WORDS WORTH WELL BEING A memoir that doubles as a manual for crisis management Page 4 Feminine hygiene products are all the rage now, with many promising to offer brightening, moisturising and even infection prevention properties. But do they really serve a purpose? Page 9 FE LINES A CLOSER LOOK AT INTIMATE WASHES Beyond the invincible CEO VOL XXVI NO. 1 CAPTCHA attack Human-verification checks are becoming the new weapons for cybercriminals Page 8 LEISURE Follow us on Twitter & Facebook. App available on App Store & Play Store WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM DELHI TO BECOME A GIANT GALLERY FINANCIAL EXPRESS ON SUNDAY NEW DELHI SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2026 50 Pages, `12 (Patna `12, Raipur `12, Srinagar `15) 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 , ■ LIVING, P6 The end of formal wear STRUGGLING TO BREATHE in the post-Diwali smog, a recent Lancet study that pegs air pollution as the biggest health threat to human life for thenext75yearsisagrimindicator of things to come. The Lancet Commission on 21st Century Global Threats to Health, published in October How smart casuals are the default dress code now FE BUREAU Mumbai, November 14 Realty stocks surge by 20% so far this month Relative performance Base: October 30, 2026=100 120 113.2 NiftyRealty Index 110 109.1 Nifty Nov 13 Top gainers 13.53 Presitge Estates 15.22 Phoenix Mills 17.65 Lodha Developers 18.30 Godrej Properties 19.83 % return, in November WORRYING SHIFT ■ 2016 to 2025: Covid-19, climate change intensified heat-related illness, food insecurity & infectious disease risks, air pollution, AMR, obesity, cardiovascular disease, mental health challenges and health inequalities How mortality causes changed over the decades ■ 1986 to 1995: Infectious diseases — HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, Ebola ■ 1996 to 2005: HIV/AIDS, SARS, avian influenza & drug resistant infections ■ 2006 to 2015: H1n1, AMR, non-communicable diseases including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes & chronic respiratory illnesses this year,examined 204 countries and territories over the period2025-2100,andidentified 17 major threats to healthylife,which largelyarise from environmental degradation, chronic health conditions, social inequalities and technological vulnerabilities. Ranking first, air pollution accounts for 8% of the total global loss to life years, high Publiclistingmaychange the ‘Tataway’, says Noel ● Warns of putting profit ahead of philanthropy Aditya Birla Real Estate N E W D E L H I , P U N E TATA TRUSTS CHAIRMAN Noel Tata on Saturday expressed concern that public listing of Tata Sons could fundamentally alter the group’s operating philosophy, warning that a wider shareholder base may eventually place profits ahead of philanthropy. Speakingatamediaeventin New Delhi, Noel Tata said: “My worry is that listing, which is what some people are proposing, will change the Tata way. Andoneday,ifwehave30,00040,000 shareholders, profit maytake precedence overphilanthropy, which I think will fundamentallychangetheTata wayofworking.” NOEL TATA, CHAIRMAN, TATA TRUSTS VIKRAM CHAUDHARY New Delhi, November 14 tinuity, with the owner being an institution that could neither retire nor be bought out. “The owner cannot die, the owner cannot be bought and the owner cannot retire.There is continuity in what happens the Tata way,”he said. His remarks come amid an increasingly public disagreement betweenTataTrusts and the management of Tata Sons Microsoft outage: Services restoredafterover24hours REUTERS November 14 MICROSOFT SAID ON Saturday that services had fully recovered across Teams, Outlook and its other products, ending a global outage that crippled online communications for businesses and governments for over 24 hours. “Wehavecompletedourefforts to address the underlying issue oftheincidentandrestoredservicetotheremainingimpacted customers and regions,” the companyposted onX. NOTHING MALICIOUS ■ Outage lasted more than a day, making it one of the longest in Microsoft's history ■ Microsoft says not aware of any malicious activity, rules out AI as cause ■ Downdetector logged over 7.4 mn reports worldwide