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Brief

Jio acquires 25% stake in deep-techstartup Two Platforms for $15 mnMumbai: Digital service

company Jio Platforms onFriday announced an in-vestment of $15 million inSilicon Valley-based deep-tech startup Two Platformsfor acquiring 25 per centequity stake on a fully di-luted basis.

Founded by formerSamsung Technology andAdvanced Research presi-dent and CEO Pranav Mistry,Two Platforms is an artificialreality company with focuson building interactive andimmersional AI experi-ences.

We are impressed withthe strong experience andcapabilities of the founding

team at Two in the areas ofAI/ ML, AR, metaverse andWeb 3.0. We look forwardto working together withTwo to help expedite de-velopment of new prod-ucts in the areas of interac-tive AI, immersive gamingand metaverse, Jio DirectorAkash Ambani said.

After text and voice, Twobelieves the next chapter ofartificial intelligence (AI) isvisual and interactive. Its ar-tificial reality platform en-ables real-time AI voice andvideo calls, digital humans,immersive spaces and life-like gaming.

Two plans to bring itsinteractive AI technologies

first to consumer applica-tions, followed by enter-tainment and gaming, aswell as enterprise solutionsincluding for retail, services,education, health andwellness.

Jio is foundational toIndia's digital transforma-tion. We at TWO are excitedto partner with Jio to pushthe boundaries of AI andintroduce applications ofArtificial Reality to consum-ers and businesses at scale,Mistry said. Two will workcollaboratively with Jio tofast-track the adoption ofnew technologies andbuild disruptive technolo-gies such as AI, metaverse,

VOL. 55 * NO. 205* AHMEDABAD MONDAY 14/2/2022

Equities rise inearly trade;majority ofNifty50 stocksin green

New Delhi, India's keybenchmark equity indices-- S&P BSE Sensex and NSENifty50 -- rose substantiallyin the early trade onWednesday.

At 9.34 a.m., Sensextraded at 58,318 points, up0.9 per cent or 510 pointsfrom the previous close of57,809 points. It opened at58,163 points.Nifty tradedat 17,415 points, up 0.9 percent or 148 points from theprevious close of 17,267points. It opened at 17,370points.

Among stocks, IndianOil Corporation, HCL Tech-nologies, Bajaj Auto, TechMahindra, and Titan werethe top five gainers, rising2.3 per cent, 1.9 per cent,1.9 per cent, 1.9, per cent,and 1.9 per cent,respectively.NTPC andSun Pharma, on the otherhand, were the onlystocks that declined inthe early trade among theNifty 50 companies, NSEdata showed.

Alliance Air flightengine cover fallsat Mumbai airport,DGCA probing

Mumbai, In a freak inci-dent, the engine cowl(cover) of an Alliance Airflight from Mumbai to Bhujfell off this morning and waslater found on the MumbaiAirport runway post-takeoff,official sources said onWednesday.

The incident affectedthe Alliance Air 91 625Mumbai-Bhuj service with70 passengers, 4 crew per-sons and a maintenanceengineer on board the ATRaircraft, and the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation hasordered a probe.

The airline confirmedthe development and saidthat all passengers andcrew onboard the flightlanded safety and there isno damage to the aircraftdue to the "unfortunate in-cident" after it completedthe two hour-long flightdeparting at 6.15 am.

Amid allegations ofmaintenance lapses, theairline said that it has put inplace strict pre- and post-flight checks to ensurecomplete safety of the pas-sengers and the aircraft.

"We have taken strictnote of the incident and athorough investigation hasbeen initiated.

Workercompensationtalks at Ford Indiainconclusive

Chennai, The talks be-tween the Ford India Pvt Ltdmanagement and theworker representatives onthe manner in which thecompensation to be paidwhen the factory near hereis closed is on, said seniorworkers.

"There is a difference ofviews amongst the workersin the manner in which thecompensation amountshould be worked out," asenior worker not wantingto be quoted told IANS.

According to him, theyounger workers want theremaining years of serviceto be the factor in calculat-ing the compensationwhile the mal practice is totake the completed years ofservice.

"If completed years ofservice are taken into ac-count, older workers willget a higher compensationamount as compared to theyounger workers. Furtherthe older workers may notbe able to find new employ-ment considering theirage," the worker said.

However, the workerswho have age on their side,want some sort of parity inthe compensation amountpaid for loss of jobs.

Centre further tightens stockslimits on edible oils and oilseedsNew Delhi: The Centre

has tightened the stock lim-its on edible oils and oil-seeds by extending thecurbs till June 30, 2022 andalso by specifying the quan-tity that each trader canhold in those states wherethe quantum has not beenlaid out.

The government, in anorder issued in October2021, had imposed stockholding limits on edible oilsand oilseeds to controltheir prices. But, it had left itto the states to determinethe quantum of holding de-pending upon their localneeds and requirements.

However, since then six

states namely UP, Karnataka,Himachal Pradesh,Telangana, Rajasthan andBihar had specified thequantity of stocks that eachretailer, wholesalers, pro-cessors and bulk consumercan hold.

The rest of the stateshadn’t specified the quan-tum. This was valid till March2022.

A review of the direc-tions, the Centre has nowlaid down that retailers canhold only upto 30 quintalsof edible oils and 100 quin-tals of oilseeds, whilewholesalers can hold 500quintals of edible oils and200 quintals of oilseeds at

any given point of time.Similar norms have also

been laid down for bigchain retailers and proces-sors. This will not be appli-cable in those six stateswhich have levied theirown stock limits on retail-ers and wholesalers.

The decision will em-power states to regulatestorage and distribution ofedible oils and oilseeds andcheck hoarding in the coun-try, the government said.

Ironically, the limits havebeen tightened at a timewhen oilseeds productionin the ongoing rabi harvestseason is projected to behigher than this year.

As per latest data, oil-seeds crop has beenplanted in around 10.27million hectares this year,which is 23 per cent morethan last year. Mustard seedproduction is estimated tobe over 11 million tonnesthis year, up from 8.5 mil-lion tonnes last year.

The decision to tightenstock limits comes barelydays after the annual Eco-nomic Survey presented inParliament last week saidthat knee jerk reactions toprice rise of essential com-modities sends wrong sig-nals to domestic producersand creates an environ-ment of uncertainty.

Domestic two-wheeler sales dip 21 pcin Jan; recovery likely in coming months

New Delhi: The domes-tic two-wheeler sales wit-nessed a 21 per cent year-on-year decline in January,even as the segment regis-tered a 14 per cent sequen-tial growth in domesticwholesale volumes, whilethe passenger vehiclewholesale volumes de-clined marginally by 3 percent Y-o-Y, credit ratingsagency ICRA said.

The two-wheeler salesnumbers are based on thedata released by six majororiginal equipment manu-facturers (OEMs), ICRA said.

In January 2022, domes-tic wholesale PV volumes at2.95 Lakh units representedaround 16 per cent growthon a sequential basis and

only a marginal decline of3 per cent on Y-o-Y basis,said Rohan Kanwar Gupta,Vice President and SectorHead - Corporate Ratings,ICRA Limited. The lowerproduction levels over themonths have led to unusu-ally high waiting periods formany high-selling models,with waiting periods for se-lect models being as highas 6-8 months, he said.

The low year-on-yeartwo-wheeler sales volumein January, highlights theadverse impact of pricehikes, fuel inflation, andOmicron-related concernson consumer sentiments,Gupta stated. Noting thatthe supply chain issues inproduction of premium

motorcycles also persisted,he said, the reinstatementof localized restrictions, tocontain the third wave ofpandemic, constrained re-tail sales and led to an 11per cent sequential (14 percent year-on-year) fall involumes, to 10.2 lakh units.

Nonetheless, the indus-try is cautiously optimisticabout recovery in comingmonths, with easing supplychain constraints andspillover impact from posi-tive announcements on in-frastructure spends andagri-initiatives in the UnionBudget, Gupta stated. Incontrast to the domesticsales environment, steadydemand from African andLatin America (LATAM).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting former Prime Minister of Kenya,Raila Amolo Odinga, in New Delhi.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah along with senior leaders waves toparty supporters during an election rally in Ludhiana. UNI

'Can sacrifice my life for mybrother': Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

New Delhi, Denyingrumours of a rift with RahulGandhi, Congress leaderPriyanka Gandhi Vadra onSunday (February 13) saidshe can sacrifice her life forher brother.

"I can sacrifice my lifefor my brother and he cangive his life for me, so whereis the difference,” IANSquoted Vadra as saying. TheCongress General Secretarywas replying to UttarPradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath’s comments onalleged differences be-tween the Gandhi siblings.

Attacking the UP CM,she cheekily said, “Yogiji

must be talking of BJP andthe rift between him, PrimeMinister Modi and AmitShah.”

Priyanka Vadra has beenat the forefront of electioncampaigning in UttarPradesh and leading party’sinitiatives like ‘Ladki HoonLad Sakti Hoon’ in the cru-cial state.

Meanwhile, Vadra iscampaigning in Punjab to-day where she will addressthree rallies in support ofthe Congress candidates.While speaking at the "NaviSoch, Nava Punjab" publicmeeting in Kotkapura, theCongress leader also took a

veiled swipe at formerPunjab Chief Minister Cap-tain Amarinder Singh andclaimed his governmentwas being controlled bythe BJP in Delhi and hence,he had to be replaced.

"That governmentstopped running fromPunjab. That governmentstarted being run fromDelhi and that too not bythe Congress but by theBJP and the BJP-led gov-ernment,” she alleged.

Punjab will vote in asingle phase election onFebruary 20. The countingof votes will take place onMarch 10.

Radio is an amazing medium to connect people: PMNew Delhi, Prime Min-

ister Narendra Modi on Sun-day greeted radio listenerson World Radio Day andsaid radio remains an inte-gral part of people's livesand is an amazing mediumto connect people.

Adopted by the UnitedNations General Assemblyin 2012 as an internationalday, February 13 is observedas World Radio Day.

"World Radio Day greet-ings to all radio listeners andthose who enrich this out-standing medium with theirtalent as well as creativity,"Modi said on Twitter.

He said radio remains anintegral part of people'slives be it at home, duringjourneys and otherwise. "Itis an amazing medium toconnect people," the primeminister said.

"Due to MannKiBaat, I

repeatedly see how theradio can be a great me-dium to share positivity aswell as recognise those

who are at the forefront ofbringing a qualitativechange in the lives of oth-ers.

I would also like tothank all those who con-tribute to thisprogramme," Modi said.

FM to address central boardof RBI, share govt priorities

New Delhi, Feb 13(UNI) Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharamanwould address the centralboard of Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) on Monday andoutline the priorities ofthe government to boostthe economy. Followingthe presentation ofUnion Budget, it has beena customary meeting ofthe Finance Minister ev-ery year with the centralboard members of the

RBI and share the highlightsof the Budget. In her fourthBudget on February 1,Sitharaman laid emphasis oncapex to accelerate eco-nomic growth and an-nounced to raise capex tar-get for financial year 2022-23 by 35.4 per cent year-on-year to Rs 7.5 lakh crore. Theproposed increase in the pub-lic expenditure outlay wouldbe 2.9 per cent of thecountry's GDP. The increasedpublic spending is expected

to crowd-in private invest-ment and push growth.Instead of direct cash trans-fers as suggested by someexperts, the Budget hascontinued focus on build-ing productive assetswhich would create de-mand and jobs in theeconomy. Instead of fiscalconsolidation, the Budgethas gone for higher publicspending. It has peggedthe fiscal deficit at 6.4 percent of GDP in FY23.

2FromEditor’sDesk.......

Govt extends bid submissiondeadline for PDIL sale till Feb 28

New Delhi: The government has extended by abouta month till February 28 the deadline for prospectivebuyers of PDIL to submit EoI.

The Department of Investment and Public Asset Man-agement (DIPAM) had on December 14 invited prelimi-nary bids for selling the government's 100 per cent stakein the CPSE which is under the Ministry of Chemicals andFertilisers.

Earlier, the last date for submitting expression of in-terest (EoI) was January 31. In view of the prevailing situ-ation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic and on therequest of the interested bidders, the late date for sub-mission of EoIs is extended to February 28, DIPAM said ina notice on its website.

As of March 31, 2021, Projects & Development IndiaLtd (PDIL) has paid-up equity share capital of Rs 17.30crore, revenue of 129.68 crore and net profit of Rs 19.07crore.

PDIL was incorporated on March 7, 1978 and is en-gaged in providing engineering and consultancy servicesin design engineering and related project execution ser-vices from concept to commissioning of various projects.

The government has appointed Resurgent India Ltdas its transaction adviser to advise and manage the strate-gic disinvestment process.

Road to recovery - 25K km in ‘22-23New Delhi: National

highways (NH) will be ex-panded by 25,000kilometre (km) during2022-23 and the nationalropeway developmentprogramme will be takenup in the public-privatepartnership (PPP) mode,Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman onTuesday said tabling theUnion Budget.

The national high-ways network will be ex-panded by 25,000 km in2022-23 besides PMGati Shakti Master Planfor Expressways will beformulated in next fiscal tofacilitate the faster move-ment of people and goods,the FM said.

Sitharaman also an-nounced contracts for theimplementation ofmultimodal logistics parksat four locations throughthe PPP mode will beawarded in 2022-23.

The Minister said that asa preferred ecologically

sustainable alternative toconventional roads in diffi-cult hilly areas, the nationalropeways developmentprogramme will be takenup on the PPP mode.

She added the aim is toimprove connectivity and

convenience for commut-ers, besides promoting tour-ism.

She informed Parlia-ment that the contracts foreight ropeway projects fora length of 60 km will beawarded in 2022-23. TheFinance Minister said Rs20,000 crore will be mobi-lized through innovativeways of financing tocomplement the public re-

sources.Road Transport and

Highways Minister NitinGadkari said the Budget hasgiven priority to the infra-structure sector and notedthat the national ropewaysdevelopment programme

will benefit North East,Uttarakhand, HimachalPradesh, and Kashmir.

The Budget outlayfor the Ministry of RoadTransport and Highwayshas risen 68.5 per centto Rs 1.99 trillion fromRs 1.18 trillion in FY22.The Center’s road-mak-ing agency National

Highways Authority ofIndia’s budgetary outlay inthe coming fiscal is set torise by 133 per cent to Rs1.34 trillion from Rs 573.50billion in FY22. Allocationsto the Government’s flag-ship scheme for rural roadsthe Gram Sadak Yojanahave risen to Rs 19,000crore in FY23, from Rs15,000 crore in the FY22Budget estimate.

PM Gati Shakti to have multipliereffect on the lives of people: Min

New Delhi: The multi-modal connectivity envis-aged under PM Gati Shaktiwill be achieved if the Cen-tre and all the 36 States andUnion Territories work to-gether.

Gati Shakti is not ascheme, but it is an initia-tive, a foundation. But it willnot be an exaggeration if Isay that it is a 'brahmastra',Union Civil Aviation Minis-ter Jyotiraditya Scindia saidat an event on Monday. It isa brahmastra (powerfulweapon) that will take In-dia to the destination thatthe country's forefathersdreamt about, he added.

Prime MinisterNarendra Modi launchedPM Gati Shakti - NationalMaster Plan on August 15last year to develop multi-modal connectivitythrough integrated plan-ning and coordinatedimplementation of infra-structure connectivityprojects.

A total of 16 Union Min-istries, including the rail-ways and the roadwaysMinistries, have beenbrought under the plan.Approximately 12-13 percent of the country's GDPis spent on logistics cur-rently, Scindia noted. A fam-

ily is happy when everymember carries out his du-ties, he said, adding thatsimilarly, under Gati Shakti,16 departments have beentied together so that eachfulfils its responsibilities anduses resources judiciouslyto achieve its targets.

