BACK PAGE | PAGE 20 ECONOMY | PAGE 3 INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 7 'Tiranga' protests: Dipke, Bora among 150 detained CERT-In alert sharpens focus on guardrails for AI Warsh boosts Fed rate hold bets this month MUMBAI, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2026 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE VOL LXVI NO. 245, 20 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 WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD SENSEX: 74,729.27 ▲ 413.66 NIFTY: 23,146.15 ▲ 148.80 NIKKEI 225: 65,324.29 ▲ 898.34 HANG SENG: 24,186.83 ▲ 124.11 `/$: 94.96 ▲ 0.10 `/€: 106.87 ▼ 0.24 BRENT: $105.34 ▼ $0.58 GOLD: `145,894 ▲ `383 IN THE NEWS MARKETS PAGE 6 Deepak Parekh (left); Paresh Sukthankar Fairfax to rope in Parekh, Sukthankar as advisers to IDBI FAIRFAX FINANCIAL HOLDINGS is set to appoint banking industry veterans Deepak Parekh and Paresh Sukthankar as advisers to IDBI Bank, said Chairman & CEO V Prem Watsa in an analyst call, reports FE Bureau. BACK PAGE PAGE 20 CENTRE TO SC: AIRFARE RULES FINALISED THE SUPREME COURT on Friday directed the Centre to submit the finalised rules to regulate airfares by November 16, reports Nitin Kumar. The court listed the matter for next hearing on November 16. SITHARAMAN SEEKS FAIRER MARKETACCESS AS TRADE DEFICITGROWS China’s non-tariffbarriers hurdle to bilateral trade: FM FE BUREAU New Delhi, October 16 INDIA’S TRADE DEFICIT with China is “growing exponentially” as decades of talks on market access have yielded no results, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday, blaming Beijing’s persistent non-tariff barriers for restricting Indian exports. These barriers are the biggest hurdle to bilateral trade, she said at an interactive session organised bythe Atlantic Council on the sidelines of the IMFWorld Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok. India’s trade deficit with China in the first half of this financial yearstood at $68.9 billion,with exports at $11.4 billion and imports at $80.3 bil- Misleading claims: Flipkart, BigBasket get FSSAI notices THE FSSAI HAS issued notices to Flipkart India, Innovative Retail Concepts (BigBasket) and Gemini Edibles & Fats India over allegedly misleading health claims made for Freedom Cooking Rice Bran Oil, reports FE Bureau. ■ PAGE 5 RESULTS CORNER PNB Q2 PROFITRISES 13% PAGE 6 LTM PROFITFALLS 4.6% AS DEALWINS SLOW PAGE 4 DLF PROFITRISES 10% IN SEPTQUARTER PAGE 5 We are denied market access even forgoods forwhich there are immense market opportunities in China ...Beijing uses non-tariff barriers without hesitation lion.In 2025-26,the merchandise trade deficit with China stood at $112.1 billion, with exports of $19.5 billion and imports of $131.6 billion. “We have been discussing this trade imbalance with China for several years.We are denied market access even for goods for which there are immense market opportunities in China,” she said, citing Continued Page 7 CHRISTINATITUS Mumbai, October 16 THE REINSTATEMENT Of YES Bank’s `8,415-crore additional tier-1 (AT1) bonds following the Supreme Court’s ruling will erode the lender’s common equitytier-1 (CET1) capital ratio by250 basis points (bps),even as its overall Tier 1 capital ratio is expected to remain unchanged. In an exchange filing on Friday, the private sector lender said the reinstatement would reduce its CET1 capital,including profits,by250 bps based on its capital position as of June 30. However,its Tier 1 capital ratio is expected to remain unchanged at 14%. YES Bank reported a CET1 ratio of 14% and a capital adequacyratio of 15.1% at the end of June.CET1,a bank’s highestquality capital, acts as the first line of defence against losses during financial stress.The reg- EVdemand tops output, pressures supplychains NITIN KUMAR New Delhi, October 16 RISING ELECTRIC VEHICLE (EV) penetration is putting pressure on manufacturers to scale up production, with capacity constraints, lean inventories and supply-chain disruptions limiting theirability to meet demand. With EVs gaining ground across vehicle categories, automakers are expanding manufacturing capacity,but the pace of additions may not be enough to prevent supplyshortages, particularly during the upcoming festive season. EVpenetration is at 10.7% as on date across vehicle categories 6, according to Vahan data. Electric cars accounted for 8.5% of passenger vehicle registrations in September, while electric two-wheelers made up 11.6% of registrations.Penetration in the three- TIGHT INVENTORY ■ Capacity additions may fall short as component shortages may constrain production ■ Ather Energy's dealer inventory has dropped below a week from around 15 days earlier ■ Hero MotoCorp plans to raise monthly EV capacity to 45,000 units by FY27-end ■ EV bookings at Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles have climbed to nearly 2.5 times pre-February 2026 levels wheeler segment was significantly higher at 64.9%. The rising adoption is adding to the pressure on manufacturers to increase output and strengthen their supply networks. Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles (TMPV),the country’s largest electric passengervehicle maker, has seen bookings rise to nearly 2.5 times their pre-February 2026 levels, led bythe Punch.evand Nexon.ev. It increased EV production by nearly 40% in the second quarter over the first, taking quarterly wholesales to a record of more than 47,000 units, almost double the yearago level. However, demand continues to outstrip supply. Continued on Page 7 RILadvances salaries to boost investable cash for 420,000 employees The staff powerbehind Jio IPO RAJESH MASCARENHAS & ANTO ANTONY October 16 RELIANCE INDUSTRIES (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani is looking to activate the vast workforce of his oil-to-telecom conglomerate to drum up interest in the blockbusterinitial public offering (IPO) of Jio Platforms, the digital arm of RIL, even bringing forward some salaries to give employees access to investable cash. The conglomerate has reached out to most of its nearly 420,000 employees across all group companies, encouraging them to consider investing in the `30,200 crore IPO,according to people familiar with the matter. RIL released Octobersalaries about 15 days earlier than usual, which gives workers access to funds, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Staff were not told a reason for the generic medicines,bovine meat, vegetables and other perishables as products with considerable export potential. Sitharaman’s comments come at a time when India’s policymakers are balancing two objectives: reducing the country’s huge trade deficit with China and ensuring that growth imperatives, especially in newage industries, are not undermined byinadequate supplies of inputs such as critical minerals from China.New Delhi is also keen for Chinese companies to be more proactive in facilitating technology transfer to Indian manufacturing. on YES Bank sees 250 bps hit on AT1 revival Subhas Chandra Lal Das appointed as FSIB chairperson THE APPOINTMENTS COMMITTEE of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Subhas Chandra Lal Das, a retired IAS officer, as the part-time chairperson of the Financial Services Institutions Bureau (FSIB), reports FE Bureau. ■ PAGE 3 NIRMALA SITHARAMAN, FINANCE MINISTER SHARE SALE DRIVE Employees encouraged to involve family members in the share sale Staff urged to open trading accounts if they lack them Jio reserves up to `500 cr worth of shares for eligible employees Discount offer: Employees offered a 5% discount on Jio IPO shares Timeline: Subscription opens on Oct 21 and closes on Oct 23 early salary release. The effort shows Ambani pulling out all the stops to make sure the listing,which is on track to become the biggest ever in India, is a success. For a group that has spent years turning Jio into one of India’s largest digital businesses, the IPO is also an opportunityto turn hundreds of thousands of employees— and potentially their fami- lies—into shareholders. RIL’s outreach has gone beyond simplyinforming staff about the offering.Teams have asked employees whetherthey or members of their families have the accounts required for electronic share trading, the people said. Those who don’t have been encouraged to open them,they added. Continued on Page 13 Meta’s paper gains at `56K-cr META owns 892.28 million Jio shares worth `99,846 crore at `1,119 apiece, versus an estimated investment cost of `43,573 crore. Google International’s 690.85 million shares are valued at `77,307 crore, against an investment cost of `33,737 crore, according to the company’s RHP, reports FE Bureau. ■ PAGE 4 Reliance rejects Musk’s charges RELIANCE INDUSTRIES (RIL) on Friday rejected allegations by SpaceX founder Elon Musk that certain oligarchs were blocking Starlink’s entry into India to protect their monopolies, saying it has never feared competition, reports Ojasvi Gupta. ■ PAGE 4 ulatory minimum CET1 requirement is 5.5%,excluding additional buffers. The disclosure came a day after the Supreme Court upheld the Bombay High Court’s decision to quash the write-off of YES Bank’s AT1 bonds. The court ruled that the bank’s administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the instruments under reconstruction scheme Continued on Page 13 Indices post strongest weeklygains in 6 months INDIA’S BENCHMARK SENSEX and Nifty rose 3.11% and 2.78%, respectively, last week, their strongest weekly performance in six months, making Indian equities the only gainers among major Asian markets. Indonesia led regional losses, with its index plunging 17.07%, followed by South Korea’s 15.61% decline. The rupee gained 1.84%, its biggest weekly rise in four years, while the 10-year government bond yield touched 7.40%, its highest since March 2023, before retreating. —Compiled by Kishor Kadam