BACK PAGE | PAGE 14 BRANDWAGON | PAGE 9 Soniamemoir:IndiaInclostfaith inUPAover'policyparalysis' INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 7 Campaigns that made the right noise this Diwali CHENNAI/KOCHI, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2026 USattemptsnewpeace pushatRussia-Ukrainetalks FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XLVII 158, 14 PAGES, `12 P U B L I S H E D F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , B E N G A L U R U , C H A N D I G A R H , C H E N N A I , H Y D E R A B A D , K O C H I , K O L K ATA , L U C K N O W, M U M B A I , N E W D E L H I , P U N E SENSEX*: 81,106.65 ▲ 107.25 NIFTY*: 250,44.65 ▲ 58.25 NIKKEI 225: 60,459.58 ▲ 1,684.08 HANG SENG: 24,557.04 ▲ 108.09 `/$*: 93.94 ▼ 0.02 `/€*: 105.14 ▼ 0.22 BRENT*: $94.49 ▼ $3.83 GOLD*: `141,838 ▲ `806 (*Prv close) IN THE NEWS COMPANIES PAGE 4 THREE WORKERS DIE ATTATA'S iPHONE PLANT APPLE IPHONE SUPPLIER Tata Electronics will face an investigation by Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) and the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH) following the death of three contract workers at its manufacturing plant in Hosur, Krishnagiri district, on Monday, reports fe Bureau. » INSIDE « STUBBLE BURNING IN NORTH INDIA DROPS 11% PAGE 2 BLACKSTONETO BUY 16% IN IIFLFIN FOR `5K CR PAGE 6 Qualcomm India layoffs: Around 1,000 jobs at risk RISINGYIELDS RAISE FEARS OFONE-TIME LOSSES BanksseekRBIrelief beforeECLrollout CHRISTINATITUS Mumbai, November 10 THE FAIR-VALUE QUESTION WITH LESS THAN five months to go before the proposed rollout of the expected credit loss (ECL) framework, banks have approachedtheReserveBankof India (RBI) seeking relief from the requirement to fair-value their held-to-maturity (HTM) investment portfolios. The movecomesamidconcernsthat elevated bondyields could triggersizeable one-timevaluation losses, eroding reserves and putting pressure on capital. Banks have sought either a deferment of the new norms forinvestment portfolios oran alternative accounting treatment that would shield them from mark-to-market losses, people familiar with the discussions told FE. Lenders have also questioned the rationale for requiring a fresh valuation of securities intended to be held until maturity. The yield on the benchmark 10-year government bond climbed to 7.48% in October, driven by higher crude oil prices, rising US yields and expectations of further interest rate hikes. Although it has since eased to 7.15% on Monday, it remains wellabovethe6.75%recorded at the end of June. The ECLframework,sched- ■ Expected credit loss (ECL) framework to replace the incurred-loss model starting April 1, 2027 ■ Mandates fair-valuing HTM portfolios on March 31, 2027 ■ Difference between ■ This, banks fear, could existing value and fair value will be adjusted through reserves affect their capital position amid rising bond yields 7.483 6.685 7.133 April 2, 2026 Oct 26, 2026 July 6, 2026 7.153 10-year govt bond yield (%) Nov 11, 2026 uled to take effect fromApril 1, 2027,will replace the existing incurred-loss provisioning model with a forward-looking approach to recognising potential credit losses. Under the proposed transition requirements, banks will have to adopt the effective interest rate method and fair-value their HTM portfolios as of March 31,2027.Any difference between the existing carrying value and fair valuewill be adjusted through reserves,potentially affecting their capital position. The adjustment will, however, be a one-time exercise, with banks not required to subsequentlymark theirHTM portfolios to market. “The ECL framework requires us to mark our HTM portfolios to fair value, which could result in significant provisioning or additional capital requirements,” said the treasury head of a private sector bank. Unemployment rises in Oct, jobs rate hits post-Covid low Anthropiceyes$1-trnIPOvaluation ● The Claude maker sets price band at $70-$78 ECHO WANG November 10 ANTHROPIC’S