OPINION, P6 SUNIL JAIN ECONOMY, P2 Absurd to label all of Google’s activity anti-competitive INTERNATIONAL, P8 EDITORIAL DAS-SPEAK BEIJING CONNECTION Punjab's anti-farm-reform laws are intended to make it seem like the Centre's wanted to abolish MSP ‘Monetary, fiscal policies are counter cyclical and accommodative’ US President Trump has a bank account in China, NYT reports NEW DELHI, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2020 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL. XLVI NO. 201, 22 PAGES, `6.00 (PATNA `6.00, RAIPUR `7.00) 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: 40,707.31 ▲ 162.94 NIFTY: 11,937.65 ▲ 40.85 NIKKEI 225: 23,639.46 ▲ 72.42 HANG SENG: 24,754.42 ▲ 184.88 `/$: 73.59 ▼ 0.12 `/€: 87.25 ▼ 0.72 BRENT: $42.46 ▼ $0.70 GOLD: `51,142 ▲ `376 IN THE NEWS RBI announces `1 lakh crore 'on tap' TLTRO THE RESERVE BANK of India on Wednesday announced an 'on tap' Targeted LongTerm Repo Operations (TLTRO) scheme of up to `1 lakh crore to enable banks to provide liquidity support to a host of sectors, including agriculture, retail, drugs and pharmaceuticals and MSMEs, reports PTI. Govt relaxes import norms for onion THE GOVERNMENT ON Wednesday relaxed import norms till December 15 to facilitate the early shipment of onion to boost the domestic supply and check the retail prices of the key kitchen staple, reports PTI. The consumer affairs ministry will offload more onion from its buffer stock in the open market to contain price rise. Order tweaked, HC allows drummers in pandals in Bengal THE CALCUTTA HIGH Court has partly modified its order on community Durga Pujas, allowing drummers to perform within the no-entry zones of the marquees and raising the number of people present there from 25 to 60, reports PTI. CG POWER AGM Thapar voted out, Mathur back in Shareholders voted to declassify Thapar as promoter and appointed Mathur as director PRESS TRUST OF INDIA New Delhi, October 21 SHAREHOLDERS OF FRAUDHIT CG Power and Industrial Solutions have voted overwhelminglytodeclassifysacked founder-chairman Gautam Thapar as a promoter and have reappointed Sudhir Mathur, who is leading the rescue of the company,as a director. At the company's annual general meeting of shareholders, on October 19, held virtu- Gautam Thapar ally,99.99% of the shareholders voted for “re-classification of the existing promoters and promoter group as public”,the firm said in a regulatoryfiling. Within days of the unearthingofthefraudinvolvingsiphoningoffmoneyraised using company assets as collateral,Thaparwas removed by the company board on August 29,2019. Continued on Page 2 Fire sale! Former Chinese tech unicorn could now sell for just over $1,000 RENRENCHE WAS ONE of China’s hottest tech unicorns backed by investors, including Goldman Sachs Group and Tencent Holdings, reports Bloomberg. Now the car website could sell itself for a little over $1,000.The start-up,which had a pre-money valuation of$1.4billioninafinancing roundjusttwoyearsago,has a preliminary plan to sell its major assets to 58.com for HK$10,000 ($1,290), accordingtopeoplefamiliar with the matter. If the fire sale goes through, it would mark one of the more spectacular start-up failures since China’s internet boom kicked off a decade ago. ■ Page 8 ROAD TO REVIVAL More stimuli soon to lift economy: DEA secy PLI scheme for more sectors, budget capex being pushed, focus on asset monetisation FE BUREAU New Delhi, October 21 ANOTHER ROUND OF economic stimulus, probably with a much higherbudgetary expenditure component than the one announced earlier this month, may be around the corner, along with a concerted push via assorted incentives to capital and infrastructure spending by STEP BY STEP Open to more budgetary resources for capex in FY21 despite such spends declining 1.3% in April-August New strategic-sector policy to get Cabinet nod soon, to make available more CPSEs for privatisation Govt working with RBI for India’s inclusion in global bond indices; could accelerate inflow of foreign capital $ Norms for direct listing of Indian companies overseas soon the government and public sector companies. A two-pronged strategy aimed at boosting both the aggregate demand and capital availabilityforinvestorssimultaneously, is what the policy- makers are employing to revive the badly bruised economy, going by the remarks made by a senior official at an industry event on Wednesday. Continued on Page 2 Worforce future Indian companies automating faster than the world The pandemic is making companies automate their workforce faster than expected globally, while firms with operations in India are accelerating their automation and digitisation above the global average, a World Economic Forum study showed. ■ Detailed report on P2 FE BUREAU Responses to shifting skill needs (Share of cos surveyed, %) Expect existing employees to pick up skills on the job 95 Retrain existing employees 92 Hire new permanent staff with skills relevant to new technologies 84 82 Look to automate the work Hire new temporary staff with skills relevant to new technologies Outsource some business functions to external contractors Hire freelancers with skills relevant to new technologies 67 65 56 Source: The Future of Jobs 2020 COMPANY BOARDS Independent directors should tell public why they’re resigning: Tyagi FE BUREAU Mumbai, October 21 SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE Board of India (Sebi) chairman Ajay Tyagi on Wednesday urged independent directors who resign on governance concerns to make their reasons public. Tyagi pointed out the markets had certain expectations of independent directors who, in a sense,were thevoice of minority shareholders. Speaking at the CII Financial Markets Summit, the Sebi chief also agreed to look into a suggestion to move towards a capitaladequacy-basedframework for stock brokers, with a focus on delivery-based cus- Market reforms ■ Sebi to look into suggestion to move towards capital adequacy-based regime for stock brokers ■ Open to easier norms for promoter re-classification, also to reviewing open interest limits tomers, rather than using instruments that used a onesize fits-all approach. Detailed report on Page 10 ● NEGATIVE RETURNS Panel pulls up EPFO for investing in falling market SURYA SARATHI RAY New Delhi, October 21 THE PARLIAMENTARY STANDINGcommitteeonlabourhas asked the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) why the retirement fund body continued to invest in equity market, even when the market was falling in New Delhi March-April. “Who took the call in this regard? Who was responsible for the decision? Give the details to us in writing,” committee chairman Bhartruhari Mahtab told the EPFO top brass and the labour ministry officials in a meeting on Wednesday. Continued on Page 2