

marketresponse. For

this, theentrepreneur

himself shouldbe the first

salesman of thecompany.”

TRAVELOGUE


SHARMILA CHAND

It is not often that one gets a chanceto raft through the gushes of wa-ter; go flying fox; step into the most

funky cafe; sit by the tranquil river;learn Yoga and meditation by humblemasters; have the best roadside chai(tea); feed the fish; and ‘not feed’ theoverbearing monkeys.

In Rishikesh, one can do all thisand lots more. It is an ongoing affairwith yourself when you don’t haveto prepare a presentation ahead of aboard meeting or take a review of theproject or worry about deadlines. Noscreen time, for a change, and that Icall pure self-indulgence!

Rishikesh will never disappointyou; your companion may. So, chooseyour company wisely, and head to thisenchanting destination. Shed the

Oasis Of PureSelf-IndulgenceBeyond Yoga and meditation, there is something foreveryone – including fine dining, splendid nature,adventure sports and much more – visiting Rishikesh.

myth that it is meant only for spiri-tual-seekers. Or it is all about Yogaand meditation. There is somethingfor everyone here. And then there isthe ongoing Kumbh Mela – the month-long festival set to end on April 10 – innearby Haridwar, about 20 km away.

Walk The CityMild chaos of the traffic and fun gohand in hand in the buzzing streets ofRishikesh, close to the famous LaxmanJhula. Step into the cafes, and enjoythe quirkiness and the live gigs. CafeKarma, Little Buddha Cafe and The60’s Cafe are quite popular. No fancydrawings on the Cappuccino froth,but Cappuccino will be outstanding.

Walk towards the legendaryBeatles Ashram or The ChaurasiKutiya as it has 84 huts, each reflect-ing of what it meant for when theAshram was full of its famous inhabit-

The Beatles Group spent one of their most productivetimes as musicians at The Chaurasi Kutiya.

Go prepared with comfortableshoes, a hat, and always carry abottle of water as you are aboutto get into some seriousexploration trip.

Tuk-Tuks are readily available,and bargaining is not required.

Take frequent breaks to haveroadside chai. If you are a teaperson, you will simply love allthe tea stalls. They are cleanand make some wonderfulmasala tea. It is no high tea orlow tea, it is simply fantastic tea.

Do not miss the sunset by theriver.

If you are planning to go trekking,do your homework well about thearea, or take a guide with you.

Shopping is pretty decent inRishikesh. You could pick upsome Ayurvedic oils and balmsbesides casual shirts andT-shirts.

Rishikesh has all budget optionsto stay from very high end to veryaffordable. For a quiet sojourn,enjoy the private Ghat. GangaKinare – A Riverside BoutiqueHotel is ideal.

Travel Tips

Plan a safari to Rajaji National Park, and you will get intothe peaceful forest blessed with wildlife.


ants (The Beatles Group), who per-haps spent one of their most produc-tive times here as musicians. Musicalhistory abounds in every wall androck here, and one can spend quite afew hours looking at the eye-catch-ing, colourful graffiti.

Evening By The RiverWhile the evening Arati at ParmarthNiketan Ashram is truly an experienceone doesn’t like to miss in Rishikesh,the sun too sets in full glory here. Livesinging and chanting with music andthe backdrop of the setting sun at theGanga Ghat are truly enchanting toenthral any soul.

Safari To Rajaji National ParkPlan a safari to Rajaji Park, and youwill get into the peaceful forestblessed with elephants, tigers, leop-ards and deer. Three sanctuaries inthe Uttarakhand, Shivaliks – Rajaji,Motichur and Chila – were amalgam-ated into a large protected area andnamed Rajaji National Park in 1983 af-ter the famous freedom fighter lateSri C Rajgopalachari, popularly knownas Rajaji.

Visitors enjoy jeep and elephant

enough to keep them happily en-gaged. There are several operators ofboth River Rafting and Zipline, whichare done with all safety measures.

DiningYou can enjoy the usual snacks asthe street food and, of course, thereis the famous Choti Wala restaurant,but for a special meal, Varr At TheHolyWater Hotel By Ganga Kinare isstrongly recommended. Here, you willget to taste the unique thali, compris-ing the dishes served as prasadam invarious temples of India. The restau-rant is one of its kind, offering thetemple food of India, encompassingthe entire country. What better placeto relish the temple food than in holycity Rishikesh.

To Conclude...Lace your sneakers, and walk around.This is exactly what I did. I watchedkids giggle when I bought a basket offlowers from them or showed theirangry faces if I didn’t buy. AsI return with a collage of my memo-ries, I promise myself to make the nextcollage soon.

safaris going through hilly terrains,forest tracks, river beds and unex-plored sprawling grasslands. Duringthe safari, one can spot rich wildlife,including Asian elephants, tiger, pan-ther, chital, sambar, wild boar, python,monitor lizard, wild cats and, ofcourse, many birds and species of dif-ferent plants, shrubs and trees.

