COMPANIES | PAGE 4 ECONOMY | PAGE 3 INTERNATIONAL | PAGE 7 Sedansalessteady despiteSUVboom Day1atSevaTeerth:PM clearsaraftofproposals Trumpplanstorollback metal,aluminiumtariffs NEW DELHI, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2026 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK. APP AVAILABLE ON APP STORE & PLAYSTORE WWW.FINANCIALEXPRESS.COM READ TO LEAD VOL. L1 NO. 298, 60 PAGES, `12 (PATNA & RAIPUR `12, SRINAGAR `15) 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 CBC 06124/13/0009/2526 SENSEX: 82,626.75 ▼ 1,048.17 NIFTY: 25,471.10 ▼ 336.10 NIKKEI 225: 56,941.97 ▼ 697.87 HANG SENG: 26,567.12 ▼ 465.42 `/$: 90.64 ▼ 0.04 `/€: 107.51 ▲ 0.20 BRENT: $67.69 ▲ $0.17 GOLD: `1,52,730 ▼ `2,668 BENCHMARKS FALLOVER 1.25%; INVESTORWEALTH ERODES BY`7 LAKH CRORE IT’saheadacheforStreet KUSHAN SHAH & KISHOR KADAM Mumbai, February 13 THE PERSISTENTSELL-OFF in ITstocks,coupledwithadecline in metal and commodities and sluggish global cues, dragged down the markets on Friday, with the benchmark indices dropping more than 1.25%. Over the last two sessions, theequitymarketshaveseenan erosion of investor wealth of about`10lakhcrore,including `7 lakh crore on Friday alone. TheNiftyVolatilityIndex(Nifty VIX) surged 13.36% — the highestrise in over10months. On Friday, the BSE Sensex dropped 1,048.16 points, or 1.25%, to close at 82,626.76. During the day, it tanked 1,140.37 points, or 1.36%, to hit an intra-day low of 82,534.55. The Nifty 50 tanked 336.10 points, or 1.30%, to settle at 25,471.10. Intra-day, it fell 362.9 points, or 1.4%, to hit a low of 25,444.30. A major share of this drop came from large cap giants including HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank,HindustanUnileverLimited (HUL) and Eternal, which collectivelycontributedtoover 600 points of the decline. The IT stocks represented by the Nifty IT Index recovered from its intra-day decline of 5.24% to close at a level 1.44% belowThursday’s close. The mid and small cap indices declined by 1.68% and 1.58%, respectively, underperforming the broadbased market indices. Continued on Page 7 IN THE NEWS MARKETS PAGE 6 Goyal:FTAstofuel criticalimports, aidgrowth INDIA HAS OPTED for a calibrated opening of its economy in its recent FTAs to ease the import of products it needs, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said. ■ PAGE 2 playerschallenge quickcommerce’s bruisedpromise PERFORMANCE SINCE ANTHROPIC RELEASED ITS NEW AI MODEL Sensex Feb 12 (close) M-cap loss in ` crore 83,674 Nifty IT -16.5 TCS -17.3 Infosys -14.2 HCL Tech -29,994 -11.8 Wipro -27,529 -15.4 LTIMindtree -17,841 -10.6 -12,612 -12.7 -11,762 -20.5 Tech Mahindra Persistent Systems Coforge -10,334 -15.2 Oracle Financial -6,881 -12.8 Mphasis -1,92,880 1.25% -1,16,329 (1,048 points) -65,155 Nifty IT Feb 12 (close) 33,160 Feb 13 (close) Feb 13 (close) 1.44% 32,681 82,626 (478 points) CoderedforIT:Operatorstoinnovators ● IT firms have a small window to pivot business models: Experts URVI MALVANIA & POULOMI CHATTERJEE Mumbai/Bengaluru, February 13 WITH FEARS OF automation disrupting traditional outsourcing work weighing heav- CP GURNANI, CO-FOUNDER & VC, AIONOS AIcannotbeforcedintoquarterly businessmodels.Firmsneedtoringfencecapital,platforms,andtalent, acceptingthatreturnswillbe asymmetricandback-loaded ilyonmarketsentiment,industry executives and analysts say IT and software services firms have a small window to pivot business models and delivery ANEES HUSSAIN Bengaluru, February 13 % fall (between February 4 and 13) -15.4 -5,07,840 processes to ride the AI wave rather than be buried under it. Experts called for a fundamental redesign of operating models, instead of an incre- mental change,while flagging the challenges in executing this pivot.