IPO IS set to raise as much as $64.4 billion, a regulatory filing showed on Tuesday,in a landmark test of whether Wall Street's faith in the AI boom outweighs concerns over its risks. The company is targeting a valuation of up to $1.02 trillion,according to Reuters calculations based on the outstanding shares listed in the filing. The news agency exclusively reported on Tuesday that Anthropic and some of its investors plan to sell shares in an indicative price band of between $70 and $78 per share. The company is launching THE ROAD TO IPO Sept 2025 Reveals Claude 3 family to compete against GPT4 and Gemini 1.0 Ultra Mar 2024 Raises $450 mn from investors such as Google and Spark Capital Feb 2026 US President Donald Trump and Pentagon flag supply-chain risks Apr Debutes Mythos defensive cybersecurity model May 2023 Launches Claude, a large language model, to rival OpenAI Unveiles Claude 4.5 advanced capabilities Mar 2023 Anthropic, founded by siblings Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei, raises $124 mn in a Series A round June May 2021 Nov slowing labour force expansion SAIKAT NEOGI & SHUBHAM RANA New Delhi, November 10 INDIA’S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE (UR) spiked to 4.7% in Octoberfromanine-yearlowof 4% in September, largely because of higher joblessness among rural people and women,accordingtotheCentre forMonitoringIndianEconomy (CMIE). While actual employment fell by half a million to 449.5millioninOctober,which is hardly unusual during the period,what's moreworrying is the employment rate (ER) over recent months falling to levels never seen since the Covidinduced trough. The CMIE's consumer pyramidshouseholdsurveyrevealed that the ER fell from 39.4% in Septemberto39.3%inOctober; LABOUR TREND 20 16 12 8 4 0 8 6 4 2 0 Unemployment rate (%) Total Female the roadshow for a historic share sale that is expected to set a benchmark for the sector, following years of hype that fueled a massive influx of 12.7 Sept 2025 Rural forceincreasedby13-17million inthefirst10monthsofthelast three years (2023-2025),in the corresponding period of 2026 was only 9 million. “Going by past trends, the labour force is expectedtoshrinkinNovember and then rise substantially in December. Continued on Page 6 REUTERS November 10 Oct 2026 4.7 PLFS overall unemployment rate* (%) Jul-Sept 5.2 Oct-Dec Jan-Mar 5.0 Apr-Jun Jul-Sep Sept 2025 Source: CMIE Oct 2026 the ER was 39.7% in January 2020,beforethepandemicravaged the economy and the labourmarket. The slowing of the labour force expansion—people actively seeking jobs--also seems to continue despite a trend-consistent 3 million expansioninOctober.Tobesure, while the size of India's labour NVIDIA CEO JENSEN Huang's affairwith a Chinese businesswoman alleged to be a spy for Beijing facilitated the shipment of at least $7.5 billion worth of the company's chips to Chinese firms,The Information reported on Tuesday, citing two people who know her. Alice Huang,along with her husband and sister,built a networkofcompaniesacrossChina andSingaporetoacquireNvidia »EDIT« THE HUMAN GLITCH PAGE 8 was initially linked to Alice Huang's sister, Huang Yu, throughafoundingshareholder that was ultimately controlled by Huang Yu before exiting the companyin 2024. WhenordersforNvidiachips subjecttoUSexportrestrictions stalled,Alice Huang used ties to Nvidia and its distributors to secure supplies, helping move about 240,000 H100, H200 and some A100 chips into China,the report said. chips, according to the report. Alice Huang and Jensen Huang are not related.At the centre of thenetworkwasShanghaiCenturyLitong,aChina-basedcompanyfoundedinJune2023that securedpreferredcloudpartner status with Nvidia by October, giving it priority access to the company’s chips,The Information reported. Century Litong Continued on Page 7 Continued on Page 6 4.7 4.8 5.0 5.4 5.1 * age: 15 years and above Source: MoSPI REAL-TIMETRACKING HELPS LOCALSHOPS MATCH ONLINE PRICES AIgiveskiranastoresapricingedge