Microsoft had said server issueswerebehindtheincident that also affected its Copilot AI assistant, and that it was not ■ IndiGo, Akasa Air, Air India said their email support services were impacted awareofanymaliciousactivity, ruling outAI as the cause. Continued on Page 2 over the holding company’s listing. While the Trusts have opposed a public offering, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran’s position has been that the company must comply with regulatory requirements, including the Reserve Bank of India’s directions on listing. Continued on Page 2 India-US pact nears 'finishing line': EAM INDIA and the US have sorted out the bulk of the issues relating to the trade deal, including tariff lines, and the deal could be sealed ‘soon’, EAM S Jaishankar said. ■ PAGE 3 Trump, Xi, Putin to meet atAPEC event DONALD Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin plan to meet on Thursday on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Shenzhen, the White House has confirmed. ■ PAGE 20 Continued on Page 2 Two of top three 2-wheelerfirms are nowIndian ● Hero & TVS follow Honda, eclipse Yamaha The owner cannot die, be bought or retire. There is continuity in what happens the Tata way He added that the Trusts wouldengagewiththeauthorities to safeguard the group’s existing ownership and governance model.“Tata Trusts will play a constructive role with regulators and others to try and find a solution which keeps the Tata way the way it is,” Noel said. Describing the group’sownershipphilosophy, he said its model ensured con- blood pressure accounts for 7.8%, smoking accounts for 5.7%,low birthrate and childhood malnutrition account for 5.6% and elevated sugarlevels constitute 5.4% of the burden. These factors also bleed into otheridentifiedthreatssuchas climate change, global pandemic conditions, unhealthy ageing, and others which significantly raise the burden for human extinction potential. Significant research suggests that pollution, climate change,chemicalexposureand unhealthylivingconditionsare emerging as major drivers of premature mortality, rather thansolelyinfectiousandcommunicable diseases, as have been in past decades. THE GLOBAL TWOWHEELER pecking order has undergonea bigshift,withtwo Indian manufacturers — Hero MotoCorp and TVS Motor Company — now ranking as the second and third largest players in the world, respectively, by volume for the AprilSeptember period, behind global leader Honda Motor Co and ahead of Japanese rival Yamaha Motor Co. As per quarterly and halfyearly corporate filings analysedbyFE,Hondaretained its global crownwith 11.9 million units sold during the six months ended September 30, (H1FY27), up 10.6% from 10.76 million units in the corresponding period of 2025. Hero MotoCorp claimed the second spot globallywith 3.55 million units, followed closely by TVS Motor Company at 3.4 million units. Yamaha Motor, which had long occupied a podium position alongside Honda,slipped to fourth place with 2.89 million units during the April-September period. Honda’s dominance remains anchored in Asia, which accounted for 10.11 million units — or 84.9% — of its global two-wheeler sales during April-September. In fact, the company’s Indian subsidiary Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) alone contributedsalesof3,044,072 units during the period (data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers). Outside Asia, Honda sold 1.21 million units in other emerg- GLOBAL PODIUM World's biggest two-wheeler companies H1FY26 (in units) H1FY27 % change 10.6 Honda Motor 10,763,000 11,900,000 Hero MotoCorp 15.6 TVS Motor 27 3,400,000 Home chefs are increasingly bringing authentic, lesser-known regional cuisines out of heirloom family recipes and into the mainstream through curated pop-ups, cloud kitchens and gourmet dining events — Compiled by Kishor Kadam M U M B A I , 2,700,000 Bringing India to the table Oct 30 2026 L U C K N O W , 3,545,000 ■ SPOTLIGHT, P5 100 K O L K A T A , 2,889,000 SREYA DEB New Delhi, November 14 105 K O C H I , 3,067,000 ● Environment, climate biggest mortality causes 115 H Y D E R A B A D , Fromgermstopollution,threatstohumanschanging WHAT'S INSIDE REAL ESTATE