The National MasterPlan will have a multipliereffect on the lives ofpeople, the Minister noted.He said words like gati(speed) and shakti(strength) have been added

to the country's dictionaryafter a gap of 70 years.

The investments madeby the United States inmulti-modal logistics in thelast 100 years has turned itinto a super power, Scindiasaid. If we could bring all 36States to work togetherand if we could developcoordination so that thereis no delay in getting therequisite permissions, wewill be able to achieve theaim of multi-modal con-nectivity, he added.

Railways cuts vendor application feeby over 90% to attract MSMEs

New Delhi: In order to attract micro, small and me-dium enterprises (MSMEs) as supply chain vendors, IndianRailways has reduced its vendor application fee. From Rs1.5 lakh charged from MSMEs applying for approval asvendors with the Railways’ Research Designs & StandardsOrganisation (RDSO), which undertakes standardizationwork for the railway sector, the amount has been reducedby 93 per cent to Rs 10,000 for identified safety items,Railways Ministry said. For businesses other than MSMEs,the fee was cut 94 per cent from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 15,000.

Railway has taken one more decision in this direc-tion by reducing the vendor application fee that wasbeing taken for applying for approval of vendor withRDSO for identified safety items, the ministry said. Spe-cial provision of the lower fee is kept to encourageMSMEs. This initiative shall further reduce the cost ofbusiness for industry and give impetus to Make in India.It will also benefit Railway by attracting more vendors inits supply chain.

Mkts march higher after Budgethikes infrastructure avoids new taxes

Mumbai: The Sensexsoared 848 points while theNifty reclaimed the 17,500-mark after Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman un-veiled a bigger Rs 39.45lakh crore Budget, withhigher spending on infra-structure to spur economicrecovery and create jobs.

Metal, realty and ce-ment stocks saw robustbuying, while selling in autoand telecom counterscapped the gains. After astrong start, the BSE Sensexsuccumbed to a suddenbout of selling followingthe Budget presentation,but staged an immediaterebound to end 848.40points or 1.46 per centhigher at 58,862.57, mark-ing its second straight ses-sion of gains. On similarlines, the broader NSE Niftysurged 237 points or 1.37per cent to end at17,576.85.

Tata Steel hogged thelimelight in the Sensexpack, zooming 7.57 percent, followed by SunPharma, IndusInd Bank, L&T,UltraCement, ITC, Titan andHCL Tech.

In contrast, M&M,PowerGrid, SBI, Bharti Airtel,NTPC, Maruti and Relianceclosed in the red, sheddingup to 1.67 per cent.

Sitharaman presentedher fourth Budget, withhigher spending on sectorsranging from highways toaffordable housing with aview to fire up the key en-gines of the economy tosustain a world-beating re-covery from the pandemic.

Contrary to expecta-tions, Sitharaman did nottinker with income tax slabsor tax rates.

Her Budget for the fis-cal year beginning April2022 proposed a massive35 per cent jump in capital

expenditure to Rs 7.5 lakhcrore, coupled with therationalisation of customsduty, an extension of timefor setting up new manu-facturing companies andplans for starting a digitalcurrency and tax crypto as-sets. However, fiscal deficitwas projected marginallyhigher at 6.9 per cent forFY22 as against 6.8 per centestimated earlier, with thefinance minister emphasiz-ing the need for strongerand sustainable growththrough public investment.

It is a long-term growthoriented budget which themarket has welcomed,given no headroom for cau-tiousness and populistmeasures. It is expected tosupport growth in the fu-ture; however, it is missingsome balancing measuresin context of current infla-tionary and slowingeconomy.

Centre to borrow record Rs 11.6 lakhcr in FY'23 to meet expenses

New Delhi: The Govern-ment will borrow a recordRs 11.6 lakh crore from themarket in 2022-23 to meetits expenditure require-ment to prop up theeconomy hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is nearly Rs 2 lakhcrore higher than the cur-rent year's Budget estimateof Rs 9.7 lakh crore. Totalmarket borrowings of thegovernment for 2022-23are estimated at Rs11,58,719 crore, accordingto the Budget document.

The Revised Estimatesfor the same for 2021-22are Rs 8,75,771 crore, asagainst the Budget Esti-mates of Rs 9,67,708 crore.

Even the gross borrow-ing for the next financialyear will be the highest-ever at Rs 14,95,000 crore

as against Rs 12,05,500crore Budget Estimate (BE)for 2021-22. However, thegross borrowing has beenrevised downwards bynearly Rs 2 lakh crore to Rs10,46,500 crore for thecurrent financial year.

Gross borrowing in-cludes repayment of pastloans. The governmentraises money from the mar-ket to fund its fiscal deficitthrough dated securitiesand treasury bills. A post-Budget media interaction,Economic Affairs SecretaryAjay Seth said green bondsannounced in the Budgetis part of the overall borrow-ing target for the next fi-nancial year. These wouldbe issued for specific sec-tors and there are set of in-vestors who would like toput their money in sectors

that promote sustainabledevelopment, he said. Atthis point of time, he said,this would be issued in thedomestic market.

Finance Secretary andExpenditure Secretary T VSomanathan also empha-sized it as part of the totalborrowing projected at Rs11.58 lakh crore.

Government raises itsmarket loans under theScheme of Sale of DatedGovernment Securities.These auctions are con-ducted by the ReserveBank of India (RBI), as debtmanager to the central gov-ernment. Besides, the gov-ernment has completedthe conversion of specialsecurities issued in lieu ofadhoc treasury bills intomarketable securities dur-ing 2003-04.

Coal gasification technology notproven commercially: Joshi

New Delhi: Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi told Parlia-ment that underground coal gasification technology isnot proven environmentally sustainable and commer-cially across the world and it is not under considerationfor adoption in India.

Underground Coal Gasification is not a proven envi-ronmentally sustainable technology. Resultantly, Under-ground Coal Gasification (UCG) technology is not provencommercially across world. The pilot project at Australiawas dropped due to economic and environmental con-cerns. As such UCG is not under consideration for adop-tion in India, the minister said in a written reply to the LokSabha. Gasification of coal is a process in which coal ispartially oxidated by air, oxygen, steam or carbon dioxideunder controlled conditions to produce a fuel gas.

The government has prepared a plan to achieve coalgasification and liquefaction of 100 million tonnes (MT)of coal by 2030, Joshi said in the written reply.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budgetspeech 2022-23 announced setting up of four pilotprojects for coal gasification.

Sony acquires gaminglegend Bungie for $3.6 bn

New Delhi: Japanesegiant Sony is acquiringBungie, the developer ofDestiny and the originalcreator of the hugely popu-lar Halo franchise, for $3.6billion.

The news came shortlyafter Microsoft's announce-ment to acquire Call ofDuty developer ActivisionBlizzard for $68.7 billion.

Bungie will continue toindependently publish andcreatively develop ourgames, its CEO Pete Parsonssaid. Halo was one ofMicrosoft Xbox's flagshipfranchises, but after a few

sequels, Bungie was spunout into an independentcompany.

In 2013, Bungielaunched the Destiny gamewhich became a huge hit. Ihave been a fan of Bungiefor many years. I have ad-mired and enjoyed thegames that they create andhave great respect for theirskill in building worlds thatgamers want to exploreagain and again, saidHermen Hulst, Head ofPlayStation Studios.

We will be ready towelcome and supportBungie as they continue togrow, and I cannot wait tosee what the future holdsfor this incredible team,

Hulst added.Parsons said that in Sony

Interactive Entertainment(SIE), We have found a part-ner who unconditionallysupports us in all we are andwho wants to accelerateour vision to create genera-tion-spanning entertain-ment, all while preservingthe creative independencethat beats in Bungiea heart.

Since taking flight in1991, Bungie has alwayscharted the future with ourown star map a path that isdriven by our people andfor our community, headded. Bungie is currentlyhiring across all disciplinesfor Destiny 2 and for all newworlds beyond.

RBI may hike reverse repo rate by0.25 pc in next week’s policy: Report

Mumbai: The MonetaryPolicy Committee (MPC)may go for a hike of up to0.25 per cent in the reverserepo rate at which the RBIabsorbs excess liquidity andleave the repo rate atwhich it lends, to narrowthe policy rate corridor, aBritish brokerage said.

Growth concerns amidspread of the Omicron vari-ant and relatively benigninflation out-turns providethe RBI with enough roomto maintain its growth-sup-portive monetary policies,”analysts at Barclays said,

ahead of the resolution an-nouncement next week.

The RBI will hike the re-verse repo rate by 0.20-0.25 per cent, given its li-quidity management ac-tions, it said.

The brokerage joins agrowing list of watchersexpecting a reverse repohike. Other analysts alsoblame the surprising hike inthe government borrow-ing announced in the bud-get for the RBI’s likely callfor policy normalisation.

Barclays said thebudget’s focus on capital

expenditure is expected toprovide a back-loaded fis-cal impulse to theeconomy and does notchange the macro back-drop, which includes con-cerns on inflation.

On the surging globaloil prices, which generallyplay into domestic inflationthrough correspondingprice hikes of fuels locally,the brokerage said the in-flationary pressures are un-likely to rise before thestate elections finish byMarch, hinting of no pass-through.

RBI retains policy stance,attaching primacy to

growth considerationswhile downplaying

inflationary pressuresWhile there were expectations insome quarters that this meetingwould mark an explicit pivottowards policy normalisation,beginning with a hike in thereverse repo rate, this was not tobe.

n its last meeting of the ongoing financial year, themonetary policy committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bankof India (RBI) chose once again to maintain the statusquo on interest rates, while retaining the accommo-dative stance. While there were expectations in somequarters that this meeting would mark an explicit pivottowards policy normalisation, beginning with a hike inthe reverse repo rate, this was not to be. The policystatement continued to attach primacy to growth con-siderations while downplaying inflationary pressures.However, the indication of a delay in the normalisationprocess had a calming influence on bond markets thathave been perturbed by the higher government bor-rowing numbers detailed in the Union budget — the10-year G-sec yield fell by around seven basis points.

This policy stance stems from an evolving view oninflation and growth. While retail inflation, as measuredby the consumer price index, has remained close tothe upper limit of the inflation targeting framework,the RBI sees it peaking in the fourth quarter of thisyear, and moderating thereafter. The central bank haslowered its outlook on inflation to 4.5 per cent for thenext fiscal year, down from 5.3 per cent this year. Thiscreates the space for the MPC to maintain the statusquo on rates, and continue with the accommodativestance “as long as necessary” to ensure a durable andbroad-based recovery. However, this inflation pro-jection downplays the risks to inflation, stemmingespecially from fuel prices, and global commodi-ties. Crude prices have jumped to around $90 perbarrel from an average of $74.3 in December lastyear. There is also the possibility of another round oftariff hikes by telecom operators to contend with.Though the RBI did announce some steps on liquid-ity management, there was no clear information ortimelines provided on unwinding durable liquidity.This is a matter of concern as delaying thenormalisation process only increases the chancesof sharper adjustments being required down theline if inflation surprises on the upside.

On the growth front, the central bank’s assess-ment appears to be less optimistic than the expec-tations of both the International Monetary Fund andthe Economic Survey. The RBI expects the economicgrowth to slow down to 7.8 per cent in 2022-23,down from 9.2 per cent in the ongoing financialyear. In comparison, the IMF has pegged growth at 9per cent next year, while the Economic Survey ex-pects it to range between 8-8.5 per cent. It is alsoworrying that as per the RBI’s own estimates, growthin the first half of next year will remain elevated,driven by the base effect, but dip sharply thereafterto 4.3-4.5 per cent in the second half of the year.This forecast underlines continuing concerns overIndia’s growth trajectory.

IIT Madras team uses AI to studyproduction of fuel from biomassChennai, Researchers

at the Indian Institute ofTechnology (IIT) Madras areusing Artificial Intelligencetools to study the processesinvolved in conversion ofbiomass to gaseous fuel.

With increasing envi-ronmental concerns associ-ated with petroleum-de-rived fuels, biomass is apractical solution, not in theconventional sense of di-rectly burning wood, cowdung cakes, and coal, but asa source of energy-densefuel.

While models are beingdeveloped all over theworld to understand theconversion of biomass intofuels and chemicals, mostmodels take a long time tobecome operational. Artifi-cial Intelligence tools suchas Machine Learning (ML)can hasten the modellingprocesses.

"There is an urgentneed to train the next gen-eration of engineers onhigh-performance com-

puting and machine learn-ing skills so that they canaddress some of the big-gest challenges before us,such as developing zero-emission technologies totackle climate change. Thiswork is one such example,"said Dr Himanshu Goyal, As-sistant Professor, Depart-ment of Chemical Engi-neering, IIT Madras, in astatement.

The IIT Madras teamused an ML method calledRecurrent Neural Net-works (RNN) to study thereactions that occur duringthe conversion of lignocel-lulosic biomass into energydense syngas (gasificationof biomass).The team usedAI tools not only for biom-ass-biofuel conversionstudies but also for sociallyrelevant and environmen-tally beneficial processessuch as carbon capture (thecapture of CO2 to preventclimate change) and theelectrification of thechemical industry.

AHMEDABAD MONDAY 14/2/2022

Indian Medicines Pharmaceutical Corporation (IMPCL), under Ministryof Ayush presenting the dividend cheque to the Union Minister for Ports,Shipping, Waterways and AYUSH, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, in New Delhi.

A delegation of the Central Secretariat officials meeting the Ministerof State for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences (I/C), Prime Minister’sOffice, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space,Dr. Jitendra Singh, in New Delhi.

The Union Home and Cooperation Minister, Shri Amit Shah addressing at the Millennium BirthAnniversary Celebrations of Great Saint Sri Ramanujacharya, in Hyderabad.

CSC signs MoU with BSNL

3Banking sector needs a booster dose;

digitizing BFSI to help overall economyNew Delhi: Banking

sector constitutes a majorpart of the economy hencethe banking system is thebloodline of any economy.According to aPricewaterhouseCoopers(PwC) report, India could bethe world’s third largestbanking hub by 2040 andIndia’s fintech market is ex-pected to reach Rs 6.2 tril-lion by 2025.

The banking sector ofIndia is going through a verydifficult situation due to thepandemic. It may take 24to 36 months for banks torecover from the currentsituation. Global ratingagency Moody’s has saidthat public sector banks willneed an additional capitalof Rs 2.1 lakh crore to over-come this pandemic. StateBank of India (SBI) is the onlybank in India, which comesin the top 50 banks of theworld. Proper budget, righttax and regulatory policiescan put the banking indus-

try back on the fast growthpath. The banking sector isexpecting positive amend-ments and policies in thecoming Union Budget2022.

At present, banks arewithdrawing from lendingas the biggest problem be-fore the banks is Non-Per-forming Assets (NPA),which is affecting both pri-vate and public sectorbanks alike. Credit growthis also a big problem forbanks. Banks will have tostart giving loans, which istheir main source of incomeand companies can get itin the form of working capi-tal. Financial services com-pany “Bank Bazaar” says thatthere has been a decline inthe demand for loans likepersonal loans, car loansand home loans.

Banks can be in a goodposition through provision-ing of bad loans, provision-ing means that banks mayreserve enough money for

their bad loans in advance.Basel-IV, which is to be for-malized in January 2023,will further increase thecapital cap. Unless the gov-ernment pumps in moneyexternally, banks will be insevere loss creating mas-sive capital adequacy prob-lems. The banking sectormust help in MSME ad-vances. MSMEs are the back-bone of Indian economyand creates employmentfor 65 million people. Thissector has a 16% contribu-tion to the Indian GDP,which as per reports is tobecome 25% by 2022. Pro-vision should be made forall these in the comingbudget.

