COMPANIES | PAGE 4 NEWSPOINT | PAGE 7 Nirmal Jain: Reputation and reinvention INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 10 Q-comm grabs bigger sliceofmutedfestivepie CHENNAI/KOCHI, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2026 We don't need a deal with Iran, saysTrump FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL NO. XLVII 160, 36 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: 81,911.01 ▲ 31.61 NIFTY: 25,299.35 ▲ 44.30 NIKKEI 225: 60,819.36 ▼ 429.23 HANG SENG: 24,008.55 ▼ 307.37 `/$: 94.04 ▼ 0.34 `/€: 104.33 ▲ 0.02 BRENT: $93.56 ▲ $0.80 GOLD: `1,37,308 ▼ `2,655 IN THE NEWS ECONOMY PAGE 2 ANDHRA DRAWS `5.84 LAKH CR PROPOSALS ANDHRA PRADESH ATTRACTED investment proposals worth `5.84 lakh crore on the opening day of the 31st CII Partnership Summit on Thursday, with RIL, Kia India, ReNew Energy Global and GAIL leading the commitments, reports Fe Bureau MARKETS PAGE 7 NBFCS TURNTO WARRANTSTO FUND NEXTPHASE INDIA'S LEADING NONBANKING financial companies (NBFCs) are strengthening their capital buffers through preferential warrant issuances and strategic investments to fund their next phase of loan-book expansion, reports Kshipra Petkar. » INSIDE « SBI RESEARCHTRIMS DEC RATE-HIKE FORECAST TO 25 BPS PAGE 7 NARENDRAN SEESTATA STEEL'S UK BIZ NEARING BREAK-EVEN BY Q4 PAGE 4 Tata’svalues,Reliance’s speed: Mittal’s mantra for Bharti@50 CPI HITS 2-YEAR HIGH OF 6.09% IN OCTOBER Inflation breaches RBI’s upper band ● Pricepressures intensifyacrossthe board;50bpsrate hikeseeninFY27 6%-PLUS PRINT SEEN TILL JUNE ■ October marks the 12th straight month of rising retail inflation SHUBHAM RANA New Delhi, November 12 INDIA’S RETAIL INFLATION rose above the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) 2-6% tolerance range for the first time since October 2024, hitting a 2-year high of 6.09% in October, and raising expecta»INSIDE« tions of more FOOD interest rate INFLATION hikes this SPIKES TO financialyear, 8.9% IN OCTOBER data released by the statisPAGE 2 tics ministry on Thursday showed. The rise in consumer price index (CPI) inflation from 5.54% in September was led by higher food prices, but price pressures intensified across the board, with inflation rising across 11 of 12 major CPI divisions. RISHI RAJ & OJASVI GUPTA New Delhi, November 12 ■ Core inflation rises to a series high of 4.5% 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Inflation (y-o-y, %) 8.9 Food 6.1 CPI 4.5 Core Jan January Core inflation continued to rise in October, reflecting the broadening price pressures. An unfavourable base effect also pushed the headline print higher. CPI inflation was 0.04% in October 2025. “October CPI October Octobe data show that India’s elevated inflation is not merely a transitory, energy-driven supply shock,” said Dhiraj Nim, senior economist, ANZ Bank India. Continued on Page 10 Nvidia turns to CFO Kress to steadyship afterHuang exit ● AIgiantweighs Results focus likely to save `37,000 crore onJal Mission India doesn't steal internal&external candidatesfor anyone's tech, permanentCEO says Goyal INDIA HAS SOUGHT to distinguish itself as a trusted destination for hightechnology investments, with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday assuring foreign investors that the country neither seeks forced technology transfers. Fe Bureau ■ PAGE 2 PLIs meet 76% of investment target till FY26 THE PRODUCTIONLINKED incentive schemes, meant for boosting domestic manufacturing and export production, have attracted investments of `2.4 lakh crore. Investments till FY26-end were an impressive 76% of the fulltenure target of `3.15 lakh crore, reports. Fe Bureau ■ PAGE 2 RAJAS KELKAR Mumbai, November 12 FOR MONTHS, INDIA was on the wrong side of the global investment trade. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were chasing the artificial intelligence boom in the US and technology-heavy Asian markets, leaving Indian equities out in the cold. But as doubts emerge overthe sustainability of theAI rally,India’s apparent disadvantage may be turning into an unexpected strength. Foreign investors are now putting substantial money behind the India-as-an-AIhedge narrative. Since October 16, net FPI inflows into Indian equities have crossed `1 lakh crore. November alone has attracted `78,803 crore so far, thehighestmonthlyinflowever. The previous high was `70,896 crore in November 2020 for the full calendar month. The reversal is ● TapsHarveyJones, boardmember,as first-everboard chairman ADITYA SONI & ANHATA ROOPRAI November 12 NVIDIACEO JENSEN Huang is stepping down, leaving the artificial intelligence industry without its biggest champion and clouding the future of the chipmaker he built into an AI powerhouse. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress will take over as interimCEOasNvidialooksfor a permanent successor, considering both internal and external candidates, the company said on Thursday. Huang, who co-founded Nvidia and is its fourth-largest investor with a stake of about 3.61%, will exit the board as well.Nvidia also named former SynopsysCEOandboardmemberHarveyJonesasitsfirst-ever board chair. BETWEEN 2016 AND 2019, Sunil Bharti Mittal did something few founders are ever asked to do—he raised $18 billion in 34 months, simply to keep his company standing.