ANEES HUSSAIN Bengaluru, November 10 AI AGENTS ARE beginning to narrow the pricing gap between online platforms and neighbourhood retailers, giving small shopkeepers awayto counter discounts offered by Amazon and Flipkart without eating into their margins. Bytracking online prices in real time and combining them with a store’s purchase costs, inventoryand margin requirements,the technology is helping physical retailers make more informed pricing decisions and compete for customerswho increasinglycompare prices before buying. AtBangaloreDryFruitsand Nuts in Bengaluru’s JP Nagar, the manager, Utkarsh, uses AI agents on OpenAI’s ChatGPT Dots, Anthropic's Claude and RETAIL REINVENTION ■ Small shopkeepers are using AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Grok to adjust their pricing strategies ■ By linking AI agents to inventory and billing systems, retailers can factor in purchase costs ■ AI tools identify ageing inventory and slow-moving products, allowing retailers to offer deeper discounts xAI’s Grok Bot to monitor prices across online platforms. Connectedtothestore'sinventory management system, the agents suggest prices that can beat online offers while protecting a fixed margin. They also factor in when a particular batch was purchased and at what cost.Older stock can therefore be dis- counted more aggressively to clear it before expiry, while newer inventory bought at higher prices is priced more conservatively. Muralidhar, who runs an electronics store in Bengaluru’s Malleswaram, has similarly connected AI agents to his billing and inventory software to track prices on SK hynix** (2026) Saudi Aramco (2019) Alibaba (2014) 75.0 64.4 26.5 25.5 21.7 *Yet to be listed; **Except for SK Hynix, which listed via an American Depositary Receipt, the others were IPOs Source: Renaissance Capital/Reuters Alphabet’s Google, Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, the news agency reported. Continued on Page 7 Huangaffairlinkedto$7.5bnChinachipsales OIL PRICES EXTENDED losses from the previous session on TuesdayafterUSPresidentDonaldTrumpdownplayedtheneed for additional military action againstIran,easingfearsofsustained Middle East supply disruptions,withprospectsofoversupplyalso in focus. Brent crude futures were down $2.92, or 3.15%, at $89.65 a barrel by 7 pm IST.US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fell $2.33,or 2.68%,to $84.52.Havinglost5.9%inthe previous session, the Brent benchmarkdroppedbelow$90 on Tuesday for the first time sinceAugust31. Trumpsaidon Mondaythatheplanstoholdoff from new military strikes against Iran after appeals from countries in the region,includingfromQatar’sprimeminister. 15.8 6.3 Continued on Page 7 SpaceX (2026) Anthropic* (2026) Plans to raise up to $64.4 bn in US IPO at $1 trn valuation capital into AI companies. Anthropic will also raise $26 billion via a separate private placement deal with cornerstone investors including REUTERS London, November 10 2025 ● CMIE flags 2026 ■ PAGE 4 Deal size ($ bn) »INSIDE« ONLY $1.1 TRILLION FOR ANTHROPIC IPO? JUSTTAKE IT PAGE 8 Oil prices fall asTrump downplays Iran tensions QUALCOMM HAS BEGUN laying off employees in India, with around 1,000 or more jobs potentially at risk as the USbased chipmaker undertakes a global workforce restructuring, reports Poulomi Chatterjee. Confidentially files for US IPO, edging ahead of rival OpenAI TOP 5 GLOBAL IPOs ■ Price- tracking platforms such as BuyHatke, Flipshope and Keepa are making shoppers more aware of historical prices Amazon, Flipkart and other online platforms. When a customer enquires about a television or washing machine, the agents weigh the online price against the store’s purchasecost,distributoroffers and available margins before suggesting a quote. Continued on Page 6 CHENNAI/KOCHI INTERNAL PROBE ■ Nvidia's board launched an internal investigation, while the FBI is examining the matter ■ Huang has told employees he was unfaithful to his wife but provided no details