DG/330 & 331 28th July, 2020 BSELISTING NEAPS The Secretary BSE Limited, Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers, Dalal Street, Mumbai 400 001. The Manager, Listing Department National Stock Exchange of India Limited ‘Exchange Plaza’, C-1, Block G, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (East), Mumbai 400 051 Dear Sir, Sub : Newspaper Advertisement - Regulation 47 of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 Pursuant to Regulation 47 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, we are enclosing the Financials published in newspapers of MINT and Aapla Mahanagar. The above information will also be available on the website of the Company: www.skf.com/in . Thanking you, Yours faithfully, SKF India Limited Ranjan Kumar Company Secretary Encl : a/a RANJAN KUMAR Digitally signed by RANJAN KUMAR DN: c=IN, o=SKF INDIA LIMITED, ou=INTERNAL AUDIT, LEGAL AND SECRETARIAL, 2.5.4.20=fd1784491615197fe42a01564851e560eb9 852317a99e55384a60663c4578191, postalCode=411033, st=MAHARASHTRA, serialNumber=51936efe7233e93749063905d2e10f 98054040b5ae6d529b2a3e7f62acc040de, cn=RANJAN KUMAR Date: 2020.07.30 20:07:04 +05'30'
Transcript
DG/330 & 33128th July, 2020
BSELISTING NEAPS
The SecretaryBSE Limited,Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers,Dalal Street,Mumbai 400 001.
The Manager, Listing DepartmentNational Stock Exchange of India Limited‘Exchange Plaza’, C-1, Block G,Bandra Kurla Complex,Bandra (East),Mumbai 400 051
Dear Sir,
Sub : Newspaper Advertisement - Regulation 47 of SEBI (Listing Obligations andDisclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015
Pursuant to Regulation 47 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and DisclosureRequirements) Regulations, 2015, we are enclosing the Financials published innewspapers of MINT and Aapla Mahanagar. The above information will also beavailable on the website of the Company: www.skf.com/in .
Thanking you,
Yours faithfully,SKF India Limited
Ranjan KumarCompany Secretary
Encl : a/a
RANJAN KUMAR
Digitally signed by RANJAN KUMAR DN: c=IN, o=SKF INDIA LIMITED, ou=INTERNAL AUDIT, LEGAL AND SECRETARIAL, 2.5.4.20=fd1784491615197fe42a01564851e560eb9852317a99e55384a60663c4578191, postalCode=411033, st=MAHARASHTRA, serialNumber=51936efe7233e93749063905d2e10f98054040b5ae6d529b2a3e7f62acc040de, cn=RANJAN KUMAR Date: 2020.07.30 20:07:04 +05'30'
NEWS FRIDAY, 24 JULY 2020MUMBAI 05
economy, which in turn lendsheft to the person occupyingthe chair.
While the department oftelecommunications takesthe final call on most Trai pro-posals, its recommendationsform the basis of the DoT’sfinal policy framework.
The Trai chairman’s post isalso a bit of a crown of thornsthat demands having to dealwith an unending barrage oflitigations from the major tel-ecom companies.
The tenure of a Trai chair-man is three years thoughincumbent R.S. Sharmareceived a rare extension twoyears back. His tenure comesto an end at the end of Sep-tember.
Deepak was a joint secre-tary in DoT when India con-ducted its first-ever spectrumauction in 2010.
final authority to select thechairman of the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Trai).
The role of Trai chairman iscrucial, given the central roleof the telecom sector in the
ambassador and permanentrepresentative at the WorldTrade Organization.
Deepak was India’s chiefnegotiator at the world tradebody and for talks to join theRegional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership, anidea that India jettisoned lastyear. His tenure as India’sWTO envoy ended on 31 May.
“There are at least 12 IndianAdministrative Service (IAS)officers in contention. Thereare both current and formersecretaries to the governmentof India, senior officials frompublic sector undertakings aswell as experts from the pri-vate sector who have appliedfor the post,” said one of twopeople cited above.
The Appointments Com-mittee of the Cabinet is the
FROM PAGE 1
have been found at momentsof distinct difficulties. We ashuman beings start to look forsolutions; we tend to be moreinnovative and creative to findsolutions at such times,” saidTata.
He also touched upon themigrant crisis which plaguedIndia’s labour force duringApril and May, when the coun-try was under a strict lock-down to curb the spread of thepandemic.