The upcoming budgetcould lead to bold policysupport to strengthen thedigital infrastructure forBanking sector which willultimately help in digitizingthe overall economy. Fromadding best-in-class tech-nology to upgrading ser-

vices to upgrading an ex-isting set-up, technologyholds a plethora of oppor-tunities. Technological in-clusion and technical lit-eracy campaigns should beundertaken to ensure thatpaperless banking takesplace. If rural people canorder products on Amazonand use Facebook thenwhy not e-banking services.There is a need for digitalliteracy programs whichcan be done through bud-getary allocation. The gov-ernment may consider cre-ating a dedicated fund tostrengthen the digital infra-structure of cooperativebanks too.

Innovation is the key tomaintain long-term rela-tionship with customers.Keeping pace with thechanging environment andother industries, the bank-ing sector has to invest ininnovation, the govern-ment should make a provi-sion on banking innovation

in the budget. The moreagile and accessible theservices and banking prac-tices are, the stronger therelationship with the cus-tomers. The banking sectorcan also be given impetusby reducing the rates of in-come tax on fixed depos-its.

The introduction of aspecial regulatory and taxa-tion regime to cover vari-ous aspects of thecryptocurrency digital cur-rency can be expectedfrom this budget. Increas-ing the home loan interestrate tax deduction from theexisting limit of Rs 2 lakh toRs 5 lakh will give a boostto home loans. The finan-cial sector is the pillar of theeconomy. Such policy mea-sures in the budget will goa long way in boosting andstrengthening the bankingsector, else the impact ofany loss of banking sectorwill be deep and long last-ing on the economy.

New Delhi: The Com-mon Services Centers(CSC) has signed MoU withBharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.(BSNL), one of the largestmobile telecommunicationnetworks in India, to pro-vide services for sale ofBSNL SIM Cards, mobile re-charge and payment ofmobile/landline/Broad-band bills to citizens at thelast mile.

The partnership willbenefit more than 11.6crore BSNL mobile subscrib-ers, apart from citizens de-siring to take new BSNLmobile connections. CSC

will facilitate the sale ofBSNL mobile products andservices, like SIM Card andC-Top up, Bill Payment,Consumer Fixed Access(CFA) products and servicesthrough its network ofmore than 4 lakh VillageLevel Entrepreneurs acrossthe country. Elaborating onthis partnership, MD, CSCSPV, Dr. Dinesh Tyagi said,“Our partnership with BSNLis in sync with theGovernment’s emphasis onboosting mobile and broad-band connectivity in ruralIndia for fostering eco-nomic growth.

New Delhi: Metaowned instant messagingapp WhatsApp is workingon a new feature thatwould allow group adminson WhatsApp to delete

messages for other mem-bers of the group as well.

According to WhatsApptracker WABetaInfo, a userwill see the 'This was de-leted by an admin' messagewhenever any admin de-letes a particular message.

If you are a group admin,you will be able to deleteany message for everyonein your groups, in a futureupdate of WhatsApp beta

WhatsApp group admins will soonbe able to delete messages for all

for Android, WABetaInfosaid. The WhatsApp trackeralso shared a screenshotwith the tweet, showinghow a message deleted bya group admin will show for

Android users.Once rolled out,it would beeasier for groupadmins to de-lete obscene orobjectionablemessages.

WhatsApp isalso developingthe ability to addtwo-step verifi-

cation to its desktop appand web version. Accord-ing to WABetaInfo,WhatsApp plans to bringthe two-step verificationfeature to desktop and webversions in a future update.Two-step verification is al-ready available on the mo-bile app version where apersonal PIN must be en-tered when registeringyour phone number withWhatsApp.

Tata Steel Q3 net profit surges139% to Rs 9,598 cr, revenue rises 45%

Mumbai: Tata Steel onFriday reported 139% jumpin consolidated net profit atRs 9,598 crore for the quar-ter ending December 31,2021. The steelmaker re-ported consolidated netprofit of Rs 4,011 crore inthe year-ago period.

Consolidated free cashflow was Rs 6,338 croreduring 3QFY22 despite anincrease in working capitalof Rs 2,045 crore, said thecompany. Consolidatedrevenue surged 45% to Rs60,783 crore as against Rs41,935 crore a year ago.

T V Narendran, ChiefExecutive Officer & Manag-ing Director, said that Indiasteel demand has begun toimprove on the back of

continued economic re-covery as 3rd wave ofCOVID begins to ebb. Oursteel deliveries in India ex-panded by 4% in the firstnine months of the finan-cial year along with an im-provement in product mix.We continue to drive valueaccretive growth in ourchosen segments and ourperformance in key seg-ments such as auto was ro-bust despite the sector be-ing impacted by the semi-conductor shortage. OurEuropean operations con-tinue to perform under-pinned by strong improve-ment in realizations.

Koushik Chatterjee, Ex-ecutive Director and ChiefFinancial Officer, said: “Tata

Steel continued to deliverstrong operating and finan-cial performance in3QFY22 with year on yearEBIDTA growth of 64% andProfit after Tax growth of139%. The company postedstrong operating cash flowsin the quarter despite a sig-nificant surge in interna-tional coal prices and in-creased working capital re-quirements. Despite mar-ket volatility, the revenueswere broadly stable at Rs60,783 crores while EBIDTAwas Rs 15,853 crores whichworks out to a margin of26% with Tata SteelStandalone EBIDTA marginat 38%. The company's scripclosed trading 0.9% higherat Rs 1,176.

Design-led scheme for 5G ecosystemto pitch India as manufacturing hub

New Delhi:Government's push onfiberisation and technologywill spur connectivity, whilethe design-led scheme an-nounced in the Budget for5G ecosystem will bolsterIndia's position as a manu-facturing hub, telecom in-dustry said.

Budget announce-ments including thosearound 5G spectrum auc-tion and 100 per centfiberisation with PPP modelwould provide the requiredimpetus to accelerate ubiq-uitous and reliable internetconnectivity, Nitin Bansal,managing director, Indiaand Head-Networks -Southeast Asia, Oceaniaand India at Ericsson, said.

HFCL Ltd. managing di-rector Mahendra Nahatasaid the expected spectrumrollout for 5G in 2022, com-bined with the scheme fordesign-led manufacturingfor 5G equipment underthe PLI scheme will notonly lead to sectoral ad-vancements but also spurjob opportunities.

We are delighted tohear that contracts for lay-ing optical fibre in villageswill be awarded underBharatNet project underPPP model in 2022-23. Thiswill help the telecom in-dustry in providing afford-able broadband and mobilecommunication in rural andremote areas, Nahata ob-served.

Prashant Singhal, TMT( Technology, Media,Telecom) Emerging Mar-kets Leader, EY, noted thatallocating 5 per cent of an-nual USOF collection willsignificantly bolster ruralconnectivity.

Strengthening of theBharatNet infrastructurethrough PPP model willenhance the connectivitybackbone of an increas-ingly digital nation. Globally,200 telcos in 78 countrieshave already launchedcommercial 5G services, hesaid. According to Singhal,a clear focus on 5G spec-trum auctions and rolloutwill help India to catch upwith the rest of the world.

The budget announce-ment has given much-needed push for 5G,Singhal said addinggovernment's move tolaunch a design-led manu-facturing scheme will helpto position India as a hubfor 5G equipment manu-facturing and exports.

Sterlite Technologies'(STL) managing directorAnkit Agarwal believes thatbudget will accelerateIndia's digital ambitions. Itsets the foundation forIndia's 5G readinessthrough spectrum auctions,R&D impetus, USOF alloca-tion along with a boost fordomestic manufacturingthrough a timely 'Design-led manufacturing'scheme, Agarwal said.

As per Deloitte India,Partner and telecom sectorleader, Peeyush Vaish, thePLI scheme extension to5G rollout and the commit-ment on fibre in all villagesby 2025 will give an addi-tional thrust to investmentin new technologies in thetelecom sector.

MSME bank credit grows at 9% in December;turns positive after three months: RBI data

New Delhi: The year-on-year (YoY ) growth inbank credit to micro andsmall enterprises (MSEs)turned positive in Decem-ber 2021 after negativegrowth for three straightmonths, the latest datafrom the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) showed. Creditdeployed to MSEs in De-cember jumped an impres-sive 9.1 per cent to Rs 12.53lakh crore from Rs 11.48lakh crore deployed duringthe year-ago period, RBIdata on sectoral deploy-ment of bank credit in De-cember.

The YoY growth in creditfrom banks to MSEs had re-mained negative at minus2.2 per cent, minus 0.5 percent, and minus 2.6 percent during September,October, and Novemberrespectively last year. Im-portantly, the month-on-month growth reported inDecember was a stagger-ing 14 per cent from Rs10.99 lakh crore deployedin November 2021 even asthe Omicron variant had

struck India in Decemberwith the first case reportedon December 2 inKarnataka.

The impact of Omicronon credit deploymentwon’t be as severe as of firstand second waves sincerestrictions were negligibleduring December. What-ever little impact one mightsee in December and Janu-ary is likely to be reflectedin the coming two months.However, I don’t think thelatest wave would have anyconsiderable impact on dis-bursements. Businesseshave largely come out ofthe woods towards the endof last year and are ex-pected to gain some mo-mentum ahead even ifthere is, god forbid, anotherwave, a former banker toldFinancial Express Onlinerequesting anonymity.

Growth in credit de-ployed to medium enter-prises also bounced back.From 34.2 per cent YoYjump in November and24.8 per cent growth inOctober, banks deployed

50.4 per cent higher creditin December at Rs 2.76 lakhcrore in comparison to Rs1.83 lakh crore deployed inthe year-ago period even asthe growth rates for Julyand August were higher at70.9 per cent and 54.6 percent respectively.

The total bank creditdeployed to the MSME sec-tor in December 2021 wasRs 15.30 lakh crore, up 14per cent from Rs 13.41 lakhcrore in November 2021.As a result, the share of bankcredit to MSME in India’stotal gross bank credit of Rs116.83 lakh crore in De-cember also increased to13 per cent from 12.01 percent in November and12.17 per cent in October.

To support credit de-ployment among MSMEs,the government had ex-tended the popular creditscheme Emergency CreditLine Guarantee Scheme(ECLGS) for one more yeartill March 2023 and en-hanced the scheme’s limitby another Rs 50,000 croreto a total of Rs 5 lakh crore.

Govt allocates additionalRs 51,971 cr to settle Air India’s debt

New Delhi: The suc-cessful disinvestment, thegovernment allocated anadditional Rs 51,971 croretowards the settlement ofoutstanding guaranteed li-abilities of Air India in theUnion Budget. This amounthas been accounted in therevised estimates of totalexpenditure in 2021-22.

The total allocation ofRs 51,971 crore, the gov-ernment has allocated Rs9,259 crore to Air India As-sets Holding Ltd. (AIAHL), agovernment-owned spe-cial purpose vehicle set upto handle Air India's debtand non-core assets, for thenext financial year startingfrom April 1. Air India As-sets Holding Limited(AIAHL) was set up in 2019.

The provision of Rs9,259 crore is kept for ser-

vicing of loan transferred tospecial purpose vehicle asa result of financial restruc-turing of Air India, the Bud-get document said. In thebudget speech, FinanceMinister NirmalaSitharaman said the revisedestimate of capital expen-diture for this fiscal is Rs6.03 lakh crore. This in-cludes an amount of Rs51,971 crore towardssettlement of outstandingguaranteed liabilities of AirIndia and its other sundrycommitments, she added.

As per the revised esti-mates of 2021-22, the SPVAI Asset Holding Ltd. hasreceived Rs 62,057 crore, ofwhich Rs 36,254 crore wasinfused as equity for repay-ment of past government-guaranteed borrowings ofAir India; Rs 12,357 crore for

repayment of borrowingsfor sale and leaseback rent-als for aircraft; and Rs13,446 crore for repay-ment of other dues and li-abilities. According to thebudget document, thegovernment infused Rs36,254 crore in AIAHL dur-ing 2021-22 for repaymentof past government-guar-anteed borrowings of AirIndia Limited. Moreover, AirIndia was given a grant-in-aid of Rs 1,944 crore andloans of Rs 4,500 crore in2021-22 to cover cashlosses during Covid period,the document said. Air In-dia was taken over by TataGroup firm Talace Pvt Ltd.on January 27. Through acompetitive bidding pro-cess, the government soldloss-making Air India toTalace for Rs 18,000 crore.

TDS on property sale to be leviedon higher stamp duty value

New Delhi: The UnionBudget 2022-23 proposedone per cent tax to be de-ducted at source (TDS) onpayment for purchasingimmovable property ofover Rs 50 lakh will bebased on the higher of thestamp duty value or the ac-tual sale value/consider-ation. Currently, an indi-vidual is required to deducttax on the sale value of im-movable property if itexceeds Rs 50 lakh.

Presenting the Bud-get in the Parliament,Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman pro-posed the amendmentto do away the anomalyin the law.

As per the FinanceBill, 2022, presented inParliament along with theother Budget documents,the government proposesto amend Section 194-IA ofthe Income Tax Act, in or-der to remove inconsis-tency with Section 43CAand 50CA of the law. Thisamendment, if done, willtake effect from April 1,2022. The new rule pro-poses to bring a paritymechanism between salevalue considered for tax de-ducted at source (TDS) andcapital gains calculations.Explaining the rationale be-hind the amendment, the

Finance Bill said Section194-IA of the Act providesfor deduction of tax onpayment on transfer of cer-tain immovable propertyother than agricultural land.

The sub-section (1) pro-vides for deduction of taxby any person responsiblefor paying to a resident anysum by way of consider-ation for transfer of any im-movable property other

than agricultural land at thetime of credit or paymentof such sum to the residentat the rate of one per centof such sum as income-taxthereon.

The sub-section (2) pro-vides that no deduction oftax should be made wherethe consideration for thetransfer of an immovableproperty is less than Rs 50lakh. As per the provisions,TDS is to be deducted onthe amount of consider-ation paid by the transfereeto the transferor, the docu-ment said.

This section does nottake into account the stampduty value of the immov-able property, whereas, asthe provisions of sectionper 43CA and 50C of theAct, for the computation ofincome under the head'profits and gains from busi-ness or profession' and'capital gains' respectively,the stamp duty value is alsoto be considered, the docu-

ment said.Thus, there is in-

consistency in the pro-visions of section 194-IA and sections 43CAand 50C of the Act, theministry pointed out.In order to remove in-consistency, it is pro-posed to amend sec-tion 194-IA of the Act

to provide that in case oftransfer of an immovableproperty other than agricul-tural land, TDS is to be de-ducted at the rate of oneper cent of such sum paidor credited to the residentor the stamp duty value ofsuch property, whichever ishigher, the document said.

In case the consider-ation paid for the transferof immovable property andthe stamp duty value ofsuch property are both lessthan Rs 50 lakh, then no taxis to be deducted undersection 194-IA, it added.

RBI may hike reverse repo rateby 0.25 pc in next week's policy

Mumbai: The MonetaryPolicy Committee (MPC)may go for a hike of up to0.25 per cent in the re-verse repo rate at whichthe RBI absorbs excess li-quidity and leave the reporate at which it lends, tonarrow the policy rate cor-ridor, a British brokeragesaid.

Growth concerns amidspread of the Omicronvariant and relatively be-nign inflation out-turns pro-vide the RBI with enoughroom to maintain itsgrowth-supportive mon-etary policies, analysts atBarclays said, ahead of theresolution.

The RBI will hike the re-verse repo rate by 0.20-0.25 per cent, given its li-quidity management ac-tions, it said.