Rafting, ZiplineFor adventure-seekers, there is

Varr At The HolyWater Hotel is aunique restaurant that offers thali,comprising prasadams of variousIndian temples.

Live singing and chanting with music and the setting sun at the Ganga Ghat are truly enchanting to enthral any soul.

Write to us at [email protected]

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GLOBAL WRAP-UP

Volvo to go all electric by 2030Volvo Cars is onlygoing to sell elec-tric vehicles by2030, the Swed-ish vehicle manu-facturer has said.The companywill phase out allcar models with

internal combustion engines, including hybrids, by then.The car-maker is also planning to invest heavily in onlinesales and simplifying its products. It is trying to capitaliseon growing demand for electric cars, including in China,which is already one of its biggest markets. Car-makers arealso responding to pressure from governments around theworld to beef up their electric car plans.

has cost the world awhopping $70 trillion since1990. The BofA report alsonotes that full genderequality globally can increasethe world GDP by up to $28trillion by 2025. Loss ofhuman capital wealth due togender inequality is estimatedat $160.2 trillion. Closingracial earnings gap resultingfrom disparities would boosttrend growth by 0.5 per centper year through 2050, thereport adds.

Aston Martin to makee-cars in UKAston Martin plans to startmanufacturing its newelectric cars (e-cars) in theUK from 2025, the biggestshareholder of the companyhas said. Aston MartinChairman Lawrence Strollhas added that its electricsports cars and sports utilityvehicles will be manufacturedat plants in England andWales respectively.Mr Stroll, who led a 535-million-pound ($740 million)rescue of the company in2020, holds a 22 per centstake in the company and isits largest shareholder.Though Aston Martin isopen to all options, itselectric vehicles could bepowered by batteriesprovided by Daimler’sMercedes-Benz.

Apollo to buy Athenefor $11 billionApollo Global Managementwill be merging with AtheneHolding in a $11-billion, all-stock deal. Apollo has beengetting paid lucrative fees byAthene, in which it currentlyholds a 27 per cent stake, formore than a decade. Apollohas been providing assetallocation services and isdirectly managing a portionof Athene’s assets across itsinvestment platform,primarily in its ever-expanding credit business.


AerCap to buy GE’s unit for $30 bnIreland’s AerCaphas finalised a dealworth more than$30 billion to buythe leasing busi-ness of GeneralElectric (GE). Theacquisition will

lead to the world’s two largest aircraft leasing companiescombining to create a new financing giant. The two compa-nies – which tied the knot last month after days of specula-tion surrounding a takeover of GE’s leasing arm GECAS –together control more than 2,000 jets, dwarfing rivals. Thetie-up creates easily the largest buyer of jetliners built byplane-makers Airbus and Boeing and will reshape a globalair finance industry.

Singapore bans newdiesel cars from 2025Singapore will not allowdiesel-powered cars and taxisto be registered from 2025,five years ahead of previ-ously scheduled. This is seenas a part of Singapore’s pushto reduce emissions andencourage adoption ofelectric vehicles (EV). About2.9 per cent of passenger carsin Singapore run on diesel,while the proportion is ashigh as 41.5 per cent fortaxis, according to LandTransport Authority figures.Most goods vehicles andbuses in the City-State runon diesel and will not beaffected by the new rule,announced by the govern-ment last month. Singaporeplans to install 60,000 EV-charging stations by 2030.

China to boostspending in chips, AIChina has pledged to boostspending and drive researchinto cutting-edge chips andartificial intelligence (AI) inits latest five-year targets.The Asian country has laidout a technological blueprintto vie for global influencewith the US. Chinese PremierLi Keqiang has singled outkey areas, in which toachieve “major breakthroughsin core technologies”,including high-end semicon-ductors, operating systems,computer processors andcloud computing – areas inwhich American companiesnow hold sway. Beijing willalso aim to get 56 per cent ofthe country on faster fifth-generation or 5G networks.

$70-trillion loss dueto gender inequalityEconomists at BofASecurities have tabulated thecost of lack of genderdiversity and inclusion,saying that it will take 257years to close the gap.Besides, not closing the gap

Rogers, Shaw in $16.02-billion dealRogers Communi-cations is buyingShaw Communica-tions for aboutC$20 billion($16.02 billion).The deal wouldcreate Canada’s

second-largest cellular and cable operator, but it might at-tract stiff regulatory scrutiny too. By acquiring fourth-ranked Shaw, Rogers would leapfrog Telus Corp and takeon market leader BCE in the highly-competitive Canadiantelecommunications industry. Rogers, whose business isconcentrated in urban centres of Ontario, is also expected togain from Shaw’s strong presence in the sparsely populatedregions of Western Canada. The deal would also help Rogersswiftly roll out 5G throughout the country.