Twitter sees surge in users; revenue slides amid turmoil
bit.ly/3eUJRqf
I had often wondered why Reliance IndustriesLtd (RIL) is converting its debt to equity. In acolumn soon after the Facebook investment
in Jio Platforms, I had argued that is an antithe-sis to RIL’s DNA, which, from 1977, has followeda path of growth predominantly through highdebt and financial engineering.
Now, with its cash cow of the oil businessthreatened, its proposal to raise equity is anindication of its lack of confidence in the exist-ing businesses to consistently generate freecash flows. Oil’s structural decline as a commod-ity, excess global capacity and lower demand foroil-based products imply erosion of refiningmargins from GRMs of $11 per barrel. Hence,RIL’s thinking would seem reasonable.
But apart from the dilution impact on existingshareholders, the cost of servicing equity is farhigher than debt. It would make more sense tocontinue with its DNA of raising fresh debt in anera of ample liquidity, near-negative interestrates and high ratings for RIL paper—and muchcheaper to service, too. I have found promoter-driven companies very rarely change their DNAduring intergenerational transitions. So, is RILitself not sure of a definitive outcome of thismega transformation it has unleashed, and thusprefers partners in risk rather than risk-freeinvestors with much lower return expectations?
From a technology management perspective,too, this would seem to be the only plausibleexplanation. The larger picture of the formida-ble strategic investments made by the likes ofFacebook, Google and Qualcomm reflects thefact that what Jio Platforms is attempting is sim-ply more than audacious. It is planning to playin all six technology stacks that encompass thecomplete telecom consumer play: core technol-ogy layer through Qualcomm and the 5Gswitch; the telco layer through Jio the serviceprovider; the handset and OS layer throughGoogle (Pixel equivalent and Android), Apple(distribution); the consumer layer throughsuper apps riding on Facebook, Google; andfinally, the infrastructure layer through cloudofferings of Microsoft’s Azure and Google’scloud.
No technology leader in any one of these lay-ers worldwide has managed a successful migra-tion to two or three other stacks till date. The
closest to owning more than one is Apple andAmazon. Hence, if this works, it will create acompetitive moat that will be unsurpassable,though questions will remain on the creation ofanticompetitive market structures.
Additionally, it has recently been announcedthat Facebook has given up its plans for Libra, itsambitious global cryptocurrency project. Thiswas a project by which Facebook would havepotentially created the basis for an alternativenon-dollar global financial system, leveragingits captive 2.5 billion global user base. It is now,therefore, logical for it to develop instead a clas-sical digital payment network like PayPal.
India could well be the playground for it inpartnership with a telecom operator with bothpolitical and financial muscle to navigate thesystem and regulatory hurdles that ultimatelyderailed Facebook’s ambitions. Incidentally,India has no super app, too, primarily becausethese were not operator-backed, but created bysmall internet service providers. This time, itwill be different. Interestingly, a small footnotereported in one of the pink papers suggest thatRIL is interested in obtaining a licence to oper-ate a payments network in competition with theNational Payments Corp. of India (NPCI).
China’s pioneering effort to introduce a sov-ereign digital cryptocurrency pegged to theyuan could well provide a blueprint. The two
largest platforms inChina, Alipay andWeChat Pay, with acombined base of 2billion users, havehelped create a mas-sive digital currencyinfrastructure, con-sumer culture andthe technology back-
bone to enable the People’s Bank of China toembark on its ambitious journey to launch theworld’s first sovereign digital currency.
It is this that I believe is the ultimate objective.RIL would be eager to rival NPCI in building itsown proprietary payment systems. And, once itreaches the stage to rival NPCI, India could wellbe on its way to launching its own sovereign dig-ital currency system.
Hence, these astronomical investments inRIL. But there are high risks of failure. And, ofcourse, long payback periods for generatingold-fashioned operating cash flows. And, hence,the equity raise instead of debt. For the ordinaryinvestor, treat this as a private equity (PE) playin the publicly-traded markets, not the risk-freeinvestment it is being made out to be.
Prabal Basu Roy is a Sloan Fellow from theLondon Business School, director and adviser tochairmen of corporate boards, and has formerlybeen a group CFO in various companies.
Jio is planning to enter all six tech stacks that encompass the whole telecom consumer play
Brinton Pharmaceuticalshas got the approval ofthe Drugs ControllerGeneral of India (DCGI)for marketing favipiravir
under the brand name Faviton forthe management of mild to moder-ate covid-19 patients, the companysaid on Thursday.