“Enterprise AI does not scale up the way earlier technology waves did. It requires clean and contextual data,deepdomainintegration, strong governance, and sustained change management within client organisations,” CP Gurnani, co-founder and vice-chairman ofAIONOS and former chief executive at Tech Mahindra,said. Continued on Page 7 ● BNPsweepsBangladeshpoll,Zia’ssonsettobePM Supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) show a victory sign in front of a banner with Tarique Rahman’s photo on Friday, after the party swept the 13th general election — 15 months after studentled protests brought down the 15-year rule of Sheikh Hasina. The BNP won 212 out of 299 seats. Rahman, the son of former premier Khaleda Zia, is likely to be the Prime Minister. PROVIDING MORE RELAXATION to the proposed guidelines on acquisition financing, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed banks to finance acquisitions up to 20% of their eligible capital base from the proposed 10%, reports fe bureau. THE AVERAGE ANNUAL retail inflation for AprilDecember of the current fiscal year would be 1.83% under the new consumer price index (CPI) series, just 11 basis points higher than measured under the old series, reports Kuldeep Singh. ■ PAGE 2 ● Premiumfoods VOLATILITY LEAVES INVESTORS WARY RBI RAISES LIMIT FOR ACQUISITION FINANCING TO 20% Apr-Decinflation at1.83%under newCPIseries Fresh takes on fast REUTERS Report on PAGE 24 Edit: India’s Eastern test PAGE 8 TEN-MINUTE DELIVERY has redefined convenience. But when it comes to fresh produce,speed can’t hide a basic truth: freshness doesn’t travel well on a stopwatch. Consumers ordering such productson quickcommerce apps are increasinglydiscoveringthetrade-off.Tomatoes arrive soft at the edges. Bananaslookfineatthedoor, blackenbybreakfast.Spinach wilts before lunch.Inthe race to shave minutes off delivery time,qualityhas become collateral damage. Now, a crop of startups is bettingthatperishablesneed a different playbook — and thatconsumerswillpayforit. FirstClub, Origin Fresh, Spectrumwith telcosnotasset underIBC:SC IN A LANDMARK ruling, the Supreme Court held on Friday that the spectrum allocated to telecom operators is not an asset to be subjected to insolvency proceedings. The decision will have ramifications in the sectoras telcos such asAircel Group of Companies have invoked moratorium on the basis of voluntary corporate insolvency resolution process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) for restructuring of their assets. A bench of Justices P S Narasimha andAS Chandurkar ruled that the Union governmentistheownerandtrusteeof spectrum on the one hand and theTelecomRegulatoryAuthorityofIndia(Trai)istheregulator ontheother,andtakentogether, theyoccupythe“entireprovince of telecommunications”. It said that while a licence andallocationofspectrummay, in abstract terms,constitute an intangibleasset,itisalwayssubject to the telecommunications laws of the country,followed by rules and regulations. “We hold that spectrum allocated to telecom service providers (TSPs) and shown in their books of account as an ‘asset’ cannot be subjected to proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016,”the top court ruled. —PTI RIPE FOR SUCCESS ■ FirstClub, Origin Fresh, Handpickd, Pluckk, Freshly and LoveLocal have together raised over $80 million ■ Fresh produce sales on q-comm pegged at `600-700 cr a month, with premium segment at roughly 10% ■ Including offline, the addressable market for premium produce is about `150 cr a month Handpickd, Pluckk, Freshly and LoveLocal have raised over $80 million collectively to challenge the dominant quick commerce model, arguing that fruits and vegetables are not just another SKU to be pushed through a dark-store pipeline. The structuralflawissimple.Most platforms follow a hub-andspoke model: produce moves from farms ormandis to central warehouses, gets graded, then travels to dark stores before the last-mile dash. Continued on Page 7 Russianoilflowsto Indiaslump;China seizesthemoment SAURAVANAND New Delhi, February 13 SHIPMENTS OF RUSSIAN crude to India have taken a big hit in recent weeks, after fresh European Union (EU) restrictions on petroleum products derived from such crude forced key Indian export refineries to rethink sourcing.Tanker trackingdatashowIndia’simportsof Russian crude »INSIDE« fell to 1.1 milRIL BAGS US lion barrels per