STOCKS attracted strong buying interest from investors on expectations of robust housing sales this year, surging by up to 20% in November so far. The Nifty Realty Index rose 13.2%, emerging as the best-performing sectoral index and outperforming the benchmark Nifty, which gained 9.07% during the same period. C H E N N A I , READ TO LEAD 2,649,000 P U B L I S H E D Monuments, museums & public spaces set to transform into a canvas for art Page 7 Yamaha Motor 9.1 Note: Figures rounded to nearest thousand ing regions, 290,000 in North America, 215,000 in Europe, and 76,000 in Japan. Hero MotoCorp’s rise to the global number two slot was propelled by back-toback quarters of double-digit expansion. On a standalone basis,Hero sold 1.677 million two-wheelers in Q1FY27, representing a 23% year-onyear jump over 1.367 million units in Q1FY26.Momentum carried into Q2FY27, when sales rose 10% year-on-year and 11% sequentially to 1.868 million units, bringing its six-month tally to 3.55 million units. Continued on Page 2 India’s sweet tooth just grew bigger this festive season ● Sweet sales show uptick, premium offerings dominate SUGANDHA MUKHERJEE New Delhi, November 14 INDIA’S LOVE AFFAIR with mithai shows no signs of slowing down,as sales of sweets and chocolates reveal a healthy upward trend. Haldiram’s, one of India’s largest packaged sweets and snacks players, reported a 49% year-on-year increase in festive sweet sales, driven by demand for traditional favourites such as kaju katli,motichoorladdooandbarfi, alongside festive gift hampers. “ThisDiwali,wehavewitnessed continuedconsumerpreference for traditional Indian sweets, reflectingtheenduringcultural and emotional significance of mithai during the festive season,” said Tushar Mehta, vicepresident,growth and marketing,Haldiram’s. Online food delivery platforms are also contributing to the growth. Swiggy reported a 10.7%increaseinfooddelivery ordersduringtheDiwalifestivities between November 6 and 8, compared with Diwali dates ofOctober18-20lastyear.Kaju katli emerged as the most popular sweet on the platform,followed bymotichoorladdoo,ras- MITHAI MAGIC 10.7 49 % % y-o-y increase in food delivery orders on Swiggy during Diwali y-o-y rise in festive sweet sales reported by Haldiram's gulla and gulab jamun. As per theplatform,kajukatliwasparticularly popular across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur andHyderabad.Thescaleoffes- tive orders also reflected the importance of sweets in celebrations as one of the largest single orders in Hyderabad on November 6 comprised 57 Traditional bestsellers Kaju katli, motichoor laddoo, barfi drive demand Healthier alternatives Jaggery & date-based mithais account for 50% of festive mithai sales on Amazon India packets of assorted sweets worth `41,895. On the day of Diwali, a Mumbai-based customer placed an order worth `41,772 for seven curated hampers of assorted sweets. The shift towards organised gifting is also visible in the premiumsegment.ManamChocolate,which specialises in Indian craft chocolate,reported a 75% growth in festive sales comparedwith the same period last year. More significantly, the company is seeing consumers spend more on individual giftingpurchases.“Lastyear,wesaw significant demand at an average price point of `2,000.This year,we are seeing greater offtake in the `3,000-3,500 range,”saidChaitanyaMuppala, founder,Manam Chocolate. Thecompany’scuratedcelebration hampers recorded the strongest demand,with larger premiumofferingsperforming better than in previous years. “What’s exciting is that consumers are no longer viewing chocolateasjustanadd-ongift,” Muppala said. New Delhi Another emerging trend is thedemandforhealthieralternativestoconventionalsweets. Jaggery and date-based mithais accounted for close to half of festive mithai sales on Amazon India. Natural sugar substitutes such as stevia and monk fruit, along with gluten-free and nomaida snacks,also recorded 1.5 timesyear-on-yeargrowth. “This festive season, we are seeing customers indulge in a wider range of healthier snacking options alongside traditional festive favourites,” said Srikant Sree Ram, director, everyday essentials, Amazon India. Continued on Page 2