The emerging favourable globalclinical evidence suggests that favi-piravir is an effective treatmentoption in the management of mildto moderate covid-19, said com-pany officials. This medication isadministered orally and thus ismore convenient than intrave-nously administered medicines.
In India, favipiravir was firstapproved by the regulatory author-ities in June under emergency useauthorization to treat covid-19patients, the company said.
Faviton will be available in200mg tablets and will also beexported globally, Brinton Phar-maceuticals said. The medicine willbe available in strips of 10 tabletsand boxes of 50 tablets, which is arational pack for the treatment. Ithas a shelf life of 90 days.
“We always wanted tolaunch an evidence-basedcure to combat covid-19.Our strategic intent will beto improve access throughour strong distribution net-work, which will help makeFaviton available across allcovid treatment centres. The maxi-mum retail price is ₹59 per tablet,”said Rahulkumar Darda, chairmanand managing director, BrintonPharmaceuticals.
The number of people succumb-ing to covid-19 hit the 30,000 markon Thursday as the total number ofcovid-19 cases reached 1,269,532.
For the second day in a row,recoveries in a single day continuedto witness a significant rise, with28,557 patients being cured in thelast 24 hours, the highest in a day.The total number of recoveries hasjumped to 803,286, even as therecovery rate has increased appre-ciably to stand at 63.18%.
The high number of patients get-ting cured and discharged has con-tributed to the increasing gapbetween recoveries and total activecases, which was pegged at 436,015on Thursday.
The Union government contin-ued to coordinate its efforts withthose of states and Union territories
by sending central teams of expertsto areas that are witnessing anincrease in caseload and also byhandholding of covid hospitals instates through a teleconsultationprogramme led by the All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), New Delhi.
“The case fatality rate in India is
2.41% and is steadily declining. Thishas also helped in the reduction ofthe actual case load of covid-19cases,” said the health ministry.
Meanwhile, the National Aero-space Laboratories (NAL), Benga-luru, in scientific collaborationwith Manipal Hospitals, Bengaluru,and the Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR)—Insti-tute of Genomics and IntegrativeBiology (IGIB), is developingSwasthVayu, a Made in India non-invasive ventilator.
Public health experts have calledfor increasing health infrastructureand making medicines available.
“Our health infrastructure needsto be revamped signifi-cantly as the number ofcases is rising,” said ArupMitra, a health economistand professor of economyat Institute of EconomicGrowth, Delhi University.
“It will be beneficial tohelp patients access the
prescription for the medicine with-out much problem so that they canstart taking the doses immediately.The other important thing thatneeds to be practised by the peopleare social distancing norms. Thereare serious violations in the day today life, which is why the number ofcases is increasing rapidly,” he said.
RAY OF HOPE
FAVIPIRAVIR is given orally and thus is more convenient than medicines giventhrough veins
EVIDENCE suggests it is an effective treatment option in management of mild to moderate covid
FAVITON will be available in strips of 10 tablets and boxes of 50 tablets. It has a shelf life of 90 days
THE company said it hopes to improve access through its strong distribution network
50 vie for post of Trai chairman
E X P E RTV I E W
P R A B A L B A S U R O Y
The way migrant labourerswere left to fend for them-selves with no work, food,place to stay, speaks volumeson the lack of business ethics,he said.
“These are the people whohave served you all these years.Is that your definition of ethicsif you treat your labour forcethat way. Government andethical business have steppedin to help them,” said Tata.
Considering his advancedage, which puts him at a higherrisk of contracting the virus,Tata has confined himself athome.
Virtual meetings have beenable to help recreate some ofthat experience of interactingwith people but “it’s still notthe same,” which is why inter-acting with people is “the onething that I would really lookforward to doing when thingsopen up,” Tata said.
an interaction with the web-site, Your Story, on Thursday.
Covid-19 is an unprece-dented crisis and it has come ata time when the world wasalready grappling with an eco-nomic slowdown and standoffbetween countries like India-China and China-US, Tatasaid.
“With the virus, it hasbecome a situation where youhave nowhere to turn or go.The whole planet is undersiege, it is everywhere, it doesnot differentiate between eth-nic groups, eating out, congre-gating, it consumes you. Weare in an arena we are notfamiliar with,” said Tata.
However, this is also thetime to look for innovative andcreative solutions.