Apollo has said that itestimates the tax-freecombination to result in itsearnings in 2021 more thandoubling year on year.

Sarkozy convicted ofcorruption

company’s assets and sellingits loss-making US shalebusiness. The move comes ata critical moment for Shell asit seeks to recover from thecollapse in global oil demandduring the pandemic andrealign its business.

Nokia to cut 10,000jobs in two yearsNokia has announced plansto cut up to 10,000 jobswithin two years to trimcosts and invest more inresearch capabilities. TheFinnish telecom company’smove is aimed at stepping upits challenge to Sweden’sEricsson and China’sHuawei. After taking overthe top job last year, NokiaChief Executive PekkaLundmark has been makingchanges to recover fromproduct missteps under thecompany’s previousmanagement that hurt its 5Gambitions and dragged on itsshares. He announced a newstrategy last October, underwhich Nokia will have fourbusiness groups and willstrive to take the lead in 5G.

Most economiesbadly hit by COVIDMoody’s Investors Servicehas said that the creditdownturn arising out ofCOVID-19 will be short-lived, but most economieswill not return to pre-pandemic activity levels until2022. In the year since theWorld Health Organization(WHO) declared COVID-19a pandemic on March 11,2020, the virus has disruptedthe global economy andtriggered a credit downturnaccompanied by a spike inbond defaults. “The creditchallenges arising fromCOVID-19 have beensubstantial, but the creditdownturn likely will berelatively short-lived,”Moody’s has said in a recentglobal report.

Alibaba told to sell off media assetsChina’s govern-ment has askedAlibaba GroupHolding to disposeof its media assets.Discussions overthe matter havebeen held sinceearly this year, andofficials are shocked at how expansive Alibaba’s media in-terests have become, according to media reports. Alibaba,whose mainstay business is online retail, has stakes in theTwitter-like Weibo platform and several news outlets, in-cluding Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post. Such in-fluence is seen as posing serious challenges to the ChineseCommunist Party and its own powerful propaganda appa-ratus, the reports have added.

Panasonic to acquire Blue YonderPanasonic Corpwill buy US soft-ware firm BlueYonder for 700 bil-lion yen ($6.45 bil-lion). Analystspoint out that thisis the Japaneseelectronics company’s biggest acquisition since 2011. WhilePanasonic had bought 20 per cent stake of Blue Yonder in2020, it is now in the final stage to acquire the remainingstake from shareholders, including the Blackstone Group.The acquisition takes place as the Japanese company aimsto expand hardware that combines software, sensors andother devices to help companies improve operational effi-ciencies.

Geely plans $4.61-bn EV battery plantGeely will bebuilding an electricvehicle (EV) bat-tery factory witha planned annualmanufacturing ca-pacity of 42 gwhin China’s easterncity of Ganzhou, as it expands its EV line-up in the world’sbiggest car market. The total investment in the project byGeely’s technology arm will be $4.61 billion, according to aseparate statement from the local government. Geely’s tech-nology group has previously invested in Ganzhou-basedEV battery-maker Farasis. The planned factory comesafter Geely announced a flurry of tie-ups in January aimedat turning the auto-maker into a leading EV contractmanufacturer.

A Paris court has foundformer French PresidentNicolas Sarkozy guilty ofcorruption and sentenced himto one year in prison and atwo-year suspendedsentence. The 66-year-oldpolitician, who was presidentfrom 2007 to 2012, wasconvicted for having tried toillegally obtain informationfrom a senior magistrate in2014 about a legal action inwhich he was involved. Thecourt has said that MrSarkozy will be entitled torequest to be detained athome with an electronicbracelet. This is the first timein France’s modern historythat a former president hasgone on trial for corruption.

Mackenzie new ShellchairmanRoyal Dutch Shell hasappointed former BHP ChiefExecutive AndrewMackenzie as its newchairman, as it overhauls itsbusiness to reduce its long-term reliance on oil. MrMackenzie’s six-year tenureat BHP was dominated by adrive to sweat its assetsharder and streamline thebusiness, spinning off agroup of the mining

READERS' LOUNGE


Maharashtra, India’s richest State by GDP, has itseyes set on becoming the country’s first trillion-dollar economy by 2025. At the same time,

Marathwada – a historically backward part of the Stateadjoining the distressed Vidarbha region – has seen a surge

in farmers’ suicides.Author Kavitha Iyer tells

the story of Marathwada –with its stunning basalt hills,scorched brown earth, theflaming reds and pinks thelocals wear – through the ac-counts of its people: marginalfarmers, Dalits, landlesslabourers, farm widows andchildren. Marathwada, whichis home to the UNESCOWorld Heritage Sites ofAjanta and Ellora caves, hasbeen struggling with growth.