The brokerage joins agrowing list of watchersexpecting a reverse repohike. Other analysts alsoblame the surprising hikein the government borrow-ing announced in the bud-get for the RBI's likely callfor policy normalisation.

Barclays said thebudget's focus on capitalexpenditure is expected to

provide a back-loaded fis-cal impulse to theeconomy and does notchange the macro back-drop, which includes con-cerns on inflation.

On the surging globaloil prices, which generallyplay into domestic inflationthrough correspondingprice hikes of fuels locally,the brokerage said the in-flationary pressures are un-likely to rise before thestate elections finish byMarch, hinting of no pass-through.

Even though the infla-tion is benign lately, the RBIneeds to be vigilant, it said,pointing to its own fore-casts suggesting the head-line number staying in theupper end of the 2-6 percent band and also thecrude prices movinghigher. It said till now, theliquidity signals from theRBI have been mixed,which have includedshelving of the bond pur-chasing programme GSAP,an increase in both thequantum and cut-offs forvoluntary reverse repo rateauctions and some bondsales in the secondary mar-ket last month.

AHMEDABAD MONDAY 14/2/2022

The Chief Minister of Karnataka, Shri Basavaraj Bommai calling on theUnion Minister for Defence, Shri Rajnath Singh, in New Delhi.

The President, Shri Ram Nath Kovind paying homage at the portrait ofthe former President of India, Dr. Zakir Hussain on his Birth Anniversary, atRashtrapati Bhavan.

Polling officials checking the Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs) andother necessary inputs required for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election,at a distribution centre, in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.

4 Monday Montage

Tom Hanks comedy 'A Man CalledOtto' acquired by Sony Pictures

Los Angeles, (IANS) Tom Hanks-starrer 'A Man Called Otto' has beenacquired by Sony Pictures for $60million.

The sale marks the largest dealto date at the virtual European FilmMarket, surpassing Netflix's $55million acquisition of 'The Pale BlueEye' last year, reports variety.com.

Directed by Marc Forster, 'AMan Called Otto' sparked a fiercebidding war with Sony ultimatelycoming out on top with the film'sworldwide rights.

It will be released in theaters.Based on Fredrik Backman's

bestselling novel 'A Man CalledOve', the film tells the story of Otto(Hanks), a grumpy and strict wid-ower who holds the rest of hisneighbourhood to his staunchrules. But just as Otto is about togive up on his life, he sparks a newfriendship with his neighbours,prompting him to undergo a trans-formation.

The cast includes MarianaTrevino, Rachel Keller and ManuelGarcia-Rulfo. Oscar-nominated

writer David Magee is adapting thescreenplay and will serve as an ex-ecutive producer.

SF Studios' Fredrik WikströmNicastro is producing the film withRita Wilson and Playtone partnersHanks and Gary Goetzman. Forster

and Renée Wolfe will executive pro-duce via their company 2DUX2. SFStudios is financing the film.

"What an amazing all-star constel-lation of talent: Tom Hanks in an iconicrole and an exceptional director in

Mark Forster; outstanding produc-ers in Rita Wilson, Gary Goetzmanand Fredrik Wikstrom Nicastro; ex-quisite screenplay from DavidMcgee; a worldwide best-sellingbook; and our long-time partner,SF Studios," said Tom Rothman,chairman and CEO of Sony Pic-tures' Motion Picture Group. "Eliza-beth Gabler, myself and Sony havehad the privilege of working withall of these giants before, but thistime we feel like we hit the lot-tery."

Wikstrom Nicastro added: "Tomand Elizabeth's passion for thematerial and vision for how to cre-ate a worldwide theatrical eventblew us all away. We couldn't bemore excited for Otto to find ahome at our friends at Sony."

Wilson said: "We are thrilled topartner with Sony, who have con-sistently shown their commitmentto film and filmmakers. In this era,which offers so many ways to beentertained, we applaud Sony'scommitment to theatrical exhibi-tion."

'Gehraiyaan': A slow-burn captivating noir drama'Gehraiyaan' is a slow-burn,

captivating, noir drama that drawsyou into its immersive narrative,which tells us, "Life is all aboutchoices. ... Let's put all this behindus and move on."

Shots of the deep sea and itsrolling waves form a subtleleitmotif in the film that remindsyou of life's mysteries, innumer-able choices, and the momentumof moving on.

But are choices and moving onso simple? At least not for Alisha, ayoga instructor in Mumbai who isat the crossroads of her life. Shehas a strained relationship withher father, who lives in Nashik.

She is also haunted by memo-ries of her mother's demise. More-over, there are roadblocks in theway of her entrepreneurialendeavours, and the spark in hersix-year-old relationship withKaran, an aspiring author, seemsto have petered out.

But when she catches up withyounger cousin Tia and her fiancé

Zain, sparks fly between her and Zain.She gets drawn to him. Then, bur-dened with the uncertainty of theirrelationship, she tries to stay awayfrom Zain. But eventually, after Zainconvinces her that the feeling is mu-tual, she inevitably gives in to the re-lationship.

So far, so good, but when the plotabruptly shifts gear from romance tonoir, 'Gehraiyaan' becomes an alto-gether less predictable, more vola-tile story whose twists and turns re-

volve around the selfishness of hu-man beings and the desperatelengths to which it can drive people.

Craftily, the plot is tense on thebrink of a psychological drama withits painful uncertainties, extremes ofemotions, and the onslaught of hor-mones. The struggle to strike a bal-ance is innately dramatic.

Director Shakun Batra's clever-ness lies in fashioning from these in-gredients a relaxed but stylish thrillerin which suspense is accompanied

by a scuffle for survival instinct and,perhaps toughest of all, hope.

Deepika and Siddhant, asAlisha and Zain, are sincere in theirroles; attractive and responsivewith an instinctive ability for calmexpression and restrained emo-tions. They create a completelytrustworthy pair of complemen-tary forces.

Supporting them with equalfervour are Ananya Panday andDhairya Karwa as Tia and Karan.They both are impressive and ear-nest. Naseeruddin Shah as Alisha'slaid-back dad, and Rajat Kapoor asZain's cold and calculating col-league, are both stoically effectivebut perfunctorily limited by thescript. Mounted with ace produc-tion values, cinematographerKaushal Shah's location shots, in-land or over water, in Alibaug or inMumbai, look grim and evocative,perfectly in line with the film'sbreathtaking rhythm. Overall,'Gehraiyaan' keeps you hooked tillthe end.

'Obi-Wan Kenobi' gets May 25premiere date at Disney PlusLos Angeles,(IANS) 'Obi-Wan

Kenobi' has finally received a Maypremiere date at Disney Plus.

The Ewan McGregor-led, live-ac-tion 'Star Wars' series will debut May25 on the Disney-owned streamingservice, Disney CEO Bob Chapek an-nounced on the company's earningscall Wednesday, reports variety.com.

May 25 is also the 45th anniver-sary of the release of 'Star Wars: ANew Hope.'May 25 is also the 45thanniversary of the release of 'StarWars: A New Hope.'

'Obi-Wan Kenobi' is set 10 yearsafter the dramatic events of 'StarWars: Revenge of the Sith' whereJedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi facedhis greatest defeat -- the downfalland corruption of his best friend andJedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker,who turned to the dark side as evil

Sith Lord Darth Vader.McGregor reprises his role as

Obi-Wan alongside Anakin himself,Hayden Christensen. The series alsostars Moses Ingram, Joel Edgerton,Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani,Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O'SheaJackson Jr., Sung Kang, SimoneKessell and Benny Safdie.

The series is executive-pro-duced by Kathleen Kennedy,Michelle Rejwan, DeborahChow, Ewan McGregor andJoby Harold.

The much-anticipated "Obi-Wan Kenobi" premiere datenews comes on the heels ofDisney Plus revealing onWednesday that it ended 2021with 129.8 million paying cus-tomers worldwide, gaining

11.8 million for the quarter endedJanuary 1, 2022. That tally blew pastexpectations, as analysts on averagehad forecast net adds of 7.3 millionfor the period, per FactSet. Overall,The Walt Disney Company reportedrevenue of $21.82 billion and ad-justed earnings per share of $1.06for the period, the company's firstquarter of fiscal 2022. That handilybeat analyst consensus estimates of$18.36 billion in revenue and EPSof 61 cents.--IANS

'Mission: Impossible 7':Mission: Impossible 7':Mission: Impossible 7':Mission: Impossible 7':Mission: Impossible 7': How Covid blewup budget of Tom Cruise's spy sequel

Los Angeles, (IANS) 'Mission: Im-possible 7' director ChristopherMcQuarrie talked up a sequence thatsaw actor Tom Cruise drive his mo-torcycle off a cliff in way.

"This is far and away the mostdangerous thing I've attempted,"Cruise admitted, adding, "I wanted todo it since I was a little kid."

But making this childhood dreamcome true has proved costly, consid-ering this stunt andothers like it had tobe pulled off in themidst of a globe-rat-tling pandemic, re-ports variety.com.

It has also leftParamount andSkydance Mediashouldering a mas-sive budget and anendless stream ofunforeseen ex-penses.

'Mission: Impos-sible 7' cost $290million to produce,which is tens of mil-lions more than the studio and its fi-nancial partner expected to have toshell out, multiple insiders withknowledge of the production toldVariety.

That eye-popping price tag in-cludes the substantial tax incentives

that the global production was ableto leverage to rein in costs. In con-trast, the most recent film in the se-ries, 2018's "Mission: Impossible - Fall-out," cost $190 million to make.

A significant factor in this budgetescalation is that 'Mission: Impossible7' was initially scheduled to beginshooting in Venice in February 2020,but it had to stop and start produc-tion seven different times, insiders

said.Day one of principal photography,

which was supposed to involve anelaborate action sequence stagedduring the Carnival Venice, an annualfestival renowned for its elaboratemasks, took place on the same day

that thern Italy went into lockdown.The production then scrambled

to move shooting to Rome, only toonce again be forced to shut downwhen cases spiked.

Public health restrictions and fur-ther outbreaks of the virus addedunanticipated costs, said the sources,because the studio has had to keepcrew and cast members employedand housed during long lag times and

quarantine periods.There are also costs asso-

ciated with having to shutdown streets and canals inmajor cities, such as Romeand Venice, only have toscrap those plans and re-schedule them. Though thefilm's backers tried to benimble, the complexity ofmounting an internationalproduction, one thathopscotched across a half-dozen countries includingPoland and the United ArabEmirates, meant that no mat-ter how hard the 'Mission:Impossible' team tried, it

couldn't outrun a pandemic thatknows no borders.

Further complicating matterswere global supply chain issues, otherinsiders added, which brought un-foreseen costs via lumber and addi-tional materials.

The budget headaches reacheda crescendo last summer when 'Mis-sion: Impossible' distributor Para-mount was faced with shoulderingroughly $50 million in overages byitself.

The issue was that co-producerSkydance had already met its cap interms of financial contributions, ac-cording to two sources. They de-clined to exceed their contractual re-quirements, around $240 million,and pony up the additional funds thatCruise and McQuarrie said wereneeded to complete the movie. Atthe same time, Paramount is hopingto ease its financial burden with thehelp of its insurers. But its efforts toget the insurer to pay for the delaysrelated to outbreaks and shutdownshave become entangled in litigation.To that end, the studio filed suit inAugust against Federal InsuranceCompany for breach of contract, ar-guing that the insurer was respon-sible for the additional costs associ-ated with COVID. Another challengefacing "Mission: Impossible" andother tentpole films is that these typeof movies tend to perform well inChina, where "Fallout" made morethan $180 million. But tensions be-tween the US and China have im-pacted the country's appetite for Hol-lywood films, cutting into theirgrosses in the important market.

Balakrishna's'Unstoppable'becomes most-watched Telugu OTTshow

H y d e r a b a d , ( I A N S )Nandamuri Balakrishna's celeb-rity talk show 'Unstoppable WithNBK' claims the first position inthe list of the most-watchedshows on Telugu OTT platformAha. With a whopping score ofnearly 40 crore streaming min-utes, 'Unstoppable' has becomethe number one talk show of re-cent times, in Telugu. Over-whelmed by the kind of re-sponse they have been receiv-ing, the producers took to Twit-ter to make an announcementon the same. "The love is UN-STOPPABLE ?? #UnstoppableWith NBK is now the most-watched show on #ahavideoINwith 40 Crore Streaming Min-utes ?? All Episodes StreamingNow", Aha's tweet reads.Tollywood actor Balakrishnawho appeared on a talk showfor the first time has been re-ceiving many praises for his en-ergy and timely punches.Tollywood bigwigs likeRajamouli, Keeravani, MaheshBabu, Nani, Ravi Teja, RanaDaggubati, were among theguests who appeared on theshow. The recent and the finaleepisode of the curtain-raiser sea-son of 'Unstoppable With NBK'had Mahesh Babu and his friendand director Vamsi Paidipalli asthe guests on Balakrishna's show.

Athar Siddiqui plays afamily man in shortfilm 'Anjaan Ek Dastak'

Mumbai, (IANS) Actor AtharSiddiqui, who was last seen in TVshow 'Mann Kee Awaaz Pratigya 2'and 'Mauka-E-Vardaat', is currentlyenjoying shooting for upcomingshort film 'Anjaan Ek Dastak'. He says:"I'm excited to be part of such a beau-tiful crime thriller. It's a story abouthow a man, in search of heaven, getsinto crime and harms others. I play a

family manwho is re-s p o n s i b l e ,gentle, verycaring andalso passion-ate aboutr e a d i n gbooks. Oneof the booksb e c o m e sthe reasonbehind the

change in his personality and turn-ing him violent." The actor known forfeaturing in shows like 'Jag JananiMaa Vaishno Devi' and 'Parvarrish:Kuchh Khattee Kuchh Meethi' en-joyed winters while shooting in Sattalin Uttarakhand. "We have beenshooting in Sattal, it's such a beauti-ful place. It's too cold and shootinghere in winters was an amazing ex-perience as we do not get to enjoythat in Mumbai," he concludes.

Vinil Mathew getscandid about 'HaseeToh Phasee' as itcompletes 8 years

Mumbai, (IANS) FilmmakerVinil Mathew's 'Hasee Toh Phasee'starring Parineeti Chopra andSidharth Malhotra has completedeight years since its release. Thedirector says the film is very closeto his heart. While talking aboutthe film, Mathew said: "HaseeToh Phasee is very close to myheart and not only because it wasmy debut project but also be-cause it gave me a lot to exploreas a filmmaker. I had a great timeworking on it, and I am so gladthat the audience is still shower-ing it with so much love." 'HaseeToh Phasee' is a romantic com-edy-drama which was releasedin 2014. He added: "It was a chal-lenging call to take SidharthMalhotra out of his heroic imageand have him play an unheroichero. Similarly, Parineeti Chopraportrayed a new shade of a leadfemale character."

'The Power of the Dog' dominatesLondon Critics' Circle Film AwardsLos Angeles, (IANS) Director

Jane Campion's 'The Power of theDog' won four major awards at the42nd annual London Critics' CircleFilm Awards.

On Sunday, 'The Power of the Dog'won film of the year, Campion di-rector of the year, and starsBenedict Cumberbatch andKodi Smit-McPhee, actor andsupporting actor of the year,respectively.

This is Campion's secondfilm to take the Circle's top ho,28 years after 'The Piano' won in1994, reports variety.com.

Olivia Colman's performancein Maggie Gyllenhaal's 'The LostDaughter', which was snubbed atthe BAFTA nominations, earned herthe actress of the year award.

This is Colman's third award fromthe Circle, having previously won for'Tyrannosaur' and 'The Favourite'.

Joanna Hogg's 'The Souvenir PartII' won British/Irish film of the year,two years after its predecessor 'TheSouvenir' won the same honour.