“It looked as though the company could collapse,” he recalls of the years after Reliance Jio’s entry upended Indian telecom.“During those 34 months, I raised $18billionsimplytoensureour survival,”hesaysinaninterview with Financial Express. Airtel survived. Now, as Bharti turns 50,the group that beganasasmallbicycle-components unit in Ludhiana in 1976 hasitssightsonAIdatacentres, sovereign cloud and compute. Theearlyyearswereasearch forafoothold.Mittaltriedmanufacturing,tradingandimports before a trip to Taiwan in the early1980schangedhiscourse. Therehesawpush-buttontelephones, then a novelty, and brought them home, making electronic phones in India through a technical collaboration with Siemens. Telecom equipmentfollowed,andwhen mobile telephony opened up, Bharti was ready. Airtel launched mobile services in Delhi in 1995. Next came a string of calls thatlookprescientinhindsight: GSM over CDMA, LTE over WiMAX, mobile phones over pagers. Airtel launched 4G in Kolkatayearsbeforemostrivals tookitseriously,andbythetime PRASANTA SAHU New Delhi, November 12 Colette Kress »INSIDE« NVIDIA CAUGHT IN CHINA'S TECH GAME P8 TRUMP SUGGESTS TIM COOK AS CEO P10 It shares dropped 7.6%, putting the companyon course to lose about $500 billion in market value and dragging the broadermarket lower. Pressure had been mounting on Huang in recent days after reports said the 63-yearold,whoismarried,hadanaffair withaChinesebusinesswoman whomUSauthoritiessuspectof spying forBeijing. Nvidia’s board met on Wednesday to consider his ouster, a person familiar with Jensen Huang the matter said, after reports earlier in the day that Huang also had an extramarital affair with a senior company executivewho reported to him. Huang’s exit plunges the $4 trillion company into uncertainty and threatens to disrupt an AI ecosystem that he helped bankroll by pouring Nvidia’s swelling cash pile back into cloud providers, suppliers and the industry's biggest labs.“The risk is not that Nvidia suddenly loses its technology roadmap... that roadmap is largely visible for the next several years. The risk is execution. Jensen has been the chief conductor of a complex system,”said Michael Feldman, portfolio manager at ClearBridge Investments. THE CENTRE’S REVAMPED flagship Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), aimed at providing tap water connections to rural households, could see savings of more than `37,000 crore in FY27 as the revamped scheme gets off to a slow start. States are taking time to meet the new conditions for fund utilisation and plugging leakages, sources told FE. Against a Budget Estimate (BE) of `67,670 crore for the year, expenditure could be around `30,000 crore as states adjusttotherevisedframework. Thisframeworkshiftsthefocus frommerelycreatingwatersupply infrastructure to ensuring that the systems are functional and water actually reaches households.The scheme seeks to strengthen accountability and make the delivery system more transparent. Continued on Page 10 basement of a building.” The battle also cost Bharti its wider ambitions. In 2007, Mittal had outlined a conglomeratespanningretailwith Walmart, insurance with AXA and agriculture through FieldFresh Foods. Little of it played out as planned.“We never had breathingspaceintelecom,”he says. “If the environment in telecom had been more stable, we could have created two or three other companies.” & SUNIL BHARTI MITTAL, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, BHARTI ENTERPRISES Iftheenvironment intelecomhad beenmore stable,we couldhave createdtwo orthree other companies The next frontier FULL INTERVIEW, PAGE 6 Jio arrived in 2016 it had 4G coverageacrossthecountry.“We couldforeseewhatwascoming, partlybecauseofdevelopments in technology globally,” Mittal says. “Several other operators failed to anticipate the transition.”ForesightdidnotspareAirtelthepain.Afternearly20years at the top,it slipped to number threeasVodafoneIdeaemerged andJioofferedfreeservices.Mittal credits the recovery to his people. “Team Airtel was not stressed.Theywere out there in the marketplace and fought veryhard,”hesays.“Theyfought theirwayback.” He is proud of what the industry built through that period.“Without healthy telecomoperators,Indiawouldhave suffered,” he says, pointing to France,where stepping outside can mean hunting for a signal. “Here in India, for `200, `250 or`300,consumersexpectconnectivity even in the second KSHIPRA PETKAR & RAJAS KELKAR Mumbai, November 12 THE GOVERNMENT IS examining a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposal to release the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on the dayoftheratedecision,instead of after the current two-week gap,people with knowledge of the matter said. The proposal, which has been under discussion within the central bank for some time, wasrecentlysenttothegovernment forapproval,theysaid. Atpresent,theMPCminutes are published 14 days after the policy announcement. They provide a detailed account of individual members’ voting decisions and the reasoning behind theirpositions. Releasing them