At the heart of the crisis is

Marathwada’s Messa cyclical drought that has persisted for almost a decade.Relief packages and loan waivers have not reversed thetrend. On the contrary, the stories of dystopia grow moretragic every year as thousands of farmers’ families flee tothe big cities, while those who stay back are plagued bybad credit and crop loss.

Ms Iyer’s book is an in-depth reportage on the calam-ity that has been threatening lives and livelihoods in theregion. Unprecedented depletion in groundwater levels,coupled with long dry spells, unabated drawing of waterfrom reservoirs, while all this has been going wrong, com-mercial greed has increased the problem manifold.

A parallel economy has sprung up. While farming isnot possible without water tankers needed to keep thefruit trees blooming in the scorching summer, with publictaps going dry, common people are forced to buy watertoo. These rates are way higher than what the alcoholindustry in the region pays. Ms Iyer highlights how theMarathwada drought is deeply connected with inequal-ity. She points out how water-intensive industries, suchas beer and paper manufacturing, fall in special economiczones, while thousands migrate to cities to escape waterscarcity every year.

Tragedy unfolds in chapter after chapter. Ms Iyer pointsat government failure, the groundwater and irrigation in-frastructure backlog in Marathwada, the vicious cycle ofloss and desperate measures that lead to hundreds of farm-ers’ suicides each year, the women and children left be-hind, the drought mitigation works and their assessment.Ms Iyer adds that her broken Marathi has had locals open-ing their hearts to her and 20 years of reporting from ruralMaharashtra have helped her understand why everybodyloves a good drought.

Through research and reporting, this book puts for-ward a comprehensive picture of drought, corporate greedand farmers’ lives in Marathwada. The author speaks aboutthe unchecked drawing of groundwater and how theborewell and tanker industries contribute to the “thirsteconomy” operating in the region.

This book tells the story of Marathwada through theaccounts of its people. It lays bare the complex factorsthat have brought the region to this pass – a story repre-sentative, in many ways, of the agrarian unrest in largeparts of rural India.

AuthorKAVITHA IYERPublisherHARPERCOLLINS INDIAPages: 248Price: Rs 599

LANDSCAPES OF LOSS

About the authorFor 20 years, Kavitha Iyer’s work as a journalist has revolved around recounting stories of those on the margins – from slum-dwellers in Mumbai to indigenous farmers in remote villages. She has written extensively on India’s farm crisis, land rights,land reform, farmer suicides, distress migration and urbanisation. After two stints spanning over 17 years with The IndianExpress, she is now an independent journalist.


In September 2001, Jeff Immelt replaced Jack Welch, themost famous CEO of General Electric (GE). Less than a

week into his tenure, the 9/11 terrorist attacks shook theUS and the automobile company to its core. Facing anunprecedented situation, Mr Immelt knew his response

would set the tone for busi-nesses everywhere that lookedto GE for direction. Over thenext 16 years, Mr Immelt wouldlead GE through many moredire moments.

In this book, Mr Immelt of-fers a rigorous, candid interro-gation of himself and his ten-ure, detailing for the first timehis proudest moments and hisbiggest mistakes. The mostcrucial component of leader-ship, he writes, is the willing-ness to make decisions. But

What Ails Indian Banking?Do you often wonder: “Is my money safe in banks?”

India is grappling with its worst banking crisisever, and we are still trying to figure out what

landed us here. This book by eminent economist MadanSabnavis analyses the role of the government and the

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) inallowing the problem to reachthe dimension it has assumedtoday.

When will the never-endingnon-performing assets (NPAs)issue be resolved? Does itmake sense to merge two pub-lic sector banks (PSBs) whenthe culture and governancestructures are alike? Should theRBI’s reserves be used in timesof crisis? The book pondersand debates on some of thesequestions.

Divided in two parts, the book provides trend analysisin the first half and talks about issues facing the sector inthe subsequent 29 chapters.

In an engaging narrative, the author pulls no punches

AuthorMADAN SABNAVISPublisherSAGE PUBLICATIONS INDIAPages: 320Price: Rs 550

HITS & MISSES

A Celebrated CEO Recalls...knowing what to do is a thousand times easier than know-ing when to do it.