It was one of three films for whichTilda Swinton won the British/Irishactress of the year award, along with

'Memoria' and 'The French Dispatch'.Rebecca Hall's 'Passing' won the

breakthrough British/Irishfilmmaker award, aswell as sup-port-

i n gactress of the

year for Ruth Negga.Andrew Garfield won the

British/Irish actor of the year awardfor his performances in 'Tick, Tick...Boom!', 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye', 'Spi-

der-Man: No Way Home' and 'Main-stream', while 11-year-old Woodyman won the young British/Irishperformer prize for 'C'monC'mon'.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi's 'DriveMy Car' won foreign languagefilm of the year, whileHamaguchi and co-writerTakamasa Oe won thescreenwriter of the yearaward.

BAFTA frontrunner'Dune' won a technicalachievement award for vi-sual effects.

For the second yearin a row, the event took

place virtually on the LondonCritics' Circle. YouTube channel, thistime with critics presenting awardsremotely from the ceremony's usualhome at The May Fair Hotel. The 'PlayIt Safe' team, which won the British/Irish short film award, were presentto receive their award and all otherwinners provided video messages.

Manushi Chhillar: Worked hard onmyself to play Princess SanyogitaMumbai, Feb 12 (IANS) Former

beauty queen and debutanteManushi Chhillar currently awaits therelease of her maiden film 'Prithviraj'.She says she worked harder on her-

self to play Princess Sanyogita in themovie.'Prithviraj' is based on the lifeand valour of the fearless and mightyking Prithviraj Chauhan. Bollywoodstar Akshay Kumar is essaying the roleof the legendary warrior who foughtvaliantly against merciless invaderMuhammad of Ghor. Manushi hasbeen cast opposite Akshay asPrithviraj's love Princess Sanyogita.

Manushi says, "I'm ecstatic that wenow have a date for Prithviraj's re-lease on the big screen. It is the ulti-mate theatrical entertainer that

needs to be watched in its full glory.I have been fortunate enough tohave gotten this kind of launchpadand I'm hoping that I have done jus-tice to the opportunity that I havegot."She adds, "I worked hard to getthe part and I know that I worked onmyself harder to play the role of Prin-cess Sanyogita. It was a huge respon-sibility." "I'm thrilled that people areappreciating how I'm looking in thefilm. I hope that they love how I haveperformed too because that's goingto be my true test on screen.--IANS

Sandeep Kumaar: Beingan actor is not easy at all

Mumbai, Feb 12 (IANS) ActorSandeep Kumaar, who is currentlyseen as an antagonist in TV shows'Tera Mera Saath Rahe' and 'ThapkiPyar Ki 2', feels acting as a careerneeds plenty of good luck.

He says: "Since there are so manypeople who are trying to becomesuccessful actors, there is a lot of chal-lenge and competition. In fact, evenif you are talented, it requires plenty

of luck and hard work to get to a levelwhere you can make a living out ofacting. Consequently, you may wantto be an actor as a hobby or part-time, yet being dependent on themoney from acting can be a riskyplace to be in since only some actorswill actually make a good living outof their profession."

The actor adds that showbiz is aplace mostly for strong individuals.

AHMEDABAD MONDAY 14/2/2022

5Airtel internet services suffer

outage, firm says 'technical glitch'New Delhi, Bharti Airtel

broadband services expe-rienced a mega outage onFriday as millions of stu-dents and workers acrossthe country, includingDelhi and Mumbai, wereleft without Internet amidongoing onlineclasses and workmeetings for sev-eral minutes be-fore it started ap-pearing back forsome users, albeitslowly.

The companysaid in a statement that thedisruption was caused by atechnical glitch.

"Our internet serviceswere briefly disrupted thismorning due to a technicalglitch. The services havebeen fully restored," a com-pany spokespersonsaid."We deeply regret the

inconvenience caused toour customers," the spokes-person added.On theInternet outage detectorplatform Downdetector,the map showed wide-spread outages across thecountry, including Metros,

that started ataround 11 a.m.While 50 percent users re-ported facingtotal blackout,34 per cent hadproblems withmobile Internet

and 16 per cent had no sig-nal, according toDowndetector."Airtel Fiberis down, along with theirapp and website.#AirtelDown," posted oneuser on Twitter.The usersfaced major issues with theAirtel network in most partsof the country.

Air India passengers Check what is it: Ratan Tata

Mumbai: IndustrialistRatan Tata has released aspecial message welcom-ing the passengersonboard Air India flights,after the airline’s takeoverby Tata Group. The messagewas posted on Air India’sofficials Twitter handle onWednesday morning.

The Tata group wel-comes Air India's new cus-tomers and is excited towork together to make AirIndia the airline of choicein terms of passenger com-fort and service, Ratan Tatais heard saying in the audiomessage, which shows AirIndia planes during theflights.

A warm welcome ex-tended by Mr Ratan Tata,Chairman Emeritus, TataSons, Chairman Tata Trusts,to our passengers onboardAir India flights.

After taking over the air-line last week, the TataGroup said it is focusing onsmart and well-groomedcabin crew members, bet-ter on-time performanceof flights, calling passengersas guests and enhanced in-flight meal/

Air India was handedover to the Tata Group,nearly 69 years after it wastaken from the conglomer-ate. N Chandrasekaran,Chairman of Tata Sons,which in October won thebid for the national carrier,first called on Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi before

heading to the Air India of-fice where the takeover for-malities were completed.

A new board of direc-tors met shortly thereafter,formalising the manage-ment takeover. For Tatas, AirIndia will be the third air-line. It already operatesVistara in joint venture withSingapore Airlines andAirAsia India in partnershipwith AirAsia Group.

Tatas took overRs15,300 crore of debt inAir India and Air India Ex-press Ltd while the remain-ing Rs46,262 crore loanplus an outstanding ofabout Rs15,000 crore to-wards unpaid fuel billswere paid off by the gov-ernment.

Air India will give Tatasimmediate access to valu-able flying rights and land-ing slots and it will also gaincontrol of low-cost, short-haul international carrier AirIndia Express as well as a 50per cent stake in a groundhandling company withSATS Ltd.

Tatas cannot retrenchany employee for at least ayear, according to the termsof the deal.

Tata Group FounderJRD Tata had originallylaunched the airline in1932 as the nation's firstcarrier, flying mail be-tween Karachi in then-un-divided, British-ruled Indiaand Bombay. It wasnationalised in 1953.

Budget proposals to boostgrowth, generate jobs: Experts

New Delhi: The Budgetproposals on capital expen-diture, MSME sector, anddigital banking will boostgrowth and promote jobcreation.

Among other things, Fi-nance Minister NirmalaSitharaman unveiled a big-ger Rs 39.45 lakh croreBudget, with higher spend-ing on highways to afford-

able housing with a view tofiring up the key engines ofthe economy to sustain aworld-beating recoveryfrom the pandemic.

Commenting on theBudget announcements,Shyam Srinivasan, MD andCEO, Federal Bank, said 35per cent increase in capexfor infra development, 65per cent defense capex for

local companies, tax incen-tives for start-ups, newcargo terminals all indicatethe refreshingly clear andwell-structured aspirationof Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Sanjeev Krishan, Chair-man PwC in India was ofthe view that Budget2022–23 continues to pro-vide much-needed relief tothe COVID-hit MSME sector.The revival of MSMEs is criti-cal both from growth andemployment perspective,and these measures aregeared towards building avibrant MSME sector, hesaid. Kapil Mehta, Co-founder, SecureNow Insur-ance Broker said the mainbenefit of the budget forinsurtechs is the emphasison MSMEs and futuregrowth. There are a host ofmeasures aimed at smallbusiness, ranging fromcredit guarantee schemesto improving the ease ofdoing business, that helpMSMEs navigate economicuncertainty, he added.

Founder and CEOTushar Aggarwal, Stashfinwas of the view that sup-port announced for digital

payment and banking willbe welcomed by the sec-tor. He said building aware-ness of digital paymentsand promoting financial lit-eracy is critical to Indiaachieving the vision of aUSD 1-trillion digitaleconomy.

Dhanuka AgritechGroup Chairman RGAgarwal said, 'It would havebeen also apt had the Fi-nance Minister reducedGST and customs duty rateson some of the agro-chemi-cals products, which wouldhave reduced the overallcost for the farmers.

On the government'sproposals, Omkar Rai, Ex-DG, STPI said the UnionBudget has all the ingredi-ents needed to make Indiathe world's biggest startupecosystem. The extensionof the incorporation periodfor eligible startups will cer-tainly give a boost to thissegment, he said. RishadManekia, Founder and MD,Kairos Capital said the taxa-tion along with the intro-duction of an Indian CBDCin 2022.

DPIIT to soon seek Cabinet approvalon FDI policy changes for LIC: SecyNew Delhi: The Depart-

ment for Promotion of In-dustry and Internal Trade(DPIIT) will soon approachthe Union Cabinet to seekits approval on changes inthe foreign direct invest-ment (FDI) policy to facili-tate disinvestment of thecountry's largest insurer LIC,a top government officialsaid.

DPIIT Secretary AnuragJain said an inter-ministe-rial consultation on thematter is at its last stage.

Hopefully, it should hap-pen very soon. All the com-ments that will come fromdifferent departments willbe supportive of the pro-posal, he told. He also ex-pressed hope that the Cabi-net will soon take up thisproposal.

The DPIIT is makingchanges in the FDI policyto facilitate disinvestmentof LIC, after taking views

from the finance ministry.According to the cur-

rent FDI policy, 74 per centforeign investment is per-mitted under the auto-matic route in the insur-ance sector. However, theserules do not apply to LifeInsurance Corporation ofIndia (LIC), which is admin-istered through a separateLIC Act.

As per Sebi rules, bothFPI and FDI are permittedunder public offer. How-ever, since the LIC Act hasno provision for foreign in-vestments, there is a needto align the proposed LICIPO with Sebi norms re-garding foreign investorparticipation.

The Cabinet had in Julylast year approved the ini-tial public offering (IPO) ofLIC and the stake sale isbeing planned in the cur-rent March quarter.

The finance minister

has directed that the disin-vestment has to be com-pleted during the currentfinancial year, so, obviously,we will try to expedite it(Cabinet note) as much aspossible, he added.

On the Budget, the sec-retary said the Budget hasgiven a clear way forwardand now, it is up to the in-dustry and entrepreneurs totake up the challenge andtake India towards Vision2047. National LogisticsPolicy, the secretary saidthat by and large, the majorissues of the policy havealready been incorporatedin the PM GatiShakti Na-tional Master Plan.

So, whatever was at-tempted to achievethrough the policy a majorportion of that is already out,he said. He added that theBudget has announced sev-eral measures to boost do-mestic manufacturing.

Govt sanctions Rs 6,540 crore viaAgri Infra Fund so far: Tomar

New Delhi: The Centre has approved over 9,000 ap-plications and sanctioned Rs 6,540 crore so far, for thedevelopment of agri-infra projects, Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar said in Rajya Sabha.

Tomar, in his written reply to the Rajya Sabha, said: “Ason date, 16,026 applications for an amount of Rs 10,627crore have been received on the AIF portal. Out of these,9,019 applications for Rs 6,540 crore have been sanc-tioned.

This amount has been sanctioned under the Agricul-ture Infra Fund (AIF), under which financing facility isprovided for investment in viable projects for post-har-vest management Infrastructure and community farm-ing assets through interest subvention and supportthrough credit guarantee facility.

AIF with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore will be disbursedthrough loan by 2025-26.

No coal shortage at power plants;supply rises 25 pc in Apr-Dec ’21: RK Singh

New Delhi: Powerprojects in the country donot have any coal shortagecurrently and these plantshave got 25 per cent highercoal supply of 430.6 milliontonnes in April-De-cember 2021 com-pared to a year ago,Parliament was in-formed.

Presently, there isno shortage of coalfor power plants inthe country, UnionPower Minister R KSingh on Thursdaysaid in a written replyto the Lok Sabha.

According to the reply,the total quantity of coaldespatched to the powersector by Coal India Ltd(CIL) and Singareni

Collieries Company Ltd(SCCL) during April-De-cember 2021 stood atabout 430.6 million tonnes(MT), against about 344.2MT in the year-ago period.

It was about 375.2 MT dur-ing the corresponding pe-riod of 2019-20.

The despatch showed agrowth of about 25 percent with respect to the

preceding year and byabout 15 per cent with re-spect to 2019-20, it added.

Further, Singh told theHouse that the coal importhas reduced to 21.4 MTduring 2021-22 (April-De-cember) as against 35.1 MTduring the same period of2020-21 and 52.5 MT dur-ing the same period of2019-20.

The shortfall in im-ported coal has been com-pensated by supply fromdomestic coal, he stated.

He also informed theHouse that as a result of theabove measures, the coalstock available at the powerplants has increased from7.2 MT as on October 8,2021, to about 25 MT as onJanuary 26, 2022.

Why splurge on an 85-inch TV whenlaser projectors do more for less money?

New Delhi, Projectorscan now be genuine alter-natives for TVs at home. Theultra-short throw (UST )genre allows you to placethe projector on the sametable your TV would be keptand use the wall behind itto project a visual size aslarge as 120 inches that’ssignificantly more than a65-inch or 85-inch TV youmay have otherwise spentmoney on.

Within the projectorspace, BenQ’s new V7050iLaser TV projector is one inthe rare new breed that’susing laser phosphor lightengine and ultra-shortthrow in design, with com-petition coming in theshape of the OptomaCinemaX P2. Couch pota-toes, movie buffs and sportsfans alike have never had itthis good

It is a serious invest-ment, there are no twoways about it. At Rs5,49,000or thereabouts for theBenQ V7050i Laser TV pro-jector, you will peg thisagainst what you’ll pay forvery large TVs. Let us lookat some examples. The 85-inch Samsung QN900AQLED TV costs aroundRs13,49,990 while the 85-inch Sony Bravia Z9J Mas-ter will make you payRs14,99,900.

A 77-inch LG C8 OLEDTV carries a sticker price ofRs13,99,990. You’re payingless than half for a 4K HDRprojector that can do visu-als of around 120 incheswith absolute ease. With aTV, you cannot stretch the

physical screen size, canyou?

The BenQ V7050i LaserTV projector is in a straight-forward battle with theOptoma CinemaX P2 whichis now selling for aroundRs4,82,000. You may findlesser-known brands listedon Amazon claiming a lot,but to be fair, those reallycannot match BenQ andOptoma’s quality or featureset.

The advantage that theBenQ V7050i Laser TV pro-jector has is this price in-cludes a 120-inch ALRscreen. Usually, a screen issomething you’d have tobuy separately. ALR is basi-cally ‘ambient light rejec-tion’. For once, and this is arare proposition, a screen ispart of the projector pack-age. Walls are fine, screensare just that much better.

On the performancefront, we should warn youthat the BenQ V7050i La-ser TV projector does HDRextremely well. In theopening scenes of Fast 9and indeed certain mo-ments in Don’t Look Up,you’ll notice a retro grainyeffect. That isn’t anythingbut the projector flexing itsmuscles to reproduce theeffects exactly as the moviemakers want you to see.

Let us talk about theadvantages of a screen,since you’re getting oneanyway. It is 120-inch wide.This specific screen type ismulti-layered, which has aunique zigzag pattern thatwill reduce the reflection ofambient light in the room.

This isn’t something thatmost conventional screenswith smoother texture andlesser layers can do as well.You will find this relevantin living rooms (which al-most always have a lot oflight), specific home the-atre rooms (the screen al-lows better colour repro-duction) and just in caseyour walls aren’t pure whitein which case not using ascreen will skew.