“Some of the most interest-ing or tremendous solutions
FROM PAGE 1
Lay-offs not a solution: Ratan Tata
Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata
Trusts. PRADEEP GAUR
Total cases15,265,081
Deaths
624,370
Recovered8,708,362
Active cases5,932,349
INDIA
GLOBAL
1,269,532Deaths
30,231
803,286 436,015
Total cases
Recovered Active cases
Source: Union health ministry, states
INDIA DEATH TOLL CROSSES 30,000
Trai chairman R.S. Sharma’s
tenure comes to an end at the
end of September.
NEWS FRIDAY, 24 JULY 2020BENGALURU 05
economy, which in turn lendsheft to the person occupyingthe chair.
While the department oftelecommunications takesthe final call on most Trai pro-posals, its recommendationsform the basis of the DoT’sfinal policy framework.
The Trai chairman’s post isalso a bit of a crown of thornsthat demands having to dealwith an unending barrage oflitigations from the major tel-ecom companies.
The tenure of a Trai chair-man is three years thoughincumbent R.S. Sharmareceived a rare extension twoyears back. His tenure comesto an end at the end of Sep-tember.
Deepak was a joint secre-tary in DoT when India con-ducted its first-ever spectrumauction in 2010.
final authority to select thechairman of the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Trai).
The role of Trai chairman iscrucial, given the central roleof the telecom sector in the
ambassador and permanentrepresentative at the WorldTrade Organization.
Deepak was India’s chiefnegotiator at the world tradebody and for talks to join theRegional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership, anidea that India jettisoned lastyear. His tenure as India’sWTO envoy ended on 31 May.
“There are at least 12 IndianAdministrative Service (IAS)officers in contention. Thereare both current and formersecretaries to the governmentof India, senior officials frompublic sector undertakings aswell as experts from the pri-vate sector who have appliedfor the post,” said one of twopeople cited above.
The Appointments Com-mittee of the Cabinet is the
FROM PAGE 1
have been found at momentsof distinct difficulties. We ashuman beings start to look forsolutions; we tend to be moreinnovative and creative to findsolutions at such times,” saidTata.
He also touched upon themigrant crisis which plaguedIndia’s labour force duringApril and May, when the coun-try was under a strict lock-down to curb the spread of thepandemic.
Twitter sees surge in users; revenue slides amid turmoil
bit.ly/3eUJRqf
I had often wondered why Reliance IndustriesLtd (RIL) is converting its debt to equity. In acolumn soon after the Facebook investment
in Jio Platforms, I had argued that is an antithe-sis to RIL’s DNA, which, from 1977, has followeda path of growth predominantly through highdebt and financial engineering.
Now, with its cash cow of the oil businessthreatened, its proposal to raise equity is anindication of its lack of confidence in the exist-ing businesses to consistently generate freecash flows. Oil’s structural decline as a commod-ity, excess global capacity and lower demand foroil-based products imply erosion of refiningmargins from GRMs of $11 per barrel. Hence,RIL’s thinking would seem reasonable.
But apart from the dilution impact on existingshareholders, the cost of servicing equity is farhigher than debt. It would make more sense tocontinue with its DNA of raising fresh debt in anera of ample liquidity, near-negative interestrates and high ratings for RIL paper—and muchcheaper to service, too. I have found promoter-driven companies very rarely change their DNAduring intergenerational transitions. So, is RILitself not sure of a definitive outcome of thismega transformation it has unleashed, and thusprefers partners in risk rather than risk-freeinvestors with much lower return expectations?
From a technology management perspective,too, this would seem to be the only plausibleexplanation. The larger picture of the formida-ble strategic investments made by the likes ofFacebook, Google and Qualcomm reflects thefact that what Jio Platforms is attempting is sim-ply more than audacious. It is planning to playin all six technology stacks that encompass thecomplete telecom consumer play: core technol-ogy layer through Qualcomm and the 5Gswitch; the telco layer through Jio the serviceprovider; the handset and OS layer throughGoogle (Pixel equivalent and Android), Apple(distribution); the consumer layer throughsuper apps riding on Facebook, Google; andfinally, the infrastructure layer through cloudofferings of Microsoft’s Azure and Google’scloud.
No technology leader in any one of these lay-ers worldwide has managed a successful migra-tion to two or three other stacks till date. The
closest to owning more than one is Apple andAmazon. Hence, if this works, it will create acompetitive moat that will be unsurpassable,though questions will remain on the creation ofanticompetitive market structures.
Additionally, it has recently been announcedthat Facebook has given up its plans for Libra, itsambitious global cryptocurrency project. Thiswas a project by which Facebook would havepotentially created the basis for an alternativenon-dollar global financial system, leveragingits captive 2.5 billion global user base. It is now,therefore, logical for it to develop instead a clas-sical digital payment network like PayPal.