LICENCE FOR day (mb/d) in VENEZUELAN January — the CRUDE lowest level sinceNovember PAGE 3 2022 and a steep drop from the 1.7 mb/d averagerecordedthrough2025. In a stark contrast, Russian crudedeliveriestoChinasurged to an all-time high last month, underscoring a dramatic redrawing of global oil trade routes. According to tankertracking data from Kpler,India imported 33,808 thousand barrels (Kb) of Russian crude in January 2026, down from 38,472 Kb in December 2025 and 55,089 Kb in November 2025. China’s intake, on the other hand, surged to 53,245 Kb in January up from 44,153 CRUDE BASKET Imports of Russian crude (in thousand barrels) 80,000 India China 25,021 70,000 60,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 18,317 10,000 0 15,126 0 Feb 2022 Feb 2026* Figures indicate only seaborne imports. In addition, China receives crude from Russia through two pipelines, which together carry approximately 820,000 barrels per day; * Month to date Source: Kpler Kb in December. As for India, the EU curbs on Russian crude came on top of the US insistence that its oil imports from Russia be stopped. Continued on Page 10 Earlygasshowsareencouragingbutthereisstillalongwaytogo India looks for‘Big Oil moment’inAndaman Sea SAURAV ANAND New Delhi, February 13 FOR DECADES, INDIA’S hydrocarbon map barely moved. Exploration stayed confined to familiar provinces while nearly a million square kilometres of sedimentary basin lay locked behind regulatory barriers. That inertia is now breaking — and the Andaman Sea is at the centre of the shift. After opening up close to one million sq km of sedimentary area and dismantling long-standing restrictions, the government has triggered the largest acreage offering in India’s exploration history under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP). Frontier basins, once ignored, are suddenly drawing serious bids.And nowhere is activity accelerating faster than offshore Andaman. State-run explorers are already drilling. Oil India has confirmed natural gas presence in its shallow offshore well Vijayapuram-2 — the first hydrocarbon occurrence reported in the basin under India’s renewed frontier push. Intermittent gas inflows during testing, backed by lab analysis, point to what the company calls a FUELLING OPTIMISM ■ ONGC has also reported hydrocarbon traces and petroleum indicators ■ Oil India has confirmed natural gas presence in its shallow offshore well Vijayapuram-2 in the Andaman Sea ■ Policy shift from a cost-recovery to a revenue-sharing regime will aid in exploration in the commercially risky basin “technically significant” indicator of a working petroleum system. ONGC, running a parallel deepwater campaign,has also reported hydrocarbon traces and petroleum indicators, though it is cautiously CHALLENGES ■ Andaman Sea lies along a complex tectonic arc and is highly active seismically ■ Andaman basin lacks evacuation pipelines, processing facilities and logistical infrastructure evaluating commercial viability. More appraisal drilling will follow. Taken together, the sig- nals mark the most concrete progress yet in a basin long viewed as geologically promising but commercially risky. The Andaman offshore lies along a complex tectonic arc linked to proven hydrocarbon systems across Southeast Asia, particularly offshore Myanmar and Indonesia — a geological setting that has fuelled optimism among energy analysts. What was missing was policy backing and sustained capital.Both are now in place. Under the Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP), India moved from a cost-recovery to a rev- New Delhi enue-sharing regime, granted marketing and pricing freedom for difficult-terrain gas, and simplified approvals. The OALP further transformed the landscape by allowing companies to identify and bid for blocks year-round using national geological data. The result: a decisive pivot from stagnation to scale. But the real test lies ahead. Industry experts caution that early gas shows are only the first step in building a commerciallyviable offshore province. Continued on Page 7