First things first, you willnotice that the BenQV7050i Laser TV projector

has a slide-back cover forthe laser projection system.The Optoma CinemaX P2and Samsung’s The Pre-miere series don’t integratethis protection measureagainst dust. Switch on theV7050i and this cover slidesback like a sunroof in yourcar and the mechanism isextremely silent, and youwill not hear the whirringof the motor. Audio has al-ways been an irritation withprojectors, at least in theprevious generation oftheir evolution. The design

of a UST laser projector ismore welcoming of aproper speaker system in-tegrated, and that allowsyou flexibility of using thesein a living room without asoundbar or home theatresystem cluttering the spaceat the same time. BenQ hasembedded two 5-wattspeakers, which do a fairjob of delivering audio foryour movies, TV shows andsports viewing. If youchoose, there is HDMI ARCand optical audio out aswell for external speakers.

Budget lays foundation forgrowth in next 25 years: NITI

New Delhi: Assertingthat the Union Budget laysthe foundation for thecountry's long-term growthin the next 25 years, NitiAayog Vice-Chairman RajivKumar on Wednesday saidthe government is taking allpossible measures to igniteprivate investments, whichwill be the best bet to pullthe economy out of theshadows of the coronaviruspandemic. He also said theprocedural bottlenecks re-lated to the complicatedprocess of disinvestment ofCPSEs central public sectorenterprises have beensolved and the process willbe more streamlined in theyears to come.

The Budget lays thefoundation for India whichwe want to see in 2047when we celebrate 100years of our independence.

This India will be at thefrontier of new technolo-gies and at the same timemake the benefits of thegrowth available to all thepeople, especially to thoseat the bottom of the pyra-mid, he told.

Stressing that the Bud-get has focused on infra-structure development aswell as on sunrise sectors

and frontier technologies,Kumar said the financeminister talked about start-ing a virtuous cycle that willbe led by private invest-ment to which the govern-ment investment is goingto be a facilitator.

So, the government istaking all the measures pos-sible to ignite private in-vestment, which will beour best bet to pull theeconomy out of the shad-ows of the pandemic, hesaid. And, in any case, Kumarsaid the Economic Surveyhas estimated India'sgrowth at 8-8.5 per cent forthe next financial year,while the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) hasprojected a growth rate ofnine per cent. The growthrate on a high base now isindicative that theeconomy is pulling out ofthe pandemic-inducedslowdown, he said. Regard-ing the government notachieving its disinvestmenttarget year after year,Kumar said the reasonseems to be the compli-cated process ofprivatisation. Noting that AirIndia was privatised aftermany years, he said that Ithink, now we have solved

all those procedural bottle-necks. And, the process isnow well defined.

Further, the Niti Aayogvice-chairman said the pro-cess will be more stream-lined in the years to come.The government has set adisinvestment target of Rs65,000 crore for the nextfinancial year, which islower than the currentfiscal's estimatedmobilisation of Rs 78,000crore. Asked why themiddle class was not givenany relief in the form of taxcuts, Kumar said India's per-capita income is about Rs1.2 lakh and the country'sincome level at whichpeople are taxed is Rs 5 lakhtoday. Everywhere else, thetaxable income starts quiteclosely after the averageper capita income. This isalso the reason why thepersistent demand to raisethe minimum taxable in-come level is rather mis-placed, he said. Because,unless we expand the basefor direct taxation, we willnever be able to bringdown the rate. We will haveto depend more and moreon indirect taxation, whichis more regressive than di-rect taxation, he added.

AHMEDABAD MONDAY 14/2/2022

Review of 'serious allegations' on,trust the Board: New BharatPe CEO

New Delhi, As the plotaround BharatPe and itsCo-founder/Managing Di-rector Ashneer Groversaga thickens, the newly-appointed CEO SuhailSameer has written a let-ter to disgruntled employ-ees, saying that there aresome "serious allegations"based on internal com-plaints which are beingreviewed and they mustkeep their faith in theBoard.

Assuring them to havea "trust" in the Board,Suhail said that it is his"commitment, also on be-half of the wider leader-ship, that we'll emergestronger from all this".

He said the companywill set up a town-hallmeeting towards the endof this month to "share up-dates about governancereview" and other an-

nouncements.While Alvarez and

Marsal, a leading manage-ment consultant and riskadvisory firm, is expectedto

submit its report into fi-nancial irregularities at thefirm during Grover's timein "a couple of weeks",global audit firm PwC hasalso been roped in audit-ing the functioning of thefintech platform.

Sameer said in the let-ter that the "internal gov-ernance review is beingcarried out by firms(Shardul Amarchand, A&Mand PwC).

Based on some inter-nal complaints, we de-cided to do a full audit ofour governance pro-cesses". While many find-ings of governance revieware "pretty standard",there are "a couple of

more serious allegations,"he wrote, saying the re-view is still "substantiatingthe allegations".

Sameer said that what-ever the Board decides, itwill be in the best interestof employees, merchantsand consumers.

Meanwhile, reportshave claimed that severalBharatPe employees arelooking for job changeamid the saga.

According to sources,Ashneer may decide tosell his 9.5 per cent stakein BharatPe at around $1billion valuation -- muchlower than the earlier re-ported figure of Rs 4,000crore that he may have re-ceived from selling hisstake at an earlier $6 bil-lion valuation from thecompany he co-foundedin 2018 with its headquar-ters in New Delhi.

The Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkariaddressing a press conferencing, in New Delhi.

Voters standing in the queue to cast their votes at a polling booth,during the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election, inGhaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.

The Union Minister for Defence, Shri Rajnath Singh giving away awardsto Defence Estates personnel for their contribution in successful comple-tion of survey of Defence Land, in New Delhi. The Defence Secretary, Dr.Ajay Kumar is also seen.

The Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Australia, Mr. Dan Tehanmeeting the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. NirmalaSitharaman, in New Delhi.

6Yes Bank ARC bid

process enters final roundMumbai: The process to

find investors for setting upan asset reconstructioncompany by Yes Bank en-ters the last stage with thedeadline for submittingbids ending.

The private sectorlender is planning to set upan asset reconstruction

company to transfer its en-tire stressed pool of loansof Rs 50,000 crore so thatits nonperforming assetsbecome zero.

Among the investorssubmitted bids, three tofour private equity playersare expected to make it tothe shortlist. These are JCFlowers and Company,Oaktree Capital, CerberusCapital, and Apollo GlobalManagement.

In the post earnings callwith the investors, YesBank’s MD & CEO PrashantKumar had said that thebank plans to complete thetransaction of transferringstressed assets to the ARCby the end of the currentfinancial year.

We are trying to say doit by March end but be-

cause of the Covid uncer-tainties and regulatory ap-provals, it may slip to thenext quarter i.e. the firstquarter of the next finan-cial year. But we are tryingto conclude it by Marchend,” Mr Kumar said.

We are actually in theprocess of setting up an

ARC and wewould like toshift our en-tire NPL port-folio to ARC.So, we wouldbe expectingthat once thistransition isover, wewould be

having almost like zero NPLkind of thing,” Kumaradded.

The bank has a stressedpool of Rs 50,000 crore, in-cluding technical write-offs.While inviting Expression ofInterest, the banks said theprospective investor shouldhave minimum assets un-der management andfunds deployed globally tothe tune of $5 billion in theimmediately preceding fi-nancial year.

The investor shouldhave the ability to commitfunds for investment or de-ployment in Indian compa-nies or Indian assets or ap-proximately $0.5 billion. EYis the process advisor forthe deal. The bank will holda 20 per cent stake in theARC.

Retail inflation for industrialworkers rises to 5.56 pc

New Delhi: Retail infla-tion for industrial workersrose to 5.56 per cent inDecember 2021, com-pared to the same month ayear ago mainly due tohigher prices of certainfood items, the labour min-istry said.

Year-on-year inflationfor the month (December2021) stood at 5.56 percent compared to 4.84 percent for the previous monthand 3.67 per cent duringthe corresponding month ayear before, the ministrysaid.

Similarly, its stated thatfood inflation stood at 5.93per cent against 3.40 percent of the previous month(November 2021) and 2.89per cent during the corre-sponding month (Decem-ber 2020) a year ago.

The All-India CPI-IW(consumer price index forindustrial workers) for De-cember, 2021 decreased by0.3 point and stood at125.4 point. It was 125.7point in November, 2021.

On one-month per-

centage change, it de-creased by 0.24 per centwith respect to previousmonth compared to de-crease of 0.92 per cent re-corded between corre-sponding months a yearago.

The maximum down-ward pressure in currentindex came from Food &Beverages group contrib-uting 0.39 percentagepoint to the total change.

At item level, fish fresh,poultry chicken, sunfloweroil, banana, cauliflower, on-ion, peas, potato, tomato, ESIcontribution, petrol etc., areresponsible for the fall inindex.

However, this decreasewas largely checked bybuffalo milk, grapes, pome-granate, lady finger, firewood, medicine allopathic,auto rickshaw fare, tele-phone charges etc, puttingupward pressure on the in-dex.

At centre level, UdhamSingh Nagar recorded amaximum decrease of 4.2points. Among others, 5

centres observed a de-crease between 3 to 3.9points, 6 centres between2 to 2.9 points, 19 centresbetween 1 to 1.9 pointsand 27 centres between0.1 to 0.9 points.

On the contrary,Virudhu Nagar recorded amaximum increase of 3.6points. Among others, 5centres observed an in-crease between 2 to 2.9points, 9 centres between1 to 1.9 points and 12 cen-tres between 0.1 to 0.9points. Rest of three cen-tres' indices remained sta-tionary.

The Labour Bureau, anattached office of the Min-istry of Labour & Employ-ment, has been compilingConsumer Price Index forIndustrial Workers everymonth on the basis of retailprices collected from 317markets spread over 88 in-dustrially important centresin the country. The index iscompiled for 88 centresand All-India and is releasedon the last working day ofsucceeding month.

Higher public investment to stimulatedemand, generate jobs: DEA Secy

New Delhi: The Budgetproposals seek to stimulatethe economy by steppingup public investments,which will create demandfor industrial inputs like ce-ment, steel and capitalgoods, and generate jobs,Economic Affairs SecretaryAjay Seth said.

Finance MinisterNirmala Sithaharaman inher Budget 2022-23 hikedpublic investment by asmuch as 35.4 per cent toRs 7.5 lakh crore or 2.9 percent of the GDP.

Observing that directsupport measures haveonly limited multiplier ef-fect, Seth said steps whichcan have long to mediumterm impact are needed toboost the economy in asustained manner.

When we are looking ateconomic management, itis not a one year affair. Onehas to look at short, me-dium or long term. In theshort term, what wasneeded has been provided.

When we come to themedium and long term, wefind that a direct incomesupport that simulates con-sumption demand has avery limited multiplier ef-fect, whereas capital invest-ment has a much larger,very strong multiplier ef-fect, which lasts more thanone year.

How it helps? It gener-

ates demand for the inputswhich get into the invest-ment cement, steel, capitalgoods, construction ma-chinery and so on, Sethtold.In view of the hardshipcaused by the COVID-19pandemic, the government

provided direct support topeople through variousschemes like Jan Dhan, PM.

KISAN and PradhanMantri Garib Kalyan Yojana,he said, adding in year twothe need moderated andyear three we expect thatthe need may not be there.By increasing public invest-ment, the government hasprovided the signal that it

is ready to pumpfunds into growth-oriented activities.

It gives confi-dence to the peopleabout the futureand a lot of con-sumption behaviourgets influenced notby income of todaybut gets impactedalso by what are the

expectations of future, henoted.Secondly, Sethadded, the initiatives willfacilitate crowding in of pri-vate investments and gen-erate jobs for factory work-ers, skilled, semi-skilled andunskilled persons.

Khadi's exponential growth isresult of KVIC's Charkha KrantiNew Delhi: Khadi’s ex-

ponential growth, as men-tioned by President in hisaddress to the Parliamentahead of the Budget Ses-sion, is a recognition of the“Charkha Kranti” initiatedby Khadi and Village Indus-tries Commission (KVIC) inthe last seven years, saysKVIC chairman VK Saxena.

Expressing gratitude tothe President for takingnote of the good workdone by the KVIC, Saxenasaid the Commission builtseveral monumentalCharkhas to propagateGandhian thoughts andsymbolism of Charkha inIndia and abroad which fur-ther popularized Khadi.

Khadi’s success was ac-knowledged by the Presi-dent in his address to theParliament on January 312,and by Home MinisterAmit Shah, a day before atSabarmati Riverfront inAhmedabad, while unveil-ing Mahatma Gandhi’s 100

sq meter wall mural on his74th Martyr’s Day.

Khadi and Gandhi wereonly used for political gains.It was only after the year2014, that concrete effortswere made by theNarendra Modi govern-

ment to popularize Khadiand spread the thoughts ofMahatma Gandhi and thesymbolism of Charkhaacross the globe. Be it thebirth anniversary or themartyrdom of MahatmaGandhi, KVIC organizedunique programs to cel-ebrate Gandhian thoughts,”he said, adding. The PM

himself is the biggestsource of inspiration be-hind the success of KVIC.

During the last 7 years,KVIC built monuments likeworld’s biggest woodenand steel charkhas, world’ssmallest charkha on wrist

watches, Gandhi ji’sworld’s largest wall muralmade of clay Kulhads,world’s largest nationalflag made of Khadi fabric,heritage Charkha mu-seum and many more.Charkha, which wasGandhi ji’s tool in the fightagainst the British Rule,made its way to a foreigncountry, for the first time

in 2017. Since then, Bapu’sCharkha has reached 60countries of the world, hesaid.1956 to 2014 - No sig-nificant activity/event July5, 2016 - World's largestwooden Charkha installedat IGI Airport, New Delhi, byShri Amit Shah, the then BJPPresident and Hon’bleMember of Parliament.

IndiGo posts profit in Q3, appointsco-founder Rahul Bhatia as MD

Mumbai: Airline majorInterGlobe Aviation, whichoperates IndiGo flights re-ported standalone netprofit of Rs 130 crore forthe quarter ending Decem-ber 31, 2021 due to a re-bound in travel demandduring the holiday season,though fuel costs surged. Itreported net loss of Rs 620crore in the year-ago pe-riod.

Revenue from opera-tions rose 90% to Rs 9,295crore as against Rs 4,910crore in Q3FY21.

The company an-nounced the appointmentof its co-founder RahulBhatia as the company'sManaging Director with im-mediate effect.

The Board of Directorshave unanimously ap-proved the appointment ofRahul Bhatia, currently aNon-Executive Director, asthe Managing Director of

the Company effective 4February 2022, saidInterGlobe Aviation in astock exchange filing.

Bhatia said his agendawould be transformationaland would focus on ex-panding the airline's pres-ence in India and in inter-

national markets and build-ing for the long term.

IndiGo ChairmanMeleveetil Damodaran saidthe move will furtherstrengthen the airline in theyears ahead. Bhatia wouldoversee all aspects of theairline, and actively lead themanagement team, he

added.The company said its

fuel cost in Q3FY22 was atRs 3,269 crore, up 64% ona sequential basis and a184% jump on an annualbasis.

Total debt as of Q3-endwas at Rs 35,153 crore, up

27% on an annualbasis, said the com-pany, which expectsQ4FY22 capacity toreduce by around10%-15% as againstQ3FY22. I am pleasedthat we were able toreport a profit for thethird quarter. It dem-

onstrates that our businessmodel is fundamentallystrong.

Our employees haveremained a pillar of strengththroughout this health cri-sis and have steadfastly pro-vided superior service toour customers, IndiGo CEORonojoy Dutta said.