India could well be the playground for it inpartnership with a telecom operator with bothpolitical and financial muscle to navigate thesystem and regulatory hurdles that ultimatelyderailed Facebook’s ambitions. Incidentally,India has no super app, too, primarily becausethese were not operator-backed, but created bysmall internet service providers. This time, itwill be different. Interestingly, a small footnotereported in one of the pink papers suggest thatRIL is interested in obtaining a licence to oper-ate a payments network in competition with theNational Payments Corp. of India (NPCI).
China’s pioneering effort to introduce a sov-ereign digital cryptocurrency pegged to theyuan could well provide a blueprint. The two
largest platforms inChina, Alipay andWeChat Pay, with acombined base of 2billion users, havehelped create a mas-sive digital currencyinfrastructure, con-sumer culture andthe technology back-
bone to enable the People’s Bank of China toembark on its ambitious journey to launch theworld’s first sovereign digital currency.
It is this that I believe is the ultimate objective.RIL would be eager to rival NPCI in building itsown proprietary payment systems. And, once itreaches the stage to rival NPCI, India could wellbe on its way to launching its own sovereign dig-ital currency system.
Hence, these astronomical investments inRIL. But there are high risks of failure. And, ofcourse, long payback periods for generatingold-fashioned operating cash flows. And, hence,the equity raise instead of debt. For the ordinaryinvestor, treat this as a private equity (PE) playin the publicly-traded markets, not the risk-freeinvestment it is being made out to be.
Prabal Basu Roy is a Sloan Fellow from theLondon Business School, director and adviser tochairmen of corporate boards, and has formerlybeen a group CFO in various companies.
Jio is planning to enter all six tech stacks that encompass the whole telecom consumer play
B rinton Pharmaceuticalshas got the approval ofthe Drugs ControllerGeneral of India (DCGI)for marketing favipiravir
under the brand name Faviton forthe management of mild to moder-ate covid-19 patients, the companysaid on Thursday.
The emerging favourable globalclinical evidence suggests that favi-piravir is an effective treatmentoption in the management of mildto moderate covid-19, said com-pany officials. This medication isadministered orally and thus ismore convenient than intrave-nously administered medicines.
In India, favipiravir was firstapproved by the regulatory author-ities in June under emergency useauthorization to treat covid-19patients, the company said.
Faviton will be available in200mg tablets and will also beexported globally, Brinton Phar-maceuticals said. The medicine willbe available in strips of 10 tabletsand boxes of 50 tablets, which is arational pack for the treatment. Ithas a shelf life of 90 days.
“We always wanted tolaunch an evidence-basedcure to combat covid-19.Our strategic intent will beto improve access throughour strong distribution net-work, which will help makeFaviton available across allcovid treatment centres. The maxi-mum retail price is ₹59 per tablet,”said Rahulkumar Darda, chairmanand managing director, BrintonPharmaceuticals.
The number of people succumb-ing to covid-19 hit the 30,000 markon Thursday as the total number ofcovid-19 cases reached 1,269,532.
For the second day in a row,recoveries in a single day continuedto witness a significant rise, with28,557 patients being cured in thelast 24 hours, the highest in a day.The total number of recoveries hasjumped to 803,286, even as therecovery rate has increased appre-ciably to stand at 63.18%.
The high number of patients get-ting cured and discharged has con-tributed to the increasing gapbetween recoveries and total activecases, which was pegged at 436,015on Thursday.
The Union government contin-ued to coordinate its efforts withthose of states and Union territories
by sending central teams of expertsto areas that are witnessing anincrease in caseload and also byhandholding of covid hospitals instates through a teleconsultationprogramme led by the All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), New Delhi.
“The case fatality rate in India is
2.41% and is steadily declining. Thishas also helped in the reduction ofthe actual case load of covid-19cases,” said the health ministry.
Meanwhile, the National Aero-space Laboratories (NAL), Benga-luru, in scientific collaborationwith Manipal Hospitals, Bengaluru,and the Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR)—Insti-tute of Genomics and IntegrativeBiology (IGIB), is developingSwasthVayu, a Made in India non-invasive ventilator.
Public health experts have calledfor increasing health infrastructureand making medicines available.
“Our health infrastructure needsto be revamped signifi-cantly as the number ofcases is rising,” said ArupMitra, a health economistand professor of economyat Institute of EconomicGrowth, Delhi University.