Perseverance, combined with clear communication, canensure progress, if not perfection, the author writes.Mr Immelt explains how he has pushed through even themost withering criticism by staying focused on his teamand the goals they tried to achieve. As the business worldcontinues to be rocked by stun-ning economic upheaval, thisbook is an urgently-needed andunusually-raw source of authori-tative guidance for decisive lead-ership in uncertain times.

right from the start as he writes about the financial crisisof 2007 and 2008 and how India was insulated and evenproud of the fact that nothing was going to happen be-cause Indian banks are a “cut above the rest”, being ring-fenced by prudential regulation and best practices. Hethen takes the conversation to developments in Punjaband Maharashtra Bank and Yes Bank.

Mr Sabnavis presents the two sides of the Indian bank-ing story by giving an account of the reforms as well asquandaries in times of extraor-dinary economic and politicalchallenges. The book an-swers many relevant ques-tions by highlighting thehighs and the lows of thebanking sector, which has be-come a subject of debate inthe media and financial

About the authorMadan Sabnavis is chief economist of CARE Ratings. Apractising corporate economist for 33 years, Mr Sabnavisstarted his career in the erstwhile ICICI in 1987. He hasalso worked with ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro and NCDEX.

About the authorJeff Immelt was the ninth chairman of GE and served as itsCEO for 16 years. He has been named one of the “World’sBest CEOs” three times by Barron’s. During his tenure asCEO, GE was named “America’s Most Admired Company”by the Fortune magazine.

AuthorJEFF IMMELTPublisherHODDER & STOUGHTONPages: 352Price: Rs 2,312

HOT SEAT

STAR TALK

CANCER

ARIES Mar 21-Apr 20

Some energising relationships may produce asmile on your face. Singles in search of theirspecial someone may experience the affectionfor their life. You may get some worthwhile

monetary arrangements from startling sources as well asthrough dear companions. It might get vital for office-going experts to get some much-needed rest from theirfurious and packed timetables. Unexpected stomach-re-lated issues may grasp you. So, carry some medical aidwith you.

Jun 22-Jul 22

This month will cause you to feel energetic,as there will be numerous good advances inyour personal as well as professional lives.Generally, this month will be good for you in

spite of the fact that it is probably going to test yourabilities and persistence. This month may stay favourablefor your monetary status. You will have the option to dealwith assets keenly, which may likewise help your money-related possibilities. Besides, the transiting Venus showsthat you will be fairly forceful in spending, which meansthat you won’t reconsider before spending. You have tocontrol such enticements.

Generally, this month will be beneficial for you.Be confident with your work. This month willbe great as far as profession is concerned,and you might as well receive some increment.

You should work earnestly, as this will help you in theworking environment. Those of you who are in the whole-sale business will gain a lot. But be wary while investingmoney in the business. This month may give you greatmonetary benefit, if you are related to any legal work.

TAURUS Apr 21-May 21

Despite the fact that you will be a stickler foraccuracy, slowing down your work can post-pone the advantage that you can achieve. Youare managing substantial money, related stress

and some other issues of confidence this month. This isthe time to take a short trip. Earning money for your familyis not the sole duty of a father; you should likewise dis-cover time to take care of your family. You will discoverthat this is also an ideal time for you to execute the changesyou want to make at home just as at the workplace.

May 22-Jun 21GEMINI

The impact of Saturn may continue to showerdiscontent. All things considered, there are anumber of other planetary combinations whichcan work in your favour, and henceforth, you

should channel your energy in a positive way. The auspi-cious planets will continue getting ready ground for en-during monetary benefits and rewarding arrangements andopenings for you during this month. You will run into an-other hotspot for boosting your earnings. The transitingMercury may assist you with making some crucial choiceshere. Planetary impacts may also assist you with improv-ing your health.

LEO Jul 23-Aug 23

Aug 24-Sep 23

Planetary impact will be useful for you to grow.Your career is probably going to thrive, andyou will be inspired to demonstrate your ca-pacities. In spite of the fact that there might

be a few postponements and challenges at the outset,with the positive effect of Mercury, your career is prob-ably going to move towards an optimistic zone as the monthadvances. You may have a great inflow of cash, yet youwill have to keep a tight leash on your costs, as theremight be some pressure to spend. Abstain from takingany risks for short-term profits, cautions Ganesha.

VIRGO

The month will be generally excellent for thosewanting to deal with their ventures. You willrelook at your portfolio, which will empoweryou to chip away at the nitty-gritty. You will

get rid of your portfolio that isn’t empowering you with anacceptable salary. The normal pay should be adjusted,and you will include extra pay that will facilitate your pro-gression of salary. Just ensure that you do not invest inreal estate. The month can place you in a fix and enticeyou to contribute to property that will sound rewarding,yet actually it might be a costly suggestion.