Rs 48,000 cr for 80L PMAYhouses for middle class, poor

New Delhi: In a bid torevive the housing sectorand create jobs, FinanceMinister NirmalaSitharaman on Tuesday an-nounced the allocation ofRs 48,000 crore for thecompletion of 80 lakhhouses under the PradhanMantri Awas Yojana (PMAY),both rural and urban, duringthe next fiscal year.

In 2022-23, 80 lakhhouses willbe com-pleted forthe identi-fied eligiblebeneficiariesof PM AwasYojana, bothrural and ur-ban.

Rs 48,000 crore is allo-cated for this purpose, theMinister said, tabling theBudget.

The Centre would workwith States for reduction oftime required for all land andconstruction-related ap-provals, for promoting af-fordable housing formiddle-class and Economi-

cally Weaker Sections (EWS)in urban areas, she said.

We shall also work withthe financial sector regula-tors to expand access to capi-tal along with the reductionin the cost of intermedia-tion, the Minister said.

For better land recordsmanagement, Sitharamansaid the States will be en-couraged to adopt Unique

Land ParcelIdentificationNumber tofacilitate IT-based man-agement ofrecords.TheE c o n o m ySurvey high-lighted that33.99 lakhhouses were

completed in 2020-21 and26.20 lakh units as of No-vember 25, 2021, under thePradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Gramin (PMAY-G)programme. For thePradhan Mantri Awas Yojana- Urban (PMAY-U), the sur-vey noted that 14.56 lakhhouses were completed inFY21.

NASA picks Lockheed Martin to buildrocket to bring samples from Mars

Washington, NASA hasawarded a contract toLockheed Martin Space tobuild rockets to help re-trieve samples from Mars.

The Colorado-basedcompany will build theMars Ascent Vehicle (MAV),a small, lightweight rocketto launch rock, sediment,and atmospheric samplesfrom the surface of the RedPlanet.

"This groundbreakingendeavour is destined toinspire the world when thefirst robotic round-trip mis-sion retrieves a sample

from another planet -- a sig-nificant step that will ulti-mately help send the firstastronauts to Mars," saidNASA Administrator BillNelson, in a statement.

Mars Perseverancerover, which landed in Feb-ruary last year on the Redplanet, in September col-lected rock samples.

The samples, collectedby Perseverance during itsexploration of an ancientriver delta, are thought topresent the best opportu-nity to reveal the early evo-lution of Mars, including the

potential for life.MAV will be carried to

Mars's surface aboardNASA's Sample RetrievalLander.

It is planned for launchno earlier than 2026 fromNASA's Kennedy SpaceCenter in Florida.

It will land near or inJezero Crater to gather thesamples cached by Perse-verance, the US spaceagency said.The sampleswould be returned to thelander, which would serveas the launch platform forthe MAV.

Krafton bans 2 lakh accountson BGMI in Jan 2022

New Delhi, SouthKorean video game de-veloper Krafton onTuesday announcedthat it has banned 2lakh accounts onBattlegrounds MobileIndia (BGMI) in January2022.

The company saidthis move is in line withthe company's zero-tolerance policy to-wards cheaters and itsefforts to eradicate theuse of i l legalprogrammes and activi-ties in the game.

"Enabling a fairgameplay has alwaysbeen a priority forKrafton and the com-pany has been takingrobust measures to de-liver an impartial andunhindered experiencefor players," the com-pany said in a state-ment.

To keep BGMI safe,the company said that

a device ban will beimplemented if a playeris found using il legaltools on any device. Bythe newly applied secu-rity logic, the device willbe permanently bannedfrom using BGMI.

The company haseffective cheat detec-tion and banningmechanism that allowsfor the real-time moni-toring of cheaters andbanning of players usingillegal methods.

It said that it will bereplacing all interimbans with Permabans orpermanent bans.

Last month, Kraftonannounced that it hadpermanently banned58,611 accounts be-tween December 20 toDecember 26.The com-pany on its websitementioned the entirelist of banned accounts,who, it said, "have triedto ruin the game".--IANS

Apple announces contactlesspayments via new iPhones

Cupertino (California),Apple has announced tointroduce 'Tap to Pay' onnewer iPhones that willhelp millions of merchantsto use their devices toseamlessly and securelyaccept Apple Pay,contactless credit and debitcards, and other digital wal-lets with no additional hard-ware or payment terminalneeded.

Tap to Pay on iPhonewill be available for pay-ment platforms and appdevelopers to integrateinto their iOS apps and of-fer as a payment option to

their business customers inthe US first, Apple said in astatement late on Tuesday.

Stripe will be the firstpayment platform to offerTap to Pay on iPhone totheir business customers,including the Shopify Pointof Sale app this spring andadditional payment plat-forms and apps will followlater this year.

"Tap to Pay on iPhonewill provide businesseswith a secure, private, andeasy way to acceptcontactless payments andunlock new checkout ex-periences using the power,

security, and convenienceof iPhone," said JenniferBailey, Apple's vice presi-dent of Apple Pay andApple Wallet.

Once Tap to Pay oniPhone becomes available,merchants will be able tounlock contactless pay-ment acceptance througha supporting iOS app on aniPhone XS or later device.

Apple Pay is already ac-cepted at more than 90 percent of US retailers.

Tap to Pay on iPhonewill also roll out to AppleStore locations in the USlater this year.

Govt mandates storage of ISD, satphone,conference calls, messages details for 2 yearsNew Delhi: The Gov-

ernment has mandatedstorage of internationalcalls, satellite phone calls,conference calls andmessages made over nor-mal networks as well ason the internet for a pe-riod of at least two years,according to circulars is-sued by the telecomdepartment.The movefollows an amendmentmade in the unified li-cence (UL) in Decemberby the Department ofTelecom (DoT) which ex-tended storage of calldata records as well asinternet logs to two yearsfrom earlier provision ofone year.UL holders aretelecom companies like

Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio,Vodafone Idea, BSNL forproviding all kinds oftelecom services, exceptsatellite phone services.

The licensee shall main-tain all commercial records,call data record, exchangedetail record, IP detailrecord with regard to thecommunications ex-changed on the network.Such records shall bearchived for at least twoyears for scrutiny by the li-censor for security reasonsand may be destroyedthereafter unless directedotherwise directed by thelicensor, the circular datedJanuary 27 for voice mail,audiotex and unified mes-saging service license said.

The amendment ap-plies to companies likeTata Communications,Cisco's Webex, AT&T Glo-bal Network, etc. whohave subscribed to theselicences.

The DoT madeamendments in ILD li-cence on January 25which besides extendingan additional one year formaintaining call detailrecords includes provi-sion for storing details ofinternational communi-cations made usinginternet protocol.viceson January 24 mandatingthem to maintain calldata and internet com-munications records forat least two years.

AHMEDABAD MONDAY 14/2/2022

Parliamentary panel for innovative tools like green banks,renewable finance obligation to boost clean energy

A parliamentary panelhas asked the governmentto explore new and inno-vative tools to deal with theissue of financial constrainsin the renewable energysector, including setting upof green banks and intro-duction of renewable fi-nance obligation for finan-cial institutions, among oth-ers. “Since Green Bankshave emerged as an inno-vative tool for acceleratingclean energy financing glo-bally, the Governmentshould explore setting upof a green bank systemwhich can address the per-sisting finance related chal-lenges being faced by therenewable energy sector

in the country, the Parlia-mentary Standing Commit-tee on Energy said in its21st report tabled in Parlia-ment.

Keeping in view that theoverall debt requirement islarge and reducing the costof financing to the renew-able energy developers isimportant, it also suggestedthat the Ministry of New andRenewable Energy (MNRE)may explore the possibilityof prescribing RenewableFinance Obligation on thelines of Renewable Pur-chase Obligation (RPO) forbanks and financial institu-tions. The Renewable Fi-nance Obligation will makethem invest a specific per-

centage of their invest-ment in the renewable en-ergy sector. It also sug-gested that the ministryshould work proactively to

make available and exploreinnovative financingmechanisms and alterna-tive funding avenues like

Infrastructure Develop-ment Fund (IDF), Infrastruc-ture Investment Trusts(InVITs), Alternate Invest-ment Funds, Green/Masala

Bonds, crowdfundingetc for the renewableenergy sector. It notedthat under India’s longterm commitments,an additional invest-ment of about Rs 17lakh crore has beenenvisaged, whichwould include associ-ated transmissioncosts. The countrywould need an annual

investment of Rs 1.5 – 2lakh crore in renewable en-ergy sector, against whichthe estimated investment

for the last few years havebeen in the range of Rs75,000 crore only.

The panel said it will bea gargantuan task to fill thisgap which requires an en-abling framework to becreated by the govern-ment.

It also suggested thatIREDA (Indian RenewableEnergy DevelopmentAgency) should be given aspecial window for bor-rowing from the RBI at reporate in line with otherspecialised financial insti-tutions like NHB, SIDBI andNABARD to ensure avail-ability of low-cost financialresources for the renew-able energy sector.

The Secretary, Sports, Smt. Sujata Chaturvedi briefing the media on thefirst ever National level Fit India Quiz, in New Delhi on February 11, 2022.

7BIZ NEWS IN NUTSHELL

A H M E D A B A D * M A R K E T * G U I D E

India outperforms emergingmarket peers in April-Dec 21

New Delhi: Indian markets have outperformedother emerging market peers in April-December 2021on account of good corporate earnings, sharp rise invaccination and opening up of business establishmentacross the country, the Economic Survey 2021-22 said.

The benchmark stock market indices in India Sensexand Nifty-50 – increased by 17.7 per cent and 18.1 percent, respectively, during April-December 2021, thesurvey said.

Driven by good corporate earnings, sharp rise inCOVID-19 vaccination and opening up of business es-tablishment across the country, Sensex and Nifty scaledup to touch their peak in October last year, it added.

Among the select developed markets, S&P 500 in-dex and NASDAQ Composite index recorded stronggains and rose by 20.0 per cent and 18.1 per cent,respectively, the survey said.

2,500 BSES employees get BoosterDose in special camps

New Delhi: BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL)and BSES Yamuna Power Limited (BYPL) have started adrive to administer booster (precautionary) doses tothe eligible employees. Within a few days itself, over2,500 and counting employees have received thebooster dose. Additionally, BSES is also holding campsto administer vaccines to the children of employees.

Apart from the doctors, nurses & medical scientists,discom personnel are playing their part in the fightagainst Covid-19. In South, West, East & Central Delhi,this responsibility is being shouldered by BSES PowerWarriors. Putting ‘duty before self’, they are ensuringreliable power supply to all consumers, including es-sential services like hospitals, labs, quarantine & vacci-nation centres.

Scope and challenges for dairyentrepreneurs

New Delhi: The scope of further growth in dairybusiness is tremendous in India as milk in its manyforms is part of stable diet of most of the people. More-over, milk and milk products remain the major of pro-tein for vegetarian people.

However, before starting dairy business, peopleneed to consider a few important points like locationthat is closer to target customers to cut cost on trans-portation, sourcing good quality milk, a market surveyto ensure, said Sanjay Bhattacharji, founder & director,Teplu Digital Learning.

8 core sector industries grew by3.8 % in Dec 2021

New Delhi: Production of eight infrastructure sec-tors expanded by 3.8 per cent in December 2021against a 0.4 per cent contraction in the same monthlast year on better show by coal, cement and refineryproducts, according to the official data.

Barring crude oil and steel, all sectors recordedpositive growth in December 2021. The core sectorindustries had grown by 3.4 per cent in November2021.

AHMEDABAD MONDAY 14/2/2022

Ropeways to be exemptedfrom prior EIA scrutiny

New Delhi, Termingthe aerial ropeway as an"envi ronment- f r iendlymode of transport" in hillyareas with least impact onenvironment compared toroads / highways, the Min-istry of Environment, For-est, and Climate Change(MoEF&CC) has planned toexempt such projects to beexcluded from the scrutinyof environmental impactassessment.

This, the Ministry said,was done at the recom-mendation of the ExpertAppraisal Committee ofthe Infrastructure sector.

Incidentally, the draftnotification published bythe MoEF&CC on February8 bears the date of Febru-ary 2, a day after the Fi-nance Minister announceda National Ropeways De-velopment Programme inthe Union Budget 2022-23.

Environmentalists arealready critical of the Envi-

ronment Ministry that hasintroduced a slew of mea-sures that they claim havediluted the environmentalms in favour of ease of do-ing business.

The Environment Min-istry said, it had received arepresentation from theMinistry of Road Transportand Highways stating thatropeways are an importantcomponent of the trans-port network of the coun-try as it can be used to pro-vide last mile connectivityas well as mobility in hillyareas; and the requirementof environmental clear-ance for these projects"came only in 2006 andbefore that these projectswere excluded from therequirement of Environ-mental Clearance."

Further, the Road Trans-port and Highways Minis-try requested the Environ-ment Ministry to reviewthe said notification andexclude ropeways from

the projects requiring priorEnvironmental Clearance(EC). "Public utility rope-ways have been excludedfrom the ambit of the For-est (Conservation) Act,1980 subject to certainconditions," the MoEF&CCstated citing a letter fromAugust 2019.The Ministryhad then referred the issueto the Expert AppraisalCommittee of the Infra-structure sector in theMinistry for deliberation."After detailed delibera-tion, the Committee rec-ommended that aerialropeway is an environmentfriendly mode of transportin hilly areas with least im-pact on environment com-pared to Roads / Highwaysand recommended thataerial ropeway projectsmay be excluded from theambit of EIA Notification,2006 subject to certain en-vironmental safeguardsprescribed from time totime," it said.--IANS

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Newsin a Nutshell

Not Bitcoin, RBI’s Digital Rupee WillBe More Like Sovereign Paytm

New Delhi: The govern-ment-backed digital cur-rency will be a sovereign-backed replacement to thebitcoins of the world, youmight end up disappointed.The Reserve Bank of India-backed digital currencythat was announced by fi-nance minister NirmalaSitharaman in the UnionBudget 2022-23 will bemore like a digital walletwith the RBI guarantee.

It is closer to a digitalwallet than a bitcoin,Ethereum or all of that.When we say it is a digitalasset, the two are not inter-changeably used. It is notsomething that will trade orappreciate in value or fallin value. It will be likePaytm, for example. Insteadof putting Rs 10,000 inPaytm and using it to payvarious merchants, you willbe holding Rs 10,000worth of RBI digital cur-rency in your phone, a se-nior government official,who did not wish to bequoted, said.

The RBI-backed digitalcurrency will work like anyother digital wallet. Aholder of those currenciescan use it in a shop to pur-chase what they want. Thedifferentiation though isthat a shopkeeper couldchoose not to accept pay-

ments through a privatewallet, but nobody will beable to refuse the RBI-backed coins, the officialexplained.

The digital currency ismade a legal tender, a mer-chant cannot say that theywill not accept this. If youwant to buy chocolate, say,in a Kirana shop, you canuse this digital currency.Now, some shopkeeperssay that ‘I do not use Paytmand only accept PhonePe’,say. But, here, they cannotsay that they do not acceptthis [RBI currency],” theofficial said.

Unlike other wallets,since the governmentdigital currency will bebased on blockchain, it willbe traceable. The con-cerned government de-partment will be able totrace every movement ofthat currency to see wherethat currency is travellingand how, the official said.