“It will be beneficial tohelp patients access the
prescription for the medicine with-out much problem so that they canstart taking the doses immediately.The other important thing thatneeds to be practised by the peopleare social distancing norms. Thereare serious violations in the day today life, which is why the number ofcases is increasing rapidly,” he said.
RAY OF HOPEFAVIPIRAVIR is given orally and thus is more convenient than medicines giventhrough veins
EVIDENCE suggests it is an effective treatment option in management of mild to moderate covid
FAVITON will be available in strips of 10 tablets and boxes of 50 tablets. It has a shelf life of 90 days
THE company said it hopes to improve access through its strong distribution network
50 vie for post of Trai chairman
E X P E RTV I E WP R A B A L B A S U R O Y
The way migrant labourerswere left to fend for them-selves with no work, food,place to stay, speaks volumeson the lack of business ethics,he said.
“These are the people whohave served you all these years.Is that your definition of ethicsif you treat your labour forcethat way. Government andethical business have steppedin to help them,” said Tata.
Considering his advancedage, which puts him at a higherrisk of contracting the virus,Tata has confined himself athome.
Virtual meetings have beenable to help recreate some ofthat experience of interactingwith people but “it’s still notthe same,” which is why inter-acting with people is “the onething that I would really lookforward to doing when thingsopen up,” Tata said.
an interaction with the web-site, Your Story, on Thursday.
Covid-19 is an unprece-dented crisis and it has come ata time when the world wasalready grappling with an eco-nomic slowdown and standoffbetween countries like India-China and China-US, Tatasaid.
“With the virus, it hasbecome a situation where youhave nowhere to turn or go.The whole planet is undersiege, it is everywhere, it doesnot differentiate between eth-nic groups, eating out, congre-gating, it consumes you. Weare in an arena we are notfamiliar with,” said Tata.
However, this is also thetime to look for innovative andcreative solutions.
“Some of the most interest-ing or tremendous solutions
FROM PAGE 1
Lay-offs not a solution: Ratan Tata
Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts. PRADEEP GAUR
Total cases15,265,081
Deaths624,370
Recovered8,708,362
Active cases5,932,349
INDIA
GLOBAL
1,269,532Deaths
30,231803,286 436,015Total cases
Recovered Active cases
Source: Union health ministry, states
INDIA DEATH TOLL CROSSES 30,000
Trai chairman R.S. Sharma’s tenure comes to an end at the end of September.
NEWS FRIDAY, 24 JULY 2020NEW DELHI 05
economy, which in turn lendsheft to the person occupyingthe chair.
While the department oftelecommunications takesthe final call on most Trai pro-posals, its recommendationsform the basis of the DoT’sfinal policy framework.
The Trai chairman’s post isalso a bit of a crown of thornsthat demands having to dealwith an unending barrage oflitigations from the major tel-ecom companies.
The tenure of a Trai chair-man is three years thoughincumbent R.S. Sharmareceived a rare extension twoyears back. His tenure comesto an end at the end of Sep-tember.
Deepak was a joint secre-tary in DoT when India con-ducted its first-ever spectrumauction in 2010.
final authority to select thechairman of the TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Trai).
The role of Trai chairman iscrucial, given the central roleof the telecom sector in the
ambassador and permanentrepresentative at the WorldTrade Organization.
Deepak was India’s chiefnegotiator at the world tradebody and for talks to join theRegional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership, anidea that India jettisoned lastyear. His tenure as India’sWTO envoy ended on 31 May.
“There are at least 12 IndianAdministrative Service (IAS)officers in contention. Thereare both current and formersecretaries to the governmentof India, senior officials frompublic sector undertakings aswell as experts from the pri-vate sector who have appliedfor the post,” said one of twopeople cited above.
The Appointments Com-mittee of the Cabinet is the
FROM PAGE 1
have been found at momentsof distinct difficulties. We ashuman beings start to look forsolutions; we tend to be moreinnovative and creative to findsolutions at such times,” saidTata.
He also touched upon themigrant crisis which plaguedIndia’s labour force duringApril and May, when the coun-try was under a strict lock-down to curb the spread of thepandemic.
Twitter sees surge in users; revenue slides amid turmoil
bit.ly/3eUJRqf
I had often wondered why Reliance IndustriesLtd (RIL) is converting its debt to equity. In acolumn soon after the Facebook investment
in Jio Platforms, I had argued that is an antithe-sis to RIL’s DNA, which, from 1977, has followeda path of growth predominantly through highdebt and financial engineering.