LIBRA Sep 24-Oct 23

Is it accurate to say that you are on the edgeabout how the future will pan out for you? Bepractical, and don’t stress over what is in storeover the long haul. Those hoping to begin

another excursion to visit faraway spots are probably go-ing to take up the travel this month. Make sure that youhave adequate cash before such visits. Individuals intend-ing to change their jobs will have numerous chances thatwill give you enough cash. This job will suit your charac-ter and even your ability. Snatch such open opportunitieswith both your hands, advises Ganesha.

SCORPIO Oct 24-Nov 22



Younger India May Surpass China In The Long Run

The second half of the 21st cen-tury will witness a shift of the

global power centre from Europeand North America to Asia. It is pre-dicted that China and India – thetwo big Asian powers – will surpassthe US and become the world’s twolargest economies in the next fewdecades. But between China andIndia, it is not yet very clear whowill be the world’s foremosteconomy. Ganesha analyses thehoroscopes of the two countriesand foretells the China-India story.

Astrological analysisThe planets point to a fast growthof the Indian economy. The Indianeconomy may take some time tostabilise and come back to its su-per-development mode. The rising

You will need to be tolerant to get a decentand anticipated outcome. Determination andhard work will be needed to get the normaloutcome. A foreign connection will be identi-

fied with your work. You will get a decent amount of ap-preciation pertaining to your imaginative thoughts at yourworkplace. You may tend to overspend, and unexpectedexpenses may lead you into a budgetary crunch. Compli-cations in your sleeping patterns may come up with extratasks at hand. Transit of Mars will throw some challeng-ing times at you along with some physiological burden atthe workplace, warns Ganesha.

AQUARIUS Jan 21-Feb 18

You will be effective to accumulate a decentmeasure of monetary profit and savings thismonth. There will be budgetary assistance fromyour family too. Your siblings can help you in

your business as well this month. Those who arefreelancers or independent professionals may get a de-cent opening this month. A career in writing can give yougreat monetary benefit too. Animosity at the workplacecan often worry you. Try not to get into any pointlesscontention, as a transit of planets can make you lose yourlife partner and furthermore put you into legal problems,adds Ganesha.

Feb 19-Mar 20PISCESCAPRICORN Dec 22-Jan 20

This month will give positive results to mostof you. Astonishing doors will open for yourcareer development and progression. Indi-viduals who are career-oriented will have the

option to perform adequately during this period. Some ofyou may likewise get elevated to high positions. This pe-riod may not be splendid for property-related speculations.So, don’t speculate. Business ventures and gatheringsare ideal to be avoided as of now, as they will end up beingexceptionally unfruitful. Concentrate on avoiding unnec-essary costs to save for future needs. This is definitelynot an ideal period to put resources into beauty, clothingand cosmetics businesses.

Indian society cannot be stopped. TheCOVID-19 dampener could only post-pone the Indian economic growth, butit cannot sabotage it. In fact, as theeconomy is rebounding, it may growat an explosive rate as the needs andrequirements of the people will comeback with a vengeance.

According to the planets, things

may not be as rosy for China in fu-ture. China has developed a lot, butit may not continue to develop somuch in future. The CommunistParty of China has made the coun-try grow by hook or crook. TheChinese economic growth has notbeen very natural or inherent. Chinamay lose its sharp momentum ofeconomic growth in the near term.Having implemented the one-childnorm for the last several decades,China is facing the insurmountableproblem of an ageing population.

According to the stars, Chinamay lose its super-growth statussometime soon. The downfall ofChina may naturally imply anIndian upsurge. Stars look brightfor India.

It may not be as rosy for China infuture, while stars look bright forIndia.

This month will marginally help some of youto move up in life. The past has not been ac-cording to desire, and this has created numer-ous issues for you. During the month, a sig-

nificant number of you will appreciate the favours of fam-ily seniors and profound leaders. You will get fine helpand bliss through your relatives. You will carry out altruis-tic things, for which the prize is probably going to bemagnificent. Indeed, even sentimental life is probably go-ing to be great, and you will likewise be victorious. A jour-ney to a religious spot is foreseen for a couple of you.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23-Dec 21

KNOWLEDGE ZONE


Last December, Bata India CEOSandeep Kataria scripted a new

chapter in history when he was namedthe global CEO of Bata. Mr Kataria, infact, became the first Indian to be el-evated to a global role in the 126-year-old footwear company.

The 49-year-old Bata chief tookover his new role from Alexis Nasard,who stepped down after almost fiveyears at the helm of the famous foot-wear brand. Incidentally, with his pro-motion to the global level, Mr Katariajoins the distinguished league of In-dian-origin executives who haveclimbed the highest echelons of multi-million-dollar global corporationacross FMCG to IT and other diversesectors.