alongside the policy decision would offer financialmarketsanimmediate insight into the deliberations shaping monetarypolicy. The proposed change would, however, require an MARKET CLARITY ■ The RBI has proposed releasing MPC minutes on the same day as the rate decision, replacing the existing 14-day delay ■ Simultaneous publication could help investors understand individual MPC members' views immediately ■ The move would bring India closer to the Bank of England, which publishes minutes alongside rate decisions amendment to the RBI Act, 1934. Section 45ZL of the Act mandates the publication of MPC minutes on the 14th day after every meeting. The minutes must include the committee's resolution, individual voting decisions and statements explaining members’ positions. Queries sent to the RBI remained unanswered until the time of going to press. Bankers said that simultaneous disclosure could help FPIsputmoneybehindIndia’sAI-hedgenarrative $3.2 billion. November has brought more of the same for much of Asia, but with one crucial difference: India has emerged as a beneficiary. While foreign investors have withdrawn $8.32billionfromSouthKorea and $19.72 billion from Taiwan, India has attracted net inflows of $8.5 billion. The shift away from SANJEEV PRASAD, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CO-HEAD, KOTAK INSTITUTIONAL EQUITIES Earningshavebeengoodinthe firstquarterandbetterinthe secondquarter.Thenext megareturnsmustcome fromearningsgrowth crowded AI trades is only one part of the story. Falling crude oil prices, a strengthening rupeeandsignsofanimprovement in corporate earnings have added to India’s appeal. Valuations, too, have become more reasonable.The Nifty 50 is currently trading at around 18 times its one-year forward earnings, against more than 23 times at its recent peak. Sanjeev Prasad, managing director and co-head of Kotak Institutional Equities,believes corporate earnings are finally beginningtodeliver.“Earnings have been good in the first quarter and better in the second quarter. The next mega returns must come from earn- MANISHI RAYCHAUDHURI, CEO, EMMER CAPITAL PARTNERS TheIndiastoryisnotlookingas badasitwasmadeouttobe. Earlier,themacroeconomic growthinIndiahadan earningsproblem Continued on Page 10 Govtweighs RBI proposal to cut MPC minutes delay FALLING CRUDE PRICES, STRONGER RUPEEAND EARNINGS RECOVERYBOLSTER INDIA’SAPPEAL particularly striking against the backdrop ofawiderretreat fromAsian markets.In the second half of October,FPIs withdrew nearly $50 billion from Asianequities,including$14.6 billion from South Korea and $31billionfromTaiwan.India, too, was caught in the sell-off, witnessing outflows of Thistime,thediversification stays closer to the core.Airtel is building AI data centres for Google,MicrosoftandAmazon. It is already a MeitY-certified sovereign cloud provider with 40-50 customers, including majorbanks,and itwill eventuallyentercompute.“There is no reasonwhy Indian customers’ data should have to be processed outside the country,” Mittal says. Indian firms cannot take on the global hyperscalers head-on,he concedes,but the two will coexist, with domestic players serving workloads where sovereignty matters most. Financial services is the other bet.Airtel Money Africa has just listed in London as an FTSE 100 company valued at $7 billion, and Airtel Money has begun lending in India. Mittal expects it to become a strong vertical within two to three years. ings growth,”he said. Kotak Institutional Equitiesexpectscorporateearnings to grow19% in FY27 and 13% in FY28. Manishi Raychaudhuri, CEO of Hong Kong-based Emmer Capital Partners, agreed that the earnings picture is improving.“The India story is not looking as bad as it was made out to be.Earlier,the macroeconomic growth in India had an earnings problem,”he said. In 2024-25, earnings initially projected by analysts at 100 would eventually end up at 80,he pointed out.That pattern of persistent earnings downgrades now appears to be reversing. Thedecline SAMIR ARORA, FOUNDER AND FUND MANAGER, HELIOS CAPITAL Since the reversal of FPI flows happened so fast,a major part must be shortcovering CHENNAI/KOCHI avoid mixed signals from the central bank. Under the existing arrangement, markets have to wait a fortnight to establish whether the views of individual MPC members are entirely in sync with the policy statement and the Governor’s commentary. The need for greater clarity was evident after the August policy review. Continued on Page 10 in crude oil prices could provide another significant tailwind. Asoneoftheworld’slargest oil importers, India stands to benefit from a sustained fall in globalcrudeprices.Cheaperoil would ease inflationary pressures, support the rupee, improve corporate margins and strengthen the country’s external balances — all factors that could make Indian equitiesmoreattractivetooverseas investors. But the scale of the turnaround raises an important question: is this the beginning of a sustained foreign investment cycle, or merely a sharp rebound driven partly by short-covering? Prasad is firmly in the first camp.“This is proper buying with cash inflows and can be sustainable,”he said. Continued Page 10 on