Now, with its cash cow of the oil businessthreatened, its proposal to raise equity is anindication of its lack of confidence in the exist-ing businesses to consistently generate freecash flows. Oil’s structural decline as a commod-ity, excess global capacity and lower demand foroil-based products imply erosion of refiningmargins from GRMs of $11 per barrel. Hence,RIL’s thinking would seem reasonable.
But apart from the dilution impact on existingshareholders, the cost of servicing equity is farhigher than debt. It would make more sense tocontinue with its DNA of raising fresh debt in anera of ample liquidity, near-negative interestrates and high ratings for RIL paper—and muchcheaper to service, too. I have found promoter-driven companies very rarely change their DNAduring intergenerational transitions. So, is RILitself not sure of a definitive outcome of thismega transformation it has unleashed, and thusprefers partners in risk rather than risk-freeinvestors with much lower return expectations?
From a technology management perspective,too, this would seem to be the only plausibleexplanation. The larger picture of the formida-ble strategic investments made by the likes ofFacebook, Google and Qualcomm reflects thefact that what Jio Platforms is attempting is sim-ply more than audacious. It is planning to playin all six technology stacks that encompass thecomplete telecom consumer play: core technol-ogy layer through Qualcomm and the 5Gswitch; the telco layer through Jio the serviceprovider; the handset and OS layer throughGoogle (Pixel equivalent and Android), Apple(distribution); the consumer layer throughsuper apps riding on Facebook, Google; andfinally, the infrastructure layer through cloudofferings of Microsoft’s Azure and Google’scloud.
No technology leader in any one of these lay-ers worldwide has managed a successful migra-tion to two or three other stacks till date. The
closest to owning more than one is Apple andAmazon. Hence, if this works, it will create acompetitive moat that will be unsurpassable,though questions will remain on the creation ofanticompetitive market structures.
Additionally, it has recently been announcedthat Facebook has given up its plans for Libra, itsambitious global cryptocurrency project. Thiswas a project by which Facebook would havepotentially created the basis for an alternativenon-dollar global financial system, leveragingits captive 2.5 billion global user base. It is now,therefore, logical for it to develop instead a clas-sical digital payment network like PayPal.
India could well be the playground for it inpartnership with a telecom operator with bothpolitical and financial muscle to navigate thesystem and regulatory hurdles that ultimatelyderailed Facebook’s ambitions. Incidentally,India has no super app, too, primarily becausethese were not operator-backed, but created bysmall internet service providers. This time, itwill be different. Interestingly, a small footnotereported in one of the pink papers suggest thatRIL is interested in obtaining a licence to oper-ate a payments network in competition with theNational Payments Corp. of India (NPCI).
China’s pioneering effort to introduce a sov-ereign digital cryptocurrency pegged to theyuan could well provide a blueprint. The two
largest platforms inChina, Alipay andWeChat Pay, with acombined base of 2billion users, havehelped create a mas-sive digital currencyinfrastructure, con-sumer culture andthe technology back-
bone to enable the People’s Bank of China toembark on its ambitious journey to launch theworld’s first sovereign digital currency.
It is this that I believe is the ultimate objective.RIL would be eager to rival NPCI in building itsown proprietary payment systems. And, once itreaches the stage to rival NPCI, India could wellbe on its way to launching its own sovereign dig-ital currency system.
Hence, these astronomical investments inRIL. But there are high risks of failure. And, ofcourse, long payback periods for generatingold-fashioned operating cash flows. And, hence,the equity raise instead of debt. For the ordinaryinvestor, treat this as a private equity (PE) playin the publicly-traded markets, not the risk-freeinvestment it is being made out to be.
Prabal Basu Roy is a Sloan Fellow from theLondon Business School, director and adviser tochairmen of corporate boards, and has formerlybeen a group CFO in various companies.
Jio is planning to enter all six tech stacks that encompass the whole telecom consumer play
B rinton Pharmaceuticalshas got the approval ofthe Drugs ControllerGeneral of India (DCGI)for marketing favipiravir
under the brand name Faviton forthe management of mild to moder-ate covid-19 patients, the companysaid on Thursday.
The emerging favourable globalclinical evidence suggests that favi-piravir is an effective treatmentoption in the management of mildto moderate covid-19, said com-pany officials. This medication isadministered orally and thus ismore convenient than intrave-nously administered medicines.
In India, favipiravir was firstapproved by the regulatory author-ities in June under emergency useauthorization to treat covid-19patients, the company said.