An alumnus of IIT-Delhi and XLRI-Jamshedpur, the Bata CEO was a goldmedallist of the 1993 PGDBM batchat XLRI. After 24 years of experienceat Unilever, Yum Brands andVodafone in India and Europe,Mr Kataria joined Bata India as CEOin 2017. His elevation to the global

Marie Claire and North Star, amongothers – into a vibrant footwear com-pany. He helped drive the company’sconsistent growth and profitability.Under his leadership of three years,Bata India’s consolidated net profitincreased by a compounded annualgrowth rate (CAGR) of 27.4 per centto over Rs 329 crore in FY20. BataIndia’s net sales also went up by al-most 7 per cent to more than Rs 3,056crore during the period under review.

Mr Kataria also played a signifi-cant role in revamping Bata’s imageto a more vibrant and contemporarybrand, targeted at young consumers.Intense competition in the Indian foot-wear market prompted Mr Kataria tooffer premium products constantly,especially keeping the youngmillennials in mind. He also focused oninnovation and new technologies andmodernised the look of Bata stores.

Under Mr Kataria, Bata India in-vested heavily in expanding its prod-uct portfolio in line with evolvinglifestyles of consumers. It also laid

stage seems to be a rewarding recog-nition of Mr Kataria’s excellent workat Bata India.

In a short span of three years,Mr Kataria managed to transform BataIndia and its numerous brands – Bata,Hush Puppies, Naturalizer, Power,

F A C T SF O R Y O U

SPECIAL PURPOSE ACQUISITION COMPANY

ReNew Power, the country’s lead-ing renewable energy company,

recently struck a deal with RMG Ac-quisition Corporation II, a Special Pur-pose Acquisition Company (SPAC)listed on US stock exchangeNASDAQ, to go public in the UnitedStates. SoftBank-backed online gro-cery startup Grofers and Walmart-owned online retailer have also heldtalks with SPACs, which are alsoknown as blank-cheque companies,to explore the option of listing in theUS. Market analysts point out that atleast a dozen more Indian technologyand internet startups are expected tochoose the SPAC route to the initialpublic offer (IPO) for their US listing

$174 billion. Many more SPAC listingsare expected this year, and US marketexperts are already hailing 2021 as theyear of the SPAC.

So, what exactly are SPACs, andwhy have they emerged so popular inthe past one year? A SPAC is a pub-licly-traded entity that exists solely toraise money from the market and ac-quire an existing private company.SPACs are a way for companies tomake the leap from privately-held en-tity to publicly-traded company in away that is often less complicatedthan an IPO.

A SPAC is formed by a group ofsponsors, often well-known inves-tors, private equity firms or venturecapitalists. SPACs go through thetypical IPO process and raise moneyfrom the market. A SPAC generally hastwo years to search for a private com-pany with which to merge or acquire,bringing it public in the process as it

over the next one year.In 2020, 247 SPACs raised around

$83 billion from the US market, repre-senting almost 50 per cent of the 494IPOs that raised capital worth about

A dozen of Indian startups areexpected to take the SPAC routefor global listing and global growth.

AT THE HELM

SANDEEP KATARIA

Misuse of VyavasthitQuestioner: The clashes that occur, theymust be subject to vyavasthit (result ofscientific circumstantial evidence), mustn’t they?

Dadashri: Yes, clashes are actually subjectto vyavasthit, but when can that be said? It isonly after the clash happens. Your firmresolve is: ‘I do not want to get into any clash.’If you see a pole in your path, then you know:‘A pole is coming up, I have to walk aroundit, I definitely do not want to run into it.’ Butdespite this, if collision occurs, then youshould say: ‘It is a result of scientif iccircumstantial evidence.’ If you carry onbelieving that it is a result of scientificcircumstantial evidence from the verybeginning, then it would be considered asmisuse of vyavasthit.

Energies Get Destroyed Through FrictionDadashri: If all the energies of the Self wereto ever get destroyed, it is then throughfriction. If one collides even slightly due tofriction, then he is done for! If the other personcollides, then you should remain underrestraint. Collision should not happen at all. Then if this body is to die, itwill die (no matter how difficult a circumstance); but you should not getinto collision. If only there were no collisions, then a person would attainliberation. If someone learns that: ‘I do not want to get into collision at all,’then he will not need a guru or anyone else in between. In one or twolifetimes, he would go directly to liberation. If there has been physicalcollision and an injury has been sustained, if you then treat it, it will behealed. But who will remove the stains that form in the mind or the intellectdue to friction and clash? They will not leave even after thousands oflifetimes.Questioner: Are wounds inflicted on the mind and intellect due to friction?