The official also saidthat it is not clear yet if theconsumer will show inter-est in such an offering,given that the market al-ready has other estab-lished players. “I am notsure honestly. If you ask me,I really do not think thatthere will be much of it.Only in companies like

Paytm, there is a small riskthat if it goes bust, mymoney goes. Here that willnot be the case. But, I amnot sure whether thatalone is enough to createconsumer demand. It isdefinitely not a substitutefor Bitcoin, Ethereum orany other cryptocurrency,or NFTs. It will not be avalue-changing asset, theofficial said. Finance min-ister Nirmala Sitharamanhad said in the budgetspeech that the digital ru-pee, the name of the Cen-tral Bank Digital Currency(CBDC) in India, will be in-troduced using blockchainand other technologies.She added that the RBI willissue it in 2022-23. “Intro-duction of Central BankDigital Currency (CBDC)will give a big boost to thedigital economy. Digitalcurrency will also lead to amore efficient and cheapercurrency managementsystem, she had said. TheCBDC refers to the digitalform of a country’s fiat cur-rency, which is issued bythe central bank of thecountry. Though it is in digi-tal form, it can be ex-changed with the fiat cur-rency of the country. TheCBDC is seen as a liabilityof the central bank.

Indian equities positive in earlytrade

New Delhi, After a sharp decline, India's keybenchmark equity indices -- S&P BSE Sensex andNSE Nifty50 -- rose in the early trade on Tuesday.OnMonday, indices slumped sharply on the back ofsell-off by foreign investors. Also, fears that RBI mayraise policy rates in the upcoming Monetary PolicyMeeting starting Tuesday and rising global crudeoil prices weighed on the investors' sentiment theprevious session. At 9.40 a.m. on Tuesday, Sensextraded at 57,831 points, up 0.4 per cent or 211points from the previous close of 57,621 points. Itopened at 57,800 points.Nifty traded at 17,265points, up 0.3 per cent or 52 points from the previ-ous close of 17,214 points. It opened at 17,280points. Among stocks, Bajaj Finserv, Titan, Eicher Mo-tors, Bajaj Finance, Cipla were the top five gainers,while Power Grid Corporation of India, State Bankof India, NTPC, ONGC and TCS were the top losers.

India hiring in January saw 41%growth despite Omicron wave

New Delhi, The hiring sentiment in India re-flected a resilience to the Covid third wave as thehiring activity saw a healthy 41 per cent (on-year)growth in January, a report showed on Tuesday.Theupswing of hiring activity was observed in mul-tiple sectors with IT-software, retail and telecomleading the charts, according to Naukri JobSpeakindex."While we saw spurts of growth during theyear 2021, the first month of this year has kickedoff with a bang as industries across India are gear-ing up for growth and getting past the previousyear," said Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer,Naukri.com. Other sectors that observed an uptickin hiring trend compared with last year are pharma(29 per cent), medical/healthcare (10 per cent), oiland gas/power (8 per cent), insurance (8 per cent),FMCG (7 per cent), and manufacturing (2 percent).Bengaluru (+79 per cent), Hyderabad (+66per cent), and Pune (+63 per cent) recorded thehighest growth in January.

Google Duo reaches 5 billioninstalls on the Play Store

San Francisco, Google's video calling app Duohas now surpassed the 5 billion download milestoneover on the Play Store. The US based search enginegiant launched Duo at the same time as Allo, one ofGoogle's many attempts to create a rival to iMessageand WhatsApp. Allo's time on the Play Store endedin 2019 when the app shut down and around thesame time Duo managed to cross one billion in-stalls. Google also planned to merge Meet and Duo,but this merger collapsed late last year. Google ear-lier rolled out four new features in its video callingapp Google Duo, along with a promise to add moresoon.The search engine giant rolled out a new videocodec technology to improve video call quality andreliability, even on very low-bandwidth connections.

Healthy demand to accelerateHFCs growth in FY2023

New Delhi, Healthydemand, along with in-creasing level of economicactivity, is expected to boostnon-banking financial com-panies-housing financecompanies (NBFC-HFC)growth in FY23, says ICRARatings.

According to theagency, the second wave ofthe pandemic impacteddisbursements of HFCs inQ1FY22.

However, the same wasfollowed by a sharp recov-ery in Q2FY22.

As of September 30,2021, the on-book portfo-lio of NBFC-HFC in India isestimated at Rs 11.6 lakhcrore, registering a YoYgrowth of 9 per cent inH1FY22.

"Going forward, thegrowth trend is expected tocontinue driven by healthydemand in the industry, in-creasing level of economicactivity and increasing vac-cination in the country," theagency said.

"There would, however,be downside risk in case ofsignificant disruptionscaused by the new wave ofinfections in Q4FY22 or fu-ture waves, if any."

Further, ICRA pointed

out that measures taken bythe regulator to strengthenthe structural, regulatoryand supervisory frameworkfor the NBFCs could lead toincreased focus on internalcontrols, which can, in turn,can also impact sectoralgrowth.

"Given the last threeyears of moderation ingrowth, the pent-up de-mand is expected to helpthe industry witnessgrowth in the portfolio inFY22 with the trend ex-pected to continue in FY23as well," said SachinSachdeva, Vice President

and Sector Head, FinancialSector Ratings, ICRA.

"However, this wouldbe subject to the impact ofthe ongoing third wave.Nevertheless, initial trends,as discussed with industryplayers, indicate limitedimpact of the third wave onthe industry's operations."

Consequently, ICRA hasretained its growth esti-mate of 8-10 per cent forthe on-book portfolio ofHFCs in FY22.

Further, HFCs on-bookportfolio is estimated togrow by 9-11 per cent inFY23.

Jan's equity MFs' netinflows at over Rs 14K

Mumbai, Equity-linked mutual fund schemes saw anet inflows of over Rs 14,887.77 crore in January, as perthe data furnished by the Association of Mutual Funds inIndia (AMFI) on Wednesday.

In December 2021, the net inflows had stood over Rs25,000 crore. Besides, in November 2021, it had stoodover Rs 11,614 crore, while in October, the inflows hadstood over Rs 5,214 crore. Furthermore, the data showedthat contributions through systematic investment rose toRs 11,516.62 crore, the highest monthly SIP contribution.

In December, the SIP contributions stood at Rs11,305.34 crore. According to the data, the net AUMs forIndia's MF industry stood at over Rs 38.01 lakh crore forJanuary 2022.

Airtel says recent tariff revisionconsolidated net 4G SIM additions

New Delhi, Telecomoperator Bharti Airtel onWednesday said the net 4GSIM consolidation duringthe Q3FY22 was "signifi-cant" due to an upward re-vision in prepaid tariffs.

"We did see significantSIM consolidation duringthe quarter that we havebeen through. But remem-ber the level of consolida-tion that we saw was muchlower than that we saw inthe first round of tariff raisethat happened back in2019," said Gopal Vittal, MDand CEO, India and SouthAsiaAduring a virtual inter-action with investors.

"We are almost flat in

terms of overall customeradditions and I would saythat in relative terms, wehave come out quite well."

In late-November2021, Bharti Airtel in-creased tariffs on prepaidplans by around 20 percent, as did by Reliance Jioand Vodafone Idea.

Airtel saw around threemillion 4G net additions inQ3FY22.

"The slowdown in 4Gnet addition is simply trig-gered by the tariff changethat has happened in thequarter. I think that is ex-pected to moderate as wego forward."

On per capita data con-

sumption, which is cur-rently in a range 17-18 GBand which has in a way pla-teaued out in the recentmonths, Vittal said the over-all data consumptiongrowth in the quarter wassoft primarily because wewere out of lockdowns.

Intake has now moder-ated as schools and otherthings have opened, Vittalopined. The company'sconsolidated net profit fell2.8 per cent during Q3FY22to Rs 830 crore on a year-on-year basis. In the samequarter of the previous fis-cal, the consolidated netprofit of the companystood at Rs 854 crore.

IMF approves USD 1 billionloan tranche for Pakistan

New Delhi: The Interna-tional Monetary Fund hasapproved the completionof the sixth review of itsstalled USD 6 billionprogramme for Pakistan,paving the way for an im-mediate disbursement ofabout USD 1 billion loantranche for the cash-strapped country.

The IMF’s ExecutiveBoard held a meeting inWashington DC to con-sider Pakistan’s requestfor completion of thesixth review and re-lease of a USD 1 billiontranche under the Ex-tended Fund Facility (EFF).IMF, IMF loan for pakistan,IMF extended fund facility.

The completion of this

review allows for an imme-diate disbursement of 750million in Special DrawingRights (SDR) (about USD 1billion) to Pakistan, bringingtotal disbursements underthe arrangement to SDR2,144 million (about USD 3

billion) or 106 per cent ofthe country’s quota, theDawn newspaper reportedon Thursday. Finance Minis-ter Shaukat Tarin alsoconfirmed.I am pleased toannounce that the IMFBoard has approved the 6thtranche of theirprogramme for Pakistan,”he wrote.In July 2019, Pa-kistan and the IMF reacheda staff-level agreement oneconomic policies for athree-year Extended FundFacility (EFF). The IMF pro-vides EFF loan facilities to acountry facing serious me-dium-term balance of pay-ments problems becauseof structural weaknessesthat require time to address.

Compared to assistanceprovided under the standbyarrangement, assistanceunder an extended ar-

rangement features longerprogramme engagementto help countries imple-ment medium-term struc-tural reforms and a longerrepayment period.Theprogramme aims to sup-port Pakistan’s policies to

help the economy andsave lives and liveli-hoods amid the still un-folding Covid-19 pan-demic, ensure macro-economic and debtsustainability and ad-vance structural re-forms to lay the foun-dations for strong, job-rich and long-lasting

growth that benefits all Pa-kistanis, the reportsaid.The sixth review wasscheduled for January 12,2022, and later January 28,but was postponed twiceon Pakistan’s request toattain more time forimplementing IMFconditions.In order tomeet another condition ofthe IMF, the governmenthad successfully man-aged to get the State Bank(Amendment) Bill, 2021,cleared from the UpperHouse of Parliamentwhich was the last stum-bling block in reviving thestalled programme. Fol-lowing the clearance ofthe bill, all prior conditionsof the Fund had been ful-filled by Pakistan, includ-ing the approval of themini-budget and SBP bill.

India's services sectoractivity slips further in Jan

New Delhi: India's ser-vices sector activity moder-ated further in January asnew business rose at a no-ticeably slower rate amidthe escalation of the pan-demic, reintroduction of re-strictions and inflationarypressures, a monthly surveysaid.The seasonally ad-

justed India Services Busi-ness Activity Index fell to51.5 in January, down from55.5 in December, pointingto the slowest rate of ex-pansion in the current six-month sequence ofgrowth.

For the sixth straightmonth, the services sectorwitnessed an expansion inoutput. In Purchasing Man-agers' Index (PMI) parlance,a print above 50 means ex-pansion, while a score be-low 50 denotes contrac-tion.

According to survey

participants, demand wasrestricted by the fast spreadof the Omicron variant andthe reinstatement of cur-fews in parts of thecountry.The escalation ofthe pandemic and reintro-duction of curfews had adetrimental impact ongrowth across the service

sector. Both new businessand output rose at slightrates that were the weak-est in six months, PollyannaDe Lima, Economics Asso-ciate Director at IHS Markit,said.Companies becameincreasingly worried thatgrowth would be harmedby the intensification of thepandemic, reintroductionof restrictions and inflation-ary pressures. Business sen-timent remained positivebut slipped to a six-monthlow.Concerns about howlong the current wave ofCOVID-19 will last damp-

AHMEDABAD MONDAY 14/2/2022

ened business confidenceand caused job shedding.Firms were also alarmedabout price pressures, Limanoted.Service sector jobsdeclined for the secondmonth running duringJanuary, owing to reducedoutput requirementsamong some businessesand future uncertainty.Meanwhile, the CompositePMI Output Index whic

Markets snap 3-day rally as profit-booking hammers IT, finance stocks

Mumbai: The Sensexand Nifty buckled underheavy selling pressure asinvestors pocketed gains inIT, finance and bank stocksafter three sessions of ro-bust gains.

Nervousness in Euro-pean markets ahead of cen-tral bank meetings coupledwith lacklustre macroeco-nomic data back home alsosapped risk appetite, trad-ers said.The 30-share BSESensex plunged 770.31points or 1.29 per cent tofinish at 58,788.02. Simi-larly, the broader NSE Nifty

lost 219.80 points or 1.24per cent to close at17,560.20.HDFC was thetop laggard among theSensex constituents, tum-bling 3.23 per cent, fol-lowed by Infosys, L&T, BajajFinserv, Bajaj Finance, TechMahindra and Kotak Bank.

Only five countersclosed in the green ITC,Maruti, Titan, SBI, and AsianPaints, advancing up to 1.14per cent.On the macroeco-nomic front, India's servicessector activity moderatedfurther in January as newbusiness rose at a notice-

ably slower rate amid theescalation of the pandemic,reintroduction of restric-tions and inflationary pres-sures, a monthly surveyshowed.The seasonally ad-justed India Services Busi-ness Activity Index fell to51.5 in January, from 55.5in December, pointing tothe slowest rate of expan-sion in the current six-month sequence ofgrowth.The domestic mar-ket extended its losses fol-lowing broad-based sellingas global cues turned infavour of bears.

New Delhi, Brokeragehouse Centrum Broking hasgiven a 'buy' call for VijayaDiagnostic Centre and Gran-ules India stocks.

Vijaya Diagnostic Cen-tre is a dominant player insouthern India and is thelargest integrated player byrevenue and the fastest-growing in the region, thebrokerage said.

"Market share expan-sion to continue in the coremarket with ongoing ex-pansion plans impeded bypandemic."

It kept the target priceat Rs 699, as against thecurrent share price of Rs487.

For pharmaceuticalmanufacturing Granules In-dia, the target price is at Rs385, against its current price

Centrum Broking gives 'buy' call forVijaya Diagnostic Centre, Granules India

of Rs 312."Granules India's (GIL)

Q3 performance was al-most in-line with our esti-mates. Revenue grew 18per cent YoY and 13 percent QoQ. The revenuegrowth was largely drivenby the price increase toabate the RM (raw material)inflation," the brokeragesaid. "( The company) GILplans of local procure-ment... still facing chal-lenges and continues toimpact gross margins. Weexpect capacity utilisationto improve further thoughexpect demand normaliza-tion to only happen beyondFY23E." Besides, for BajajElectricals, the brokeragehas given an 'add' call at Rs1,280, against its currentprice of Rs 1,175.

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I-T raids hoteliers inRs 100 cr tax evasion case

New Delhi, The Income Tax Department onWednesday conducted raids at over two dozen hospi-tality companies in NCR in connection with allegedtax evasion of Rs 100 crore. The raids were conductedat the office and other premises of VDM Hospitality Pri-vate Ltd, including of its Directors Deepak Saini, MonikaSaini, Vinod Saini, and Sarthak Saini and two more com-panies which are into hotel and resort business. All thecompanies have their offices in the NCR. An Income Taxofficial, on condition of anonymity, said that these com-panies did not pay full tax and the Department foundthat around Rs 100 crore tax, which they evaded, wasyet to be collected from them. "All the companies havemany resorts and hotels. They earn around Rs 90 lakh toRs one crore per day through bookings. But they wereshowing the less booking amount to evade tax. Theyhad been doing it for sometime which was detected bythe I-T Department," the official said. Mostly cricket starsand famous personalities book their resort. The team isscanning the ledgers of these companies. There arepossibilities that I-T team might be summoning theirCAs to question them in connection with the last threeyears' financial transactions, the source said.

Wonded soldier Naik Deepchand being felicitated by Lt. General H SKahlon, General officer Commanding Maharashtra, Gujrat and Goa area ata function organised by Sri Shanmukhananda Sabha,in Mumbai. UNI

President Ram Nath Kovind being received by Telangana Governor, Tamilisai Soundararajanand Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on arrival at Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad. UNI

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal alongwith AAP Chief Minister candidate Bhagwant Mann waves to party sup-porters during a road show in Amritsar. UNI