Faviton will be available in200mg tablets and will also beexported globally, Brinton Phar-maceuticals said. The medicine willbe available in strips of 10 tabletsand boxes of 50 tablets, which is arational pack for the treatment. Ithas a shelf life of 90 days.
“We always wanted tolaunch an evidence-basedcure to combat covid-19.Our strategic intent will beto improve access throughour strong distribution net-work, which will help makeFaviton available across allcovid treatment centres. The maxi-mum retail price is ₹59 per tablet,”said Rahulkumar Darda, chairmanand managing director, BrintonPharmaceuticals.
The number of people succumb-ing to covid-19 hit the 30,000 markon Thursday as the total number ofcovid-19 cases reached 1,269,532.
For the second day in a row,recoveries in a single day continuedto witness a significant rise, with28,557 patients being cured in thelast 24 hours, the highest in a day.The total number of recoveries hasjumped to 803,286, even as therecovery rate has increased appre-ciably to stand at 63.18%.
The high number of patients get-ting cured and discharged has con-tributed to the increasing gapbetween recoveries and total activecases, which was pegged at 436,015on Thursday.
The Union government contin-ued to coordinate its efforts withthose of states and Union territories
by sending central teams of expertsto areas that are witnessing anincrease in caseload and also byhandholding of covid hospitals instates through a teleconsultationprogramme led by the All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), New Delhi.
“The case fatality rate in India is
2.41% and is steadily declining. Thishas also helped in the reduction ofthe actual case load of covid-19cases,” said the health ministry.
Meanwhile, the National Aero-space Laboratories (NAL), Benga-luru, in scientific collaborationwith Manipal Hospitals, Bengaluru,and the Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR)—Insti-tute of Genomics and IntegrativeBiology (IGIB), is developingSwasthVayu, a Made in India non-invasive ventilator.
Public health experts have calledfor increasing health infrastructureand making medicines available.
“Our health infrastructure needsto be revamped signifi-cantly as the number ofcases is rising,” said ArupMitra, a health economistand professor of economyat Institute of EconomicGrowth, Delhi University.
“It will be beneficial tohelp patients access the
prescription for the medicine with-out much problem so that they canstart taking the doses immediately.The other important thing thatneeds to be practised by the peopleare social distancing norms. Thereare serious violations in the day today life, which is why the number ofcases is increasing rapidly,” he said.
RAY OF HOPEFAVIPIRAVIR is given orally and thus is more convenient than medicines giventhrough veins
EVIDENCE suggests it is an effective treatment option in management of mild to moderate covid
FAVITON will be available in strips of 10 tablets and boxes of 50 tablets. It has a shelf life of 90 days
THE company said it hopes to improve access through its strong distribution network
50 vie for post of Trai chairman
E X P E RTV I E WP R A B A L B A S U R O Y
The way migrant labourerswere left to fend for them-selves with no work, food,place to stay, speaks volumeson the lack of business ethics,he said.
“These are the people whohave served you all these years.Is that your definition of ethicsif you treat your labour forcethat way. Government andethical business have steppedin to help them,” said Tata.
Considering his advancedage, which puts him at a higherrisk of contracting the virus,Tata has confined himself athome.
Virtual meetings have beenable to help recreate some ofthat experience of interactingwith people but “it’s still notthe same,” which is why inter-acting with people is “the onething that I would really lookforward to doing when thingsopen up,” Tata said.
an interaction with the web-site, Your Story, on Thursday.
Covid-19 is an unprece-dented crisis and it has come ata time when the world wasalready grappling with an eco-nomic slowdown and standoffbetween countries like India-China and China-US, Tatasaid.
“With the virus, it hasbecome a situation where youhave nowhere to turn or go.The whole planet is undersiege, it is everywhere, it doesnot differentiate between eth-nic groups, eating out, congre-gating, it consumes you. Weare in an arena we are notfamiliar with,” said Tata.
However, this is also thetime to look for innovative andcreative solutions.
“Some of the most interest-ing or tremendous solutions
FROM PAGE 1
Lay-offs not a solution: Ratan Tata
Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts. PRADEEP GAUR
Total cases15,265,081
Deaths624,370
Recovered8,708,362
Active cases5,932,349
INDIA
GLOBAL
1,269,532Deaths
30,231803,286 436,015Total cases
Recovered Active cases
Source: Union health ministry, states
INDIA DEATH TOLL CROSSES 30,000
Trai chairman R.S. Sharma’s tenture comes to an end at the end of September.