Dadashri: Oh! Not only on the mind and the intellect, wounds keepgetting inflicted on the entire antahkaran (mind-intellect-chit-ego complex),and the effect of that falls on the body too. So, there are so many difficultiesdue to clashes!

Questioner: You are saying that all the energies get destroyed throughfriction. Then can the energy be pulled back through awareness?

Dadashri: There is no need to pull back the energies. The energies areindeed there. Now, the energy is arising. The friction that arose in thepast and the loss that was incurred – that (energy) is indeed comingback. But if you now create new friction, then the energy will leave again.The energy that arose will also leave, and if you do not allow friction totake place at all, then energy will keep arising!

In this world, friction happens due to enmity. The root cause of worldly lifeis enmity. The one for whom enmity and friction have stopped, that personhas attained liberation! Love is not a hindrance; if enmity leaves, thenlove arises.

Spiritual Corner Avoid Clashesstress on innovation, new designs,new store openings, renovation andmarketing campaigns. Bata also un-dertook online marketing initiativesusing digital influencers.

From Bata India, it is a big leap forMr Kataria onto the global stage. TheLausanne, Switzerland-headquar-tered multinational footwear-maker,founded by Czech businessmanTomas Bata in 1894, operates in morethan 70 countries. Bata sells more than18 crore pairs of shoes – made in its22 manufacturing facilities across fivecontinents –annually in 5,800 storesacross the world.

As Mr Kataria takes charge, hefaces the big challenge of pushingBata’s sales across the globe. Besides,the new Bata chief has the oneroustask of getting sales back to the pre-COVID level. Having successfully ledthe company’s operations in India, theworld’s second-largest footwear mar-ket after China, it is more than likelythat Mr Kataria would come up trumpsin his new global role too.

PUJYA DADASHRI

becomes a part of the publicly-tradedSPAC. Shareholders of the SPAC willprofit as valuation of the combinedentity of the private company and theSPAC increases after listing.

India has the world’s third-largeststartup ecosystem, being home toover 40,000 startups and 38 unicorns.Many of these start-ups are consid-ering the SPAC route to grow glo-bally. But there are a few hurdles forSPACs to take off in India.

A raft of regulatory approvalscould delay and, at times frustrate, thedeals in materialising. Then there isalso the problem of taxation, whichmay discourage Indian companiesfrom embracing SPACs wholeh|artedly. A relaxation of norms relatedto taxation and quicker approvalscould certainly benefit Indianstartups to take the SPAC route togrow globally.

COMPILED BYDR NIRU MAA

For more information on Dadashri's spiritual science,log on to www.dadabhagwan.org. Also visit kids.dadabhagwan.org


To be continued...

HOT SEAT


Write to us at [email protected]

Building Urban SpacesHow do you define yourself?An architect and urban designer by profession,a dreamer and traveller at heart and, mostimportantly, a mother – a role that hastransformed my perspective towards my lifeand my work

What is your philosophy of life?My philosophy is guided by process, peopleand passion. I believe in aligning the process ofdoing any work and establishing a system.Equally important for me is the teamwork andcollaborative effort that goes into making anysuccessful design story. And finally, it’s thepassion and love for our work that drives usevery day.

What is your passion in life?I am passionate about exploring the evolutionof design in Indian cities and deliveringinnovative and sustainable design solutions forrapidly-changing urban environments.

What is your management mantra?Establishing a systems-driven organisation thatpeople take pride in

Business leaders you admire the most...My Father, Gian P Mathur, and Ratan Tata

Your strength...My family, which has been very supportive andalways encouraging me to push the boundariesto achieve more

You are a tough, serious boss or…Tough but sensitive

What do you enjoy the most in life generally?Doing new things, meeting new people, goingto new places and learning new skills

Your mantra for success...Work towards your vision, and never stoptrusting your inner instincts. Give due time toyour family and yourself, if you are good atyour work.

Ten years from now, where do we see you?I envision myself playing a pivotal role inredefining Indian cities and creating spacesthat people take in.

MITU MATHURDirector, GPM Architects and Planners

Mitu Mathur grew up seeing her father, Gian P Mathur, drawing up plans and designing big,architectural projects. Today, Ms Mathur is

director of GPM – Architects & Planners, one thecountry’s leading architecture and design companiesbased out of New Delhi. A graduate of Sushant Schoolof Art & Architecture, Gurgaon, Ms Mathur has alsocompleted her Master of Science in Architecture& Urban Design from New York-based ColumbiaUniversity’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planningand Preservation. Steering GPM’s growth since 2006,Ms Mathur is currently overseeing New Delhi’s leadinglandmark projects, like Netaji Nagar and Sarojini Nagarredevelopment projects. In an interesting chat withSharmila Chand, Ms Mathur talks about herself and hercareer.

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